Jellyfish Travelogue

The dimly lit room was empty except for a wooden sofa in the center, with luxurious red silk draping from the back of the sofa to the floor. A small cabinet was also placed next to the sofa.

A desk lamp sat on the cabinet, its warm light the only source of light in the room, its glow seemingly trembling slightly with the breath of someone so close by.

Xixi held her hardcover book intently.

She lay sprawled on the sofa, her head facing the lamp. The reflection of red silk beneath her blue dress cast a crimson glow on her eyes.

However, that did not affect her concentration while reading.

The book she was holding was somewhat old, with slightly yellowed pages and the words "Aldo Fairy Tales" printed on the cover.

The jellyfish slowly approached her friend, the clownfish who had accompanied her on her three-month journey. Now that they were parting, the jellyfish realized that they had never even hugged.

The story on this page wasn't finished yet. With her hair down, Xixi leaned lazily against her sofa and turned to the next page.

"Will we meet again?" the clownfish asked. The jellyfish thought for a moment, then answered uncertainly, "I don't know. It's just too hot here. I need to find a cool, deep-sea place to live."

The clownfish was dejected. He swam closer, saying, "Give me a hug as a farewell." The jellyfish had wanted to do this for a while; she couldn't bear to part with her friend. So she opened her arms and embraced the clownfish.

Xixi blinked.

"The jellyfish's tentacles ensnared the clownfish; it was such a tender embrace that the clownfish trembled, its tail thrashing wildly, as if it couldn't bear the separation."

Their friendship was destined to last forever; perhaps only death could separate them, and nothing else mattered. But the clownfish was trying to escape. He cried out, "No! Don't touch me anymore! You never said you were a poisonous jellyfish!"

The jellyfish looked at the clownfish and hugged him even tighter. On her tentacles, pufferfish toxin continuously contacted the clownfish's body. Within a few short years, the clownfish stiffened and sank belly-up. The jellyfish looked tenderly at the clownfish's corpse and said, "Yes, I never told you I was a box jellyfish, otherwise you definitely wouldn't have dared to travel with me."

She carried the clownfish's corpse with her, swimming in the direction she had originally intended to go, as if wanting to keep her friend by her side forever, accompanying her to every place she would reach in the future. Until one day, the jellyfish saw a beautiful, shimmering little fish. She released her tentacles, and the clownfish's corpse finally left her, sinking alone into the bottomless abyss.

The jellyfish happily swam towards the glowing fish and said, "Hello, are you traveling alone? Me too, we can travel together."

The story ended abruptly, and looking at the ending, Xixi, for some reason, let out an uncontrollable laugh.

She was engrossed in reading and turned to the next page, intending to read the next story.

Suddenly, a faint light emanated from the walls of the room.

The blue light gradually condensed into a circular shape, slowly transforming into a complex magic circle, becoming the second source of light in the dim room.

Xixi's eyes lit up. She closed her book, sat up straight on the sofa, and instantly transformed into a well-behaved little girl. She stared intently at the darkness before the magic circle and said cheerfully, "Mommy, you're here!"

However, the darkness did not respond to her.

Xixi paused, her face immediately darkening. "Mom?"

Silence remained.

Her face turned extremely pale, with a hint of ferocity. "Mom? Why are you ignoring me? Or... who came?"

"I'm sorry," a clear yet gentle male voice sounded from the darkness, "Your mother can't come tonight. She asked me to come see you in her place."

The moment the words were spoken, the atmosphere in the entire room froze.

Xixi looked at the source of the sound with a strange expression and asked softly, "Oh? Is that so? How dare she not come to see me? Is there anything more important than me?"

Before anyone could answer, she continued, "How could Mom let anything other than him bother me... Come here, okay? Come closer."

Her tone was light and airy, but anyone could tell that Xixi was in a state of immense anger.

In this atmosphere, Yu Xing slowly walked out of the darkness and into the area illuminated by the desk lamp.

His gaze immediately fell on the desk lamp, and he thought to himself that this was indeed a place with an incredibly chaotic sense of time. In the past, the hotel only had kerosene lamps, but now, at night, a desk lamp had appeared, just like the medical instruments in the previous rooms.

After looking at her for less than two seconds, he turned his attention back to Xixi.

The Xixi in this room... looks exactly the same as she does during the day, without any difference. Even her clothes are so normal. At first glance, one might think that she, like Calodi, didn't go to sleep and simply pushed open the door and walked out of the room into the night.

But the fierce look on Xixi's face was enough to make people understand her state of mind.

Gone was the kindness and helplessness she had shown during the day; her eyes held undisguised malice, and when she gazed at Yu Xing, the air itself seemed to freeze.

"I'm sorry to have interrupted your meeting with Daisy tonight." Yu Xing shrugged, but even then, he didn't forget to shift the blame to Calodi, "Calodi lied to me and said Daisy would be in the kitchen. I naturally assumed he would be the one to come see you, and I thought it wouldn't matter if he took her place. Who knew that I would be the one to interrupt the mother and daughter's meeting?"

He said he thought so, but the smile on his lips already revealed his attitude: no matter who was supposed to come to see you, I have to get involved.

"I only need my mother." Xixi's attitude towards Yu Xing was unusually distant. "I don't need anything else, and neither do you."

"That might not be up to you." Yu Xing spread her hands, looking helpless.

A few minutes earlier, he and Calodi had chatted for a few more minutes in a room full of hidden teleportation arrays.

Yu Xing quickly obtained the information she wanted.

Every night, Calodi would put away the purchased items, while Daisy would go to Xixi's room alone.

Calodi wanted to hide Xixi's existence, so he lied and said he needed to put something away. Calodi just wanted to give Yu Xing something to do, and then naturally send the guy back to his bedroom to sleep.

But Yu Xing had deduced more than Calodi had thought. He only said one sentence, "How about I go put something away and you go see Xixi?" and Calodi's face changed drastically. Calodi had never had such a strong emotional reaction when he encountered the Mask Face.

Finally, Calodi had no choice but to compromise and tell Yu Xing Xixi location of the teleportation array, and reveal the real process... Daisy would stay with Xixi all night, and Calodi had to pick Daisy up near the end of the night.

He reminded Yu Xing that Xixi was more dangerous than anything else, and then stopped her.

So now, Yu Xing has replaced Daisy and come to Xixi's room at night.

"It's not up to me?" Xixi repeated, as if she had heard something funny, and a beautiful smile bloomed on her face.

"How interesting, this hotel doesn't really leave anything to me."