Chapter 43

Chapter 43: Sticky and Sweet

In short, the kiss was fantastic.

Maybe it was the honeymoon phase, or maybe something else, but every time Lin Jianyuan kissed his roommate, his head spun.

His mind blanked out. His whole body felt like it was floating.

But after the kiss, he felt clear-headed and refreshed.

Like a boulder on his chest had been blasted apart.

Like silt clogging a riverbed suddenly swept away.

Afterward, Lin Jianyuan felt lighter, as if a weight had lifted.

His brain felt rinsed clean, like someone had scooped it out and washed it in Wahaha mineral water.

Bliss.

The two lovebirds made out in the kitchen until they were satisfied, then finally got back to cooking.

Lin Jianyuan was hopeless in the kitchen, so they agreed: his roommate would cook, he’d wash the veggies and dishes.

Standing by the sink, Lin Jianyuan picked through the greens. As he tossed the bad leaves into the trash, something odd on the garbage bag caught his eye.

Huh? What’s that?

He squinted and crouched down for a closer look.

The trash bag was black and thick—sturdy enough to hold fish bones or anything sharp without tearing.

But around the top, there was a jagged white pattern.

No, not just jagged.

It looked exactly like a ring of teeth.

—sharp shark teeth.

Lin Jianyuan: ?

Why does that look so familiar?

“Where did this come from?” Lin Jianyuan asked.

“Oh, that?” His roommate glanced over, voice lazy. “I figured it might come in handy at home, so I brought it back.”

The word “home” caught Lin Jianyuan’s attention.

He smiled, heart melting. He happily accepted the explanation.

His wife was so thoughtful and domestic!

Even before becoming his wife, he was already so caring—now that he really was, how could Lin Jianyuan not be over the moon?

Lin Jianyuan’s smile stretched from ear to ear.

Life was good.

After lunch, Lin Jianyuan felt sleepy. The heat left him sticky and uncomfortable, so he decided to shower.

He’d barely stepped into his room when two familiar voices rang in his ears.

“Lin Jianyuan!”

“Yuanyuan~!”

Lin Jianyuan jumped. The room was empty.

He immediately zeroed in on the two trinkets on his nightstand.

The squish toy and the little stone??

So it was just a hallucination.

Scared him for a second—he’d thought he’d seen a ghost.

He was just about to relax when he realized—

Wait.

“How are you two here?” Lin Jianyuan asked in surprise. “Back in the escape passage, you…”

At that moment, his roommate walked in.

Lin Jianyuan clamped his mouth shut on instinct.

His roommate knew about his mental health, but he didn’t want to freak him out.

After all, chatting with a squish toy and a rock would be pretty disturbing to anyone else.

But as soon as his roommate entered, the two little things started shaking like crazy.

“Whoa, whoa! Lin-Lin-Lin Jianyuan, you—you—you got a wife!” The squish toy sounded like someone had pressed a massage gun to its throat.

The little stone was much smoother, saying sincerely, “Wow, I’m so jealous! You found such a wonderful wife!”

Lin Jianyuan: ?

He shot his roommate a suspicious look.

His roommate smiled. “What?”

Lin Jianyuan: Processing…

Lin Jianyuan’s brain: Error. Failed to load.

He quickly gave up trying to figure it out. “Forget it, I’m crazy anyway. Why argue with myself?” One second. New personal best.

He grinned, suddenly enlightened. “Guess I really am crazy about you.”

Roommate: ?

“Even my hallucinations are in love with you.”

The squish toy and the stone froze in horror: ???

What?

That’s not—! We’re not—!

Even though a digestive system didn’t have a face, Lin Jianyuan could picture his roommate’s shocked expression.

He just smiled, skipped the explanation, and patted his roommate’s liver. “I’m going to shower.”

“Okay, go ahead,” his roommate replied gently.

Lin Jianyuan grabbed clean clothes and headed to the bathroom.

Only Xie Yu and the two trembling stress toys remained.

Lin Jianyuan’s silhouette vanished.

The warmth on Xie Yu’s lips vanished too.

But he was still smiling.

The S-class Aberrant drew closer to the table, bit by bit.

The pressure was suffocating, almost flattening the two toys like a dimensional blade.

