Jiang Que thought about it and extended a tentacle in front of himself, harshly pinching it before Shen Tazhi could stop him.
It hurts.
It was real, not in a dream.
“What are you doing?” Shen Tazhi grabbed his hand, preventing him from attempting to pinch himself again.
“It’s not a dream…” Jiang Que whispered softly.
Shen Tazhi paused, and Jiang Que quickly pursued, “So, do you mean you like me? Why?”
Speaking to himself in a low voice, Jiang Que mumbled, “This time I haven’t been very good to you. I’ve bullied you and made you cry for a long time. Why would you like me?”
“Gege, what do you like about me?”
Looking directly at Shen Tazhi, Jiang Que met his black eyes. Shen Tazhi subconsciously responded:
“… Your face?”
It was truly his instinctive answer. Shen Tazhi couldn’t really distinguish what he liked about Jiang Que. It was just that Jiang Que’s face looked especially beautiful when he lowered his head to look at him, and without thinking, he blurted it out.
Jiang Que raised his hand to touch his own face and hesitantly voiced, “My face…?”
Realizing his slip of the tongue, Shen Tazhi added, “Not just your face, there are other things, your personality… um, it’s just…”
He couldn’t continue. It was when he remembered the memories from his past life during last night’s dream. Amidst the chaos, he was already confused just by receiving the memories, let alone untangling the complex, subtle emotions.
This was something difficult to explain. Perhaps it started from when Jiang Que saved him, or maybe it was when Jiang Que handed him malice expressionlessly, or when he calmly asked about the appearance of the food outside.
It began with fear, then turned into heartache, crisis, and ambiguity intertwining. Shen Tazhi couldn’t distinguish what this all meant.
The only thing he could be certain of was this:
At the moment when he jumped off the cliff, it wasn’t out of fear of Jiang Que, but simply because he didn’t want Jiang Que, who had just emerged from the abyss, to leap before him in an attempt to turn back time.
Jiang Que, feeling disheartened, remained silent. But before the tentacles could approach him again, Shen Tazhi timely asked:
“What about you, Que Que? Why are you so persistent with me? Or rather, what do you like about me?”
“I don’t like you at all.”
Jiang Que, feeling like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, swiftly moved his tentacles far away from Shen Tazhi.
Jiang Que sat up, furrowing his brow and distancing himself from Shen Tazhi. “I don’t like you, I came to you only because… because you wronged me in the previous life. If you weren’t still pregnant with my eggs, I would have killed you directly.”
If Shen Tazhi didn’t like him, why should he like Shen Tazhi?
With this thought in mind, Jiang Que maliciously added, “But I do like your body very much.”
The black-haired youth’s eyes curved, smiling innocently. “Gege kept crying and saying to stop, but in reality, he was still following my actions.”
Leaning closer, he said, “I’m very satisfied.”
Shen Tazhi’s ears turned red. He hadn’t expected Jiang Que to suddenly bring up last night’s events, nor had he anticipated the hostile attitude of the reborn Jiang Que.
His heart uncontrollably skipped a few beats, a mixture of muscle memory fear and more so because of Jiang Que’s words and his sudden proximity.
Unable to control his gaze, Shen Tazhi moved his eyes away, while Jiang Que didn’t care about his avoidance.
He had no interest in why Shen Tazhi suddenly changed his attitude. Just like when he couldn’t explain why he said “like” earlier, he wanted to make Shen Tazhi relax his guard.
As for whether Shen Tazhi relaxed his guard to kill him or to escape, it didn’t matter. Because he wouldn’t give Shen Tazhi that chance.
Jiang Que’s tentacles wrapped around Shen Tazhi again, continuing to unbutton what he hadn’t finished unbuttoning earlier.
Softly, Jiang Que said, “Since gege can still get out of bed, can we continue for a few more days?”
Deliberately moving closer to Shen Tazhi, who had averted his gaze, Jiang Que almost pressed his beautiful face against Shen Tazhi’s.
