Editor: Xinghe
Translator: YuQiChen/Churen
The alcohol lamp was lit again, illuminating the darkness underground.
Jiang Que, who had calmed down, stood restlessly beside Shen Tazhi, watching as Shen Tazhi took out a large bottle and cotton swabs from his backpack, nervously wiping the dried bloodstains on his tentacles.
He didn’t mean to, and he didn’t know why he had just been so excited…
Jiang Que twisted his tentacles, looking at the calm Shen Tazhi and the purplish marks already appearing on the other’s neck. He felt like taking a few steps back.
“Que Que, come over here?”
Shen Tazhi’s voice was hoarse, so Jiang Que couldn’t tell if he was angry or not. The tentacles that were already entwined tightened even more.
He slowly walked over to Shen Tazhi, and as soon as he sat down, the other reached out his perfectly intact left hand towards him.
“Huh?”
Jiang Que was puzzled.
Shen Tazhi took out a bottle of mineral water from his bag and smiled at him, “Which tentacle got blood on it just now? Reach out, I’ll clean it for you.”
Jiang Que awkwardly placed his tentacle in Shen Tazhi’s hand. It wasn’t until he felt the warmth of Shen Tazhi’s hand against his cold tentacle that he realized something was wrong:
“Aren’t you injured and bleeding? You should tend to your own wounds first.”
Shen Tazhi had already wet the handkerchief with mineral water and, upon hearing this, grabbed Jiang Que’s tentacle that was trying to retract, smiling, “It’s okay, just a little blood from a paper cut, this kind of injury won’t kill humans.”
“Oh…”
Jiang Que responded with uncertainty.
He didn’t know how much blood humans could lose before dying, but of the countless humans he had seen die, at least two-thirds had died painfully after losing a lot of blood. That’s why he was so alert to Shen Tazhi bleeding.
So, humans won’t die if they don’t lose too much blood…
The cold touch on his tentacle brought Jiang Que’s attention back.
He looked down to see Shen Tazhi sitting on the ground, patiently cleaning his tentacle with the handkerchief. Only when he had wiped his small tentacle clean did Shen Tazhi stop, neatly folding the dirty handkerchief and then pouring the remaining mineral water onto his right hand.
The half-congealed blood was washed away by the water, allowing Jiang Que to finally see the full extent of the wound on Shen Tazhi’s hand.
This was a long and deep scratch that extended from the tiger’s mouth all the way to the wrist before disappearing, making Jiang Que frown.
Shen Tazhi twisted open the large bottle he had taken out at the beginning, poured the reddish-brown liquid onto the cotton swab, and began to apply it to the wound.
“What is this?” Jiang Que asked.
“This is iodine.” Shen Tazhi pointed to the words on the bottle, explaining, “This is a medicine for cleaning wounds and preventing infection.”
“Although humans won’t die just from bleeding a little, there is still a possibility of death if bacteria enters the body through the wound and causes an infection.”
Jiang Que became nervous as he listened, “So humans can still die from cuts?”
“In theory, that’s correct…” Shen Tazhi looked at Jiang Que, whose expression was growing more serious and couldn’t help but smile, “But I’m fine, don’t worry.”
“Oh.”
Jiang Que responded, but he still didn’t completely relax.
He sat down next to Shen Tazhi again, curiously reached out, touched a bit of the reddish-brown liquid on the bottle cap, and before Shen Tazhi could stop him, he licked it with his tongue.
The next second—
“So bitter.”
Jiang Que furrowed his brow and stuck out his tongue.
“This is not for eating, of course it’s not tasty.”
After quickly treating the wound, Shen Tazhi closed the bottle cap directly to prevent Jiang Que from sneaking a drink of iodine when he wasn’t paying attention, sighing and educating him, “Don’t eat random things in the future. This time it’s iodine, eating just a little won’t cause much harm, but what if you accidentally eat something poisonous in the future?”
“Poison?” Jiang Que was puzzled, “But I shouldn’t die from poison, right?”
“Anything is possible, and if you keep eating things randomly, one day you’ll be poisoned.” Shen Tazhi said sternly.
Because it concerned Jiang Que’s safety, Shen Tazhi’s expression was a bit cold. This was the first time Jiang Que had seen Shen Tazhi’s cold face towards him. Coupled with the fact that he had almost killed the other person just now, he looked at the marks on Shen Tazhi’s neck, lowered his head, and fell silent.
Shen Tazhi looked at the little tentacles that had softened down suddenly and softened his voice, “It’s okay, just don’t do this next time.”
He said as he took out a piece of candy from his backpack, peeled it open, and handed it to Jiang Que’s mouth, “You said it was bitter just now, want a candy?”
But it wasn’t just bitter earlier, you were also harsh to me.
Jiang Que felt a bit wronged for no reason, slightly turned his head to avoid the candy touching his lips, and said, “Don’t eat random things like you said.”
Shen Tazhi smiled, “It’s okay to eat mine, and besides, didn’t you eat some on the first day? This is candy.”
