Her Tentacles 34

Chapter 34: The Photo

Hearing Mu Qing’s sudden suggestion to “take a photo for the little couple,” Situ Jin, who was still sitting in her original seat, also recovered from her hangover. She got off the high stool, walked over to them with a clatter, and showed an expression of watching a play. “Then I’ll join too.”

Compared to the wealthy flower attire she had worn when she first boarded the ship yesterday, the rich woman, who was also good at clubbing, now had a hot and fiery hunter-style makeup on. Her lipstick was a bright red, her top and short skirt were both made of rose-colored leather, and the heels of her shoes were cast from brand letters, thin and high, with a red sole.

As she walked, her black high heels revealed a line of scarlet, which was extremely eye-catching.

…It looked like it would hurt a lot to be stepped on.

Shu Yao stared at her slender heels for a while before turning her questioning gaze to her, silently asking, why are you joining in the fun too?

Situ Jin linked her arm with her other arm, her eyes rolled, gesturing for her to look at Mu Qing, then she proudly puffed out her chest, silently gesturing:

Since you little couple already have one third wheel, what’s wrong with having one more?

Without me, who will help you take away the third wheel later?

Shu Yao deeply agreed.

Situ Jin showed a satisfied smile and leaned into her ear to ask, “Do you like my outfit?”

Shu Yao answered honestly, “It’s very charming on you.”

So the rich woman snapped her fingers. “I’ll buy you a set too.”

Shu Yao: “?”

Her pupils quaked. She couldn’t imagine herself wearing this style of clothing at all. As she shook her head frantically, she was about to refuse when Situ Jin interrupted her. “Don’t be in a hurry to shake your head. Maybe Director Lin will like it?”

“Little couples should try some new plays. Don’t be so old-fashioned. Wearing a collar, black stockings, and high heels, won’t it be more exciting when you’re intimate?” Situ Jin very thoughtfully suggested.

Shu Yao’s ear on this side turned bright red.

What was even more ridiculous was that she was unashamedly thinking that if it were Lin Ran’s face, with a leather collar that exuded an ascetic aura on her neck, and wearing such a pair of high heels, the image of being pulled closer by the metal buckle of the collar for a kiss—

Shu Yao covered Situ Jin’s mouth with both hands, her face flushed as she forbade, “Don’t say anymore.”

Although her friend had lost her freedom of speech, her eyes, the windows to her soul, were particularly meaningful. She looked her up and down a few times, silently conveying a message:

Admit it, you’re moved.

…

With Situ Jin, the little expert at enlivening the atmosphere, present, Lin Ran and Mu Qing were separated at the farthest ends. The four of them traveling together had a harmonious sense of a group of girlfriends traveling.

And the four of them were of different types. From left to right, androgynous, hot, cute, and gentle were all lined up. Even though the other tourists on the ship were also carefully dressed, they were not as outstanding as them.

Especially Situ Jin, her wealthy aura was unstoppable. Before they even reached the scenic spot, she had already rejected three or four groups of people who had come up to hit on her, including people of all skin colors and faces.

Shu Yao, who was not good with words, silently hid behind her girlfriend.

Lin Ran looked at her expression, which had become even colder due to her fear, but was a timid disguise. She couldn’t help but squeeze her cheek again.

Just then.

Someone approached Mu Qing. She raised an eyebrow, crossed her arms, and showed a troubled expression to Situ Jin. “Situ, my foreign language seems to be not very good. I don’t understand what he’s saying. Can you help me translate?”

Because of their several meetings during this period, Situ Jin had a good impression of her and had a friendly attitude. Now, she was also very willing to go over.

But she was suddenly pulled by the arm by Shu Yao.

…It appeared again, that smell.

Shu Yao didn’t know if it was because she had eaten something wrong after getting on the ship, or for some other reason, but it was as if her sense of smell had suddenly failed. In a scene where everyone else’s expression was normal, only she would intermittently smell strange smells, and they were all different types of pungent.

She had just secretly asked Situ Jin if she had smelled anything strange in the bar last night.

Situ Jin looked at her with an even stranger expression.

“What are you referring to?”

“The stink of drunkards, or the dirty body odor of those stinky men who want to hit on me?”

