Chapter 81 – Finale – Until the world ceases to exist

“A ring?” Shen Tazhi was genuinely taken aback this time.

He felt like he must have misunderstood Jiang Que’s intentions. Perhaps Jiang Que simply wanted to give him a decorative ring. So he asked, “Why are you giving this to me?”

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Jiang Que, but Jiang Que rarely did things that followed normal logic. Shen Tazhi subconsciously didn’t use normal logic to guess his intentions.

When it came to reasons, Jiang Que blushed a bit and stammered, “It’s… for getting married.”

He handed the box to Shen Tazhi, carefully holding Shen Tazhi’s hand with his tentacles, whispering, “Du Lulu said that if you give someone something they haven’t received before, it’s a proposal ring.”

The velvety box, warmed by Jiang Que’s body heat, made Shen Tazhi feel a slight burning sensation as he took it. He couldn’t quite discern his emotions at the moment, feeling the weight of the box in his hand, blinking blankly before finally reacting, “Is this… you proposing to me?”

“This is a proposal?” Jiang Que looked puzzled.

He was already a bit nervous when he took out the ring, and Shen Tazhi’s words made him even more anxious, “I don’t know, is this considered a proposal? I should have given you more things along with it, right…”

On the internet, proposals often involved many flowers, friends gathering, or finding a quiet and elegant place for dinner and heartfelt conversations. The ring was just an accessory, so Jiang Que didn’t connect the act of giving a ring with a proposal.

Jiang Que grew quieter as he continued, “I just thought, I wanted to buy you a wedding ring, so I gave it to you… If I had known, I wouldn’t have been so hasty.”

He should have at least cleaned up the house, waited until dinner to bring it up, instead of like now, where he couldn’t hide anything when he saw Shen Tazhi, immediately taking it out.

Unable to hold back a smile, Shen Tazhi ruffled Jiang Que’s head, “No, giving a ring doesn’t always mean a proposal. Can I see what kind of ring it is now?”

Jiang Que nodded, and Shen Tazhi opened the box.

The intertwined vine ring caught his eye, leaving Shen Tazhi speechless for a moment.

Just as Jiang Que couldn’t help but wonder if Shen Tazhi didn’t like it, Shen Tazhi smiled again, “It’s custom-made, very beautiful.”

“Ah,” Jiang Que replied seriously, “I could have given it to you earlier, but even with extra money, it could only be rushed out within two weeks, so that’s why it’s being presented now.”

As soon as the words fell, Shen Tazhi kissed him.

Jiang Que was half crouched on the edge of the bed, so Shen Tazhi had to bend down to pull his collar and lift him slightly to kiss him.

Looking up, Jiang Que was taken aback as Shen Tazhi invaded his lips and tongue, taking a moment to respond.

They had kissed countless times before, their lips and tongues entwined intimately, but this time, it seemed to carry a different sensation.

After the kiss, Shen Tazhi smiled, cupping Jiang Que’s face, “Thank you, I really like it.”

“If you like it, that’s… that’s good,” Jiang Que found it hard to look directly at Shen Tazhi now.

There was hardly a patch of intact skin on Shen Tazhi’s body, all marked with bite marks, even his strong arms, which held Jiang Que’s face, bore traces of his teeth.

Bending down again, Shen Tazhi’s robe naturally fell open, revealing a slightly embarrassing scene underneath.

Jiang Que hastily picked up the ointment he had found earlier, “The bite marks on your body…”

Shen Tazhi arched an eyebrow at him, “You just gave me the ring, and now you’re thinking about applying ointment to me?”

Jiang Que almost dropped the ointment from his hand.

Blushing, he stammered for a while, then looked at Shen Tazhi accusingly, “Don’t tease me.”

Jiang Que buried himself in Shen Tazhi’s embrace, “You know, I really don’t know what to do now. Don’t play with me, Gege.”

Ever since Shen Tazhi mentioned the word “proposal”, Jiang Que’s mind had been on the verge of shutting down.

