Editor: Xinghe
Translator: YuQiChen/Churen
The tips of his eyes were red, tempting to be touched.
Thinking so, Jiang Que instinctively reached out to touch Shen Tazhi’s eye tips, causing the other to shiver.
“No… I don’t know,” Shen Tazhi’s voice was trembling, “Que Que, can you… release the tentacles.”
“Oh, okay.” Jiang Que obediently let go of the tentacles, then continued to inquire, “Since you didn’t know, why did you kiss my tentacles?”
“I don’t know…” Shen Tazhi raised his hand to cover his eyes, answering weakly.
Of course, he knew what it was, but he couldn’t understand why he had impulsively kissed it back then, let alone find a reason to explain to Jiang Que in this situation.
Although it was nominally a reproductive tentacle, Jiang Que, after all, had a humanoid form. His main reproductive organ should be the same as a human’s. Shen Tazhi from the previous life never knew that small tentacles could be produced from there.
The normal growth of Jiang Que’s tentacles should have slowly emerged from the scapula. What exactly did the Anomaly Investigation Division say to Jiang Que?
At this moment, Shen Tazhi really wanted to return to the Anomaly Investigation Division, find the investigator who had examined Jiang Que, and clarify things.
Lost in thought, Shen Tazhi’s red eye tips remained hidden behind his hands. Jiang Que wasn’t very satisfied, so he used a tentacle to pull Shen Tazhi’s hand down. Only after seeing the other’s eyes again did he release the tentacle contentedly, staring at Shen Tazhi who was constantly avoiding his gaze.
“So, are you trying to give birth to small tentacles for me? The people from the Anomaly Investigation Division said my tentacle eggs need an incubator…”
“Let’s continue talking about how I got to know you.” Shen Tazhi forcefully interrupted Jiang Que.
The topic of “tentacles” couldn’t be continued any further. Otherwise, he was truly afraid he might do something inappropriate with Jiang Que right now.
The Anomaly Investigation Division… Shen Tazhi gritted his teeth, completely dispelling the idea of apologizing to Chief Wu.
Jiang Que was puzzled, “Why not continue? Is it because you don’t want to?”
“If you don’t want to, just tell me. I don’t want to make things difficult for you. I just want my tentacles back, I can find someone else…”
“Swish—”
Shen Tazhi suddenly sat up from the water.
Approaching Jiang Que, with a hint of remaining redness in his eyes, his expression turned fierce as he pinned the other against the bathtub.
“I’m willing.” Shen Tazhi said in an almost pleading tone, fearing that Jiang Que might actually go find someone else to hatch the eggs with. “But right now, this topic is too early for you, Que Que. Let’s not talk about this, okay?”
His voice almost begged for forgiveness. After saying all this, he abruptly tore open his collar, revealing the bruises on his neck caused by Jiang Que when he mistakenly thought Shen Tazhi was in league with the Taoist who had locked him underground. After some simple treatment, the bruises had faded considerably, no longer a terrifying purple-red colour. They seemed to evoke all sorts of thoughts on Shen Tazhi’s evenly muscled body, making Jiang Que inexplicably hesitant to look at him.
His heart was pounding.
Jiang Que raised his hand to touch his chest, unable to help but wonder, why was it pounding?
Was it because of guilt at facing the ‘evidence’ of his past mistakes?
Seeing Jiang Que look away, Shen Tazhi smiled. He moved closer to Jiang Que and asked, “What’s wrong with your heart? Is it beating?”
How did Shen Tazhi know?
Jiang Que nodded blankly at him.
The next moment, he felt a warm touch on the back of his hand covering his heart.
It was Shen Tazhi, who also placed his hand over Jiang Que’s heart.
Even though Shen Tazhi had just held his hand to show him how to turn on the faucet, Jiang Que suddenly felt like he was being burned and wanted to pull his hand away.
He didn’t succeed because Shen Tazhi firmly held onto his hand.
“Que Que, once you understand why your heart is beating, we can continue our previous conversation, okay?”
Shen Tazhi’s tone sounded like he was negotiating, but he didn’t leave any room for Jiang Que to refuse. He forcefully changed the topic:
“You’re right, I did see you in our past lives.”
As if afraid Jiang Que might bring up the topic of tentacles again, Shen Tazhi kept talking non-stop, “I met you in our past lives. By that time, the apocalypse had already begun. Do you remember the story I told you about the end of the world?”
Huh? Past lives?
Jiang Que didn’t understand what that term meant, but he remembered the story Shen Tazhi had told him that night when he woke up in a daze, so he nodded.
Shen Tazhi said, “I am the protagonist of that story. I was betrayed by my younger brother, Shen Liushi, and thrown into the Northwestern Desert. In order to survive, I kept walking outward, but I must have chosen the wrong direction, which led me to accidentally fall into the abyss, where I met you.”
“What happens next is…”
“Wait.” Jiang Que, not understanding, asked, “So what is a past life? Is it something that happened before?”
Shen Tazhi fell silent, realizing the most important thing he needed to explain.
He could be honest at any time, but Jiang Que might not necessarily understand now.
Shen Tazhi tried to explain, “A past life refers to things that happened in a previous lifetime.”
“A previous lifetime?” Jiang Que was even more puzzled.