Shu Yao: “…”

She was about to go crazy from her own abnormality. Now, her abrupt action of pulling her friend was just like when she had stopped Lin Ran from doing a good deed in the room during breakfast.

Fortunately, although Situ Jin found it strange, she still pulled Mu Qing over, and at the same time, raised her other index finger, shook it from a distance, and said, “No,” then asked her friend next to her:

“What’s wrong?”

Not only Situ Jin, but at this moment, everyone’s gaze was focused on Shu Yao.

Including the man who had been rejected.

His expression was a little stiff as he stood not far from Mu Qing, like a puppet that had suddenly lost its instructions and didn’t know where to go.

In the end, Shu Yao excused herself by saying that she had suddenly felt unwell just now and had accidentally pulled her friend. Even though she said she was fine later and that it wouldn’t affect their trip to the scenic spot, her expression was still listless.

After her several performances from breakfast to just now, Lin Ran had already realized—

Shu Yao seemed to have acquired some ability to identify parasites.

And it was in terms of smell.

Thinking of this, she leaned into Shu Yao’s ear, and her voice was gentle as she made a final confirmation. “Did you smell something unpleasant again, which is why you’re so unhappy?”

Shu Yao looked at her in surprise.

In these few short steps, she herself had begun to suspect whether she was being overly neurotic or sensitive, and was even thinking about whether she should secretly go to a psychologist for some tests after the trip. But Lin Ran actually believed her so much!

She answered hesitantly, “Mmm…”

“What does it smell like this time?” Lin Ran asked very patiently, her eyes full of seriousness. “Is it still like you said at breakfast, that expired salted fish smell?”

Shu Yao thought about the scent emanating from the man who had approached Mu Qing just now.

Her expression was subtle. “The smell of rotten eggs?”

After a while, she uncertainly changed it. “The smell of a gas leak?”

It was as if, from her current life experience, it was difficult to find an accurate adjective to describe these rich layers of stench, so she could only exhaust her memory bank to try and describe it as closely as possible.

Lin Ran pondered.

Shu Yao’s sense of smell was of course different from hers. First of all, the cells of the human olfactory nerves were not as superior as hers, which had been fused with the constitution of the abyss after her descent. Secondly, even if humans could identify the smell of melting flesh of parasites, it was impossible for them to regard the smell of blood of their own kind as delicious.

The knowledge in her mind told her that humans carried a fear engraved in their genes from ancient times. For example, some people were afraid of the piercing sound of nails scratching a blackboard, which was said to be similar to the sound of a human skull being gnawed by a wild beast.

The same logic applied.

Although Shu Yao didn’t know that these people were all parasitized yet, her sense of smell had already caught their abnormality, and had further extracted the remaining scent of fear from her mind, warning her to stay away from danger with her instincts.

“It’s okay,” Lin Ran straightened the flower-shaped decoration on her sun hat and said gently, “Since you find the smell of these people unpleasant, then you should just stay away from them.”

—As for herself, it seemed she needed to be more cautious in choosing when to eat.

Hearing her words, Shu Yao couldn’t help but grab her sleeve. “Aren’t you afraid that I have some kind of mental illness, that I’m being paranoid? Or that there’s something wrong with my sense of smell and I should go to an ENT doctor for a check-up?”

Lin Ran laughed out loud.

As if she found her cute, she patted her head. “Why do you always like to doubt yourself first? I’m a doctor. Don’t you trust me?”

…

Shu Yao was convinced.

And the entire scene of her interaction with Situ Jin and Lin Ran had been seen by Mu Qing.

At this moment, they had already arrived at the scenic spot of the glass bridge. It turned out that in addition to the area open to most tourists, there was a small enclosed area at the end connected to a wooden bridge, which was convenient for the staff to manage various emergencies in time.

And the place that Mu Qing had said few people knew about—

—was that after Situ Jin came over, those staff members would, out of consideration for the shareholder’s daughter, cordon off a part of the unmanned viewing area for her.

Shu Yao, who knew the truth: “…”

But Mu Qing’s face showed no sign of being exposed for her bluffing, as if she had expected Situ Jin to come. Now, she even extended her hand to Shu Yao and pointed at the camera around her neck. “Come on, I’ll help you take a picture.”

