Chapter 25: System Harmed Him

[Lifespan +48h]
[Remaining Lifespan: 32 Days 0 Hours 15 Minutes]

Accompanying Xiu’s suppressed voice, Wen Chu’s Lifespan increased by another forty-eight hours.
The tentacle had also grown to the thickness of over four fingers.

The scale was small to begin with, and eating the original tentacle was already a bit strenuous, let alone the tentacle suddenly doubling in size. Xiu’s words stopped abruptly the moment Wen Chu grew.

Those transparent blue pupils dilated slightly, and a low, hoarse groan like a gasp squeezed out from his throat.

Wen Chu consciously realized he did something bad and withdrew carefully, bringing out a flow of warm fluid.
It gushed from deep within the scale.

Wen Chu withdrew the tentacle that had done wrong to the innermost part of his tentacles with a guilty conscience, whispering: “I can explain…”

At this moment, Xiu’s scale hadn’t had time to close yet. Wen Chu could even see how the scale, looking like it was squeezed broken, was spitting out transparent mucus little by little.

Xiu’s forehead throbbed, half annoyed and half ashamed. He reached out to cover his scale, blocking the jellyfish’s line of sight.
He opened his mouth, about to say something, when he heard the narwhal’s anxious voice coming from behind: “Lord Siren, the submarine mine ahead exploded, and the nearby mountain has started to slide. You and Wen Chu…”

The narwhal stopped here, also seeing clearly the scene before her:
A huge jellyfish, clearly the size of a terrifying monster, shrank all its tentacles into a ball, looking like a cowardly lump ready to be flattened and kneaded.
A merfolk, looking coldly at the jellyfish, appearing extremely keen to make a cold jellyfish salad on the spot.

Had a conflict?

The narwhal braked sharply and stopped quickly.
“Um… the place we are is quite safe. As long as you are safe too. It’s too late; rest quickly.”

The narwhal carefully sized up Xiu’s expression.
Although she didn’t know exactly what happened, based on past situations, it was probably Wen Chu doing something to make Lord Siren unhappy again.

The narwhal weighed her words and advised: “Talk nicely if you have something to say. Don’t get physical. Wen Chu is still young and doesn’t understand many things. Just clear it up.”

“Heh.”
She heard Xiu’s cold sneer.

Followed by an extremely sarcastic rhetorical question: “Where is he small?”
He felt Wen Chu was huge from body size to guts.

The narwhal glanced at the huge jellyfish, silently swallowed “his body size is small,” and said uncertainly: “His age is small…?”
Even according to Wen Chu, he was only eighteen this year.

Xiu fell silent for a moment. Ultimately, he didn’t flare up in front of the narwhal. He picked Wen Chu up and said to the narwhal: “I’ll talk to him alone. You go rest first.”

The narwhal nodded, observed Xiu’s expression uneasily again, and only swam away after confirming he had no intention of hitting the jellyfish.
It wasn’t that she had to be a busybody, but growing up listening to stories of the Siren, the narwhal still had a deifying filter for Xiu, always feeling that angering Lord Siren was an extremely serious matter.
The wrath of a god sounded very scary to a fish.

“Are you angry?”
Meanwhile, the carried-away Wen Chu asked carefully.

“What do you think?” Xiu said grumpily.
His scales had recovered now, and that bit of pink was hidden strictly. Xiu regained his indifferent expression, only the lingering thin redness by his ears indicating the waves in his heart.

Wen Chu answered honestly: “I think you are angry. I can explain.”

Xiu carried Wen Chu around to the back of the slope, away from the narwhal, before putting the jellyfish down.
He also sat down, crossed his arms, and looked at Wen Chu: “Speak.”

Wen Chu lowered his head, sincerely repenting: “I just wanted to earn some Lifespan points. Because letting your scales eat my tentacles gives me twenty-four hours of Lifespan.”

Xiu almost laughed in anger: “Did I starve you? When did I not let you kiss? Do you know what place you are touching?”

“What place?” Wen Chu was curious.

Xiu was at a loss for words for a moment.
He found it somewhat difficult to speak, but having decided to teach Wen Chu physiological knowledge a few days ago and done mental construction, even if he wanted to burrow into the ground and rewind time now, he still mumbled out the words.

“That is my… cloaca.”

Wen Chu was even more puzzled. He got to the bottom of it: “What is a cloaca?”

Stupid jellyfish.

Xiu flicked the tip of his tail in irritation and smashed the pot (gave up holding back): “It’s the place for mating. Do you know what mating is? It’s two fish—”

“Oh, I know this. It’s two fish breeding offspring and laying eggs. But didn’t you say only male and female can lay eggs?” Wen Chu was a bit dizzy. “Are you female?”

“Males also have cloacas, and fish can’t lay eggs.” Xiu picked up the jellyfish,忍无可忍, “You mixed it up.”

