Her Tentacles 18

Chapter 18: Cooking

When Shu Yao walked out of the bathroom, her cheeks were still flushed with steam. She touched the strap of her nightdress, her expression full of confusion, not remembering when the summer robe she had hung in this large bathroom had turned into a spaghetti-strap style.

However, her attention was quickly drawn to the empty lunch box in Lin Ran’s hand. She walked up to her quickly, her eyes shining as she asked:

“Was it good?”

Lin Ran looked at the hem of her dress, which bloomed like a flower as she walked.

This was a nightdress she had brought back from her original residence after going out to hunt last night. On Shu Yao, the crisscrossing neckline was lower, even a little loose, but none of this was as eye-catching as the bluish-purple bruise that stretched across her right arm.

The predator put down the lunch box, took her wrist, and replied casually, “The preparation was very special.” If she encountered parasites of this shape in the future, Lin Ran considered marinating them in this flavor.

The diverse cooking methods of humans always provided her with inspiration.

Lin Ran even thought with some regret, if her tentacles had been broken off during the battle in the abyss back then, and had been marinated in such a sauce, they would probably have tasted better.

But now, she was very concerned about Shu Yao. Why was she still injured, even though she was carrying the “umbrella” she had given her?

“Actually… actually it just looks serious. It might be because I shouldn’t have taken a bath just now—” Shu Yao, her whole arm held up by her, looked at the bruises from her forearm to her upper arm and defended herself awkwardly. “Anyway, it doesn’t hurt much. I’ll put some medicated wine on it later, and it will be gone in a few days…”

Lin Ran said nothing.

Shu Yao felt even more guilty, but she couldn’t muster the strength to break free. She could only look left and right, like a child caught by her mother, looking for an excuse to run. “I think I’m a little hungry. Do you want to eat something? I’ll go make it.”

Lin Ran’s eyes moved, and she lifted her eyelids to look at her.

…

A short while later.

Shu Yao sat restlessly on the sofa, sometimes fiddling with the small, translucent succulents in the sunlight with her left hand; sometimes turning on the TV, lowering the volume, and absentmindedly listening to the host talk about a tsunami in Country A, a strange creature discovered in the coastal waters of Country B, a severe water shortage disaster in Country C…

She glanced at the news in her spare time, but never saw a report on the monster incident at the Century City fruit tea shop.

The more one thought about the unknown, the more anxious one became. She simply turned off the TV and casually picked up the High School Mathematics I on the coffee table, wondering why Lin Ran would suddenly want to review high school knowledge.

She opened the cover, and another cover with a beautifully drawn character appeared, with colorful, sparkling words on it: Turn Left to Meet Love.

Shu Yao: “…”

She choked, not knowing whether to be ashamed of her habit of still hiding novels in textbooks, or to be socially mortified that the novel she had hidden seemed to have been read by Lin Ran.

Just then, the sound of a fire starting came from the kitchen. She rubbed her face, and quickly remembered her girlfriend’s “I’ll try” answer when she offered to cook instead of her. She immediately cleared her throat:

“Ahem, I—it’s not that I don’t trust you, I’m just asking—do you need help, girlfriend?”

The answer was the neat sound of chopping, pouring oil, and stir-frying.

And a very calm reply, “No.”

Shu Yao could only continue to curl up on the sofa, her gaze fixed on the kitchen door, revealing her concern for the novice cook.

Inside the door.

Lin Ran looked at the phone held up by a tentacle, on which a short video of “how to make steamed egg” was playing. Behind her, a tentacle held a spatula, stir-frying celery and beef in the wok, while another tentacle was in the sink next to it, first washing off its secreted mucus, then rolling up a handful of green choy sum to rinse…

If it weren’t for the scene by the soup pot, where a tentacle was trying to lift the lid and slip in to taste the saltiness, only to be swatted away by two other tentacles—

Everything was so orderly.

Clang!

Bang!

The successive sounds from the kitchen hammered on Shu Yao’s heart.

Just as her expression was becoming more and more terrified and worried, the kitchen door suddenly opened. Lin Ran brought out the dishes, arranged on beautiful plates, one by one. After four dishes and a soup, the last thing to be brought out was Shu Yao.

“?”

She didn’t react until she was carried to the dining table and sat on Lin Ran’s lap.

Her eyes reflexively glanced at the kitchen, and found that all traces of use had been cleaned up. Looking at the dishes on the table, which were also perfect in color, aroma, and taste, she rested her hand on the corner of the table and looked back at the person holding her. “Lin Ran…”

Before she could finish, a spoonful of rice mixed with egg custard was brought to her lips.

“Taste it.”

