Chapter 62 – Take a bite of Shen Tazhi

Jiang Que truly cried this time, unable to figure out the reason for his tears, just feeling a heart-wrenching pain.

After Shen Tazhi gently embraced him, Jiang Que felt even worse.

Apologizing haphazardly, he grabbed onto Shen Tazhi’s collar and struggled to put together a complete sentence, “Handling wounds…”

Since the moment Jiang Que started shedding tears, Shen Tazhi had been in a panic. He hadn’t wiped away the tears for a long time, and the blood from his lower lip continued to flow. Jiang Que himself was inconsolable.

He kept emphasizing that it was just bleeding and he wouldn’t die, but Jiang Que wouldn’t listen, continuously repeating, “I’m sorry.”

Already crying, he found it hard to catch his breath, and as he spoke, he started coughing between sobs.

Shen Tazhi even began to question if what he was doing was completely wrong. Upon hearing Jiang Que finally say something other than “I’m sorry,” he didn’t dare delay any longer. He swiftly took out some powdered medicine and bandages from the medicine cabinet, quickly tended to his wound, and gently applied a hemostatic powder to Jiang Que’s mouth.

Presenting his arm wrapped in pristine white bandages to Jiang Que, he reassured him, “It’s taken care of. Look, there’s really nothing serious, so please don’t cry.”

Jiang Que paused, looked at his arm, sniffled upon seeing the bloodstains on the bandage.

He felt like crying again.

But this time, he managed to hold back his tears. Jiang Que carefully held Shen Tazhi’s arm with his hand, asking with a sense of grievance, “You’ve lost a lot of blood, are you in a lot of pain?”

He asked in a hurt tone, “How could you use a knife on yourself? It’s very dangerous.”

Shen Tazhi looked at him, not answering his question but instead asking, “Why were you crying just now?”

It was better not to bring it up. The moment it was mentioned, Jiang Que couldn’t help but feel like crying again.

He wiped away the tears from the corner of his eye, leaned against Shen Tazhi’s uninjured arm, and muffledly said, “I don’t know.”

“I don’t want to see you hurt, Shen Tazhi. It’s very painful, you’re in pain, and that makes me very sad. The more I feel sad, the more I want to cry.”

Ever since Jiang Que became conscious, the idea of “humans are fragile” had been deeply ingrained in his mind. Humans could die from bleeding, and he feared seeing Shen Tazhi bleed, fearing that Shen Tazhi might easily die like this.

Shen Tazhi realized the impact of his actions. He patted Jiang Que’s head and reasoned with him:

“This is what I wanted to tell you, Que Que. When I see you hurting yourself, I feel sad too, just as sad as you, you know?”

“You can tell me anything you want. You don’t need to use so many tactics with me. I won’t refuse you. Please don’t hurt yourself like this again, okay?”

Jiang Que lowered his gaze. He had initially wanted to say that pinching himself was just a slight pain, and he wouldn’t easily die like Shen Tazhi, but he was afraid that if he mentioned it, Shen Tazhi might directly cut himself, so he could only nod in apology.

“I’m sorry, I know I was wrong. I really know I was wrong.”

Just finished crying, Jiang Que’s voice was muffled as he leaned towards Shen Tazhi.

He gently used his tentacles to support Shen Tazhi’s arm, saying, “But you can’t do this. It’s really dangerous and very painful.”

Shen Tazhi comforted him, explaining, “It’s okay. I researched before making the cut. I wouldn’t cut any important blood vessels.”

“This isn’t a problem that can be solved with just a bit of research!” Jiang Que felt like biting him in anger.

After the shock just now, his rationality had already snapped once. Now, the sofa was covered in bloodstains, and Shen Tazhi seemed rather unconcerned. The more Jiang Que thought about it, the angrier he became. Unable to hold it in any longer, he directly bit Shen Tazhi’s neck.

“Hiss…”

Shen Tazhi hugged him, not stopping Jiang Que’s gentle biting, allowing him to vent his fear.

As Shen Tazhi spoke, Jiang Que released his mouth. He looked at the red teeth marks on Shen Tazhi’s neck, as well as the messy bloodstains and hemostatic powder around the marks that he had rubbed against, and angrily said, “Why didn’t you dodge?!”

