Chapter 30 – This is his… reproductive tentacle

Editor: Xinghe

Translator: YuQiChen/Churen

Due to an inexplicable sense of loss, Jiang Que, for the first time ever, didn’t even take a few bites when Xi Jing brought him food at night.

He was actually hungry, but the steaming hot food in front of him somehow didn’t arouse his appetite at all. Jiang Que’s sixth sense told him that even if he forced himself to eat, he wouldn’t feel satiated.

So he just took a few bites and lost interest, continuing to sit on the couch hugging his knees, staring blankly. He didn’t feel sleepy at all even until late at night.

“Shen Tazhi…”

He murmured softly.

Without Shen Tazhi, he couldn’t fall asleep.

The night was so long.

Inside the monitoring room, the investigators looked at each other.

Duan Yansu crossed her arms, pointing at Jiang Que on the couch softly calling out “Shen Tazhi’s” name, saying, “Look, he definitely likes Shen Tazhi, there is no doubt about that.”

After a meeting with Shen Tazhi’s assistant all afternoon, Chief Wu, who rushed over to brief the investigators to cooperate with the Qishan Taoists, was left dumbfounded:

“Huh? Aren’t they family?”

Duan Yansu glanced at the balding Chief Wu in his fifties and patiently explained to him, “Chief Wu, a partner is also a kind of family.”

Xi Jing stood aside, seeing the Chief’s shocked expression resembling his own at the time, he sympathized and couldn’t help but ask, “So Chief, how should we handle Jiang Que?”

Duan Yansu quickly added, “No matter how you look at it, he is a human. Shouldn’t we release him sooner to avoid further conflict with Mr. Shen?”

When mentioning Shen Tazhi, Chief Wu finally remembered the real reason he came to find Xi Jing and Duan Yansu. His expression turned serious as he said:

“Jiang Que indeed shouldn’t have any issues now. His special containment proposal has been approved by the higher-ups, with Shen Tazhi as his guardian. Tomorrow, arrange a comprehensive medical check-up for him and hand over the examination report to Shen Tazhi.”

“Now you have more important matters to attend to. Don’t spend too much time on Jiang Que for the time being.”

More important matters?

Xi Jing and Duan Yansu looked at each other in surprise.

Chief Wu distributed copies of the information he obtained from Shen Tazhi’s secretary to them and said, “Do you remember the typhoon, underwater earthquake, volcanic eruption, and extreme heat wave on June 14th?”

As Duan Yansu took the information, she replied, “I remember. Wasn’t that about a week ago? Wasn’t there also a trending search about ‘the end of the world’? We were preparing to investigate if there were any new anomalies appearing, but experts analyzed that it was all just a chain reaction of underwater earthquakes. After that, it seems like nothing else has happened…”

Her voice abruptly stopped.

Duan Yansu looked at the contents of the information in disbelief, then raised her head to look at Chief Wu, whose expression didn’t seem fake, and asked, “The end of the world is real?”

“It is real,” Chief Wu said seriously. “You and Xi Jing need to prepare. Tonight, you must take your team to the Abyss where Jiang Que was previously contained. Later, a few Qishan Taoists will join you in the operation.”

“As for the follow-up observation of Jiang Que, I will personally arrange for someone to take care of it.”

Unlike the seemingly calm but secretly chaotic Anomaly Investigation Department, Jiang Que had a very calm night.

So much had happened in just five days, he was almost pushed forward in a rush by Shen Tazhi, leaving many things unthought of. He relied on his intuition to guess that something was off about Shen Tazhi.

Now, his pace had slowed down which was rare, and Shen Tazhi was not around. To pass the long night, Jiang Que unprecedentedly recalled all his memories since meeting Shen Tazhi, trying to analyze the complex emotions he didn’t quite understand.

First was the encounter… When Shen Tazhi wiped his tears, he said that expression was one of compassion, but why would he feel compassionate towards himself? At that time, Shen Tazhi clearly knew nothing about him.

Then came Shen Tazhi cooking for him.

The dishes Shen Tazhi made were different from the food he ate in the cafeteria at the Anomaly Investigation Department. When he ate in the cafeteria, he only felt the taste of the food and the sensation of it being ‘delicious’, as if there was an invisible emotional barrier between him and the food.

But when he ate what Shen Tazhi made, he felt a satisfying sense of fullness.

Jiang Que couldn’t quite explain the difference between the two, but he could clearly sense that Shen Tazhi was different from others.

Shen Tazhi always seemed to understand him, whether it was food or novels, everything he brought over resonated perfectly with him. Jiang Que still couldn’t help but drift off, wondering if Luo Shang and Jiang Yi should be together.

