Chapter 29: Near Death, Kissed by Xiu Initiatively

Xiu took Wen Chu away from Atlantis and found a clean abyssal plain to rest.

As usual, he made a seaweed bed for Wen Chu, but this time the bed was several times larger—because Wen Chu, in human form, had jellyfish tentacles no shorter than Xiu’s tail.

Wen Chu sat by the side watching.
More accurately, he was sitting on his own tentacles watching.
Transparent tentacles spread out with him as the center, making him look like a blooming flower. Wen Chu treated the soft tentacles as a stool, waiting quietly for Xiu.

In the past, Granny Narwhal would also find her resting place in the distance at this time.
The narwhal was like a small island, always standing silently where Wen Chu could see from the corner of his eye, watching him and Xiu play with gentle eyes.
Occasionally when Xiu found him annoying, he would roll over to the narwhal’s side.

Now, the surroundings were empty. Apart from him and Xiu, there seemed to be no third living creature on the seabed.
The whole world seemed to have only them left.

Wen Chu adhered to his setting of not knowing how to swim, pa-ji pa-ji moving his tentacles to walk to Xiu’s side, reaching out to tug Xiu’s arm.
“Xiu, do you feel lonely?”

Hearing this, Xiu glanced at Wen Chu. Those blue eyes that usually seemed quenched in ice now showed a trace of worry.
Was Wen Chu particularly sentimental tonight?
Because of the sudden parting?

Xiu pondered and said: “Occasionally, but loneliness has nothing to do with whether there are people around. When you learn to think, loneliness will follow like a shadow.”

Wen Chu blinked: “Then I won’t think anymore.”

“Stupid. Precisely because of this, you must continue to think.”
“Think about what exactly you want, what exactly you want to do. Squeezing together with the crowd is never liveliness. Only when you firmly walk on the path you truly want to take, the people or things encountered on the road are the source of true fulfillment. At that time, you naturally won’t be lonely.”

As Xiu spoke, he poked Wen Chu’s head.
This action was completely out of habit. He used to poke the jellyfish’s umbrella cap like this often. It wasn’t until his fingertips touched Wen Chu’s soft white bangs and warm skin that Xiu realized he had made an ambiguous gesture.
He retracted his hand abruptly.

Wen Chu thought for a moment: “I want to be lovers with you.”
He was thrown into this world like a blank sheet of paper. All his cognition of the world was related to Xiu. If asked what he wanted, Wen Chu could only think of being closer to Xiu.
He might not have realized it himself, but he instinctively relied on Xiu.

Xiu pursed his lips: “Think again. You are an independent individual. There is no need to rely on me for everything.”

Wen Chu didn’t understand: “Why? I independently want to be your lover. My goal is to be with you. Is this not allowed either?”
He felt his goal was particularly clear.

Xiu: “…”
Xiu spoke with difficulty: “This has no value.”

Wen Chu asked back: “Must a goal have value? Didn’t you say what I truly want is my goal?”

Wen Chu’s weird logic left Xiu speechless. He could only temporarily terminate this topic: “Think more about it. Let’s rest first.”

While talking to Wen Chu, he had already made the bed.
Wen Chu moved his tentacles to the seaweed bed. Finding the bed could only accommodate him, a single jellyfish, he looked at Xiu with shocked and heartbroken eyes: “Aren’t you sleeping with me?”

Xiu looked away, not looking at Wen Chu: “I seem to have never agreed to sleep with you.”

Wen Chu then remembered he would scare Xiu with his ugliness and lowered his head silently.
He was thinking about how to pretend to be pitiful to ask Xiu to sleep with him.
Wen Chu was sitting on the seaweed bed, having a huge height difference with the swimming Xiu. Plus his features were soft, lowering his head like this made him look exceptionally pitiful from a top-down angle.
Like some bullied animal cub.

Xiu couldn’t help but take another look at Wen Chu.
Wen Chu couldn’t come up with an idea and sighed leisurely.
Xiu couldn’t resist taking another look at Wen Chu.

“I…”
“You…”

Both spoke at the same time, then paused together.
Finally, Wen Chu continued first. He lowered his head and said, “I can be alone too.”
If Xiu really wasn’t willing, he would, would ask again next time.