“I didn’t want you to get angry again.” Shen Tazhi’s hand moved from his tentacles to his back, gently stroking.

“Getting angry if you bite me, getting angry if you don’t bite me, doing something wrong but not getting scolded and still getting angry with me. Little ancestor, give me a way to make you not angry?”

He hadn’t done anything wrong.

Jiang Que thought defiantly.

But he was genuinely frightened by Shen Tazhi’s actions. Even if he didn’t agree, he could only bow his head and admit his mistake, “I’m sorry, I won’t get angry. I won’t dare to do it again in the future.”

This time, he truly wouldn’t dare. If Shen Tazhi cut himself again, Jiang Que felt he would go crazy.

That was a knife. Cutting oneself so casually, if there was too much bleeding or a tetanus infection, it would be over. And even if it healed, it would leave a scar.

Thinking about this, Jiang Que furrowed his brow, “The wound on your arm needs to be disinfected. Let’s go to the hospital and have a doctor take care of it to prevent infection.”

He was about to lift Shen Tazhi with his tentacles to walk, but Shen Tazhi hurriedly stopped him, “No, I can walk on my own. We don’t need to go to the hospital. I’ve disinfected the knife. If you’re still worried, I’ll have the family doctor come over later, okay?”

Jiang Que relented, watching the bloodstains on the sofa turning brown, feeling sad once again.

If he hadn’t been stubborn and admitted his mistake earlier, Shen Tazhi wouldn’t have resorted to using the knife.

He thought, embracing Shen Tazhi again, tears welling up once more, ready to fall.

He quickly shook his head, wiping away the tears.

No, he couldn’t cry. Crying now wouldn’t help at all; it would only make Shen Tazhi, who was already injured, end up taking care of him once again.

Shen Tazhi had been ready to continue consoling Jiang Que, but to his surprise, Jiang Que stopped his tears just as they were about to fall. He went to the medicine cabinet to get a fresh bandage for him, instructing, “Call the doctor quickly. The bandage on your arm is dirty. I’ll rewrap it for you.”

“Okay.” Shen Tazhi took out his phone as instructed, sending a message to the family doctor. At the same time, he asked Jiang Que, “Do you know how to bandage? Do you want me to teach you?”

“No, I watched how you did it just now. I’ve learned,” Jiang Que replied.

Carefully, Jiang Que began to remove the blood-soaked bandage from Shen Tazhi’s hand. When he saw the long scar on Shen Tazhi’s arm, his movements abruptly paused.

Shen Tazhi thought Jiang Que was about to cry again, but to his surprise, Jiang Que just pursed his lips, threw the bandage in the trash, and then began to somewhat unskillfully wrap a new bandage around Shen Tazhi’s arm.

Although a bit slow, he didn’t make any mistakes. He had indeed learned after just watching once.

“You’re quite reliable, Que Que,” Shen Tazhi complimented with a smile.

Jiang Que glared at him with red eyes.

Was this the time to compliment him for being reliable? He hated it. Shen Tazhi should be the one apologizing for putting him through all this.

Knowing full well what Jiang Que’s glare meant, Shen Tazhi immediately said, “Okay, okay, I’m sorry. I won’t do such dangerous things again as long as you don’t hurt yourself.”

“There won’t be a next time.” Jiang Que practically gritted his teeth as he spoke.

He had truly been frightened earlier, an experience he never wanted to go through again.

He held Shen Tazhi’s waist and buried his face into his chest, only then realizing that his hand had been slightly trembling all along.

Jiang Que muttered softly, “Shen Tazhi, you’re really annoying.”

Shen Tazhi chuckled at his words, “Do you really find me annoying?”

Jiang Que snorted, holding Shen Tazhi tighter, “I really find you annoying, you villain.”

The family doctor arrived quickly. Due to Jiang Que’s excessive fright earlier, he couldn’t control his tentacles turning transparent and had to retreat upstairs temporarily. It wasn’t until more than ten minutes later, after the family doctor had disinfected Shen Tazhi, administered tetanus shots, and left, that Jiang Que came back downstairs.

