Editor: Xinghe
Translator: YuQiChen/Churen
Such strange Questions.
Thump, thump.
The uncontrollable throbbing sensation in his left chest seemed to have started again, similar to the inexplicable sourness from yesterday.
How did it turn out like this again?
Jiang Que reached out in confusion to touch his chest, only to find that it was still silent. That was correct, as he was a monster without a heartbeat.
But what was this inexplicable intense vibration surging in his heart? Was it just an illusion?
[Que Que, are you okay?]
[Are you sick? It seems like this is how humans get sick.]
The usually quiet Little Tentacles finally couldn’t resist and quietly inquired. Shen Tazhi next to him also keenly noticed Jiang Que’s abnormal expression, nervously asking:
“What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
As he spoke, he approached Jiang Que: “I don’t know if you can eat some foods. Is it indigestion…?”
His approaching movement was stopped by Jiang Que using his tentacles.
“I’m not feeling unwell.”
Ignoring the strange emotions in his heart, Jiang Que moved back a bit, keeping himself and Shen Tazhi at a safe distance before continuing their conversation.
“I’ve been here since I was a child. A group of humans brought me in. I don’t feel cold here, nor was I hungry before, because the magic circle here solidifies the malice of you humans, which becomes my food. That’s what I showed you yesterday.”
He was referring to the incident where he used his tentacles to display the black, viscous malice to Shen Tazhi yesterday.
At his words, Shen Tazhi looked towards the lump of black, unknown substance that had been thrown in a corner yesterday. Due to Jiang Que’s long fasting, there were quite a few similar things nearby. But when he had just come in yesterday, he hadn’t fully adapted to the dark environment yet and was busy taking care of Jiang Que, so he hadn’t noticed.
Almost as if on cue, just after Jiang Que finished speaking, a faint light emitted from the underground magic circle, followed by a slowly emerging black object from the center of the circle.
Jiang Que pointed at the slowly emerging viscous malice and said, “That’s it. I’m done talking. It’s your turn now.”
He hadn’t forgotten that he initially wanted to hear Shen Tazhi talk about the outside world, which was why he answered the Questions in the first place.
Shen Tazhi smiled helplessly, “But Que Que, you didn’t really say much, so why is it my turn now? You should be more detailed.”
“How detailed?” Jiang Que frowned.
He felt that everything that happened in his life was all very natural, just like how no one would deliberately explain something as common sense as one plus one equals two. He didn’t see the need to explain many things and therefore didn’t think there was anything wrong with what he said.
Shen Tazhi gave an example, “For instance, why do you need to eat malice? Why do those people want you to do that?”
“Because there are too many negative emotions in humans. This world can’t bear an excess of negative emotions. When the compressed malice becomes too dense, the balance of yin and yang is disrupted, and various disasters occur, so it needs to be dealt with.”
Recalling what the humans who brought him in a long time ago said, Jiang Que naturally replied, “Those people want me to handle malice because I’m a monster that feeds on human emotions.”
Shen Tazhi fell silent for a moment, then said, “You’re not a monster.”
Jiang Que raised his small tentacles in confusion, confirming their existence and then extended them towards Shen Tazhi, saying, “I am. Haven’t you seen them already? My tentacles.”
He had threatened the other party with his tentacles yesterday, so he couldn’t have forgotten so quickly, right?
Shen Tazhi sighed and tentatively touched the tentacles Jiang Que was offering to him. The smooth, cold, non-human touch felt as if Shen Tazhi didn’t feel anything, as he calmly said, “But besides the tentacles, you look exactly like a human, don’t you?”
“And you can eat more than just human emotions, can’t you? Didn’t you eat the food I brought? There’s really not much difference between you and humans.”
Jiang Que was taken aback, realizing belatedly that he hadn’t felt hungry at all yesterday.
It seemed that from the moment he ate the first piece of chocolate, the burning hunger in his stomach disappeared. Although the severed limbs hidden in his tentacles still hurt, at least he wasn’t hungry anymore.
“…Can I eat human food?”
Jiang Que muttered uncertainly, and even his small tentacles began to whisper to each other.
[Can we eat human food?]
[The humans who brought Que Que in before were liars!]
[Can we go to the human world to eat?]
[And novels, human novels!]
Jiang Que lowered his head and took a bite of the toast that had been sitting in his hand for a long time without moving. The sweet jam and white bread entered his mouth, and his taste buds, long tormented by the unpleasant resentment, let out a satisfied sigh.
He could eat human food; he wasn’t just a monster that fed on malice.
Then what was he?
“But cats and dogs can also eat human food.” Jiang Que whispered softly, “No matter what, I can’t possibly be human.”
“Are you saying you’re a cat?” Shen Tazhi asked.
“I’m not!”
Jiang Que glared at Shen Tazhi, only to find him smiling.
