Yu Ying’s pupils dilated. She saw slender tentacles lunging toward her, wrapping around her body. The authentic sensation caused a momentary trance; the long, thin tentacles were soft, like water.
She bent down, scooped Yu Mianmian up in a bridal carry, and brought her back to the room, placing her onto the soft, large bed.
She did not wake the little snake, instead picking it up with her fingertips and placing it on the pillow. She tucked in the snake’s dedicated little sheet and padded some cotton beneath its head.
“Your wounds are still bleeding. I will tend to them for you,” Yu Ying said, walking back to the bedside. She sat in a chair, looking down at Yu Mianmian on the bed.
Yu Mianmian’s eyelashes trembled, and teardrops slid from the corners of her eyes. She bit her lip, saying nothing. Earlier, Yu Ying hadn’t clearly seen the extent of the injuries: there were wounds on her arms, the wound on her waist was still bleeding, and there were shallow scratches on her neck, looking as if they had been made by sharp fingernails.
“Can you hear me?” Yu Ying asked again. She no longer questioned Yu Mianmian; saving her was the priority.
Yu Ying pulled open the drawer, grasped a pair of scissors, and cut open Yu Mianmian’s tube top.
As the scissors sliced through the fabric, the tentacles behind Yu Mianmian attacked Yu Ying. However, in the split second before they could release their nematocysts, Yu Mianmian’s tentacles dropped onto the bedsheet.
Mother had often taught her to be friendly toward humans and not to release toxins to attack them. Moreover, Yu Ying had shredded her clothing only to save her.
She had torn through the game space again, leaving her and the octopus tentacle monster, Si Lu, severely injured. Fortunately, she had landed not far from the castle, and the waves had carried her to these waters.
“It will hurt a little. Bear with it.” Yu Ying lifted the fabric soaked in blood. Blue blood dripped—patter, patter—staining the pristine white sheet.
Yu Mianmian could not feel pain; all her external expressions required the support of acting. She lacked complex human emotions and did not possess human sensory systems; she did not feel joy, anger, sorrow, or pleasure like a human.
She did not even have a beating heart.
Yu Ying held the saline solution, tilting it to clean the wound on Yu Mianmian’s waist. The wound was deep, revealing blurred, reddened flesh.
She used sterile gauze to bandage Yu Mianmian. “It must hurt a lot.”
Pain? Yu Mianmian could not feel pain; she did not know what pain felt like. She hadn’t expected Yu Ying to ask if she was in pain. Only Mother ever cared if she was in pain.
Divine Jellyfish are ageless and immortal, possessing eternal youth. When subjected to intense stimulation, they can revert to a juvenile state to achieve immortality. Deranged scientists had captured massive numbers of jellyfish, believing that these creatures without brains would not launch attacks.
Humans wanted to discover the secret of immortality through jellyfish experiments.
Yu Mianmian was revered by humans as the Divine Jellyfish; she possessed the ability to heal everything. Even if she were torn to pieces for research in a laboratory, she could repair her body by the next day.
She could not feel pain.
Even the scientists said that these brainless creatures were the best experimental ‘materials.’
It wasn’t until Mother appeared that things changed. Mother’s slender tentacles pierced the researchers’ bodies; the laboratory alarm sounded, and the floor was covered in blood. Mother carried her away from the lab, her tentacles gently stroking her head.
Does it hurt?
So, that is what humans feel when they are injured. Later, Yu Mianmian learned human emotions, expressing complex feelings through expressions, gestures, and speech.
That’s right, Yu Mianmian could use acting to express emotions, even though she had no emotional senses.
Yu Ying held a surgical flashlight and shone it on the wound on Yu Mianmian’s neck. The light swept across Yu Mianmian’s pupils, and she bit down on the webbing of Yu Ying’s hand. The flashlight in Yu Ying’s hand fell to the floor.
Her sharp teeth left an imprint on Yu Ying’s hand. She huddled deep within the quilt, covering herself tightly.
“I, I, I am afraid of the light.” Her exposed shoulders trembled.