After all the commotion, it was already past five o’clock. Jiang Que glanced at the time and rushed over to Shen Tazhi, furrowing his brow, “How do you feel? Is it still painful? Are you uncomfortable?”

He had searched for the consequences of tetanus upstairs, becoming increasingly frightened. He was afraid that Shen Tazhi might die from a small mistake.

“Not painful, not uncomfortable,” Shen Tazhi shook his head. “The doctor said I’m fine, just need to rest for a few days. What do you want to eat tonight? I’ll check if there’s any food left in the fridge. We’ve been out for several days, so many dishes might have gone bad.”

Jiang Que looked at him disapprovingly, “Don’t cook. Just order takeout.”

Shen Tazhi sighed, “I can cook with one hand. The doctor said I need to rest for half a month. Do you want to eat takeout for half a month?”

He knew how picky Jiang Que was; most of the takeout options wouldn’t meet Jiang Que’s standards.

The few that could match the quality of Yade Alley’s roast duck were an exception. Most takeout options were fast food like burgers, fried chicken, grilled meat rice, cheese rice, pasta with steak, noodle soup, and the like. Eating them occasionally was fine, but nobody could handle eating them for half a month.

Jiang Que hesitated as well. After thinking it over, he conceded, “Let’s have takeout.”

If he got tired of it later, he could cook for himself, with Shen Tazhi watching nearby to ensure no major mistakes were made.

Jiang Que sternly said, “You only have two hands. If you don’t recover properly and lose them, I won’t allow you in the kitchen.”

Unlike Shen Tazhi, he had a total of ten hands, including his tentacles and the newly grown one, making it eleven.

Losing one or two tentacles wasn’t a big deal for him, but it was different for Shen Tazhi.

Jiang Que’s stance was firm, and Shen Tazhi had to agree.

Well, he could just give the assistant a raise and have them run more errands to pack food from restaurants for the next few days. It was a bit troublesome, but it was better than eating takeout.

He took out his phone and messaged the assistant, instructing them to pack food from the hotel and bring it back. Then he handed the phone to Jiang Que.

“If you want to eat something, just check it off on the screen.”

Jiang Que took the phone, saw the extensive menu, and quickly selected a list of dishes, recalling the content he had searched for on his phone upstairs. He ticked off a string of items and then handed the phone back to Shen Tazhi.

Shen Tazhi took the phone and looked at the selection:

Lotus root and red date stew with ribs, black fungus and pork liver soup, spinach stir-fried with pork liver, eel stewed with tofu, red date and wolfberry stewed chicken soup, and a serving of lamb bone congee.

In total, six dishes, all blood-nourishing dishes.

“Que Que…” Shen Tazhi smiled wryly, “Select something you want to eat. We can’t finish all of these, and you can’t replenish blood all at once.”

Jiang Que insisted, “I want to eat these. If you think it’s too much, you can remove some, but no substitutions!”

Shen Tazhi sighed, “Okay, I’ll follow your lead.”

Jiang Que had indeed been frightened earlier, so Shen Tazhi decided to go along with his choices for now. He figured that once Jiang Que had his fill of these dishes tonight and found them less appealing, he wouldn’t order so many again.

That was Shen Tazhi’s plan, at least.

However, over the next few days, they were treated to dishes like wolfberry and red date stewed chicken soup, longan and red date glutinous rice porridge, black bean and red date stewed pig’s trotters, and red date and white fungus soup—various stewed soups and congees kept coming.

Even with the hotel chef’s soup-making skills, Jiang Que was starting to feel nauseous from all the soup. Despite this, he still insisted on ordering soup for Shen Tazhi every day. Finally, Shen Tazhi had to unwrap the bandage, showing Jiang Que his healing wound, which made Jiang Que tone down his soup requests slightly.

The frequency changed from having soup with every meal to every other meal.

Shen Tazhi felt like he was turning into a soup pot along with Jiang Que.

Besides the constant soups, these days were unusually calm.

Due to Jiang Que’s involvement, the Sharp case gradually faded away under the intervention of the Anomaly Investigation Department. Without Sharp, Shen Tazhi naturally took over Shen Liushi’s business. He worked remotely every day, handling paperwork.

