Chapter 7 Chapter 7

Winter days are short and the cold is long.

But as a baby, Yan Luoyue just eats, drinks and sleeps every day. She can also extract information from the conversations between Yan Yu and Yan Gan, so her life is quite leisurely.

On a beautiful winter day, Yan Gan decided to teach Yan Luoyue how to speak.

After the demon children transform, they will have a period of adaptation.

During this period, they will gradually master their movements, balance, and even language skills in the human body state.

Although judging from the date when Yan Luoyue broke out of her shell, she shouldn't have been able to master the advanced skill of "speaking human language".

But she transformed earlier than the other little turtles, so Yan Gan couldn't help but think: What if?

What if my sister is a magical turtle and learns to speak in no time, so that she can lie in the cradle, watch me eat melon seeds and chat with me?

That's why he lay in front of Yan Luoyue today, murmuring her name non-stop.

"Sister, do you know your name? Your name is Yan Luoyue, which means the tree of falling moon. Hey, you probably don't know what the tree of falling moon is. Well, let me think, what you see in the sky every night is the 'moon'."

Yan Gan patiently taught Yan Luoyue syllable by syllable.

"Come on, follow your brother and read, 'yue——'."

Yan Luoyue: “…”

Yan Luoyue had her mouth open at first, but after hearing Yan Gan's drawling demonstration voice, she resolutely closed her mouth again.

To be honest, she felt that she was being subtly mocked.

Yan Luoyue really wanted to tell Yan Gan, Brother, do you know that you speak with a southern Yellow River accent?

Yan Gan had no idea about this. He gently poked the back of Yan Luoyue's tender little hand and carefully pressed a dimple on the skin.

"Read it with me quickly, 'yue——'."

Yan Luoyue firmly shut up.

"Read, Yue——"

Yan Luoyue is ready to die.

After being harassed by Yan Gan over and over again for more than twenty times, Yan Luoyue finally couldn't bear it anymore.

She clenched her fists, gathered her energy in her dantian, and as soon as she opened her mouth she uttered a standard pronunciation with clear and melodious voice.

Yan Luoyue spoke in a low, serious and suppressed voice.

"Do!"

Yan Gan opened his eyes wide in shock!

Yan Luoyue hummed a slow little sound in praise of her own wit: What do you think, Yan Gan should now understand what it means to not do to others what you do not want others to do to you, right?

Unexpectedly, the next second, Yan Gan put his hands under Yan Luoyue's armpits, and excitedly lifted her up high like a mandrill lifting the newborn lion cub Simba!

Yan Gan was surprised and delighted: "I knew that the little baby would always remember his brother!"

He happily shook the doll in his hand: "You can even call brother's name. Have you practiced secretly before? Brother likes Luoyue so much. You are the best little turtle baby!"

Yan Luoyue: “…”

Yan Luoyue herself didn't know that with her baby's tender voice, no matter how hard she tried to hold her throat, she could not express the "low, serious, and suppressed" tone that she imagined.

From Yan Gan's perspective: his sister clenched her fists, looking very hard, and called his name very seriously in a childish voice with a tone that could melt one's heart.

Wuuuu, so cute, so thoughtful, who can resist such a good little turtle baby!

At noon that day, Yan Yu went home for something.

She heard someone talking in the house from a distance. When she stepped over the threshold, she found that it was Yan Gan who was teaching Yan Luoyue how to speak.

Yan Gan was very excited: "Yue!"

Yan Luoyue was barely breathing: "Fuck."

Yan Gan was overjoyed: "Yue——"

Yan Luoyue's eyes were dull: "Fuck——"

"yue~~~~"

"Do!!!"

Yan Yu: “…”

To be honest, when Yan Yu found out that the first name Yan Luoyue called was not his own, but his brothers name, his heart felt like a stone dropped into a lake, and ripples of slight jealousy appeared in it.

However, after observing quietly for a few minutes, Yan Yu felt that the scene seemed a little strange.

Where does this strange feeling come from?