“Gege, give me another kiss, and maybe I’ll consider staying a few more days?”
Shen Tazhi looked at him in disbelief, and Jiang Que sneered in his gaze:
“Do you think a few soft words will work on me? Shen Tazhi—Gege, you must be with me for the rest of your life.”
“But you said you don’t like me?” Shen Tazhi asked, incredulously.
Jiang Que paused, “I want you to help me incubate eggs, not because I like you.”
He felt somewhat justified in his reasoning, offering the reproductive tentacle to Shen Tazhi.
Excited, the soft spines on the tentacle stood up, looking quite terrifying. Jiang Que shook the tentacle and said, “When this tentacle reaches maturity, it will produce many eggs. I need a host… to help me incubate, to help me hatch.”
“You’re just a nest for incubating eggs, how could I like you? You’re delusional.”
Shen Tazhi remained silent for an unusually long time this time.
Just as Jiang Que was pondering if he had gone too far and scared Shen Tazhi, Shen Tazhi spoke again.
He asked, “So, when you said I’m currently pregnant with eggs, is that true too?”
“Of course,” Jiang Que replied without batting an eye.
The next moment, he saw Shen Tazhi couldn’t help but smile.
In the situation where he was enveloped by Jiang Que’s tentacles, potentially being dragged away for another two days and nights, Shen Tazhi was actually smiling, even seeming quite happy.
Jiang Que looked at him in bewilderment.
What’s going on? Could he have been scared silly?
“Que Que…” Shen Tazhi sighed helplessly. “I distinctly remember that I only consumed your eggs, how did I end up pregnant now?”
“You’re… wait a minute.”
Jiang Que, halfway through, widened his eyes in disbelief. “You remembered things from the previous life?”
Shen Tazhi looked at him with a smile, “If you’re talking about those times when you insisted on hearing the story of Ye Bingli before going to sleep, then yes, I did remember.”
Ye Bingli was a story told by Shen Tazhi in the previous life. Being able to mention that name proved that the current Shen Tazhi wasn’t making things up.
Jiang Que’s mind went blank, feeling a bit lost for a moment. “When did you remember?”
“Last night?” Shen Tazhi said uncertainly. “I had a very long dream, and I remembered it as soon as I woke up.”
He was about to comfort Jiang Que, who seemed a bit lost, and asked if he was surprised.
But the next second, the tentacles wrapped around his neck.
The playful expression on Jiang Que’s face vanished, replaced by a cold expression. He looked down at Shen Tazhi, the tentacles tightening slowly.
“Shen Tazhi.”
Those three words were almost squeezed out by Jiang Que’s throat.
He felt like he should be angry, or at least show some dominance, but his eyes were embarrassingly turning red.
Jiang Que’s trembling hand gripped Shen Tazhi’s collar, venting his frustration by tearing off several buttons.
“Why did you jump off? Weren’t you supposed to take me out?” Jiang Que wanted to ask calmly, but he couldn’t control himself. His tone rose as he spoke, and he had to pause and take a deep breath.
His nose started to feel sore, and his vision blurred.
‘How embarrassing, I don’t have a bit of the villain’s aura.’ Jiang Que thought to himself as he fiercely wiped away his tears, looking at Shen Tazhi and continued, “If… if you don’t like me, just say so. Why did you lie to me at the beginning, making me think you really wanted to take me away?”
Jiang Que couldn’t continue because the tears he had just wiped away started falling again.
How annoying, could he please stop crying? He didn’t want to cry now, he just wanted to confront Shen Tazhi fiercely.
Jiang Que bit his lower lip, tightening the grip of his tentacles.
In the blur, he saw Shen Tazhi struggling to breathe, and couldn’t help but reach out to touch Shen Tazhi’s left chest.
His heart was pounding.
He grabbed the fabric over Shen Tazhi’s heart, as if releasing pent-up frustration.
