Her Tentacles 10

Chapter 10: Mine

Behind Lin Ran, the scalloped clouds burned with the setting sun. Before her lay a meticulously tended garden.

Amidst the clusters of red, blue, and yellow flowers that bloomed riotously in the summer heat, her prey lay trembling and limp, like a puddle of black sludge about to spread.

【You…】

It trembled, struggling to release a biological message, wanting to parlay with the being higher up on the food chain, but a tentacle that had stealthily approached from nearby suddenly coiled around its neck, winding, and tightening!

At the same time, the woman standing at the edge of the rooftop put her phone away. The thin heels of her shoes extended far over the edge, and beneath her slightly closed eyelids, a bright silver slowly flowed—

Another iridescent feeler pierced with precision into the most vulnerable part of the shell worn by the prey: the temple.

A clean penetration.

Blood splattered.

Below, the carefree blue cornflowers raised their heads. Just as their petals were about to be stained with this demonic color, another tentacle, as lithe as a slithering snake, unfurled. The countless suckers on its inner side opened, joyfully welcoming this sweet delicacy.

【It’s ripe!】

【Ripe, ripe, ripe!】

The prey, impaled, was fading fast. Though its brain was damaged, it was not yet dead. Not only that, it could even hear those gleeful cheers.

…What is that?

It thought, its consciousness dissipating.

But it soon heard a strange churning sound, transmitted through its bones and nerves. Sticky, slow.

Again, and again.

The glasses slid to the end of its nose. Its remaining instincts manipulated the human eyeball to turn to its extreme to the side, but its blurry vision could only capture the thick, scarlet feeler contracting and expanding like a blood vessel—

Gloop.

It “heard” that sound again.

What… what…

As its thoughts shattered into fragments, the monster finally understood.

What was being churned, what was about to be crushed, was its brain.

Not only that, but in addition to its own body, the human flesh, memories, and soul it had parasitized were all being slowly ground to pieces by the immense force of this feeler.

…

Opposite the monster, the hunter’s expression was exceptionally calm as she fed.

After the wind died down, her flowing white coat and black hair fell smoothly. Her eyes did not blink for a long time, like a surgeon in an operating room, focused and concentrating. At this moment, she used her feeler as a scalpel, precisely searching for the “lesion” in the patient’s brain, though her movements were, by all accounts, rough.

What she could enjoy was not only the monster and the human body, bonded by the toxin, but also their unique experiences and emotions stored in their memories. These were the condiments that made the food even more flavorful.

Love and joy were sweet; despair and fear were bitter; hatred and shock were spicy… In addition, there were other exclusive recipes, such as the desires of the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, touch, and mind.

Prey repeatedly marinated in these flavors was a delicacy of the highest quality.

This time.

Lin Ran, as she had always done, casually “flipped through” those memories—

“Teacher Shu, you must be the new ideology and policy teacher, right? Hello, I’m Wu Li, in charge of the general culture class. Wu as in the character for ‘mouth’ and ‘heaven,’ and Li as in ‘reason.’”

He extended his hand in a friendly manner. As he politely lowered his gaze, his eyes, hidden behind his lenses, brazenly traced the other person’s hand by her side: the flawless back of her hand, the slender fingers, the neatly trimmed nails…

Even when his gesture was not reciprocated for a long time, he was not annoyed. He retracted his hand and gave himself an out. “Haha, it’s your first day, you must not be familiar with the place yet, right? How about I show you around?”

At the same time.

His gaze unabashedly traveled upward, from her slender waist, cinched by high-waisted jeans, to the curve of her chest, wrapped in fabric, her small and delicate collarbone, her rounded earlobes adorned with long, dangling crystal earrings, and lingered on her innocent yet bewitching face.

The stunning image was frozen.

Then, as if opening Pandora’s box, other memory fragments related to this image tumbled out.

Shu Yao, with the sunlight from the window illuminating her side profile, the snowy skin of her neck glistening.

Shu Yao, bending down to pick up a dropped file, the shadow beneath the collarbone of her V-neck sweater deepening.

Shu Yao, in loafers and short socks, her ankles peeking out from the hem of her long skirt…

Pfft—

The dangerously colored, iridescent feelers suddenly shed their mimicry, revealing their true forms in the small garden. Then, dominated by a strong will, they all wrapped around and covered the prey, which had been hanging like a piece of cured meat for the New Year—

The dying prey was powerless to fight back. It should have quietly awaited its fate, but on the verge of death, it had a final burst of clarity.

As its memories were read, it, too, in the mingling of flesh and blood with the predator, understood the other’s anger.

【So…】

In the darkness, an immense force descended, suddenly tightening!

…

A mist of blood, fine and dense, floated in the garden air.

The feelers, which could have eaten the flesh bite by bite, were now left to catch only these droplets of soup: ?

