A Little Monster With A Wife Is Amazing – CH1

Chapter 1: He Finally Has an Adorable Wife!

The bell for the end of the shift rang out.

The dull, funeral-dirge-like tolling of the clock echoed across the entire factory grounds, and the previously quiet workshops instantly erupted into chaos. Employees working at the assembly lines left their posts. Some spun silk to swing up to the rafters for a nap; some turned into gooey liquid to drift down the sewers for relaxation; and others simply made use of what was at hand, lopping off their newly grown tentacles to host a group barbecue with friends.

But the majority of the staff squeezed and jostled toward the factory gates, eager to head into town for a stroll and to blow off some steam. If they didn’t get out for some fresh air after working all day, they’d risk mutating into moss spirits or mushroom monsters!

Stepping out of the factory gates, there was a potholed dirt and gravel street, the only main thoroughfare in this tiny, micro-sized town. Both sides of the street were lined with similar factory buildings, and weird, misshapen monsters constantly poured out, packing the already narrow street until it was overflowing with “monstrous” congestion.

Among the strange, varied, and abstract forms of the monster crowd, the only “humanoid” figure stood out starkly.

“Excuse me, excuse me! Coming through, please!”

Accompanied by a clear, melodious voice, a lithe and nimble figure wove through the after-work rush like a fish in water. He quickly swam to the front of the monster crowd. At the end of the street stood a colossal iron cylinder—one of the only two elevator exits leading from the monster town to the surface world above.

The elevator was already packed with large, hulking monsters. As the doors began to slowly close, the youth did a sliding sprint, just barely managing to squeeze inside.

The doors shut completely. The indicator light next to them flickered on, and the elevator began its slow ascent.

The tall monsters sharing the ride glanced down at the little shrimp that had slipped in by their feet, but ignored him, continuing their muffled, guttural gossip.

“Did you hear? The humans up top have started a city-wide search again.”

“What’s going on?”

“Rumor has it there’s a serial killer on the loose. The humans’ special department found non-human traces during their pursuit, suspecting it was one of us, so they’ve started a joint investigation…”

“Damn! Again?! When will they ever quit!”

Some monsters questioned it, “Are you sure it was a monster from our town? The bosses have given strict orders not to go out and stir up trouble. Who’s so bold?”

“Who knows? Regardless, we shouldn’t go out for a while. If we get caught, we’ll either end up dissected as specimens or erased by the Rules. The outcome is bound to be miserable.”

The elevator had five floors, stopping at each one. Monsters left in succession until only the youth remained. He looked up at the floor display screen, unable to help himself from doing a little tap dance on the spot, looking like a puppy about to be let out of its cage, brimming with excitement and joy.

The elevator doors opened. Outside was not a human street, but a filthy little room plastered with wet yellow mud.

The youth dove into the room like a fish. The elevator doors behind him closed, extinguishing the only source of light.

The darkness didn’t hinder his vision at all. In the pitch-black room, the youth’s emerald-green eyes were bright enough to glow, resembling a pair of lively, beautiful cat eyes.

The yellow mud plastered all over the walls began to soften and squirm, emitting wet, sticky sounds. A fist-sized white eyeball poked out of the mud, scanning the youth.

The inspection complete, with no abnormalities found, the big white eyeball lazily nestled back into the mud pile, seamlessly switching to a coworker-chat mode.

“Little Tang, why are you heading out at this hour?” the gatekeeper monster asked. “Volunteered for overtime again? Sheesh, that’s the umpteenth time this week. Why do they always pick on you, an old veteran like you?”

As it spoke, the yellow mud on the wall squirmed constantly, revealing a narrow exit that only allowed one person to pass.

“It’s not overtime this time.”

Jian Tang laughed, his eyes curving into adorable crescents with two sweet dimples.

“I’m going home after work.”

He emphasized the last two words heavily, puffing out his chest with pride, looking both happy and smug.

The big white eyeball nestled in the yellow mud went blank for a second.

What?
Go where? What home? What does “go home” mean?
It remembered that Jian Tang’s employment file said he was a “refugee,” right?
A drifting refugee whose native plane had already been destroyed—how could he possibly still have a “home”?

Before it could ask for details, the youth had already ducked and slipped through the narrow exit, leaving behind nothing but a lively silhouette moving further and further away.

—

Jian Tang ran along the human streets.

It was twilight. There were no brilliant sunset clouds in the sky, only oppressive dark clouds and a howling wind, clearly a precursor to a storm.