Jiang Que signed a contract as an external personnel for the Anomaly Investigation Department. Du Lulu no longer needed to monitor them. With no fixed afternoon classes, Jiang Que would bring his novel to Shen Tazhi’s office, joining him until bedtime.

They replaced the previously blood-stained sofa, restocked the medical kit, occasionally went out together during quiet times in the neighborhood for a stroll, and then bought Jiang Que an ice cream.

The wound on Jiang Que’s lower lip from the bite wasn’t deep, and by the third day, it had healed. During this period, his small tentacle had grown a bit larger, from the original size of half a palm to about twenty centimeters, but it still had a long way to go before becoming a powerful tentacle.

Time passed calmly until a week later when the scab on Shen Tazhi’s wound had started to fall off from the edges. He finally couldn’t help but voice his concerns, “I think we can stop drinking soup every day from now on.”

Jiang Que, who was reading a novel, set down the book upon hearing this, gently rolled up Shen Tazhi’s arm with his tentacles, “Let me see.”

He touched the long scab on Shen Tazhi’s arm, noticing that it had hardened and started to peel off. After some thought, he reluctantly said, “Alright.”

Previously, whenever Shen Tazhi raised objections, Jiang Que would tearfully respond with “But I worry about you, and that makes me sad.” Now, he had finally relented.

Shen Tazhi breathed a sigh of relief. Finally, they could change their diet tonight. So, he asked Jiang Que, “What do you want to eat? I’ll have the assistant find a restaurant.”

After some consideration, Jiang Que responded, “Can we have crab? I want to eat crab roe noodles.”

Having eaten light and nourishing stewed soups with Shen Tazhi for a week, Jiang Que was starting to miss the taste of the crab roe noodles he had enjoyed when he first emerged from the abyss.

The noodles were soft and chewy, topped with golden crab roe and carefully selected crab meat. The piping hot dish was delicious when eaten in the cool air-conditioned room.

“Sure, we can do that,” Shen Tazhi pondered for a moment. “But it’s only July now. The best crabs from Yangcheng Lake are in September. If we’re going to have crab, we might not get the best ones.”

“It’s okay. The crabs we had last time were delicious,” Jiang Que said, unconcerned.

So, Shen Tazhi took out his phone and instructed the assistant to find crab roe noodles.

However, being July, there weren’t many fresh crabs available. The assistant checked several places, but they all used frozen crab. Even a small portion of crab roe and meat mixed with rice was quite costly, let alone the type of crab roe noodles Shen Tazhi used to make.

“Que Que, how about we buy crabs and make it ourselves… No, wait,” Shen Tazhi paused mid-sentence, then smiled, “Que Que, do you want to go out and have fun?”

“Huh?” Jiang Que was momentarily confused by Shen Tazhi’s sudden change of topic and asked, “Where to?”

Shen Tazhi replied, “To Suzhou. I mentioned taking you out for fun last time, and since there’s nothing urgent now, we can work from home there. How about we stay in Suzhou for two months? We can also enjoy the first wave of September crabs.”

He showed Jiang Que a photo on his phone, “I have a lakeside villa in Suzhou. Look, it’s like this. It’s maintained by professionals, and we can move in directly.”

The photo showed a lakeside standalone villa. It appeared slightly smaller than their current villa, but it was right beside a glistening lake and had a beautiful shaded path, making it tranquil and comfortable.

Shen Tazhi thought for a moment and added, “The mosquito repellent equipment is complete, and there’s a private garden nearby that’s usually not open to the public. The environment is nice and quiet.”

“Wow,” Jiang Que exclaimed, “I love it here. Can we really go?”

“Absolutely,” Shen Tazhi smiled, “There’s not much delicious food in the capital. This will be a chance for you to try some authentic Suzhou cuisine. Once you’ve had your fill and enjoyed yourself, we can move on to another place. Wherever you want to go, we can. Didn’t you mention wanting to see a volcano?”

Jiang Que initially wanted to ask what he should do if the Anomaly Investigation Department suddenly needed him. However, he realized he wasn’t a formal employee of the department, so he decided to set aside those worries and continued looking at the photo of the small villa.

