Chapter One: Husband! It's Something Strange

“Honey, why is the air conditioner off?”
In the darkness, someone sat up on the bed, groggy, and called out.
But the only sound in the room was her own breathing; there was no other response.
Remembering where she’d left it before going to sleep, Chen Lian groped for the air conditioner remote on the bedside table.
By now her eyes had adjusted somewhat to the darkness, but suddenly, she sensed something was wrong.
A cold shiver ran down Chen Lian’s back, and her drowsiness vanished in an instant.
Her mouth opened wide, about to scream, but she managed to clamp her hand over it just in time.
A ghastly pale face hung above her, its mouth stretched unnaturally wide, the corners nearly reaching behind its ears. Anyone waking up to such a sight in the middle of the night would be half scared to death.
Terrified as she was, Chen Lian forced herself to suppress her fear and tentatively asked,
“Honey, is that you?”
“What’s the matter?”
As she spoke, a gentle male voice replied. The figure suspended in midair floated softly to the floor beside the bed, and the enormous mouth slowly closed, returning to a normal appearance.
“It’s a bit hot. Is the air conditioner broken?”
Chen Lian feigned composure, surprised to realize the person was actually her husband, Qi Tian.
“Oh, seems like there’s a power outage,” Qi Tian replied nonchalantly.
“I see...”
Chen Lian played along on the surface, but inside she felt a profound sorrow. She was certain her husband had been possessed by something sinister, or else how could he have become like this?
For some time now, she’d sensed something was off about Qi Tian. Who in their right mind would enjoy eating raw meat?
Not only did he spend his days lurking in the shadows, he also devoured raw flesh with gusto—nothing like the refined, promising young man she’d married.
For over two years of marriage, Chen Lian had been the envy of everyone she knew. But now, she could no longer bring herself to smile.
“Where are you going?”
Qi Tian’s voice startled Chen Lian just as she was quietly slipping out of bed.
“Oh, I’m thirsty. I’m just going to get some water,” she replied quickly, doing her best to keep her tone steady.
“Mm.”
Qi Tian’s tone was odd, but he didn’t seem suspicious of her.
“Let’s go together.”
Alarm bells rang in Chen Lian’s mind. Before he could approach, she darted out of the room into the living room, navigating by memory in the dark—a skill honed from years of caring for their home.
“Did you get your water?”
Qi Tian’s voice suddenly sounded behind her in the darkness.
Chen Lian barely had time to feel relieved at her narrow escape before she froze at the unexpected sound.
She thought she heard him swallow.
“What... what do you want?”
She could no longer contain her terror.
“Such a clever woman, why do you refuse to trust your instincts?”
Qi Tian’s voice was nothing like its usual warmth; instead, it had turned chillingly cold and indifferent.
“Haven’t you known all along?”
“What... what have you done to my husband?”
Frightened as she was, Chen Lian’s first concern was still for her husband.
“Me? I am your husband, Qi Tian.”
In the darkness, Qi Tian grinned, the corners of his mouth once again stretching outward.
“But I’m not like you backward creatures. I’ve been reborn, evolved—I’m the new humanity!”
“Stop... stop joking!”
Chen Lian refused to believe her gentle, kind husband could become such a monster.
“Lian, don’t fight it. Let me consume you—merge with me, become one,” Qi Tian snarled, lunging at her, drool streaming from his jaw.
“Just because you imitate him doesn’t mean you’re my husband!”
Fumbling in the dark, Chen Lian finally found the fruit knife she’d left atop the refrigerator after slicing watermelon that afternoon.
By the faint light from the window, the blade shone with a cold gleam.
She held the knife out before her, blade level and tip forward, just as Qi Tian lunged straight at her.

But Chen Lian, trembling with fear, stumbled and fell to the ground.
Qi Tian’s gaping mouth, stretched to his ears, gave her no chance—he was about to swallow her whole.
In her panic, Chen Lian flailed wildly with the fruit knife. Caught off guard, Qi Tian took a slash to the face.
With a cruel grin, Qi Tian knocked the knife from her hand.
Clang!
In the stillness, the sound of the knife hitting the floor was piercingly clear.
“Food should know its place!”
He pinned her down, his enormous mouth covering most of his face, leaving only two beady eyes fixed on her.
Suddenly, Qi Tian lowered his head.
A muffled gasp escaped the woman in the darkness.
But then, Qi Tian moved no more.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to devour the promising, high-potential seed he’d cultivated for so long—he simply couldn’t move.
A short blade was now buried in the back of his head, a pale hand slowly drawing it free.
Qi Tian’s tiny eyes were filled with confusion. He was about to feed, to become even stronger—why had he suddenly died?
For a moment, only Chen Lian’s ragged breathing echoed in the living room.
After a while, catching her breath, Chen Lian forced herself to push the corpse off her, clutching the wound on her neck as she struggled to her feet.
In the darkness, a figure stood silently, letting her gasp for air.
“Th-thank you!”
Though still shaken, Chen Lian hurriedly expressed her gratitude. But seeing the red blood and white brain matter drip from the short blade in the stranger’s hand, she couldn’t help but feel nauseated.
“Mm.”
A deep male voice came from the darkness.
As her eyes adjusted, Chen Lian finally saw that her rescuer was a boy of sixteen or seventeen, a short sword in one hand, a glove on the other.