At night, he had the dream again.Still the same tentacles, writhing greedily in the darkness, wrapping around him layer by layer, skillfully teasing, invading, dragging him into an endless hell of desire and lust.
But today was different.
Among the writhing tentacles, there seemed to be an unknown gaze, watching him in a daze, endlessly expressing its hunger, like a pitiful ghost about to starve to death.
His heart pounded inexplicably, and when he woke up, he was drenched in sweat, instinctively leaning towards the pillow, then being pulled into a familiar embrace.
Lu Jianchuan was still asleep.
He rarely woke up later than Fang Xingzhou, but recently, he seemed to be sleeping more and more.
Fang Xingzhou’s chest was still heaving, rubbing off the cold sweat on Lu Jianchuan’s shoulder, deeply inhaling his scent, taking some time to recover from the terrifying erotic dream.
The alarm hadn’t gone off yet; today he was on night shift and could sleep a bit more during the day.
Fang Xingzhou reached out and touched his forehead and abdomen; the temperature was normal, not inexplicably hot like yesterday.
Feeling reassured, he tried to push the absurd dreams out of his mind and went back to sleep.
When he woke up again, Lu Jianchuan was still asleep.
He didn’t disturb him, quietly getting up to go to the bathroom and wash off the cold sweat.
As soon as he got out of bed, he keenly heard a very faint hissing sound, seemingly coming from…
Fang Xingzhou quickly pulled a pair of medical scissors from the bedside table and instinctively flung them towards the source of the sound!
The hissing grew sharp. He first covered the person on the bed with a quilt, then picked up a vase as a weapon and turned around—
A snake, about the length of an arm, was pinned to the wall, its mouth wide open, flicking its scarlet tongue, its tail slapping against the wall with a loud noise.
The medical scissors were not thick enough, already teetering, about to be shaken off by the snake. Fang Xingzhou strode to the wall and, just as the snake broke free, quickly grabbed its head.
The snake’s tail immediately wrapped tightly around his arm. Fang Xingzhou pointed the snake’s head down to prevent it from spraying venom, picked up his phone from the bedside table with his other hand, walked to the door, and called the fire department.
The whole struggle took less than half a minute.
In a moment, he finished the call and returned to the bedroom, holding a water cup as if dealing with a minor inconvenience.
The snake was still coiled around his right hand.
Lu Jianchuan, half-awake, with his eyes half-open and unfocused, said, “Xingzhou… why are you up so early?”
Fang Xingzhou calmly replied, “You can sleep a bit more.”
“Mm…” Lu Jianchuan turned over, lingered in bed for another two minutes, then sat up, resisting the urge to keep sleeping.
“Good morning.” He looked at Fang Xingzhou and blinked. “What are you holding? Is that today’s breakfast?”
Fang Xingzhou glanced at the snake in his hand, which was hissing furiously, its tail squeezing his arm red, similar to the tentacles in his dream.
He squeezed the snake’s head tighter and said, “I don’t think it can be today’s breakfast because it looks like a protected species.”
Lu Jianchuan blinked again.
Then, as his eyes widened, he finally saw clearly that Fang Xingzhou was holding a real, live, and clearly highly venomous snake.
At that moment, his soul nearly left his body.
Fear surged up like a tide. He resisted the urge to release his tentacles, immediately jumped out of bed, voice trembling, “Don’t move, don’t move, keep holding its head.”
Fang Xingzhou said, “Don’t worry, I’m sure I can control it. Don’t come too close; it might spray venom.”
Lu Jianchuan, guessing what had happened, apologized, “I’m sorry…”
Fang Xingzhou: “?”
Lu Jianchuan took a few steps forward, forcing a stiff smile, “Honey, close your eyes and count to five. I’ll do a magic trick and make the snake disappear…”
Fang Xingzhou frowned at him, “You’re getting more and more abnormal lately. I’ve already called the firefighters; it probably got lost because of the cold and accidentally came into our house.”
Lu Jianchuan wished he could slap his sleeping self hard.
