Night gradually deepened.

At the Carrot and Snow café.

“Ahhh…” Lin Jianyuan let out a long breath and stretched. “Feels like so much has happened these past few days.”

“It does.” His roommate tilted his head and extended a soft length of intestine to massage Lin Jianyuan’s shoulders. The intestine was soft, but it was anything but weak.

It was as if it weren’t an organ meant for digestion and absorption at all, but a genuine python.

Lin Jianyuan amused himself with the mental image and started laughing. But his roommate assumed he liked it and happily increased the pressure.

“Aaaah, lighter, lighter!” Lin Jianyuan hissed as his expression twisted.

“Does it hurt?” his roommate asked, tilting his head.

“You can see I’m suffering and you still...” Lin Jianyuan was caught somewhere between pain and pleasure and laughter, twisting away while tapping his liver. “You still don’t stop?!”

“I’m not stopping,” his roommate said gently, “because you look like you’re enjoying it.”

Lin Jianyuan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “Come here! I’ll massage you too!”

His roommate obediently brought over his mouth, throat, stomach, duodenum, liver, gallbladder, spleen, and pancreas... Basically the entire upper half of his digestive system.

Lin Jianyuan: “.”

He stared at the soft, pink upper digestive tract and was caught in a dilemma.

Everything was soft.

There was nowhere he dared to put his hands because it felt like even the slightest bit of pressure would hurt him.

Forget it. No more messing around.

He was already here, so he might as well kiss him.

Lin Jianyuan scooped his roommate over and gave him a loud smooch.

Roommate: “~”

This café was near his old company.

Residents of City A were extremely enthusiastic about coffee, so specialty coffee shops of every kind were everywhere.

This place, Carrot and Snow, was a famous social-media hotspot known as one of the “Big Three Cafés of City A.”

The location near Lin Jianyuan’s old company was only a branch, but business was still usually very good.

Sometimes, when Lin Jianyuan got off work at nine or ten at night and passed by, there were still people sitting inside.

Even knowing how much City A residents loved coffee, it was still difficult to imagine people sitting in a café drinking it at nine or ten at night…

Lin Jianyuan was curious about the place, but he thought it was expensive and unnecessary, so he never tried it.

But now, he understood why it was famous.

Because it didn’t just serve coffee, it also made soufflés.

“Wow.”

When the soufflé was brought over, his roommate let out a small sound of amazement.

Even though his roommate didn’t have eyes, Lin Jianyuan could already hear expressions through his voice. If his roommate had eyes, they definitely would have lit up just now.

His roommate ordered a pistachio raspberry soufflé while Lin Jianyuan chose a savory pancake topped with a sunny-side-up egg, bacon, and sausage.

Lin Jianyuan actually wasn’t very clear on the difference between soufflé and pancakes, so he asked the server. Apparently, soufflé was softer and fluffier.

And sure enough, the soufflé was already wobbling boing boing boing on the way to the table.

His roommate held his knife and fork in coiled lengths of intestine and seemed unsure where to begin.

Lin Jianyuan held up his phone, looking at his wife using intestines to clutch the cutlery, and was also unsure where to begin.

“Could you, uh… mentally contaminate my camera lens or something?” Lin Jianyuan said, laughing at himself even as he spoke. “So my phone can photograph you… in your human form?”

His roommate thought for two seconds. “I don’t think that works.”

Lin Jianyuan nodded. “Me neither.”

The two of them dissolved into laughter on either side of the tiny square table.

After filming that previous vlog, Lin Jianyuan started enjoying taking pictures of the two of them.

There was something wonderful about recording their life together. Sometimes, when he had nothing to do, he would scroll through older pictures and remember what happened at the time. He always found himself smiling.

Of course, the angel eyeball that kept getting dragged in as their photographer might not agree.

All the little toys were resting at home today, so they didn’t bring any along.

Coincidentally, the café was running a promotion. If customers took a photo, uploaded it to a certain review app, and posted an honest review, they would receive a little bear pudding for free.

As a result, nearly every customer had a caramel-colored bear pudding sitting on their table.

“Delicious.” His roommate poked off a piece of soufflé and carefully brought it to his mouth.

“Let me try.” Lin Jianyuan stretched his neck forward. Chomp.

Youth may be priceless, but soufflé melts on the tongue.

Lin Jianyuan felt like he was eating a mouthful of sweet, soft, and egg-scented air. Then he remembered that one plate of this air cost 78 yuan, and suddenly the air felt much more substantial.

