TTAETSC Chapter 38.1 - Transform! Pink-haired Child

Since he was a non-human evolved species, he might experience an estrus period...

Since becoming a baby octopus, he had never realized this kind of tricky angle. But now, Ye Yunfan didn't dare to think about it any further.

It was simply too terrifying!

Yuan Ye was equally stunned, as he had never considered this possibility either. He looked at the little jellyfish with a complicated expression. But facing Hu Changchuan's suggestion, the little octopus found that the young man neither nodded nor refused.

Not refusing?!

The little octopus looked up, noticing that Yuan Ye hadn't immediately refused.

He didn't immediately refuse Hu Changchuan?!

Could he actually be considering it?

"!!!"

The little octopus immediately shook his head repeatedly. Even his six little tentacles were shaking wildly.

No, no, no, no, no!

No, we can't continue this subject.

The little octopus thought that he could only keep attracting everyone's attention this way. Furthermore, he couldn't speak, so he couldn't change the subject at all.

However, fortunately at that time, Jon, who finally reacted, helped him out of the predicament.

No, no...no, no, no!

Jon, who was stunned and dazed for a while, finally understood what Hu Changchuan meant.

He stammered, his face flushed red.

"No, no... It's not like that, Officer Hu, I don't have that... Captain, I only... admire, I only admire her."

"Mm, mm, mm, understood, understood."

Hu Changchuan, with the air of someone who has seen it all, wore an expression on his face that all men would understand.

An older sister is simply a fatal attraction for little boys like Jon.

He looked at Jon with a smile. His expression was akin to that of watching his own younger brother fall in love for the first time.

"Only admire~"

The man spoke with a heavy emphasis, his words laced with clear teasing.

"Officer Hu, I've told you, I don't..."

Jon was particularly thin-skinned, and he couldn't stand this kind of teasing at all. At this point, his whole head was almost buried in his rice bowl, and even his neck was flushed red.

The little octopus shook its head.

Poor Jon, his every thought was written on his face. He didn't realize that the more he reacted like this, the more Hu Changchuan would enjoy teasing him.

At that time, Yuan Ye peeled open the last meat steamed bun and took out the filling, and placed it on the plate in front of the little jellyfish.

"Where is Chen Xinyue?"

As soon as he spoke, the two people next to him stopped making noise.

Jon touched his burning face and quickly looked up to answer.

"Oh... oh! The captain is guarding that person in the room. She told me to come out and eat first, and I'll bring her some when I go back later."

Chen Xinyue has always been prudent in her work.

She knew that Wei Jing, despite being a decontamination officer, was working for some unknown force. The people behind him were surely not simple, so Wei Jing, as a living prisoner, was very important. She had personally guarded him all along this journey.

Yuan Ye didn't ask any more, but suddenly changed the subject.

"The fish that escaped that day had a very bad eyesight."

Speaking of which, he looked up at Hu Changchuan.

"It's quite a coincidence, this morning, Teacher Tu also had a bit of a problem with her eyes."

"..."

Hu Changchuan was slightly stunned, but quickly recovered his usual expression and laughed twice.

"Aiya, I just heard that the two children Teacher Tu was responsible for have gone missing. Officer Charlie is really anxious and is calling for people to search everywhere. I'm going to go help out, too."

Saying this, he tidied up his unfinished breakfast, didn't hesitate much, and left immediately in big strides.

...Ah?

Jon didn't really understand the connection between the fish and Teacher Tu, but he had gotten used to the fact that Officer Yuan Ye and the others often said things he was unable to understand.

In any case, if he couldn't understand, then he couldn't understand. He just needed to listen to the captain and Officer Yuan Ye. As a new recruit, he had to follow orders and commands.

After Hu Changchuan left, Jon finally felt less embarrassed. He focused on eating, thinking about finishing quickly so he could bring a steaming hot breakfast back to the captain.

Just at that moment, Yuan Ye suddenly spoke up.

"Did you hear what I just said to him?"

