Chapter 21: Jellyfish Whining

Is there any causal relationship between this “because” and the preceding text?

The system was speechless for a moment before choosing to ask back: [Why must you mate with him? Don’t you have a way to increase your Lifespan points now?]

[Because…] Wen Chu got stuck.

Right, why did he have to mate with Xiu?

The system’s question was too sharp and direct, plunging Wen Chu into deep thought.

Why mate with Xiu?

Perhaps because “mating” (crossing tails) also has the word “tail” in it. Wen Chu immediately thought of Xiu’s long, powerful blue tail, and the soft, warm pink lining beneath the cold scales.

Then came the monstrous waves on the sea, and the golden-haired god bowing his head beneath the surge.

The feeling of having his tentacles eaten by Xiu was strange.

But even stranger was that glance under the huge waves.

It was clearly the same eye contact as usual, but the moment the rainstorm fell, his heart seemed to turn into a tangled mess.

“Because…” Wen Chu whispered, “I want to kiss him.”

It was the same feeling as when he saw Xiu’s swollen lips.

It had nothing to do with anything else; he just wanted to be close to Xiu.

Mating was also a way to be close.

The system didn’t understand: [Want to kiss him? Does this have anything to do with mating?]

Wen Chu lay prone on the already spread seaweed, watching Xiu organize the bedding, and said slowly: [It’s just, the same logic as wanting to kiss him. I want to mate with him; wanting it means wanting it.]

Wanting to sleep with Xiu before followed the same logic.

System: […]

System: [Do you remember your mission?]

Wen Chu: [I remember. I need to save up enough Lifespan points. But right now, aside from kissing, other methods make Xiu angry; his ears turn red.]

Occasionally, kissing made his ears red too.

“It’s spread out. Come on up.”

Xiu finished organizing the seaweed bed over there. Looking up, he saw the jellyfish spacing out again for some reason and called out to him.

Wen Chu crawled over with pa-ji pa-ji sounds.

Xiu was amused by his crawling method, reached out to pick him up, and placed him on the seaweed.

“Sleep well by yourself. Call me if you need anything at night. I’m right beside you. Don’t run around, understand?”

“Understood,” Wen Chu agreed.

He flattened into a jellyfish pancake on the thick seaweed, watching Xiu’s retreating back, and said seriously to the system: [But you said I have four chances, and succeeding three times is enough.]

[If I don’t cling to Xiu, and it makes Xiu happier so he agrees to be lovers with me, I can give up this chance.]

Wen Chu’s logic was consistent.

He liked Xiu very much. He didn’t want to trouble Xiu; he wanted Xiu to be happy.

The system was silent for a long time before asking: [Really?]

Wen Chu: [Of cou…]

[But the next three worlds are also Xiu. Are you planning to give up until the end?]

Huh?

Wen Chu’s words were cut off halfway by the system. After clearly hearing what the system said, Wen Chu fell into a daze.

The system continued: [His red ears aren’t from anger.]

After saying this, the system vanished quickly as usual, leaving only the jellyfish dazed in place.

“Future worlds are also Xiu?”

Wen Chu lay on the seaweed, murmuring in disbelief with a breathy voice.

He extended two tentacles to cover his umbrella cap, as if wanting to pat his cheeks to confirm he wasn’t dreaming.

The system hadn’t told him the mission target was the same in every world. He thought he wouldn’t see Xiu after leaving this world.

“Hm? What is it?” Hearing his voice from not far away, Xiu turned back to look at him.

Wen Chu said firmly, “Xiu, I will definitely become lovers with you.”

Even if it didn’t happen in this world, in the next world, and the world after that, he would definitely become lovers with Xiu.

Then kiss every day, mate every day.

Xiu: …Hm?

He completely didn’t understand what this jellyfish was getting fired up about on his own. But Wen Chu being weird wasn’t a new thing. Xiu coaxed helplessly, “Got it. Go to sleep.”

Talking about love with a jellyfish who couldn’t even recognize his scales… Xiu felt like he was bullying a child.