He completely didn’t understand matters related to life and soul, which were part of religious culture and not the objective human phenomena he observed. Jiang Que tried hard to comprehend, furrowing his brows and thinking for a long time if he had ever observed anything related to “past lives,” but he ended up failing.
So he naturally requested, “Shen Tazhi, please explain a bit more. I don’t understand.”
How was this any different from asking someone to explain “why one is one”? After racking his brains for a long time, Shen Tazhi finally stuttered out an explanation, “The meaning of past lives and previous lifetimes is that there was once a you and me, just like now. After you die, time cycles again, and you return to the present…”
What a confusing explanation.
Shen Tazhi himself didn’t understand what he was saying, let alone Jiang Que, who was already in a fog. Jiang Que nodded as if he understood, and finally asked:
“So I died? What am I now?”
“No, you are alive. Now is the next cycle,” Shen Tazhi explained weakly.
In fact, if he wanted to conceal the existence of the previous life, he could have acted perfectly normal, not letting Jiang Que notice anything amiss. But he had no intention of hiding it from Jiang Que forever, so he didn’t deliberately hide the oddities about himself.
As long as Jiang Que realized the truth, he would tell him. Shen Tazhi’s thoughts were that simple.
He had thought the biggest challenge would be how to bring Jiang Que out of the abyss, fearing that mentioning the past life in the abyss would only make Jiang Que more alert and backfire, which was why it had been delayed until now.
However, he never expected that the biggest challenge would be how to overcome communication barriers and explain everything that had happened between them to Jiang Que.
“Oh, I’m alive, so how did I die again?” Jiang Que was even more confused.
“No…”
*Ding dong*
Shen Tazhi was about to speak when he was interrupted by a sharp doorbell.
Today, because Jiang Que was coming home, he had sent everyone home early, instructed his assistant not to disturb them, and the Anomaly Investigation Department was most likely preoccupied with the impending apocalypse and should not be bothering them. Who would be so foolish as to come knocking at this time?
Shen Tazhi paused for a moment, then remembered the one person he had forgotten in the corner—
His dear brother, Shen Liushi.
His expression turned cold for a moment, but then he looked down at Jiang Que, who was still in a daze, and smiled gently. “I’ll think of a way to explain to you later, Que Que. Are you done washing up? Come out and get dressed. I’ll blow-dry your hair for you.”
“That must have been the doorbell earlier,” Jiang Que judged based on his limited knowledge of daily life. “Shouldn’t you go answer the door?”
“It’s fine.” Shen Tazhi stood up from the water, contemplating whether he should quickly take a shower himself. “The person outside is someone I dislike, so it’s okay not to open the door immediately.”
Someone Shen Tazhi disliked?
Jiang Que immediately guessed, “Is it your brother?”
“Yes.” Shen Tazhi ruffled Jiang Que’s wet hair. “Que Que is really smart. After I finish drying your hair, I’ll bring you some biscuits. If you don’t want to see him, you can stay in this room and have some biscuits. I’ll be back in about five minutes.”
Jiang Que didn’t know how long five minutes were, but he didn’t want to be separated from Shen Tazhi even for a short time. “I don’t want that. I want to be with you.”
After a pause, he added, “And biscuits too.”
“Okay.”
Shen Tazhi agreed gently, waiting until Jiang Que had changed into his clothes before leaving with peace of mind. He went to the bathroom to take a shower and change into clean clothes.
Jiang Que obediently sat on the large bed in his room, waiting for Shen Tazhi to come out of the bathroom.
The bed was soft, and he couldn’t help but curiously climb onto it, rolling around for a bit before quickly sitting up as if nothing had happened.
The bed was soft and big enough for both him and Shen Tazhi to sleep on together.
The duvet was more comfortable than a sleeping bag and smelled just like his tentacles, which he liked.
Thinking of his tentacles, Jiang Que tried to move them and realized they were no longer bound as before.
The clothes Shen Tazhi had prepared for him had a hole at the back of the shoulder blades, allowing his tentacles to stretch out comfortably. This was much better than the oversized normal human clothes from before, making his little tentacles happily entwine and sway. How many times had Jiang Que marvelled at what a good person Shen Tazhi was.
Finally, the sound of running water in the bathroom stopped. Shen Tazhi came out, saw Jiang Que playing with his tentacles on the bed, and couldn’t help but smile.
He took a dry towel and said, “Que Que, come here. I’ll dry your hair for you.”
“Okay.” Jiang Que jumped off the bed, walked up to Shen Tazhi, and watched as he dried his hair with the towel. After observing for a while, he said seriously, “I’ve learned how to do this too. I can do it myself.”
So clever.
Shen Tazhi paused for a moment, masking his disappointment with a calm expression. “Let me do it this time. Next time, you can do it yourself.”
He put down the towel and picked up the hairdryer hanging nearby. “This is a hairdryer. You’ve probably seen one before. It’s a bit loud. Do you want me to help dry your hair or do you want to try it yourself first?”
“Dry it for me,” Jiang Que said.
He also wanted to learn how to use a hairdryer.
Shen Tazhi then turned on the hairdryer at the lowest setting, still startling Jiang Que. He took a step back in surprise before standing still as Shen Tazhi blow-dried his hair.
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