Epilogue 3: Shrimp’s Story (2)
Luo Bian discovered that she had greatly misunderstood the Saintess in the past.
This shrimp, on the surface, was proper and dignified, and followed the rules, and was the noble Saintess that all the little shrimp admired.
But behind the scenes, she was secretly planning a rebellious act, and on the day of her wedding, she had run away from the marriage and had hidden in a rock cave to sleep lazily, and had also domineeringly coerced her, the native.
She was truly like two different shrimp.
No, I can’t think too much.
The moment I do, my heart pounds, and it gets very hot.
Luo Bian steadied herself.
Her room was filled with a thick human scent, and most shrimp were unwilling to get close, so the shrimp soldiers, when searching for the Saintess, would often skip this place.
Hiding here was indeed the safest.
—”Be killed by me, or take me in.”
The Saintess was looking up at her with a dark look, clearly still waiting for an answer to this question.
Luo Bian said, “Are you hungry?”
The Saintess reacted, and this shrimp had already, on her own, entered the ‘take me in’ mode.
She was quite tactful.
She was very satisfied.
“I’m hungry.”
As she spoke, the domineering air that the Saintess had been supporting with her last bit of strength temporarily dissipated, and she curled into a weak ball.
She had not eaten in a long time.
“Then I’ll go and get you something to eat. What would you like?” Luo Bian said.
After she finished, she felt amused. It was as if she could satisfy the Saintess’s request.
It was said that the ruler and the Saintess’s three meals a day were all strictly according to a standard, and they ate rich and luxurious food.
As an ordinary commoner shrimp worker, how could Luo Bian afford it?
But she heard the Saintess lazily order, “Algae ball fruit, luminous-tailed fish.”
“I’ve been wanting to eat these for a long time,” she said, her voice lifting at the end.
These were the “junk food” that ordinary little shrimp usually liked to eat. They were not very nutritious, but their cute appearance was a plus.
Everyone would often crunch on them and chat lively.
Luo Bian smiled. “Okay.”
She was about to turn and leave, but she heard the Saintess threaten, “If you dare to go and report me, I will send you to prison.”
There was a prison in their home, and it was said to be dark and sunless, and the environment was extremely turbid and difficult, and being locked up there was more of a torture than death.
The shrimp in the clan were all very afraid of going to prison and rarely committed any crimes.
Luo Bian’s figure paused slightly, and she answered nonchalantly, but she didn’t care.
She just felt that the Saintess was fierce, like a certain strange creature she had encountered on her adventures before, and would bristle at the slightest provocation.
Tsk, cute.
Luo Bian quickly found some algae ball fruit and luminous-tailed fish, and also paired them with some nutritious food, and handed them to the Saintess.
Crunch.
The Saintess contentedly chewed on the algae ball fruit, as if she were eating some peerless delicacy.
Luo Bian watched her for a while, and then turned and left.
And so, the Saintess saw the native shrimp of this rock cave coming and going, diligently and patiently bringing in vegetation, and bit by bit, laying a new bed on the side.
Due to the limited space, this bed was only half the size of the one she was on, and it looked a little cramped.
But the native shrimp did not mind. She lay on it to test its softness, and then stood up, satisfied.
Then, she also collected some colorful grass and beautiful little flowers, and carefully decorated the bedroom, just right, and it was beautiful and elegant.
This native shrimp seemed to know the habits of these plants very well.
She nimbly peeled off the poison sacs and trimmed the hidden serrations, and with ease, she quickly and properly dealt with them.
Her healthy and beautiful azure long claws waved, and the scene was very eye-catching.
The Saintess unconsciously watched for a long while.
When she had first entered this room, she had felt that it was a world of its own.
Warm and fragrant, with a clear and subtle scent.
The native shrimp was indeed a shrimp who knew how to live and had good taste.
After the Saintess had finished eating, she asked with great interest, “What do you do?”
With her experience in knowing shrimp, the shrimp in front of her was knowledgeable and methodical in her work. She must have been granted a good position.
But as the Saintess, she knew all the shrimp in high positions in the clan like the back of her hand, but she had never known the shrimp in front of her.
Could she be a general who had been sent to guard a dangerous place?
But she heard the little shrimp chuckle lightly and say with an air of composure, “I’ve never been to school. I’ve always been doing cleaning work.”