The terrible weather did not dampen Jian Tang’s high spirits. He ran to the bus stop with practiced ease, squeezed in with the after-work human salarymen, and boarded the bus to the suburbs.

The bus was filled with a mix of scents and rowdy noise. The driver seemed to be a retired race car driver, speeding and accelerating with an added soul-shaking drift that sent half the people in the carriage tumbling over.

The passengers’ angry curses nearly tore the roof off, but Jian Tang turned a deaf ear, for his mind had long since flown to the clouds.

Heh heh, I’m going home after work.
I’m going home after work, heh heh.
Heh heh, home, home… I finally have a home!

He felt so wonderfully bubbly inside that he couldn’t help but fish his phone out of his pocket.

It was an outdated button-phone. The screen had a yellowish-green background and was very small, unable to display images, only able to send and receive the simplest text messages.

Jian Tang pressed the screen, and the latest text message appeared.

It was an address—

[Apartment 404, No. 44 Happiness Court, University City Road, Coastal District]

This was his home.
No, to be precise, this little apartment was about to become his home.

From a very long time ago, Jian Tang had a grand dream.
He wanted to own a home and raise an adorable human wife inside it.

This wasn’t just a whim. After the terrifying Great Extinction, the little monster who had lost everything woke up in a charity relief space and discovered that, as a survivor, he only had three things left—

First, he remembered, and only remembered, his own name: Jian Tang.
Second, although he was rated as the weakest F-rank monster, Jian Tang possessed an impeccable human form; even the shapeshifting abilities of many veteran high-level monsters couldn’t compare to his.
Third, he was clutching a book tightly in his arms, the title of which was: [My Adorable Wife].

This book looked plain and unremarkable, merely an ordinary human print product. Yet, it had miraculously survived the world-shattering cataclysm and appeared in his arms.

Jian Tang had every reason to believe: This must be his Book of Destiny!

The illiterate little monster, Jian Tang, scrimped and saved, buying many textbooks, teaching himself the human language while stumbling through this Book of Destiny.

He was astonished to discover that this book was the diary of a powerful monster.

This was really strange. The book was human print, and the language written was human, but the author was actually a monster of his own kind.

The entire book described the warm daily life between a powerful monster and his human wife. On the very last page of the book, a sentence was written in special font:

—An adorable human wife is the world’s greatest treasure; possess one, and you’ll be happy for a lifetime.

It was hard to describe the shock Jian Tang felt when he read these words.
Then came a sudden, enlightening realization.
He understood.

He thought that, finally, amidst his drifting, confused, and lonely wandering between planes, he had understood his innate mission.

—To possess an adorable human wife, and to manage a warm and happy home with his human wife.

This was the guidance from the Book of Destiny.

To achieve this goal, over the next several hundred years, the weak little monster expended so much energy, paid so many prices, and went through so many twists and turns that it couldn’t be summed up in a few sentences.

Fortunately, all that effort finally ushered in the moment of fruition: just last night, Jian Tang paid the final installment and bought an adorable human wife from a black-market merchant, which came with an apartment to house his wife.

Yay! From now on, he was a little monster with an adorable wife!

The happiness and joy of achieving a long-cherished wish were like a balloon being blown up larger and larger, filling Jian Tang’s heart. He almost wanted to howl in the noisy carriage: Please everyone, put down what you’re doing, and congratulate a little monster! Congratulate him for finally completing his innate mission and making his dream come true!

…Of course, he only thought about it.

Jian Tang had self-awareness: he was not human, after all. No matter how flawless his appearance was, on human turf, he had to keep a low profile.

Ahem, better to keep a low profile.

So, in the foul-smelling carriage, amidst the crowd’s angry shouting and explosive atmosphere, the youth silently buried his head in his arms and giggled.

Half an hour later, the bus arrived at the University City station.

Passengers filed off one after another. Jian Tang blended into the crowd, but after taking a few steps out of the station, the smile on his lips suddenly froze.

At an intersection not far from the station, a yellow police cordon had been set up.

Several people in police uniforms stood near the cordon, their expressions serious, whispering to each other from time to time. Many passersby stopped to watch, discussing the scene.

Jian Tang’s gaze swept over these officers and finally landed across the intersection—there were several people in plain clothes, looking around, acting like “passersby.”

Jian Tang recognized these people.

In the “Safety Work Manual” that the boss gave to the monster employees, these faces were prominently listed—they were all from the Human Bureau of Supernatural Investigation.

