Chapter 19: Kissing

A long time ago, Wen Chu had wondered, “Is Xiu like this with everyone?” and was mocked by the system for it.

But at this moment, looking at the golden-haired merman bowing his head in the center of the storm, Wen Chu thought, perhaps he was a little different in Xiu’s heart?

A god was actually willing to lower his head for him, inviting him to kiss with such an indulgent tone.

Rumble—

Another bolt of lightning flashed across the sky.

The downpour began, hitting the jellyfish’s soft body and sliding down Xiu’s smooth chest muscles. The pattering sound of the rain seemed to explode in his heart. Wen Chu felt as if his very being had been thrown into disarray by the sound of the rain.

Oh, right, jellyfish don’t have hearts.

But that wasn’t the point.

Wen Chu hugged Xiu’s arm tightly and said in a small voice, “Can we kiss in the water?”

It was too open here. He was already feeling inexplicably guilty, and now kissing Xiu in front of everyone like this felt a bit strange. He didn’t want the Xiu who didn’t want to be kissed by him to be so thoroughly exposed.

Xiu gave him a puzzled look, assuming the jellyfish was just frightened by the storm at sea. He nodded and brought Wen Chu back into the water. Due to the storm, the shallow water was a bit murky. Xiu simply dived deeper with Wen Chu, found a reef to sit on, and waited for the jellyfish to stick to him.

He had already invited him once. To hint any further—Xiu couldn’t do it.

But a full two or three minutes passed, and the jellyfish didn’t move, just lying quietly on his chest.

Xiu couldn’t resist poking Wen Chu. “What’s wrong?”

Got dumb from the rain?

Wen Chu suddenly seemed to jolt awake and stammered, “O-okay.”

Xiu raised an eyebrow. Why was Wen Chu stuttering today? But he didn’t think much of it. After all, Wen Chu’s usual train of thought was very abnormal. Seeing the jellyfish finally swim up, Xiu closed his eyes.

He habitually gripped the rock behind him to prevent himself from instinctively resisting and hurting the jellyfish if the movements were too intense.

But the sensation on his lips was unexpectedly gentle.

The jellyfish’s soft, smooth tentacles entered his lips, curled his tongue out, ate it very lightly twice, and then let him go.

?

Xiu opened his eyes and looked at Wen Chu in confusion.

Wen Chu stammered, “Okay, that’s enough lifespan for one day.”

Last night, when he let Xiu’s scale eat him, he had accidentally taken in too much, suddenly raising his lifespan to twenty-three days. Although a night had passed, he had just eaten twice more, and his lifespan was already at twenty-three days and twenty-three hours. If he ate a few more times, he would grow bigger again. Xiu was keeping track of his lifespan; he would definitely be exposed.

Xiu narrowed his eyes.

The jellyfish cared most about his lifespan. Stuttering could be understood as being scared silly, but such a perfunctory kiss definitely meant something was wrong.

Xiu looked Wen Chu up and down. He suspected Wen Chu was unwell but was hiding it from him for some reason.

Being stared at by Xiu, Wen Chu dodged uncomfortably. But he couldn’t get away, because Xiu directly grabbed his tentacles and pulled him back.

“Again. One more kiss,” Xiu said without much hesitation, simply making Wen Chu kiss him one more time. He threw a tempting offer to the “appetite-less” jellyfish. “It’s not easy to find food today. If you kiss a little longer, you can transfer some lifespan to a coral. I’ll peel a shellfish for you.”

After eating a shellfish once, Wen Chu had been longing for it for a long time. Xiu, afraid that he would have problems if he rashly transferred his lifespan, had never agreed again.

But now, even under the temptation of shellfish, Wen Chu was still hesitant.

“That’s not very good…” Wen Chu racked his brain, trying to find a reason to refuse.

Xiu looked at Wen Chu suspiciously, his suspicion growing. “What’s not good? Weren’t you afraid of not having enough lifespan before? Did you sneak over to kiss me in the middle of the night?”

Xiu’s gaze was sharp. Wen Chu was so startled that for a moment, he really thought his secret of touching Xiu’s scale had been exposed. But a jellyfish has no expression. Even though Wen Chu was so guilty he wanted to flee on the spot, on a jellyfish, it just looked like a brief daze.

“I didn’t,” Wen Chu said, lacking confidence. “I just feel that today isn’t a very suitable day for kissing.”

Being rejected twice in a row, an indescribable sense of irritation rose in Xiu’s heart. He directly pulled the jellyfish that was trying to escape in front of him, his tone harsh. “I don’t care if you did or not. I told you to kiss, so you kiss.”

Didn’t he love clinging to him before? Now he wouldn’t even sleep with him, and he didn’t even want to kiss? Was he that determined to die?

Wen Chu looked at Xiu’s tightly pressed lips. It was clearly an awkward and embarrassed form of concern, but Xiu said it fiercely, like a threat. Those cold, thin lips parted slightly. “Hurry up.”

Ah…

He wanted to kiss him.

Not out of appetite or survival instinct, but the purest, most direct desire. Wen Chu felt that Xiu might be very kissable.

Under the Siren’s “coercion,” the jellyfish slowly kissed him again.

Wen Chu’s movements were still very gentle. He slowly fed his tentacles to Xiu, while he himself went to eat the tip of Xiu’s tongue. He went much deeper, but it was more lingering than before. Every time he kissed Xiu, he felt very comfortable being held by the other. So he also wanted Xiu to feel comfortable when being kissed.

When the tentacles entered, Xiu was already prepared to welcome a storm, but he soon realized something was wrong. Wen Chu’s kiss was very deep this time, but also exceptionally slow. The tentacles were light and soft, as if caressing every inch of his mouth. There was no fierce devouring.

