Chapter 28: Little Jellyfish, Big Illiterate

But of course he couldn’t escape; he was still held in Xiu’s arms.

Wen Chu’s brain spun rapidly. Half a second later, he reacted, ignoring even putting down the shell in his hand, and buried his face deep into his palms, hiding it completely.

“Don’t look at me. I’m not Wen Chu. Just pretend you forgot what I look like.”

Xiu liked good-looking ones.
But he was an ugly monster.

Wen Chu covered his face, angrily poking the system in his mind: [I didn’t want to turn into a human now!! What if Xiu doesn’t like me after seeing me!! Ahhhhh let me turn back into a jellyfish, I want to be a jellyfish!]

System: [Tsk.]

The system realized by now it had misinterpreted Wen Chu’s meaning, but considering the current situation, the system felt it did nothing wrong.

System: [Look at your Lifespan panel.]

Wen Chu took a look, and this look startled him directly.
His Lifespan points had actually dropped to twenty days and one hour.

Wen Chu became more anxious: [Then I need to turn into a jellyfish even more! Otherwise how can I kiss Xiu!]

System: […]
The system despaired over this idiot.

System: [Stupid, think for yourself.]

After saying this, the system disappeared, leaving only a despairing Wen Chu covering his face.

Wen Chu felt Xiu’s warm body temperature behind him and silently buried his face even lower.
Can’t see me, can’t see me, can’t see me. Xiu definitely didn’t see my face.

But this idealistic ostrich behavior obviously couldn’t change the facts. Xiu behind him reacted after a brief astonishment, looking at the youth sitting on him covering his face, and called out uncertainly again: “Wen Chu?”

Wen Chu trembled, finally realizing he couldn’t escape.
He slowly lifted his face.

Wen Chu’s face was already beautiful to the point of transcending gender. At this moment, his cheek had a red mark pressed by the shell. Under the semi-transparent light gauze head cover, his round blue eyes were full of unease.
He wasn’t the bright and flamboyant type. His features were soft, looking harmless, like an overly fragile and beautiful piece of art.

But regardless, undeniably, this was a face with extreme impact.

Xiu unnaturally looked away.
Only when he couldn’t see Wen Chu’s face did Xiu remember to ask: “What exactly… are you?”

Wen Chu: QAQ
Sure enough, I was so ugly I scared Xiu.

Things having come to this, Wen Chu could only condemn the system in his heart while saying aggrievedly: “I am Wen Chu. Why don’t you just treat me as a jellyfish.”

As he spoke, he lifted one of his transparent jellyfish tentacles to show Xiu: “Look, my tentacles are still here.”

Coincidentally, the tentacle he extended happened to be the one Xiu bit, with clearly visible tooth marks on it.

Xiu looked at the excessively thick and large tentacle in front of his eyes, triggering some indescribable memories, and couldn’t help leaning back a bit to dodge: “Okay, I know. Retract it first.”

Wen Chu retracted the tentacle sadly, hugging his little shell tight.
Xiu didn’t even like his tentacles now.
No matter how he thought about it, this was the system’s fault.

Wen Chu hadn’t realized that after turning into a human, he couldn’t hide his expressions anymore. The sadness on his face was completely visible.

Xiu was a bit at a loss.
A jellyfish suddenly turning into a beautiful youth—even he couldn’t adapt immediately.
Moreover, he had just realized his own feelings and hadn’t sorted out what kind of relationship he and Wen Chu should have. Now facing this aggrieved face that perfectly fit his aesthetics, Xiu felt his hands holding Wen Chu’s waist were placed wrong.

He coughed lightly, then said: “You becoming like this now, is it related to the ‘hospital’ you mentioned?”

“Probably?” Wen Chu answered uncertainly.
His upper body was related to the hospital, his lower body to the system. Could only say half and half?

Xiu misunderstood his meaning, naturally imagining a series of things like “genetic experiments” and “human modification,” looking at him with a bit of unbearable pity.
Unlike his initial indifference to the jellyfish’s story, Xiu couldn’t help saying: “Don’t you think the ‘hospital’ you mentioned is a bit strange?”

Wen Chu didn’t understand: “Strange?”
He recalled what he said to Xiu: “You think that’s not a hospital? You seem to have always called it a laboratory. I thought that also meant hospital.”
“So what is a laboratory?”