The arrogant humans didn’t know: while they were investigating the monsters, the monsters weren’t just sitting around. They were also secretly scouting these human neighbors living on the surface and had compiled a “Safety Work Manual,” forcing employees to study and memorize it, with periodic spot-check exams.

Jian Tang blinked his crow-feather-like eyelashes, remembering the gossip he heard in the elevator today.

The youth pulled his gaze back calmly, changed direction, and gave the intersection a wide berth.

—

The impromptu detour nearly caused Jian Tang to get lost.

He often came to human territory to run errands for his boss, but this was his first time near the University City. He circled around for a long time before finally finding the right direction.

The sky grew dimmer, with dark clouds looming overhead. The howling wind made the trees sway violently, and passersby were all hunched over, hurrying home.

Jian Tang turned into a quiet alley. He had just walked halfway when a loud “CLANG” sounded behind him, startling him.

He turned to look and saw a trash can overturned on the ground, its contents sent rolling everywhere by the strong wind.

A black figure jumped down from the trash can, staring unblinkingly at the shaken youth.

It was just a little cat.

Jian Tang let out a sigh of relief and curved his eyes at the cat in a friendly manner.

“The weather is about to turn. Kitty, don’t play around anymore, hurry home.”

The black cat didn’t move, just squinted its golden eyes, quietly watching Jian Tang.

Did it not understand?

Jian Tang scratched his head awkwardly. Thinking that animals’ survival instincts shouldn’t be worse than monsters’, he decided he didn’t need to worry. He set the messy trash can back upright and didn’t linger, turning to continue on his way.

After walking out of the alley and along the main road for another five or six minutes, Jian Tang finally saw the sign for “Happiness Court” residential complex.

His heart rate suddenly spiked.

The address in the text message was turning, step by step, into a tangible happiness, and even a part of his future beautiful life. This realization made Jian Tang’s steps feel light—the fact that his “dream had come true” made everything around him feel increasingly unreal.

In a dreamy, dazed state, messy thoughts popped up, like a pile of popping candy jumping and jostling in his brain—

How should I introduce myself when we meet in a moment?
What should I call them? Is calling them “Wife” directly too blunt?
How about “Baby”? “Sweetheart”? Or “Little Cutie”? Would that seem too frivolous?
Oh dear, I came too hurriedly and didn’t bring a gift for our first meeting. Will they think I’m very rude?

The more he thought, the more nervous he felt. By the time Jian Tang walked into Building 44, he had started walking with the same hand and leg.

Finally, he stood in front of Apartment 404.

He was excited and awkward, not daring to take a full breath.

Actually, Jian Tang didn’t know what kind of person was waiting for him in the apartment. Aside from the address, the door password, and the system verification code, the black-market merchant hadn’t given him much specific information.

The other party had only said that the system would make the best arrangement.

Jian Tang believed this. As everyone knew, the system couldn’t create life. So-called “private customization” was just the system matching you with the person who best fit your needs from the vast “Big Data” across countless planes, similar to the principle of humans searching for a partner on a dating platform who met their standards.

But with the guidance of the Book of Destiny, Jian Tang guessed that the human wife he was matched with would 99.99% be similar to the “adorable wife” in the book—a gentle, cute, and understanding human woman. She might be a bit petite and weak, but that wasn’t a problem; he would bravely protect her.

Just like the powerful monster in the Book of Destiny did.

Jian Tang took a deep breath, his fingers trembling slightly as he entered the password into the lock.

Click. The lock opened.

Jian Tang pushed the door open and stepped one foot inside.

Almost simultaneously, Jian Tang heard a door opening sound from inside the apartment, coming from the right side.

It seemed to be the bathroom. As that door swung open, a fresh, pleasant scent of body wash, carried by a vast amount of misty steam, rushed toward him.

Wow, so fragrant, so fragrant.

Jian Tang was instantly intoxicated by the fragrance. His mind was filled with nothing but “Ahhh, it’s a fragrant, soft, adorable wife!” All the drafts he had prepared were discarded, and he opened his mouth to say—

“Wife, hello, my name is Jian Tang. In the days to come, I will definitely take good care of…” you.

Jian Tang didn’t say the last note.

Not only because he finally saw clearly that, amidst the misty steam, a pair of exceptionally sharp and cold smoke-gray eyes were watching him chillingly.

But also because a blade shining with a cold light was pressed against his throat.

“Who are you?”

The cold, ruthless voice filled with hostility came from the tall, dangerous, half-naked man in front of him.

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