TTAETSC Chapter 38.4 - Transform! Pink-haired Child

The child was practically a miniature version of the man in his dreams.

Due to the hood the child wore, he couldn't clearly see their hair, and the shadows shrouding the child made it difficult to discern the color of their eyes.

But the face was very similar!

Very similar!

Meanwhile, caught red-handed, Ye Yunfan's pupils trembled.

Bang—!

Inside the room, the pink-haired child fell backward.

Ye Yunfan never imagined his luck would be so bad. He just wanted to sneak a peek to see if Yuan Ye had returned, but as a result, he was instead directly caught red-handed!

"Little jellyfish brother?"

Heidi immediately became uneasy, thinking that the sentinels had found them.

"Did they find me?!"

"No, no, no, it's alright, it's alright!"

The pink-haired child immediately stood up, his movements a frantic mix of fumbling and stumbling. He first put Yuan Ye's slippers back in place, then rushed toward Heidi, speaking as he ran.

"It's your Brother Yuan Ye who's back! I need to change, so you quickly put on your coat and your hood. Don't expose me!"

Ye Yunfan quickly finished his instructions and immediately transformed back into his little octopus form, emerging from the coat that had fallen to the ground.

The little octopus hurriedly urged Heidi to put on her coat. In his frantic movements, the can of fruit on the table tipped over, spilling sweet and sticky juice everywhere.

At the same time, outside, the sound of Yuan Ye's rapidly approaching footsteps could be heard.

Bang—

The door flew open.

The sheer force of it actually caused the door to blow a gust of wind.

Heidi turned back in surprise, causing the hood of her cloak to fall off and reveal her long, chestnut-brown curls, like a doll's hair.

Yuan Ye stood in the doorway, staring at the unfamiliar little girl in front of him for a long time. A hint of imperceptible disappointment flickered in his eyes.

Hallucination.

He seemed to be constantly mistaking people for someone else.

This time it was even more ridiculous. He had actually mistaken a child's face for someone else.

Yuan Ye stared at the unfamiliar little girl for a long time before he finally noticed the little jellyfish standing beside her.

The little jellyfish stood stiffly, as if caught red-handed doing some mischief.

"Mr. Yuan Ye—!"

Captain Chen followed closely behind, holding a gun in her hand. She thought something had happened, but as soon as she reached the door, she saw the little girl inside, scared witless.

Captain Chen's eyebrows wrinkled.

The little girl who got lost in the base?

Why would she be in Yuan Ye's room?

At that time, a few sentinels came up from below.

"What happened, Investigator Chen?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing."

Chen Xinyue closed Yuan Ye's door, put away her gun, and turned back with a smile.

"It's just Mr. Yuan Ye's evolved species pet that caused a bit of disturbance. It was a false alarm, a false alarm."

"Oh, I see."

The sentinels didn't think much of it and quickly dispersed.

Captain Chen watched them leave before turning back and entering the room.

The atmosphere in the room was very strange.

The little girl was crouching on the ground, and the pink little jellyfish beside her was also stiffly crouching in place.

Yuan Ye stood at the doorway, arms crossed, expressionless.

The two sides had been confronting each other like this for several minutes.

Captain Chen locked the door and then pulled the curtains.

At that moment, Yuan Ye's brow gradually wrinkled. Instead of asking the little girl, he stared at the little jellyfish on the ground, which clearly seemed to have a guilty conscience, and then asked.

"Who is she?"

Little octopus: "...???"

The little octopus was full of question marks.

That's not right, he can't speak, why ask him???

Shouldn't you ask little Heidi at this time?

She has a mouth!

At that moment, even Captain Chen looked at Yuan Ye in a slightly strange way.

"I, I am Heidi."

Heidi didn't seem afraid, just a little apprehensive. She glanced at Captain Chen, then at Yuan Ye, and cautiously raised a hand, as if asking the teacher for permission to speak in class.

"I'm little jellyfish bro– little jellyfish's friend."

"..."

Friend?

Yuan Ye stared at the pink little ball on the ground, the tip of his eyebrow slightly raised.

The little octopus immediately recognized this as a sign of a question and nodded quickly.

At that time, Chen Xinyue crouched down, her tone very approachable to the child.

"Okay, little Heidi, why are you here?"

"I, I want to escape. Then the little jellyfish helped me."

After that, she looked at Yuan Ye and recounted everything she had just told Ye Yunfan.

Yuan Ye frowned.

"You can see people's soul shadows?"

"Ah... no, it might not be the soul."

Little Heidi's face turned a bit red, and she waved her hand.

"It's just that I feel... I feel like it's easy to say it that way."

Pausing, she looked behind Yuan Ye.

"Most people are a dull gray color, but you, Brother Yuan Ye, are different. You're a snowy white, and that older sister is a deep green. They're all beautiful colors."

So Heidi wasn't afraid of them.

"Can I continue hiding here? I don't want to be sent away. I want to go back."

Little Heidi tugged on the hem of Captain Chen's clothes, and then Chen Xinyue caressed her cute little apple-shaped face.

"Okay, stay here and feel at ease. No one will take you away."

