I Brought Home a Cthulhu - Chapter 4

Her emotions were mild, and apparently so were her tastes.

I steamed a plate of clams. After two bites, she said, “Next time, no cooking wine. No ginger or scallions either.”

“…”

Wouldn’t that taste horribly fishy?

I had just decided she preferred bland food, only to discover that she liked it hardcore.

“…Fine. I won’t add any next time.”

Expressionless, she continued eating in silence.

She quickly finished the entire plate, then said, “Not enough.”

“…”

—

Once again, I tore off toward the market in my Mini.

To hell with moderation. I bought every shrimp and shellfish at one stall.

The vendor was delighted and insisted on delivering the haul to my house. I did not refuse.

He even gave me his contact information. “If you ever want this much again, just message me on WeChat. I’ll bring everything straight over!”

“All right.”

Huffing and puffing, I crammed the seafood into the freezer.

At some point, Qi Wuzhi appeared behind me. She watched me put the still-kicking shrimp away and frowned.

“I want them fresh.”

I laughed in disbelief.

“My lady, I don’t have time to drive to the market every day for your seafood. I’m busy!”

She folded her arms.

“I want them fresh.”

“…”

—

So I dragged myself out to buy an aquarium and put the shrimp and clams in it alive.

Qi Wuzhi stared into the tank, finally satisfied.

Her nose twitched.

“…Sulfur.”

Then she turned and walked away.

I hurried after her. “Where are you going? It’s raining again. Don’t get soaked!”

Qi Wuzhi ignored me.

She went straight into the backyard and found the small hot-spring pool.

This had once been my family’s ancestral home. It had eventually passed to me, and the spring was a relic from more than a century ago. I did not want to change the old estate too much, so I had left it in place. I paid to keep it maintained and cleaned, and every so often I soaked there myself to drive the damp from my bones.

Rain was pouring down now, drumming against the spring and raising countless ripples. The whole surface looked as if it were boiling, droplets leaping wildly into the air.

Qi Wuzhi took off her nightdress and walked straight into the pool. She submerged her entire body, leaving only her eyes above the water.

“…”

“Qi Wuzhi, it’s raining! You’ll get sick like this. Come out!”

She did not move.

There was nothing I could do. I went inside for an umbrella, crouched beside the pool, and held it over her to keep off the rain.

Why was I doomed to a life of drudgery?

I wailed silently to myself.

After a while, my legs went numb. I finally sat on the edge of the pool and lowered my feet into the water.

The rain had cooled it until it was barely warm.

I sighed. “Qi Wuzhi, that’s enough. Come out. If you soak too long at this temperature, you’ll get si—ah!”

Something curled around my calf.

Thinking it was a snake, I jerked my leg out in fright.

“There’s a snake in the water!” I cried. “Get out before it bites you!”

Qi Wuzhi gave me a lazy look. “…That was my hand.”

“Wh-what?”

She stopped speaking.

Still shaken, I asked, “You mean the thing that wrapped around my leg just now… was your hand?”

She said nothing. I supposed that counted as confirmation.

I tried to remember the sensation against my skin.

Had it really been a hand?

That soft, resilient, rope-like feeling did not seem possible for an arm with bones.

“Your hand is… very soft.”

She lowered her lashes. The corner of her mouth seemed to lift slightly.

Trembling, I sat down again and slowly put my legs back in the water.

“Next time… could you tell me before you touch me?”

She glanced sideways at me.

“…Mm.”

From the moment she discovered the hot spring, Qi Wuzhi practically lived in it. Whenever I checked, she was soaking there.

Once the storms passed, the water grew warmer again. The next time I went to see her, steam had flushed her cheeks. She wore the same faintly intoxicated look she had worn in the bathroom that first night.

I was genuinely afraid she would drown in there.

As the spring’s temperature rose day by day, she finally became willing to leave it.

One day, while I was restoring a relic in my studio, she walked in stark naked and dripping wet, leaving a trail of footprints across the floor.

I exploded.

“Don’t come in here!”

I charged over, threw her over my shoulder, and stormed out. I carried her all the way back to the bedroom in the main house.

“Do not come into my studio soaking wet! The temperature and humidity in there are precisely controlled. Do you understand?”

Qi Wuzhi let me dry her without protest.

“Humidity?”

“Yes! Do you think restoring cultural relics is easy? Do you have any idea how much I spent controlling the humidity in that room?”

“How much?”

“…That isn’t the point. You are not allowed to go in there dripping wet again. Remember that.”

She lowered her lashes.

Once she was dry, I put her into a nightdress.

Without warning, she reached out and coiled herself around me.

I did not know why “coiled” was the word that came to mind, but her body was too soft, her limbs too supple. It felt as if a snake had wound itself around me.

No—that was not quite right.

It felt like many snakes.

It was too strange. What was happening?

I shook my head, trying to fling away the noise inside it.

“Seafood,” she said.

I nodded in resignation. “Fine, I’ll make you some. Get down first.”

“No.”

“…”