They hadn’t reacted just now, their will completely dominated by their master, and they had no idea what they were doing. Now, only the feeler closest to the crushed prey reacted first, opening its suckers. The fangs hidden deep within swiftly took a big “chomp,” devouring the last small piece of jerky.

The other tentacles: ???

【Meat?】

【…Gone?】

The feelers that had been swaying back and forth in the blood mist, unable to get a taste, twisted their tips in the air, forming a vivid question mark at their master, and let out a wronged cry, like a delicious dish being snatched away:

【Wuwu… hungry…】

Soon, except for the one feeler that had secretly eaten the jerky and was now mimicking a flower in the garden, keeping silent, all the others joined the chorus of wailing.

Lin Ran, whose mind was suddenly in an uproar: “…”

She pressed her lips together, her silver pupils dilating slightly with guilt, then quickly returned to normal.

【This piece of meat was spoiled,】 she said.

【Meat… spoiled?】 One feeler, recovering from its grief, approached her face and swayed slightly.

Another, however, as if remembering something, suddenly went to grab the one pretending to be a part of the serene scenery among the flowers. It remembered very clearly who had just monopolized the jerky!

It grabbed the lone diner, patting and hitting it, asking fiercely: 【Spoiled?】

The feeler that was suddenly dragged out: …

Sensing the approach of the other feelers, an atmosphere that suggested they would immediately gang up on it if it gave the wrong answer, and under the pressure of its master’s calm yet intense gaze, it had a flash of inspiration—

The feeler arched like a bow, and the suckers that had savored the taste of the jerky opened: 【Blech, ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!】

It began to perform, vividly.

With their master’s words as a precedent, and seeing the only feeler that had eaten react this way, the other feelers, which had just been crying about the lack of meat, finally quieted down. They even obediently gathered around Lin Ran, cooing at her in their childish voices:

【New one! New meat!】

【Eat… eat something else!】

【Don’t… don’t cry!】

Lin Ran, who had no intention of crying at all: “…”

…

Just as the feelers were demonstrating their cute and clumsy techniques for coaxing their master, a breeze blew across the rooftop again, dispersing the lingering metallic scent of blood. The iron door to the rooftop also rattled in the wind—

Screeeak—

As the grating sound of the twisting metal appeared, other lively human voices could be heard from the direction of the indoor staircase.

The woman standing on the rooftop lowered her eyelids, hearing several muffled footsteps quietly ascending the stairs. The view of the rooftop garden was now unobstructed, and below her feet, a patch of bougainvillea climbed the cement wall, with white and purple flowers blooming riotously among the green leaves.

Soon.

The iron door to the rooftop was pushed open forcefully from the inside, slamming against the wall with a clang. Several burly men in suits and earpieces rushed out. After spreading out to check the area, they reported through their earpieces:

“Miss Situ, we didn’t find anyone on the rooftop either.”

A female voice chirped from downstairs in response: “Really? Check carefully.”

“Yaoyao, don’t cry, don’t cry. I’ll definitely help you find that creep today!”

“Do you want me to stay here with you tonight? Hmm? You’re still going out later? Then I’ll leave these men here for you?”

“Oh, it’s fine, really. I’m not busy with anything anyway. Don’t worry about me…”

…

The sun sank, and the brilliant golden edges of the clouds were dyed a melancholic blue by the night sky.

Seven o’clock sharp.

A woman in a snow-white dress walked onto the rooftop. Though the corners of her eyes were still tinged with the scarlet of excessive fright, and she still clutched a tissue in her hand, she stood in the center of the garden for a while, took a deep breath, and began to concentrate on picking flowers.

The garden full of brilliant summer flowers showed her their most radiant poses, but she still muttered and picked through them:

“No, you move aside, move aside—”

“That one is prettier.”

“You have to grow well, or I’ll pick you tomorrow and put you in a vase!”

As the flowers in her hand grew into a larger and larger bunch, she didn’t forget to threaten the ones that weren’t growing hard enough, determined to make the flowers enjoying the sunlight and sweet rain in her garden compete with her, a working professional.

In a short while, she held a large bouquet of lilies of various colors: magenta, sunset orange, white, pink. They were clustered together, like the entire summer she had collected.

She held the large bouquet, stood up, took out her phone, her fingertips tapping nimbly on the screen. As she sent the message, a faint smile appeared on her lips.

…

In front of the wall of bougainvillea.

The predator, disguised by mimicry, watched the girl surrounded by flowers. The smile on her lips and the red marks at the corners of her eyes, the warmth of the bouquet in her arms and the purity of her dress were all equally eye-catching.

Hearing the slight vibration of the phone in her coat pocket, Lin Ran stood motionless, gazing at the scene before her in the deepening darkness of the night.

In that instant, the memories she had flipped through replayed unexpectedly: ankles, waist, neck, collarbone, earlobes, lips…

Her gaze, icy cold, repeatedly roamed over these places. A thought suddenly popped into her mind.

—Mine.

These, she thought, should all be hers.