Lin Jianyuan tasted it carefully. Mm. The pistachio was extremely fragrant. One bite was enough to tell that it used real pistachios. The ingredients were also generous, and it definitely wasn’t a mixture of artificial coloring and flavoring.

That was the first time Lin Jianyuan genuinely tasted what people meant by “nutty aroma.”

The raspberry sauce came separately in a tiny transparent cup. A delicate little beaker, about the size of three bottled-water caps stacked together, was filled with bright berry-red raspberry sauce.

The vivid raspberry sauce paired with pale green pistachio sauce and three large, freshly baked pieces of soufflé wobbling boing boing on the plate.

The fragrance of egg, milk, nut, and berry rushed toward him at once. And the instant it entered his mouth, it became a full-on sweet-and-fragrant flavor bomb.

Not to mention the melt-in-your-mouth texture.

Delicious!

Even Lin Jianyuan, who wasn’t particularly fond of desserts, thought it was delicious.

“I have to admit, there’s actually an acceptable reason this thing costs 78 yuan a plate.”

Lin Jianyuan, who became rich overnight, nodded solemnly.

“Another bite?” His roommate scooped up another piece. It wobbled gently as he brought it toward Lin Jianyuan’s mouth.

Lin Jianyuan’s lips curved up and leaned forward. Chomp.

Ah. So good.

His stomach felt warm. It was genuinely satisfying to eat.

“No wonder there are still so many people here at night,” Lin Jianyuan said with a laugh while looking around.

His roommate said, “Let me try yours.”

Lin Jianyuan’s order arrived too. Before his roommate could even reach over with his fork, Lin Jianyuan already pushed the plate toward him.

His savory pancake was served on a black iron plate, topped with a sunny-side-up egg, bacon, and sausage, and garnished with a few spears of grilled asparagus. It looked almost like a steak platter.

“This is good too.” His roommate smiled after one bite. “I thought a savory version would be weird, but it’s actually really good.”

Lin Jianyuan tried some too and said happily, “Right?”

Whether soufflé or pancake, both were on the sweet side. Too much of either could get cloying.

No wonder people paired them with coffee.

Lin Jianyuan finally understood why someone would drinking coffee this late at night.

“Speaking of which…” Lin Jianyuan suddenly remembered something and laughed. “When we ate that king crab before, I wasn’t dreaming after all? I really did snap off the legs of a passing king crab one by one and feed them to you?”

“King crab?” His roommate’s tone sounded thoughtful. “Ohhh. [Desire Spider].”

“That thing was called [Desire Spider]?” Lin Jianyuan suddenly became curious. “Was it good? What did it taste like?”

His roommate said, “King crab?”

Lin Jianyuan burst out laughing and couldn’t stop.

“Thinking about it now, I really was ridiculous. How was I so good at lying to myself? I could literally see bizarre stuff every day, but I insisted on telling myself that I was mentally ill…”

While Lin Jianyuan was lamenting this, something at the edge of his vision suddenly caught his eye. A crab...

Lin Jianyuan froze. “?”

His roommate turned around. “What is it?”

The instant he turned his head.

Pop.

The crab blew a bubble and vanished.

“I think I just saw a crab?” Lin Jianyuan scratched his head and gestured with his hands. “Like a Chinese mitten crab…”

His roommate said, “Probably just a low-level Aberrant passing by.”

Since confirming he wasn’t mentally ill, Lin Jianyuan found himself seeing Aberrants more and more often.

No. The city was actually full of Aberrants all along. It was just that before, he was too busy struggling to survive to pay attention to his surroundings.

Sometimes, when the corner of his eye caught something strange, he simply assumed he saw it wrong.

Especially after he was diagnosed with mental illness, he automatically classified everything unusual as a hallucination.

Just like that crab.

It wasn’t particularly conspicuous. It was only about palm-sized, and it appeared very abruptly on the floor of a warmly decorated café.

Besides, this mitten crab was already cooked and orange-red, so at first glance, it was almost the same color as the floor…

Wait!

Cooked!

A cooked mitten crab was blowing bubbles!

… Okay. It wasn’t a mitten crab. It was an Aberrant. An Aberrant…

Even knowing it was an Aberrant, a fully cooked Chinese mitten crab blowing bubbles was still weird!

It was just so completely contrary to common sense.

Whatever. He was already kissing and cuddling an entire digestive system and being all mushy with it. Who was he to call anything else strange?

“The mobile terminal didn’t react, and you didn’t feel anything either, so it must be a really low-level Aberrant?” Lin Jianyuan said.

