The next day, as the sky was just beginning to brighten, Yu Ying woke up. Her entire body felt cold, as if she had been soaked in seawater, leaving her covered in a layer of cold sweat.
Yu Ying had had a nightmare. In the dream, the sky twisted into grotesque shapes, and the sticky, slimy tentacles of a monster reached toward her lips. She drew closer to the indescribable creature.
The tentacles slid into her soft lips, and mucus dripped down the corners of her mouth.
In the dream, He seduced Yu Ying, “Mother, eat me and let me become one with you.”
Yu Ying had always had a good quality of sleep, and she had never before remembered a dream so clearly, as if she had truly encountered an unspeakable, eerie entity.
She unscrewed her bottle of melatonin and took two pills.
Yu Ying put on her slippers and went to the bathroom to wash up. She pinned up her long hair with a simple wooden hairpin and cupped the icy water to splash onto her face.
The water flowing from the faucet became increasingly viscous. Yu Ying’s hands were covered in mucus, which stretched into threads as it dripped down.
An illusion. This is just an illusion you are seeing.
Yu Ying picked up a towel to wipe the water droplets from her face and threw her pajamas into the laundry basket. She changed into a cheongsam, fastened the knotted buttons at the neck, and pulled the zipper at the back. The zipper head got stuck.
Through the mirror, she could see behind her; cracks appeared in the bathroom tiles, and a tentacle reached out from within to help her pull up the zipper.
Yu Ying closed her eyes, feeling the tentacle touch her skin, its mucus dripping onto the back of her neck. Yu Ying was covered in the scent of a certain tentacle.
She didn’t pay much attention to the tentacle emerging from the wall crack, put on her broken-ceramic earrings, walked out of the bathroom, put on pure white high heels, and sprayed a bit of perfume on herself.
Yu Ying picked up her phone and wrote down her condition in her notes.
April 7th: I saw a pink tentacle coming out of the wall crack; the tentacle helped me pull up my zipper.
From initial panic to the current habit of recording it, Yu Ying found that the world of mental illness was not that terrifying—at least, the eerie entities she saw did not harm her.
Her condition was being controlled and alleviated.
Last night, Yu Mianmian had not slept in Yu Ying’s room; she lived next door to her.
Before leaving, Yu Ying did not wake the sleeping little snake. The little snake was accustomed to nocturnal hunting activities and would coil itself up like a mosquito coil during the day to sleep soundly.
Her fingertips gently stroked the little snake’s head, “Be good and wait at home for me to return.”
Yu Ying did not notice the jellyfish in the glass jar. Just as she was about to leave, she caught sight of the jar emitting a blue fluorescent light. She walked over to the desk and said to the jellyfish, “Do you want to come out with me?”
The light in the glass jar flashed three times; the baby jellyfish was responding to Yu Ying. Yu Ying carried the glass jar out of the room and knocked on Yu Mianmian’s door.
Hearing the knock, Yu Mianmian immediately ran to open the door for Yu Ying. She had no resentment toward her.
“Sister, can you help me choose an outfit to wear into town?” Yu Mianmian pulled Yu Ying into her room.
There were many residents in Blackwater Town; perhaps she might encounter “Mother.” In the cultivation game, players appeared in virtual avatars, and players had fixed character images in every dungeon.
For example, in the Abyss Python dungeon, Yu Ying’s image was a giant black python, which was why Sui Lin did not recognize the human as her mother. In the Godly Jellyfish dungeon, Yu Ying was a jellyfish deity with healing powers.
Naturally, that foolish snake did not know her mother was a human. Yu Mianmian guessed it might be the human direction only because she had accidentally overheard the octopus’s deduction.
That clever octopus had deduced the game world, found the game’s official website, hacked the official system, and caused the eerie NPCs in the game world to awaken. Quite a few entities had escaped into the human world after the game space tore apart.
Not only did the octopus know that their mother was a human, but she also knew her mother’s game account. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been able to find it, Yu Mianmian thought with regret.
From the moment she stepped into Yu Mianmian’s room, Yu Ying felt surrounded by warmth. Yu Mianmian had redecorated the room; the walls were covered with floral wallpaper, and the bed was piled with various cartoon plushies, among them a cute jellyfish doll.
