Waking hazily from the darkness, Sang Ning struggled, his lashes trembling, forcing his glued-together eyelids open.
His eyes were wet, as if something had licked them, leaving behind a sticky film.
Sang Ning touched his eyelids, vaguely assuming it was just tears he hadn’t noticed shedding.
He lifted his head to look around, not sure where he’d drifted to. The flood covering the mountaintop had receded quite a bit.
The unusually red clouds cast the water’s surface in blood-red light, light and shadow flowed down from the high mountains beside the water, like blood streaming down from the peaks.
Looking further down, he could faintly make out a corner of human civilization poking up out of the water.
If he swam from here, he should be able to reach land…
Sang Ning considered it, weighing the distance to the shore.
He pulled a stick about two fingers thick from a clump of shrubbery drifting nearby, and used it to gauge the distance to the bank.
He’d need to swim at least five or six meters through the water.
By rights, staying put after a disaster was usually the best choice.
But first, he had no phone, and had no way of knowing whether rescue would even come.
Second, judging by the situation before he’d been swept away, the flood might have carried him very far, the high mountains and deep forest here were flooded like this, and there was no telling what state the disaster area was in, there might not be resources to spare for him.
Third, floating on the water with nothing to eat, and drinking unclean water risking diarrhea and dehydration, would only kill him faster.
But even if he made it up the mountain, could he really survive?
Sang Ning tilted his head back. The mountain before him had been battered to pieces, the marks of the flood unmistakable, a thin layer of mud coating everything.
Every mountain looked exactly the same.
He had no idea where he even was.
If this kept up, he’d die.
Sang Ning tugged at the hem of his clothes, worked up his courage, and used the stick as a paddle to row through the water.
Jellyfish were plankton, only able to drift along with the current, they had no real strength to swim on their own.
Sang Ning recalled what he knew about jellyfish, watching the giant creature beneath him warily.
The great jellyfish stayed quiet, seeming to be carried along by the current his “paddle” stirred up, swaying gently toward the shore.
It simply drifted along with the flow, showing no particular reaction.
Sang Ning was suddenly overjoyed, pressing his palms together in a quick prayer of thanks.
“Thank you, I’ll send you safely back into the water, I promise. I really need to get to shore, please, please.”
He bowed, half to the sky and half to the jellyfish, in a manner that made no sense at all, then hurriedly waved his stick, paddling with all his strength.
With only a single stick, it was, without question, a foolish and exhausting effort. Sang Ning never realized that the “jellyfish” beneath him was, of its own volition, drifting toward the shore.
Its tentacles moved beneath the water, several eyeballs turning over, quietly gripping floating debris near the shore and using it for leverage, pushing itself closer and closer to land.
Finally reaching the bank, Sang Ning, curled up entirely on the jellyfish’s body, could finally stretch out.
He arched his body backward like a cat, his clothes riding up to reveal a glimpse of the soft skin at his waist, a body like snow carved into shape, dazzlingly white.
Sang Ning couldn’t help hopping in place, his long-empty stomach growling loudly with hunger.
He couldn’t help but worry, brows furrowing anxiously, one hand pressed to his stomach as he reached out, still dripping, to pat the jellyfish’s head, carefully pushing it back toward the water.
The jellyfish was very light, its body soft and pliant, feeling like a mass of condensed water. Pushed by human hands, it drifted gently away from the shore.
The “jellyfish”: ???
【No, wife!】
Realizing Sang Ning meant to push it away, the “jellyfish” swung its tentacles, its bell blooming open.
The rushing current split strangely around its body, parting to either side of that section, and that break in the current followed close behind Sang Ning, getting closer and closer…
Sang Ning walked with difficulty, using the stick to support himself as he stumbled over the chaotic rocks, never noticing that something had followed him ashore.
The shore wasn’t safe either, the indistinguishable trees made it impossible to place his location, the towering canopy blotting out the sky, dizzying to look up at.
Sang Ning walked away from the river, deeper into the mountains, tapping and knocking through the underbrush with his stick, sometimes leaning on it for support as he struggled down a steep slope.
Someone who’d spent his whole life pampered in a modern city had no experience at all moving through mountain terrain.
Sang Ning thought he might exhaust himself to death before he even got down the mountain.
He thought it with a bitter kind of humor.
Suddenly his foot slipped, and as he braced himself, he felt warm breath fall directly against the back of his neck.
He froze, eyes going wide, and lunged forward on instinct, sprawling to the ground, face streaked with dirt as he looked up, a monster with blood-red eyes was crouched among the tree branches.
It loomed over him, its long tongue lolling out, dripping saliva that hissed and corroded the hard stone where it landed.
Sang Ning felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, cold sweat prickling, a sharp pain shot through the back of his head, and he instinctively scraped backward.
The moment he moved, those blood-red slit pupils snapped straight toward him.
The monster had the shape of a wolf, but dragged a lizard’s tail, and when it opened its enormous mouth, row upon row of jagged teeth filled its maw.
It let out a snarl, its greedy gaze sweeping over Sang Ning, seeming almost to sneer contemptuously.
Sang Ning bolted upright and spun to run, his footsteps hurried, the wind rushed past him from behind, and a massive impact slammed him to the ground.
He pitched forward, rolling and scrambling back to his feet, as a hot, barbed tongue lashed savagely across his face.
Sang Ning squeezed his eyes shut, but the expected sting of torn skin never came. He opened his eyes, startled.
