I Can't Stop Falling for Nonhumans

After a meteor shower unlike any the world has ever seen, living things across the globe begin to mutate.

Story One: I’ll do everything I can to protect this family. Huh?

A frail but formidable mother figure * a greedy, gluttonous daydreamer

Qingning is the lowest-ranked citizen on Fallen Street. After a day’s work, all she gets is a pitiful amount of nutrient paste. Her greatest wish is to taste the premium steak she’s seen in an advertisement.

One day, she finds a huge, ugly “monster” in a junkyard and drags it home. There, she discovers it’s a critically endangered creature called a horseshoe crab.

Just one is worth an outrageous amount of money, enough to instantly change Qingning’s life of abject poverty.

Qingning: Hooray!

So she starts taking meticulous care of it every day. The “horseshoe crab,” which had lost too much blood, gradually recovers under her devoted care, and Qingning can practically see premium steak waving at her.

Then one day, the “horseshoe crab” in her home suddenly disappears!

Qingning: !

Qingning searches for a long time, but in the end she has no choice but to accept that the huge windfall she found has flown away.

She goes back to her tedious, hopeless life, until one evening, someone knocks on the rickety front door.

When she opens it, she sees a handsome, pale man smiling at her.

From then on, she has a “snail girl” at home who can clean and cook. Looking at the sickly man, Qingning secretly swears she’ll do everything she can to protect their home.

She never expects that one day, when she gets off work early, she’ll see the “snail girl” crushing the head of a member of a criminal gang with one hand.

Qingning: ???

Qingning: !!!

Good grief, she used to bully him all the time, making him kneel and massage her legs!

Story Two: May I touch your tentacles?

A bold, thrill-seeking artist who goes all in * a Lovecraftian horror who thinks he’s a dangerous lunatic, only to discover he’s actually a decent guy

Haitang was once a famous painter, but her inspiration ran dry, and she hasn’t picked up a brush in a long time.

When she travels to D City, she discovers that every citizen who has visited the white church by the sea has a transparent tentacle growing from their head.

It also guides people step by step toward the abyss of sin, driving countless families to ruin.

“Don’t hold back. You’re more capable than your boss, so why grovel before him? He’s just an ordinary man. Go on, pick up the chair beside you.”

“They’re all lying to you. No one likes you. You’re stupid, ugly, and lazy. Give up. Why bother trying?”

“Your husband cheated on you. The night you went to the hospital for an abortion, he went to a motel with your best friend. Your parents are both lying to you. Why? If you get divorced, what will happen to your younger brother’s bride price?”

Haitang decides to go and meet it. She stands before the church and prays devoutly, but when the congregation begins to sing, she opens her eyes and sees a beautiful, peculiar tentacle beneath the church’s elaborate, dazzling stained-glass windows.

It comes from a being whose colors shift in ways beyond human imagination, its curves unnaturally graceful. Its voice imitates human speech, yet carries strange frequencies that do not belong to this world.

It keeps coaxing the inspiration-starved young painter, attacking her fragile psyche with words from every angle, hoping she’ll break down and offer up her soul.

In fact, it succeeds. Her proud head sinks lower and lower, her body curls up tight, and every time she hears it speak, she begins to tremble all over. Then one day, it magnanimously decides to bestow a favor upon its prey.

“I can grant you one wish. Anything at all.”

Haitang struggles to keep her hands from trembling with excitement. She lifts her head, draws in her chin, and asks with careful politeness, “May I touch your tentacle?”

It: ???

Theme: Love can breathe life into the barren hearts of those who have none.