Chapter 18: [Lifespan +48h] 

This was his second night raid, and Wen Chu was already an old hand at it.

This time, he avoided Xiu’s cicada-wing-thin caudal fin and went straight for the scales, preventing himself from getting cut again.

He was much bigger than last time. Wen Chu was afraid of waking Xiu if he draped his whole body over him, so he only extended his tentacles onto Xiu’s scales.

The jellyfish’s transparent tentacles swept over the merman’s tail, inch by inch.

Wen Chu couldn’t quite remember which scale had been able to eat him last time, so he could only search this way.

Starting from the end of the tail, he worked his way up.

To improve efficiency, Wen Chu placed more than ten tentacles at once to search.

Finally, just below Xiu’s lower abdomen, he felt a familiar warmth.

Found it.

Wen Chu didn’t hesitate, quickly feeding his tentacles to the scale.

[Lifespan +24h]
[Remaining Lifespan: 20 days, 23 hours, 56 minutes]

As his lifespan increased, Wen Chu grew bigger again, and his tentacles became thicker and longer.

The scale’s appetite wasn’t large. After he suddenly grew a size, it was completely filled, and the protective outer scale was completely lifted.

Because his tentacles were transparent, Wen Chu could even clearly see how the pink interior was devouring him.

He looked away as if scalded, feeling a tingling numbness in his scalp from the pleasant sensation in the tentacles being eaten.

He needed to move a little more to get his lifespan to a safer twenty-one days.

With this thought, Wen Chu tentatively began to slowly withdraw his tentacles.

It was already difficult for the scale to accommodate them. As he began to pull back, the sleeping merman frowned, his tail curling up with a tremble, trying to expel the intruder.

Wen Chu, who had just been about to pull out, was pressed back in by the merman’s tail with a “squeak.”

He was even deeper than before.

The merman curled up even tighter, letting out a vague, nasal hum.

Wen Chu struggled to survive between his tail fins, trying desperately to pull himself out.

He was still too small, and he didn’t dare to use too much force for fear of waking Xiu. No matter how hard he tried, he was only pulled deeper and deeper by the merman’s coiled tail.

Wen Chu watched in despair as his tentacles disappeared bit by bit into the scale, the majority of them eaten.

Wen Chu couldn’t describe the feeling.

He was a jellyfish now, but he was fundamentally human. The two-finger-wide tentacles had replaced his entire lower body, so he could clearly feel the tactile feedback from them.

How he was squeezed by Xiu’s scale, and how he advanced.

Until finally, he came to a stop against something soft and yielding, unable to move any further.

It seemed he had finally reached the end.

Just as Wen Chu was about to breathe a sigh of relief, he saw the system panel suddenly pop up.

[Lifespan +48h]

Wen Chu: ?!??

What on earth did I just touch?

At the same time, the merman finally realized that his curling up was only making the intrusive tentacle go deeper. He abruptly uncoiled his tail and gave it a forceful flick.

Wen Chu couldn’t care about anything else. His lifespan was now at twenty-three days and twenty-three hours. If he touched it any more, he would grow again.

Whether he could bluff his way through a sudden growth spurt in front of Xiu was one thing, but he was highly likely to actually break the narrow scale.

Wen Chu was skeptical of the system’s claim that it wouldn’t break.

This place was too tender.

Wen Chu contracted his bell and, with the help of the current stirred up by Xiu’s tail, shot away from him with a swoosh.

Like all guilty “culprits,” Wen Chu glanced back at Xiu before making his quick escape.

Without the tentacles, Xiu’s scale quickly closed up. But just above that scale, another one was faintly protruding.

Wen Chu didn’t know what that was. When he was touching it earlier, the scales there had definitely not been indented.

The disturbed water had not yet calmed.

The merman’s long golden hair was messed up by the water, giving Wen Chu an unobstructed view of the earlobes and slender neck beneath it.

Xiu had fierce features, but now his clear blue eyes were tightly shut, the corners tinged with a deep red. His thin lips were slightly parted as he frowned in discomfort.

There was not a trace of ferocity, but rather…

He looked as though he had been dragged down from his divine pedestal by an ignorant jellyfish.

Wen Chu was momentarily dazed and forgot to swim, falling onto the rock with a splat.

After the fall, he was dizzy for a moment. Then, not daring to look at Xiu again, he used all his tentacles to scramble back to his sleeping spot.

A moment later, as if waking from a dream, Wen Chu crawled out from behind his little shell nest and once again made his way to Xiu’s side.

He extended a tentacle and carefully touched Xiu.

[Lifespan -10h]
[Remaining Lifespan: 23 days, 13 hours, 30 minutes]

He had to heal Xiu.

As his lifespan decreased, the faintly protruding scale on Xiu returned to normal.

