Young Master~ It's time to eat

Xie Xie stared at Yun Jingheng with a stiff expression.

We can't expect girls to eat this stuff, can we?

No way! If we guys eat it, then the girls have to eat it too!

His lips were pressed into a thin, almost invisible line, the muscles below his cheekbones were taut, and his gaze moved from the grayish-green smudge that Tang Wulin hadn't wiped off at the corner of his mouth to his eyes, and then back to the corner of his mouth.

"Okay. I'll give it a try."

He took a few steps eastward, his pace faster than Tang Wulin's, the sound of his boots hitting the rocks a beat faster.

He squatted down quickly, bending down and reaching out in one smooth motion to pick up a palm-sized shelled creature from the ground, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the shell.

The creature writhed violently in his palm, and his entire face twitched from his brow bone to his jaw as secretions gushed from its shell opening, but he didn't let go.

The shell was broken off cleanly and swiftly, and with a crisp snap, the grayish-green soft flesh, along with the transparent gelatinous layer, was revealed.

Xie Xie looked at the slightly wriggling lump of flesh in his palm, and his Adam's apple bobbed suddenly.

He took a deep breath, but halfway through, he seemed to choke on something, paused for a moment, and then closed his eyes tightly before stuffing the meat into his mouth.

I chewed it twice.

His jaw movements were not large, but each chew was accompanied by noticeable twitching of the temporal muscles.

Then his entire back bent forward half an inch, as if the stomach reaction was coming on faster than expected.

He swallowed, and the instant he finished swallowing, his eyebrows furrowed, forming a knot between his brows, before slowly relaxing.

"Ugh—" A short, muffled retching sound came from his throat.

I didn't vomit.

He covered his mouth tightly, squatted on the spot, his back arched, and his shoulders trembling.

Xu Xiaoyan ran up from behind, bent down to look at his face, patted his back, and turned to Tang Wulin to ask, "Is he alright?"

"Something's wrong."

Xie Xie covered his mouth and forced out two words through gritted teeth, his voice muffled by his hand, "But he won't die."

After saying that, he took his hand away from his mouth, a clear thread of saliva mixed with glue hanging from the corner of his mouth. He wiped it haphazardly with his sleeve, steadied himself by holding onto Xu Xiaoyan's shoulders, and then straightened up.

Tang Wulin glanced at him, then turned to the rest of the group.

"We don't know how long we'll be on this island, but we should at least give it a try."

Yuanen Yehui stood by the rock pillar, her arms crossed over her chest.

She stared at Xie Xie's crouching figure for two seconds, then said, "I know."

Xu Xiaoyan helped Xie Xie up from the ground by supporting his arm, and then she stood up straight herself.

Her gaze followed the trail of a translucent shell-like creature crawling on the ground. She paused when the creature passed the tip of her shoe, then crouched down.

She reached out to pick it up, but her fingers paused a second before touching the shell.

The creature's shell was smoother than she had imagined, and the oily sheen on its surface reflected a faint greenish gleam just before her fingertips touched it.

Her fingers hovered about a finger's width above the shell for a full two beats, then she abruptly pulled them back, clenched them into a fist, then loosened them, then clenched them again, and finally reached out and grabbed them.

"... This feel?"

Tang Wulin gave a wry smile, "Like a fermented snail?"

"... If you can't speak properly, then shut up, you bastard!"

Tang Wulin shrank back and hid behind Yun Jingheng, choosing to avoid Gu Yue's resentful gaze.

Xu Xiaoyan looked at Yun Jingheng with disdain, trying to get him to stop her.

But when she saw Yun Jingheng take three steps back, her heart sank.

The creature was clutched in her palm, her nails digging into the soft flesh at the edge of its shell, and secretions seeped from between her fingers, trickling down her wrist.

Xu Xiaoyan took a deep breath, then raised her fist to her mouth, opened her mouth, and stuffed the whole thing, shell and all, into her mouth.

"Hiss..." Yun Jingheng silently shielded Tang Wulin in front of him, observing him carefully.

Xu Xiaoyan's expression suddenly changed!

His face, a mixture of nausea, despair, and pain, now bore the added impression of a fate worse than death.

She suddenly covered her mouth, stood up, and ran to the side.

This scene made Ye Xinglan and the other two women frown.

After exchanging glances, the three women hesitated, struggling with despair, before taking turns to perform this "horrific" food tasting.

But the results clearly proved that this stuff was so hard to eat that even the Silver Dragon King kept retching.

Yun Jingheng stood there, still clutching the half-eaten compressed biscuit he had somehow managed to pull out, watching the four women walk back one by one.

When Xu Xiaoyan returned, there were still unshed tears in the corners of her eyes, and her lips were pale and sickly.