His maturation period was coming in three weeks. This villa was quite remote, but even if they caused a bit of a stir, it shouldn’t be too much of an issue, right?

Thinking this way, Jiang Que readily agreed, “Great, should we pack our bags and leave right away?”

Seeing Jiang Que getting up to pack, Shen Tazhi sighed, “Que Que, it will take at least half a day to drive to Suzhou from here. Let’s have lunch first before we leave.”

“But we’re going for two months,” Jiang Que frowned, “I need to bring a lot of stuff.”

Just the clothes Shen Tazhi bought for him would probably fill two suitcases.

Shen Tazhi was straightforward, “It’s fine. Just bring a few things. We can buy anything we need once we’re there.”

Upon hearing this, Jiang Que began to consider what he could leave behind.

First, the clothes. He wouldn’t need to bring so many. Two or three sets should suffice. Shoes and a backpack were the same. He definitely needed to bring his phone and charger. Then, there wasn’t much else.

…Oh, wait, his tentacles.

Jiang Que remembered the ten withered tentacles he had originally. Shen Tazhi had stored them securely in the underground storage room and even custom-made a bulletproof glass cabinet to protect them. Jiang Que would occasionally sneak off to the storage room to check on them, using them as motivation for his new tentacles to grow.

Now, going on a trip, he felt a bit uneasy leaving these ten tentacles at home…

But bringing them along seemed like too much trouble.

After some thought, Jiang Que decided to seek Shen Tazhi’s opinion, “Big brother, can I take my ten tentacles with me? I don’t want them to be lonely at home.”

Although those ten tentacles couldn’t speak, Jiang Que hadn’t conversed with his small tentacles for a long time. But he didn’t want his tentacles to be left alone.

“Of course,” Shen Tazhi readily agreed, “We can just put them in the trunk of the car when the time comes. It might take up a bit of space in the luggage.”

Jiang Que’s withered tentacles were smaller than the living ones, almost shriveled up like they had dried out. Each was just over a meter long, so they would easily fit in the SUV’s trunk.

Hearing this, Jiang Que was overjoyed. He hugged Shen Tazhi and rubbed against him, saying, “That’s great, thank you.”

He then remembered something and suddenly asked, “By the way, what happened with Gao Junyan’s case?”

He had been closely monitoring Shen Tazhi’s hand these days and had completely forgotten about Gao Junyan until he saw the house and recalled this significant figure.

“He should be having a trial soon, right?” Shen Tazhi wasn’t entirely sure. “The Anomaly Investigation Department took over the case, and the trial process wasn’t made public. If you want to know more, I can inquire.”

“As for the compensation, I transferred the money to his mother’s account the next day. However, it seems like his mother used the money to hire a lawyer for him. I’m not sure how long it will last,” Shen Tazhi explained, shaking his head with a hint of regret.

But that was as far as his regret went. He had done his best for someone who had intended harm against him. He wouldn’t do anything more.

“If you’re not sure, it’s fine. I just suddenly remembered and wanted to ask,” Jiang Que didn’t seem too concerned.

Leaning against Shen Tazhi, he softly expressed, “Shen Tazhi, I’m so happy now.”

Without Shen Liushi, without strange people, and without the Anomaly Investigation Department, it was just the two of them going to various places to eat and drink. This was a life that Jiang Que had never imagined he would have in the abyss.

Shen Tazhi smiled, “This makes you happy? What about going to other places in the future?”

“That would be even happier and more joyful,” Jiang Que smiled and leaned in, kissing Shen Tazhi’s cheek.

He earnestly said, “Shen Tazhi, I want to keep living like this with you, all the way until the end of the world. Will you stay with me for a very, very long time?”

Shen Tazhi’s hand holding the phone paused for a moment, then he lowered his gaze and softly replied, “Yes.”

He also wanted to stay with Jiang Que for a very, very long time, longer than the limit of a human lifespan.

Otherwise, if Jiang Que were left all alone, who would buy him those childish romance novels? Who would watch over him and prevent him from harming himself?

He couldn’t bear the thought of Jiang Que being all alone.