Her Tentacles 100

Chapter 100: Extra 2

Experience a new world?

What kind of new world could it be?

The big octopus couldn’t imagine it, because in its only memory, the world was either the darkness that enveloped it and made it feel at ease, or that bright white.

Even this surging sea, the wind blowing over its body, and the cliff and stone beach in front of it, the moon in the sky… were all things it had never seen before.

In its silence, the woman once again coaxed it. “Of course, you definitely can’t appear in this form. Humans are most interested in monsters like you. If they knew you could even talk and communicate with people, you might not even have the chance to be a specimen in an ocean museum, and would be sent to some terrifying research institute…”

“So, you need a disguise.”

“A monster like you should have some very special skills, right? For example, eat me, put on my shell and skin, and then walk on land in my appearance. This way, you can become one of them—”

Although she was the weaker party.

But now it seemed that she was the devil in the myth who was luring others to fall, and was trying hard to release temptation.

The big octopus glanced at her again.

When it heard the word “kin,” it unexpectedly thought of the group of jellyfish that had been chasing and killing it in the abyss, also known as the [Martyrs], and then it looked down at its own form, which was out of place with them.

Do you have to be in a group wherever you go?

That’s really boring.

And so it lazily, once again, tactfully refused. 【You don’t look delicious.】

…

The woman was strangely quiet for a while.

Suddenly, she had a flash of inspiration. From the monster’s several refusals, she understood what it cared about most.

“You like delicious food? Then you should consider my suggestion even more.”

“There should be no creature in this world that knows how to dig out delicious food better than humans, right?”

She narrowed her eyes, recalling the childhood delicacies stored in the depths of her memory.

“Even if it’s just seafood, you should have only eaten it raw, right? But after having a human’s sense of taste, you can experience the delicacy of cooked food… The freshest seasonal shrimp, small squid, clams, after they’re caught, they’re kept in water for a while. When you want to have congee, you can stir-fry the shrimp heads with fine ginger shreds in a clay pot, add water and bring it to a boil, and add some dried scallops when you add the rice, and cook until the rice blossoms…”

Clay pot seafood congee, even for breakfast, was filling enough.

If there was a lot of meat at home, and you wanted to be more luxurious, you could add some chicken and beef, and you could make a congee hot pot. The thin slices of meat would be blanched one by one, and after eating the freshest bite, the gurgling, steaming congee left in the pot, with just a few slices of lettuce, would have the full fragrance of the meat essence.

It didn’t matter if you didn’t like rice. These seafood could also be used to cook noodles, rice noodles, could be added to rice noodle rolls, and could also be spread in pancakes.

Even if they were all coastal cities, they each had their own specialties and cooking methods. Just with seafood alone, there were raw, marinated, stir-fried, typhoon shelter style, steamed, and braised, enough to make one unable to eat them all.

She had originally just been talking casually, wanting to arouse the monster’s curiosity. Who knew that the more she talked, the more she got into it. Not only did she mention these dishes, but she also thought that this big octopus might not know what each of the side dishes she was talking about was, so she started a major agricultural popular science.

Her voice was on the verge of floating away several times, but she miraculously had the strength to continue.

She thought it was her final burst of energy before death.

But the big octopus, which had been silently listening to her, slowly retracted the tentacle that had been by her side and had touched the wound on her calf.

There had been a large wound on it, which had been cut by a sharp stone when she was washed ashore, but now the marks on it had disappeared.

From her narration, it had heard a very warm and longing emotion, which was different from the cold, and only needing to follow instincts and commands, [Martyrs] in the abyss.

When it found that its special healing mucus was also useful to her.

The big octopus suddenly wanted this human, whose eyes shone brightly when she talked about food, to live.

The woman had not had such a leisurely time to recall delicious food before.

She was too busy. She had been busy with her studies for the first twenty-odd years, and then she had to be busy with internships and work as she approached graduation. Even if she had occasionally heard from the idle chat of the people around her that the mountains and rivers somewhere were so beautiful that people would linger and forget to return, and that the specialty snacks of some city of gastronomy were a must-try, she had never had the chance to go.

She just silently listed these places as destinations that she could only enjoy and relax at when she was free, when she was old and retired, or when she had a lot of money.

She had planned her life to be busy.

She only focused on walking forward.

But now she found that her final destination was planned too far away. In fact, the finish line she was about to hit was right in front of her.

When the listener finally spoke and said to her, 【You can taste them all again,】 she fell silent.

She could no longer taste them.

And… her ears also seemed to be not very good. Now, when she heard the sound of the waves, it was with a buzzing barrier. Only when she heard its voice was it clear.

She was silent for a long time.

In fact, she had thought of many possibilities. The most incredible one was a miracle falling from the sky, making the tumor in her brainstem disappear completely, and then she could continue to work and live like a healthy person.

But what then?

She still had to face those vampire-like biological parents, who used kinship as a rope to strangle her so that she could not breathe.