“If you really want to die, just tell me, I’ll kill you with my own hands.”
Jiang Que sniffled, then couldn’t help but laugh, appearing like a malfunctioning machine with a broken component, crying and laughing at the same time:
“I hate you so much, Shen Tazhi.”
The heartbeat gradually weakened, and Shen Tazhi’s struggling diminished significantly.
Jiang Que slowly retracted his tentacles, then raised his hand to wipe away his tears.
If Shen Tazhi dared to say the first word to kill him, Jiang Que had no doubt that he would immediately end Shen Tazhi’s life on the spot.
Shen Tazhi was completely taken aback by Jiang Que’s immediate aggression upon learning of his memory recovery. He coughed several times, holding his neck, until his breathing finally eased, only then did he recall Jiang Que’s words.
He looked up to see Jiang Que staring at him with unwavering black eyes, still quietly shedding tears.
But the tentacles were now erect, seemingly prepared to actually kill him.
Shen Tazhi, who had previously assumed that Jiang Que was afraid that he wouldn’t remember and wouldn’t want him, finally realized that something was amiss.
He tentatively asked, “Where do you think I lied to you?”
He thought he had been quite clear with Jiang Que at that time. The time reversal array required someone to jump down to activate it, and he didn’t want Jiang Que to die, so he chose to do it himself.
But considering Jiang Que’s completely different understanding compared to a normal person, Shen Tazhi felt like he might not have explained it clearly at all.
Jiang Que wiped away his tears once more.
He was still very angry, yet deeply saddened. But when Shen Tazhi asked him a question, Jiang Que slowly began:
“You lied to me. You clearly said you would take me out, but you jumped off when I woke up.”
“The Elder said that according to the divination, it should be me who activates the time reversal array, but you chose to break it. Are you trying to disrupt the natural course and fate?”
As Jiang Que spoke, he felt increasingly upset. The more he spoke, the more he felt like he should just restrain Shen Tazhi, preventing him from speaking further.
If he hadn’t insisted on coming, would the memoryless Shen Tazhi have continued living his glamorous life as if the past life had never existed?
Jiang Que didn’t know, but the mere thought of this possibility made his heart ache as if it was about to be pierced.
Tentacles always acted in accordance with his emotions. Seeing that his tentacles were about to cover Shen Tazhi’s mouth, Shen Tazhi hurriedly said, “Wait, let me finish.”
The movement of the tentacles didn’t pause at all. Shen Tazhi knew that if Jiang Que blocked his mouth now, he would just repeat the events of the past few days.
Feeling a bit anxious, he took advantage of his hand not being locked by the tentacles yet, and directly reached out to pull Jiang Que, who was kneeling on the bed, down into his arms.
As the warm body entered his embrace, Shen Tazhi felt Jiang Que’s hesitation and conflict over whether to leave, so he simply lifted Jiang Que’s chin and leaned down to kiss him.
It was a gentle kiss, each touch deliberate. Shen Tazhi continued to comfort him by patting his back.
Jiang Que was once again left dumbfounded by the kiss. Shen Tazhi proceeded to part his lips again, guiding the clueless individual in kissing him.
The kiss lasted long enough until he felt the tentacles on his body slowly relax. After Jiang Que’s emotions also calmed down, Shen Tazhi tentatively released him.
“Can you listen to me now?” he asked.
Rather than saying his emotions had calmed down, it was more like he was directly kissed into a daze. Jiang Que nodded dazedly.
He heard Shen Tazhi say, “I didn’t lie to you. I didn’t anticipate that my actions might cause issues in altering the original trajectory… I just didn’t want you to die, Que Que.”
“I didn’t come to you right away earlier because I hadn’t regained my memories. If I had remembered, I would have come to you immediately. I didn’t lie to you, I really wanted to take you out.”
It was an unexpected answer for Jiang Que, and he instinctively felt that Shen Tazhi was still lying to him.
