The Undersea Adventures of the Little Jellyfish (JELLYFISH)
Shen Jixiao twirled the spoon, scooping up some soup.
Truth be told, he had never fed anyone before, but somehow, when it came to feeding the little jellyfish, it felt completely natural.
He expertly blew on the soup to cool it and made sure it was just slightly below body temperature before bringing it to Tang You’s lips. "Try it now?"
Tang You leaned in.
Trusting the mermaid implicitly, he wrapped his lips around the spoon. His tongue still stung a little, but it was much better. The rich, spiced broth flowed over his taste buds, and his eyes lit up as he experienced flavors he had never encountered before—delicious.
As a jellyfish, he had no sense of taste or smell. Now, in human form, everything was new and wondrous.
At that moment, Shen Jixiao let go of the spoon.
But it didn’t fall—Tang You held it between his teeth.
The little jellyfish gave him a puzzled look—was the mermaid not going to keep feeding him?
"You can use the spoon to drink slowly." Shen Jixiao ordered another bowl of soup. Unlike the little jellyfish, who couldn’t handle scalding food, he preferred his soup piping hot. After so long without cooked meals in the ocean, he felt like he could devour half a cow today. "Humans use tools to eat—spoons, forks, knives, chopsticks…"
Soon, the little jellyfish learned to use the spoon to cool his food.
He sipped the meat broth slowly, mimicking Shen Jixiao's manner of dipping bread into it, gradually getting accustomed to chewing and swallowing.
No matter what he ate, he would give feedback, as if everything delighted him. No one could resist such positive reinforcement. Shen Jixiao nearly considered buying everything from the street vendors to feed the little jellyfish one by one, turning him into a plump, round jellyfish candy.
"Don't eat too much," Shen Jixiao suddenly remembered something and said, "Save some room."
"Hmm?"
"You can have something even better tonight."
His gaze drifted into the distance, fixed on some unseen point.
His outerwear was a long trench coat, while the inner layer was made of light, comfortable fabric, with cuffs and pant legs snugly fitted—practical for keeping insects at bay in the wild. In truth, his attire wasn't much different from that of ordinary adventurers, nothing particularly special. Yet, on him, it just seemed... different from other humans.
At least, that's how the little jellyfish saw it.
And he was so unlike his merman self—black hair, blue eyes, clean and sharp. As a human, Shen Jixiao carried an effortless, fluid grace, even more at ease than he had been in the ocean depths. Leaning casually against the makeshift table and chairs of the street vendor's stall, he exuded an air of sovereignty, as though wherever he stood became his domain.
Special...
The little jellyfish didn't know the word "pretentious," nor did he think Shen Jixiao was putting on an act. He simply felt that Shen Jixiao now seemed... sharp.
Like an unsheathed blade.
You can have something even better tonight. He said it with such certainty.
The little jellyfish assumed the merman would take him to a fancier place to eat. The city was so lively, and he had already overheard passersby mention "restaurants"—special establishments dedicated to selling delicious food.
The merman was probably taking him to one of those.
He began to worry about the merman's wallet.
...
But the merman took him somewhere far more luxurious than a restaurant.
The City Lord's Manor.
Unlike the rulers of the mermaids, human leaders seemed to be terrifying creatures, at the very least completely detached from ordinary people.
From a distance, the little jellyfish caught a glimpse of guards and commoners bowing with extreme deference—even fear—to the figures emerging from the grand residence.
Shen Jixiao had brought him to this place—something he truly hadn’t expected.
Though, Shen Jixiao didn’t seem the least bit afraid of it.
He strode right in.
The guards didn’t stop him—the little jellyfish didn’t realize this was unusual. Normally, the guards would block anyone attempting to approach the city lord’s residence unless they had an invitation or special permission.
Shen Jixiao had neither. He was an uninvited guest.
“I believe the city lord is already aware of my purpose here,” he said with a smile as he looked at the steward who had come to greet him. “The higher-ups are quite concerned about the situation here.”
“Please, this way, this way…” The steward bowed so deeply his waist nearly formed a right angle. “Our humble abode is ill-prepared to receive a distinguished guest from the Main City. We beg your forgiveness for the lack of proper welcome.”
The moment Shen Jixiao entered the city, his identity had become impossible to conceal. The city guards would inevitably report his arrival to the city lord’s residence. However, he had been cautious at the time, not revealing his exact position—only that he was an envoy dispatched from the Main City, directly subordinate to the lord.
—From the moment he saw the barrier over the strait, he knew Ji Yan must have already sent someone.
He had also taken the opportunity to contact them and exchange some information.
“My master has prepared rooms and hot water for the two of you, to refresh yourselves after your journey. Please follow me.”
The little jellyfish watched as Shen Jixiao exchanged pleasantries with the steward, curiously peeking out.
Unable to understand, he simply rested his head on Shen Jixiao’s shoulder and zoned out.
They were ushered into a guest room by a crowd of servants.
……
Shen Jixiao specifically requested a glass jar of seawater from the servants.
The little jellyfish was exhausted. He had maintained his human form for several hours now, and upon seeing the jar, he immediately reverted to his original form—a pink, squishy little jellyfish swimming lazily inside the glass container.
“I’m going to rest for a bit,” Tang You murmured sleepily.
“Alright.”
As a genuine human, the things Shen Jixiao missed most while living underwater boiled down to three:
Food cooked over fire.
Hot bathwater.
A comfortable, soft bed with blankets.
At the moment, his hunger had been satisfied, and the bed and blankets were already prepared.
He sat in the room, chatting with Ji Yan for a while, then spent a long time pondering how to handle the next steps.
