Her Tentacles 78

Chapter 78: Like

Shu Yao felt like she was really on a trip this time.

As the overlord of the abyss, there was no existence in the blue ocean of this planet that could pose a threat to the little octopus. There was nowhere it could not go.

They could watch the sunset in front of the giant blue glaciers of the Antarctic, which never melted and had existed since ancient times. They could watch the waddling penguins glide into the water. They could stand in the midst of a thousand piles of snow, as the storm swept and hit the island reefs, and feel the majestic shock of the ocean when it was angry.

This seemed to be the meaning of travel.

In the simple, day-to-day life of these many marine creatures, Shu Yao felt that the pain of being tormented by the [Parasites], by the endless work, by the babbling of the [Lighthouse] on land, was also slowly being repaired.

At that time, she was tired of seeing the beautiful scenery that could be frozen in every second outside. She was lying on the sofa resting, her head still on Lin Ran’s lap, and she even wanted her to read her a bedtime story.

Because she had tormented her girlfriend too much under the long night of the aurora, the [Monarch Slayer] willingly accepted the punishment, and even felt that this was already a reward.

She stretched out her arm and took down the middle school classics that were placed side by side with the textbooks on the bookshelf. She read out the names one by one and asked her good-naturedly which one she wanted to hear.

Shu Yao thought for a while.

She found that she only vaguely remembered some of the content, and had forgotten all the details. So she lazily asked her, “Which one do you want to read?”

Lin Ran casually picked up Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. After opening the cover, she could still see some childish handwriting on the title page, recording the reader’s favorite sentence at that time.

‘You only know the answer when you explore.’

It should have been written by Shu Yao when she was studying before, but she herself had forgotten.

Lin Ran looked at the traces of her handwriting, as if she were touching her younger self across time. So she said, “Let’s read this one? It’s quite fitting.”

The place where the abyss was located was under the deepest trench of this planet—

And then it was necessary to cross the barrier gap to reach that endless, deeper place. If one were to convert this distance, it could also be described as twenty thousand leagues.

…

The word “fitting” suddenly brought back some bad memories for Shu Yao.

She vaguely remembered that when she was on the cruise ship before, she had run into Mu Qing, who was disguised as [Styx]. The theme song of Titanic was playing on the other’s phone, and she had also hummed along for a couple of lines. At that time, she also felt it was fitting.

And the result?

The result was that at the end of the trip, that huge cruise ship had sunk into the vast sea like the Titanic, and she and Lin Ran, this pair of lovers, had also gone through a life-and-death ordeal like the male and female protagonists of the story.

So unlucky!

She suddenly opened her eyes, snatched the book from Lin Ran’s hand, and flipped through it carefully. “No, someone died in the story. Where is it fitting? What is it fitting for? Change it, change it.”

Shu Yao picked up Robinson Crusoe from beside her. She vaguely remembered that the ending of this story was good, but through the excerpts she had colored with colored pens back then, and the reading notes on the side, she soon flipped to a conspicuous line:

“Friday died, wuwu!!”

“…”

With a “slap,” she closed the book with a blank expression and directly crossed out all the adventure storybooks in her mind.

Finally, Shu Yao’s gaze fell on that classic European romantic love story. She stuffed Pride and Prejudice into Lin Ran’s arms, and only then did she lie back down with satisfaction.

“Read this. This is fitting.” A love story and a love-struck octopus, what a perfect match.

From the time she had heard her protest, the curve of Lin Ran’s lips had not fallen.

Perhaps Shu Yao herself had not noticed this change.

Before, she had been determined to die on this trip, and was disheartened about the future. Now, in this stage of choosing a story, she was haggling over the good and bad of the ending, and was unwilling to let this journey be shrouded in a bit of gloom. It really made Lin Ran find her cute.

She liked Shu Yao’s vibrant appearance.

And so she also good-naturedly replied, “Okay, then I’ll read this one.”

While Lin Ran was reading the book, the other secondary brains that were controlling her body truthfully transmitted the information of the scenery outside to her.