Xiu clicked his tongue, as if giving up on everything, swam down and pinched Wen Chu’s cheek.
The youth’s porcelain-white face was pinched by him, soft cheek flesh squeezed, forced to look up at Xiu.
His deep blue eyes met Xiu’s light-colored ones.

Xiu flicked his tail impatiently: “Sleep together then sleep together. Stop looking pitiful in front of me.”

Wen Chu didn’t understand what happened yet, but Xiu agreeing to sleep with him was a good result. Being pinched on the cheek, he said indistinctly: “Hao de (Okay).”
Acting cute.
Thinking this, Xiu released the hand pinching Wen Chu’s cheek and swam to the side of the seaweed bed preparing to lie down.

Before he could lie down properly, Wen Chu rolled over with a gulu gulu, extending his arm tentacles to hug him.
Wen Chu slept directly on top of Xiu, pressing Xiu beneath him.
His white and tender face pressed against Xiu’s soft chest, tentacles touching the other’s fish tail, like an octopus with exceptionally many tentacles, hugging Xiu tightly.
Cold tentacles gave the fish tail a passionate hug.

“What are you doing?!” Xiu was shocked almost to the point of losing his voice.

Wen Chu lifted his face from his chest, long white hair falling down accordingly.
Wen Chu was innocent: “Sleeping together. Isn’t it sleeping like this?”
As he said this, his hair ends trembled, brushing across the merfolk’s entire chest like a gentle small brush.

“Of course not. Who sleeps on top of others casually??” Xiu reached out to pull Wen Chu down.

Wen Chu used both tentacles and hands, hugging Xiu to death, resolutely defending the opportunity to sleep together he won: “There is. I slept like this when I was a jellyfish.”
He argued based on reason: “You said it yourself, you won’t dislike me just because I turned into a human. No differential treatment.”

The more Wen Chu spoke, the more reasonable he felt. Xiu, afraid of hurting him, dared not use force at all. He simply pasted himself back onto Xiu hard, burying his face deep into the waves again.
Wen Chu was buried, voice muffled: “You can’t just like the jellyfish and not like me.”

Xiu: ?
What is all this?
Xiu was puzzled enough to forget tearing Wen Chu off himself: “Aren’t both of these you?”

Wen Chu didn’t listen: “You are biased. You just like the jellyfish. I just want to sleep with you, you promised me… Mmph mmph mmph!“

Xiu directly reached out to press down the back of Wen Chu’s head, blocking Wen Chu’s mouth with his chest.
Wen Chu was truly submerged by Xiu this time. Because he didn’t have time to shut his mouth, he bit onto Xiu’s chest off guard.
Xiu was pressing the back of his head; he couldn’t lift his head to shut his mouth even if he wanted to, so he could only hold it in his mouth forcedly.

[Lifespan +3h]

Feeling the temperature of the mouth, Xiu’s fish tail trembled.
But Wen Chu finally quieted down. Afraid that once he let go, Wen Chu would issue the unsolvable question “Do you actually like me or the jellyfish” again, he braced himself to maintain this posture, speaking very fast:
“I don’t like anyone. Quiet, sleep. Letting you sleep, isn’t that enough?”

He let go of Wen Chu after speaking.
Wen Chu lifted his head. There was a shallow tooth mark on the merfolk’s chest. Having achieved his goal, he smiled at Xiu: “Okay.”
Xiu agreed to let him sleep.

Xiu was lost in thought for a moment due to Wen Chu’s smile.
Wen Chu also realized belatedly that he showed his face in front of Xiu again, immediately lowering his head to bury himself in Xiu’s chest to play ostrich.
Xiu looked at Wen Chu, who was dedicated to hiding himself on him: …
Hiding from him one moment, sleeping with him the next.
Sometimes he really couldn’t understand Wen Chu’s brain circuit.
But finally quieted down.

Wen Chu didn’t expect Xiu to like him now anyway. He hugged Xiu happily, pasted on Xiu’s warm chest. Xiu finally got peace, achieving a happy ending for both.

The first night alone together, Wen Chu fell asleep amidst Xiu’s powerful heartbeat.
Too many changes happened today. First the narwhal’s departure, then the shock of Atlantis. Before he could recover from emotions, he was directly turned into human form by the system.
Then, Xiu actually agreed to let him sleep.
This day was too full of ups and downs, so much so that Wen Chu actually forgot a relatively less important matter—his Lifespan points.