Wen Chu went to sleep happily. It wasn’t until just before drifting off that he remembered he hadn’t asked an important question.

——Will Xiu in the future worlds still have his memories?

Wen Chu hoped not. Next time, he definitely wouldn’t say things like not feeling pain, and he would definitely make Xiu like him a little more.

He wanted to ping the system to ask, but thinking it was too late and the system might be asleep, he let it go.

.
Next day.

The storm on the sea still hadn’t ceased.

Although the deep sea remained silent, swimming up slightly to the surface layers would reveal turbid waters churned by wind and waves.

Xiu, having just returned from the surface, briefly explained the situation, then said to the narwhal, “I’ll take Wen Chu to feed first. The waves are too big. I’ll have to trouble you to look after Wen Chu for a while at noon. I’ll go up alone to confirm directions.”

The narwhal nodded in understanding. “No problem.”

Wen Chu raised a tentacle. “I want to go too. I want to follow you to the surface.”

Xiu flicked him lightly. “The wind is too strong. You’re this tiny; you’ll get blown away immediately.”

Wen Chu looked down at his body size, which was fully half the size of Xiu, and tried to argue again: “I think I’ve grown quite big.”

“I say you’re small, so you’re small. Children shouldn’t interrupt adult matters.” Xiu ignored the facts and vetoed him with one vote.

Wen Chu wu wu.

He really was a big jellyfish. His tentacles were two fingers thick now. Xiu was lying with his eyes open.

But no matter how he argued, he obviously couldn’t win against the determined Xiu. Wen Chu was sadly carried away by Xiu.

Carried away to feed.

The narwhal watched the two leaving and sighed with satisfaction. “Their relationship is still so good. That’s wonderful.”

Being old, she couldn’t stand breakups and makeups. Such a relationship was very friendly to an old whale like her.

On the other side.

Wen Chu had been carried by Xiu to the cold spring where they fed yesterday.

There were quite a few mussels left from yesterday, and Xiu gathered them all up.

He held a pile, and Wen Chu also hugged a clawful with his tentacles. One merfolk and one jellyfish came hurriedly and left hurriedly.

“Not eating here this time?” Wen Chu asked.

Xiu looked at the massive shadow overhead—it was an offshore oil rig. Currently, the four cables anchoring the rig had begun to sway slightly.

“No. This morning I saw the rig’s helipad torn off by waves. It’s prone to accidents here,” Xiu said.

Wen Chu understood and obediently hugged his shells, following Xiu.

Xiu found a relatively flat abyssal plain. The mussels were piled into a small hill on the ground.

Xiu peeled them skillfully for Wen Chu, and Wen Chu ate them one by one. Occasionally, eating too vigorously, he would swallow Xiu’s hand along with the food, leaving Xiu with a hand full of sticky transparent liquid.

The two coordinated tacitly. Before long, Wen Chu’s stomach sac was full.

Wen Chu gathered the shells, looking up at Xiu like an eager puppy. “Finished eating. I’m full.”

Yesterday Xiu said he would kiss him.

If they couldn’t kiss this morning, it would be hard for him to solve his double-speed declining Lifespan points.

Wen Chu started doing math.

He currently had twenty-three days and twelve hours of Lifespan.

How about pushing his Lifespan straight to twenty-five days today? Just enough to grow another size larger. That way, when he touched Xiu’s scales tonight, he wouldn’t have to worry about suddenly growing bigger and being unable to explain it.

Xiu didn’t know about Wen Chu’s little calculations. Facing Wen Chu’s expectant gaze, he only felt his fishtail go stiff.

Yesterday he muddled through because Wen Chu didn’t understand anything, but that didn’t mean he had completely forgotten the incident.

Being seen by the jellyfish, his scales and all…

Just thinking about it made heat surge up, his ears burning hot.

If it happened a second time, he wasn’t sure if he could calmly feed himself to Wen Chu in the future.

Thinking this, Xiu spoke with difficulty, “You come here.”

To accommodate the jellyfish’s delicate body, Xiu specially chose an abyssal plain with fine, soft sediment.