It was unknown from when.

The bright moon hanging high in the sky had gradually been stained with an ominous, dim red light. At first, it just made the moon look a little pink, but now there was a very obvious change in its blood color, and a horizontal line had even appeared abruptly in the center.

Like a tightly closed eye, about to open.

The pleasant voice that was reading the book paused for a few seconds.

Shu Yao, as if she had sensed something, calmly opened her eyes again, and her light-colored pupils looked at her. “What’s wrong?”

Lin Ran raised her hand and stroked her cheek, then lowered her head and smiled at her. “Nothing. I just wanted to ask you, is there any other scenery you want to see?”

Raising an eyebrow, Shu Yao suddenly mentioned another matter. “Did you know? I actually really dislike it when people around me lie to me.”

Lin Ran: “…”

Her expression was a little stiff.

Many memories of her past with her girlfriend, when she had made up excuses to sneak away to hunt for delicious food, flooded her mind.

The person lying on her lap was clearly wearing loose home clothes, and her long hair was scattered on the sofa. The two of them were as intimate as an ordinary couple, but Lin Ran just felt an indescribable sense of oppression from her expression.

In this guilty, suspicious silence.

Shu Yao glanced at her expression and then said slowly, “Forget about the past. Do you want to answer the question I just asked you again?”

Lin Ran, who was young but already had a strict wife, immediately said, “It’s just that the consciousness of the [Lighthouse] has been projected into this world enough. It is about to land, and the time we have left is not much—”

“Maybe our trip will have to end early, and we’ll have to prepare to enter the abyss.”

Hearing the answer, Shu Yao was a little helpless.

She had been calculating the time outside before, and was still wondering how long Lin Ran was planning to stay in the shallow sea. She hadn’t expected her to want to drag it out until the last moment.

She immediately raised her hand and squeezed her girlfriend’s cheek. She calmly commanded, “Let’s go now.”

Shu Yao didn’t want this to be the last time she saw these beautiful sceneries, nor did she really want to take the whole house and this octopus and wander outside from now on.

…

The monster returned to its original form and rushed toward the Mariana Trench.

The moon, the starlight, the waves, the islands on the sea surface were all isolated into another world by the seawater. However, this was the real beginning of their journey.

One hundred and thirty meters.

This was the maximum depth at which humans could currently hold a romantic wedding in the water and let the ocean witness their happiness.

Five hundred meters.

This was the maximum depth at which a blue whale could dive.

One thousand meters.

Entering the semi-deep sea zone, completely isolated from all the light from the sky and the ground.

The light that could illuminate the monster’s internal space all came from the string lights that had been arranged in advance, which were powered by batteries and had their electricity stored in advance, and were slowly extended by time.

All around was quiet.

As if even the plants on the balcony were holding their breath.

Then it was one thousand five hundred meters… three thousand meters.

In a place Shu Yao couldn’t see, the giant black and red octopus silently passed through the depth boundary of the deep sea zone, and brushed past the quiet, dark sperm whales that stood upright like a Stonehenge.

And then it continued down, down.

Passing the six-thousand-meter ultra-deep sea zone, passing the eight-thousand-meter depth of the seabed, the deepest depth at which fish could survive, and heading toward the ten-thousand-meter depth.

Because the monster had returned to its original form and was no longer in mimicry, everything in the deep sea was isolated. All Shu Yao could see was the fine light projected by the star-shaped lights on the living room ceiling.

She was like a passenger on a long-distance bus, quietly waiting for the driver to announce their arrival.

Until Lin Ran suddenly called her, “Yaoyao, you haven’t eaten for a long time. It’s time to eat. What do you want to eat?”

The tense, apprehensive mood of being about to reach the abyss and face a terrifying enemy was instantly washed away by her one sentence.

Shu Yao looked at her helplessly. “Aren’t you busy with things outside?”

“No,” Lin Ran blinked her beautiful black eyes and looked at her in confusion. Because they hadn’t reached the abyss yet, and hadn’t even reached the junction of the sea and the abyss, there was no problem that her tentacles couldn’t solve.