Xiu thought he might be sick, to actually feel a certain tenderness in it.

The jellyfish could now wrap around him from the chest up when they kissed. Wen Chu’s huge bell opened and closed, his tentacles sweeping over his chest, then binding him, following instinct to envelop its prey. Sticky, with a slight suction.

This envelopment became a kind of torture at this moment. Xiu’s scales reacted again, even more violently than before. He couldn’t help but let out a soft hum, wanting to curl his tail.

Wen Chu had been focused on controlling the increase in his lifespan. He had only taken one bite of Xiu’s tongue at the very beginning; the rest of the time he was just touching Xiu with his tentacles. His lifespan reached twenty-four days and twenty-one hours. Three more hours and he would grow bigger.

Wen Chu slowly withdrew.

Just then, Xiu was curling his tail, stirring up a current. Wen Chu, who had just learned to sense ocean currents, was particularly sensitive to changes in the water and looked down.

And then, he saw what the merman’s protruding scale really was.

It wasn’t a protruding scale, but the scale below Xiu’s lower abdomen had opened, revealing a rather exaggerated mating tool. Before Wen Chu could see clearly, Xiu’s tail had already curled up, hiding the scale tightly.

Wen Chu’s mind went blank with a buzz. Like he had done something wrong, he quickly let go of Xiu and rapidly swam away by contracting his bell.

His departure was too sudden. Xiu was caught off guard, the flush of arousal not yet faded from the corners of his eyes, his tail curled, looking as if he had been thoroughly eaten by the jellyfish.

Is Xiu like this every time I eat him? Wen Chu was about to catch fire. He even forgot how to swim, tumbling clumsily in place before remembering to poke the system.

[That was…]

[The merman’s mating tool. He’s aroused.]

The system spoke quickly and immediately went offline after finishing.

Wen Chu didn’t understand how fish mated, but he understood human mating, so he fully understood what this meant. Hearing this, he was even more at a loss. Xiu being like this, does it mean he wants to mate with me? But I’m a jellyfish, and a male one at that. Even if I turn into a human, I can probably only rub against Xiu.

As Wen Chu thought this, his restless thoughts faded, and he began to worry. In his simple view of mating, only a male and a female could mate. So if Xiu wanted to mate with him, one of them had to become female.

While Wen Chu was deliberating how to explain to Xiu that he was a male who couldn’t become female, Xiu finally came back to his senses from the sea of desire. He pursed his lips, the ambiguous look in his eyes completely gone, and the rock under his hand crumbled.

He had been seen.

The sense of crisis from losing control struck him. Alarm bells rang in Xiu’s mind. He directly grabbed the still-conflicted jellyfish and said coldly, “What did you just see?”

As long as he suppressed the feeling in secret, Xiu could deceive himself into thinking he had no feelings for Wen Chu, that it was just a physiological reaction. But now that he had been caught by Wen Chu, Xiu couldn’t come up with any excuses. His voice was cold, but inside, his heart was in turmoil, his mind reeling. He couldn’t believe he had been so affected by a suddenly gentle kiss from a jellyfish that he was even slow to remember to hide his tail.

Wen Chu observed Xiu’s expression. Xiu seemed very angry. So Xiu doesn’t want to mate with me?

Wen Chu thought, and then said slowly, “I saw everything.”

As expected, Xiu’s expression grew even colder, almost freezing over.

Wen Chu quickly spoke, maintaining his usual curious tone, “Xiu, what’s on your tail? Is that your scale?”

Xiu’s expression paused, then relaxed considerably. “Yes, it’s my scale. So don’t randomly touch my scales in the future.”

“Okay,” Wen Chu, who had just thoroughly explored the other’s scales last night, replied obediently. He seemed to have finally returned to his usual liveliness, circling the still-curled-up Xiu. “So when are we going to eat shellfish? I have a lot of lifespan now. You can eat some too, and we can bring some back for Grandma Narwhal. By the way, does Grandma Narwhal eat this? I’ve never seen her eat.”

Seeing Wen Chu still chattering and circling him without a hint of malice, Xiu slowly uncoiled his now-calm fishtail.

“…I’ll take you to find shellfish now,” Xiu said slowly.

Right. How would this little jellyfish from a lab, who knows nothing, know what mating is? The crisis alert that had blared because he was discovered was suddenly turned off. Xiu let out a breath. He had overreacted. So what if Wen Chu really saw it? Could this sickly little jellyfish really force him to do something against his will?

Thinking this, Xiu relaxed considerably. He picked up Wen Chu and started swimming. “How much lifespan do you have now?”

“Twenty-two days,” Wen Chu lied.

Xiu calculated and found that it was indeed about the same as the time he remembered, so he didn’t press further, only saying, “You’re only allowed to use your ability once. I’ll continue to kiss you tomorrow.”

“Mhm,” Wen Chu said, being obediently carried by Xiu.

After the recent turmoil, Xiu had completely forgotten about Wen Chu’s strangeness that morning. He grabbed the still-obedient and ignorant jellyfish and went to search for a seaweed patch where shellfish lived.

Wen Chu, acting as a jellyfish pendant in Xiu’s hand, poked the system again.

[Xiu doesn’t want to mate with me. Is it because I can’t become female? Why didn’t the information you gave me before mention how fish mate?]

System: […No.]

The system finally came out.

Afraid the system would run off again, Wen Chu pressed on: [Then can I mate with Xiu?]

System: […]

Wen Chu said pitifully: [Xiu seems to hate mating with me. He was so angry just now. I don’t want him to be fierce with me. Did I do something wrong? Can you teach me how to mate so he won’t be angry? QAQ]

The system taught him.

He had to act pitiful.