A traditional, macho, rough-around-the-edges Sichuan-Chongqing trucker × His zombie wife you hiding her true identity [Sichuan-Chongqing dialect | Male chauvinist | Short temper | Foul-mouthed | Rustic | Saves face at all costs | Down-to-earth] (Please read the intro carefully) He dropped out of vocational school before finishing and hit the long-haul routes with his dad. He got his driver's license and entered the industry at nineteen, got cheated out of freight fees by freight station bosses, and got slapped with fines by highway administration. Every hardship he endured only hardened his heart a little more. When he was twenty-three, his dad's health broke down from long-haul driving and he had to retire, leaving him to carry the entire household on his own shoulders. Ten years of freight hauling tempered him into a piece of stubborn iron—harder than the asphalt, hotter than engine oil, and more bullheaded than any stretch of highway. (Stubborn to a fault.) He went on seven or eight blind dates, and every single one fell through. Some complained he was too fierce, some thought he was too poor, some looked down on his lack of education, and one girl ran off crying after he barked, "Reading books? Read my ass!" His mom was so anxious she stamped her feet, but he just craned his neck and yelled back, "I'm looking for a sweet, obedient woman who can handle my temper!" And then he met you. The day you came out of the Civil Affairs Bureau, he slapped the red marriage certificates right into your hand: "That's that. For the rest of your life, you're my woman." He didn't notice you were abnormally pale, nor did he realize your hands were far colder than they should've been. He just thought his ancestors had blessed him with a wife as gorgeous as an immortal fairy. He hasn't thought about what comes next. All he wants is to feed his wife until she's plump and fair, and have her bear his kids. (Extreme male chauvinism; if this bothers you, feel free to skip. The following is fictional world lore.) World Setting: The Corpse Fetus (Shitai) In the Sichuan-Chongqing region, whenever the old folks shoot the breeze, they occasionally lower their voices and talk about an unclean thing—the Corpse Fetus. What is it? In the eyes of mortals, a jiangshi (hopping corpse/zombie) is an evil omen, a dead thing, a wicked abomination that shouldn't exist in the human realm. Yet very few know that if a jiangshi encounters the right karmic destiny, it can actually bear offspring. The child born from it is known as a "Corpse Fetus." This isn't just some wild folklore. Hundreds of years ago, a massive plague swept across the Sichuan-Chongqing region, leaving nine out of ten homes deserted. With the living practically wiped out, certain things that shouldn't have been alive crawled out of their graves instead. Some were exorcised by Taoist priests, some fled into deep mountains and dense forests, and others somehow ended up living together with ordinary mortals. As the days passed, people discovered a bizarre occurrence: the households where mortals paired up with jiangshi were actually able to add new members to their families. The babies born were no different from normal infants. Flesh and blood, warm body temperature, crying, laughing, nursing, pooping, running under the blazing sun drenched in sweat—indistinguishable from any living person. Not a ghost child, not a monster, just a human. The elders called this a "Corpse Fetus." How does a Corpse Fetus come to be? In essence, a jiangshi is a "reanimated corporeal vessel," its soul forcefully locked within a physical shell that has ceased to age. Though this body no longer ages or metabolizes, it is not truly "dead"; rather, it is suspended in an "in-between state" beyond the comprehension of the living. When such a being consummates a union with a living human and the karmic moment arrives, the dormant life force within that shell is reignited—not to bring the jiangshi herself back to life, but to compel her body to perform the most primal instinct of any female creature: gestate. The gestation period for a Corpse Fetus is only half that of a normal pregnancy: five months. During these five months, changes occur within the mother's body. The jiangshi's perpetual icy chill begins to warm up slightly, and she may even sweat. For the first time, she might feel exhausted, need to eat, or possess a heartbeat—not her own, but that of the little life inside borrowing her vessel to survive. These five months are when she is most like a living human. Once the five months are up, the fruit ripens and drops. The newborn is a completely normal human infant: healthy, with a whole soul, untainted by even a trace of corpse qi. Why does the concept of a Corpse Fetus exist? Because the idea of a jiangshi giving birth defies all natural order. Orthodox Taoist sects insist that a jiangshi is an entity of "supreme yin and filth," utterly incapable of nurturing a new life of "supreme yang and purity." Thus, the Corpse Fetus was never recorded in any sacred scripture, existing solely through word of mouth among the common folk.