Because of this, the plain was exceptionally empty, without even a single shelter.

Hearing this, the jellyfish swam up. Sticky, transparent tentacles circled the merfolk’s shoulders, lightly covering half of Xiu’s upper body.

“Do you want to lie down?” Wen Chu asked thoughtfully.

Xiu pressed his lips together, curled his tail little by little, then lay down stiffly.

The fine sand of the plain was soft, a completely different texture from rocks.

It was almost like being on a massive bed, doing some… overly shameful things with a jellyfish.

Wen Chu extended a transparent tentacle to Xiu’s lips.

Xiu obediently ate one of his tentacles, then another.

Because the jellyfish was transparent, Wen Chu could see the condition inside Xiu’s mouth clearly.

How his throat contracted and trembled, how he reflexively gagged, squeezing the tentacles, how the tip of his tongue extended while trembling.

Previously, Wen Chu went straight for Xiu’s tongue tip and hadn’t noticed Xiu had such reactions.

The inside of Xiu’s mouth was a reddish pink.

Wen Chu thought, This looks so much like Xiu’s scales.

If he let Xiu eat a bit more of him, it felt like it would become just like Xiu’s scales.

Could it be that Xiu’s scales are also a mouth?

Various guesses flashed by as Wen Chu leaned in to eat Xiu’s tongue tip.

He had truly grown a bit too large. Even though he tried to restrain himself, eating Xiu’s tongue tip inevitably made Xiu eat more tentacles, and the remaining tentacles uncontrollably swept over various parts of Xiu’s body.

Every sweep left a sticky trail, causing shudders in the merfolk.

“Sorry, I seem to have… grown too big,” the jellyfish apologized while eating.

Xiu couldn’t speak, only emitting muffled groans.

The sand under the merfolk’s hands was clawed into long trenches. Since it wasn’t rock and couldn’t be gripped tight, sand slipped through his fingers like flying dust.

Xiu couldn’t even relieve the overly intense kiss by crushing rocks.

He felt his rationality collapsing along with the sand.

Today’s intense kiss went too deep, and yesterday’s gentle kiss had made him overreact. Xiu now couldn’t even distinguish what exactly he wanted.

[Lifespan +12h]

[Lifespan +12h]

[Lifespan +12h]

With the third twelve hours added, Wen Chu’s Lifespan broke past twenty-five days, and he grew another size larger.

This time, he was as big as Xiu’s entire upper body.

The seaweed bandages originally wrapped around his tentacles snapped due to the tentacles thickening, revealing tentacles with shallow bite marks.

For Xiu, all these changes caught him off guard. Just the sudden growth of tentacles in his mouth made the corners of his eyes red.

Feeling like he was being penetrated, out of instinct, Xiu shook his tail wanting to swim away.

With this shake of his tail, the scales he had hidden were all revealed.

Wen Chu noticed this too.

His tentacles grew longer by another section. Looking at the merfolk who panicked and tried to hide the scales on his tail again, purely by instinct, Wen Chu extended a tentacle.

It covered Xiu’s protruding scales.

The tentacle was cold, while Xiu’s scales were hot.

The moment he touched them, Wen Chu felt the merfolk beneath him freeze entirely, then squeeze a groan near a whimper from his throat.

Hearing such a sound made Wen Chu’s extended tentacle tremble, sliding off Xiu’s scales instantly.

By now, a faint layer of mist covered Xiu’s eyes. He hadn’t figured out how things suddenly developed this way.

Before he could retract his tail, the jellyfish’s tentacles wrapped around again like vines, winding several times around his scales, wrapping them firmly.

The jellyfish’s tentacles were fully four fingers wide.

They tightened continuously as they slid.

The system’s shocked voice rang out: [What are you doing?!]

[…Helping Xiu?] Wen Chu said uncertainly.

[For humans, it feels uncomfortable if not soothed here. Merfolk should be the same, right?]

Although he hadn’t mated, he had stumbled upon others mating in the hospital.