The Saintess was stunned.
These two sentences, each one of them, made her feel incredulous.
After a moment of being speechless, the Saintess said again, “Then how do you know so much?”
“Who said that knowledge can only be learned from school?” Luo Bian said lightly.
Seeing the Saintess’s curious look, and since there was nothing else to do, she began to talk about her past experiences—
She had almost been swallowed by a certain ferocious large fish, had almost suffocated from the poison released by a certain lake flower, and had almost been entangled to death by a certain kind of waterweed… She also mentioned a glowing, colorful fish ribbon, a color-changing little crab that slowly drilled holes in the mud, and a rare, sky-blue algae ball fruit.
She described it very vividly, yet also nonchalantly, as if those thrilling and wonderful experiences were a common occurrence for her.
The Saintess listened with great seriousness.
She had never been to the wild waters alone like this. When she went out for diplomacy, she would always be escorted by shrimp soldiers.
And so, she had never encountered a life-and-death situation; she had never seen many of the plants mentioned in the books with her own eyes; let alone deeply and completely experience the dangerous and beautiful world that Luo Bian was talking about.
She was so attracted that she was mesmerized and would from time to time ask for more details.
Luo Bian patiently and slowly told her, and she answered fluently.
They had been talking for too long, and without realizing it, it was night.
The wind was blowing on the surface of the water, and the ripples were clear and gentle.
Later, a light flickered.
In the cluster of soft white little flowers that were used for lighting, one of them suddenly went out.
The conversation paused for a moment.
Luo Bian swam over and, with her long claws, gently pulled at the little flower.
“Is it broken?” the Saintess asked.
Luo Bian said, “Mhm. This flower is very rare. I’m afraid it will be hard to find another one. I’ll try to fix it.”
The Saintess was curious. “Can this also be fixed?”
“I’ve studied its luminous principle before… I’m not sure if it can be fixed, but I’ll give it a try.”
And so, for the rest of the time, Luo Bian went out several times to find materials and tools, and came back to repair the little flower.
And the Saintess would watch with great interest on the side.
The flowers were in full bloom, and those unextinguished, bright white flower lanterns shone on Luo Bian, and her beautiful, light-blue color was even more beautiful.
Her long claws waved forcefully, and she was persistent and patient as she fiddled with it.
After several hours of trying without success, she was not discouraged and did not give up. After a moment’s thought, she changed to a new method to adjust it.
Click.
The soft white little flower finally lit up with a sound.
“—Look, it’s fixed.”
Luo Bian turned her head and smiled gently at the Saintess, with a certain unspeakable spirit.
The Saintess looked up and met her gaze, and for a moment, she was slightly lost in thought, and her heart felt hot.
Luo Bian’s body was full of the scent she longed for—
She had not been tamed by the school, by the hierarchical system, and her mouth was not full of empty talk and pretentious words.
Her whiskers were flowing, and her long claws were azure and healthy, and her figure was beautiful and agile, and she had a certain unrestrained, self-sufficient, and adventurous wildness and coolness.
At this moment, she was so spirited from having spent half a day fixing the little flower lamp, and she was smiling brightly in her own personally arranged, warm and cozy room.
The Saintess was so engrossed that she unconsciously curled her shrimp tail, and her body was faintly flushed with a crimson color, which floated with her breath.
Having fixed the little flower, Luo Bian turned off the light and was preparing to rest.
But she heard the Saintess’s voice, slightly hoarse. “You sleep here.”
Luo Bian was puzzled. “Ah?”
The Saintess tilted her head, and her meaning was clear. “…You don’t know how?”
“…”
Luo Bian’s whole body was numb, and her heart was pounding.
She was a shrimp who had already completed all her juvenile molts and was fully sexually mature.
And in front of her was the female she had been pining for all day.
And so, while the clan was in a mess, searching for the Saintess who had suddenly disappeared on the day of her wedding, Luo Bian and the runaway Saintess were in a rock cave, their feelings deep and intense.
“Is the Saintess in that rock cave?”
The sound of shrimp soldiers’ conversation came faintly from outside the rock cave.
Just at this moment, Luo Bian, without a teacher, with a precise and strong force, pushed with her shrimp tail, and the Saintess was soaked in a crimson color, and she trembled uncontrollably.