But as he lifted his head, Jiang Que met Shen Tazhi’s eyes. Those light-colored eyes held only openness. He could always see through these simple emotions at a glance.
Shen Tazhi wasn’t lying.
This conclusion left Jiang Que even more bewildered because this was the only possibility he had overlooked among the scenarios he had imagined.
In this situation, what should he do?
Jiang Que didn’t know what to do; he just stared at Shen Tazhi.
Shen Tazhi reached out, his thumb wiping away the tears at the corner of Jiang Que’s eyes, sounding somewhat helpless as he asked, “So why are you so convinced that I’m lying to you?”
He didn’t think he looked like a scoundrel either.
Jiang Que repeated softly, “Because I’ve been mean to you.”
He felt like crying again, “Because I’ve threatened you, almost killed you, bullied you… Shen Tazhi, I… I won’t bully you anymore. You can’t hate me.”
In the previous life, it was due to caution, but this time it was due to being reckless. He thought Shen Tazhi would hate him fiercely… If he had known, he wouldn’t have bullied Shen Tazhi.
Holding onto Shen Tazhi’s neck, Jiang Que’s tears had already soaked Shen Tazhi’s clothes. He felt utterly embarrassed, but couldn’t control himself, continuing to shed tears.
Shen Tazhi embraced him, struggling to pull out a few tissues from the bedside table to wipe his tears, gently saying, “I know, but you also saved me, right?”
“Except for the beginning, you never hurt me. Que Que, you’ve always been good, quietly listening to my stories, imitating how I sleep… even though there’s no bed, just clothes for you to lie on.”
Remembering the past, Shen Tazhi felt a mix of bitterness and amusement. He leaned down to kiss Jiang Que’s eyes, “Poor thing.”
“I’m not pitiful,” Jiang Que struggled to say amidst his choked voice. “I’m very strong, I’m not pitiful at all.”
“Alright, you’re not pitiful,” Shen Tazhi followed his words, “Que Que is a good boy. I don’t dislike you, nor do I hate you.”
Uncertain, Jiang Que asked, “Really?”
“Really,” Shen Tazhi assured him, “Aren’t you the best at reading human emotions? You should be able to tell that I’m not lying.”
He continued, sighing lightly, “Speaking of which, didn’t I also lie to you at the beginning? I wanted to use you, but you saw through it. Even in this situation, you saved me. We’re even.”
Jiang Que remained silent, focusing on Shen Tazhi. Only after confirming multiple times that the emotions in Shen Tazhi’s eyes seemed genuine did he softly respond.
Having said all that needed to be said, the two fell into a moment of silence.
After a while, Jiang Que slowly said, “I’m sorry…”
Shen Tazhi was puzzled, “Sorry for what?”
Jiang Que touched Shen Tazhi’s neck, sensing a slight flinch from him, and felt like crying again.
“I’m sorry,” Jiang Que buried his head against Shen Tazhi, “I hurt you again… last night as well, I keep hurting you. I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Shen Tazhi hugged Jiang Que. “You didn’t really hurt me.”
He meant it. Even though Jiang Que appeared intimidating, he never actually used force, even during… he always made sure Shen Tazhi was prepared for the next step.
If there was anything excessive… it was probably too much for them to do it two days in a row. Shen Tazhi wasn’t killed by Jiang Que, but he came close to being exhausted by him.
Shen Tazhi ruffled Jiang Que’s head. “Just don’t drag me into your antics next time, Que Que. I’m almost thirty, I might break if you keep messing around like this.”
“You won’t,” Jiang Que raised his head suddenly. “You’ve consumed my eggs, you won’t break.”
Shen Tazhi: …
He meant it metaphorically.
He asked, “What effect does consuming your eggs have?”
Jiang Que furrowed his brow. “I don’t know, it’s just a gut feeling. You seem different from normal humans.”
