The small snake’s sharp fangs pierced the jellyfish’s tentacle. She tried to bite it off to eat, as in her eyes, the jellyfish was just a colorless and tasteless gelatinous mass.
Having consumed too much energy, the baby jellyfish felt weak and sluggish. It tried to retract its tentacle and released toxins to attack the small snake, yet the snake still bared her two sharp fangs at it, unmoved.
The jellyfish released a fluorescent glow to attract Yu Ying. Yu Ying noticed something wriggling inside the baby jellyfish; she reached out, grabbed the small snake, and saw a jellyfish tentacle clamped between its teeth.
Yu Ying pinched the small snake’s cheeks, forcing its mouth open. A thin, long tentacle was wrapped around the snake’s fangs, the middle section shredded by the snake’s bite.
She quickly pulled the tentacle out and used her fingertips to knead the snake’s soft belly, helping it induce vomiting.
Feeling the warmth of her mother’s fingertips against her belly, the small snake rolled her pale pink vertical pupils slightly upward, showing the whites of her eyes, and wrapped her long, slender tail around her mother’s finger.
“Sister Yu Ying, I know how to help a snake vomit.” Yu Mianmian sneered. She grabbed the small snake and swung it around wildly, then said sweetly to Yu Ying, “Look, it’s all better now.”
The small snake bounced from her hand onto the floor and crawled to the edge of the trash can, gagging until it spat out the wriggling jellyfish tentacle.
What a vicious jellyfish! Using this method to retaliate against her. The small snake hissed at Yu Mianmian, its tail swaying as if it were about to launch a unilateral attack.
Yu Mianmian hid behind Yu Ying, pressing her palm against Yu Ying’s arm and pretending to be frightened, “Sister, I’m scared of it.”
“Little Xue, you cannot be fierce to Mianmian.”
The small snake tucked away its forked tongue in grievance.
Yu Ying took a glass jar out of her bag. Holding the jellyfish’s long, thin tentacle, she carefully sheltered the jellyfish, which emitted a fluorescent glow, seemingly communicating with Yu Ying.
She walked to the desk, placed the glass jar down, and pulled a bag of dried shrimp from her bag, sprinkling them into the jar.
“Has Sister Yu Ying kept jellyfish before?” Yu Mianmian asked, pretending to be curious as she leaned closer to the glass jar, tilting her head toward Yu Ying.
“I have.” Yu Ying touched the glass jar with her fingertips, and the jellyfish inside interacted with her using its tentacles. “But that was a long time ago. I only remember that jellyfish love eating dried shrimp.”
“These creatures are very difficult to raise—fragile, sensitive, and particularly picky eaters.”
Yu Ying sealed the bag of dried shrimp. “If you care for them with all your heart, they are easy to keep alive.”
She raised her wrist to check her watch. “It’s one hour until midnight.”
Yu Mianmian said, “In another hour, it will be my birthday.” She was still carrying the birthday cake that held special significance. She tugged at the gift box ribbon and unwrapped it.
The delicate Black Forest cake had crumbled into a mess; the cream was mixed with the sponge, looking like slop dumped from a trash can, completely stripping away any desire to eat it.
Yu Mianmian’s expression turned despondent.
If her mother were by her side, she would surely hold her, soothe her emotions, and tell her that there is no need to cry over spilled milk.
“Mianmian, what’s wrong?” Yu Ying’s gentle gaze rested on Yu Mianmian, and her fingertips wiped the tears rolling down the girl’s cheeks.
“I feel so terrible. It’s like I can’t do anything right.” Yu Mianmian’s crystalline tears rolled to her chin and dripped onto the back of Yu Ying’s hand.
She couldn’t find her mother, and she couldn’t eat birthday cake with her. She missed her mother so much, missed her until she felt she was going mad.
“I’ll bake you a new cake.” Yu Ying couldn’t bear to see Yu Mianmian cry; seeing her cry made her feel exceptionally distressed.
Yu Mianmian opened her arms and hugged Yu Ying. Her cheek accidentally brushed against Yu Ying’s chest; the human chest was warm and soft. She had heard it even had a strange, wonderful fragrance, but unfortunately, she could smell nothing at all.
Unless she thrust her tentacles into the crevice between Yu Ying’s breasts.
“Sister Yu Ying, you are the best!”
“Sister, you know how to do so many things! You can make shrimp porridge and you can bake cakes.” Yu Mianmian followed closely behind Yu Ying, like her personal little sidekick.
Yu Ying arrived in the kitchen and put on an apron. “Come over, you’re responsible for assisting me. After doing it a few more times, you’ll be able to do it yourself.”