She said, “I was just thinking, besides bringing out the scallops and conches that were roasted on the shore before and sprinkling them with seasoning, what else should I add? How about a salad? There are still a lot of vegetables and fruits left in the fridge.”

Although this non-working refrigerator was no different from a storage cabinet.

Shu Yao: “…”

And she was so nervous!

The last time she was so nervous was during the college entrance exam!

Seeing the emotion in her eyes, Lin Ran chuckled and explained, “I deactivated the mimicry mode in advance, firstly because from the semi-deep sea zone onwards, it’s no different from having no light outside, and secondly, because most of the creatures from this depth downwards are more casually grown. I was afraid that they would suddenly pass by the window and scare you.”

Shu Yao’s eyebrows were raised high. She protested her so-called “scare.” “I wasn’t even scared by you—”

How could she be scared by those ordinary, ugly things!

Lin Ran replied as a matter of course, “Because I’m better looking than them. Yaoyao likes me so much, how could she be scared?”

Shu Yao thought of her true form, which was taller than a mountain and larger than half an island, and fell into a suspicious silence.

…

Obviously, Lin Ran was not satisfied with her silence.

After arranging the dishes on the dining table, she quickly walked up to Shu Yao, who was pretending to be tending to the flowers and plants on the balcony. In fact, she was choosing the beautiful, blooming ones and cutting them with scissors, freezing the beauty of the flowers at their most brilliant moment.

In a short while, she had a large bouquet of red, purple, fragrant, and beautiful flowers in her hand. Rose-colored peonies, red monthly roses, white lilies, clustered together, and tied with a hair tie, it was a passionate bouquet.

“Yaoyao…”

Lin Ran hugged her waist from behind, her tone pretending to be very wronged. “You haven’t said you like me for a long time.”

At first, it was just acting spoiled.

But after she said it, Lin Ran realized that since they had met again, the sweetest thing Shu Yao had said to her was calling her “baby” when she was a pet.

And so her grievance went from three parts to ten parts.

But the person she was holding tilted her head and replied without thinking, “You didn’t say it either.”

Lin Ran was at a loss for words.

Of course, it was because she had no memory at first. By the time she had recovered, she was afraid that Shu Yao would know the truth and would no longer want to live with her.

Later, it was because of the [Lighthouse] matter, and she was always busy.

But Lin Ran’s love for her had never changed. Now, she could also answer without hesitation, “I like you, I like you, I super like you. I like Yaoyao the most—”

The undisguised, pure, and fiery emotion thus flowed into Shu Yao’s ears, making her think of the time when the other was still a puppy octopus, and would always jump up to her, looking at her with those round, sincere, and ardent eyes.

Every time they met eyes, it was as if she were listening to her confess her love.

At the same time.

The octopus, which had been diving infinitely, finally sensed the scent of the abyss from a crack in the ground.

After Lin Ran’s repeated confessions, Shu Yao sensed her momentary distraction, but just waited quietly until Lin Ran had controlled her main body, crossed the boundary between the deep sea and the abyss, and the scent of the [Monarch Slayer] had returned to this homeland.

The familiar darkness, which gave a great sense of security, enveloped its body.

Tentacles, skin, scent, everything about it was like when it was first born, returning to the embrace of this darkness.

In the temporary concealment of the darkness, Lin Ran confirmed that there was no danger, and only then did she come back to her senses, wanting to tell Shu Yao the news that they had “already arrived at the abyss”—

However, what she met was a bouquet of well-arranged, brilliantly blooming fresh flowers.

She was stunned for a moment.

Shu Yao asked her, “Is it beautiful?”

Lin Ran nodded subconsciously.

And so the other party stuffed the bouquet into her arms and said to her, “Then take it as a gift for your expedition.”

After thinking for a moment, she hooked her arms around Lin Ran’s neck, kissed her on the lips, and said to her, “And, I don’t just like you. I love you.”

Even if you only say you like me.

I love you too.