Its tentacles reached out of the glass jar, greedily soliciting Yu Ying’s scent. Closer up, one could see the stinging cells on its tentacles, resembling lace trim.
“Xiao Xue, don’t touch its tentacles; it’s poisonous.” Yu Ying caught the little snake, who was trying to attack the monster with her tail.
She did not understand why her mother had picked up a strange tentacle monster and asked her to get along with it.
Yu Ying touched the jellyfish through the glass jar. “You don’t have a name yet, do you?”
She liked to give names to the pets she brought home. Even a jellyfish she picked up should have its own name.
“Soft Candy, do you like this name?”
Its body secreted a thick, sticky mucus that diluted the solution in the jar, and light blue liquid dripped onto the back of Yu Ying’s hand.
Yu Ying did not know that the jellyfish was marking her; she was stained with the jellyfish’s scent.
I like it.
Yu Ying heard the sound of a soft-bodied animal crawling; it seemed as if something sticky had grazed her ear.
She lay on the desk, watching the jellyfish in the glass jar, her fingers slowly tracing the body of the jellyfish. “Baby, you are so beautiful.”
Beautiful? No one had ever called it beautiful. It was just a clone of the God Jellyfish, and it had only ever heard humans praise the original God Jellyfish.
Yu Ying took out a sketchbook and pulled out a blue marker. She sketched the jellyfish’s body on the page; a cute jellyfish appeared in the drawing.
This was the jellyfish as she saw it.
Yu Ying yawned, stretched sleepily, kicked off her slippers, and went to bed.
The little snake crawled from the table leg to the tabletop. A venomous light leaked from her pink pupils as her tail coiled around the lid, unscrewing it.
The jellyfish extended a tentacle, baiting the little snake to bite it. The little snake looked dully at the tentacle, which resembled a jelly strip, a burning anger igniting in her heart.
Why does the jellyfish get mother’s affection? Why can it enter mother’s room? Yu Ying is my mother!
The little snake’s tail curled around a red marker. She bit it open and, in a frenzy, scribbled red all over the jellyfish drawing, her love for her mother becoming increasingly distorted.
She crawled next to the glass jar and opened her fangs, biting down on the jellyfish’s tentacle. She bit off a slender, severed tentacle, which writhed frantically.
Mother had not lied to her; the jellyfish really was poisonous. The little snake was attacked by toxins invading her brain after just one bite, her tail going limp as she instantly fainted.
The jellyfish’s long, slender tentacle curled up the red ink. Disgusted, it picked up the little snake’s body and tossed her into the red ink.
It was particularly good at camouflage, letting its prey attack it first so it could release poisonous stinging cells into the prey’s brain.
It looked simple and innocent on the surface, but in reality, it was even more vicious than a snake. Its tentacles grew longer and longer, spreading from the glass jar to the bedside, its transparent body squeezing out of the glass jar.
The lace-like tentacles pushed aside Yu Ying’s bedsheet, crawled into the warm quilt, and wrapped around Yu Ying’s waist. Only such close contact could satisfy it.
Yu Ying turned over, placing a long leg over it and pulling it into her arms. Its senses were only accessible through the nerve net. It extended its tentacles into Yu Ying’s lips, touching a softness it had never experienced before.
Without that snake bothering her, Yu Ying finally had a good night’s sleep. She fell into a dream, dreaming that she was sucking on jelly. Her teeth ground against the bumps on the jelly, sucking hard.
Hmm, so good.
Its jelly-like body seemed to be melting; the fluid dripping down dampened Yu Ying’s bedsheet. It wanted to retract its tentacles, but Yu Ying gripped them tightly, bringing them to her mouth, not letting it move freely.
The jellyfish melted, turning into a puddle of water that flowed under the bed. A transparent trace remained on Yu Ying’s lips; she subconsciously raised the back of her hand to wipe away the fluid, rolling the last of the sweet water into her mouth.
At 1:00 AM, Sui Lin opened the window and crawled along the wall. Just as the tip of her tail entered the window of Room 202, her scales snagged on a red thread, and the bell on the thread made a sound.
Sui Lin felt a spark of interest; the more humans tried to defend against her, the more excited she became. A sharp pain shot through her brain; Sui Lin’s fingertips, gripping the wall, turned white.
The octopus was controlling her brain nerves again, making her face turn pale and break out in a cold sweat.
Damn it, Sui Lin cursed internally.
She could have forced her way through the window and sneaked into the human’s room, but now, because of that cursed agreement, she had to retract her tail.
She crawled up the rough wall, her belly scales scraping against it with a weird, rustling sound. She crawled back to Room 404, nimbly sliding back into her nest.
Sui Lin violently kicked open her door and swept her tail across all the infrared cameras, shattering them to pieces.
She stood at the door of Room 202, the tip of her tail drilling into the copper lock, and opened the door as she usually did. She had wanted to smash the door open, but the noise would wake the human.
Sui Lin did not smell her mother’s scent, so she returned to her room, feeling dejected…
The bell swayed gently, emitting a clear, silver sound. Yu Ying had a nightmare, and hearing the sound of the bell, her eyes snapped open. She subconsciously felt for the dagger under her pillow.
Her fingertips touched her lips, and sticky liquid coated her fingers. She separated her fingers against the moonlight, and the liquid stretched into silver threads.
What did I just drink? It’s so sweet.
The jellyfish had melted into a puddle and crawled under the bed. It knew Yu Ying was awake, so it quietly crawled back into the glass jar and covered it with the lid.
Yu Ying grabbed the dagger and put on her slippers. She stood by the entrance, her ear pressed against the door frame, listening carefully for any movement outside.
It was very quiet outside. She could only hear the ringing in her ears, like an electrical current during a short circuit.
Yu Ying would not sit and wait for death. She pulled out the key, unlocked the door, and stepped out into the hallway. She stood in the corridor and looked down; there was no trace of any monster in the castle.
She was about to go back to her room to sleep.
A hurried knocking sound came from the first floor, accompanied by the rain getting heavier, as if it were about to pierce Yu Ying’s eardrums.
As if by some strange fate, Yu Ying walked to the first floor. She gripped the door lock in one palm and held the dagger tightly in the other. As the door opened a crack, a soft tentacle reached inside to attack Yu Ying.
Yu Ying stabbed the tentacle with her dagger, blue liquid splashing onto her face.
Bang! Yu Ying quickly locked the door.
She heard a familiar voice outside.
“Sister, it’s me, open the door quickly.”
“I’m Yu Mianmian.”
It is 1:30 AM; how could a guest arrive at this hour? What if Yu Mianmian encountered danger and came to the castle to ask her for help?
Yu Ying did not open the door immediately; she stood by the window and secretly observed Yu Mianmian.
Yu Mianmian had light-colored hair, the ends dyed in gradient colors, like the color of the deep sea. She possessed a pair of innocent eyes, looking back at what was behind her from time to time, as if she were being followed by some bizarre monster.
There was a wound on her left arm, bleeding, but the blood was blue. Her voice was strained, her palms slapping the door frame. “Sister, open the door and save me.”
Yu Ying recognized Yu Mianmian. Unable to bear the thought of leaving her outside, she opened the door and let Yu Mianmian into the castle.
“Sister, I…”
Yu Mianmian fainted into Yu Ying’s arms. The moment Yu Ying caught her, countless slender tentacles formed a dense fishing net behind Yu Mianmian, trapping Yu Ying.
She leaned limply against Yu Ying’s chest.
Humans, they really are easy to fool.