Shu Yao, who hadn’t been held and fed since she was five: “…”

She raised her left hand to take the spoon. “I can do it myself—”

But the other person dodged her movement. Her jade-white knuckles held the porcelain spoon carved with a rose, as if a pink rose had grown from her flesh and bloomed at her fingertips.

Lin Ran, holding the person who was covered in her scent, brought the spoon to her lips again. “You haven’t finished telling me about what happened at Century City. I’m very interested. Tell me in more detail.”

Shu Yao: “Eh?”

She blinked, and because her attention was diverted, she subconsciously ate the food that was fed to her.

In fact, she didn’t remember where she had left off in the bathroom. Now, hearing Lin Ran say this, she quickly understood, and felt that her girlfriend really needed to be vigilant in this increasingly strange world, so she began to narrate with a serious expression.

“It all started when my ex suddenly came to find me…”

A little over ten minutes later.

Shu Yao, who was almost finished with her story, felt a little full. She glanced at the table and found that a third of each of the several dishes was gone, and Lin Ran was still ladling soup for her.

Shu Yao’s pupils quaked. She struggled to get off her lap. “I—I can’t anymore. Your cooking is delicious, but I really can’t eat anymore!”

Lin Ran looked at the dishes, none of which were empty, in confusion. But then she heard Shu Yao burp, so she could only nod. “I’ll do the dishes.”

…

Amidst the gurgling of the water in the sink.

The dark eyes of the person reflected in the window were lost in thought.

Although those slime monsters devoured humans extremely quickly and were very disgusting, in these few short days, Lin Ran had already dealt with them to the point where they would actively flee at the sight of her. In this context, why would they proactively provoke Shu Yao, who carried her scent?

No.

If it were a proactive provocation, they should have revealed their true forms the moment Shu Yao, carrying her scent, stepped into that shop.

Could it be that their target wasn’t Shu Yao? Was she just caught in the crossfire?

Lin Ran thought for a while, then decided to give up—

Disgusting and weak creatures were not worth wasting her brain cells on.

At this moment, a splash of water was thrown onto her cheek. She dodged it and looked down to see her tentacles, who had long since finished washing and arranging the dishes, splashing each other with water in the sink.

She expressionlessly turned off the tap and walked out.

When she walked out of the kitchen, she saw that Shu Yao had actually fallen asleep on the sofa.

The book with High School Mathematics I on the cover was by her head. She was lying on her side, her head resting on the armrest of the sofa, her injured arm dangling above the carpet.

Lin Ran walked to the sofa and looked down at the sleeping person.

Compared to the prey she had been chasing for two days, which was extremely disgusting, she found that she had recently developed an appetite for this person.

She was sure that Shu Yao was not delicious, but her scent, her proximity, and the temperature of her bare skin against her when she had been sitting on her lap earlier, all made Lin Ran feel inexplicably hungry.

She wanted to eat.

She wanted to taste her.

Sensing her emotions, her mimicked tentacles shed their disguise. One by one, black and red tentacles tried to climb up the other’s dangling fingertips, but the slender wrist and arm could only be entwined by one.

【Mine!】

【Mine, mine!】

They wrestled with each other, but they all began to shrink in size, then one by one, they passed through the gaps between her fingers, crawled over the back of her hand, and extended to cover her injured skin.

The sleeping person suddenly frowned and let out a hum.

As if she had been hurt.

The tentacles’ movements suddenly stopped. It was unknown who started it, but they began to spit out mucus from their suckers, covering her injured area.

Disturbed by the sound, Lin Ran’s eyes shifted. She saw the liquid they had secreted, which could heal prey, and stopped them in her mind:

【That’s enough. Healing too quickly will be noticed.】

The tentacles obediently stopped, but their suckers couldn’t help but knead the soft, delicate human skin, as if diligently massaging it to promote the absorption of the liquid.

However, Lin Ran was still not satisfied when she saw their actions.

In her field of vision, these tentacles extended from the gaps between Shu Yao’s five fingers, as if they were holding hands. However, the tentacles only controlled the shrinking of their tips, and didn’t care about the other parts, so the part entwined around her arm was slender like a coral branch, while the part passing through her fingers was still thick.

It squeezed Shu Yao’s slender white finger bones so much they seemed about to deform.

Lin Ran frowned.

She felt her own strange, contradictory emotions.

She wanted to eat her, but she didn’t want to see her get hurt. But how could prey that was eaten not get hurt?

…

She stared at the sleeping person for a long time.

In the end, she just pulled the tentacles that were wrapped around her arm off, one by one.

【Get off.】

She commanded silently, 【You’re going to break her.】