Her Tentacles 62

Chapter 62: The Moonlight

Shu Yao had become more active in her field work.

In the past, after she had finished her own business, she would be like an AI on standby, standing by with a cold face, waiting for the logistics team to report that the crisis had been resolved, and then she would turn around and get into the car without looking back, waiting for the flower fish to drive to the next place.

But recently, it was different.

Before and after the mission, she would have the flower fish actively buy water and cigarettes for people, and then casually ask about the background of the target this time, or related stories and gossip, as if she suddenly wanted to find some fun in the boring, stinking mission.

A few days later, Lu Ren specially came to find her when she was out on a field mission—

“Teacher Shu, I heard that you’re very interested in the stories of these dangerous elements now?”

She had just come out of a commercial building. Because her pet had not been eating well recently, the building’s ventilation system, from the sewer to the ceiling, was blocked by the pollutants of the [Parasites], and they were also highly corrosive, making the building’s steel frame precarious.

After she had cleared the target, the logistics team, after communicating with the owner of the building, decided to carry out a targeted demolition of this building.

Just as the personnel were entering and setting up the related facilities, Shu Yao had just taken off the special mask she had been wearing for a long time. Her forehead was also sweating from the intense exercise, and her cheeks were flushed, making her look more humane than her usual cold self.

Her light-colored pupils looked at Lu Ren. “I’m not that interested. I’m just waiting anyway, so I’ll listen.”

Lu Ren: “…”

A person like him, who had no special skills but could still get into the special department and survive until now, couldn’t possibly be a fool. He couldn’t believe a single punctuation mark of what she said.

But he could only smile and reply, “Then did you hear anything special?”

“Yes,” Shu Yao, who was standing in a secluded place, nodded frankly, staring straight into his eyes. “Recently, these malignant [Parasites] with special abilities that have suddenly swarmed out have all been diagnosed with incurable diseases in major hospitals before they were parasitized.”

Lu Ren took a sharp breath.

His gaze was fixed on his toes. “Then this is a major discovery about the mutation of [Parasites]. Teacher Shu can quickly write a comprehensive report and submit it.”

Shu Yao pulled at the corner of her lips.

“Do you believe more that critically ill patients are more likely to have a higher probability of mutation after being parasitized by low-level monsters, or do you believe more that some people, some organizations, are deliberately selecting these critically ill patients to conduct some illegal experiments related to [Parasites]?”

The smile was far from reaching her cold eyes. “As of today, the number of missing persons reported in the various districts of Nancheng in the system has reached 1,237.”

…

Lu Ren was silent for a long time.

In fact, he wanted to say that since the beginning of this year, the number of missing persons in the entire province had increased by dozens of times compared to the past. Especially now, with Nancheng as the front line of the battle against the deep-sea monsters, this number didn’t mean much.

But he didn’t say any of those words.

He knew someone in the finance department and knew that Shu Yao had no family left. When she had first entered the special department and reported her family’s benefits, she had registered a couple. The medical reimbursement for that couple last month was very amazing.

This meant that this girl in front of him, who had long since lost her family, was about to lose the close person she later regarded as family, after a series of monster incidents.

In the end, Lu Ren raised his hand and pressed his temples, but suddenly mentioned another matter. “The newcomer who was in the same group as us before, that Guan Tong, when she heard that the progress of our investigation into the organization had been suspended, she also went to the minister’s office several times to protest.”

He put down his hand, put his hands in his pockets, and looked into the distance. “I heard her family has a lot of background in the department.”

Shu Yao thought for a moment, as if she had understood something.

A moment later, her face brightened again. This time, the smile she showed him was more genuine. “Thank you.”

Lu Ren looked at her with a surprised expression and also smiled. “What is Teacher Shu thanking me for? I just saw that you’ve been very interested in listening to gossip lately, so I just casually chatted with you about a colleague.”

After he finished speaking, he looked at the time. In a few more minutes, the building not far away would collapse. So he said goodbye to Shu Yao and left first.

And so it was Shu Yao’s turn to think about how to further solve the problem.

Because she and that newcomer had only met a handful of times. Even if Guan Tong was really pursuing this case alone and had new clues, there was no reason why she had to share them with her. She might have special channels and assistance.

After she returned home.

While still thinking, she filled the bathtub with water, sprinkled some petals on the surface, and put two little yellow ducks in it. Then she put the little octopus in.

While forcing the little pet to exercise more to digest, she would also randomly squeeze the little octopus’s soft tentacles, as if she were squeezing a plush toy, and knead the soft, smooth skin to relieve stress.

As if she were trying to make its tentacles make the squeaking sound of a little yellow duck.

A few minutes later, she looked at the little octopus floating on the surface of the water, looking as if it were just going with the flow.

Like an unreasonable parent, Shu Yao poked the little pet’s bright belly. “Swim. Why aren’t you swimming? Are you being lazy?”

“…”

The little octopus, which had just had one of its tentacles released by her, angrily shot a jet of water at the ceiling.

Shu Yao couldn’t help but laugh and, feigning enlightenment, she relented, “Alright, if you don’t want to swim, you can perform a talent—”

“Come on, let’s begin.”

This time, the little octopus turned over and faced her with its back, silently refusing.

Fortunately, at this moment, a phone call came in, rescuing it from its willful owner’s arrangement.

…

The call was from Zhou Xiaonan.

