PTGWD Chapter 92: Read

Seeing that his father was no longer angry, Fang Yanzhou swiftly climbed onto him, its tentacles crawling all over—from his face down to his stomach.

It paused for a moment at the place where it had stayed for nineteen months, sniffed curiously, then drilled two tentacles in, took a bite of the skin, and immediately spat it out with a “Pah!”

Lu Jianchuan: “?”

Then, it left the abdomen and continued upward, sniffing as it went, finally stopping at the chest.

“What’s wrong, Tangtang?” Lu Jianchuan stroked its hood. “Did I scare you just now? I wasn’t angry at you. I was just worried about the health of you and your dad.”

Fang Yanzhou, either not understanding or choosing to ignore him, lay quietly on the collar for a while. Its restless tentacles suddenly brushed against something, and it became unusually excited.

It crawled under the collar and pressed itself against Lu Jianchuan’s chest.

Fang Xingzhou: “Is the baby feeling cold?”

The moment he finished speaking—

Lu Jianchuan felt something eagerly press against a certain human structure of his, then open its suckers and clamp down with a “chomp,” sucking with extreme force.

His expression instantly went blank.

The next second, Lu Jianchuan nearly jumped out of his skin, yanking the little monster out of his clothes.

The little one, having failed to get what it wanted, stubbornly clung on with its suckers. When forcibly pulled away, it left Lu Jianchuan in pain.

“Fang Yanzhou!”

Flames practically shot from Lu Jianchuan’s head as he held the little monster up to eye level. One of his fingers morphed into a tentacle and gave it a light smack.

The little jellyfish froze for a moment.

Unable to believe it had been denied milk and inexplicably smacked by its dad, it opened all its mouths and began wailing.

Seeing it cry, Lu Jianchuan panicked. He instinctively glanced at Fang Xingzhou, hid the baby behind his back, and tried to placate it half-heartedly with a tentacle while explaining to his husband, “Sweetheart, I only gave it a tiny smack.”

Fang Xingzhou’s gaze lingered on Lu Jianchuan’s chest for a moment, the corners of his lips twitching uncontrollably.

He coughed lightly, suppressing a laugh. “Give it to me. It must be hungry.”

Lu Jianchuan guiltily handed the baby back. Fang Xingzhou patted its hood twice and cradled it in his arms.

A miracle occurred.

Fang Yanzhou, seemingly terrified of its father, stopped crying the moment Fang Xingzhou picked it up. It only smacked its lips hungrily before shrinking into Fang Xingzhou’s pocket.

Lu Jianchuan: “…”

Did he have zero paternal authority?

Fang Xingzhou said, “Let’s go home and make formula for it.”

Lu Jianchuan gave the little jellyfish a squeeze through the fabric and nodded. “I’ll say goodbye to Mom first.”

Fang Xingzhou went ahead to the parking lot to drive.

His enhanced hearing allowed him to clearly catch Lu Jianchuan’s conversation with his mother. After yesterday’s reunion, Lu Jianchuan had grown much closer to Qi Yilian. He brought her vegetarian taro buns and persistently invited her to Fang Yanzhou’s full-month celebration.

His mother’s voice was gentle, reminding him to dress warmly for the changing seasons.

A long-lost tenderness.

Fang Xingzhou smiled faintly.

Before long, Lu Jianchuan opened the car door and climbed in. Fang Xingzhou started the engine. “Let’s go home.”

Lu Jianchuan: “Home!”

As the car descended the mountain, before they had gone far, a tentacle pried open the driver’s lips and stuffed a warm piece of turnip cake into his mouth.

Crispy on the outside, tender on the inside—just how he liked it from his favorite shop.

“You must be starving,” Lu Jianchuan wiped his lips with a tentacle. “I bought two bags of turnip cakes, plus soy milk and fruit. What else do you want?”

Fang Xingzhou was still quietly chewing when Lu Jianchuan asked again, “Has your sense of taste changed? Any discomfort? How’s your mental state?”

Before Fang Xingzhou could swallow and answer, Lu Jianchuan stuffed a piece of sliced apple into his mouth.

Fang Yanzhou, smelling the food, crawled from the pocket to the top of its dad’s head and stared eagerly at Lu Jianchuan.

Lu Jianchuan met its gaze for two seconds.

“…Can babies drink soy milk?”

Fang Yanzhou immediately answered loudly, “Can!” It raised all its tentacles, exposing its hungry mouths, waiting to be fed.

So, Lu Jianchuan transformed one of his tentacles into a straw, sucked up soy milk, and fed it drop by drop to the baby. Meanwhile, another tentacle kept stuffing food into Fang Xingzhou’s mouth, happily and busily feeding the two most important people in his life.

By the time they returned to Xiangxing Street, both father and son were too full to move.

Fang Xingzhou went to the master bedroom to shower first, while Lu Jianchuan took the baby to the bathroom downstairs for a bath.

The moment the bathroom door closed, Lu Jianchuan reverted to his true form, leaving only two monsters—one big, one small—inside.

Warm water gushed into the bathtub. Lu Jianchuan submerged himself first, then lifted the newborn to eye level.

Dozens of eyes met dozens of eyes.

Fang Yanzhou: “Mommy!”

Lu Jianchuan’s vocal cords mused, “Mom? Hmm, by human standards, I suppose that’s acceptable.”

With that, he finally had time to properly examine the offspring he’d worked so hard to nurture. Curiously, he inspected each of its tentacles, comparing them to his own. The baby’s were thinner, with simpler patterns, appearing semi-transparent under the fluorescent light.

After examining the tentacles, he flipped Fang Yanzhou upside down, turning it into a splayed-out mop head.