Was it because of Yan Luoyue's expression of despair, or because of Yan Luoyue's voice of despair, or because of Yan Luoyue's half-dead sitting posture?

Yan Yu was puzzled.

Moreover, what she couldn't understand the most was why, as she listened, she actually tasted a hint of unconscious mutual harm from the communication between the old and the young?

Alas, I can’t figure it out.

——————————

It was on this night that Yan Yu and Yan Gan were threading dried fish under the light while discussing something.

Yan Yu said, "You taught Luoyue how to speak today, which gave me a reminder. The turtle eggs in the tribe have basically hatched. In a few days, I will take Luoyue to the hatching room during the day.

In the cradle, the drowsy Yan Luoyue suddenly became energetic.

She silently turned her head towards Yan Yu and raised her two little ears.

Yan Gan was slightly stunned and his tone was a little reluctant.

"Sister Yu, it will take at least a year for a newborn turtle to learn how to transform. Why did you take Luoyue to the incubator? There's no one to talk to her. It will be boring for her little sister."

Yan Yu saw through Yan Gan's thoughts at a glance: "If you are worried that Luo Yue will have no one to talk to, you can go to the incubation room together."

“…I’m not going.”

The shuttle thread flew as fast as a flying arrow, threading the dried salted fish into a long strip, but the tone of his voice was dragging, in stark contrast to his movements.

"Besides the newly hatched cubs, there are my aunt and my aunts. They will definitely laugh at me when they see me holding my sister - but I won't go anyway."

Turtle monsters tend to take things as they come, follow their nature, and have the habit of hibernating.

Those who have not entered hibernation at this time of year include the tribe members who stayed behind to guard the area and the mothers who are waiting for their cubs to hatch.

Where there are many old ladies, there are many shortcomings among the parents.

Without having to experience it himself, Yan Gan could imagine what kind of teasing and ridicule he would receive from the aunts if he carried his sister to the incubator, talked to her, and fed her.

A 13 or 14-year-old boy is the most thin-skinned and cares the most about his reputation. Anyway... he doesn't want to go to the incubator.

He looked down at Yan Luoyue on the table. His sister seemed to understand his thoughts and waved her hands babblingly.

Yan Luoyue: “Pu, bu… No, no, no…”

Yan Yu: “…”

Yan Yu looked at Yan Luoyue suspiciously, then looked at Yan Gan, and asked in confusion:

"What does this mean? Is she only calling you by your name now, or is she unwilling to go to the incubator, or does she not want you to continue to take care of her?"

Yan Gan suddenly shuddered and said firmly: "Why wouldn't my sister let me take care of her? She definitely doesn't want to go to the incubator!"

"You have to go even if you don't want to."

Yan Yu threw the skewered fish into the basket, like a parent who insisted on sending his child to cram school, and it was obvious that he had made up his mind.

"Today, when I saw you teaching her to speak, it occurred to me that if Luoyue continues like this, there might be problems."

"Ah?" Yan Gan's back suddenly straightened up. "What's the problem?"

Yan Yu stopped all actions and looked at Yan Gan intently.

"You know, Luoyue has been in human form since the moment he broke out of his shell..."

Yan Gan was puzzled: "Isn't this great? The other little turtles still have to spend several months learning to become humans!"

Yan Luoyue listened at the side and nodded silently.

Yan Yu paused and said, "Yes, the other turtle cubs have to learn to become humans. Then, can Luoyue become a turtle?"

“…”

This question hit the nail on the head... and made Yan Luoyue speechless on the spot.

Yes! It is true that she is a turtle in this life, but how can she change into a turtle shape?

Yan Gan swallowed slowly and said uncertainly: "Turtle shape is our instinct. We probably don't need to learn it specifically..."

Looking at Yan Luoyue's wrinkled face, Yan Gan felt particularly guilty when he said the last word "bar".

"So I have to take Luoyue to the incubator. The cubs there are all turtle prototypes. Maybe Luoyue will suddenly change as she watches them."

Yan Yu let out a long sigh, feeling that he had worried too much.