It was in the hospital restroom.

The system’s voice stopped abruptly, seeming rendered speechless by his matter-of-fact tone.

Wen Chu stopped hesitating and continued to help Xiu deal with the scales dutifully.

Previously, Xiu had always been eating his tentacles. His tentacles caused the scales to come out; now that his tentacles grew longer, he should return the favor to Xiu.

With him helping so earnestly, the one suffering was the merfolk pinned solidly under the jellyfish.

The jellyfish’s tentacles were sticky, had suction, and even extremely tiny barbs. Covering the most sensitive scales, they almost made Xiu lose his mind instantly.

Creatures in the ocean wouldn’t even dare touch his fingertips.

Yet this jellyfish had the audacity to circle his scales.

Xiu’s gaze went blank for a moment, then as if wanting to escape, he arched his lean waist.

Soft tentacles reached out, hooking his waist, and gently pulled him back.

They even thoughtfully padded several tentacles under his waist as a cushion.

Xiu had lost control over his lips and tongue, leaving him at the mercy of the jellyfish continuously eating him.

Wen Chu spoke softly and very obediently, “Xiu, if I help you touch the scales, will they recover?”

…How could he say such unharmonious words in such an innocent tone?

Xiu couldn’t even voice a rejection.

The merfolk, always sharp-tongued but soft-hearted, was completely silenced, unable to utter harsh words of refusal anymore.

Wen Chu worked hard touching Xiu’s scales. Only when his tentacles felt a bit sore did he feel the scales tremblingly release warmth.

It quickly dissipated into the seawater.

[Lifespan +48h]

[Remaining Lifespan: 31 Days 12 Hours 47 Minutes]

Wen Chu retracted his tentacles, startled when he saw the sharply increased Lifespan points.

Forty-eight hours, plus the few bites of Xiu he ate while touching the scales, made Wen Chu grow another size larger directly.

Now he was fully around 1.7 meters in size. Even for Xiu, lifting him with one hand would probably be strenuous.

Xiu hadn’t reacted yet. Looking as if his worldview had been completely shattered, he stared dazedly at the jellyfish’s tentacles and his own tail.

Wen Chu wiped the stuff on his tentacles off on the sand and approached Xiu. “Xiu…”

Xiu flinched, reflexively retreating a bit further, his tail retracting with a whoosh.

Wen Chu’s voice carried grievance: “Xiu, did I do a bad job? Are your scales still uncomfortable?”

Only then did Xiu slowly come back to his senses.

He looked at Wen Chu, opened his mouth, but didn’t know what to say.

Wen Chu looked like he had no idea what he had done.

…Does he really not know?

Xiu looked at Wen Chu suspiciously.

But the jellyfish had no expression, a big silly lump sticking to him like a puppy, both aggrieved and innocent.

Xiu couldn’t tell.

Wen Chu continued to rub against him. “Xiu, do you like me doing this? My Lifespan increased by a day just now. If you like it, I can help you in the future instead. You don’t have to eat my tentacles anymore.”

“No need,” Xiu rejected quickly.

He reached out, wanting to pull Wen Chu away as usual, but the jellyfish who grew twice in a row was much longer than his arm span. Even if he pushed Wen Chu away, the other could still reach him stickily with tentacles.

Entangling, sticky.

Xiu looked at the transparent tentacles wrapped around his arm and realized belatedly: Wen Chu’s tentacles were transparent.

Which meant, when he ate Wen Chu’s tentacles, and when Wen Chu used tentacles to touch his scales, Wen Chu saw all his reactions.

This realization made Xiu shudder, wanting to get further away from Wen Chu. But the next moment, Wen Chu’s bewildered voice sounded: “Why? Did I make you uncomfortable?”

Extremely ignorant and innocent.

Xiu: …

Regardless of whether Wen Chu was pretending, at least in this moment, a heavy sense of guilt rose in him.

Xiu sighed, giving up the thought of pulling the jellyfish away, and endured the shame to say, “No. It’s just that such behavior is something only lovers can do. You crossed the line a bit.”