The glass bridge was a long corridor. Like the corridors built on the outer edge of high mountains in other famous scenic spots, which allowed people to overlook the abyss and the strange scenery of clouds and rain falling on the mountain streams and jungles, the glass bridge built on the outer edge of the cruise ship was suspended above the waves, and had its own unique charm.

The white waves broken by the sailing cruise ship gradually spread into the deep blue sea in the distance. The sunlight, clouds, breeze, and waves, nature just casually flicked its paintbrush, and could create the most immersive scenery with its passionate colors.

In the end, Shu Yao couldn’t bear to ruin this atmosphere.

She handed the camera to Mu Qing.

When Mu Qing raised the lens to aim at them, Shu Yao’s expression stiffened. Her relaxed posture of standing with Lin Ran, blowing in the sea breeze, with her arm resting on the side railing of the bridge, became strange and stiff.

After several consecutive shots, her expression in the photos was ugly and wooden. Together with the rebellious little girl not far away, who was being held by the head and forced to take a photo with her family, she was awarded the title of the ugly photo world’s crouching dragon and phoenix.

And the more she cared, the harder it was for her to control the muscles of her face every time the camera was raised, until even Situ Jin next to her couldn’t stand it anymore.

“Is the photographer’s skill not good enough?”

“Let me do it.”

She had seen it. Not only was Shu Yao’s expression particularly stiff, but even the great beauty Lin Ran next to her was a blurry mess with an unknown shadow in Mu Qing’s lens. A photographer’s photos could be down-to-earth, but not down-to-the-underworld!

Mu Qing looked innocent, rubbed her nose, and handed her the camera with both hands.

Lin Ran naturally knew the reason.

Every time she used the camera as a cover, Mu Qing’s eyes behind it were always filled with undisguised, naked malice. Coincidentally, Shu Yao’s perception had been particularly sharp recently, which was why she was so vigilant.

If it weren’t for Situ Jin stepping up to take over, she would have had no interest in continuing to cooperate now.

Noticing the uneasiness in Shu Yao’s expression, as if she were looking for an excuse to escape the frame, although she had no interest in taking pictures, the predator, who had an obsession with the meaning of a couple’s photo, smiled faintly, lowered her head slightly, and her gentle voice fell into her girlfriend’s ear with the sea breeze:

“Collar, black stockings, high heels. Do you want to see me wear them?”

Shu Yao: “!”

She trembled all over, her pupils trembling as she looked at her girlfriend, who had long since heard her conversation with Jin.

And Lin Ran was too close. Her silk-like black hair, her deep and affectionate eyes, her beautiful lips, all crashed into Shu Yao’s eyes.

The next instant, the sound of the camera shutter clicking was heard.

Under the golden sunlight, above the azure waves, they stood on the high bridge, looking at each other, their eyes only on each other. This moment was frozen. One was smiling, the other was shy. It was the most beautiful photo of a passionate love.

As Shu Yao nervously walked toward her friend, wanting to check the photo result again—

Lin Ran looked at her back, thinking of the self-doubting words she had just said. She lowered her eyes and suddenly let out a short laugh.

Mental illness?

Paranoia?

She suddenly accelerated, and in a few steps, she caught up with Shu Yao. And when Shu Yao turned around to ask her, she pulled Shu Yao into her arms with one hand.

“Look at the camera,” Lin Ran said.

Shu Yao’s eyes were wide and dazed as her girlfriend took a photo of them together.

Lin Ran asked her with a smile, “Is it beautiful?”

“…Beautiful! My girlfriend is of course the most beautiful in the world!” Shu Yao finally showed her first unclouded smile.

She hugged Lin Ran.

And Lin Ran looked at the snowy white nape of Shu Yao’s neck, which was exposed to her, and smiled, placing her palm on the most vulnerable and fatal spot of her prey.

A protective meaning wrapped in some possessiveness.

She didn’t care if Shu Yao had a mental problem.

But if Shu Yao cared, she would be very happy to help her girlfriend solve this problem.

—Whatever scene Shu Yao saw in the human world, she just had to turn the world into that scene.