The Creature Keeper - Chapter 16

That hand was beautiful, shrouded in a hazy, luminous white glow, like cold jade piercing the darkness, evoking thoughts of ice, and then of something even more pure and sacred.

Tang Rou realized she shouldn’t be here; she should be in the treatment ward of the Base, lying on a hospital bed, resting, sleeping.

Strangely, she was acutely aware that she was dreaming, yet she couldn’t wake up.

The cold, damp sensation at her waist was too real, as if her soul was being bound by some powerful and unknown force.

Where was this?

Tang Rou looked around in confusion, wanting to turn her head, but her body was so stiff she couldn’t move. It was as if the person behind her didn’t want to show their face, deliberately staying out of her line of sight, and had raised a hand to restrain her body.

Tang Rou tried to speak, but couldn’t make a sound.

There was a genuine sense of being trapped, a chill spreading through her limbs and bones, with only the cold arm at her waist pressed clearly against her, making her feel a vague sense of danger.

It made Tang Rou wonder if this was really a dream at all.

It was clearly a man’s hand, yet so flawless and delicate it was hard to tell its gender.

A low, hoarse, and cold voice sighed beside her ear.

Tang Rou was held tighter and tighter, nearly suffocating, as if the person behind her wanted to embed her into his chest. In this chaotic space and time, something moist and soft fell into her palm, carrying a hint of caution, yet mixed with an indescribable trace of resentment.

It slid from her palm to her forearm, then crawled over her collarbone to her ear, the soft and cold sensation like jelly burrowing into her ear canal.

It was as if a wicked demon had found a fresh and interesting toy, savoring her body with great interest.

Tang Rou remained rigid, unable to move her neck at all, until sharp keratin teeth bit into her earlobe-the pain was so real that, in an instant, Tang Rou was jolted awake by it.

She opened her eyes and found herself still on the hospital bed in the monitoring ward, her fingertips clipped to a sensor, the monitor beside her displaying her vital signs in detail.

It was just a dream-a strange and bizarre nightmare.

Tang Rou gasped as if she had survived a disaster, slowly recovering from the feeling of suffocation, but cold sweat had already soaked the bedding.

Outside the window, rain was falling steadily.

It was raining again? Tang Rou frowned, noticing a glistening scale that had fallen onto the bedding.

She put the scale back in her pocket, steadied herself on the bed and went to the bathroom, but when she looked in the mirror, she found a sharp, triangular wound on her earlobe.

When did she get hurt?

Tang Rou was stunned, a little dazed. She remembered having a nightmare, but what had she dreamed about? Her mind felt stuffed with cotton, unable to see anything clearly.

From the moment she woke up, she had forgotten what she had dreamed.

She touched her bitten earlobe again, puzzled, then returned to her bed, pulled up the covers, and went back to sleep.

Meanwhile, the Marine Research Center at the Academy was testing the latest data in the offshore area: in the past twenty-four hours, the average sea level had risen by one centimeter.

What does one centimeter in twenty-four hours mean? Ordinary people might not notice such a small difference, but for all the researchers working in marine science, it was the prelude to disaster.

Patrol ships found large numbers of dead marine creatures washed up on the beaches along the coast. Most were deep-sea species, common and well-known on Earth.

But these creatures seemed to have been maliciously harmed; besides wounds of all sizes, there were various causes of death, and their bodies washed ashore, causing a negative impact.

These were tourist areas, with hotels and sightseeing beaches, coconut trees and visitors.

Large stretches of the coastal region were sealed off, greatly affecting the economy and the lives of nearby residents. Experts launched a series of investigations, but not only did they yield no results, the deaths seemed to be worsening.

The rain kept falling.

Someone sighed, “What are we going to do if the rain doesn’t stop?”
“Yes, the sea cannot rise any further. The space left for human survival is already very limited.”

God devised marvelous rules of language to ensure the failure of the Babel Tower, making people from different places and with different skin colors speak different languages.

In this world, God failed. Humanity overcame the problem of language, and basic technology advanced to the era of 3.0-language was no longer an obstacle.

There are three universal languages in the world: Chinese, English, and body language.

So the hand of God began to stir the gears of misfortune elsewhere.

For example, the ever-surging sea.

Patrol boats near the coast searched for suspicious creatures under the pitch-black night, guessing that perhaps some large carnivorous animal was on a killing spree.

Suddenly, someone heard cries for help coming from the sea.

The searchlight swept across the waves and, to their surprise, illuminated a figure clinging to a piece of driftwood on the turbulent surface. They hurriedly lowered a lifeboat and pulled the person aboard.

The person was dressed in clothes that had been out of fashion for many years, clutching a soaked, broken handheld mobile phone. In this era of wristwatch-type light-screen terminals, such outdated devices were antiques from decades ago.

But what was even more incredible was that this person truly was from decades ago.

He said he had been aboard the Saren when disaster struck-a massive wave capsized their ship. In the struggle, he saw a floating door panel drift by and clung to it, drifting all the way here.

He went on to say that suddenly, heavy rain began to fall from the sky, and the ship had already sunk to the bottom of the sea. He did not know how long he had drifted, but finally saw the patrol vessel.

Upon investigation, the Saren was a sightseeing cruise ship that sank 37 years ago. According to records, there were no survivors, and the wreck has never been recovered to this day.

Even more shocking, at first they thought this person was talking nonsense, guessing he was a prankster who happened to know about the Saren disaster. But astonishingly, his DNA matched that of the same-named victim reported missing in the gene database decades ago.

This incident drew the attention of the Military, who sent researchers and interrogators to question him.

But when asked what he had experienced, he knew nothing. When pressed to recall, he became dazed and distracted.

He could not specifically describe what he had gone through during the time of the shipwreck, but in his confused speech, the sinking seemed to have happened just a few hours ago-at most, not more than a day. He encountered the disaster on this very night, and met the patrol crew on this same night.

But how could that be?

Doctors gave him a thorough examination and found that his physical age was about 33, matching the age reported at the time of the accident. Thirty-seven years had passed, yet he showed no signs of aging, as if he had been trapped in a crack in time, blinking through 37 years in an instant.

The Military interrogators suggested that the Base’s biological research team should intervene, as the complexity of this case far exceeded expectations.

Late at night, the nurse on duty went to check his vital signs, only to find the bed empty.

Soon after, she heard strange noises not far away.

Following the sound, the nurse found the man who had been rescued earlier crouched beside a flowerpot, his shoulders hunched, doing something unknown.

“Hello, may I ask you…”

The nurse asked gently, but her words were cut short.

The man slowly turned his head, his expression vacant, his mouth stuffed with soil. Chewing on plant roots, he kept repeating, “Hungry, I’m so hungry.”

He slowly raised his eyes and looked at the nurse, as if he saw something delicious. He put down what he was holding and stood up, walking toward her.

“I’m really hungry. You look delicious.”

A scream tore through the silence of the medical observation area.

The night shrouded the crime, and when dawn arrived, everything was washed clean and bright again.

The rain, at last, had stopped.”