Chapter 12
Sang Lu lifted her red skirt, and Xia Weishuang’s gaze couldn’t help but follow her movements.
Sang Lu’s skirt should have been longer. Xia Weishuang had given it to her, and she knew very well what the skirt originally looked like. She didn’t know what had happened, but the hem had been torn short, giving it a tattered look. This broken, decadent style, on the contrary, added a touch of wild beauty to Sang Lu.
Those two long, straight, fair legs were hidden under the skirt. Even though Xia Weishuang had seen the sight of human legs being replaced by tentacles before, now that they were so normal, wasn’t it obvious what was under the skirt?
The innocent human at this moment had not yet anticipated what she would see. After all, she thought she had already seen all the changes in her long-lost lover.
She could accept it. She felt love and pity. She even blushed slightly, only having time for a fleeting, embarrassed thought of “this isn’t quite right” before being shocked by what she saw.
It was… a physiological structure different from that of a human. From the waist down to the upper thighs, several tentacles the same color as Sang Lu’s skin were wrapped around, forming a swollen structure like the abdomen of a queen ant, which was why the skirt had a slightly puffy, A-line effect when it was down.
At first glance, the tentacles seemed to extend from Sang Lu’s back, waist, and thighs, but upon closer inspection, one could see that each tentacle extending from the side was fused with the skin and flesh at the point of contact. Like venomous snakes clinging to the bone, or the blood vessels of some burgeoning egg, it was as ugly as a demon, yet it possessed a bizarre beauty that could drive one to madness and fear.
If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, Xia Weishuang would never have imagined that such a strange and twisted form could exist in this world.
She subconsciously covered her mouth, hiding the shock and fear on her face. But soon, the well-read Xia Weishuang calmed herself down. She came up with many speculations in her mind, and no matter which one it was, she could accept it.
She even learned to find the cute points after looking at it for a while.
Look at that bulging little tummy, how cute. It’s snow-white with a hint of pink, like a peach pudding. Look at those tentacles, how naughty. They’re still trembling slightly, so bouncy and cute. Look at that exaggerated protrusion, it must… hide some secret!
After looking at it for a long time, Xia Weishuang felt like she was becoming a pervert.
She adjusted the smile on her face, trying her best not to look scared. She didn’t want to hurt her hard-won lover. She wanted to tell her: I’ve always been waiting for you. No matter what you’ve become, as long as you’re still you.
But when Xia Weishuang met Sang Lu’s eyes, she suddenly found it hard to say those sentimental words.
“Sang Lu…”
Contrary to what she thought, Sang Lu lifted her skirt to show Xia Weishuang her hideous and terrifying abdomen not for the sake of gaining sympathy, or out of worry that Xia Weishuang couldn’t accept her like this and was giving her a heads-up, or for any other gentle, tender, and emotional reason.
Sang Lu seemed to not care at all about the unusual changes in her body.
Those eyes, which had turned purple, seemed to have a magical power. They stared deeply at Xia Weishuang, blinking slowly, taking in all of her reactions. The same smile was still on Sang Lu’s face. She seemed very interested in Xia Weishuang’s reaction to seeing her.
Being watched like this, Xia Weishuang suddenly felt a chill in her heart, as if she was not looking at a person, but an incomprehensible, unnamed beast.
There was no reason. It shouldn’t be like this.
Xia Weishuang shook her head hard, thinking she was overthinking things. She hurriedly said, “Sang Lu, I missed you so much. What happened these three years? How did you become like this? But it’s okay, as long as you’re back.”
Then Xia Weishuang crouched down and gently extended her hand, carefully placing her palm on Sang Lu’s abdomen, feeling the pulse under her hand, and almost shedding tears of sorrow. “Is this… our child inside?”
Sang Lu: “…”
Xia Weishuang choked, “I used to have hallucinations like this. I know I shouldn’t believe them, but seeing you, I can’t help but want to believe. So many impossible things have become possible in this world. You’ve come back to me, so maybe my hallucinations were actually premonitions.”
In countless premonitions, they were happy and grew old together.
Sang Lu took a small step back, and then, the strange abdominal sac that Xia Weishuang was looking at so pitifully began to undergo a change that could scare a person to death.
A crack suddenly appeared in the center of the bulging abdomen. The deep black abdominal cavity was like a black hole that could attract and destroy people, making one not dare to look directly at it. The white bones were initially in a surrounding posture, then they everted with flesh and mucus, completely opening the entire abdominal cavity!
During this process, Sang Lu was still humming that strange yet somewhat familiar tune.
A cold aura emanated from inside Sang Lu’s body. Xia Weishuang trembled as she watched this shocking scene, her body going weak and she couldn’t help but kneel on the ground. Finally, she saw a square paper box.
