【Wife wife wife wife wife】
【Don’t be mad, don’t be mad】
【Wife, cuddle close~ cuddle close~】
…
The tentacles froze for a moment, then scrambled hastily toward Sang Ning, while the remaining tentacles that couldn’t reach him instead dove beneath the water to fish out the timber, clumsily bundling it together.
The soaked firewood, pulled from the water, dripped steadily from within the coiled tentacles.
“Mmph!”
Sang Ning was wrapped up in the tentacles, even his ankles bound tight, he struggled to lift his head, only to be enveloped again, tucked protectively into the soft bell, pressed snugly against the giant jellyfish.
“Okay, okay, Ya Ya.” Sang Ning quickly called out to stop it, flailing his hands against the restraints wrapped around him.
Physalia paused for a moment, but still didn’t let go.
Unable to struggle free, Sang Ning let himself be carried back to shore.
He was set down carefully, even once he was standing on land, Physalia still refused to release him, keeping him held in that “embrace.”
The soaked firewood, drained of water, dried out and turned brittle again, was piled haphazardly at his feet.
Sang Ning pushed away the tentacle wrapped around his face, resigned to letting it rest on his shoulder instead.
Carrying a giant jellyfish on his back felt exactly like being clung to by an overly affectionate dog, no real burden at all.
He bent down to gather the dry firewood, dragging Physalia along as he prepared to head back.
The mutilated monster fish was hooked up by a tentacle and dragged from the bloody water onto the shore, revealing pale white flesh.
“Ya Ya?”
Sang Ning tilted his head in confusion, watching as the giant jellyfish coiled the fish up and stuffed it into its stomach, the fish, nearly the size of a person, its head wrenched off, squeezed and digested inside the translucent belly.
Drops of blood trickled down the water-blue tentacle. Sang Ning’s eyes went wide, and he swallowed hard, struggling to process it.
This was the first time Physalia had ever shown any sign of actively “eating.”
Every time he witnessed it feeding, it was a serious challenge to his composure.
He could practically picture himself being completely consumed the same way.
He hastily looked away, feeling a strange sting across his skin.
Physalia tugged at his wrist, distracted, he walked forward, and within a few steps nearly tripped over a step.
The firewood in his hands clattered to the ground, and he tumbled straight into something soft.
Physalia repeated its usual trick, gently lifting Sang Ning with its bell, its tentacles calmly gathering up the firewood as it drifted unhurriedly along the stone path.
Sang Ning tensed his fingers, burying his face against the jellyfish’s bell as if to hide, eyes still open, watching Physalia’s every organ through the translucent membrane.
He couldn’t quite tell where the stomach ended and everything else began, only able to make out a large mass of fish flesh slowly diminishing inside the bell.
Setting that aside, the tentacles trailing beneath the bell drifted beautifully, like a fairy’s silk sash.
Physalia matched, in many ways, humanity’s romanticized image of jellyfish, a lovely bell, swaying tentacles… and, for the most part, a thoroughly harmless, docile temperament.
But at times, it could be quite aggressive.
Sang Ning curled up, lying entirely across Physalia’s bell, his lips moving faintly, eyes lowering, and at some point his mouth curved into a smile.
“It’s really not so bad.”
Sang Ning murmured softly to himself, deciding Ya Ya was simply a bit clumsy.
If someone ever came to rescue him, he’d definitely find some way to hide Ya Ya.
Hide it away, and bring it back with him.
After his outing, Sang Ning came home with a good haul of firewood, only to smack his forehead upon unpacking, realizing he’d forgotten the basket and the half-basket of sweet potatoes!
But after the ordeal with the monster fish, his face carried a weary look.
Instead, he simply soaked a few sweet-potato slices with leafy sprouts in a stainless steel basin in the courtyard, planning to try growing them hydroponically.
He also tidied up the small flower bed outside the courtyard, once meant for flowers, and planted the sprouted sweet potato pieces there.
Having grown up in an orphanage, Sang Ning had never farmed before, he pressed his palms together, mind blanking for a moment, and offered up a haphazard little prayer to the sky and earth alike.
“Please grow up big and strong!”
He wanted sweet potatoes! Sweet potato leaves! Sweet potato vines!
He wanted food!
The wind swept past the young man’s slender frame, his figure straight as bamboo, the hem of his robe lifting with the breeze, his glowing skin peeking through the indigo fabric. The visible dips at his waist were striking, his midsection showing only a faint, toned line from what little exercise he’d managed.
His waist was slim, but he really was far too thin, as if he hadn’t eaten properly in ages.
Having made his wish, Sang Ning opened his eyes, only to be tugged gently by a soft tentacle.
He tilted his head in confusion, the fish meat inside Physalia’s body shifted, and, as if regurgitating, it spat out a fairly large chunk of fish flesh.
The monster fish, dissolving from the outside in, had turned into a stream of tiny bubbles absorbed into Physalia’s body, leaving behind only a single piece of silvery-white flesh.
Physalia coiled the meat and brought it up to Sang Ning’s mouth, his first instinct was to jerk his head back, but Physalia’s persistence made him realize what was happening.
“Is this… for me to eat, Ya Ya?” Sang Ning asked, cradling the half-meter-long chunk of fish meat, looking utterly bewildered.
He hesitated, the flesh coated in a clear, sticky fluid clinging to his hands.
Sang Ning sniffed it cautiously, no strange smell.