Xiu said: “I think no hospital would experiment on a jellyfish, hang IV drips on him, forbid him from eating, not talk to him, and restrict his movement.”

Wen Chu was curious: “What about humans? Is it normal for hospitals to do this to humans?”

“That’s even more impossible.” Xiu was shocked by Wen Chu’s worldview again.
He raised his volume slightly, emphasizing: “A hospital is a place to treat diseases and will give patients humanitarian care. It’s impossible to harm patients.”
“What you described is less like a hospital and more like a laboratory.”

The more Xiu spoke, the more reasonable it seemed. He explained to the ignorant jellyfish: “Human technology progressed very fast. In this world, they cracked the genetic chain and completely mastered gene editing technology. Only due to ethical issues, this technology was listed as banned, but it didn’t prevent some from experimenting privately. Think carefully, do you not even have parents?”

Wen Chu was stunned. He intuitively felt something was wrong: “But… they all said they were doctors.”

“Maybe they lied to you,” Xiu said. “It’s already the apocalypse now, and you don’t seem to remember where the ‘hospital’ is. This is just my guess, probably unprovable.”

Xiu paused as he spoke.
Because Wen Chu’s tentacles, which had become thicker and longer, swayed with the waves, and the soft transparent tentacles just brushed against his scales.
Wen Chu wasn’t used to the changes in his lower limbs yet and completely failed to realize what happened. He had no concept of safe distance, rubbing deeper into Xiu’s arms, thoughtful.

Being told so by Xiu, he also realized something was wrong.
He felt the doctors might be fake, but definitely not as bad as Xiu said. Although most doctors ignored him, every time he was transferred to the next doctor, they would look at him with regret and reluctance.
Like bidding farewell to an expensive piece of art.

But the system said he was already dead. Unless Wen Chu completed the mission and resurrected, he couldn’t know where he was originally.
However, these weren’t the main points now.

Wen Chu glanced carefully at Xiu. Seeing Xiu had returned to his original expressionless face, he couldn’t help sighing with emotion. Xiu was indeed very good; even if he was ugly to him, he would adjust quickly and treat him with a normal heart.

Wen Chu reached out and tugged at Xiu’s arm, just like poking Xiu with a tentacle when he was a jellyfish: “Xiu, can I discuss something with you?”

Xiu looked at him doubtfully, temporarily ignoring the sensation on his fishtail: “What is it?”

Wen Chu adjusted the troublesome veil again and whispered: “It’s just… after seeing my human form, don’t dislike me either, is that okay?”
“I didn’t mean to hide it from you. Turning into human form just now was uncontrollable. I will turn back into a jellyfish quickly.”
He finally made Xiu not dislike him so much QAQ

Xiu didn’t understand what happened, just assuming Wen Chu was messing with some weird stuff again. He sighed and agreed like coaxing a child: “Of course I won’t dislike you.”
Xiu looked at Wen Chu’s face and added very obediently to his heart: “No need to turn back into a jellyfish so quickly either.”

Speaking of this, Xiu remembered something and pressed: “Does maintaining human form require you to pay extra Lifespan points?”

“Not right now.” Wen Chu shook his head.
As he shook his head, the light gauze on his head fluttered along. The semi-transparent gauze floated in the seawater, looking somewhat peculiar no matter how you looked at it.
The gauze brushed against Xiu’s chest.

Xiu took an extra look at the gauze on Wen Chu’s head and asked: “Is this thing on your head also… part of the experiment?”

Wen Chu didn’t know. He tugged at the troublesome gauze on his head, finding he couldn’t pull it off, and was a bit puzzled, simply asking the system.
[What is the white gauze on my head for?]

The system said leisurely: [Don’t you think this looks very much like a jellyfish’s umbrella cap?]

Wen Chu: [?]

System: [Turning from jellyfish to human, gotta add some jellyfish features. Just having tentacles is too monotonous.]

Wen Chu suspected the system purely wanted to put a layer of gauze on his head without reason.
He relayed truthfully to Xiu: “He said wearing gauze like this looks very much like a jellyfish’s umbrella cap.”