After the first sentence blurted out, the rest was much easier to say. Xiu continued:
“Just now you were mating with me. You were secretly mating with me without my consent, understand? This is not allowed. If you want Lifespan points, you can tell me, and I’ll let you kiss, but you can’t come to mate with me in the middle of the night.”

As Xiu spoke, he suddenly remembered the tentacles scattered around his tail several days ago.
He stopped abruptly, squinting at Wen Chu in his hand.
“Since when did you start touching me secretly?”

Wen Chu whispered: “Just… touched once the first day you didn’t let me sleep with you, once the day I got hurt, once today. I didn’t touch any other time.”
“I only touched three times.” Wen Chu attempted to salvage a little.

“How many more times did you want to touch?” Xiu laughed in anger.
With Wen Chu saying this, he also remembered: “So the seaweed bandage you lost before…”

“I accidentally dropped it when I went to touch.” Wen Chu admitted.

Xiu ground his back teeth: “Then the tentacle scattered beside my tail?”

“Ah?” Wen Chu was blank. “Didn’t I only drop one—oh, seems like I ran away too fast back then and the tentacle got pinched off.”

How could someone say such things in an innocent tone.
Xiu felt his ears were about to cook, spitting out two words lightly and quickly:
“Shut up.”

“Oh, okay,” Wen Chu shut up obediently.

Xiu took a deep breath, trying hard to calm himself down, before turning to look at the jellyfish in front of him.
If it were any other fish, he should have torn the other to pieces by now, but in front of him was Wen Chu. Aside from rising annoyance, he couldn’t summon a bit of malice.
Even more than anger, it was shame and annoyance.
Even now, what he thought was to explain clearly to Wen Chu; his deliberate indulgence earlier was the biggest mistake.

Xiu didn’t realize the subtle change in his feelings. He held Wen Chu, looking serious: “Wen Chu, there are some things I want to tell you. It’s been delayed. I wanted to say it tomorrow, but I must make it clear to you now.”

Wen Chu waited quietly for Xiu’s next words.

Xiu said: “When you touched my scales before, you were touching my mating place. Doing these things before establishing a relationship is irresponsible, especially putting your tentacle inside my scales.”
“Tell me if you want Lifespan points in the future. Don’t put it in randomly again, understand?”
Xiu felt every word he spat out was burning.

Wen Chu completely failed to realize Xiu was ashamed, and he himself had no shame.
He completely missed the point, holding his tentacles, looking at Xiu, and repeating in disbelief: “Irresponsible?”

Xiu: “Yes, irresponsible. Because mating and raising offspring are things only lovers can do. Doing it without becoming lovers, or even without the other party’s consent, is…”
Xiu swallowed the later words.
That was a human rule; the charge was a bit too heavy for a jellyfish.
Moreover…
Xiu pressed his lips together. Thinking of his scales that couldn’t even close just now, he felt his face burn.
He was just shocked. If Wen Chu insisted on doing it, Xiu wasn’t sure he could firmly refuse.
Truth be told, this counted as consensual.

Wen Chu had already started to be sad: “I’m irresponsible…”
He asked the system resentfully: [Why didn’t you tell me what this was? Why didn’t you tell me two males can mate too?]
If he knew this was a cloaca, he definitely wouldn’t have touched it randomly.
Instead, he would beg Xiu, and touch a lot after Xiu agreed.
Now it’s great. He became a jellyfish who screwed and didn’t take responsibility.

System: [Is that the point? You should be worried about your Lifespan points. Confess to Xiu now, and he won’t reject you.]

Wen Chu was still sad and didn’t listen at all: [Life is precious, love is more expensive.]

System: […]
System: [Who did you learn this messy stuff from?]

Wen Chu: [Oh, this. It was a quote in the data you gave me about fish fighting for mates.]

The messy stuff turned out to be taught by itself.
The system had nothing to say and disappeared directly.
It would just pull him into the system space when Wen Chu’s Lifespan bottomed out. Anyway, it could protect him.
Looking at this stupid jellyfish full of love-love-love one more second was annoying.

The system disappeared, so Wen Chu turned to continue being resentful. If he had a human form, he would have looked at Xiu with teary eyes by now.
“Then can I still become lovers with you? I will take responsibility in the future.”

Xiu, who was reflecting on whether his words were too harsh: “…”

Xiu took a deep breath, looked at Wen Chu, and tried to be as objective as possible: “No. Because you don’t know the definition of ‘lover’ at all. If it’s just because of the apocalypse, there is no second jellyfish on this earth, and you happen to need me, so you mistakenly think we can become lovers… If I agree to you in this situation, it would be irresponsible to you.”
“You are still young. You don’t understand what love is. We are going to the Arctic. After arriving there, I can accompany you to grow up slowly. After life revives, you can have more choices.”