Spat up from its stomach, though…
His expression turned thoroughly strange. He tried rinsing the fish clean, with no knife, he tore off a piece by hand, the flesh coming away stringy and clinging.
He rinsed it roughly with water and boiled it, and once the meat began to change color, he furrowed his brow and speared it with a stick to test it.
The first bite he brought to his mouth made his expression relax, and he chewed a few times.
It tasted like cooked salmon, no fishy smell at all, tender and delicate, after boiling, it practically melted against his lips.
Just the plain taste of fish.
“That’s… actually pretty good?” Sang Ning said, uncertain.
He hesitated again and again, but before he knew it, he’d finished off the whole piece.
A chunk of fish this size would last several meals, his eyes gleamed as he looked at the great jellyfish, as if stars were scattered across his gaze.
“Ya Ya, you’re amazing! Did you save this specially for me?”
He shuffled excitedly closer to Physalia, leaning forward on his little stool, half his face lit warmly by the firelight.
Sang Ning’s lips curved, brimming with delight.
【Feeding wife something tasty, wife cuddle close~】
A soft tentacle brushed his cheek, Sang Ning’s eyes curved as he leaned into it.
Hearing no response, as he’d grown accustomed to, he murmured to himself, “Well, at least food’s not a problem for now. I guess that counts as settled in, doesn’t it?”
Hmm… now he just needed to wait for rescue.
Still, Sang Ning remained cautious. He’d taken stock of everything in the guesthouse, some kept in the room they lived in, some locked away in another room on the second floor, where he’d specifically filled the bathtub there with stored water.
But that wasn’t enough, he also needed to stockpile food.
And since it was already autumn, if rescue didn’t come until winter, he’d need to prepare to survive the cold, stockpiling enough firewood and food.
And if spring still didn’t bring rescue, he might need to start preparing to farm for the long haul.
Sang Ning began mentally tallying up the quilts in the guesthouse.
Since it was autumn, all the bedding he could find in the guesthouse were autumn-weight quilts, he had no idea how cold winter got here, and would need to find warmer clothes and blankets somehow.
Thinking it over, he realized he’d need to go back down to the village below to search for supplies.
Sang Ning bit his finger and sighed softly.
“Surviving is really hard.”
Feeling a little down, Sang Ning flopped against Physalia, feeling himself gradually sink into the jellyfish’s body, its bell gently covering his back. He let out a low sigh, unable to resist kicking his legs against the bed in frustration.
“So hard!”
Sang Ning had finally gotten to sleep on a dry mattress, yet here he was, twisting in place, thoroughly conflicted.
“Can’t keep going on like this, no more spiraling!” Sang Ning slapped his own cheeks, trying to summon some resolve.
“For winter! For food!”
His hand wasn’t gentle, and his delicate skin flushed red from the impact, though he looked all the more lively for it.
Physalia wriggled its tentacles softly, pressing slowly against his face, the next time Sang Ning tried to slap himself, he ended up hitting the squishy jellyfish instead.
“Pfft.” Sang Ning couldn’t hold back a laugh, his eyes shining.
“Ya Ya, you’re so cute!” he couldn’t help but exclaim.
Were all jellyfish this cute?
Small ones were cute. Big ones were cute too.
Sang Ning tried stretching his arms out to hug Physalia, only to be pulled in and enveloped by it instead.
He sank slowly, gradually wrapped up by the jellyfish, its bell spreading across his face, drifting gently with each warm breath.
Sleep pulled at him deeply, in the quiet night, only his breathing remained, and soon even that was swallowed entirely.
Physalia enveloped and claimed everything of him, body, breath, and every beat of his heart.
It caressed its partner’s limbs sweetly with its tentacles, slipping easily beneath his clothes, its strange eyes blinking open and shut, pressing intimately against every inch of skin.
Beneath the clothing that concealed it, his skin bore marks that couldn’t be spoken of, deliberately drawn out and sucked into being, sticky fluid sweetly coating and enveloping his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears…
The terrifying monster claimed its partner in its own way, and once he was fully taken into its body, its fine feeling-cells linked to every pulse of blood flowing through the human body.
It silently drew information about humanity from the world, extracting genetic fragments, silently modifying, refining, composing…
It would walk alongside its partner in the finest form it could achieve.
A mysterious presence stirred through heaven and earth, tonight, the wolves were unusually restless, howling at the moon before, at certain moments, tucking their tails and whimpering low.
The deep crimson night bathed the entire world in blood-red light, the whole world shrouded in vast, ominous tragedy.
High in the sky, the crimson moon suddenly opened an eye, its unbearable, eerie tremor sweeping terror across everything below.
If any human looked up, gazing at that round moon in the sky—
When they lowered their heads again, chaotic crimson would swirl savagely within their own eyes.
Someone asked a friend who’d returned late that night, “Why are you back so late?”
“How’d it go? Did you find anything to eat today?”
The friend’s eyes were bloodshot, his expression stiff, as if only just now reacting, staring fixedly at the person before him. Only at the word “eat” did he slowly stretch his mouth into a smile: “To eat? Of course.”
“Aren’t you it?”
“AAAAHHH—”
A terrified scream rang out once again in the night, someone hiding at home, refusing to go outside no matter what, clamped their hands over their ears, eyes bloodshot with fear, muttering to themselves half-deliriously.
“No, no, can’t go out… can’t go out, can’t go out…”
…