“Okay!” Yu Mianmian raised her arms, and Yu Ying stood behind her, wrapping her arms around Mianmian’s waist to help tie the apron strings.
Yu Ying loved baking. Watching the cake slowly rise in the oven gave her a sense of satisfaction. She expertly cracked the eggs and separated the yolks from the whites.
She prepared all the necessary ingredients and stood by, guiding Yu Mianmian through the process. “40g of milk, stir evenly.”
“Add an appropriate amount of low-gluten flour.”
“How much is an ‘appropriate amount’?”
Yu Ying poured in the flour. Seeing that Yu Mianmian was stirring too slowly, she wrapped her palms over Mianmian’s hands, standing behind her with her warm embrace pressed against Mianmian’s back.
Yu Mianmian’s arms were stiff and mechanical as she followed Yu Ying’s motions. She stared blankly at the mixed flour; her mother had taught her to bake a cake exactly like this.
“Sister Yu Ying, have you ever taught a child how to bake a cake?” Yu Mianmian couldn’t help but probe.
The aura Yu Ying exuded was so like her mother’s; her gaze was always soft and non-aggressive, giving Mianmian the illusion that she was easy to get close to.
“Not a child, other women.” Yu Mianmian turned to face Yu Ying, a spot of flour on the tip of her nose. “Have you taught other women?”
“I haven’t taught any other child; I’ve only taught you.” Yu Ying wiped the flour off Mianmian’s nose with her fingertips. “It’s a secret family recipe; you must learn it carefully.”
“Mm, I will definitely learn it well.”
Yu Mianmian guarded the oven, watching the cake expand little by little. When she heard the oven “ding,” she quickly pulled it open, wanting to remove the cake pan with her bare hands.
“Wear gloves.” Yu Ying reminded her from the side.
Yu Mianmian obeyed, put on the gloves, took out the cake, and removed the mold to reveal a very soft sponge.
Yu Ying used a knife to cut the sponge, filled it with cream, drizzled melted white chocolate over the surface, and used a piping bag to draw a jellyfish in the center of the cake.
“Do you like it?”
“I like it.” Yu Mianmian stared at the familiar jellyfish pattern. “Can you draw another, bigger jellyfish?”
Yu Mianmian was secretly anticipating something. If Yu Ying were truly her mother, she would surely draw the real appearance of the God-Jellyfish. But when Yu Ying drew the second jellyfish, it leaned toward a Q-version, looking very cute.
She wrote a short line on the cake—”Happy Birthday, Mianmian!”
Outside the kitchen’s glass door, there was a figure. The glass door was frosted, making it impossible to see outside clearly; one could only see a blurry shadow. Even through the glass door, Yu Ying could feel an insidious, sticky gaze.
Yu Ying carried the cake past Sui Lin. She felt as if she could smell the scent of gunpowder in the air. How could Sui Lin and Yu Mianmian fight over me? It must be my imagination.
Sui Lin strode into the kitchen, and the glass door closed automatically without anyone pushing it. She looked at Yu Mianmian with malice, wishing she could devour her alive. “I warned you to keep your distance from her.”
“She is just a human.” Yu Mianmian was not afraid of the rampaging snake. As she passed Sui Lin, she said unhurriedly, “Or rather… do you like her?”
Yu Mianmian stroked Sui Lin’s arm lightly, provoking her. “I forgot to tell you, I can only distinguish scents through the neural network on my tentacles. Usually, I press my tentacles against her skin to smell the scent on her body.”
“Only then do I understand.”
Sui Lin was so angry that veins popped on her forehead. If not for the damn rules controlling her, she would have gone mad and torn this jellyfish to pieces. She gritted her teeth and asked, “Understand what?”
“Understand why the scent on her body makes you so obsessed.” Yu Mianmian stared into Sui Lin’s red eyes, inciting her. “What? Do you want to do something to me?”
“You cannot kill me.” Yu Mianmian deliberately disgusted Sui Lin. “Get along with me, my good sister.”
Sui Lin’s face turned black with rage. “I am not your sister.” She moved her snake tail into the kitchen, her gaze dark as she stared at the eggshells by the sink. The tip of her snake tail carefully coiled around the shells and shoved them into her mouth.
The shells still retained Yu Ying’s scent; she desperately needed a bit of her mother’s scent to fill her stomach. The acidic digestive juices in her stomach wrapped around the chewed shells.
Yu Ying, who witnessed Sui Lin eating the eggshells: “……”
God, this must be my hallucination.
“Would you like to have some cake together?” Yu Ying invited Sui Lin with a fork and knife, thinking that Teacher Sui Lin usually cared about her figure and would probably refuse.
“Sure.” Sui Lin sat at the head of the round table with her snake tail.