The Sea Monster's Bride

[Opening next, please add it to your want-to-read list!]

Evil, handsome sea monster x beautiful, demure bride

Not long after Cheng Xue got married, her new husband told her he had achieved financial freedom.

Cheng Xue silently whistled to herself and asked nonchalantly, "How much money?"

She didn't take it to heart. She and Lin Li had met through a matchmaker. The matchmaker said he didn't have much education, but was clever, had a good job, and knew how to make money.

Cheng Xue had no comment.

All she knew was that her husband spent a lot. He'd paid two million for a pile of sex toys, and he was clueless about everyday life. He still couldn't get the hang of WeChat.

Apart from his extraordinary good looks and sexual prowess, he was practically useless.

Of course, he really was handsome.

On the day of their blind date, a tall, pale young man walked into the crowded, lively restaurant, and the whole place seemed to fall silent.

Black hair and eyes, white shirt and trousers. His features were so striking they were almost sharp, but up close, it was as if a veil of sea mist softened him, making him seem strangely gentle, almost indistinct.

Most importantly, when he turned his face toward Cheng Xue, his quiet, unwavering attention made her heart skip a beat.

"A billion."

Cheng Xue paused. "H-How much?"

She put down her chopsticks and sent him a message on WeChat. She felt a little awkward asking.

[Then how much will you give me?]

After sending it, she glanced at the man across from her, carefully peeling shrimp. Sunlight spilled in through the restaurant's floor-to-ceiling windows, gilding his profile with a faint golden halo. He was so beautiful he didn't seem real.

Her phone buzzed. [All of it.]

Cheng Xue stared at those two words for a long time.

Later, the money really was transferred into her bank account in installments. The string of zeroes was impossible to count, and only then did it start to feel real.

For the first time, she realized she might not really know her husband.

*

Later, her young, handsome husband suggested she go with him to his hometown.

It was an ancient island hidden deep in the sea, where rain fell endlessly.

Her husband really was different from other people.

Only there did Cheng Xue truly understand it.

And it wasn't just because of his billion.

The people there acted strangely around him, as if they feared him and revered him at once. They even looked a little like him. Their expressions when they looked at her were just as complicated.

One night,

Cheng Xue finally saw the real him.

That was after he crushed the two people who claimed to be his "parents" into dust.

The young man knelt calmly on the ground, gathering up the empty clothes that were all that remained. His expression was detached yet earnest, even somewhat solemn.

Cheng Xue felt as though she were gathering the remains of his real parents.

Later, deep beneath the sea,

she looked up at the deformed, icy monster. Its face was profoundly unholy, almost evil, but its eyes were more familiar to her than anything else.

That quiet, unwavering gaze made it seem as if she were the only person in the whole world.

He struggled to raise something that could barely be called a "finger." It was slimy, with cold liquid dripping from it. She recognized the shape of his mouth and guessed what he wanted to say.

Before he could finish, Cheng Xue stepped forward and embraced him. Her voice was soft and steady. "I'm not afraid."

She tightened her arms around him and, just as he had once stroked her head, gently patted him. "I'll stay with you. You don't have to be afraid, either."

The depths of the sea were colder than she had imagined.

But she felt the monster, rigid for a very long time, tremble ever so slightly in her arms.

*

1. It's basically a story about a lonely monster falling in love with a human.

2. Around 150,000 characters, possibly less.

Theme: Look at me. Don't leave me.