Jiang Que was still a bit unhappy, but he didn’t want to argue over candy, so he reluctantly opened his mouth and took the candy from Shen Tazhi’s fingertip.
The familiar sweet sensation once again filled his mouth, sweeping away the bitter taste of iodine.
The candy was delicious.
Jiang Que squinted his eyes, and his mood gradually improved.
He was like an unforgiving little cat, moving closer to Shen Tazhi again, gently taking the other’s injured right hand with his tentacles, not daring to apply pressure, just lightly holding it, asking, “I’m sorry just now, does your hand still hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt, it’s just a minor injury, it will heal on its own in a few days.” Shen Tazhi replied.
Listening to Shen Tazhi’s hoarse voice, Jiang Que’s gaze shifted upwards, stopping at the marks he had caused on his neck, and asked, “What about this?”
“This?” Shen Tazhi, puzzled, followed his gaze to touch his neck, only to realize the swelling when he touched it, naturally putting down his hand and saying, “This is also alright, it will heal in a few days, and my voice will be the same, so you don’t need to worry about me.”
Shen Tazhi’s mind wandered a bit as he spoke.
I wonder if he would be misunderstood by others when he went out with Jiang Que with these marks… I should find a way to cover them up.
Jiang Que didn’t notice Shen Tazhi’s momentary distraction and began to ponder on his own.
So, the question just now was considered ‘worry’?
Then, could his previous actions also be considered as ‘worrying’?
But humans usually only worry about people who are very important to them. Is Shen Tazhi important to him?
He didn’t know.
This question obviously could not be concluded in a short period of time. Jiang Que frowned and decisively chose to stop thinking about it.
Shen Tazhi had already cleaned up the medicine bottles and cotton swabs on the ground at this moment. He looked at Jiang Que and brought up the topic that had been interrupted by various accidents earlier:
“The array has disappeared. Can you go out with me now?”
Only then did Jiang Que remember the reason he was initially angry. His little tentacles suddenly stood up like an angry cat. He asked warily with a frown:
“Who are you exactly? How were you able to break that magic circle?”
It was all because Shen Tazhi had suddenly wiped his tentacles earlier that he almost forgot he was supposed to question Shen Tazhi!
“I am Shen Tazhi.” Shen Tazhi naturally continued, “As I told you before, my family is very wealthy, and wealthy humans always pay attention to all sorts of strange things, such as burning incense to worship Buddha, Feng Shui, and Taoism. It wouldn’t be strange for me to carry some talismans on my body, right?”
“Is that so?”
Jiang Que, who had never truly interacted with humans, expressed uncertain doubt.
“That’s right.” Shen Tazhi answered firmly. He smiled faintly, his expression not revealing any sharpness. “If you don’t believe me, you can go out with me and see for yourself.”
Jiang Que wanted to say he hadn’t agreed to go out yet, but then he thought of the promise he had made in haste earlier, and he frowned in conflict.
He didn’t want to be untrustworthy to Shen Tazhi, but what fun was there outside now that the apocalypse was happening due to the unresolved grudges? Even if Shen Tazhi was wealthy, he couldn’t live well outside.
At this moment, the little tentacles, who had been silent for a long time, weakly said:
[It doesn’t matter if we go out, right? Shen Tazhi doesn’t know about the apocalypse anyway. If we take him out and let him see the apocalypse, we have a reason to make him stay!]
[Yes, yes, Shen Tazhi will realize that staying underground with us is the safest!]
[And now that the magic circle is broken and we can go out freely, Que Que is very capable. We can just let Que Que steal food from other humans to feed Shen Tazhi in the future.]
The chattering little tentacles almost hit the nail on the head of Jiang Que’s heart. Jiang Que puffed up his cheeks and reluctantly said:
“Well, I promised you, I can’t go back on my word.”
Shen Tazhi on the other side hadn’t even had the chance to be happy before hearing Jiang Que’s next words.
“But, before we go out, can you tell me more about the stories of Ye Bingli?”
Shen Tazhi suddenly froze.
It wasn’t that he was unwilling to tell the stories until he achieved his goal. He was willing to personally write these novels and have them published. Of course, he wouldn’t mind telling Jiang Que stories, a simple task.
But then, the subsequent plot…
Thinking about Jiang Yi’s fondness for Luo Shang, along with a series of melodramatic developments, Shen Tazhi couldn’t help but get a headache.
Jiang Que was very smart but lacked common sense about human emotions. Just the word ‘heartache’ from the novel could make Jiang Que infer his own feelings in reality. If Jiang Que heard about the romantic parts between the male and female leads, how would he understand human emotions and view Shen Tazhi?
Shen Tazhi had never thought he concealed his feelings for Jiang Que very well. Anyone with normal human emotions could observe his thoughts with a little scrutiny.
It was too late to change the plot now. The male lead had already made an appearance, and from the sounds of the little tentacles at that time, they seemed quite satisfied with the new male lead. They already assumed the female leads would be with these three male leads. Shen Tazhi couldn’t find a reason to skip the upcoming plot.
So why did he write such a plot at that time?
Oh, it seemed like it was because Jiang Que enjoyed listening.
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