Instead of wasting time on him.
He was a merfolk, the immortal sea god. Leaving aside age gap and gender, they had reproductive isolation.
A merfolk and a jellyfish being together was a bit too weird.

Wen Chu summarized sadly: “So you think I’m irresponsible now, and won’t be responsible in the future, so you don’t want to be lovers with me?”

Xiu nodded reservedly: “You can understand it that way.”

“I said I love you and will be with you forever. Does that not count as love?” Wen Chu asked unwillingly.

The jellyfish was pitiful.
But Xiu, having been fucked awake in the middle of the night, deeply realized after a brief shock that his relationship with Wen Chu had twisted to a point where delay was no longer an option. He made up his mind on the spot to draw a line with Wen Chu.

He raised an eyebrow and asked back: “Do you think this is love?”
“Do you know my hobbies? Understand my personality? How will we get along in the future? Our differences are so great, how should we adjust? Do you actually like me, or rely on me, just wanting to be taken care of by me?”
“Wen Chu, love is not a one-way valve, nor a verbal expression. Love is…”
Xiu thought for a moment, trying to make this concept less abstract: “Love is two completely different people adapting to each other, approaching each other, giving for each other, and accepting each other’s giving. That is being lovers.”
“If you only regard mating and breeding offspring as love, then what is the difference between you and ordinary fish?”

Xiu softened his tone and said gently: “I know you are an unusual jellyfish, and you don’t want to be treated as an ordinary fish, right?”

Wen Chu was stunned.
No one had ever explained to him what love was. His exploration of love came from the affairs he accidentally stumbled upon in the hospital, from repeated questioning after binding the system.
For normal people, love might not need explanation, but for Wen Chu, who had been accompanied by empty glass wards for years, this was the hardest proposition in the world.

He didn’t understand.
Didn’t understand, plus confusion, added up to anxiousness wanting to cry.
Although he couldn’t shed tears anyway.

Wen Chu thought, if “love” could be like ocean currents, having fixed types and clear judgment conditions, appearing when and deflecting when, all clear at a glance, it would be great.
Unfortunately, “love” didn’t. The definition of love was so complex, complex enough that Wen Chu couldn’t understand even if he memorized Xiu’s words.

The jellyfish lowered his umbrella cap.
“Sorry…” Wen Chu said.

Xiu looked at him for a while and sighed: “It’s okay. I wasn’t really angry with you.”
“If I really treated you as a jellyfish, I wouldn’t say these things to you. But Wen Chu, I am talking to you now, talking to Wen Chu inside the jellyfish body.”
“You are Wen Chu who came out of a human laboratory. You should also have thoughts different from fish, right?”

Wen Chu was blank: “I don’t know.”

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t know. You still have a long time to think slowly.” Xiu reached out to pull the withered jellyfish over and rubbed him.
Clearly he was the one who got fucked, but at this time, Wen Chu was the most aggrieved.

Wen Chu gently rubbed against Xiu’s palm.
He was still digesting Xiu’s words just now. It took him a long time to respond slowly: “Okay.”

Wen Chu looked at Xiu and asked uncertainly: “So now you love me, and I don’t love you enough?”
He seriously considered Xiu’s words just now.
He didn’t know what Xiu liked, nor Xiu’s personality, nor how to get along with Xiu. But conversely, Xiu knew him well enough.

Xiu completely didn’t expect Wen Chu to suddenly point this out. As if his tail was stepped on, he retorted subconsciously: “I don’t like you either. You overthought.”

“Oh.” Wen Chu wasn’t too surprised.
Then he must have thought wrong; Xiu didn’t like him.
Sigh, Xiu’s words were so hard to understand.

Wen Chu extended tentacles to hug Xiu’s arm, observing Xiu’s expression simultaneously. Only after confirming the other had no change in expression did he continue: “Then I won’t touch you anymore, nor kiss you. I will seriously think about what you said.”

Xiu opened his mouth, wanting to say there was no need for that, but Wen Chu had already made up his mind.
Wen Chu said very firmly: “I want to be a responsible jellyfish.”

Xiu: “…”
Xiu looked at Wen Chu’s body size.
Fine. When the jellyfish reached this size last time, he said he had over thirty days of Lifespan. It would take seven or eight days at most to reach the Arctic from here. Putting aside “sex” to let Wen Chu think for a while wasn’t bad.

Xiu chose to respect Wen Chu’s decision and nodded.
But he still instructed uneasily: “Tell me if you need Lifespan points. This is aid, not you being irresponsible.”

“Okay.” Wen Chu agreed.

It was already past midnight.
Wen Chu glanced at his Lifespan points starting to drop at sixteen times speed and pondered another more serious problem:
Now that he couldn’t sneak extra meals in the middle of the night, how should he confess to Xiu that his Lifespan points were actually dropping at sixteen times speed without making Xiu worry?