By the time he finished thinking, his back and shoulders ached. Glancing at the bed—which he hadn’t lain on in so long—his desire for a bath surged to its peak.
His hair was still crusted with salt crystals from the seawater and flaking off when touched—an unbearable discomfort.
He needed a bath.
Even though he had been submerged in the ocean all this time and constantly surrounded by water, he couldn’t have gotten too dirty. But soaking in hot water was a spiritual luxury, one of those rare moments when a human could truly relax in this world.
……
The little jellyfish dozed off inside the jar.
The price of low-cost transformation magic was an immense energy expenditure—the smaller the cost, the greater the price. It sounded paradoxical, but compared to other transformation spells—ones that demanded sacrifices of body parts or the lives of other creatures—the magic he used now was almost entirely risk-free.
It just required frequent returns to his original form and copious amounts of food.
And an alarming consumption of magical energy.
By the time he woke up, it was already dark outside.
He had eaten far too much during the day, and even in jellyfish form, he was now a plump little blob that kept sinking unconsciously to the bottom of the jar. Struggling to swim upward, he clung to the rim of the jar and realized Shen Jixiao wasn’t in the room.
Left with no choice, the little jellyfish used his psychic energy to lift himself out of the jar before shifting back into human form.
Shen Jixiao had warned him not to recklessly use psychic energy in the human world, so he didn’t employ it to check Shen Jixiao’s whereabouts. Instead, he first relied on human hearing.
There was a sound coming from the next room.
The sound of water.
Only then did he cautiously extend a small thread of psychic energy to investigate.
Sure enough, he "saw" Shen Jixiao. But in front of the merman was a large barrel with steam rising from it, strikingly similar to the ones used by street vendors during the day to cook food—only much larger. Shen Jixiao had taken off his outer robe and was unbuttoning his inner garment with one hand while the other rested on the edge of the barrel, clearly about to step inside.
Tang You was horrified.
"Merman!" In his panic, he miraculously learned how to walk on the spot, rushing over barefoot and pushing the door open. "Don’t do anything rash!"
Steam filled the air.
The wooden bathtub was filled with hot water, and Shen Jixiao had just removed his clothes, his fingers not yet touching the water. Hearing the commotion, he turned abruptly, a slightly alarmed question mark slowly forming above his head.
"Wah—" The little jellyfish lunged forward. "If you’re upset about something, you have to talk about it! Don’t turn yourself into merman stew!"
Shen Jixiao: "..."
"You’re not wearing clothes." That was the first thing he noticed—he wasn’t dressed, and neither was Tang You. Flustered, he grabbed a towel from the side and wrapped it around the little jellyfish first.
Only then did he say, "You learned how to walk."
"Did I?" Tang You clung tightly to the merman, refusing to let go, terrified that Shen Jixiao might do something drastic. "Don’t hurt yourself. I know you weren’t happy at the city lord’s residence. Let’s stop being human—we can go back to the ocean right now."
Shen Jixiao froze.
The little jellyfish was too perceptive. He hadn’t said a word, yet Tang You had sensed his displeasure during his earlier conversation with the steward.
He gently stroked Tang You’s hair.
"I’m not hurting myself. This is just a human custom—soaking in hot water relaxes muscles and eases the mind." As he touched Tang You’s hair, he caught a faint scent of seawater. It wasn’t unpleasant, but perhaps he could help the little jellyfish gradually adapt to human life. "Water at this temperature won’t harm a human body."
"Really…?"
The damp steam continued to rise, moistening everything in the bathroom. Tang You’s eyes were glistening and his nose was slightly red. Shen Jixiao strongly suspected that if he had already been in the bathtub, the little jellyfish would have burst into tears.
A little jellyfish with no knowledge of human customs.
A little jellyfish who worried about him and was always attuned to his emotions.
Shen Jixiao took Tang You’s wrist, his fingers sliding into the little jellyfish’s palm, thumb and forefinger gently squeezing his hand. Tang You’s hands were beautiful—slender fingers, delicate bones, pale and translucent like fine jade, with only the tips and knuckles tinged a soft pink. They felt soft and smooth in his grasp, almost boneless.
He guided Tang You’s hand toward the hot water.
"Relax…"
As his fingertips touched the water, Tang You flinched. The heat was a strong stimulus, but more than that, it triggered an instinctive fear ingrained in his genes.
Hot.
But perhaps not unbearably so.
He glanced sideways at Shen Jixiao’s expression. Seeing encouragement there, Tang You mustered his courage and submerged his entire hand in the water while focusing all his senses on it, even squeezing his eyes shut in nervousness.
"How does it feel?" Shen Jixiao asked.
Tang You peeked and saw that nothing had happened—his hand was still intact.
He let out a relieved sigh and slumped weakly against the merman.
"It's a good thing I didn't melt..." He closed his eyes again, tense and overheated. A fine sheen of sweat dotted his nose and forehead, his pure white, pale hair sticking to his skin. Beneath the thin layer of his face, a flush from the steam spread. "Human body temperature is so high. The human world is truly terrifying."
Shen Jixiao, who had just been accused of having a high body temperature, stiffened his fingers slightly as the little jellyfish pressed entirely against him.
He held the little jellyfish's hand, momentarily at a loss for words and could only feel his ears grow increasingly red.
"Tang You?"
"Hmm?" The little jellyfish drowsily lifted his head, growing sleepy in the warmth. "It's so warm... You're so hot, getting hotter and hotter. You keep bathing; don't mind me. I'll work hard to learn about human knowledge."
Shen Jixiao held him before glancing blankly at the bathtub.
But... it couldn't fit two people...
"I want to learn how to bathe," the little jellyfish said firmly. "I'll watch from the side."
"..."
The merman was about to faint.
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