Yuanen Yehui's expression didn't change much, but she walked slower than usual, with shorter strides. The rustling sound of her boots on the rocks when she landed was mixed with a slight hesitation that she herself wasn't aware of, indicating that she was experiencing a great psychological shock.

Our Silver Dragon King... judging from his tightly clenched fists, this indicates a significant problem.

Ye Xinglan was the last to walk back.

As she stood next to the box and screwed the cap back on the nutritional supplement, her fingers moved steadily. But after putting the supplement down, she pressed her tongue against the inside of her left cheek, as if checking for any foreign objects left in her mouth.

Then Yun Jingheng discovered something.

Six people's gazes were simultaneously focused on him, at different frequencies, angles, and intensities.

Xie Xie's gaze was direct, carrying a sense of "you can't escape it" with a hint of a smile.

It looks really weird no matter how you look at it.

Xu Xiaoyan looked very aggrieved, the tears in the corners of her eyes hadn't dried completely, and her gaze was filled with a resentment that she didn't know where it came from.

Yuan En's gaze was extremely serious—no, she always seemed to be like this, only today it was a little unsettling.

As for Gu Yue and Ye Xinglan... well, those two women don't look like good people.

Tang Wulin was even more direct, turning his head to look at Yun Jingheng with a half-smile, and even raising his eyebrows in a very flamboyant way, carrying a silent urging that Yun Jingheng desperately wanted to punch.

"..." Yun Jingheng silently took half a step back.

"My dear... Junior Uncle~"

Xie Xie spoke, his pace about a quarter beat slower than usual, deliberately dragging out the last syllable of each word, as if drawing circles around Yun Jingheng with his voice, "Haven't you—"

"I've already eaten," Yun Jingheng replied immediately.

"What did you eat?" Gu Yue asked.

The tone sounded quite cheerful, and it might have looked even better if the complexion were a bit rosier.

"Compressed biscuits."

"Compressed biscuits don't count~"

Xu Xiaoyan finally spoke, her voice still hoarse and nasal from the ordeal, but that aggrieved tone only served as a prelude to the first half of her sentence. The second half, she hummed a short, breathy syllable through her nose, "... You haven't eaten that thing yet."

"Hahaha--I've already eaten--" Yun Jingheng took another step back.

"That doesn't count."

Xie Xie took a step forward. "The tasting project isn't about those ' Full-No-More ' brand compressed biscuits you're holding. Eating those doesn't count as officially consuming the only legally designated food on the island."

"What island -- what officially designated --"

Yun Jingheng's body reacted before his mind could finish speaking.

He took a half step back with his right foot and dodged to the side and back. The movement was so fast that it was like a shadow gliding across the rocky surface, with the sole of his boot barely touching the ground.

Xie Xie, being a pure agility-based attacker, was naturally faster than him when he couldn't use his Soul Power.

As he lunged forward, he was like a spring that had been compressed to its limit and then suddenly released, his right hand outstretched, reaching out to grab Yun Jingheng's left shoulder.

Yun Jingheng dodged the grab, Xie Xie's hand brushed past his shoulder and his fingertips caught on the shoulder seam of his coat, pulling the fabric down and causing Yun Jingheng's body to sway.

He used his right wrist to push Xie Xie's hand away, and swept his left leg halfway from behind to trip Xie Xie's lower body, but as soon as he moved his left foot, the sole of his boot slipped on the remaining secretions on the reef.

With a slip, his center of gravity shifted half an inch to the right.

Half an inch of deviation was enough for Xie Xie to seize the opportunity. Xie Xie pounced on Yun Jingheng, his shoulder slamming into Yun Jingheng's chest, his hands reaching under his ribs to grab his back, his whole body wrapping around him like a bandage.

"Run?! Why are you running?!" Xie Xie's voice rang almost in Yun Jingheng's ear, his breath a mixture of panting and laughter. "If you run away, who will eat you?! Hehehe~"

When Yun Jingheng was hugged, his body leaned back slightly, and the back of his head almost hit the rock.

He twisted to the side with his waist, inserted his right foot between Xie Xie's legs and pinned his knee, and rolled to the side with Xie Xie's weight.

Xie Xie had no time to react before he was knocked down, and the two of them crashed onto the rocks. Yun Jingheng was on top, using his left knee to press down on the outside of Xie Xie's thigh, while his right elbow supported his upper body on the rocks.

"Let me go--"

You eat first--

Yun Jingheng ignored him, forcefully pushing Xie Xie's body outward with his knee, and took the opportunity to pull himself out from under him.

"Go to hell!"

As he stood up, his shoes made a short, sharp scraping sound on the rocks, and then he took off running towards the north side of the circular platform.

After three rocks, he heard hurried footsteps behind him and Xu Xiaoyan's voice coming from afar. "Xie Xie you can handle this?!"