Wen Chu slept without worries.
Xiu looked at the person sleeping in his arms.
Wen Chu buried his head dead tight; he could only see the other’s round back of the head.
Wen Chu probably retained some habits from when he was a jellyfish, curled up sleeping in a ball.
Although adding tentacles he was about the same length as Xiu, Wen Chu was originally on the slender side. Curling up like this made him appear exceptionally thin and weak.
Xiu thought, Wen Chu was indeed very weak, unable to even swim after changing form.
Xiu completely ignored the fact that Wen Chu could lift the narwhal with one hand.

Wen Chu had no clothes on his upper body after turning into a human. Looking at his chest slightly rising and falling with breathing, Xiu felt Wen Chu might catch a cold sleeping without covering his stomach.

He reached out to pick up the seaweed beside him, originally laid as a mattress for Wen Chu, wanting to cover Wen Chu.
Perhaps his movement of taking seaweed disturbed Wen Chu. Wen Chu hummed softly and turned over on his chest.
That beautiful face broke into Xiu’s vision without warning.

Xiu’s breathing stagnated for a moment before remembering what he was going to do just now, covering Wen Chu with the quilt even more gently.
Like possessed by a ghost, he brushed away the white broken hair on Wen Chu’s forehead, looked at the sleeping Wen Chu for a long while, and slowly hugged Wen Chu back around the waist.

Sleep.
Good night and sweet dreams.

[Remaining Lifespan: 16 Days 8 Hours 19 Minutes]
[Notice: Lifespan decrease speed increased to 32 times. Please pay attention to reasonable allocation of remaining Lifespan points.]

The system panel popped out, pausing weirdly upon seeing Wen Chu already heartlessly asleep.
The system panel poked the sleeping Wen Chu resentfully as if he failed to meet expectations.
Wen Chu frowned, hummed again, and buried his face back into Xiu’s chest.
The system panel disappeared directly in anger.
Sleep sleep sleep! Just know how to sleep!

.
The merfolk’s chest was very warm. Wen Chu slept incredibly happily this sleep.
Therefore, when a severe stabbing pain came from his head, and he opened his eyes to a spinning dizziness, Wen Chu didn’t realize what happened at all.

“Xiu…”
He subconsciously opened his mouth to call Xiu. The sound startled himself first.
Why did his voice suddenly become so weak?
This call was too quiet; Xiu didn’t respond. Wen Chu propped himself up trying to get off Xiu first, but before he could prop up, his arms went soft and he fell down again.

[You have the last 2 hours left, converted to less than three minutes.] The system’s cold voice sounded.

Wen Chu experienced what near-death Lifespan points felt like for the first time.
His brain was chaotic, almost unable to breathe. All thoughts turned into blank snowflakes, only hearing the system’s unhappy voice: [You slept peacefully under thirty-two times Lifespan consumption all night? I’ll pull you into the system space first——]

“No!” Wen Chu shouted out.
“No…” He gasped strenuously, subconsciously grasping everything graspable around him, insisting, “No, I have my own plan, won’t die.”
“Can’t enter system space; Xiu will be sad.”

The system also raised its voice: [You are losing your life right now! Are you…]

“Wen Chu?”
Wen Chu couldn’t hear the rest of the system’s voice because the merfolk beneath him was awakened.
Xiu looked at Wen Chu gripping his chest dead tight. The layer of muscle on his chest was scratched with bright red finger marks by the other.
But Xiu couldn’t care about these right now.
Because Wen Chu was sweating cold sweat all over, lips pale, curling up on him trembling and gasping.

“Wen Chu, what’s wrong with you?!”
Xiu sat up quickly, protecting Wen Chu in his arms, reaching out to feel Wen Chu’s forehead.
Cold as ice.
Because Xiu sat up, Wen Chu couldn’t grab the other’s chest anymore, but still subconsciously leaned close to Xiu, reaching out again to grasp Xiu’s hanging golden long hair dead tight.
His voice was so small it was almost inaudible: “Lifespan points…”
Lifespan points, running out.
So death from exhaustion of Lifespan points was uncomfortable.

Wen Chu looked dazedly at the golden figure already blurring in front of him.
His meeting with Xiu came from his instinct for survival.
But at this moment, Wen Chu’s first reaction wasn’t to grab Xiu to kiss, nor to beg Xiu to save him.
He just thought, That’s great. Xiu said he wouldn’t be lonely.
If I really die, without me annoying Xiu all the time, Xiu will definitely be very happy.