How could he have been so hasty in doing the most important thing? If he had known the significance of giving a ring was so great, he would have at least…

Wait a minute, who told him that a ring was just a symbol and could be given at any time?

Jiang Que froze, then gritted his teeth while laying in Shen Tazhi’s embrace.

Du… Lu… Lu.

How could she be so mischievous!!!

If he wasn’t still nestled in Shen Tazhi’s arms, the atmosphere not quite suitable, Jiang Que would have called Du Lulu right now to have a heated argument.

Shen Tazhi was no longer surprised by Jiang Que’s shy demeanor when he got off the bed. He took the ointment tightly clutched in Jiang Que’s hand, smiling, “Alright, I won’t tease you anymore, I’ll do it myself. What does your ring look like?”

“My ring?” Jiang Que asked in confusion.

Shen Tazhi was momentarily stunned by his question, “Didn’t you buy one for yourself?”

“Why would I buy one for myself?” Jiang Que looked even more puzzled, “I was going to give it to you.”

Shen Tazhi: …

Feeling both helpless and amused, he didn’t want to show his amusement too much, fearing Jiang Que might get embarrassed, but he couldn’t help but chuckle in the end, “Que Que, a wedding ring is a pair of rings, meaning two rings, one for each person.”

A pair of rings? One for each person?

Jiang Que was stunned.

His brain started processing.

He remembered Du Lulu’s words to him, saying if he didn’t understand, he could ask her, that the wedding ring was something every human would give to their partner, and that Shen Tazhi surely hadn’t received one before…

What a brilliant scheme, completely skipping over the fact that giving a ring mostly meant a proposal, and completely avoiding the fact that a “ring” was a pair, not a single one.

He had wondered why the designer had asked that peculiar question if he only needed one. It turned out Du Lulu had set him up?!

Jiang Que was fuming. He wriggled out of Shen Tazhi’s embrace, used his tentacles to open the door, and rushed downstairs to grab his phone.

“Du Lulu lied to me!! She only told me to give it to you! I hate her!!!”

Fuming, Jiang Que called Du Lulu, while Shen Tazhi, realizing what had happened, was left laughing uncontrollably on the bed. His already sore muscles ached from laughing.

The astute advisor and the oblivious lord… he should have guessed earlier. Jiang Que’s sudden human-like behavior must have had some human influence behind it.

…

Jiang Que and Du Lulu argued for over half an hour, mainly with Jiang Que angrily questioning her, while Du Lulu laughed maniacally on the other end.

Shen Tazhi also laughed uncontrollably, but when he saw Jiang Que getting so upset that he was close to tears, he immediately stopped laughing, reached out to end the call with Du Lulu, and hugged and comforted Jiang Que with kisses.

“It’s okay, it’s just a ring. How about I give you one too?”

Jiang Que didn’t actually feel like crying; he rarely cried. He was just flushed with anger.

But Shen Tazhi thought he was crying, so might as well take advantage of it. Jiang Que hugged Shen Tazhi, feeling wronged, “Even you’re laughing at me. You’re all bullying me.”

Shen Tazhi comforted him, “I’m not bullying you. I’ll help you get back at Du Lulu. Let’s not be mad.”

He leaned in to kiss Jiang Que, who always enjoyed the closeness of their skin. After a few kisses, Jiang Que’s anger melted away, and he used his tentacles to pull Shen Tazhi closer, requesting more kisses.

The chaos caused by Du Lulu eventually ended with Shen Tazhi’s clothes in disarray once again.

Jiang Que didn’t go all the way this time; he was worried about Shen Tazhi’s body. This time, it was truly just cuddling.

But what was cuddling down there wasn’t a tentacle.

The skin that was brushed against felt scorching hot, and Shen Tazhi’s body went completely limp. He couldn’t muster any strength, while Jiang Que’s eyes sparkled with excitement as he looked at Shen Tazhi, who was a complete mess.

“Gege, let me help you to the bathroom this time for cleanup.”