“No next time,” Xie Yu said, voice gentle but words ice-cold. “If you ever leave him behind to save yourselves again, I’ll digest you until there’s nothing left.”

Squish toy & stone: ???

Leave him? What are you talking about? It was that damn eyeball that messed with our memories!

But faced with an S-class, what could they do? They could only nod, humiliated, on the verge of tears.

Night fell.

Work started tomorrow, but Lin Jianyuan felt great tonight.

Because his wife had officially moved into his room.

Since they’d already been sharing an apartment, there wasn’t much to move. If they needed anything, they could just grab it from the other room.

So Lin Jianyuan’s room wasn’t any more crowded.

Just one more wife.

Truth be told, it wasn’t the first time they’d shared a bed. But maybe because this was his own bedroom, it felt different. Exciting.

Sharing an apartment was a delicate thing.

When he was young, relatives often visited. In school, friends from other dorms dropped by to chat or play games.

But as he got older, he realized home was a private place.

For someone like Lin Jianyuan, renting with others, home wasn’t the whole apartment—it was just his little bedroom.

Only in his room could he fully relax. It was his, and his alone.

But now his roommate had moved in.

It was like letting someone into his heart.

Their neighborhood was old, but that meant it was lively. After dinner, people came out to stroll.

Couples walked arm in arm. Elderly folks strolled with kids or dogs.

Lin Jianyuan lived on the fourth floor, and the windows weren’t soundproof.

Even with the windows shut, he could hear laughter and conversation from below.

He used to find it noisy. Now it made him feel grounded.

Like he could smell the warmth of ordinary life.

He let out a long breath and pulled his wife closer.

It still felt unreal.

He actually had a wife.

—And his wife was a pink digestive system.

The more he thought about it, the funnier it seemed.

His roommate suddenly asked, “Not sleeping yet?”

“Just thinking about you being my wife makes me want to laugh.”

His roommate grinned. “Thinking about being your wife makes me want to laugh too.”

Lin Jianyuan mimicked him: “So weird—”

His roommate drew it out even longer: “Sooo~ weird~”

Man and gut, laughing uncontrollably on their tiny single bed.

“Oh, right,” Lin Jianyuan remembered, “Tomorrow or the day after, let’s move your bed over here. This one’s too small. I’m worried I’ll fall off in my sleep.”

Their apartment was old and cramped—forty-something square meters, counting the living room, kitchen, and bathroom. The bedroom was tiny.

Forget a king-size bed—even this 1.5-meter single bed was a tight fit.

“We can move the TV stand to your room. I don’t watch TV anyway…uh, do you?”

Lin Jianyuan was used to living alone, not used to asking for someone else’s opinion before making decisions.

He’d have to change that.

His roommate said, “Nope.”

“Great, we’ll move the TV stand and bring your bed over. We can push them together. For the gap in the middle… I’ll get a bamboo mat. That should smooth it out.”

Lin Jianyuan planned the bedroom layout in earnest.

The pink digestive system nestled against him, appendix swaying like a little tail.

“Sounds good.” His roommate’s voice was warm. “Whatever you want.”

A soft, damp esophagus nuzzled Lin Jianyuan’s cheek, like a well-tamed reptile.

Adorable.

Lin Jianyuan was perfectly content.

He hugged his slowly warming digestive system wife and drifted off to sleep, happy as could be.

Night deepened.

The digestive system grew warmer in his arms.

Xie Yu wasn’t used to this either.

He no longer had to sneak in through the crack under the door every night.

Now, all he had to do was lift his head to reach Lin Jianyuan.

He wasn’t even hungry.

But.

The digestive system lifted its “head,” throat undulating.

This time, instead of taking a bite, he gently touched Lin Jianyuan’s lips.

Soft.

Warm.

A strange, wonderful feeling.

It was so… human.

And mixed in with it was a hint of…

A little… food?

The digestive system couldn’t help it—he sucked on Lin Jianyuan’s lips.

There it was!

Even after days off work, there was still some left?

He was surprised.

But he was already at it.

And Lin Jianyuan had said three meals a day.

This was the third meal today.

Feeling justified, the digestive system wrapped his intestines around Lin Jianyuan’s waist.

Like a python coiling around its prey.

He feasted on Lin Jianyuan’s parted lips.

