Her Tentacles 53

Chapter 53: The Mark

If it weren’t for the last thread of reason reminding Shu Yao that this little octopus was a poor little thing that had been on a hunger strike for a long time and was on the verge of death, she would have unhesitatingly pulled this stinky hooligan off and thrown it back into the bathtub.

But the atmosphere in the bathroom was too much like an impending storm—

The little octopus’s ears slowly, slowly drooped back, and then they drooped down.

Plop.

The next second.

It fell from Shu Yao’s chest back onto the bathroom floor, and once again balled itself up. This time, it wasn’t in an angry, attacking state, but more like it was feeling guilty.

Not long after.

The sound of the bathroom door opening and closing heavily was heard.

The little octopus, which had been taken outside the door and could only sense the steam coming from the crack in the door, its ears moved again. It was listless, as if it were melting, and slowly flattened itself at the door, becoming an octopus pancake.

Until the doorbell rang in the middle of the night.

Shu Yao, drying her hair, walked out of the bathroom and almost stepped on that bright, warm orange new carpet.

She: “?”

As expected of the most unpredictable, highly intelligent creature in the deep sea. It was really difficult for her, with her human brain, to understand what this octopus was thinking, especially what had just happened. Shu Yao really wanted to investigate if this octopus had ever been in a circus.

The kind of circus that would be taken away by the anti-pornography squad at night.

Otherwise, there was no way to explain its so-young-yet-so-skilled groping behavior.

…

“Team leader!”

The flower fish, who had been let in, clapped his hands happily at her, and then had the people following him start to move one after another, one after another, into the room. The first one only contained cloudy water, then there were ones with small shrimp and crabs, clams and shellfish, and other octopuses…

What was even more exaggerated was.

The last long viewing tank that was pushed in contained a small shark.

Seeing her home suddenly turn into a water exhibition hall, Shu Yao’s expression froze. She pointed at the shark and asked, “What is the meaning of this?”

The flower fish waved for the delivery people to leave and looked around her house. “I don’t know what kind of octopus you’re keeping. What if it’s a giant deep-sea octopus? It also eats its own kind and sharks.”

He looked around, and his enthusiastic gaze returned to Shu Yao. “Team leader, where’s your octopus?”

Shu Yao didn’t quite understand his excitement.

However, the flower fish, who had just asked the question, felt something poke his trouser leg.

He reflexively wanted to lift his foot.

Shu Yao saw the little octopus, which had politely come to the front at some point, standing by the flower fish’s foot, and even used one of its tentacles to greet him politely.

Then, she quickly kicked his calf, making him jump up on the spot, like a spring, bouncing in her living room:

“Hiss! Team leader! Why did you kick me!”

Shu Yao ignored him, bent down to pick up the little thing, placed it in her palm, and held it up in front of him. “Here.”

The flower fish, who had been severely intimidated by the [Monarch Slayer] and the [Martyrs], was determined to show off in front of ordinary jellyfish and octopuses. Now, seeing such a small, cute, and lively octopus, he immediately leaned his head closer and let out a “wow” sound:

“So small—ah!”

The end of his voice turned into a scream.

Accompanied by a “slap,” it was the sound of the little octopus stretching out a tentacle as far as it could and hitting him in the face.

The flower fish covered his face with one hand, his expression shocked. He pointed at it with his other finger. “Team leader, your octopus, it hit me!”

This time, it was the little octopus extending its tentacles to wrap around his finger, coiling up, and taking a bite on his finger.

Shu Yao hadn’t expected the little octopus, which had been so listless at the auction house and was said to have been on a hunger strike for a long time, to be so lively and so ferocious after coming home with her, to the point of chasing her team member and biting him.

If it weren’t for the fact that this little thing was very obedient to her, and would obediently let go of its claws and mouthparts as soon as she caught it, the flower fish would have been able to report a work-related injury by now.

In the middle of the night, a series of sobs sounded from the top floor of the Star River community.

The flower fish held his already bandaged index finger, wiping his tears. In the background of Shu Yao holding the little octopus and inspecting those fish tanks one by one, asking it which kind of food it was interested in, he whispered bad things about it:

“It eats people, eats people, it’s so fierce…”

“It’s very dangerous to keep this kind of thing at home, team leader. You won’t be able to sleep at night if you keep it.”

Just as he finished speaking.

The little octopus, which was lying in the woman’s palm and had not forgotten to wrap its thin tentacles around her fingers, immediately turned its head. Its black eyes, which should have looked cute because they were round, now had a cold glint.

The flower fish: “!”

He admitted that he was sweating a little.

Especially when Shu Yao passed by each tank, extended her palm, and asked it, “Do you like to eat this?” the little octopus would always turn its head and look at the flower fish again.

After three or four times.

Shu Yao gradually realized that its appetite was not for the creatures in the tank, but for the flower fish.

As the flower fish began to tremble and was about to be so scared by a little octopus that was not even as tall as his ankle that he would hide behind the sofa, Shu Yao moved her wrist and met the little thing’s four eyes.

She parted her lips and said, “No.”

Her light-colored pupils also became stern because of her serious expression at this moment. “You can’t bite him again.”