Xiu showed an indescribable expression, finally looking at the gauze on Wen Chu’s head and evaluating objectively: “Very bad taste idea.”
But it indeed matched Wen Chu.
Especially since Wen Chu had long white hair. Covering it with this layer of semi-transparent gauze really gave a bit of a jellyfish umbrella cap vibe.

Wen Chu didn’t know Xiu had already agreed in his heart. He repeated the new word learned from Xiu’s mouth and nodded heavily: “Right, bad taste.”
This layer of gauze was troublesome.

Confirming Xiu wouldn’t throw him away because his appearance was too ugly, Wen Chu relaxed a lot and continued to lean in Xiu’s arms.
Xiu’s body was very warm; he liked it.
Leaning like this, the tentacles that were only lightly brushing Xiu’s scales now completely pressed on them. The originally tightly closed scales, feeling the wet and sticky tentacles, actually showed a tendency to actively open.

“Xiu, where are we going to put Granny Narwhal?” Wen Chu was completely unaware, still asking about other things.

Xiu pressed his lips together, barely composing himself: “Just put her next to the biggest skeleton in the middle. That was also a whale.”
He wanted to move his tail, at least not to be pressed by Wen Chu’s tentacles, but Xiu forgot Wen Chu was now a little monster with dozens of large jellyfish tentacles.
Just as he moved away a little, the nearby tentacles squeezed up.
His tail was now entangled by dozens of such thick tentacles.
Shocked by Wen Chu’s face just now, he hadn’t realized the crisis at his tail. Now suddenly reacting to his situation, Xiu’s scalp tingled for a moment.
He couldn’t help saying: “Get off me first, Wen Chu.”

Wen Chu: QAQ?
Obviously Xiu hugged him himself, how come after turning into a human, he couldn’t even sit on the tail?
Wen Chu finally deeply realized at this moment that he had turned into a human.
Turned into a human and got disliked.
But turning into a human had its benefits; he could finally have expressions.
Wen Chu looked at Xiu with a tearful expression.

Stared at by him, Xiu’s heartbeat missed a beat, almost taking back what he just said on the spot.
But the cold touch on his fishtail sobered him up. Xiu forced himself to look away, pretending not to see.

Wen Chu was very sad, but he listened to Xiu, pa-ji pa-ji moving his tentacles to crawl down from Xiu.
It wasn’t that he couldn’t swim, just that Wen Chu reluctantly wanted to get down slower.

Slowly leaving Xiu, Wen Chu looked at the narwhal beside Xiu and decided to do some serious business for Xiu.
“Xiu, let me help you move Granny Narwhal over.”

Xiu looked at the youth’s slender upper body—Wen Chu had a layer of thin muscle, but compared to him or the narwhal, it was obviously insignificant.
“Maybe still…”
Before Xiu could formulate a wording that wouldn’t hurt Wen Chu’s heart too much, he saw Wen Chu extend a slender arm and pat the narwhal’s head.
Then, lifting the whale weighing several tons with one hand.

Xiu: ?

Xiu carried the narwhal all the way, knowing the narwhal’s weight clearly. Seeing Wen Chu lift her with one hand now, cracks finally appeared on his usually cold face, revealing an extremely distinct stunned expression.

Wen Chu turned his head and saw Xiu looking at him like he saw a ghost.
He lowered his head, simply pulling the gauze on his head down a bit to cover his face, preventing Xiu from being startled by his ugliness suddenly, then carried the narwhal swimming towards the center of the plain.

Xiu recovered after a brief shock and swam over with Wen Chu.
He hesitated to speak: “Is it a bit heavy?”

Wen Chu spoke without panting: “No, not heavy.”

Xiu examined Wen Chu carefully, confirming he didn’t look strained at all before relaxing, only looking at Wen Chu with a few more degrees of deep thought.
He suddenly asked: “Did those doctors in the research… hospital make you participate in any dangerous missions or battles?”

“No.” Wen Chu recalled. “I just stayed in the ward all the time, dazing, sleeping, then learning to talk like the doctors. Doctors ignored me. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Xiu stopped questioning. “I was just thinking, could you be some cyborg researched for war? Now it seems not.”

“War?” Wen Chu repeated this unfamiliar vocabulary. “What is this?”

“It’s humans fighting with force for benefits. The winning side gets the profit.” Xiu tried to choose vernacular to explain to Wen Chu.