He could make this audacious snake disappear in five seconds, but it happened to be coiled around Fang Xingzhou, the most precious hostage in the world.
He didn’t dare move, not even a little, hesitated for a long time, and really could only pin his hopes on the firefighters.
Fang Xingzhou saw his tension, his expression softened, and he said, “It’s okay, Deer.”
Lu Jianchuan nearly collapsed.
Fang Xingzhou didn’t want him to worry too much, so he left the bedroom, closing the door behind him.
As the door closed, Lu Jianchuan’s pupils quickly disappeared, replaced by inhuman scarlet eyeballs rotating 360 degrees within their sockets, revealing cold murderous intent beneath his beautiful human skin.
Several tentacles emerged from his soft pajamas, reaching under the bed, into the wardrobe, the bathtub, and out the window.
During his sleep, the heartbeat of something within his abdomen had attracted all the nearby snakes, swarming around their home.
A total of… five snakes entered his territory, four of which were paralyzed with fear in the corners, and the most daring one was subdued by Fang Xingzhou during its attack.
And this was just the tip of the iceberg.
Twenty-four snakes were in the bushes downstairs.
Fifteen snakes were on the roof.
Thirty snakes were hidden among the climbing ivy on the outer wall.
Even the sewer outside was full of snake shadows!
Lu Jianchuan uttered an unidentifiable syllable, feeling irritated by the thing in his belly, which seemed not at all like a cute human baby.
The tentacles swiftly darted towards the snake group.
The four snakes hiding inside the house didn’t even have time to escape before being caught, crushed, and swallowed by the suction cups, leaving not even bones behind. The snakes outside sensed the terrifying aura and fled in panic, quickly disappearing from around the house.
In less than two minutes, within a kilometer radius centered on Lu Jianchuan, all non-human, non-pet creatures had fled, not even mosquitoes remained.
The neighbor’s dog was so terrified that it collapsed on the balcony, limbs twitching, whimpering for mercy.
After patrolling his territory repeatedly to confirm its safety, Lu Jianchuan reverted to human form.
The four live snakes he had just eaten finally satisfied the hungry creature inside him. Human-made food wasn’t even a snack for it; it desperately needed dark, fresh blood and flesh to grow.
And snakes were an excellent choice. In the ancient, mysterious world, snakes’ ancestors had a close connection with “Them,” and although time had diluted their eerie traits, it didn’t diminish its fondness for them.
Lu Jianchuan’s face turned somber.
He raised a tentacle, piercing it into his abdomen, churning his internal organs into a bloody pulp.
The creature inside, sensing the host’s anger, trembled with fear, curling up motionless in the blood.
Lu Jianchuan felt annoyed.
Barely embryo-sized and already so troublesome…
He withdrew the tentacle, repairing his abdomen without leaving any scars but not restoring his internal organs, and softly threatened in human language, “If you hunt on your own again, I’ll dig you out and eat you.”
The embryo didn’t dare move.
After the threat, Lu Jianchuan sneered, reverting to human form, “Eat.”
After waiting two minutes to ensure the host’s killing intent had dissipated, the creature revived, eagerly devouring the freshly produced blood pulp, almost instantly absorbing it all.
After it was completely full, Lu Jianchuan grew new internal organs, cleaned up the blood that had accidentally dripped on the floor, and opened the door.
Fang Xingzhou was still holding the snake.
Seeing the thing on his arm again, Lu Jianchuan’s anger surged to his head, the embryo immediately began its second round of playing dead, reducing its presence to the minimum.
Lu Jianchuan’s feelings were indescribable.
His gentle, defenseless human wife had fought a venomous snake to protect him…
His eyes unconsciously filled with bloodshot, he stared at the snake’s head and asked, “Haven’t the firefighters arrived yet? Maybe we should call an ambulance too, just in case.”
Fang Xingzhou: “They should be here soon.”
As he finished speaking, the sound of a fire engine was heard outside. Lu Jianchuan almost jumped, sprinting to the door to open it.