Yu Ying turned off the room lights, leaving only a bedside lamp; a faint light fell onto the bed.
Yu Mianmian was not like that stupid snake; she knew how to disguise herself as a human, how to gain human trust and sympathy.
“My eyes are sensitive to light. I cannot be exposed to sunlight for long, and I especially cannot be directly hit by light rays.”
Yu Ying recalled Yu Mianmian’s several stage performances. The stage lights were always very dim, and Yu Mianmian always performed in deep blue fluffy dresses; the stage effect had been quite good.
Upon learning the reason for Yu Mianmian’s earlier evasiveness, Yu Ying moved the bedside lamp away, placing it on the floor.
“The injuries on your body…” Yu Ying hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping. She didn’t know what Yu Mianmian had experienced on the island to be so severely injured.
Yu Mianmian raised her light blue pupils. The center of her pupils resembled an abyss in the ocean; humans who locked eyes with her for a moment would be drawn into them.
“You might not believe it if I say it.” Yu Mianmian looked left and right, gesturing for Yu Ying to lean closer. She lowered her voice: “Sister Yu Ying, I can see supernatural anomalies.”
“They have been chasing me, hiding in corners to attack me.” Yu Mianmian took the initiative to move closer to Yu Ying, shivering in Yu Ying’s embrace. “Sister, I’m so scared.”
Yu Mianmian mixed lies with truth, making it impossible to distinguish between the two. The wounds on her body were from tearing the game space and being thrown into the third world by powerful gravitational forces.
She wanted to scare Yu Ying.
Yu Ying was not frightened. Instead, she asked with exceptional calmness, “What are the supernatural anomalies you see? Snakes, jellyfish, and other things?”
She was testing Yu Mianmian. If Yu Mianmian could see these anomalies like she could, it meant this world was not an ordinary one. If Yu Mianmian could not see them, then she was truly very ill.
Yu Mianmian felt a stinging pain in her brain. She gripped the sheet tightly, sweat dripping from her forehead. Suddenly, she lifted her eyes to stare at Yu Ying.
“I’m also not sure what they are.” Yu Mianmian held her head with both hands, pretending to be in pain, her face turning pale.
When Yu Ying hugged her to comfort her, she whispered softly in Yu Ying’s ear: “Humans like to call them ‘the unspeakable’.”
“Sister, do you think this world can contain them? Do you think they really exist?”
There were already enough mental patients in this world with just her; she didn’t want Yu Mianmian to dwell on the composition of this world.
If any supernatural entity actually appeared before her and Yu Mianmian, she would kill it without hesitation.
Yu Ying used a wet cloth to wipe the sweat from Yu Mianmian’s forehead and said decisively: “There are no supernatural anomalies in this world.”
She did not answer Yu Mianmian’s second question. The world was too big; there was a place for humans, and there was a place for these other anomalies.
Seeing that she was not as frightened anymore, Yu Ying helped her treat the wounds on her neck and arms.
“Are you going back to your room, or sleeping with me?”
“I’ll sleep with you.” Yu Mianmian needed to have close contact with humans to observe them and learn their way of life.
Compared to other humans, Yu Ying was indeed the best teacher. She would not cause her any unnecessary trouble.
They left a wide space between them. Yu Mianmian did not like close physical contact with others, and Yu Ying was not used to sleeping with others either.
After sleeping for a while, Yu Mianmian climbed up to observe Yu Ying. Seeing Yu Ying lying on her side, she also lay on her side; when she heard Yu Ying mumbling in her sleep, she mimicked the mumbles.
Her fingers touched the tip of Yu Ying’s nose, and the warm breath landed on her palm. Yu Mianmian lay back down to sleep.
So, humans also need to breathe while sleeping. She had been holding her breath just now.
The next day, sunlight shone into the room. Yu Ying lifted her hand to block her eyes and continued to sleep. The little snake crawled out of the ink bottle, dizzy, and saw its own reflection in Yu Ying’s vanity mirror—it was dyed bright red by the red ink.