Wen Chu checked Xiu from top to bottom, and only after confirming that the other hadn’t suffered any problems from eating his tentacles did he finally return to his shell nest in peace.

He hugged the shell tightly with his tentacles, curling into a ball.

So strange.

So embarrassing.

Wen Chu’s mind was full of Xiu. One moment it was Xiu’s pained sounds, the next it was his soft scale. His tentacles twisted into a knot in his agitation.

He thought, Xiu’s scale was nothing like him.

Xiu looked so cold, but his scale was soft.

Wen Chu was wide awake, unable to sleep. He stared at his lifespan for a long time, then went to poke the system again.

[System, what exactly is that scale of Xiu’s that eats me?]

The system’s silence was his only answer.

Wen Chu changed the question.

[Then why did Xiu’s scale protrude? I didn’t touch that part before.]

The system remained silent.

Alright, looks like the system might be asleep.

Wen Chu gave up asking and continued to hug his little shell nest, his tentacles stroking the four characters for “Wen Chu’s Exclusive” carved on it.

The uneven texture did little to calm his turbulent heart.

His mind was in such a mess that he completely forgot about the seaweed bandage he had brought with him, which was now left behind next to Xiu.

This time, the jellyfish had been careful not to leave any tentacles behind.

But he had left a seaweed bandage next to the Siren’s azure fishtail.

---

The next day.

The moment Wen Chu opened his eyes, he was met with Xiu’s magnified face.

He had been tossing and turning with anxious thoughts until late last night, unable to figure anything out, his mind filled with Xiu’s face. He had only drifted off when he could no longer hold on.

Now, seeing Xiu the moment he opened his eyes, Wen Chu’s entire jellyfish body jolted, waking up instantly with a guilty conscience.

“Xiu…” Wen Chu called him softly, simultaneously observing Xiu’s expression.

Why is Xiu suddenly so close? Did he find out what I did last night?

Xiu didn’t answer, instead carefully examining his tentacles.

“Where’s your bandage?” Xiu asked.

Wen Chu was baffled for a moment before he remembered what “bandage” Xiu was talking about. He followed Xiu’s gaze to his own tentacles.

On the outermost tentacle was a clear set of teeth marks, but the bandage tied to it had vanished.

The series of events from last night flashed through his mind. Wen Chu’s memory was excellent, and because of that, he clearly remembered how he had left the seaweed bandage right next to Xiu.

Wen Chu was so scared he stuttered, “I-I… I don’t know.”

Help me.

Would Xiu believe him if he said he rubbed the bandage off in his sleep? QAQ

“Is this it?” the narwhal’s voice sounded.

Then, a long white horn appeared, with a seaweed bandage perched on top.

“It probably fell off last night and was carried away by the current. I saw it when I turned over just now,” the narwhal explained.

What a good whale.

Wen Chu, feeling as if he’d been granted a pardon, nodded repeatedly. “Yes, that must be it.”

Xiu gave Wen Chu a strange look.

He had no idea about what happened last night. He had just wanted to check on the jellyfish’s injury when he woke up this morning and found it strange that the bandage was missing.

Why was Wen Chu’s reaction so abnormal?

Xiu thought about it but couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was strange. After all, if this jellyfish acted normal, that would be the truly abnormal thing.

He didn’t dwell on it and, with a normal expression, took out a piece of sea whip coral, broke it, and applied the mucus to Wen Chu’s tentacle.

“I probably didn’t tie it tight enough. It must have been swept away by the current last night.”

As he spoke, Xiu tore off a new piece of seaweed and bandaged Wen Chu up again.

This time, he specifically tied two knots.

Wen Chu guiltily agreed, “Yes.”

After agreeing, he belatedly realized something was wrong.

Why hadn’t the wound on his tentacle healed yet?

Whether it was a severed tentacle or something else, according to his previous recovery ability, it should have healed long ago, let alone a simple bite mark.

Wen Chu hadn’t paid it any mind before, but now, seeing the bite mark hadn’t faded, he grew suspicious.

He tried poking the system again: [System, is my regenerative ability gone? I got bitten and it still hasn’t healed.]

The system finally came online: [It’s still there. It’s just that the Siren is special. He is the protagonist of this world, so injuries he inflicts are very difficult to heal.]

So that’s how it is.

Wen Chu had an epiphany, which was followed by a sense of relief.

Fortunately, Xiu didn’t actually want to make him into cold-dressed jellyfish skin. If Xiu had wanted to eat him, he definitely would have let him, and then he really would have been eaten up entirely by Xiu.

…Actually, that might not be so bad?

[That is a very dangerous thing. Put away the ridiculous thoughts in your head,] the system said, its patience at its limit.

Wen Chu was surprised: [How do you know what I’m thinking?]

System: [I can tell from your expression you’re not thinking of anything good.]

When a jellyfish thinks, God laughs.