Before the fire truck stopped, a familiar figure leaped from the passenger seat, pulling out a snake bag from his back, greeting Lu Jianchuan, “Where’s the snake?”Following closely behind, Fang Xingzhou saw him and was slightly surprised, “Officer Li?”
Li Xuan’s gaze fell on the venomous snake wrapped around his arm.
The snake had first been stabbed with a pair of scissors, and then had its head gripped for over twenty minutes. It was already on the verge of death but still hissed angrily, not giving up any chance to retaliate against the humans.
Li Xuan clicked his tongue and instinctively looked at Lu Jianchuan.
The latter was staring darkly at the snake.
Li Xuan stepped closer, took out snake tongs, and said, “Dr. Fang, we really need to thank you today.”
Fang Xingzhou: “Hmm?”
“This is a national first-class protected animal,” Li Xuan patted the snake’s tail. “Thank you for discovering it and being merciful, contributing an indelible effort to Earth’s biodiversity.”
As he spoke, he clamped the snake’s head with the tongs, letting Fang Xingzhou release his grip, then slowly pried the snake’s body off his arm as if pulling down ivy.
After the snake was removed, red marks quickly appeared on Fang Xingzhou’s skin where it had been constricted.
Li Xuan tossed the snake into a bag, tied it up, handed it to a proper firefighter who had stayed in the car the whole time, exchanged a few pleasantries with them, and the fire truck drove off with a whoop.
It all took less than five minutes, and soon, only the three of them were left standing in the cold wind at the door.
Lu Jianchuan gripped Li Xuan’s hand firmly, his voice hoarse with genuine gratitude, “Thank you, you are truly the best people’s policeman.”
Fang Xingzhou: “Does your department also handle fire-related issues?”
Li Xuan held Lu Jianchuan’s cold hand.
In reality, any abnormal reports related to Lu Jianchuan would trigger a special mechanism, first handed over to the Institute of Anomalies and then judged by special agents on what level of action to take.
When the snake swarm anomaly occurred last night, Li Xuan had already been notified, but he didn’t choose to deal with it overnight. Because he knew that as long as Fang Xingzhou was there, his A+ classified entity would disguise itself better than a human.
The facts proved his judgment right.
Li Xuan said, “Today is just a coincidence, I actually have other matters to discuss with you.”
“It’s like this, Mr. Lu,” he paused, sneaking a glance at Lu Jianchuan’s belly, “to thank you for your brave actions last time, we have arranged a free full-body check-up for you. Do you have time today?”
Fang Xingzhou answered for Lu Jianchuan, “Sure.”
Rubbing his arm, red from the snake’s constriction, he said to Lu Jianchuan, “I’ll take you and Officer Li for the check-up on my way to work. We need to have you thoroughly examined. Your recent physical condition seems a bit off—sleepiness, increased appetite, and suspected fever yesterday.”
With his wife speaking, Lu Jianchuan quickly nodded in agreement without any objection.
After a bit more chatting, Fang Xingzhou drove them to a high-end private hospital Li Xuan had designated, handed Lu Jianchuan a list of check-ups, and provided several professional health check suggestions before hurrying off to avoid being late.
Now, only Lu Jianchuan and Li Xuan remained.
“We meet again,” Li Xuan once more looked at his belly, somewhat excited, “It seems it already has its own consciousness and is growing fast.”
With Fang Xingzhou gone, Lu Jianchuan stopped pretending, frowning slightly, showing a bit of irritation, “Once I fall asleep, I lose control over it. There might be many troublesome things in the future.”
Li Xuan smiled, “No worries, dealing with trouble is our specialty. Now—let’s do a check-up and see how ‘It’ is growing.”
Lu Jianchuan: “No need, I am well aware of its growth.”
Li Xuan: “No, you misunderstand. We are doing this check-up for Dr. Fang. If it can already be captured on imaging, perhaps we can start planning how to tell Dr. Fang this good news.”
It was clear that Li Xuan had mastered how to handle Lu Jianchuan.
Indeed, Lu Jianchuan turned his head, raising his eyebrows with interest.
