After a Traditional Straight Man Was Hypnotized by an Evil God - Chapter 1

When I was little, a fortune-teller read my fate.

He said I had been born under a lonely star and would go through life without a wife or children.

That simply wouldn’t do.

As a traditional straight man, my greatest dream was simple: a wife, kids, and a warm home.

Yet Heaven had sentenced me to life without a wife.

I refused to accept it.

So when my village held its offering to the local god the year I turned eighteen, I followed everyone inside.

I knelt on a prayer cushion with an incense stick between my palms and prayed devoutly to the statue whose head was covered in red cloth.

“Please bless me.”

“I want a complete family.”

“May I marry a beautiful, gentle wife one day and have an adorable child with her.”

The god we worshipped really did work wonders.

He changed my fate.

At twenty-five, I got exactly what I had wished for: a beautiful, gentle, understanding wife.

My wife and I met because of a broken pipe.

Back then, my wife had just moved into the apartment next door and was still only my neighbor.

One night, I dragged my exhausted body home after work. I had just sat down by the window to enjoy the breeze when someone suddenly knocked on my door.

I opened it to find my new neighbor standing in the dim hallway, soaked from head to toe.

Wet fabric clung to my neighbor’s body. Long black hair hung damp around a face with eyes so dark and bottomless they nearly pulled me in.

My face went scarlet.

I jerked my gaze aside and stammered, “M-Miss Neighbor, is something wrong?”

My neighbor gave me a strange look. “Miss… Neighbor?”

Had I used the wrong form of address?

I was about to apologize when my neighbor’s expression flickered. Then, with sudden urgency, my neighbor said, “Sir, the pipe in my bathroom is broken.”

“Could you help me fix it?”

My neighbor stepped closer, and a scent like moss after rain washed over me.

It smelled wonderful. Familiar, too.

My heart wouldn’t stop pounding as I breathed it in.

My neighbor said something else, but I didn’t catch a word. I could only nod.

By the time I came back to my senses, I had already followed my neighbor inside and repaired the pipe.

In that single hour, we exchanged names. I learned that my neighbor was called Xie Li and had come from the same place I had.

Nothing brings two people closer than meeting someone from home in a strange city.

My neighbor warmly invited me to stay for dinner.

Shy and embarrassed, I said, “It was only one neighbor helping another. You really don’t have to be so polite. If you ever need anything, just come find me.”

My mouth declined. The rest of me, far more honestly, stayed for dinner.

I thought that would be the end of our interactions.

Instead, I kept running into my neighbor.

After work. On walks. Buying groceries. Picking up packages…

What a coincidence.

As the encounters piled up, I fell in love.

More precisely, I developed a secret crush.

I hid my feelings deep inside and didn’t dare say a word. I was an orphan with no family or background to fall back on. I had a timid personality and a face that, at best, could be called pleasant.

It had taken everything I had just to scrape my way into the best university in the country. After graduation, I became another corporate beast of burden, working nine to five and enduring endless abuse from my boss.

Apart from my degree, I had nothing worth showing off.

I wasn’t good enough for my neighbor.

So I did everything I could to maintain the proper distance between ordinary friends.

I thought I could bury my feelings forever.

But love couldn’t be suppressed that easily.

I thought about my neighbor at every moment. Every second, I had to fight the urge to see my neighbor again.

I couldn’t eat or sleep. Between that and the exhaustion from work, my blood sugar crashed and I fainted.

Luckily, my neighbor found me in time and took me to the hospital.

When I woke up, I was mortified. I had made such a fool of myself in front of the person I liked.

My neighbor didn’t seem to mind. Instead, Xie Li asked, “Mr. Shi, you haven’t looked well lately. Is something bothering you?”

“You can tell me. Maybe I can help.”

My neighbor’s gaze was gentle, like warm water soaking into my heart.

At that moment, a tremendous courage surged through me.

It crushed my reason flat.

I confessed.

I stumbled and stammered through the whole thing.

The instant I finished, I snapped back to my senses.

I was still in the hospital.

I was wearing a hospital gown.

My hair was a mess, my face was unwashed, and I hadn’t prepared flowers or a gift.

Yet I had confessed anyway.

It was so rushed. So badly timed. So offensive to my neighbor.

How could anyone be that impulsive?

Tormented by regret, I twisted my fingers together and waited anxiously for the rejection.

Instead, my neighbor hooked a finger around mine and said, “All right.”

“Mr. Shi, when should we get married?”

And just like that, my beautiful, gentle neighbor became my wife.

Half my dream had come true.

The god really did work wonders.

I was very happy after we married. I was never alone again.

My wife and I took walks, went shopping, bought groceries, watched movies, climbed mountains…

We fit together so perfectly it felt as though we had known each other for years. One glance was all my wife needed to understand exactly what I was thinking.

For instance, my wife knew I wanted a child.

I was a traditional man, after all. A wife, kids, and a warm home had always been my dream.

My wife worked even harder than I did every night to help me achieve it.

But something must have been wrong somewhere.

We had been married for half a year, and no matter how long we tried, we still hadn’t conceived. We tried every possible method. Nothing worked.

One night, after another strenuous attempt, I lay sprawled across the bed, panting softly.

My wife hovered above me and stroked the slight swell of my belly, guilt in their voice.

“Husband, I’ve been putting so much effort into this.”

“Why isn’t there any sign of a baby in your tummy?”

“Do you think the problem is me?”

As the head of our household, I couldn’t bear to see my wife upset.

I rallied my strength and comforted them softly. “It’s all right, wife. We’re still young. There’s no hurry.”

Then I leaned in and kissed my wife’s chin.

After plenty of reassurance, their brow finally smoothed.

My wife licked their lips, their eyes dark and fathomless. “Husband, why don’t we try a few more times?”

“I want us to have a baby soon.”

Their hand slid downward as they spoke.

The touch was ice-cold, sending tremors through my entire body.

I wanted to keep trying too, but tonight I truly had nothing left to give.

I caught the kneading hand and tried to be tactful. “W-Wife, I have work tomorrow…”

“Oh. All right.”

My wife’s eyes drooped, their voice low and muffled. “Then let’s go to sleep.”

They lay down beside me and wrapped an arm around me. I rested my head on my wife’s firm chest and turned my face into that faint, mossy scent.

It smelled wonderful. It was my wife’s scent.

As I breathed in the fragrance I adored, guilt rose in me for no reason.

When we married, I had sworn to do everything in my power to satisfy my wife. Yet now I had disappointed them over such a small thing.

How could I allow that?

I rallied once more. “Wife, come on. Let’s keep trying.”

My wife hesitated. “I’m not forcing you, am I, husband?”

I shook my head firmly. “Absolutely not!”

Once they had my reassurance, my wife cheered. “Husband, you’re amazing!”

“How can there be such a wonderful husband in this world? I love you so much!”

Kisses rained down on me.

My ears burned.

My wife’s praise always left me shy and helpless to resist.