“Are you also a player of the ‘Deep Sea Monster’ game?”
That jellyfish was merchandise released by the game officials.
Deep Sea Monster…? Yu Mianmian had never heard the octopus mention the game title; she only knew they lived in the game world.
She always felt that she suffered for being uneducated, and because of this, she had missed some important information. Yu Mianmian memorized the game name and repeated it silently in her heart.
The jellyfish doll was a gift from Yu Mianmian’s mother; it was also her “Abbebe,” and she liked to hold the doll to sleep.
“Why is one of its tentacles broken?” Yu Ying’s attention was drawn to the jellyfish doll. She saw that one of the doll’s tentacles had been torn and stitched back together with thread, though the sewing was very crude.
“It was accidentally torn off by some gloomy guy.” Yu Mianmian held up the jellyfish doll and acted cute, “Sister, can you help me sew it up?”
“Who is so malicious? This doll is sold quite dearly; many players can’t buy it even at a high price.”
Yu Mianmian fetched a sewing kit and handed it to Yu Ying. Yu Ying threaded the needle and began to sew the jellyfish doll with practiced movements.
She focused on sewing the doll, while Yu Mianmian focused on looking at Yu Ying. The broken part of the doll was stitched up bit by bit, and it seemed as if Yu Mianmian’s shattered heart was also being stitched back together by Yu Ying, piece by piece.
She remembered the day that crazy snake had tried to snatch the doll, claiming it was tainted with the scent of the Abyss Python, and the two eerie monsters had fought fiercely, neither willing to admit defeat.
From a player’s perspective, the game had dungeons, but from the perspective of an eerie NPC, the game was a single world where they all lived together. This was why the three eerie monsters knew each other.
Back then, Yu Mianmian was just a little jellyfish. Her tentacle toxins couldn’t paralyze the snake, and her jelly-like body had been bitten by that snake, leaving a big hole.
Having just lost her mother, the pitiful Yu Mianmian picked up the doll from the ground and hugged it tightly, crying aloud.
Perhaps her crying was too loud, attracting the sleeping Abyss Python. That giant black snake slowly approached her and simply, very gently, coiled its snake tail around her.
It was as if it were hugging her.
Yu Ying stuffed the stitched jellyfish doll into Yu Mianmian’s arms, “It’s fixed.”
She asked Yu Mianmian, “Is this doll your ‘Abbebe’?” She observed meticulously; among all the dolls Yu Mianmian owned, only the jellyfish doll looked old.
“It is my ‘Abbebe,’ very important to me.” Yu Mianmian’s fingers touched the stitched doll. She held it up and buried her cheek into the doll’s body.
She couldn’t smell Mother’s scent. She felt like crying. Why, why couldn’t she smell Mother’s scent?
“Sister Yu Ying, can you help me smell the fragrance on the doll?” Yu Mianmian asked pitifully, “I can’t smell anything.”
Yu Mianmian knew that to smell something, she had to use her tentacles to enter the prey’s body; the neural network densely packed on her tentacles would then transmit the scent information to her.
“Okay.” Yu Ying smelled a scent of lavender, the same one she often used in her lavender laundry detergent.
“Lavender scent.”
Yu Ying put down the doll. “You can come to me if you need to sew a doll again in the future.”
“I can also crochet and make cotton dolls.” Yu Ying took the initiative to bridge the distance with Yu Mianmian.
“Can you make a life-sized jellyfish cotton doll for me?” Yu Mianmian knew that in the human perspective, transactions required money, “I can pay you.”
“No need to pay me. I’ll make one for you when I have time.”
Perhaps it was because Yu Mianmian was simple and cute, or perhaps it was because of their shared surname. Yu Ying took extra care of Yu Mianmian.
“Thank you, sister.” Yu Mianmian smiled sweetly, revealing her little fangs.
Her favorability toward Yu Ying increased; Yu Ying was the best human she had ever met.
No, no, Mother was the best human she had ever met.
“Sister, hurry and help me pick a dress.” Yu Mianmian pushed open her wardrobe, which was filled with JK uniforms, Lolita dresses, and all sorts of cute, pretty skirts.
She dressed herself up beautifully every day, waiting for Mother to appear.