Wen Chu’s logic remained peculiar: “Then why, if we’ve done so many things lovers should do, can we still not be counted as lovers?”

Why?

Xiu couldn’t answer.

He couldn’t explain the difference between “love” and “making love” to a jellyfish who didn’t even understand what feelings were. He could only reject palely, “Because you are a jellyfish. Not right now. We’ll talk when we get to the Arctic.”

“Okay.” Wen Chu didn’t insist much.

He hadn’t expected to become lovers with Xiu just by touching his scales; he just asked casually.

But the person being asked was obviously restless.

When Wen Chu pressed, Xiu was nervous. Now that Wen Chu gave up easily, Xiu was bewildered.

The disconnect between intimate entanglement and a pure savior relationship made Xiu unsure of where he and Wen Chu stood.

Xiu composed himself, forcing himself to calm down and trying hard to forget what just happened. He instructed Wen Chu sternly, “Anyway, if you want Lifespan points in the future, you can’t use this method. I can let you kiss, but you can’t touch me, understand?”

“Understood,” Wen Chu agreed obediently.

Then he asked, “If I see your scales protruding, I can’t touch them either?”

“Ab-so-lute-ly not.” Xiu’s ears burned hot as he rejected word by word. “I won’t let you see them in the future.”

Alright, Xiu won’t even let me see the scales.

Wen Chu sighed.

They had delayed for quite a while. Xiu said no more and took Wen Chu back.

Now Wen Chu was a bit too big; carrying him would hinder swimming. So on the return trip, Wen Chu swam beside Xiu.

Wen Chu rarely had the chance to swim with Xiu. Most of the time, Xiu disdained him for being too slow and weak, then carried him. Now he was exceptionally unaccustomed to it.

Wen Chu swam for a while. Seeing Xiu looking spaced out and ignoring him, he carefully extended the tentacle Xiu had bitten before.

He poked Xiu’s arm.

Xiu snapped back to reality almost reflexively, looking at his tentacle as if facing a great enemy. “What are you doing?”

“Want to be led by the hand,” Wen Chu said weakly.

“Xiu, you lead me, or I’ll get lost.”

A jellyfish this big saying he’d get lost—it lacked persuasiveness.

But Xiu genuinely felt Wen Chu had a point.

He raised an eyebrow, the corners of his eyes still faintly red, and took the jellyfish’s tentacle, carefully avoiding the bite mark, tacitly accepting Wen Chu’s claim.

“I’ll re-bandage it for you when we get back. Tsk, why hasn’t it healed yet.”

“Don’t get lost again; finding you is even more troublesome.”

Xiu’s mouth remained sharp.

Wen Chu happily held hands with Xiu.

Great. He grew so much bigger. Even if he couldn’t touch Xiu’s protruding scales in the future, it would be convenient for the scales on Xiu’s other side to eat him.

Swimming along, Wen Chu suddenly remembered an extremely important thing.

He pinged the system: [System, are you still there?]

The system played dead.

Wen Chu: […If you’re not there, I’ll assume I can touch Xiu’s scales in the future.]

System: [You cannot. He will die of O-exhaustion.]

Wen Chu’s voice was cheerful: [So you are there.]

The system continued to play dead.

But Wen Chu knew he was there, so it didn’t stop him from asking further.

[Xiu has mating scales. I became a jellyfish, so where is my mating hole/part?]

Wen Chu asked in confusion.

[Do I have no gender after becoming a jellyfish?]

If his mating part was still there, even if Xiu didn’t let him touch, he could rub against Xiu.

The data the system gave him before clearly stated that Turritopsis dohrnii (Immortal Jellyfish) are distinguished by male and female.

He should still be male, right?

__

Author’s Note:
Where is the mating tool? So hard to guess [Milk Tea]

TL Note:
Jellyfish typically reproduce by releasing sperm and eggs into the water (broadcast spawning), or, in some species, the male releases sperm which the female gathers to fertilize eggs inside her. They do not have “mating organs” in the same way mammals or the fictional merfolk do.