Xiu watched the contemplative jellyfish and patted his umbrella cap.
“Alright, rest first. I didn’t say I blame you.”

Wen Chu gave an “Mn.”
Xiu’s lack of pursuit made him even more bewildered. Wen Chu followed Xiu back to his seaweed bed listlessly.
During the process, Xiu noticed his broken bandage tentacle again. The tooth mark on it was still clear, so he re-bandaged it for him.

Wen Chu looked at Xiu, who lowered his eyes to bandage him seriously, still repeatedly thinking about Xiu’s words just now.
——”Do you actually like me, or rely on me, just wanting to be taken care of by me?”

Wen Chu thought, why can’t these two be put together?
He both liked Xiu and relied on Xiu, wanting to be taken care of by Xiu forever.
If only the tooth mark on the tentacle would never fade.
If he knew earlier, he would have let Xiu bite a few more times back then. Maybe getting his tentacle bitten off would make Xiu care about him more.
…No, Xiu said lovers should give to each other.
He should also give something so that Xiu would take care of him.
But what could he give? What did he have? What did Xiu lack?

Wen Chu thought until he was dizzy, completely unaware that Xiu looked at him worriedly several times after bandaging. He collapsed weakly on the seaweed cushion.

He was actually an irresponsible jellyfish.
Wu wu.
The system harmed him.

.
Next day.

The narwhal sensed something wrong between Wen Chu and Xiu immediately after waking up.
First and most importantly, the two hours of alone time she reported every morning were cancelled. She started traveling with Wen Chu and Xiu early in the morning.

Today they had to pass through the submarine mountain range that slid last night, so the journey was very rugged. The narwhal followed Xiu carefully all the way around mountains that might slide, looking at the ruins in the distant valley and scattered ores, sighing uncontrollably.

She often watched news in the oceanarium and had heard a little about the discovery of cobalt-rich crusts in the central Pacific.
Back then, humans argued fiercely over mining rights in these international waters, going to international courts several times. Finally, it was decided mining rights belonged to neighboring countries, but half the minerals had to be handed over to the International Alliance.

Now, humans left. The mines fought over back then were just a mountain range to fish. Rare minerals piled on the ground like worthless stones, and they still had to carefully avoid construction sites that might collapse at any time.

But this wasn’t the main point anymore.
The narwhal glanced at Wen Chu, who was thinking about something on top of her head again.
Although Wen Chu and Xiu had conflicts from time to time, the narwhal felt last night’s conflict must be very tricky.

Usually when conflicting, Lord Siren would just pull a long face to scare Wen Chu, and they would reconcile after Wen Chu pasted himself over. Then it would be hours of disappearance.
But today’s situation was exceptionally tricky.
Wen Chu actually didn’t take the initiative to find Lord Siren.

The narwhal glanced at Wen Chu again, then at Xiu leading the way ahead.
Could it be… this time Wen Chu was angry?
Did Lord Siren do something to make Wen Chu angry?

Just as the narwhal struggled with whether she should persuade Wen Chu not to be angry with Lord Siren, she suddenly felt her head lighten.
The jellyfish she was carrying suddenly shrank by a circle.

Wen Chu looked at his Lifespan panel dropping below thirty days and sighed leisurely.
Sixteen times speed, too scary.
How exactly should he tell Xiu about his Lifespan points?

Wen Chu was worrying when he saw the narwhal looking at him hesitantly. He thought for a moment and whispered: “Granny Narwhal.”

The narwhal nodded, indicating she was listening.

Wen Chu said: “Do you think, if I died, would it be easier for Xiu?”

The narwhal was so shocked she almost forgot to swim.
“Died of what?!?”
She didn’t hold back her voice. Xiu, walking in front, also turned back to look upon hearing the sound, his gaze lingering on the obviously shrunk jellyfish for a long time.
——Did Wen Chu shrink this fast before?

Suppressing the doubt in his heart for now, Xiu also pressed: “Talking about what?”

Wen Chu just asked casually and wasn’t prepared to die at all, but being stared at by Xiu now, he felt inexplicably guilty.
He stammered: “No, nothing. I just asked casually.”

Xiu narrowed his eyes, gaze sharp.
The narwhal’s brain spun rapidly, already thinking to the step of “Jellyfish deciding to end himself due to love injury.” Various family melodramas she had seen flashed through her mind.

In the silence, the narwhal squeezed out words of reconciliation: “Lord Siren is also doing it for your own good. Don’t be angry with Lord Siren either. Don’t quarrel; talk nicely if you have something to say.”

Relationship problems caused by age gap, weren’t they just those things.
He thinks he manages too much; he thinks he is immature.

The narwhal, who had watched countless family soap operas, felt her speculation was correct and added:
“Age is not the problem; communication is the biggest problem.”

Wen Chu: ?
Xiu: ?