“This one. The Lolita pure white bridal dress suits you.”
Yu Mianmian went to the bathroom and changed into the little dress. Her curly, pale blue long hair hung over her chest; she wore a pure white, multi-layered lace headband, layers upon layers of fabric piled on the skirt hem, her legs wrapped in white silk stockings, and she stepped into a pair of high-heeled Mary Janes.
She looked like a fragrant, soft little cupcake.
“The straps are loose.” Yu Ying crouched down to tie the ribbons for Yu Mianmian. The pure white ribbons wrapped from Yu Mianmian’s ankles to her calves, and Yu Ying tied them into a butterfly knot.
“Thank you, sister.” Yu Mianmian glanced at the clock, “Let’s leave quickly.”
“I’ll ask Teacher Sui Lin if she wants to go shopping with us.”
It’s that detestable smelly snake again! Why is she everywhere in this world?!
Yu Mianmian walked quickly for two steps, linking her arm with Yu Ying’s, “Sister, let’s go first. It’ll be dark soon.”
“Perhaps Teacher Sui Lin wants to rest? Let’s not disturb her.” Seeing Yu Ying looking hesitant, Yu Mianmian continued, “She is usually very tired from filming.”
Yu Ying was walking toward the stairs with Yu Mianmian when she suddenly felt a gloomy gaze fixed on her. Looking back, she saw Sui Lin standing in the hallway.
Sui Lin was currently in her human-snake form, wearing a pure black silk bathrobe. The waist tie was loose, and the neckline was wide open, revealing the black scale pattern on her chest.
Her silver hair fell straight to her waist; when the silver hair spread out, it held an indescribable allure. Her blood-red vertical pupils stared fixedly at Yu Ying, her red lips spitting out a bright red, forked snake tongue.
Her palm gripped the red wood railing of the hallway lightly, and her index finger, wearing a snake-shaped green diamond ring, tapped on the wood, “Where are you going?”
Yu Ying had intended to ask if Sui Lin wanted to go to town, but Yu Mianmian, standing beside her, was frantically signaling to her.
“Mianmian and I are going to the seaside to relax.”
Sui Lin didn’t finish speaking; her palm gripped the railing tightly, as if she were about to crush it. Her gaze, filled with gloom, shot toward Yu Mianmian, “Is that so?”
“Yes, Sister is in a bad mood, so I’m keeping her company to walk and chat by the sea.” Yu Mianmian’s heart was in her throat, worried that this foolish snake would tag along.
Sui Lin had heard everything while in her room. She had heard that Yu Ying was going to town with Yu Mianmian; had Yu Ying invited her, she would have gone along too.
But Yu Ying had not taken the initiative to invite her.
As expected, the only one in this world who was truly good to her and cared about her feelings was “Mother.” So what if it’s a trip to town? She didn’t care about going together at all!
Sui Lin swung her snake tail and returned to her room, slamming the door shut. She used her tail to hook Yu Ying’s bedsheets and pajamas to build a new nest for herself.
She curled up in the bedsheets, feeling aggrieved as she coiled her snake tail, her arms tightly hugging Mother’s pajamas, greedily absorbing the scent of her mother.
After the octopus parasitized her, the snake lost a very important segment of memory. She couldn’t remember the key information; she only remembered that the vague memory had something to do with Yu Ying…
The scent of “Mother” had faded significantly; the snake could not find satisfaction in the thin scent.
She suddenly thought that Yu Ying and Yu Mianmian were not at home, and they had even taken that hateful clone jellyfish with them. She could sneak into Yu Ying’s room at will and steal Yu Ying’s undergarments.
Sui Lin opened her door and snuck, tail-swinging, to the door of Yu Ying’s room. The camera caught the whole scene.
[What is Teacher Sui Lin doing in Yu Ying’s room? Don’t tell me she’s jealous and went to smell her wife’s clothes?]
[Doesn’t anyone else think that when Teacher Sui Lin questioned Yu Ying just now, she had a really gloomy, snake-like vibe?]
[I suspect Teacher Sui Lin wants to hold her wife’s clothes, imagine her wife *her, and then get her wife’s clothes wet.]
[Teacher, did your pants just get thrown in my face? This is the comment section, not a restricted zone!!!]