"Uncle Feng and his wife passed away early. Without them, no one could use the blood relationship test to prove Luo Yue's identity. If she had been in the shape of a turtle upside down when she broke out of the shell, she would have been born as a human."

"Everyone is hibernating now, and there is no one in the tribe who is in charge, so no one has brought this matter up. But after the hibernation period is over, if Luoyue is still like this, then I'm afraid..."

Having said this, Yan Yu lowered his eyelids and put down the braided fish skewer with a heavy heart.

Her voice was as thin as a mosquito: "A cuckoo takes over a magpie's nest, a cuckoo seizes an oriole... Since ancient times, it is not uncommon to tamper with eggs to confuse bloodlines. Brother, you don't want Luoyue to be treated as a spy, do you?"

“…”

Finally realizing the seriousness of the situation, the last bit of stubbornness in Yan Gan's body disappeared completely.

He looked at Yan Yu eagerly for a while before mustering up the courage to ask nervously:

"Sister Yu, I'm just asking, nothing else... Well, in our tribe, if someone is considered a spy, what do we usually do?"

When Yan Yu raised her head, she was met with four eyes, one big and one small, that were staring wide open.

Yan Gan held his breath nervously.

Yan Luoyue's eyes widened and her fists were clenched into a ball.

Facing the gazes of his younger brother and sister, Yan Yuxia consciously softened his tone and said softly:

"Don't be afraid. As far as I know, if the brown-headed bird and cuckoo tribe find a similar situation, they will hang the body on the fence to make an example of the others. But we turtles don't have such cruel rules."

Yan Yu said casually, "If you run into a guy who can't tell the difference between the followers and the spies, you'll just throw him into a dungeon for fifty years and only give him food every seven days."

Yan Luoyue: “!!!”

Fifty years, is it so cruel?

Yan Yu continued to speak as if she didn't take it seriously:

"If he is still alive after fifty years and is still very young, then he is definitely one of our tribesmen. If he is dead or much older, then he must be a spy."

Yan Luoyue: “…”

Ah this...

This identification method is really long and troublesome, and it is also full of the ethnic customs of the turtle tribe...

Before Yan Luoyue could finish her thought, Yan Gan beside her slumped his shoulders and visibly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Huh, that's great. I thought something was going to happen... Turns out it's only 50 years."

Yan Luoyue: “???”

When she put the question mark, was it her problem or was it your concept of time that was wrong???

Yan Gan had completely relaxed. He laughed and picked up Yan Luoyue, rocking her in his arms to coax her.

"It's okay. Brother knows that we Luoyue must be from the Turtle Tribe. Don't be afraid even if you can't prove your identity. Fifty years is a short time. Brother will bring you food and visit you often..."

Yan Luoyue: “???”

No, fifty years is not short at all, brother!

She is now certain that there is something seriously wrong with the turtle people's concept of time!

Yan Gan still spoke to Yan Luoyue tenderly in the same tone as if he was coaxing a little baby.

However, when Yan Luoyue listened to his comfort, not only did she not feel comforted at all, but even the hairs on her back stood up.

Yan Gan: "The dungeon is quite humid, but the environment is good and very suitable for living."

Yan Luoyue: “…”

Environmental diseases such as rheumatism, bone pain, and swollen joints flashed through her mind.

Yan Gan: "It's a bit lazy to only deliver food once every seven days. But it's okay, I will definitely deliver food to you. Besides, there are many kinds of bugs in the dungeon, and our Luoyue is so smart, he will soon learn to add food for himself."

Yan Luoyue: “…”

No, she couldn't, that wasn't what intelligence was for!

Seeing Yan Gan patting the quilt lightly with his lips slightly opened, about to say something, Yan Luoyue decisively stretched out her little palm and slapped Yan Gan's mouth with both hands.

——Brother, you are my brother, please stop talking!

She will go to the incubator with Sister Yu tomorrow. Even if a thousand little turtles crawl onto her body at the same time, she must learn how to become a turtle.

The future that Yan Gan used to comfort her was really too scary!!