Before such a thought could surface for even a second, Wen Chu felt a weight on his body, and then a warm touch came from his lips.

[Lifespan +12h]

He was kissed by Xiu.
Breathing smoothed for a moment. Before Wen Chu could make any reaction, he felt his lips pried open fiercely.
Lips and tongues entangled.
Previously it was always him eating Xiu. This was the first time Xiu offered himself to be eaten so actively.
Xiu’s kiss was also fierce, carrying predatory nature, like a panicked trapped beast using all means to keep the fragile life fading in his arms.
Wen Chu’s tongue was tightly entangled by Xiu.

[Lifespan +12h]
[Lifespan +12h]
[Lifespan +12h]

Lifespan points rose rapidly. Xiu forcibly pulled him out of the danger zone. Wen Chu’s breathing finally became smooth.
Vision finally cleared too.
In the deep dark ocean, Wen Chu saw the scattered golden long hair like sunlight.
Then Xiu’s eyes reddened from tension.

“How much Lifespan do you lack? What exactly is going on?? Weren’t you fine before sleeping??”
This morning he saw Wen Chu was still a big jellyfish.
Xiu paused as he spoke, seeming to finally grasp the key point, looking at the humanoid jellyfish in front of him.
“Does maintaining human form require you to pay some price? Does it require double Lifespan points?”

Wen Chu nodded slowly, then shook his head, looking at Xiu silly.
Won’t trouble Xiu anymore; he should be happy clearly.
But why, when he saw Xiu, was he sad instead?

“Not human form…”
Wen Chu explained half a beat slower.
“It’s oil. After getting oil on me, Lifespan points started dropping at accelerated speed, doubling every day. Today the Lifespan drop speed is thirty-two times.”
Things having come to this, there was no room to hide anymore. Wen Chu could only tell the truth.

He continued to stare blankly at Xiu, as if possessed, lingering over the vivid expressions after Xiu’s calm mask shattered, swallowing the other with his gaze inch by inch.
Xiu said he didn’t understand love, but Wen Chu felt he just liked Xiu.

He also wanted to be good to Xiu, be useful to Xiu.
“Sorry… troubled you. Tomorrow Lifespan points will accelerate to sixty-four times. I don’t want to trouble you…”

“So you wanted to die?” Xiu’s trailing note was even trembling.
He was furious, using his fish tail to press down Wen Chu’s lower body tentacles, directly pressing Wen Chu, who just escaped danger and hadn’t recovered strength, onto the seabed ground.
Wen Chu’s seaweed quilt slipped off accordingly.

Xiu gritted his teeth, wishing he could dismantle Wen Chu’s head to see what exactly was inside. He used an extremely fierce tone: “You wasted so much of my time. I took you on the road for so long to the Arctic. You promised to resurrect the ocean, and now you just die so lightly?”
“Wen Chu, did you ask my opinion?”

Wen Chu realized.
So Xiu thought he was planning to die and was angry because he didn’t keep his promise.
He only thought about it yesterday; how could he bear to die? He still had to be lovers with Xiu.

Just as Wen Chu pondered how to explain his plan to Xiu, Xiu had completely lost patience.
He kissed Wen Chu again, asking while kissing: “Doing what with you increases Lifespan points the most?”

“Hmm?” Wen Chu hummed a confused nasal sound in the stormy kiss.
The Lifespan panel kept popping up beside him; Wen Chu had no time to attend to it at this moment.
He felt he couldn’t quite understand what Xiu was saying.

Seeing this, Xiu stopped kissing.
He took a deep breath, looking down at Wen Chu with those transparent blue eyes, saying word by word:
“I said, what do I have to do with you to increase your Lifespan points the most?”
“Kissing? Touching scales? Mating? Or something else? I’ll do it with you.”

As Xiu spoke, he glanced at the terrifyingly sized tentacles under Wen Chu, shrank his tail, then unfolded it.

Wen Chu came back to his senses: “If it’s just to restore the ocean, I won’t… Mmph?”

Xiu directly grabbed one of Wen Chu’s tentacles, pinching Wen Chu’s face with the other hand.
He was about to be driven crazy by this stupid jellyfish with zero sense of tension.
“Don’t mention these messy things at this time anymore. What exactly should be done?”
If Wen Chu didn’t say it, he would do it himself.