Chapter 24 – Don’t ignore me

Editor: Xinghe

Translator: YuQiChen/Churen

“Things outside?” Jiang Que looked puzzled, “Didn’t you already tell me about that before?”

A few days ago, Shen Tazhi had tried to describe the outside world to him. But at that time, he had no interest in the idea of “going out” and sharply shut down that topic.

After that, Shen Tazhi didn’t bring it up again, so why suddenly mention it now?

Shen Tazhi slung his backpack over his shoulder, walking towards the direction of the stone gate with Jiang Que. He said, “Because we’re about to go out, it’s better to clarify some things in advance.”

“Clarify?” Jiang Que followed Shen Tazhi, holding the five tentacles he was carrying, and took a few quick steps forward to walk parallel to Shen Tazhi, looking at him, “What do you need to clarify? Have you lied to me about something?”

He was always sensitive to negative emotions, so Jiang Que could easily see through the calm facade of Shen Tazhi.

Shen Tazhi slowed his pace, turned to meet Jiang Que’s probing gaze, and said honestly, “Not exactly lying, but I concealed some things because I was afraid you’d start doubting me.”

This response was somewhat expected, and Jiang Que wasn’t particularly angry. He had long sensed something off about Shen Tazhi and knew that he was hiding something. He had been observing, eager to see what Shen Tazhi was up to.

Recalling the genuine hostility he had showed when they first met, Jiang Que felt a sense of relief. Thankfully, Shen Tazhi hadn’t given him a reason to doubt back then; otherwise, he might have been tempted to eliminate Shen Tazhi to resolve any uncertainties.

That would have deprived him of all the interesting events that followed, something he would have regretted.

So Jiang Que calmly said, “I understand, so what do you need to tell me?”

After carefully choosing his words, Shen Tazhi continued, “As you know, humans always harbour distrust towards those not of their own kind.”

“Hmm,” Jiang Que responded noncommittally.

No one understood the dark side of humans better than he did, so Shen Tazhi’s words seemed trivial to him.

Shen Tazhi went on, “I didn’t come here because of the reasons I mentioned about being hunted.”

“I know,” Jiang Que said, looking at Shen Tazhi’s bulging backpack, “You came here prepared, either to find me or something else.”

Considering the odd expression and response Shen Tazhi had when Jiang Que brought up ‘seeking revenge’ and the strange behaviour regarding it, Jiang Que speculated that the story about the ‘heartless brother’ might be true, but the truth behind being duped into falling into the abyss needed further investigation.

Once the floodgates of conversation opened, it was hard to close them. Since they were about to go out in a few hours, there was no point in pretending not to know. Jiang Que decided to voice all his doubts from the past few days:

“You said that you and the people who locked me up back then weren’t in cahoots, but you could easily unravel the array that they left behind. You claimed that you accidentally fell in here, yet you are very familiar with everything here, as if you had been here before.”

“Even though I may not understand humans very well, I can tell that something’s off about you. The reason I haven’t chosen to doubt you is simply because you’re very upfront about the discrepancies in yourself, never trying to hide your abnormalities.”

As they spoke, a stone gate gradually appeared in front of them, exactly like Shen Tazhi had described before.

The stone gate sealed off the entire cave entrance. Judging by its thickness, even his tentacles would find it hard to break through, not to mention the faintly glowing array underneath the stone gate that he was extremely familiar with.

Jiang Que halted his steps, leaning against the stone wall not far from the stone gate, and looked at Shen Tazhi, who was bewildered by his words, smiling as he said:

“Shen Tazhi, you don’t really think that I would believe everything you say, do you?”

His tentacles slowly moved behind him, one of them reaching out towards Jiang Que. It was the one that had initially coiled around Shen Tazhi in an attempt to kill him, the same one that Shen Tazhi had gently kissed.

All his tentacles looked identical, with only minor differences. Shen Tazhi wouldn’t be able to distinguish them, but Jiang Que could. Seeing this particular tentacle again, Jiang Que’s emotions became inexplicably complex.

He lowered his gaze, reminiscing about the past few days: “I was just taking a gamble.”

“I was betting that you were different from the humans who locked me up, betting that you didn’t want to harm me, betting that… you wouldn’t lock me up somewhere else to feed on that distasteful resentment.”

“Jiang Que…” Shen Tazhi spoke, unusually addressing Jiang Que by his full name.

“I’m different from them, I just want to take you out, that’s all.”

“So you know the group of people who locked me up.” Jiang Que pointed out the hidden meaning in his words.

“That’s right,” Shen Tazhi chuckled bitterly, quickly adding before Jiang Que’s expression darkened, “But I only recently got to know them. It was to bring you out that I deliberately befriended them.”

He continued the previous topic, “You know, humans are always wary of those different from themselves, so it’s not just the group that locked you up, but also higher-ups and organizations specializing in researching anomalous beings, they all fear you.”