He poked the soft flesh hidden deepest among the tentacles—neither resembling brain matter nor human anatomy, but more like… a real jellyfish.

Fang Yanzhou squirmed wildly in protest: “Wahhh!! Waaah!!”

Lu Jianchuan flipped it back, brought his brain close, and counted the eyes floating in the mucus. Then, like kneading clay, he pinched and prodded the jellyfish hood, playing for a long while before finally delivering his verdict: “Six of these eyeballs look exactly like Zhouzhou’s.”

Fang Yanzhou: “…”

Lu Jianchuan tossed it into the air and caught it effortlessly. “Your skin tone is like Zhouzhou’s too—fair and smooth. And… hmm, let me think.”

He racked his brains, staring at Fang Yanzhou, trying to find more similarities to his beloved.

One minute.

Two minutes.

Five minutes.

“…Never mind,” Lu Jianchuan plopped it into the water. “It’s fine, Tangtang. You’re just a baby. You’ll grow to look more like him.”

Fang Yanzhou rolled its eyes at its dad, dunked underwater, and began blowing bubbles.

Lu Jianchuan lathered it up with soap, casually playing with it until the bathroom was covered in foam and water.

Just as Fang Yanzhou reached its most relaxed, happiest, and most defenseless state—

Lu Jianchuan suddenly lifted it out of the bathtub.

Fang Yanzhou, still with bubbles in its mouth, blinked at its dad, vaguely sensing that something was about to—

The premonition became reality.

It saw all of its father’s eyes converge at the center of his brain, staring straight into it at the same time.

He saw that all of his dad’s eyeballs were fixated on the center of his brainflower, and in the same instant, they locked dead-on with him.

A divine power too strong to resist followed that gaze and pierced into Fang Yanzhou’s tiny little head, as easily as flipping through the pages of a book.

In less than half a second, the big monster had read his empty little brain like an open scroll.

Fang Yanzhou hadn’t even realized what had happened yet. He simply stared back at his dad blankly, watching as Dad’s brainflower began to twist in despair. His vocal cords let out a low, bestial growl, the bathwater rapidly turned cold, and even the ceiling light above began flickering uncontrollably.

…It’s over.

Fang Yanzhou slowly and painfully realized what had just happened.

—Dad had seen the truth of last night in his mind.

Terrified, he froze completely. His eyes squeezed shut, his tentacles stiffened, and like in the womb, his first instinct was to play dead.

Only Lu Jianchuan’s heavy breathing remained in the bathroom. Time stretched endlessly, long enough that Fang Yanzhou nearly died of fright.

Finally, a tentacle turned on the shower, quickly rinsed off the baby’s bubbles, wrapped him in a towel, and carried him out of the bathroom.

Fang Yanzhou peeked his eyes open just a sliver and took a look at Dad.

Lu Jianchuan’s entire brainflower had turned crimson. The markings on his tentacles stood out like venomous snakes—an expression Fang Yanzhou had never seen before.

He quickly shut his eyes again and began to tremble violently.

But Lu Jianchuan didn’t do anything to him. He simply placed him on the sofa, turned on the iPad to a kids’ learning channel, and said, “Study well. I’ll quiz you later.”

Fang Yanzhou nodded frantically like a garlic-pounder, hugging the iPad like a lifeline, and watched in terror as Dad crawled upstairs and vanished behind the bedroom door.

He tried to predict what might happen upstairs by reading the threads of fate, but after trying for ages—he failed.

His tentacles gave a hard shake. Terrified, he curled back into the towel and focused on studying with the iPad, desperately trying not to think.

…

Upstairs.

Fang Xingzhou had fallen asleep in the bathtub.

Last night’s toll had been heavy—even with a strengthened body, his mind couldn’t withstand such prolonged tension. The moment he returned to a familiar place, fatigue washed over him.

He didn’t know how long he’d been asleep.

The bathwater stayed at the perfect temperature. The big and little monsters downstairs made no noise. He woke briefly once, thought it was still early, and drifted off again.

When he next opened his eyes, he felt completely relaxed. Everything was warm, as if he’d just had a short, sweet dream.

Then he looked up—and saw dozens of eyes staring at him from the ceiling.

A terrifying monster lay silently on the ceiling, its vocal cords dangling mid-air, crimson eyeballs locked onto him, still and burning with a mix of emotions.

Fang Xingzhou blinked in mild surprise.

“Deer?” His voice was still lazy from sleep. “Did I sleep a long time?”

Lu Jianchuan didn’t respond—no one knew when he’d gotten there.

Fang Xingzhou stood up in the tub, took a towel from the side, and began drying off.

“Is Tangtang already done with his bath?”

Finally, the big monster spoke in a deep voice: “Mm hmm. He’s done. Studying in the living room.”

Fang Xingzhou smiled. “It’s only his first day of life. Let him enjoy himself a little.”

As he finished speaking—

The towel in his hand was yanked away by a tentacle.

Fang Xingzhou looked up in confusion and saw Lu Jianchuan climb down from the ceiling. With a click, he locked the bathroom door.

Fang Xingzhou frowned. “Hm?”

Then something cold and soft wrapped around his wrists and ankles, coiling up his body again and again… until he was completely submerged in tentacles.

Lu Jianchuan’s true body trembled slightly—part from overwhelming emotion, part from sheer excitement.

He caught his Zhouzhou.

…This time, he wouldn’t give him a chance to escape.

Tongue-like tentacles extended from every oral cavity, licking feverishly across the delicate texture of human skin—trying to confirm, through this frenzy, that his beloved was real, safe, obedient, alive, healthy.

Lu Jianchuan’s voice warped and buzzed, his brainflower barely suppressing the madness, and in a twisted, hoarse tone, he whispered:

“Baby, I’m very angry right now.”