Wen Chu frowned: “How can they fight? Others can’t regenerate; they will die.”

Xiu caught the key point: “Others? You have regeneration ability?”

“Yes.”
After saying that, Wen Chu naturally used the shell in his hand to cut a long bloody opening on his forearm.
The action was too fast. Xiu didn’t expect Wen Chu to cut himself without a word, completely unable to stop it, only watching helplessly as bright red blood drifted in the seawater.
Xiu anxiously grabbed Wen Chu’s wrist holding the shell: “What are you doing?”

Wen Chu blinked, obediently handing his arm to him: “Showing you.”

Xiu looked closely, only to see the arm Wen Chu just cut a long wound on had already healed, not a trace of being cut visible.
Wen Chu didn’t know what Xiu was anxious about. He sighed: “Before I wanted to let you eat tentacles, but it seems only your bite mark can’t disappear. Xiu, if you want to eat me next time, let me cut the tentacles for you in advance? That way they can grow back.”

Is that the point??
Xiu held Wen Chu’s wrist without letting go, ignoring the question of whether Wen Chu looked good or not, staring into Wen Chu’s eyes, speaking sternly: “You can’t hurt yourself like this in the future, understand?”

“Oh… oh.” Wen Chu felt inexplicably guilty under Xiu’s gaze.
“Why?” Wen Chu whispered. “It’s fine if I get hurt.”

Xiu slowly put down Wen Chu’s wrist and took the shell from his hand.
“I will care.”
The golden-haired god said so.

Thump thump, thump.
Wen Chu reached out and touched his left chest.
Here it comes again.
Now he wasn’t a jellyfish, he could tangibly feel how violently the heart in his chest was beating.
Like being sick, always completely losing control because of a word from Xiu.
Him getting hurt would make Xiu care.

.
The funeral at the bottom of the sea was very simple. Wen Chu put down the narwhal, and Xiu gathered some seaweed from nearby and planted it simply around the narwhal. That was the end.
Wen Chu stared blankly at the huge white bones beside the narwhal.
Under the white bones, seaweed fluttered with the seawater.

“No matter how harsh the environment, there is always a very small part of seaweed that can barely grow.” Xiu said.

“There is exceptionally much seaweed here.” Wen Chu said.

“Mn.” Xiu lowered his head and stroked the narwhal. “Because the fish buried here provided nutrients for them.”

“In the ocean, there is a saying of ‘Whale Fall’. Whales eat huge amounts daily and have sufficient fat. After natural death, the whale’s body will naturally sink to the seabed.”

“There is little sunlight and little energy to draw from at the bottom of the sea. Fish not only live attached to cold and hot springs, but corpses occasionally falling to the seabed are also their important energy source.”

“Scavengers like sharks will eat most of the meat during the whale’s descent. When the whale falls to the seabed, the remaining fat is also an energy source that can last for several years for small creatures. And when all soft tissues are decomposed…”

“Only skeletons remain?” Wen Chu said.

“Correct, but it doesn’t end here. Remember the tube worms we saw near the cold spring? Whale skeletons provide a hotbed for microorganisms, and tube worms live attached to microorganisms.”
“This is not the end either. Then, after hundreds of years of evolution, the whale’s residual skeleton will become reefs, providing habitats for fish. Shellfish grow here, crabs forage here. Until the very end, the whale bone is eroded by seawater, disappearing little by little, finally becoming part of the marine sediment, which is the seabed ground under our feet.”

Wen Chu lowered his head, looking at the ground under his transparent tentacles.
He suddenly remembered that when the narwhal waited for them, she liked to count the fine sand on the seabed grain by grain.
Wen Chu curled up a handful of sand with his tentacle, watching the grains fall between the tentacles, whispering: “This is also a cycle.”

“Mn, all life in the world cannot be separated from the cycle.” Xiu said.
He said: “Say a final goodbye to the narwhal. I’ll take you to rest elsewhere. This place is not suitable for overnight.”
Too many white bones; children easily have nightmares sleeping here.

Wen Chu looked at the narwhal, opened his mouth, but couldn’t think of what to say for a long time.
After a while, he said: “Goodbye Granny, I will definitely reach the Arctic.”