Shen Tazhi: Wait, let’s clarify which kind of help first.

Since the courtship period, Jiang Que and Shen Tazhi’s bedtime activities had become more regular. Specifically, as long as there were no commitments the next day, they would spend the previous night engaging in intimacy.

After setting up online banking for Jiang Que and teaching him how to use shopping apps, their home was filled with strange little items. Sometimes it was just a beautiful cheongsam, other times it was a dark, tentacle-shaped vibrating object.

Jiang Que tried to get Shen Tazhi to wear the beautiful cheongsam, but after a firm refusal, Jiang Que decided to wear it himself.

With Jiang Que kneeling on him in the cheongsam, while he was bound and unable to move, watching Jiang Que’s menacing tentacles approach, Shen Tazhi, for the first time, regretted his decision.

He would rather wear it himself, at least not have to deal with—

Jiang Que’s knee pressing against his…, due to the cheongsam’s design, Shen Tazhi could even see Jiang Que’s beautiful thigh revealed under the intentional curvature.

The strange folds protruding on the cheongsam.

Jiang Que’s face was incredibly beautiful, with a slender and delicate teenage figure. Due to his non-human nature, he could easily dominate Shen Tazhi. He looked at Shen Tazhi with a mischievous smile, intentionally making an innocent expression, “Don’t you like it, Gege?”

“…It looks good,” Shen Tazhi replied honestly.

If the current position wasn’t so precarious, he might have praised it more sincerely.

It was indeed beautiful, but also dangerous.

The consequences of backing off further meant being thoroughly bullied by Jiang Que.

Strangely enough, even with behaviors that Jiang Que himself thought were a bit excessive, the consequences the next day weren’t as severe as expected.

It was as if Shen Tazhi’s body was slowly changing for some reason.

Shen Tazhi felt this rapid adaptation wasn’t a result of his own training. So, he voiced his doubts to Jiang Que, hoping for an explanation from him.

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Que said he would try to find the reason. Then, a week later, during the courtship period, he fed Shen Tazhi eggs until he begged for mercy with tears in his eyes.

He really force-fed him, making sure he swallowed it down like feeding a baby.

But strangely, even with this more extreme behavior, Shen Tazhi quickly recovered after the second courtship period, even able to get out of bed and move around that same day.

Jiang Que speculated that it might be the assimilation effect of the eggs, causing Shen Tazhi to start assimilating in his direction. The specific manifestation seemed to be an enhancement of his physique, but since there was no time for an investigation into his abilities yet, this idea remained unconfirmed.

In any case, Shen Tazhi’s physique was changing, which was a cause for celebration for Jiang Que. At least, he no longer had to worry about accidentally hurting Shen Tazhi all the time.

For Shen Tazhi… it was a mixed bag of emotions.

He was happy that he didn’t have to delay his work for half a day every time he was intimate with Jiang Que, but he was worried about the increasing strange items in the house and Jiang Que’s inexplicably expanding knowledge base.

…

Time passed slowly, and in September, Jiang Que successfully enjoyed the first batch of crabs. The first series of short drama videos also concluded successfully.

His identification came shortly after the drama ended. Shen Tazhi was planning to hand over the entertainment company he had taken over to Jiang Que when his identification came through. However, Jiang Que refused.

“I don’t want to be the boss, I want to be the boss’s canary,” Jiang Que said at the time.

The Anomaly Investigation Department also understood Jiang Que’s thoughts and was currently exploring the possibility of collaboration. Everything seemed to be moving in a positive direction, and finally, the wedding arrangements could be put on the agenda.

“I don’t have anyone else to invite besides Director Wu, Du Lulu, and He Yun. How about you?” Jiang Que was on the computer, listing names of guests, then turned to ask Shen Tazhi.

Shen Tazhi thought for a moment, “I don’t have many close relatives. The elders in my family aren’t in touch much. I’ll invite a few decent and well-behaved people to the banquet.”