The little octopus’s ears twitched.

Although it didn’t understand why this beautiful woman wouldn’t feed him the large, delicious food that was right in front of him, its subconscious seemed to be very afraid of her showing this expression, and even its only remaining heart began to pound.

Its ears drooped again.

After a long time, it nodded lightly, and even loosened the tentacle that had been wrapped around Shu Yao’s ring finger and had sucked a light mark on it, and instead wrapped it around her little finger.

As if in compromise.

Okay, I promise you, pinky swear—

…

That night, after the flower fish had regarded her house as a den of demons and had finally escaped, Shu Yao left the little octopus in the living room.

But she had specially checked the lids of the two water tanks containing the octopus and the shark, lest the little thing get curious in the middle of the night and crawl in, and in turn become their food, and she would have to bear the name of a pet killer.

Lying in bed, she thought of some of the succulents that were placed by the window in the living room. Because Nancheng had enough sunlight and the succulents didn’t need to be watered too often, she had left them all.

Recalling the time when Lin Ran had come to stay, and the succulent stand that had been knocked over by the typhoon, but when she checked later, not a single one was missing, she, who now knew the truth, couldn’t help but guess, she didn’t know how much broken glass shards and soil she would have to clean up on the floor tomorrow morning, given the little octopus’s energy.

But that was tomorrow’s business. If she didn’t sleep now, the sky would soon be bright again.

Shu Yao forced herself to relax and fall asleep.

But she still had a nightmare.

In the dream, she was pulled back into the illusion woven for her by the [Styx]. She watched as her friends were eaten and killed one by one by the terrifying black and red octopus. Situ Jin, who had been merged with Chu Wan in the firelight, and Lin Jingshu, who had been left in that dark alley and had never come out…

Although she already knew this was an illusion, Shu Yao was still aroused by the deepest fear buried in her heart. She broke out in a cold sweat in her dream and called out the name that was pressed deep in her memory:

“Lin Ran…”

On her right shoulder.

The little octopus, which had quietly slipped in through the crack in the door while she was asleep, climbed up the bed, and had fallen asleep with her, addicted to her warmth, woke up in a daze. When it heard this name, it felt a sudden pain in its heart.

Although two of its hearts had already been shattered, it should be trying to eat and recover its body at this time. But what touched it more than its appetite was the furrowed brow of the sleeping person at this moment, and the beads of sweat on her forehead.

It slowly extended its tentacles and wiped away the sweat on her face, bit by bit.

Another one wrapped around the back of her neck, invisibly like the cool palm that had once gently stroked this skin and coaxed the woman to calm down.

After a long time.

The person in her sleep finally relaxed her brow.

The little octopus heard its own pounding heartbeat also slowly recover, but the appetite that had been stimulated by the panic had not subsided. It retracted its tentacles, wanting to go and eliminate the several tanks of seafood with a fishy smell that were in the living room.

It hated the smell of things with the same aura appearing here, in this new nest it had chosen. Even if some of them were its own kind.

However, when the tentacle that had been on the woman’s neck was also withdrawn—

But because the warm skin it had just felt was too delicate and warm, the suckers on the tentacle had accidentally sucked on it. Now that it had just been withdrawn, the side with the suckers, which was turned over, made a very faint “pop” sound that only it could hear.

One of the suckers was pulled, and it suddenly transformed into the shape of a heart.

Seeing this shape, the little octopus felt inexplicably panicked. Its bright orange camouflage for a moment was like flowing watercolor, from dark to light, from orange to gold. Just as the color had been changing for a few seconds.

That sucker slowly, slowly returned to its round shape.

After instinctively checking its perfect camouflage, the little octopus was satisfied and, just as it had come, it quietly got off the bed and went out along the crack in the door.

The hunting and mutual devouring among its own kind had long been integrated into its instincts.

Tearing the tough skin of its own kind, cutting open the boneless muscles, although it didn’t like the taste, the little octopus still ate all the “invaders” one by one.

It was defending its territory.

In this new nest that it had marked, which belonged to it and Shu Yao, the little octopus did not allow any other creatures to invade.

Including its own kind.

Including any extra smells.

Looking at the water droplets that had splashed on the living room floor from the fight, spreading the lingering scent of its own kind everywhere, the little octopus clung to the edge of the fish tank and watched for a while, and suddenly had the thought of cleaning this place up.

…

“Bzzz—”

The sky was just beginning to brighten outside the window. The sound of the sweeping robot working in the living room finally pulled Shu Yao out of that nightmare.

The gentle feeling of being coaxed and having her cold sweat wiped away bit by bit still lingered at the end of the dream. She couldn’t help but raise her hand and touch the back of her neck, as if she were addicted to the cool temperature that would always touch her here when she was afraid, before all the nightmares began.

But everything was already gone.

Thinking this, the force of her hand on the back of her neck became a little heavier, with a movement that seemed to want to crush those beautiful memories.

From an angle she couldn’t see, on the skin that her palm was pressing on, among the deep and shallow red marks, a heart-shaped mark was strikingly nestled in between.

As she wanted to forget that illusion and rubbed it more and more forcefully, that faint pink heart also slowly faded into the other marks.

As if it had never appeared.