Then resurrect all the fish.

Right, if he went to the Arctic to resurrect the entire ocean, Granny Narwhal waking up here wouldn’t find them.

Wen Chu thought about it, simply picked up a stone, and crookedly wrote a line of words on the ground.

[Me and Xiu went to the Arctic, remember to come find us.] (Written with typos/childlike writing in raw text: 我禾口修失去北及孑，衤己得米找我門)

He only recognized characters but couldn’t write, simply tracing the patterns from memory.
Wen Chu moved away a bit to look.
Very good, exactly the same as the characters in memory.
Wen Chu was very satisfied.

Xiu watched from the side, the corner of his lips hooking up a bit.
He also picked up a stone, drew a simple route map next to Wen Chu’s words, drew an arrow pointing to Wen Chu’s words, and wrote “Map”.
The strokes were vigorous and powerful.

Wen Chu looked at Xiu’s writing, then at his own, suddenly not so satisfied anymore. He raised his hand to erase and rewrite.
Just as he moved, he was stopped by Xiu.
Xiu clasped his wrist, looking sideways at him: “No need to erase, very cute.”

Wen Chu: “…Oh.”
Xiu said cute means cute. Xiu definitely wouldn’t lie to a little jellyfish like him.

Unlike a jellyfish, the touch of the wrist in hand was warm.
Realizing how intimate the current action was, Xiu released Wen Chu’s wrist as if trying to cover it up.
He lowered his eyes thoughtfully.

If a jellyfish did such a thing, he would find it cute, but when Wen Chu really suddenly turned into a human, this emotion seemed a bit deviated and deteriorated…
Xiu pinched his arm secretly before barely pulling back his thoughts.
He slowly let out a breath, trying to look at Wen Chu with a normal attitude as much as possible, then said: “Let’s go, I’ll take you to find a place to rest.”

Wen Chu moved on the ground relying on tentacles, turning around. He originally intended to swim up and follow Xiu, but paused after seeing Xiu’s expression.
Since he turned into a human, he always felt some faint dislike from Xiu.
Wen Chu pressed his lips together aggrievedly.
He pa-ji moved his tentacles, attempting to push himself forward by opening and closing tentacles. before floating up ten centimeters, he fell back onto the ground.
The soft transparent tentacles were directly pressed into deformation by falling gravity.

Xiu’s movement to leave paused.
Wen Chu swam several times right under Xiu’s nose, invariably falling pitifully to the ground. Even the outermost tentacles were scratched a bit by sharp reefs.
The scratches healed quickly as usual; Wen Chu’s tentacles only retained Xiu’s tooth mark.

Wen Chu raised his eyes, looking at the golden-haired merfolk with those innocent round eyes: “I can’t swim up.”
Seeing Xiu silent, Wen Chu reached out his hand directly to him. The youth’s slender fingers were white and soft, clearly a pair of hands that had never done heavy work.
Wen Chu said: “I want you to hold my hand and swim.”

Xiu’s fingertips trembled unconsciously, touching Wen Chu’s hand extremely lightly.
As it looked, soft, warm.
Not a cold jellyfish, but a pair of tangible warm hands.

Wen Chu was happy being held, relying on instinct to invade every inch of Xiu’s fingers, interlocking fingers with Xiu, using a soft and harmless tone: “Xiu, let’s go.”
Also included a pursed-lip smile.

Xiu holding Wen Chu’s hand trembled again.
He could clearly feel the already crumbling bottom line in his heart cracking open a gap that could be called a chasm.
He was done for.
His liking for Wen Chu seemed to be more than a little.
…Could he really still guide Wen Chu objectively and fairly to establish a correct view of love?

Xiu completely forgot that Wen Chu just carried the narwhal swimming away. His arm exerted slight force, pulling up the weak, pitiful, half-human-half-jellyfish who couldn’t swim, his mind in a mess.

Wen Chu felt he discovered a new continent.
When he was a jellyfish, he couldn’t swim, couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep alone. Although Xiu was impatient, he would patiently teach him.

Now that he turned into a human, could he let Xiu teach him all over again according to the same logic?
Xiu was his teacher, husband, wife.
So it was completely logical for him to sleep with Xiu again.
No, not once.
He wanted to sleep with Xiu many times.