Shen Tazhi was not bad-looking at all, even ranking among the top few humans he had seen. His features were somewhat stern, giving off a menacing vibe when expressionless.
But now he was smiling, his face exuding a gentleness that didn’t match his temperament, softening his features and making someone seemingly unapproachable suddenly within reach.
…In short, very good-looking.
This was the first time since Jiang Que and Shen Tazhi met that Jiang Que looked at him without a guard up. He had to admit that Shen Tazhi’s appearance was indeed very pleasing to the eye.
Just as Jiang Que was lost in his thoughts, Shen Tazhi suddenly picked up on the previous topic, “It’s actually quite difficult to describe the outside world. If you were a normal human, you should’ve been in your third year of high school now, enjoying campus life, right?”
“That sounds like a terrifying life.”
Jiang Que recalled the numb students he saw in malice and the parents who yelled at their children, expressionless.
“Perhaps?” Shen Tazhi smiled, not arguing with him, but continuing, “But you can meet many peers at school, take lazy naps in the afternoon sun during class, actually…”
“Not everyone can have friends at school; those who don’t fit in will be bullied, and those who sleep in class will be made to stand.”
“Even after graduation, it’s just going to college, finding a job, getting married, and then entering the next cycle.”
Jiang Que looked at Shen Tazhi with his deep black eyes, exuding a high and aloof indifference that had long observed human malice from a third-person perspective.
He didn’t even realize his own indifference, simply making an objective evaluation in the end:
“Humans are boring, and the human world is also boring.”
Just a few days without consuming resentment, and he had already forgotten that he had observed humans for over ten years. Just now, he even entertained the thought of following Shen Tazhi, which was truly frightening.
[QAQ So, when Jiang Que puts it that way, the outside world seems much more terrifying]
[It’s best to stay here, with the tentacles accompanying Jiang Que, so he won’t be lonely]
[Can’t go with Shen Tazhi, humans are bad, tentacles are good.]
Shen Tazhi fell silent for a moment. Just when Jiang Que thought he had nothing more to say, Shen Tazhi spoke, “What about me?”
“Do you find me boring?”
Of course not, otherwise, he wouldn’t have kept Shen Tazhi around until now, Jiang Que thought to himself.
But of course, he wouldn’t say it out loud. After all, he had just concluded that “humans are boring,” and Shen Tazhi was also a human. He didn’t want to overturn his own statement.
Seeing Jiang Que silent, Shen Tazhi already had an answer in his heart. He didn’t press further and instead said, “How about I tell you about my life, would you like to hear it?”
Jiang Que raised his head at the words, looking at Shen Tazhi with curiosity, puffing his cheeks slightly and said, “I’m listening.”
He really wanted to know how Shen Tazhi lived, as he had never seen a human like him before.
After a moment of contemplation, Shen Tazhi seemed to be considering where to start.
“Before the age of eighteen, I never attended school. I had private tutors come to our house for lessons. The academic pressure wasn’t too great, so I had a lot of time to learn other things. After eighteen, I went to study in the United States…”
This was a typical trajectory for an heir of a wealthy family, something Jiang Que had seen many times before, so he quickly lost interest as Shen Tazhi spoke.
“That’s because you’re rich. Humans without money still live hand-to-mouth, although in your case, it’s more like ‘head-to-sight’.”
Jiang Que had finished his toast by now, sipping honey water as he spoke.
Shen Tazhi’s future essentially involved returning to the country to inherit the family business, continuing to expand the company, and then marrying a suitable daughter of a wealthy family.
Such marriages were often not very happy. Jiang Que had seen numerous families torn apart by arranged marriages, with wives poisoning husbands, husbands abandoning wives, children resenting parents. Occasionally, there were harmonious families, but even they couldn’t escape the clichés of sibling rivalry.
Even with a one in a million chance of harmony between parents and children, it would still just lead to the next cycle of raising children, schooling, inheriting the company, until some event occurred that would shatter the family, ending the cycle.
“Well, I’m not saying I was particularly happy back then. In fact, I found life quite boring at the time.”
Shen Tazhi didn’t argue with Jiang Que’s words, instead responded gently, “At twenty-two, I returned from the United States. My parents passed away due to an ‘accident,’ my uncle took charge, he tried to kill me several times, so I had to leave the capital, lay low for four years, and finally sent him to prison. Unfortunately, he inexplicably met a tragic end in jail.”
“His son was only eighteen at the time, I spared him. Now, my younger brother1in some Chinese families… cousins from paternal line could be referred to as brothers and sisters while cousins from maternal line is considered cousins. At least from what I’ve experienced is relentlessly pursuing me, and when I was inspecting the Western company, he chased me all the way here. That’s when I met you. If I could get out, I would probably use legal means to send my dear brother to prison, right?”
“Such a tumultuous life is quite interesting, isn’t it?”
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