After Being Parasitized by a Monster 34

Chapter 34: “I still want to do what I did to you last night.”

The dream was chaotic.

At first, it was an endless darkness. A monster with an indistinct appearance seemed to be hiding in the depths, watching her with a faint gaze.

She had a slight urge to escape, and a seaweed-like filamentous substance grew out of the darkness, filling the void, devouring her white toes, and climbing up along the undulating texture and uneven bones, outlining her body’s curves.

The blurry figure approached, and a familiar sense of security diluted her fear. She leaned against the head of the bed and, out of habit, gently accepted “her.”

Her fingertips caressed the other’s back, feeling the fine, hard scales—firm yet not grating to the touch, smooth and flexible.

There was also a watery coolness between her knees.

Looking down in a daze, she saw a fish tail clinging tightly to her. The blue, fluorescent tip was wagging happily, sometimes sweeping across her ankle, ticklish and dazzling.

In a trance, she realized that she was not in her room, but at the bottom of the sea.

A bed made of countless stacked blood-red seashells.

The “her” on her was like a child asking for its mother’s nourishment, burying itself in her embrace, rubbing and turning. But the sucking gradually changed its taste. Her breathing became heavier, and a broken moan escaped her lips.

In the midst of the gentle caress, there was a sudden sting, and a foreign object was embedded under her flesh.

Like being stung by a poisonous bee, she struggled slightly, trying to push it away, but the swarming mycelia tightened around her. She vaguely realized that this thing wanted to drill into her body completely and become one with her.

The secret, beautiful dream turned into a real nightmare. Her nerves suddenly tensed, and Cheng Ming woke up with a start.

The morning light shone into the room, and the whole room was bright.

The winter sun shone obliquely from the distant south, and its heat was stripped away by the cold air on the way, like transparent ice.

Last night had been too chaotic, and she had forgotten to draw the curtains before going to bed.

The white light dazzled her eyes. Cheng Ming first raised her elbow to block her eyes in a daze. When she turned over, her wrist pressed against the “hair” that was under her, cold and moist.

In an instant, her consciousness returned completely. She pulled back her hand as if she had been burned and almost rolled off the bed with the quilt.

“Cheng Ming…” as if it didn’t feel her panic at all, the parasite inside her said in a lazy tone, and it was clear that it was in a good mood, “Good morning~”

However, hearing this voice, Cheng Ming only felt that she was not well at all.

Her breathing was a mess, like a damaged piece of music. She didn’t want to deal with it. She found a hair tie and forcefully tied up the mycelia, which, on the contrary, seemed to have been ravaged by her.

She stretched out her arm from under the covers, wanting to pick up her clothes, but found that they were not at hand.

She simply ignored it and sat up, her face cold. Her hands were still a little stiff, and she fumbled in the drawer for a nail clipper.

The thought that it could see everything she did through her eyes, things she hadn’t cared about before, was now truly unbearable.

What was more unspeakable than shame?

It was that the culprit who had caused all this didn’t even give you a chance to calm down and get over it alone, but was constantly watching you in detail, empathizing with your breakdown.

“Why are you cutting your nails?”

As expected, Xiao Ming started its daily question.

Snip—

She cut off the uneven part of her index finger, wishing she could seal off all her senses. If she couldn’t see, it would also lose its source of information.

Why, why, heh, what else could it be for.

Cheng Ming was at her wit’s end. “Because you hurt me!”

“…”

There was a moment of silence in the room.

After a short interval, it was unclear if it was recalling the scene at that time, but in the end, it said with sincere and heartfelt apology, “I’ll be careful next time.”

Hearing its tone, which was full of longing, Cheng Ming hated that she was not mute. “There will be no next time!”

“Then why are you cutting your nails?” its logic was quite tight.

“…” Cheng Ming closed her eyes and murmured in despair, “Shut up.”

…

After finally tidying herself up, just as she was about to leave the bedroom, she caught a glimpse of a reflection in a corner of the room.

She quickly turned around, pulled a dust cover from the closet, and wrapped the mirror tightly, tying the four corners into dead knots. Out of sight, out of mind.

“You—”

Just as Xiao Ming uttered a word, she interrupted angrily, “You’re not allowed to speak!”

She hadn’t eaten much yesterday, but she had consumed a lot of energy.

