Volume 1, Chapter 10: A Single Embrace Reveals All

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Only then did Lin Yuyu realize that the person she had just run into—and the person who had caught her—was her neighbor, the occupant of Apartment 313, Lu Qingyu.

Well, this was awkward.

Not only had she crashed into someone, she had crashed into an acquaintance. Not only had she tried to run away at once, she had been caught red-handed.

Honestly, she wanted to cover her face and die of embarrassment!

Seeing the concern in his voice, Lin Yuyu hurriedly waved her hand. “It’s fine, it’s fine. It’s just…”

She stole a glance at him and, after confirming that none of her blood had gotten on him, let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you. Are you all right? Did I hurt you anywhere?”

Noticing that Lin Yuyu kept glancing at him as though she were worried, Lu Qingyu replied, “I’m fine. But your wound seems to still be bleeding. Are you really all right?”

Lin Yuyu quickly hid her injured arm behind her back. “I’m fine. I just need to bandage it when I get home.”

Her own bleeding was a minor matter. Accidentally getting blood on someone else would be a serious problem.

…

Lu Qingyu could have dodged that collision just now. But after sensing that the person approaching was Lin Youyu, he suddenly found himself unwilling to move aside, though he had no idea why.

He had been wondering why he had done such a thing.

Had his body short-circuited from overwork lately?

But when he saw Lin Youyu’s ever-changing expressions, he felt that he finally understood.

When they had been together earlier that morning, the emotions showing on her face had kept shifting. It had been extremely interesting. So when they met again this time, he had felt like getting a little closer to her.

A small, malicious part of him had even wanted to tease her a little more, just to see how many more ways her expressions and emotions could change.

But those thoughts…

The moment he accidentally caught her in his arms and discovered her secret, they vanished completely, leaving behind even the faintest trace of guilt.

Before learning his neighbor’s secret, Lu Qingyu had thought: What a nuisance! I want to kill her! This is kind of fun, so I’ll postpone the killing.

After learning his neighbor’s secret, Lu Qingyu thought: So she’s a little jellyfish who has only just come ashore. What could a little jellyfish possibly have done wrong? She’s so tiny—how could anything she did be unforgivable? I actually had the thought of toying with her. I really deserve to die!

And so Lu Qingyu immediately became gentle and tender. He even considerately suggested to his little neighbor, “A friend of mine runs a small clinic. Friends can get a discount there. Why don’t I take you over and have him bandage your wound?”

At the words hospital and clinic, Lin Yuyu instinctively shook her head.

She hurriedly waved her one remaining good hand. “No, no. It’s only a small injury. I can handle it myself. There’s no need to go to a clinic.”

Looking at the residential building only a few steps away, Lin Yuyu couldn’t help complaining inwardly:

Oh, for heaven’s sake, what is wrong with this man?

I can tell he means well, but does he really have no idea how to read the room?

Isn’t it obvious enough that I’m in a hurry to get home?

Perhaps he finally sensed Lin Yuyu’s impatience. The man who had inadvertently blocked her path stepped aside and even made an inviting gesture.

“All right, then. Be careful…”

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He looked every bit like someone concerned for Lin Yuyu, watching her as she left.

Seeing this, Lin Yuyu stopped being polite and hurried toward her apartment with her head lowered.

If she didn’t stop the bleeding soon, she was going to bleed a river~

Yet when she finally reached her door, even her perfectly good left hand let her down.

She traced the edge of the keyhole for ages with her key, but still couldn’t manage to insert it.

Just as she was about to endure the pain and switch to her right hand, she discovered that someone had grabbed her right arm.

She turned her head.

You again, Lu Qingyu!

“You injured your right hand, so bandaging it won’t be easy. You…”

Lu Qingyu had been about to say, Come home with me. I’ll bandage it for you.

But that sounded a little too forceful and unlike his usual persona. If it aroused suspicion in his little neighbor, that would be troublesome.

After thinking it over, he changed to a more tactful suggestion.

“Let me help you, all right?”

Before he said those final three words, they had seemed perfectly ordinary. But once they left his mouth, even Lu Qingyu—who was accustomed to acting—found them embarrassingly hot on his tongue.

For a moment, he could not tell whether his blush was feigned or genuine.

As for Lin Yuyu, who was being led by the arm and coaxed by a handsome young man for the very first time, her mind went blank when she heard those last three words.

All right~ or not~?

Eww~

She was covered in goosebumps.