The curly-haired puppy, immersed in eating, looked up. His cheeks were puffed, and he was at a loss for a moment before quickly nodding.

"Uh...mn, mn!"

He carefully considered his words for a while before whispering.

"Officer Yuan Ye, what's the relationship between the fish and Teacher Tu?"

"...Go back and ask your captain."

"Oh, okay."

Jon blinked and nodded. At that moment, Yuan Ye noticed that the little jellyfish had eaten almost enough, so he got up.

"We won't leave today for the time being. We'll talk about it after two days."

"...Not leaving?"

Jon paused, but had no objection. After all, their little team of four was under the command of Officer Yuan Ye.

Officer Yuan Ye is now their new leader.

"Okay, I'll go back and tell the captain after I finish eating!"

Jon's voice rose slightly, because by the time he finished speaking, he could only see Yuan Ye's back.

On the way back, Yuan Ye saw many sentinels searching all over the place. Some even drove out of the base to search.

Yuan Ye's originally fast pace slowed down.

—Something's not quite right.

The sentinel tower was heavily guarded, with sentinels on duty almost constantly. Even if mischievous children managed to slip past the teacher's eyes and sneak out of their assigned room, they wouldn't be able to escape the watchful eyes of so many sentinels.

The little octopus thought of this too.

This is a sentinel tower, basically equivalent to a heavily guarded military base. Even if children sneaked out of the room to play, they couldn't possibly escape the base. Why would they send someone to look for them outside?

Do the teachers guarding the children or the officers in charge here think that the children have the ability to run away from the base?

Or did they determine that someone secretly took the children away?

Yuan Ye suddenly changed direction and began to slowly stroll around the sentinel tower's base. Although he had been a decontamination officer before, due to the uncontrollable nature of his ability, he spent most of his time in the Main City and had never actually stationed himself at a sentinel tower.

Since he had decided to stay for two days and even had some things that needed to be done, Yuan Ye naturally had to familiarize himself with the environment here in advance.

The little octopus perched on the youth's shoulder also looked around. The buildings here were mostly not tall, but they weren't like the supply station, which had mostly single-story buildings. Instead, there were more two- or three-story buildings.

Some trees were planted on the roadside, and in the distance, there was a training ground. There was a running track there, and some training facilities had also been built. Many sentinels were lined up there for training.

The little octopus thought this place was very similar to the military camp he knew.

Perhaps Hu Changchuan had spoken to the decontamination officers here. Although the sentinels on the road noticed Yuan Ye, no one came forward to stop him, nor did anyone speak to him. Most people's eyes showed a mix of curiosity and fear.

Time flew by, the sun climbed higher and higher, and the air grew hotter and hotter. The little octopus lay on Yuan Ye's shoulder, tossing and turning from the heat.

Yuan Ye was accustomed to all sorts of harsh environments, so being basked in the sun wasn't uncomfortable for him. He didn't even realize it was unpleasant.

But at that moment, Yuan Ye seemed to notice the little guy's discomfort. So he paused, suddenly changing direction and walking toward the back of a three-story little house.

A grove was planted behind the house. The trees were verdant and lush, the breeze was gentle, and it finally brought a bit of coolness to the summer heat.

Sigh—

The little octopus finally felt a bit better.

But right after, the round triangle on his head suddenly trembled slightly, then "whoosh—" it stood up straight and tilted toward somewhere.

The little octopus faintly heard a woman's crying. It seemed to be coming from the corner of the wall ahead.

Woman?

"..."

No need to guess, it was definitely the one in the white dress.

This was probably the first time in Ye Yunfan's life that he felt such obvious annoyance toward a woman.

Yuan Ye seemed to have heard it, too. His expression didn't change much, but it made one feel precisely that he was in a bad mood.

At that moment, the little octopus contemplated, then quickly leaped down from Yuan Ye and silently walked in small quick steps around the corner.

PokeOutAHeadAndLookAround.jpg

In the next second, the little octopus saw a man and a woman not far away, one dressed in black and the other in white.