Her tone was filled with disbelief as she complained to Shu Yao about her father’s ridiculous arrangement, saying that he insisted on signing her mother up for a tour group, so that she could go out and have fun while she was still feeling well. If it weren’t for the fact that she had seen their luggage in the room during dinner today, she wouldn’t have known about this.

Shu Yao quickly asked for Auntie Zhou’s departure time and noted down the tour group’s meeting place for tomorrow. At the end, she added, “I saw that Auntie’s health was much better last time I came. How is she lately? Has she gotten any better?”

This time, Zhou Xiaonan was a little hesitant. “Yes, she has, but… after all, she’s on a new medicine, so there are always side effects.”

Previously, Shu Yao had also asked her to look for it in Auntie Zhou’s medicine box.

But later, after she knew the ingredients of the medicine, she didn’t ask again, only telling Xiaonan to pay more attention, and that if Auntie was feeling well, she should stop taking the medicine if she could.

Given that these statements were too feudal, Shu Yao was not sure if the other party had listened.

She asked again, “What side effects?”

“My mom has been having trouble sleeping again lately. She said there are other voices in her head. My dad thinks it’s because the soundproofing in this residential building is not good, because the upstairs and downstairs have started construction recently. So he wants her to go on a trip, change the environment, and found a place like a primeval forest with high oxygen content, to see if it can improve her sleep quality.”

Shu Yao: “…”

Her heart tightened.

But she could only, as usual, say some nice things, telling Zhou Xiaonan not to be nervous, and at the same time, she repeatedly confirmed Auntie’s departure time before she hung up the phone.

In fact, when she first knew that the medicine Auntie Zhou was taking was related to [Parasites], Shu Yao was a little dazed. Then, she was both happy and worried.

She was happy because she happened to have the ability to control these low-level monsters. As long as Auntie Zhou’s activities were under her nose, she could use the special abilities of the parasites to clear out the bad cells and tissues in her body, and then be completely reborn—

This was not a bad new idea after being sentenced to death in the medical world.

But the premise was.

She had to figure out what kind of experiments these organizations that were distributing [Parasites] were doing.

Shu Yao stayed up all night.

Because she was worried that Auntie Zhou would change her travel plans at the last minute, she simply took the little pet and moved to the rooftop of the building opposite the Zhou family’s community, staring at the direction of the Zhou family’s window.

She saw the bedroom light turn on and off.

In the cold night of late autumn, the cold wind blew on her face. Shu Yao silently pulled up the collar of her coat. While she was still thinking about what to do to pass the long night, she saw the little octopus slip out of her pocket.

It stood on the rough cement platform, confirming that it was parallel to Shu Yao’s line of sight, and then began to raise its tentacles one by one to her, turning over the reddish-orange side, revealing the snow-white side with suckers, and the place close to its soft abdomen and mouthparts.

Shu Yao, who saw it suddenly open up like a flower: “…”

She chuckled, and the corners of her lips curved up under her raised collar. She reached out to scoop the little octopus up from the gritty, gray-black dirty platform. “What are you doing?”

“You wouldn’t perform a talent just now when I asked you to. Are you being rebellious here now?”

“Alright, it’s cold outside. Go back to your pocket, okay?”

Under the night sky, where only a crescent moon was visible, her outstretched fingers also seemed to have a faint glow.

However, before she could touch the little octopus, it stretched out two tentacles, intertwined them, and stopped her from moving forward.

Then.

The little octopus’s round, black eyes seemed to flash with thought.

Under Shu Yao’s puzzled gaze, its orange skin, which was bright when it was active and dim when it was listless, for the first time, began to slowly change color in front of her, showing its strongest mimicry talent.

Like a flowing light strip, the color that finally settled on its body was a cute and tender pink. Paired with its agile ears, it looked like a little octopus that had walked out of a cartoon.

…

When the little octopus’s color had cut through red, Shu Yao’s heartbeat had abruptly stopped for half a beat, and her breath had also tensed up.

But in the end, she found that it was just pretending to be cute, and only then did she exhale again.

“Baby, what’s wrong with you?”

She leaned in curiously, not knowing why it had suddenly started to please her. “Even if it’s not pink, you’re still very cute. Or are you tired of your own skin and want to change into new clothes?”

The little octopus, whose hunger had completely disappeared and was filled with a strange desire, looked at her with its round eyes and found that Shu Yao had completely not understood its courtship and pleasing.

It hesitated for a moment.

Then, it slowly moved its body from the platform, following the two tentacles that were wrapped around the woman’s fingertips. By the time Shu Yao had taken out a wet wipe with her other hand and had wiped the grit from its tentacles and skin—

It opened its mouthparts under its abdomen, carefully retracted its fangs, and opened its mouth to slowly take the woman’s long index finger in.

The cool, soft, and jelly-like touch continuously spread up along the fingertips and the back of her hand.

But Shu Yao didn’t dare to move, for fear of hurting the skin in its mouth. Her light-colored pupils trembled slightly, not understanding what it was going to do.

Until the little octopus had taken most of her finger in, and then slowly retreated, letting her fingertip, which was covered in its mucus, be exposed again in the moonlight.

It illuminated the crystal-clear layer of what was stained.

And then.

It repeated the same action again, and once again swallowed Shu Yao’s fingertip.

She was stunned for a full half a minute.

Shu Yao, who belatedly realized what this activity was from its actions: “!!!”