Damn jellyfish! The little snake cursed the jellyfish to die first thing in the morning, wishing the scorching sun would bake the jellyfish dry.
It looked back at the glass jar. There was nothing there; the jellyfish in the bottle was gone?! Afraid that the jellyfish would do something to harm Mother, the little snake jumped off the desk and crashed onto the floor, making its head spin.
Relying on its keen sense of smell, it crawled quickly to the bedside and sprang onto Yu Ying’s face, using its snake tongue to lick Yu Ying’s cheeks, waking her up in this manner.
Yu Ying opened her eyes and saw the red snake coiled on her face, almost rolling off the side of the bed. She picked up the little snake: “Xiao Xue? How did you end up like this?!”
Her fingertips wiped the liquid on the snake’s body, and she sniffed it. The pungent smell of ink invaded her nasal cavity. She hurriedly carried her pet to the bathroom to wash it.
Yu Ying’s vision began to double; a Yu Mianmian lay on her right, and another Yu Mianmian lay on her left. She rubbed her eyes, but the double vision did not disappear.
They both had the same light blue long hair, the same slender tentacles—they looked like two identical clones. The word ‘multiplicity’ suddenly popped into Yu Ying’s mind.
Her illness was getting worse. Yu Ying got out of bed and took the little snake into the bathroom, failing to notice the missing baby jellyfish in the glass jar.
During its time as a stray, the little snake had been scalded by hot water by a human, so it disliked contact with water. Every time Yu Ying took it to soak in the bath, it liked to coil its snake tail around Yu Ying’s wrist.
Every day, it used its tongue to lick its tail clean; its body was neither dirty nor smelly. It liked that Yu Ying was stained with its scent.
“Be good. I’ll reward you with a chicken leg after the bath.” Yu Ying knew the little snake hated baths.
In the past, the little snake would obediently release her wrist when it heard ‘chicken leg,’ but today, for some reason, it clung to her wrist and would not let go.
“I still prefer your siLuer tail.”
The little snake crawled obediently into the basin to soak, licking its snake tail with its tongue to wash away the red ink. Mother had said she liked its siLuer tail the best.
Yu Ying heard rapid knocking at the door. She wiped the water off her hands and walked to the entrance to open the door.
“Teacher Sui Lin, is something the matter?” Yu Ying felt inexplicably guilty, blocking Sui Lin’s line of sight. Clearly, she and Yu Mianmian hadn’t done anything.
Sui Lin loved to dress up. She wore a pure white tube-top long dress, the irregular hemline covering her thick snake tail. A string of pearls hung on her fair swan-like neck. Her eyelashes fluttered, revealing a pair of blood-red eyes, and her red lips made her look more妖艳 (seductive/enchanting) rather than pure.
She pushed Yu Ying aside, her skirt sweeping across Yu Ying’s ankles. She stared fiercely at Yu Mianmian on the bed, wishing she could swallow Yu Mianmian whole and chew her bones to pieces.
“Get out.”
The scent of Mother on the bedsheets was growing thinner, mingled with the scent of a jellyfish; the strong odor invaded her nasal cavity. Sui Lin’s fingers trembled as she hugged the sheet tainted by Mother’s scent.
She wished she could tear the jellyfish limb from limb.
“I’m taking the quilt.”
Yu Ying: ?
Yu Ying could not fathom Teacher Sui Lin’s thinking. It was just a dirty quilt; if Teacher Sui Lin wanted it, she could take it.
Sui Lin held the quilt and walked out of Yu Ying’s room, her snake tail slapping the floor impatiently, making a creak, creak sound.
She buried her cheeks into the quilt, her pair of pitch-black eyes scanning the camera. She hated the glowing human cameras; if it weren’t to find Mother, she would have reduced those machines to dust.
[Is no one noticing how suitable Teacher Sui Lin is for ‘snake-plastic’? Sneaking into the room behind Yu Ying, and after that unspeakable thing happened, walking out holding the quilt.]