She woke up early and was a little dizzy from hunger. She went to the kitchen and couldn’t find anything suitable to eat. In the end, she found a bag of rice cereal from the bottom of an old box, mixed it with water, and held it in her hands, sitting on the sofa and zoning out.

She finally had time to try to sort out her chaotic thoughts… but found that they were too messy to sort out.

Partner, what is a partner?

Would it really stay with her for a lifetime?

Life was too long, with too many uncertainties. Life was also too short. Did she really have to take the time to deal with her relationship problems with a monster?

Anger, shame, shock, confusion, helplessness… a mixture of emotions piled up, making her chest feel tight.

“Why do you want to be my partner?” she tried her best to calm down and started, “Do you really understand the meaning of these two words in human society?”

“…”

The Fish-Fungus, which had been given a gag order, said nothing.

Cheng Ming couldn’t bear it anymore, “Speak!”

“I understand,” the host was so fickle. Xiao Ming swallowed its anger and spoke, “All sexually differentiated creatures have partners.”

Its tone was flat and straightforward, but it still strangely made her sense a hint of grievance.

It was as if it were questioning, on what grounds do you question my feelings for you.

“…” Cheng Ming took a deep breath.

It would be even more absurd to describe it from a biological point of view.

What was this called? Interspecies homosexuality?

“Most creatures mate for the purpose of reproduction. Humans often have more grandiose reasons for mating, such as love, compatibility, and life pursuits…” Cheng Ming asked, “So, what about you? What is your reason?”

Her tone slowed, and her words were calm.

Now that it had come to this, hiding in a shell and playing deaf and dumb would not help their relationship.

She couldn’t avoid it. She could only take on the role of the one holding the knife, dissecting herself, and also dissecting it.

Physical intimacy did not mean spiritual resonance.

Xiao Ming seemed to have fallen into thought. After a long time, it slowly said:

“Love is a good answer. I really want to say that, and you would probably be happy to hear it… but I think, if I really answered that way, you would definitely not believe me.”

It really understood her.

Anyone who was in close contact 24 hours a day, observed from the inside out, would be thoroughly dissected… It could even feel the changes and fluctuations of her brain’s neurotransmitters and electrochemical signals. This was simply cheating.

So, her hesitation, uneasiness, and worries were all essentially due to the asymmetry of their information—

She did not understand it.

At least not as well as it understood her.

This is really unfair, Cheng Ming thought quietly.

She knew that this was a dangerous signal.

From the moment she felt the inequality, it proved that she longed to walk into its heart.

However, did this thing have a heart?

Could its words be trusted?

Was its existence really harmless?

Was its instinct to possess her or to occupy her?

Because of fear, she resisted.

“In fact, I don’t really understand what you call love. Hormones? Emotional experience? Physiological desire? What’s the difference between these and the low-level ‘animals’ you identify?”

Its thinking style and speech habits were very similar to Cheng Ming’s. It was not so much imitation as it was another side of her soul that had directly emerged from her, a new bud growing from old wood.

“But I want to have an intimate relationship with you. I can’t accept you having other partners,” Xiao Ming said.

It was very frank.

So, it was just that it suddenly had a sense of crisis, worried that something would happen to her, a mobile blood bag, and wanted to stabilize the relationship between the parasite and the host.

Cheng Ming’s lips curled into a sarcastic smile, and she sneered coldly, “But we are already close enough.”

Before it had started its rude behavior, she had already made her attitude clear, but it had still fabricated a hypothetical enemy and had gone its own way according to its own imagination.

“I still want to do what I did to you last night,” it said without any tact, and continued to state, “You are very tempting without your clothes, and it’s very pleasant to do it.”

Every word was bitten out clearly, with a clear pause, and there was no possibility of mishearing.

Cheng Ming: “…”

Alright, that’s enough, no need to talk!

It just had a desire for her, and it didn’t know how to suppress it!

She had seen many people, but she had seen few monsters in human skin.

It was the first time she had seen such naked and undisguised words, so much so that her ears buzzed and went numb. An excessive amount of blood was pumped out of her ventricular cavity, and it hit the various arterial valves, making her brain buzz.

“Could it be that…” After not getting a response for a long time, Xiao Ming asked seriously, “you can do that to me even if we’re not partners?”

The person sitting stiffly on the sofa with a porcelain cup in her hand, her face was as red as if it had been burned, and she was suffocating—from anger.

“No!”