By the time Lin Yuyu came back to herself, she was already sitting on someone else’s sofa. Even her injured arm had been coated with ointment, and the other person was gently supporting it while winding bandages around it, one loop after another.

At the sight of this, Lin Yuyu’s heart instinctively tightened. Only after confirming that none of her blood had gotten on him—and that he had used a cotton swab to apply the medicine—did she finally relax.

She quietly waited for him to finish bandaging her wound.

Having witnessed the entire process of his little neighbor’s expressions changing, Lu Qingyu could not suppress the slight upward curve of his lips.

His mind was filled with thoughts such as: Little kids are so adorable. How can a little kid be this cute?

He was completely different from the person who had been so irritated the previous night that he had wanted to move away the very next day.

When he had accidentally caught her earlier, Lu Qingyu had already guessed that his little neighbor’s original body had probably been infected with the same ancient virus as his own original body.

The difference was that after his original body died, he had borrowed its identity to come ashore, whereas his little neighbor seemed to have chosen parasitism.

But that made sense. Jellyfish were so small, soft, and delicate. They really did need a shell to protect them.

Still, how had she managed to choose such a fragile one?

After learning that she was not only an ocean-dwelling creature carrying viruses and toxins like him, but also an extremely rare firework jellyfish that seldom came ashore, Lu Qingyu instinctively began treating her as a junior who needed looking after. Before he knew it, he was worrying about her in every possible way.

After tying a beautiful bow in the bandage around her hand, Lu Qingyu said softly, “There. It’s all bandaged. Take a look.”

“Thank you so much, Lu Qingyu. I don’t even know how to repay you.”

What Lin Yuyu meant was: I’m completely penniless. I have nothing with which to repay you.

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But Lu Qingyu, who had been fretting over a hundred different things and wanted to care for this precious species nearby yet had no excuse to draw close, took her words seriously.

“Then… could you come live at my place from now on and let me look after you?”

Lin Yuyu: “What?”

What kind of development was this?

Was he trying to repay a life-saving debt with her body?

But wasn’t it supposed to be the other way around? No, wait—this wasn’t even remotely serious enough to count as saving her life!

No, no, that wasn’t the point. The point was, did he like her? Was he confessing to her?

“You don’t want to? Then I can offer another option. From now on, call me Brother Qingyu, and I’ll call you Yuyu. How does that sound?”

Although she had rejected him, they could at least become a little closer. They were neighbors, after all, so a sudden improvement in their relationship would not arouse suspicion among the other humans.

Once they had grown closer, he could openly stay near her and protect her, preventing anything like what had happened today from happening again.

This world was still far too dangerous for his little neighbor.

Lu Qingyu that morning: I ran into someone familiar from my original body’s past. What a nuisance. I have to put on an act again! I should avoid her whenever possible from now on.

Lu Qingyu now: I have to find a way for us to live together!

Lin Yuyu felt that she could not keep up with Lu Qingyu’s train of thought.

Before entering his apartment, he had been nothing more to her than “the occupant of Apartment 313.” If she had not misread things, then to him that morning she had likewise been nothing more than “the occupant of Apartment 312.”

How had they gone from barely knowing each other to discussing whether they should live together in the space of a few minutes—and then, the very next second, to exchanging pet names after just meeting?

This was insane!

Just as Lin Yuyu began to wonder whether her brain had crashed and caused her to miss something, she saw affection and determination in his eyes again…

Wait. Affection? What on earth was that supposed to mean?

Although she could not understand what he was trying to do, considering that he had provided both the person and the medicine, calling him “Brother” was hardly too much trouble. She could just do it.

Lin Yuyu spoke awkwardly. “All right, Brother… Brother Qingyu.”

Good grief. She was a woman in her twenties, yet here she was calling a teenage “little brother” Brother. It felt incredibly awkward. But judging by the original body’s age, he really was older than her, so calling him that was not technically wrong.

Ahhh!

It had already come to this.

Whatever. Let it be.

Unaware of what Lin Youyu was thinking, Lu Qingyu saw her lowered head and assumed she was simply shy.

He thought she was unbelievably sweet and adorable.

Unable to restrain himself, he raised a hand and gently ruffled Lin Youyu’s hair.

“Mmm. Yuyu.”

Such an obedient child. Who could have been cruel enough to hurt her? And what skills should he teach her so that she could protect herself and avoid being harmed again?

With that thought, Lu Qingyu straightened and said solemnly, “Yuyu.”

“Huh?”

Lin Yuyu looked at the man calling her name in confusion.

What was he going to do now?