“Family.”

In Jiang Que’s mind, the words spoken by the driver who was responsible for transporting him today suddenly sounded.

The driver had been talking nonsense all the way, and Jiang Que only remembered one sentence, “family,” but he still didn’t quite understand.

Why would Shen Tazhi say he was his family? He wasn’t human, right? Did he and Shen Tazhi know each other before?

If they did know each other, then Shen Tazhi’s insistence on taking him out of the Abyss and his abnormal understanding of him seemed to make sense.

But no matter how Jiang Que tried to recall, he couldn’t remember where he had seen Shen Tazhi before.

He had only seen humans when he was locked up in the Abyss, but Shen Tazhi was clearly not among them. Jiang Que was sure that he first met Shen Tazhi when he picked up that novel.

So did Shen Tazhi already know him? If he did, when and where did they meet? Why did he have no recollection at all?

In fact, Jiang Que was not curious about his own past, but because this matter involved Shen Tazhi, he wanted to get to the bottom of it.

He wanted to personally unravel the layers of mysteries surrounding Shen Tazhi.

He thought he would ask him about it when he saw Shen Tazhi again.

With this in mind, Jiang Que heard a knock on the door.

He was startled to find that the window outside was already dimly lit by the morning light.

He jumped off the couch, picked up the sunglasses on the coffee table, and went to the door to open it, imitating the way Xi Jing had taught him.

Unexpectedly, the one who came to see him was not Xi Jing but a round-faced, slightly plump woman.

The woman smiled warmly and greeted him gently, “Hello, you must be Jiang Que, right? I’m Du Lulu, a member of Xi Jing’s team. The team leader is on a mission today, so I’m here to take you for a physical examination.”

“A physical examination? Wasn’t it a test?” Jiang Que asked in confusion.

Du Lulu’s smile remained unchanged, “You’ve already passed the test. Once the physical is done, Mr. Shen can come and take you away.”

Jiang Que was puzzled but followed Du Lulu outside.

His tentacles were hooked by the narrow door frame again, and Jiang Que almost stumbled, barely managing to stay upright.

He retracted his tentacles and held them close to him, casually asking, “During the physical examination, will they also check my tentacles?”

“Yes,” Du Lulu gently replied, “Mr. Shen specifically instructed that you care a lot about your tentacles, so he requested us to check the health of your tentacles.”

“I see.” Learning about the specific condition of his tentacles made Jiang Que happy once again. He sincerely thanked, “You are really kind people.”

Not only did they not make him undergo a test, but they also checked his tentacles. Shen Tazhi did not deceive him after all. It was just a casual formality.

Following Du Lulu, Jiang Que walked through a long corridor until they reached the elevator. It dawned on him that the Anomaly Investigation Department might have more than just this one floor.

Seeing him staring at the elevator, Du Lulu explained, “This floor temporarily houses some less dangerous containment items. We’re going upstairs to the area with equipment for the physical examination.”

“How did you know what I was thinking?” Jiang Que suddenly asked.

It was strange, he hadn’t asked anything, yet Du Lulu had been perfectly explaining all his doubts since the beginning.

Du Lulu, a professional preschool teacher, rubbed her head puzzledly, “I don’t know either. I just felt that I should say it to you, so I did.”

It almost felt like she had returned to her days as a kindergarten teacher. Was it just her imagination?

“Ding—”

The elevator arrived, and Jiang Que entered the upper floor.

This floor was clearly much busier than where he had been last night. Many people in white coats were bustling about. Upon seeing him, they briefly paused before continuing with their work.

Du Lulu led Jiang Que through the crowd into an empty laboratory. She turned on the lights, closed the door, and smiled, “I’m the only one here to examine you, so you can relax a bit.”

Of course, the people behind the surveillance were not included.

“Relax a bit?” Jiang Que lowered his tentacles, “Like this?”

“Pfft…” Du Lulu chuckled at his antics, “I meant relax your expression, your expression. You’ve been frowning the whole time, looking very unhappy.”

Jiang Que was puzzled. He had always had this expression. Was there something wrong with it?

Seeing he didn’t respond, Du Lulu didn’t feel embarrassed. She skillfully turned on the testing equipment and said to Jiang Que, “Alright, just lie down on that bed over there, and once the examination is done, you can leave.”

Half an hour later.

Jiang Que looked at Du Lulu, whose face was now flushed while holding the examination report. He asked in confusion, “What’s wrong?”

Why was this person’s face suddenly so red?

Du Lulu’s hands were shaking, she trembled and said, “It’s nothing… you are very healthy, just a bit malnourished, uh, your bones haven’t fully developed yet, you can still grow taller, your tentacles…”

She paused, then slowly continued, “Your tentacles are also very healthy…”

Jiang Que asked, “Then why do you look so strange?”