The one in white was naturally the woman in the white dress named Tu Shanshan, and the one in black was a man whom the little octopus didn't recognize well. However, he guessed that this must be Officer Charlie, the one Hu Changchuan mentioned who liked Tu Shanshan.

"What do I do... What do I do, Officer Charlie?"

In the corner of the grove, Tu Shanshan was crying, like raindrops on a pear blossom.*

*fig. tear-stained face of a beauty

"I... the sentinel tower is very safe, but how could this happen... Wuwu, what should we do if we lose the children..."

"Don't cry, don't cry."

The man had black hair parted in the middle, a medium build, and an ordinary appearance. The little octopus looked back at where Yuan Ye stood and then glanced at the man with the middle-parted hair.

He thought, sure enough, in any place, world, or era, beauty is a scarce resource.

"Teacher Shanshan, this morning, did you and...?"

The man hesitated for a moment before asking. Tu Shanshan's eyes flickered, and she explained while sobbing.

"I, I asked you to change my room last night because I wanted to see the sunrise from the sentinel tower. As a result, this morning when I went out, I ran into that person. He said he wanted to go too, so I went with him. However, a teacher came running up to me and said two children were missing, and then I... I..."

The woman couldn't finish her words and started crying again.

"Teacher Shanshan, let me change your room."

Charlie didn't offer comfort immediately this time. Instead, his brow was tightly locked, as if recalling something. His eyes held a mixture of disgust and fear.

"That guy is a madman through and through! A freak, otherworldly creature. It was bad enough that Her Majesty the Queen favored and protected him back then; he was obviously supposed to be exiled for another year, yet he was released early..."

As he spoke about this point, he suddenly stopped. It was forbidden to discuss the royal court's decisions privately. Such talk was considered an affront to the royal authority, a crime.

Although neither of them mentioned Yuan Ye's name, the little octopus knew who they were talking about.

He suddenly realized that their group seemed to be receiving excellent treatment here. Apart from Hu Changchuan's ability to win people over, it was primarily because the three decontamination officers didn't dare provoke Yuan Ye and wanted to eliminate this fiend as soon as possible.

The little octopus turned his head and saw Yuan Ye still standing where he was. His expression was neither sad nor happy, as if he hadn't heard anyone talking bad about him behind his back.

But Charlie's words, the words he used to describe Yuan Ye...

To label a decontamination officer, who once fought and sacrificed his life to protect humans against otherworldly creatures, as a freak otherworldly creature himself, with such language, was to completely erase the meaning of everything Yuan Ye had given and sacrificed.

[Angry!]

[Super angry, super angry!]

[Wa, ya, ya, ya!]*

*The tentacles used this onomatopoeia when using their small knives, so they're probably thinking of hacking Charlie lmao

The little tentacles started to stir. They might be unable to think that deeply, but they could sense Ye Yunfan's emotions.

But Yuan Ye seemed completely unconcerned. He was already accustomed to the hostility and aversion directed at him from those around him, including those who were supposed to be his comrades.

Those words didn't hurt or irritate him at all. He just found them a bit noisy.

But this time, Yuan Ye saw the little jellyfish suddenly running toward him with a thumping sound. He crouched down and held out his hands to catch the little pink ball.

And the next second, Yuan Ye's movements froze as he noticed a change in his own mood.

Yuan Ye couldn't describe it, but it felt like his heart suddenly felt much more at ease. The annoyance he had felt from the noise seemed to have vanished a lot. This wonderful feeling was somewhat similar to the strange sensation he had experienced when he overused his ability and felt a bit out of control in the underground shelter.

But if Yuan Ye could express it accurately, it would be that he felt a sense of comfort.

Meanwhile, the little octopus retracted the mental tentacle it had attached to Yuan Ye's cheek. Carefully observing Yuan Ye's expression, he noticed he looked somewhat confused, but nothing seemed unusual. The little octopus felt relieved.