Yuan Ye rubbed the space between his brows. The weapons smuggling and the two problems at the Supply Station weren't resolved yet, and now there was this matter of gifted children being smuggled.

He waved his hand at Chen Xinyue.

"Take her to your place."

Wei Jing was locked up in the interrogation room, so Chen Xinyue no longer needed to keep watch over him. Besides, this was a little girl, so it was not convenient for her to stay with Yuan Ye.

"All right."

Captain Chen had no objections.

"Wait, wait a moment."

Little Heidi whispered.

"Can I wash my hands first?"

The canned fruit had spilled earlier, leaving her hands clammy from the juice.

"Mm, go wash."

Captain Chen thought it wasn't a problem. Yuan Ye waved his hand, permitting her.

Little Heidi turned and walked toward the bathroom.

At the same time, the little octopus also felt uncomfortable with the canned fruit all over him, so he also followed.

"Hold on—"

At that moment, Yuan Ye seemed to remember something, took a few large strides past the two little ones, and slammed the bathroom door shut.

Bang!

Captain Chen looked over with a hint of wonder and heard Yuan Ye say.

"Take her back to your place to wash!"

The young man's voice was a little stiff. Although Captain Chen found it strange, she also didn't object.

"...All right."

Chen Xinyue took Heidi and left.

Click.

The door closed.

In contrast, the little octopus looked at Yuan Ye skeptically several times.

What happened?

Is there something in the bathroom that shouldn't be seen by anyone?

But he just went in there to wash his feet when he came back.

But at that time, Ye Yunfan just rushed in to take a quick wash and didn't look carefully.

Hiss.

His curiosity suddenly arose!

The little octopus thought for a moment, then stretched out a tentacle to tug at Yuan Ye's pants leg.

Right after, his movements slightly turned stiff.

The little octopus detected a strong smell of blood, but he quickly recovered and continued to tug at the boy's pants leg.

Yuan Ye looked down and saw the little jellyfish rubbing its suction cups.

—That meant it wanted to take a bath.

"...Let's go."

Yuan Ye took the dirty, sticky little jellyfish into the bathroom.

Shaaa.

Clean, clear water gradually filled the basin, and a pink eight-pointed succulent floated gently inside.

Yuan Ye reached out and turned off the water.

He crouched on the ground, his eyes fixed on the pink ball in the basin. His pupils gradually lost focus as he became somewhat lost in thought.

He was still thinking about the little boy he had seen earlier peeking through the window.

That scene was so real, even more real than when Yuan Ye saw that man in the white dress.*

*The scene when Tu Shanshan became Ye Yunfan

The child and the man were exactly the same.

Extremely similar.

But that child's coat clearly belonged to the little girl named Heidi. This meant that the child who was peeking through the window just now was Heidi.

He had seen it wrong.

He was having hallucinations again.

Yuan Ye felt like he was really bewitched.

He could even replace a little girl's face with that man's.

Meanwhile, the little octopus lying in the water was also in a daze. He stared blankly at the horizontal rack above him, where a pure white fabric swayed gently.

He hadn't noticed it when he entered in human form due to his height, but now that he was lying flat in the water looking up, he could see it clearly.

On one of the poles, a piece of underwear was hanging to dry. The middle part was particularly wrinkled, as if it had been scrubbed hard.

Combining Yuan Ye's strange behavior of quickly rushing into the bathroom this morning, Ye Yunfan quickly deduced the cause and effect.

Having gone through puberty himself, he had experienced the typical awkward phases of growing up. For example, waking up and needing to scrub his underwear.

But last night, Yuan Ye had a dream.

The dream was... together with him.

The deliberately buried charming scenes were like a spinning lantern*, flashing before his eyes, one after another.

*lantern adorned with paper horses that revolve in a circle

But now, some things he had never seen had been added.

For example, this morning, perhaps Yuan Ye was crouching here, diligently scrubbing.

"..."

Ye Yunfan's mind suddenly "buzzed."

Moments later, Yuan Ye squeezed his eyes shut, finally managing to suppress the jumbled thoughts in his head.

Then, he suddenly noticed that the little jellyfish in the basin was staring straight ahead, lost in thought.

But as soon as the other sensed his gaze, the little guy trembled all over, as if caught red-handed doing some misdeed. It immediately looked around with a guilty conscience, shifting its gaze away.

Yuan Ye paused for a moment, then he also looked up.

"..."

This time, the air in the bathroom seemed to suddenly freeze.

Ye Yunfan saw Yuan Ye withdraw his gaze expressionlessly, but his ears burned red at a visible rate.

His skin was so pale that it made the redness even more obvious.

Ye Yunfan actually very much wanted to tell Yuan Ye that he was just a baby octopus now and didn't understand anything, so there was no need to be like this...

However, at that moment, Yuan Ye suddenly reached out and pinched one of his tentacles.

Eh?

The little octopus froze.

Crash!

The water churned and splashed all around.

The next second, the little octopus felt the world suddenly turn upside down, and his entire field of vision was filled with the bottom of the basin.

"..."

It took a long time before Ye Yunfan came to his senses and realized what had just happened.

Yuan Ye seemed a little embarrassed and angry, so he lifted him and flipped him over.