And she also had to face the fact that no matter how hard she worked, she could only be a hardworking mediocrity. Even if she worked for thirty years, she could only be an ordinary person who worked hard to make a living.

Her body could be repaired, but her heart and her soul, from the time of her birth, had been, bit by bit, full of holes.

After thinking for a long time, she organized her words again and said with some difficulty, “You see, your problem, in my opinion, is very easy to solve. And my problem, for you, doesn’t seem to be any trouble or sorrow either—”

“How about we go back to the deal I proposed just now?”

“Like in those ghost stories, I’ll give you my body to use. You use it to see the beautiful scenery on land, and enjoy every flavor you’re curious about. When you’re tired of it and don’t want to experience a human’s life anymore, you can change back to this form, or go back to the sea, or come back to this coast like today. It doesn’t matter.”

It would definitely do a good job, right?

The book said that every tentacle of an octopus has an independent nerve and thought. The perfect suturing that she needed to practice with a banana peel every day and operate a microscopic instrument to perform, perhaps for this big octopus, was just a simple matter that could be completed by casually handing it over to one of its tentacles.

And that pair of vampire-like biological parents, after she had been disciplined by a good education for many years, they had appeared, making her unable to let go of all the past and accept them, nor could she, because of her wandering childhood, take fierce revenge on them.

But a monster doesn’t have to follow human rules and conscience.

It would not be bound by their brutal kinship.

…

On this absurd moonlit beach, after encountering such a special monster, the woman felt as if she had also gone crazy.

The appearance of this seemingly somewhat kind octopus monster had silently shown her a future and a possibility that she had dreamed of. For this, she was like a madman who was terminally ill and was hoping for a miracle, and was willing to gamble her life for a splendid bloom.

Of course, there was still the risk of this gamble coming to nothing.

Because she also had to bet that this monster, before it ate her, would not be able to change its huge body into a human at will.

However, as she thought this, the scene of the demons in Journey to the West, which she had seen as a child, casually cultivating, and with a shake of their bodies, transforming into human form, also appeared in her mind.

She chuckled slightly, and then calmly accepted it.

If this octopus was really moved by her words, and really had that kind of ability, then let it go. In this lonely night, they were originally strangers who did not have to travel together.

Saving a monster before she died.

It sounded like a glorious moment in her life.

After she had repeated that proposal, she did not continue to speak, but just looked up at the sky in a daze, her eyes reflecting the big, bright moon, which also made her pupils look like light bulbs.

She had already made a decision.

It knew.

No matter if it agreed to her request tonight or not, she would not change the final direction of her fate. This was the end that the woman had chosen for her path in advance.

And as she slowly closed her eyes, a very hazy, very translucent, fluorescent light also shone from her body.

For some reason.

The monster was aroused by her words, and also suddenly knew how to, in the way that this human expected, eat her, replace her, and become her.

As if their meeting tonight was destined.

And so it stared at the pale, ghostly light that seemed to be about to scatter in the moonlight, and asked: 【What do you want?】

She was determined to offer this body to it, as if it were a mysterious and ancient sacrifice. A believer had offered a tribute, and should always ask something of a god.

Her consciousness was dazed and scattered, and she was already on the verge of death. The woman answered hoarsely, “I want a different me.”

The her who could, in her studies, in her work, be transcendent to others, with outstanding talent and ability, so that she could be noticed by everyone. She had both talent and was willing to work hard, and would eventually reach the top.

The her who did not have to be trapped by her birth for her entire life, who was not troubled by that terrible blood connection, and could choose a good family, a good family, and live a happy life.

The her who could be optimistic when she wanted to be optimistic, and cold and aloof when she wanted to be cold and aloof, who would not care about the opinions of outsiders, and would not be troubled by the thoughts of others, and could live however she wanted.

She could be a sociable person who was good at dancing with long sleeves, or she could be a reclusive, talented doctor. If she was very talented, she would be a talent who could not be confined by her withdrawn personality and would always be famous in the medical world. If these careers ultimately had to deal with people, then she would also be a master with great skills and insight into human relationships.

She had too many, too many different dreams about her life.

But her rotten soul already carried an indelible birthmark, just like the saying, an unfortunate childhood takes a lifetime to heal.

But the monster that would live on in her appearance did not have to carry this curse—

“Ten years.”

She murmured again, “Ten years…”

She no longer had the strength to say the rest of her words. Only her eyelashes were about to close, and a fine light, with hope, looked at the giant octopus monster.

In the second before her heartbeat became weaker and weaker and faded, her closed eyelids and the darkness swallowed her together.

And so the monster finally understood her unfinished words.

This transaction was for a period of ten years.

It would live for her for ten years. If, after ten years, it still felt that this shore was as boring as the bottom of the sea, then it could reconsider whether its future path should be like hers today, and whether it should return to this beach where everything was waiting to end.

Her name, memory, and past were all presented in its main brain.

Until it had slowly finished flipping through them, and wanted to say to her that according to the rules of human society, their agreement just now did not seem to have any effect.