With that interruption, the guilt from his nightly escapade faded considerably. Wen Chu, wearing the new seaweed bandage from Xiu, puffed out his chest as if he had been awarded a little red flower.

He had a bite mark from Xiu on his body, the kind that wouldn’t disappear.

While the system was still around, he pressed on: [So what exactly is Xiu’s scale? Why can it both eat me and protrude?]

System: …

Wen Chu: [System?]

His answer was a wall of silence.

The system had disappeared again.

It was daytime. The system that had just been talking to him couldn’t possibly be sleeping.

Just as Wen Chu was about to persistently poke the system again, he was lifted up by Xiu.

Xiu held him up, looked him over from top to bottom, and after confirming the jellyfish was still the size he remembered, he turned to the narwhal. “I’m taking him to find something to eat.”

The narwhal nodded, accustomed to this, and prepared to go back to sleep.

Wen Chu was thus carried away by Xiu.

At his current size, even Xiu had to use some effort to carry him with one hand. Wen Chu followed the smooth lines of muscle on Xiu’s arm upwards, saw Xiu’s chest, and then his sharp jawline.

From this upward angle, the merman’s chest looked particularly formidable.

In reality, it was just a layer of lean muscle.

Wen Chu had touched and eaten it on the first day, and had even been sneakily touching Xiu yesterday to increase his lifespan and bluff his way through.

But at this moment, Wen Chu inexplicably had the same strange feeling as when he let Xiu’s scale eat him last night.

He carefully retracted all his tentacles, not letting them randomly touch Xiu with the movement of the waves.

Xiu looked at the shrunken jellyfish with confusion.

“Not feeling well?”

“No,” Wen Chu said in a small voice.

Xiu didn’t believe him. He sped up, forcing himself through the embarrassment, “I’ll let you kiss me after we eat.”

He bit off the last word very lightly. For a Siren to proactively say such a thing was still a bit too shameful.

The way he enunciated the word felt a little familiar to Wen Chu.

Before he could figure it out, he was lifted out of the water by Xiu.

The moment he was out of the water, Wen Chu was nearly blown away by a fierce wind.

The wind was so strong he could barely open his eyes. Fortunately, Xiu held him steady in time. Wen Chu took the opportunity to cling to Xiu’s arm with all his tentacles, barely managing to survey his surroundings.

The moment he saw his surroundings clearly, Wen Chu froze.

The sky was a dark gray, with low-hanging storm clouds that seemed to press infinitely close to the collapsing sea.

A howling gale swept across the sea’s surface, whipping up giant white waves. The spray crashed down, only to be followed by an even higher wave.

“This is…”

Before Wen Chu could finish, a huge wave rose behind Xiu.

A wave ten meters high, countless times taller than the Sardine III he had seen, like a building made of water, roared towards him and Xiu.

Wen Chu subconsciously hugged Xiu tighter.

The wave crashed down.

Swoosh—

A drenching cold washed over him. Wen Chu, terrified of being separated from Xiu by the wave, was already poking the system.

[Help help help help!]

The system’s voice was calm: [You don’t need my help.]

Eh?

Wen Chu nervously opened his eyes.

He saw the merman holding him motionlessly, looking coolly at the crashing waves.

The entire sea was roaring and shaking, yet he stood as if on solid ground, not even a strand of his hair moving.

“It’s a storm at sea. It’s about to rain,” Xiu said calmly.

As he finished speaking, a flash of white lightning streaked across the dark, low-hanging sky, followed by a loud clap of thunder.

“Storm…? Rain…?” Wen Chu repeated the unfamiliar words.

Xiu glanced at him. “Never seen one?”

Wen Chu shook his head honestly.

He had never been outside the hospital, and there were no windows in the hospital. How could he have seen one?

Xiu wasn’t very surprised. He explained, “We’re in the middle of the Pacific now, far from the continental shelf. The weather at sea is unpredictable. Storms are common. You’ll see them often in the future, along with all sorts of other dangers. So don’t sneak up to the surface behind my back; you could easily get swept away.”

He frowned. “However, the wind and waves are so strong today, the green algae on the surface has all been blown away. We might have to go back into the sea to find something else. Should we kiss first?”

“Ki-kiss…” Wen Chu stuttered again.

For some reason, the moment Xiu mentioned kissing, the scene from last night appeared in his mind again.

The wind and waves were too strong, and the jellyfish was being blown all over the place. Therefore, Xiu didn’t immediately notice that something was wrong with Wen Chu, only thinking that he was shivering from the wind.

Fragile jellyfish.

Thinking this, Xiu used his body to shield Wen Chu from the wind and waves.

The golden-haired god lowered his head.

“If you’re going to kiss, then hurry up.”

---

Author’s Note: “Your uncle spoils his dad.” (A pun meaning: Just go ahead and spoil him.)