They weren’t preparing for a grand celebration. In fact, Jiang Que hadn’t even realized that besides getting the marriage certificate, they also needed to invite people for a meal. So, they simply wanted to invite their relatives to make it official.

While Shen Tazhi had many relatives, they were a mixed bunch. The ones who were a bit closer and more honest were the ones he would invite. As for Jiang Que, having been out of touch with human society for thirteen years, he only knew a handful of people.

Looking at the sparsely populated list on the form, Jiang Que pondered, “There are so few people.”

Shen Tazhi asked, “Do you want it to be a bit livelier? If you do, I can…”

“No,” Jiang Que continued to ponder, “I was just thinking, why don’t we forget about it? Let’s secretly get married without a banquet, so we won’t have to deal with the fuss. And it’s perfect if Du Lulu doesn’t show up.”

He was still holding a grudge against Du Lulu for the incident last time.

Shen Tazhi couldn’t help but laugh and cry, “Du Lulu will cry. Stop picking on her all the time.”

Jiang Que pouted and fell onto him, “I was just joking—how should we handle their gifts?”

Although the guest list was small, they were all close to them. Especially the few individuals at the Anomaly Investigation Department who had been alive for who knows how many years, it wasn’t easy to find gifts that would amaze them.

Shen Tazhi also realized this. He frowned, “I haven’t thought about it yet. What do you think they would like?”

Jiang Que said, “Director Wu likes the Anomaly Investigation Department, Du Lulu likes those from Xi Jing’s team, and He Yun likes the Qishan Taoists.”

He sighed, “It’s hard to pick gifts. I have no idea what to give them. I can’t exactly gift Director Wu a few of my eggs and tell him to research them, can I?”

Shen Tazhi chuckled, “Why do you always want to sell yourself to the Anomaly Investigation Department?”

“I’m not selling myself, I’m just engaging in a normal trade,” Jiang Que corrected him.

Although he had indeed sold himself before, those were his now deceased tentacles. Now, he had new, beautiful tentacles.

Healthy, beautiful, a total of eighteen tentacles!

Shen Tazhi didn’t argue with him but said, “Since we can’t think of anything right now, let’s prepare other things and think about it. Which of the two locations from last night do you prefer, the glass house on the seaside or the Western-style chapel? It took endless deliberation for them to arrive at this decision.

Jiang Que was still undecided, “I’m not sure. The glass house is nice, but it might be a bit sunny at this time, and the soundproofing isn’t great. It’s all transparent around, and the chapel is okay, but it feels a bit cold in layout.”

“And there’s also the issue of food. I don’t think we can set up tables in the chapel. If we want to eat, it has to be set up outside. Both places lack privacy… Thinking about it, it might be better to reconsider the hotels and banquet halls that were originally rejected. Should we go through the selection process again?”

He looked up to see Shen Tazhi smiling without saying anything.

“What are you laughing at?” Jiang Que was puzzled.

“Nothing,” Shen Tazhi replied, looking down and bringing up the previously rejected venues. He couldn’t suppress the smile on his lips, “I was just thinking, from the small kid back then, you’ve grown into a thoughtful adult now. It’s quite moving.”

“What do you mean, ‘small kid’ back then?” Jiang Que was annoyed. “I was already 18 back then! I was an adult!!”

“Sure, sure,” Shen Tazhi insincerely appeased him, “A little adult.”

“…I really dislike you,” Jiang Que said he disliked him, but he used his tentacles to pull Shen Tazhi into a hug and then turned to look at the venue options on Shen Tazhi’s screen.

Shen Tazhi’s body was warm, sunlight streaming in through the window, making Jiang Que feel comfortable.

Yawning in Shen Tazhi’s embrace, Jiang Que lazily stretched his tentacles.

It was cozy, reassuring, making it hard to believe that the apocalypse had almost come to this world.

Feeling Shen Tazhi’s steady heartbeat, Jiang Que suddenly asked, “Shen Tazhi, what was the apocalypse like in the previous world? Was it very scary?”