Lin Jianyuan didn’t sleep with his mouth open.

His lips were pried open by the digestive system.

Lin Jianyuan had taught him that.

A new skill.

Before this, the digestive system never knew humans ate each other’s mouths like this.

So weird.

It was hilarious.

The digestive system couldn’t help but laugh as he ate.

He pressed his liver, gallbladder, spleen, and pancreas closer to Lin Jianyuan’s body. Lin Jianyuan was so warm—so much warmer than him. He didn’t know why he liked human body heat so much.

He couldn’t even stand the thin barrier of pajamas.

Humans were strange—why wear clothes when they already had skin?

So he slid himself inside.

Through the hem of the pajamas, under the last button, between the two little corners,

He slipped a soft, damp intestine inside, cold and slick as a real snake.

It circled his navel.

Traced over his abs—one, two, three, four, five, six. Thin, but all there.

Up to his chest—what was this? Small and round. Oh, another one.

The digestive system paused, curious.

Lin Jianyuan curled up in his sleep.

The digestive system nudged it.

And again.

Lin Jianyuan curled up tighter, like a shrimp in a frying pan.

The digestive system smiled.

So strange.

Lin Jianyuan’s mouth was still being eaten; as he curled up, his lips tried to pull away.

The digestive system pulled him closer, holding tight.

Intestines slithered under the pajamas, coiling like a snake.

Delicious…

Not just the faint anxiety deep in his subconscious, but the human himself…

So delicious…

The digestive system dove in, feasting.

The squish toy and little stone, forced to watch, were speechless.

Help.

Help!!!

We know you’re Xie Yu, we know you’re an Aberrant! We know you’re feeding on negative emotions!

But this—this is obscene!

How did it go from sucking his brain to sucking his lips?

Why are you sticking your guts into his pajamas?

Why are you coiling around him while you do it? Don’t you see Lin Jianyuan can barely breathe, he’s about to wake up from being strangled!

And most importantly!

Hasn’t Lin Jianyuan been happy these past days? Where’s all this negative emotion coming from?

Is that even real food?

You just want to eat his lips, don’t you!

Little stone: “You’re right. Xie Yu really is a pervert.”

Squish toy: “…”

Wanted to speak, but held back.

Held back, but wanted to speak.

Forget it. There’s no reasoning with this guy.

Just as the squish toy gave up defending the pervert, the feasting pervert suddenly—

Click.

He stopped eating.

Squish toy: ?

Little stone: ?

A familiar, long-lost scene.

The two toys exchanged a glance. They knew what was coming.

Sure enough—

The Aberrant, who’d been sucking on the human’s lips, slowly lifted his throat.

Lin Jianyuan’s lips were swollen and wet, chest rising and falling, cheeks flushed from lack of air.

The two toys felt an odd sense of déjà vu.

Sure enough, the digestive system opened wide and shoved his intestine down his own throat.

Digging, digging.

He pulled out a pink crystal from his gullet.

Digestive system: ?

Squish toy & stone: ?

Wait, what?

Why is it pink this time?

And why is it so—so huge?

The digestive system fell silent.

He stared at the crystal.

He tossed the pink crystal into his mouth and chewed.

A moment later, he glanced, surprised, at the man sleeping soundly, oblivious to being eaten.

Calves, ankles, flip-flops.

A little ponytail, washing underwear. White.

White.

…White moonlight?

Digestive system: “.”

The next morning.

As soon as Lin Jianyuan woke up, his roommate asked, “Who was that white moonlight in your dream last night, the one washing your underwear?”

Lin Jianyuan: ?

Lin Jianyuan: !!!

I’m doomed!

Totally doomed!

My wife’s going to misunderstand!

No, wait, that’s not the point—the point is, my wife’s going to find out I don’t actually know what he looks like!

I’m done for! If he finds out how bad my mental illness is, will he still love me? How do I explain? What if I never get better? What if he finds out I see him as a pink digestive system?

What do I do, what do I do, what do I do?!

Lin Jianyuan was in full panic mode, sweat pouring down his face.

Meanwhile, his roommate, sprawled on top of him, full and lazy:

“Burp.”

White moonlight? No idea who that was. But he tasted great.

(Chew, chew, chew.)