Don't Pick Up Pretty, Pitiful Strangers

[The main story is complete. Extra chapters will be posted occasionally.]

[Try my ongoing novel, You Never Said You Were a Tease, and please add it to your reading list! The blurb is below.]

Zhibai killed his master.

Some said he had gone mad. Others said he had fallen to demonic cultivation.

After all, everyone in the cultivation world knew that the young war god and his illustrious, noble master were as close as brothers.

In the divine hall, the immortals surrounded Zhibai with their magical artifacts and demanded to know why.

He remained cold and silent.

The Heavenly Dao flew into a rage and unleashed divine punishment.

Badly wounded, Zhibai fell into a deep sleep for a thousand years. When he awoke, he had become a beautiful good-for-nothing, and, for some inexplicable reason, a handsome man had taken him home.

Zhibai: "..."

The man who found him was Huo Xingchuan, captain of the Special Cases Bureau. He was broad-shouldered, long-legged, handsome, and kindhearted.

He took Zhibai out to eat and have fun, bought him expensive pills to nurse him back to health, and even sent him to a cultivation academy to improve his cultivation.

With no way to repay him, Zhibai fell back on his old line of work, helping Huo Xingchuan hunt demons and apprehend suspects.

A series of people jumped to their deaths, leaving the Special Cases Bureau stumped by the eerie talismans at the scenes.

Zhibai remained calm. "This ghostly scrawl? I know it well."

Ghostly energy ran rampant, and a group of cultivators fell into a poisonous miasma, unable to tell friend from foe and attacking each other.

Zhibai pulled out a handful of colorful little pills. "Antidotes. Take them."

A great demon awakened, a hundred ghosts roamed the night, and the city teetered on the brink of disaster.

Sword in hand, he stood alone before the others and couldn't help thinking, Why am I, a great villain wanted by the Heavenly Dao, always doing the work of the righteous?

With Huo Xingchuan as his backer, Zhibai watched shows, played games on his phone, and let himself be waited on hand and foot. He completely gave up trying in the 21st century.

Until one day, Zhibai confiscated a Yin-Yang Mirror from the demons.

The mirror could reveal the past and present, showing one's previous and current lives.

With a mischievous smile, he secretly pointed it at Huo Xingchuan.

The next second, his smile froze.

The figure in the mirror was otherworldly, with a pair of cool, detached phoenix eyes. He looked exactly like the master Zhibai had killed with his own sword all those years ago.

---------- Blurb for the ongoing novel ----------

After graduating, Lin Wenzhi turned down a top-tier job offer and returned to China, pretending to be a wastrel who did nothing worthwhile.

His big brother sent him to work at the company with a smile, claiming it would be good experience, but in reality, he planted an assistant there to sound him out.

The assistant, Ning Bai, was taciturn, stiff, and dull.

Lin Wenzhi found him irritating in every way.

No matter how much Lin Wenzhi provoked him, teased him, or mocked him, Ning Bai remained unmoved and showed no sign of quitting.

Like a loyal, wooden-headed dog.

Then one day, Lin Wenzhi happened upon a blogger called Valley.

In the video, the blogger wore a tie loosely around his neck, his shirt unbuttoned to the chest, droplets of water glistening on his pectorals.

It was exactly the kind of thing he'd said he was into not long ago.

But in the dim lighting, the person wearing a mask and taking off his glasses looked an awful lot like Ning Bai.

Intrigued, Lin Wenzhi used an alternate account to send him a message: Nice pecs.

The other person didn't reply.

The next day, Lin Wenzhi casually complimented a friend on his tie. Ning Bai stood silently beside him.

That very night, the same tie appeared in Valley's newest video.

Lin Wenzhi's lips curled. Interesting.

Looks like his big brother's dog wasn't quite so faithful after all.

Amused, Lin Wenzhi started sending all sorts of messages to Valley, both proper and improper.

After three months of harassing him, one night after a banquet, Lin Wenzhi, a little drunk, messaged him: Seriously, don't you want to play with me? I'm very good at it.

At last, the other person replied.

"President Lin, didn't you say office romances were off-limits?"

His identity exposed, Lin Wenzhi simply pushed open Ning Bai's door. Reeking of alcohol, he smiled brightly. "Why so serious? I was asking Valley."

The next morning, Lin Wenzhi got up feeling satisfied, but Ning Bai grabbed him firmly. His expression darkened. "Lin Wenzhi, I don't just fool around with people."

Lin Wenzhi, his eyes rimmed red, asked, "So are you Ning Bai or Valley?"

Lin Wenzhi was willful, mean, flippant, and careless. Everyone felt sorry for Ning Bai, saddled with such a terrible job.

But becoming Lin Wenzhi's assistant in the first place was something Ning Bai had begged for.

A seemingly honest, taciturn assistant gong who gets up to all sorts of things in private x a CEO shou who talks dirty but is actually utterly innocent.

A true loyal dog x a fake playboy.

Both are sexually and emotionally inexperienced.

Theme: World peace.