“Because you’re powerful, they’re afraid you’ll seek revenge on humans once you’re out.”

When the term ‘seek revenge on humans” was mentioned, Jiang Que suddenly remembered that he had stopped thinking about causing human extinction using natural disasters. At some point, he had stopped feeling that intense hatred, no longer wanting to kill everyone who had locked him up, settling instead for the desire to beat them to near-death.

Shen Tazhi continued, “But I don’t see it that way. I assured them that you’re not a monster, you’re also a person.”

“I am not human,” Jiang Que corrected, “I have eighteen tentacles, although now there are only eight left, I still do not count as a human.”

“But that’s what I told them.” Shen Tazhi blinked at Jiang Que, “Although I don’t know exactly what they intend to do, in order to verify the truth of my words, there will definitely be people requesting to take you away after we get out. There may be many people trying to sow discord, saying that I approached you to use you.”

“But this will only be temporary, at most a day. As long as the inspection is fine, I can take you away. Of course, even if there’s a problem, they can’t stop me from taking you away.”

“I know what I’m saying is suspicious, and I’m not asking you to believe me unconditionally. I just want to make it clear to you in advance that I never had any intentions of using you, nor did I ever want to harm you. I just hope that if you get mad at me after we get out… don’t just leave without explaining, can you?”

As Shen Tazhi spoke, his voice grew softer.

Jiang Que didn’t answer, he was earnestly looking into Shen Tazhi’s eyes.

Since their first meeting, Jiang Que had noticed the seemingly gentle yet cunning and sharp-eyed Shen Tazhi, but these eyes were always sincere and frank when facing him.

Initially, he was willing to reluctantly believe Shen Tazhi because of this frankness.

Shen Tazhi was different from any human he had encountered. He didn’t exude malice, always spoke softly, cooked, told stories, and took care of him in countless little ways.

So even though he knew there was something off about Shen Tazhi, he chose to continue to trust him.

Now, Shen Tazhi candidly told him that he did indeed come prepared as Jiang Que had guessed, and there were indeed humans outside waiting, but not to capture him, just to see if he would harm humans.

“But no matter what you say, I really am not human,” Jiang Que murmured.

“I can believe you, you are a good person, but what about the other humans? They want to test me, what will happen after they find out I’m not human? I will die, right?”

“No,” Shen Tazhi quickly replied.

He was sensitive to the word “die,” his voice slightly raised, almost emphasizing each word as he looked at Jiang Que, “You won’t die.”

“Anything they want to do must have my consent, and besides, it was wrong for them to lock you up in the first place, so even if they come to bother me, they won’t bother you.”

Jiang Que was startled by his sudden increase in volume and complained, “You’re so fierce.”

Shen Tazhi fell silent all of a sudden, looking nervously at Jiang Que, his lips involuntarily pursed:

“If you don’t want to go out, it’s okay, I can stay here with you until you want to leave.”

Actually, he also knew that he shouldn’t confess at this time. With the disappearance of the array underground, there was no longer the automatic cleaning formation. It was simply not suitable for normal human life. However, he didn’t want Jiang Que to feel betrayed just as he was starting to trust him.

He didn’t want Jiang Que to be upset. After much deliberation, the only path he could take was to confess in advance.

Jiang Que pursed his lips.

In the end, it was just about not wanting him to be angry because of the people outside that were waiting. Humans really spoke in a convoluted manner.

He used one tentacle to pull Shen Tazhi, who was a bit distant, closer. Facing Shen Tazhi’s surprised expression, he earnestly said, “Shen Tazhi, do you know why I’m willing to go with you?”

Shen Tazhi uncertainly replied, “…because I can tell stories?”

“Because you can tell stories, you can cook, you are very strange… but these are not the most important reasons.”

“At that time, I made up my mind because humans will die if they stay underground, as you said.”

“I don’t want you to die.”

Shen Tazhi’s expression suddenly became very complicated. Jiang Que couldn’t understand it, nor did he want to continue pondering the chaotic emotions of these humans. He straightforwardly said:

“It’s that simple. I don’t want you to die, even if you might be lying.”

“The decision to go out with you was made by me knowing that you have issues. I won’t regret it, nor will I blame you, because when I made this decision, I was already prepared to accept ‘being betrayed by you and dying’ as the outcome.”

Shen Tazhi was anxious to explain something but was stopped by Jiang Que’s tentacle wrapping around his wrist.

Raising his wrist with the tentacle, Jiang Que hooked his pinky finger with Shen Tazhi’s pinky finger.

Jiang Que smiled with narrowed eyes, childishly insisting on making a pinky promise: “It seems we don’t have time for you to finish telling me the story. Let’s pinky swear. After we go out, you must continue telling me the story, okay?”

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