Having spent so long in the abyss, mostly observing human death repeatedly, his few memories were from living with the Qishan Taoistsi before the age of five. His instincts guided his understanding of these things.
Shen Tazhi, who regained his memories from the past life, also knew this, so he didn’t press further, thinking he might investigate further with the Anomaly Investigation Department later.
Thinking of the Anomaly Investigation Department, Shen Tazhi asked, “Have you informed them about the apocalypse?”
Jiang Que nodded. “Yes, I told them everything before coming to you.”
Jiang Que couldn’t help but ask again, “Are you really not angry?”
Tears still lingered in his eyes, and he held Shen Tazhi’s hand tightly. “If you’re angry, you can retaliate. I won’t resist.”
Jiang Que’s vocabulary was limited, expressing himself in short sentences.
…Such a good boy.
Unable to resist, Shen Tazhi ruffled Jiang Que’s head once more.
Thinking Shen Tazhi was going to hit him, Jiang Que closed his eyes when the hand came down, but instead of a slap, he felt a warm touch on his head.
Jiang Que opened his eyes slightly and saw Shen Tazhi smiling. “I’m really not angry, Que Que. Why do you feel like you don’t deserve to be loved?”
Jiang Que hesitated.
He wanted to say it was because he hurt Shen Tazhi, but he had already mentioned that. After a moment of deep thought, he awkwardly said, “Because many people are like that, and I’m different from you. I have nothing, but you have a lot of money.”
Shen Tazhi raised an eyebrow, “So, in your eyes, am I considered similar to other people?”
“No,” Jiang Que shook his head repeatedly. “You’re not, you’re different from other humans.”
“You’re kind to me, you even tell me stories…” Jiang Que earnestly listed all the things Shen Tazhi had done for him, finally concluding, “You’re different from others.”
Listening to this, Shen Tazhi finally began to understand.
Jiang Que had never received such kindness before. He had always observed humans full of malice from a distance, so when he encountered these emotions for the first time, he showed skepticism rather than joy.
He felt like kissing Jiang Que, so he did.
Midway through Jiang Que’s words, Shen Tazhi kissed him again, leaving Jiang Que even more bewildered, looking at him dazedly.
Shen Tazhi hugged him, smiling, “Got it, Gege’s here to love you.”
Jiang Que didn’t grasp the meaning of Shen Tazhi’s words and after a few seconds, he made a puzzled sound, “Ah.”
He blinked in confusion, “Love… me?”
“Yeah,” Shen Tazhi replied.
Pretending to be puzzled, Shen Tazhi asked, “So you didn’t come to see me to talk about love? It can’t be just to find out if I lied to you in the previous life, right?”
“No…” Jiang Que, still out of sorts, answered.
“Then why did you lie about me being pregnant with your eggs and lead me to bed? It wasn’t for revenge, was it?” Shen Tazhi teased.
Jiang Que hesitated for a moment, feeling like it was a form of revenge, and reluctantly nodded.
Shen Tazhi chuckled, “Alright, now that it’s clear, you don’t need to seek revenge on me anymore. We don’t have to do that again.”
“No,” Jiang Que hurriedly sat up. “It’s not just about revenge, there’s also… there’s also…”
He faltered, pursing his lips, holding Shen Tazhi’s hand in silence. A mix of confusion emerged on his usually brooding and beautiful face. Ever since Shen Tazhi’s unreasonable first kiss, Jiang Que had completely lost his previous assertiveness, relying solely on his still strikingly beautiful yet aggressive face.
Shen Tazhi propped himself up, his pajamas slipping down, revealing the mottled marks on his body to Jiang Que.
Speechless, Jiang Que couldn’t find the words, especially as the mature elder mischievously began unbuttoning his shirt.
Fetching a box of condoms from the nightstand, Shen Tazhi tossed it to Jiang Que. “Alright, now answer the previous question again. Do you like me?”
Translator’s Notes:
Say yes so you can sleep with your wife!!