“Probably.” His roommate reached his fork over and stabbed at an asparagus spear on Lin Jianyuan’s iron plate.

His roommate seemed to especially like asparagus, so Lin Jianyuan simply went over to the server and asked whether they could grill a separate plate of asparagus for them.

They could just charge the price of a full soufflé plate.

Before long, a steaming plate of grilled asparagus arrived.

The server was nice enough to add some bacon and mushrooms for accompaniment too.

“If I only grilled asparagus, it would just be green. Too monotonous,” the server said. “I had to give you guys some decoration; otherwise, I won't be able to sleep when I go home after work tonight!”

Lin Jianyuan immediately pulled out his phone and wrote the café a heartfelt fifteen-hundred-character positive review.

“So good.”

The plate of asparagus disappeared quickly, and his roommate still looked like he wanted more.

His left half of the colon held the fork while the fork rested lightly between his lips.

His lips were slightly pursed, his expression full of lingering enjoyment.

Lin Jianyuan’s heart went soft that he almost wanted to order him another plate.

But eating too much at night wasn’t a good idea, especially since they would be going home to sleep soon.

Lin Jianyuan said gently, “Then we’ll come back again in a couple of days.”

His roommate’s lips curved upward. “Okay!”

The two of them happily finished eating. Happily thanked the server, happily said goodbye, and happily held hands as they went home.

Pop.

Without Lin Jianyuan or Xie Yu noticing, an orange-red crab crawled slowly along as its pointed claws made faint scratching sounds against the floor.

Pop.

Another crab blew a bubble.

“…” Pei Shuo sat in front of his computer. After frantically hammering at the keyboard for a while, his train of thought suddenly jammed.

Pei Shuo p.

redPei Shuo frowned.

Pei Shuo furiously scratched his fingers.

So itchy.

So itchy, so itchy, so itchy.

Pei Shuo lowered his head and looked despairingly at the string of blisters running along his fingertips and the bases of his fingers.

He originally wanted to go to the hospital, but he was so busy lately that he genuinely didn’t have time, so he searched Little Red Book for: “What are these blisters on my fingers?”

The very first post the algorithm recommended fit his symptoms perfectly.

He promptly followed the expert’s recommendation in the video and bought medication from the pharmacy downstairs. But after applying it for several days, it didn’t help at all.

The blisters only kept multiplying…

So itchy.

So itchy. So itchy, so itchy, so itchy, so itchy!

The itchier Pei Shuo got, the more he couldn’t resist scratching, and the more he scratched, the itchier it became. He knew he wasn’t supposed to scratch, because Little Red Book said broken blisters could get infected. But it really did get itchier the more he scratched, itchier and itchier and itchier…

Don’t scratch!

But it's so itchy! It's really so itchy!

The sides of his fingers and the bases near his palms itched and itched and itched and itched.

Even after applying medicine, it still itched.

He almost wanted to bite that piece of flesh right off.

He wanted to pick the blisters open so badly, but he couldn’t!

Don’t pick them! Don’t pick them! DON’T PICK THEM!

But it's so itchy!

It's seriously so itchy!!

Pei Shuo was nearly going insane from the itching.

What made things even more infuriating was that the key visual for his current project just came back for revisions. Jiang Chen told him to revise it and send it over before midnight.

But right now, Pei Shuo had absolutely no inspiration! He had no idea how to revise it!

There was only half an hour left until midnight…

Even though he knew Jiang Chen definitely wouldn’t look at it anyway, if he didn’t send it, the guy would definitely start nagging.

And most importantly, his fingers were so itchy…

ITCHY! ITCHY!!!

He couldn’t take it anymore... He seriously couldn’t take it anymore!!!

“Aaaaaah!” Pei Shuo finally gave up resisting. He dropped the mouse and keyboard and started furiously scratching both hands against each other!

So good!

So itchy!

Scratching hard felt amazing! But it became even itchier afterward!

He genuinely couldn’t take it anymore! Aaaaaaaah!

Pop.

While Pei Shuo frantically scratched his hands in misery and despair, they began to appear.

One crab. Two crabs… Countless crabs.

Countless palm-sized cooked crabs clung to his monitor, keyboard, and mouse…

His wrists. His shoulders. His head.

Pop.

Pop.

Pop.

The crabs blew bubbles.

Countless crabs kept blowing bubbles at Pei Shuo’s fingers and palms.

Blowing bubbles...

Strings of blisters emerged one after another like tiny transparent grapes.