“Well… it wasn’t exactly scary, just not very suitable for human survival,” Shen Tazhi thought for a moment, then described to Jiang Que, “It started with earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, things you’ve probably seen before. Most buildings collapsed, and then it started cooling down and snowing.”

“The temperature dropped more than twenty degrees overnight, and the whole world was covered in white snow and ice. Many people froze to death, some fell ill with fever and passed away. I don’t know what happened after that because by the time I emerged from the abyss, it was still snowing outside,” Shen Tazhi recounted, reminiscing about the past events. He lowered his gaze and continued, “I wanted to take you out to see the snow back then, because you always said you’d only seen rain, not snow, and you’d never touched it.”

Jiang Que fell silent. He knew Shen Tazhi was feeling sad, so he moved closer to him, saying, “It’s okay. Winter is coming soon, and we can go see the snow… Oh, and a volcano. I want to see a volcanic eruption.”

Shen Tazhi smiled, “It rarely snows here. If you want to see snow, we can go back to the capital¹btw I’m heading to Beijing in December 2025 to spend Christmas with my cousin. He scored the highest in the country and was offered admission to Beida or maybe head further north?”

“Either is fine,” Jiang Que didn’t mind where they went, as long as he was with Shen Tazhi.

Leaning against Shen Tazhi, Jiang Que raised his hand to look at the ring on his ring finger— the one Shen Tazhi had given him. At Jiang Que’s request, the ring featured intertwined branches with a brilliant diamond in the middle, a classic design of a linked branch diamond ring that sparkled in the sunlight.

“If I had known it was a pair of diamond rings, I would have given you a sparrow-shaped one. Can I send it again?” Jiang Que muttered quietly.

He still couldn’t forget how Du Lulu had tricked him.

Shen Tazhi couldn’t imagine what a sparrow-shaped diamond ring would look like. He comforted Jiang Que with a smile, “It’s okay. The current one suits you well, and in the future, you can give other gifts like brooches, necklaces with sparrow designs, and choose various colored gemstones.”

Jiang Que, for the first time, learned about the variety of accessories humans had. He took out his phone to search for gemstone brooches. While typing in the search box, Jiang Que suddenly had a flashback to a few months ago when he didn’t even know how to use Pinyin.

A few months ago, he probably wouldn’t have imagined that he would experience so many extraordinary events in such a short time and end up being together with Shen Tazhi like this.

It felt like a fairytale, starting with dark misery, followed by twists and turns, and now the main characters were happily living together.

Jiang Que paused and suddenly asked, “Shen Tazhi, how long do you think we can be together?”

Shen Tazhi didn’t think he was speaking nonsense. He took Jiang Que’s question seriously, thought for a moment, and replied, “We should be able to be together until the end of the world arrives?”

Jiang Que frowned, “You only want to be with me for a hundred years? Shen Tazhi, you’re outrageous.”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Shen Tazhi smoothed out his furrowed brow and explained, “I’m not talking about the end of the world you’re thinking of. I mean the ultimate destruction of the world.”

“I mean, apart from the world vanishing, we won’t have the possibility of being apart.”

Jiang Que’s face gradually reddened, and after a while, he said slowly, “So that means we won’t be apart. I won’t let this world just die like that.”

Shen Tazhi chuckled, “Then, Jiang Que, you’ll have to work hard.”

Jiang Que put down his phone, blushing, and said earnestly, “Yes, I will work hard. Although I still don’t understand humans and I’m not that fond… But Shen Tazhi, you are human, and I love you.”

“I want to live with you in this world forever.”

He still wanted to go see the winter snow with Shen Tazhi, listen to the spring rain, explore the northern regions, or even further places he had never been to.

This was a promise made by Shen Tazhi to the little creature when he crouched down in the abyss, promising to take him out.

Shen Tazhi smiled and said, “Okay.”

To love each other until the end of the world, enduring for eternity.

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  btw I’m heading to Beijing in December 2025 to spend Christmas with my cousin. He scored the highest in the country and was offered admission to Beida