A misshapen tongue hung suspended in midair, forced to a stop. A massive, semi-transparent jellyfish had placed itself in front of him, its gentle tentacles brushing lightly over Sang Ning’s face like willow branches.
Before Sang Ning could react, the pliant bell unfurled and “gently” wrapped around him.
The sensation was deeply strange, his entire body sank uncontrollably into a mass of soft water, as if being absorbed into a slime, the soft, clinging sensation slowly covering his mouth, nose, and eyes, enveloping his limbs and chest.
The feeling was like returning to his mother’s womb, carrying an inexplicable sense of safety.
Sang Ning couldn’t help but close his eyes, his eyelids grew heavy, his own awareness dissolving away in the warm surroundings.
His mind screamed frantic warnings, but a wave of drowsiness kept surging up regardless.
Sang Ning fell asleep.
He slept with his eyes closed, peaceful as if he’d returned to his mother’s embrace.
The “jellyfish’s” tentacles brushed his cheek, coiled around his supple, slender waist, and, with growing boldness, slipped into his pant legs…
The young man’s brow relaxed, his cheeks flushed, sleeping in perfect ease.
【Wife’s so good, so good, so good】
【So cute, cuddle close to wife~ lick lick, wife smells so sweet】
【I love wife, want to have babies with wife/heart/heart】
…
The chaotic, hazy murmurs drifted through his mind like a dream, brushing past without leaving a trace.
Sang Ning woke groggily, the bell that had wrapped around his body opened a gap like a flower blooming, and he gasped for air like he was tasting oxygen for the first time.
His pale neck tilted back, exposing its vulnerable line without any guard at all, his throat bobbing with each breath. Sang Ning shivered without meaning to, his amber eyes hazy with confusion as he glanced around in a panic.
The blood-red forest lay still and silent, that strange, dangerous monster was gone.
The woods were quiet now, only him and a “jellyfish” hiding quietly in a corner.
“You saved me again.”
Sang Ning peeled away the jellyfish’s bell that had covered him and struggled to sit up. He was completely dry, only his heart still racing from lingering terror, gradually calming as his breathing steadied.
He reached out and stroked the jellyfish’s bell, unable to tell where its eyes even were, the great jellyfish simply pressed against him affectionately.
Like some harmless little creature.
Sang Ning’s busy schedule had only ever allowed him to keep jellyfish that didn’t need much care. He liked watching those quiet little creatures drift through the water, and had grown used to brief, gentle contact with them.
They were usually harmless, quiet, without a trace of aggression.
Because the “jellyfish” had saved him, he now felt an extra measure of closeness toward it.
Sang Ning couldn’t help a faint smile, like spring blossoms and an autumn moon, dazzlingly white amid a world drenched in crimson.
“Maybe I shouldn’t go too deep into the forest. If the water recedes back to the village, things should be easier.”
Sang Ning murmured to himself, then, with effort, gathered the jellyfish up in his arms and started back the way he’d come.
It was, without question, an extremely difficult undertaking, but he really had no courage left to venture any deeper.
Sang Ning tripped over a rock again on the uneven mountain path, grabbing frantically at a nearby branch, only to fall unexpectedly, with a flop, into something soft.
The “jellyfish” swayed, unfurling its tentacles, and in an instant lifted Sang Ning’s body up.
It moved as if swimming through water, swaying its tentacles in the breeze, letting its soft bell carry Sang Ning aloft.
Sang Ning had suddenly boarded the “jellyfish express.”
It carried him, drifting gently through the forest, its own body giving off a faint blue glow, the light rippling and flowing clearly through it in the sunlight.
Sang Ning, thoroughly pampered by his old life, let out a great sigh of relief.
His legs ached, his body sore from rolling on the ground, and long hunger had left even his thoughts sluggish.
Sang Ning found himself missing the convenience and safety of modern society more than ever.
He remembered browsing the news once and seeing a flock of ducks swept all the way from a small country in the south into his own by flooding.
He desperately wished he’d only been swept from the filming location to somewhere else nearby. The location had been fairly inland, even if he’d been carried off by a flood, at most he’d have crossed provinces.
With this face of his… Sang Ning felt a little embarrassed. Maybe someone would recognize him and be willing to call for help?
Whatever the case.
“I can’t just wait to die,” Sang Ning murmured.
Autumn in the mountains meant plenty of fruit, and while he’d have to watch out for snakes and other creatures deep in the mountains, he might just survive.
Thinking this over, Sang Ning worked up his courage and looked around.
The great jellyfish moved very slowly, swaying along like an old, worn-out vehicle, which made it easy for Sang Ning to make out the trees around them.
Suddenly his eyes widened, and he slapped the jellyfish’s head with delight.
“Wait, wait a minute…”
He paused, not sure what to even call the jellyfish.
Not knowing whether it could understand him, he simply scrambled down using both hands and feet.
The “jellyfish” abruptly stopped, one drifting tentacle floating over and casually coiling around Sang Ning’s wrist.
There was almost no force to it at all, just a gentle wrap around his wrist.
Soft and harmless, yet it made his skin twitch reflexively, leaving a faint red mark on his slender, pale wrist.
Sang Ning nearly assumed he’d simply gotten it tangled by accident.
Before he could think further, something round rolled up to his foot. Sang Ning found a stick and poked at it, and his eyes lit up.
Chestnuts!
Wonderful! He was saved, it was chestnuts!