My Husband Can't Possibly Be a Monster

[The main story is not told in first person]

My husband is tall, strong, upright, kind, mature, and dependable. He's just a little too friendly. Of course, I can't blame him for that. It's society's fault that most people pick on the weak, and my husband just happens to be an easy target. As his wife, we're in this together, so it's only natural that I take on the responsibility of protecting him.

1.

My husband is an excellent teacher at a private middle school. He willingly devotes himself to his students, burning himself out for their sake. Yet instead of being admired, he's constantly bullied by them.

It breaks my heart that his softheartedness makes him an easy target, so I used my money and influence to get a job at the school as a music teacher. I wanted to follow him around every day and protect him.

But just after I started, a massive poisoning broke out in the school cafeteria. In no time, every student and teacher turned into a walking corpse. My husband had skipped the cafeteria that day to spend time with me, and narrowly escaped the disaster.

2.

After the school was shut down, my husband switched careers and became a white-collar worker at a publicly listed company. The industries could hardly be more different, but I had faith that my husband would excel at whatever he did.

The workplace, however, was far more complicated than school. My husband was too honest and kind, so whenever his colleagues messed up, they pinned the blame on him. When management handed out awards and promotions, they took credit for his work.

I was furious and anxious, so I applied to work at his company, planning to help him get even. But the day before I was due to start, terrorists attacked the company's headquarters. Not a single employee inside survived. My husband happened to be home on leave that day, and narrowly escaped another disaster.

3.

After two disasters in a row, I worried that my husband would grow despondent. I took him to a remote mountain village for a vacation in the middle of the night. The village was celebrating a wedding, with drums and gongs blaring and crowds reveling.

Caught up in the festivities, I drank several cups of the villagers' home-brewed liquor. Half drunk and half awake, I heard an old voice whisper in my ear: "It is time for you to awaken. The monster beside you eats people. You must pierce its heart with this dagger before midnight."

I woke up, and found an invisible dagger in my hand.

4.

Amid the well wishes and clinking wine glasses, I recovered all my memories. The eyes that had always been full of love now gazed without joy or sorrow at the handsome husband beside me.

He was clever. He noticed something was wrong almost instantly and calmly asked me, "What is it? How does the great savior plan to kill me this time?"

My gaze dropped to his unsteady hands, then to the stark white bones showing beneath his empty trouser legs. I propped my cheek on one hand and smiled faintly. "Darling, I'm your wife. How could I kill you? I was just thinking that we haven't tried your true form yet. Should we give it a go tonight?"

*

A beautiful, tragic savior gong who sacrificed himself to the Dao x a terrifying, cruel, bloodthirsty monster shou.

The gong has already sacrificed himself to the Dao and come back to life from the start. He's lost his memories, so his personality is a little different from what it becomes after his memories return. The shou, on the other hand, has remembered everything from beginning to end.

Also known as How Do You Deal with the Righteous Son Who Suddenly Turns Into a Hopeless Romantic After Dying? and I Woke Up and My Enemy Had Become My Husband?

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