Cheng Ming seemed to have lost her senses. She grabbed the hot rice cereal and took a mouthful. It was like swallowing lava, and it rolled all the way from her tongue to her esophagus, burning her so much that she dropped the cup with a thud and scrambled to get some water.

After gulping down half a cup of cold water, which washed away the heat in her esophagus and brain, she was much calmer when she came back.

“Are you okay?” Xiao Ming asked with careful and considerate concern.

But when you’re annoyed with someone, everything they do is wrong. Cheng Ming felt that it was being hypocritical and wanted to drown it in the rice cereal—if she could.

After struggling to calm down, she looked down at her red fingertips and assumed an extreme situation, “If I die, can this body be yours?”

“No,” its voice softened. “I will only die with you.”

“A lovers’ suicide?” Cheng Ming joked, unable to tell if it was self-mockery or sarcasm.

“Yes.”

“…”

It said yes.

Cheng Ming was silent, and then she laughed again, this time out of amusement. “Do you understand human emotions…”

“Maybe not. But I understand you.”

She took a deep breath and looked at the rice cereal. This time she was smarter. She scooped it up with a spoon, let it cool, and put it in her mouth.

She swallowed a few mouthfuls with difficulty and slowly said, “Let me think about it…”

It was too bizarre. Which normal person could accept a parasite proposing to be her partner, and also… thinking of last night, she had the urge to stuff her face into the gap of the sofa.

What on earth had it been watching, and where had it learned it from…

She now had the sad and angry feeling of a child who had not been taught well.

“Before that—” Cheng Ming gritted her teeth and reiterated the old order, “you must respect my thoughts! You are not allowed to move my body at will!”

Xiao Ming: “But your thoughts are clearly…”

The mouth can lie, but the body cannot.

Her sex hormone levels, her sensory excitement, the active parts of her brain… everything, she was stripped bare in front of it, as if she were naked.

“Shut up!” Cheng Ming’s volume suddenly rose, and she angrily and embarrassedly changed her words, “Respect my expressed wishes, can you?”

“Alright…” it couldn’t find a loophole, and said with regret, “I know.”

It agreed readily, but the next second, it was a little restless again.

“Your esophagus seems to be injured,” the mycelia broke free from the hair tie and eagerly approached. “Do you want me to help you…”

This scene was like a reenactment of last night, and Cheng Ming was so ashamed and angry that she wanted to die, “Get away!”

…

Research institute building.

Ding-dong.

The New Year holiday was over, and the busy work had resumed here.

When she received the notice from Song Manqing, Cheng Ming was in the North Building, handing over the affairs of the holiday with various laboratories. Hearing the reminder bell, she picked up her phone and saw that the time was just right.

The New Year meeting was a normal process, an important organizational node, but she didn’t know why the other party had notified her so urgently.

She didn’t have time for lunch. She seamlessly rushed to the 101st floor of the West Building.

She often came to this floor, but the conference room was a new cubicle that she had not been to before, and it was located very far inside.

After a winding path, she found the entrance. She pushed the door and stepped in. The light was dim.

The ceiling lights were not on, and the light came from a row of windows opposite.

This place was actually facing the ocean, with no obstruction, but the sky was gloomy, and thick clouds were rolling, and the sea in the distance was also dark.

She didn’t look closely and her gaze returned to the room.

At a glance, it didn’t look like a normal meeting place, but more like a classroom. It was spacious, with a blackboard, a white screen, and a display stand. The tables and chairs were in order, and it was empty.

Was she early? Or had she gone to the wrong place?

Cheng Ming was puzzled.

She wanted to go out and check the door plate, but when she turned the handle, click, the pivot was stuck.

The door was locked.

In an instant, many thoughts flashed through her mind, such as “an accident,” “I was set up by Song Manqing,” and “this is a trap.” Her back felt a little cold.

She lowered her head and was staring at the keyhole, thinking of a solution, when a voice came from behind her—

“Cheng Ming.”

She turned around abruptly, and only then did she notice that there was a person sitting in a corner on the side of the podium.

It was a blind spot under the light, and the other’s clothes were dark in color, so she had actually overlooked it.

And there was only one person.

Not the young Ms. Song, but an old lady.

The old professor, a leading figure in the field, was wearing a dark woolen coat as if she were attending a funeral. She was sitting alone in this sealed space, with her back to the dark ocean, waiting for her to arrive.

With a strange smile on her face, she asked her, “Do you know about ‘mermaids’?”