Xie Xie's answer was shattered by the wind, but Yun Jingheng could hear the two short phrases "missed" and "slipped" mixed in.

He didn't look back, quickened his pace, and stepped from one low reef to another, kicking up a small cloud of white mist from the quartz sand on the reef surface.

Then it got dark.

The darkness came without warning. When Yun Jingheng sprinted to the fifth step, it was as if someone had pulled a switch on the sky above him. The entire sky changed from gray to dark gray and then to deep black, all in less than half a second.

For half a second, Yun Jingheng lost all reference points. The rocky surface beneath his feet changed from quartz sand to something soft yet hard. By the time he looked down and saw clearly, it was too late.

A dark gray shadow descended from the sky—it truly descended from the sky.

Yun Jingheng felt a sudden darkness before his eyes, as something fell from directly above and hit him. The force of the fall caused him to hunch down, and two arms wrapped around his waist from behind.

Tang Wulin's voice came from above his head, close to his ear, a hoarse tone mixed with a soft laugh, deliberately lowered a few octaves. "I've been waiting for you to run this way."

Yun Jingheng struggled for a moment, but Tang Wulin's arms were like two iron gates, tightly wrapped around his waist and he didn't budge.

He thrust forward with his waist and abdomen, and Tang Wulin's center of gravity shifted forward two steps with him, but the force holding him did not loosen; instead, it tightened even more.

Yun Jingheng nudged Tang Wulin backward with his elbow, striking the outside of Tang Wulin's ribs, but Tang Wulin didn't react at all.

"WTF?! Where did you come from?! Let go—"

"Don't loosen it."

"You--"

"Xie Xie!" Tang Wulin turned his head and called out to those behind him, "Come and lend a hand!"

"Here I am!"

When Xie Xie caught up, one of his shoelaces was loose, and his running posture was crooked, but his speed did not decrease.

He rushed to Yun Jingheng's front, grabbed Yun Jingheng's right wrist and pressed it down, while his other hand reached over Yun Jingheng's right shoulder and pinched him under his armpit.

The two men, one in front and one behind, carried Yun Jingheng in the middle, like lifting an irregularly shaped stone slab, and walked back together.

Yun Jingheng's feet were still stomping on the ground, his boot heels making a series of irregular friction sounds on the rocks, but Tang Wulin and Xie Xie's coordination was flawless.

Tang Wulin held him by the waist from behind, while Xie Xie pressed down on his shoulders and arms from the front. With each push-off from Yun Jingheng, the two of them adjusted their footing, steadily controlling his center of gravity at an angle where he couldn't push off.

"You bastards! Let me go! You're all disrespectful! I'm your martial uncle!"

"Even if you were my ancestor, you still have to eat this stuff today!" Xie Xie laughed heartlessly.

Yun Jingheng was knocked to the ground by Tang Wulin and Xie Xie, lying on his back. Yuanen Yehui decisively joined in, holding down his kicking legs and sitting on him.

Tang Wulin and Xie Xie pressed down on his shoulders, one on each side.

"Don't worry, after you take this bite, you won't feel disgusted anymore, and at least you'll never waste food again~" Tang Wulin said with a smile.

Yun Jingheng took a deep breath, "Let me go, I won't run away, I'll do it myself!"

"No, no, no~" Gu Yue's teasing voice came, and Ye Xinglan and Xu Xiaoyan followed slowly behind her.

Gu Yue walked over to Xie Xie and squatted down, half-kneeling and leaning close. Her hanging hair and the breath she exhaled mixed together, making Yun Jingheng's face very itchy.

"How can we let our esteemed 'young master' do it himself? Let us servants 'serve' him instead."

As she spoke, she gently stroked his cheek with her palm.

If the setting or context were different, he would immediately misinterpret it! This action is really ambiguous!

This is assuming we ignore Ye Xinglan, who is squatting next to Tang Wulin, because she is holding an insect in her hand!

Her words were sweet, but I don't want to hear them right now!

"Young Master, it's time for dinner!"

He felt a weight on his waist and turned to look.

Who else could it be Xu Xiaoyan? She was sitting on Yun Jingheng's waist, gazing at him with tender affection.

"Xiao Yan is here to feed 'Young Master' his meal~"

Yuanen Yehui, sitting on his lap, peeked out from behind Xu Xiaoyan, raised an eyebrow, and smiled... wickedly.

"... Are you serious?" Yun Jingheng turned his head to look at Tang Wulin.

Tang Wulin looked down at him, the corners of his mouth curving into a smile that stretched down to below his eyes, a smile that was extremely irresistible.

"Of course I'm serious."

Xie Xie chimed in from his left, "They've all said you're my ancestor, how can I not serve my ancestor well?"

Yun Jingheng shifted his gaze from Xie Xie's face and turned to look at Xu Xiaoyan, who was sitting on his waist.