The paper box was carefully wrapped by Sang Lu’s body. It was her treasure, only for her beloved girl.
Sang Lu reached out and took out the paper box. The everted flesh and bone began to heal at an extremely fast speed. The strange protrusions like tentacles and tumors wriggled and disappeared like living things. In the end, everything actually calmed down.
Sang Lu’s body had actually completely returned to the appearance of an ordinary human!
The skirt fell, and Sang Lu, holding the still-slimy square paper box, crouched down in front of Xia Weishuang.
It was only then that Xia Weishuang realized that her body had undergone that bloated and disgusting change all to protect this paper box.
“What is this?” Xia Weishuang actually already had a guess.
The print on the box, the ribbon, and the increasingly familiar tune she was humming all told Xia Weishuang what it was.
Xia Weishuang bit her finger hard, trying not to cry on this day that should have been happy.
Sang Lu tore the ribbon and opened the paper box, revealing a small cake inside.
The cake still had a cool chill to it, not spoiled, very fresh. It was just that it had inevitably been bumped during movement, causing the pink and purple cream flowers on top to be smeared beyond recognition.
Sang Lu stared at the cake, a momentary look of confusion on her face, then she reached out and held the cake in front of Xia Weishuang.
She hummed softly, “Hap-py… birth-day… to you… hap-py, hmm… birth-day…”
Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…
August 13, 2018, Xia Weishuang lost Sang Lu. August 13, 2021, Sang Lu returned.
Xia Weishuang bit the flesh of her finger hard, trying to use the sharp pain to calm herself down. She took a deep breath of the smoky night air. In the air, there was also the faint scent of the ocean from Sang Lu.
Compared to the initial strong fishy smell, the current Sang Lu was like a sea salt ice cream.
Xia Weishuang reached out and took the cake. Her intense emotions made her voice change, but she wouldn’t cry. Sang Lu was smiling at her, how could she cry?
There was no fork, no spoon, just a simple cream cake.
Xia Weishuang wiped the dust from her hands on her pants and, for once, rudely grabbed the cake with her hands and stuffed it into her mouth.
“Thank you… thank you…”
Large mouthfuls of cake and cream blocked her throat, as if this way Sang Lu wouldn’t be able to hear her crying voice. Xia Weishuang had never been so barbaric and disheveled in her life, but she couldn’t wait. She felt like she was about to die from excitement.
Her vision was a little blurry. Xia Weishuang looked up at the starry sky and blinked. The sweet cake successfully soothed her mood, making her feel alive again.
She looked at the cake she had ruined with some embarrassment and said, “Sorry, I should have shared a piece with you.”
Sang Lu was still crouching in front of her, the same smile on her face. Compared to her smile, her eyes were more lively and alert. Suddenly, Sang Lu reached out and cupped Xia Weishuang’s cream-smeared, sticky face.
She leaned in, soft and agile, and licked Xia Weishuang’s lips with her crimson tongue.
Xia Weishuang, holding the cream cake in her arms, was a little stunned. “Sang Lu…”
It wasn’t that they hadn’t done intimate things before, but the current Sang Lu gave her a different feeling. Besides, in front of Sang Lu, she always felt a little shy.
Sang Lu propped her chin on her hand, tilted her head, and smiled at her, not feeling at all that what she had done was inappropriate.
She was still so good, so charming, but—
Xia Weishuang quickly buried her head and continued to eat the cake, using the sweetness of the cake to neutralize the bitterness at the root of her tongue. She said, “I’m sorry, Sang Lu… If you hadn’t come back to make me a birthday cake that day, you wouldn’t have had the accident. I regret it so much…
“I’ve regretted it every day for the past three years. I’ve missed you so much I’m going crazy. I don’t know how I got through it… It’s all my fault, Sang Lu. Punish me, anything is fine. I want to make it up to you. I know that no matter what I do, I can’t erase the suffering you’ve been through. I’m sorry, Sang Lu… I-I don’t know what to do.”
“I’m so happy. I’m both happy and sad. I miss you so, so much, Sang Lu…”
Xia Weishuang’s words were incoherent, rambling and fragmented. She couldn’t organize logical and complete sentences to express herself. When people are overly excited, it’s often difficult to find logic.
But as Xia Weishuang called Sang Lu’s name and, unable to suppress her emotions, looked at her again, a chill suddenly ran down her spine.
Sang Lu’s expression hadn’t changed at all.
She was still watching her, and the unchanging curve of her lips suddenly had a subtle sense of irony.
Xia Weishuang reached out and waved her hand in front of her seemingly all-encompassing yet empty eyes. “Sang Lu?”
She asked tentatively, “Are you listening to me?”
Sang Lu continued to blink at the same slow frequency as before.
Xia Weishuang’s heart slowly sank. She asked, “Sang Lu, can you speak?”