Unfortunately, it had no room to back out.

Fortunately, it did not intend to back out either.

…

The waves on the beach were getting bigger and bigger. This typhoon, which had been lingering on the edge of the land for a long time, seemed to have a choice difficulty. After lingering in the South China Sea for a long time, it had not chosen its favorite landing spot.

And so it suddenly turned around again, and along the coastline, it went north, wanting to find a more favorable direction to land.

And on the cloud rotor it carried, the huge water vapor was overwhelmed, and it poured down on this city.

The pouring rain turned the heavy rain signal on the television from yellow to red.

On the beach of the scenic spot, a figure was against the sea waves. Her clothes were all wet from the wind and rain, and clung to her body. She was so slender and thin, but she was not broken by the wind and rain. She was neither trembling nor afraid.

She just looked down at her own feet and walked step by step toward the hotel that the woman had booked, in her memory.

She was looking at the human’s feet and toes.

Until they, with traces of the beach, appeared in the hotel lobby, which gave the security guard a big scare.

Perhaps it was because her appearance was too pathetic, and the weather outside was so bad, and she didn’t even have shoes on her feet. Her encounter was really too pitiful.

The security guard quickly came over and closed the hotel door again, and called the manager. Soon, a front desk staff on duty came over with a blanket and hot water.

“Why are you still out in this weather? There’s a typhoon outside. It’s very dangerous.”

“Are you from out of town? Hiss, are you a guest at our hotel?”

The front desk looked at her with familiarity.

Mainly because of her overly slender figure, and the state of her face, which was clearly quite beautiful, but was sallow and her eyes were lifeless, which made people feel a sense of regret. They didn’t know what this beautiful woman had been through to go out alone in this weather.

And to come back at such a dangerous time.

Thinking of this, the front desk was a little more careful and quickly told the manager about this guest, for fear that this guest would not succeed in seeking death outside, and would cause some trouble in the hotel.

The manager was also startled.

His attitude of asking after her well-being was a little more sincere. He even personally escorted the guest back to her room.

Before he left, he said to her with some concern, “The weather outside is very dangerous now. There might be a power and water outage. What was your name again? I’ll have a staff member bring you some water and bread in advance in half an hour.”

The woman standing behind the door looked him up and down for a moment before she slowly opened her lips:

“Lin, Ran.”

Lin.

It was a rush that grew in the wild. It could be used to make paper, and it could also be used to tie things. This was the thing that the girl, who had been raised as a child bride for a period of time, had most often collected on the hillside outside.

Later, in the orphanage, she had flipped through page after page of the Hundred Family Surnames, wanting to choose a nice-sounding surname for herself, as a symbol of a new beginning.

She didn’t want to choose too big a name, because she had heard from the mother of the orphanage that if a child was too young and had too big a name, they might not be able to bear that fate, and would have many disasters.

This made her a little afraid, so she specially chose some ordinary and nice-sounding ones.

Lin, she liked it very much.

The great prime minister Lin Xiangru in the textbook, from the story of “Returning the Jade to Zhao,” also had this surname. And so she secretly hoped that she could also become a person like Lin Xiangru in the future.

Ran, so, thus.

“Like Lin Xiangru”—her name should also be left in the books.

But later, the book she wanted to leave her name in was not a history book, but she had secretly hoped it would be a major surgery book.

After saying goodbye to the hotel manager, the monster, which had now become “Lin Ran,” returned to her room.

She curiously turned around in the room, touched the walls, the bedsheets, and then, based on her memory, she opened the buckle of the suitcase, until she walked into the bathroom.

On the countertop, there was a simple men’s razor, and there was also a considerate replacement blade. She picked up the box of blades and shook it, and looked at her current appearance in the mirror.

In her memory.

It should have been black and shiny hair, but now it was dry and yellow, and had split ends.

There were also dark circles under her eyes from staying up too late, and her whole person was as thin as a stick.

She leaned closer, her fingertips touching the box of blades. After a while, she took out a blade from inside, and first shaved off this pile of dry hair, wanting to let the beautiful black hair in her memory grow out. Before that, the thin blade slowly moved along her scalp.

As it traced over it inch by inch, many knowledge appeared in her mind.

Finally, it stopped on the image data in her memory.

The location of that tumor… should be, here?

The sharp, cold-glowing blade calmly pointed at that patch of scalp.

Lin Ran met her own gaze in the mirror.

The black and red tentacles, at some point, had torn through the skin of her spine and had reached out one by one from behind her. As if they had absorbed a very small amount of energy from this body, they finally had the strength to once again bare their fangs and claws and shout for food.

Although they were both out of strength on the beach just now.

They had met at their lowest point.

The chicken soup that was imprinted in the human mind said that when you fall into a deep valley of mud, no matter which direction you walk, it is always upward.

“An unfortunate you met an unfortunate me…”

She said very lightly to the person in the mirror, “Will we become the best of us?”