Du Lulu fell into an eerie silence.

As if she had made some kind of decision, she took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and quickly said, “Not only that, one of your tentacles has a complete reproductive system. Based on our past experiences with tentacle containment items, that tentacle should have a maturation period, during which it will uncontrollably seek a mate, and ovulate, pushing the eggs into a suitable incubator…”

Jiang Que was stunned.

Deep inside, Du Lulu was silently screaming:

Ah ah ah ah ah!! What kind of R-rated content was this?! Why did she, a blossoming young girl, have to talk about such embarrassing things!

Her ability was innate affinity! Not innate lack of shame!

“Incubate…” Jiang Que unconsciously repeated.

He raised all his tentacles, showing them to Du Lulu, and sincerely asked, “So which tentacle is it? Are you saying my tentacles can give birth to little tentacles?”

Du Lulu’s face was almost smoking from blushing, she trembled and quickly pointed to one of the tentacles, stammering, “I don’t know… because we don’t have specific information on the hatching of eggs from tentacle containment items in the incubator…”

Following Du Lulu’s finger, Jiang Que looked at one of his tentacles and also froze.

It was the thickest tentacle, the one he loved to cuddle with Shen Tazhi, and also the one… Shen Tazhi had kissed.

Confused, he asked Du Lulu, “So, if a human kisses this tentacle of mine, what does that mean? Does it mean they want to have little tentacles with me?”

Du Lulu completely crashed.

She didn’t know, she didn’t want to hear what kind of strange play Jiang Que and Shen Tazhi had been up to!!

In the lobby of the Anomaly Investigation Department.

Shen Tazhi unconsciously fiddled with the tea cup in his hand.

This was undoubtedly a very rude gesture, but he, who always behaved perfectly, was now unable to control his inner nervousness.

Jiang Que was about to come out. How should he explain to Jiang Que? Would Jiang Que still be willing to believe him?

If he was not willing…

The gaze of Shen Tazhi darkened for a moment, but then quickly returned to being tense.

Even with the iron-blooded methods of the Shen family head, he didn’t dare to think about using strong tactics on Jiang Que. He had no choice but to sincerely apologize and explain.

“Ding—”

Just then, the sound of the elevator opening rang out, and Shen Tazhi lifted his head once again, looking towards the direction of the elevator.

Thinking it was another futile effort, he was about to turn away, but at the moment he saw the familiar black eyes, Shen Tazhi suddenly stood up from the sofa.

Following behind was a round-faced female investigator with flushed cheeks, and as soon as their eyes met, he suddenly smiled, like a happy little bird, and bounced directly into his arms:

“Shen Tazhi, you’re here to pick me up.”

Returning to the familiar and warm embrace, Jiang Que was very happy. He firmly wrapped Shen Tazhi in his eight tentacles, not wanting to ever be separated from Shen Tazhi again.

He met the other’s shocked gaze and hesitated for a moment.

Once again, that pitiful look as if being bullied, what was wrong with Shen Tazhi? Was he bullied by the Anomaly Investigation Department again?

Jiang Que raised his hand and gently touched the corner of Shen Tazhi’s eye. Seeing the other shrink but not daring to move away, he couldn’t help but think:

Why did he find Shen Tazhi’s pitiful expression so attractive? It was like some kind of wet animal.

Amidst the gazes of the onlookers, some shocked, some puzzled, the young man who had been indifferent and sharp in the Anomaly Investigation Department yesterday, smiled lightly, touching the corner of Shen Tazhi’s eye that everyone feared, murmuring to himself:

“Such a pitiful look.”

“Shen Tazhi—gege, I have so many things to ask you, take me home, and we’ll talk slowly.”

As he spoke, he skillfully entwined Shen Tazhi’s body with his tentacles and successfully heard the even more pitiful sob from the other party.

No reuploading anywhere else.

Support the author 山川千野 by buying chapters in jjwxc

Your ko-fi donations would be greatly appreciated.

You can receive notifications every time we post an update for “Weak and Pitiful, but with Eighteen Tentacles” by joining our discord linked below and reacting to the 👾 emoji on the roleplay channel

Ps. Do react to the update notification on Dummy if you can. At the very least, I’d like to see how many of you guys are looking forward to the novel. I don’t really know if yall like what we are doing.

Our team just started a new novel “My Vest Fell Off After My Marriage With the Evil God” Please have a look at it and react to the 💎  emoji in the roleplay channel to receive notifications whenever we release a new chapter~

Ko-fi goals? Extra chapter release once we reach our goal!!