Xu Xiaoyan was leaning slightly forward, her hands resting on the rocks on either side of Yun Jingheng's chest. The ends of her hair brushed against his collarbone, tickling him so much that his shoulder blades involuntarily shrank.

"Xiao Yan."

Yun Jingheng looked at her, lowered his voice, and spoke in an attempt to reason, "You go down first, let's talk—"

"What are you talking about?" Xu Xiaoyan blinked.

What are we going to talk about? What else is there to talk about? Dating?!

The blink was neither fast nor slow; the fine, glistening moisture at the tips of the eyelashes was momentarily suppressed and then bounced back, like two small fans gently fluttering in the air.

"The four of us have already eaten, but you haven't. That's not fair."

Yun Jingheng opened his mouth slightly, but couldn't find a word to refute him.

Looking up from Yun Jingheng's angle, Gu Yue's face was silhouetted against the increasingly dim light of the sky, its outline outlined by a dark gray line.

When she looked down at him, the corners of her mouth curved into a wide smile. The smile in her eyes wasn't strong, but it was clear, like the ripples that spread out after a drop of ink is dropped into clear water.

"Young Master--"

She spoke, the way she addressed him carrying a tone somewhere between playful and serious, with a slight rise in her voice at the end, "It's time to eat."

Yun Jingheng's eye twitched. "Gu Yue, can't you speak normally?"

"I'm perfectly normal. The abnormal one is you, still refusing to open your mouth even at a time like this."

After saying this, Gu Yue turned her head and glanced at Ye Xinglan.

Ye Xinglan met Gu Yue's gaze and nodded.

The two people moved at the same time.

When Gu Yue reached out her hand, Yun Jingheng's chin hadn't had time to retract before her thumb and forefinger were already firmly gripping the grooves on either side of his jaw joint.

The pressure point was so precise, as if she had measured it herself. It didn't hurt or hurt, but her two fingertips were perfectly positioned at the pressure point of the opening and closing muscles. With a little force, her fingers could make his mouth open on its own along the curve of the joint.

Ye Xinglan reached over from the other side, placing her right hand on the edge of Yun Jingheng's upper lip. Her thumb gripped the center of the upper lip, while her index and middle fingers pressed down from both sides, creating a gap between the upper lip and the upper teeth.

Yun Jingheng clenched his teeth, but Gu Yue increased the force on his jaw joint slightly, causing the joint to slide half a millimeter away from its occlusal position along the muscle fibers, creating a gap between his upper and lower teeth.

Ye Xinglan gently pressed his upper lip with her thumb from the outside, pulling the slit open slightly in both directions.

"Open your mouth~" Gu Yue smiled, her eyes crinkling.

Yun Jingheng's lips were still trying to close, but the gap was already large enough.

He heard Xu Xiaoyan straighten up from his waist, the rustling of fabric, then the sound of her taking the creature from Ye Xinglan's hands, the slight crunching sound of its shell against his fingers.

Xu Xiaoyan's voice came from directly above Yun Jingheng's waist, with a deliberately suppressed, soft tone, "I'm starting."

Yun Jingheng's view was mostly blocked by the figure above him. All he could see were Xu Xiaoyan's drooping hair, the curve of her hunched back, and the movement of her hand that was hanging by her side as she raised it.

The fingertips of one hand pinched the edge of the shell of a shelled creature that had already been broken open, while the other hand reached over, the thumbnail digging into the grooves on the side of the shell, and flicking upwards—with a "snap," the translucent shell neatly split in two.

She inserted two fingers and precisely pinched out the soft flesh from the middle of the grayish-green gelatinous wrapping.

With her slender, white fingers, she pinched the grayish-green mass of flesh, covered in a layer of transparent gel, its tip still slightly wriggling, and held it about two inches above Yun Jingheng's forced-open mouth.

Xu Xiaoyan's face was tilted down from that angle, backlit by the skylight, her features softened by the dark colors.

She looked at Yun Jingheng, the curve of her lips so deep that even the muscles below her eyes seemed to lift.

Her voice was as soft as cotton, but what she said made Yun Jingheng want to clench his teeth three times tighter.

"Young master~ open your mouth~ ah--"

Her fingers, which were pinching the lump of flesh, moved down an inch.

WC--!

Yun Jingheng's pupils dilated suddenly!

No! Absolutely not! Meow--!

But it was too late.

The fleshy mass had already slipped into the gap between the front teeth, close to the lower lip.

The meat was already in my mouth.

He flicked his tongue, preparing to spit it out, but Gu Yue and Ye Xinglan released their grip at the same time, allowing Xu Xiaoyan to complete his next move flawlessly.

Why do I say that?

The instant they let go, Xu Xiaoyan lifted his chin and covered his mouth.

"Vomit--!"