The ripples of water created by the shrimp soldiers outside the cave were silently and fervently drowned out by their entanglement.
“This place is full of a human scent. Besides that shrimp worker, no shrimp is willing to come here. The Saintess is even more unlikely to be here. Let’s not torture ourselves.”
After speaking, the shrimp soldiers swam away together, and the area around the rock cave fell into a silence.
Luo Bian held the trembling Saintess in her arms to comfort her and felt that she was quite mesmerized.
The Saintess in the process of entangling was also making her heart pound.
She was clearly inexperienced, yet she was incomparably fierce. When she was not performing well and could not find the right spot, she would be so unsatisfied that she would uncontrollably whip her with two large shrimp tails.
The two inexperienced shrimp, in this passion of one willing to whip and one willing to be whipped, gradually found a tacit understanding and enjoyed the ultimate pleasure.
Later, the Saintess was curled up in Luo Bian’s arms.
As she panted lightly, she said in a low voice, “There is a ‘Book of Rulers’ in the clan, which is a manual for every ruler. The ruler would also make me recite the entire text and strictly practice it.”
“One of the rules is: the ruler should be self-disciplined and polite, and should restrain their desires, and can only mate with their partner after marriage.”
After hearing this, Luo Bian asked, “Then how do you feel now?”
To have, after running away from a marriage, rolled in the vegetation with a commoner shrimp she had just met for less than a day.
“Refreshed…”
The Saintess, with her clear and elegant voice, after saying such wanton and indulgent words, fell into a dizzy sleep.
Luo Bian lowered her head and, in a drunken state, kissed her, and also fell asleep.
…
After fooling around for three days, Luo Bian finally had to go to work.
She had reported before that she might molt at any time, so the shrimp worker who managed her did not question her disappearance these past few days.
She was holding a broom with her tired and slightly trembling long claws and was cleaning the outer perimeter of the school, and she heard the students inside talking.
“It’s been a week since the Saintess disappeared, and she’s still missing. I heard that the wedding hall is still there, and there are shrimp cleaning and maintaining it every day, waiting for her to return and get married.”
“Hey, could it be that some shrimp coveted her and kidnapped her, and is keeping her in a golden house?”
“Shh, don’t talk nonsense…”
Luo Bian, who had indeed kept her in a golden house, paused slightly, and then continued to clean with an air of nonchalance, humming a little tune.
After work, Luo Bian returned to the rock cave with some delicious food.
The Saintess was on the bed, studying a strange plant that Luo Bian had used as a decoration.
“Don’t touch it! You’ll be bitten—”
The moment Luo Bian saw it, she anxiously opened her mouth to stop her.
“Hiss…”
The Saintess looked at her own suddenly bitten, and now missing a tip, leg.
Luo Bian immediately swam closer and, with a certain heartache, held her leg and carefully inspected it.
Then she took out the medicine she had developed herself and applied it.
“How do you know everything?”
The Saintess lowered her head to look at her serious expression.
Luo Bian snorted lightly and laughed, not without a certain pride.
“Yup.”
The Saintess liked this smug look of hers.
Perhaps because they had been too passionate recently, the two of them, after just a few glances, were unconsciously pressed together again.
Just as they were in a brilliant tremor, their bodies suddenly sensed a certain undeniable fluctuation—
It must be a large group of shrimp swimming from a distance.
Luo Bian’s movements suddenly stopped, and she and the Saintess listened quietly, panting.
She vaguely heard the ruler give an order. “Go and search that rock cave at the very end.”
“Yes,” the shrimp soldier answered.
As the shrimp soldiers swam, the fine ripples of water they stirred up were transmitted, and they collided with Luo Bian and the Saintess’s bodies, and also squeezed their emotions.
“…”
They looked at each other, and in this increasingly urgent moment, their breathing was rapid.
Luo Bian suddenly broke the silence and, just as the Saintess had asked on the first day, “Be killed by me, or take me in,” she gave two choices in a low voice:
“Go back and be the Saintess, or wander with me?”
After speaking, she gently nuzzled the Saintess’s injured leg, reminding her of how dangerous the wild was.
Her body trembled slightly in the afterglow. The Saintess looked at Luo Bian’s face and, without hesitation, lifted her head.
“Take me away.”
…
