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The Little Mermaid Fell for the Jiaoren 15


Chapter 15: Xixi

The merman’s cry and the Jiaoren’s subsonic voice echoed softly in the deep-sea abyss. Deng Xi didn’t have to wait long before the seaweed in front of the cave where he was hiding was pushed aside.

The silver-tail swam in, exuding a cold aura.

Under the powerful pressure of the Jiaoren and sensing the strength in the merman’s song, the sea snakes, which had been slightly pacified, were instantly provoked into a frenzy. The spiral patterns on their abdominal eyes deepened in color in an instant.

Dozens of sea snakes immediately charged over.

Deng Xi’s eyes widened in horror. He couldn’t be bothered to hide anymore. He let go of the big tail he was hugging tightly and shouted, “Little Mute!”

The skin on a Jiaoren’s body was as tough as mecha armor. If Si Jisheng hadn’t fallen into the sea from a height of several thousand meters, he wouldn’t have been so severely injured. Faced with the nearly two-ton bite force of a great white shark, Si Jisheng would have avoided a direct confrontation while he was seriously injured.

But now that his injuries were almost healed, the bite force of a sea snake was not even worth mentioning.

Deng Xi tightly gripped the fluorescent jellyfish in his hand. The jellyfish flickered, emitting a faint light that illuminated the cave.

The Jiaoren’s sharp claws flashed silver in the dim light. The dozen or so sea snakes that were charging straight at him with their tails wagging hadn’t even touched Si Jisheng before they were cut in half at the waist, followed by their vital points, heads, and abdominal eyes…

Deng Xi stared blankly as the little mute, with just one fish and a pair of claws, easily took care of the entire school of great sea snakes that had been besieging him for so long.

He saw it with his own two eyes.

He saw it clearly.

Si Jisheng calmed his surging emotions. The scent of sea snake blood that filled his nostrils kept his silver, slitted pupils from returning to their original state.

The uniquely cold, slitted pupils of his beast form pierced through the darkness and looked straight at him. Deng Xi couldn’t help but shrink back, as if looking at a stranger, and asked blankly, “Little Mute?”

Is the little mute that strong?

Is this my little mute?

Si Jisheng remembered his previous concealment, and his body stiffened. Then, he silently bent down slightly. The powerful Jiaoren lowered his head and extended a hand to the little merman huddled in the corner.

This hand was not pretty. The fingertips were still stained with the blood of the sea snakes, the crevices between his fingers were stuffed with fragments of entrails, and the lines on his palm were filled with blood.

It was very dirty.

Si Jisheng lowered his eyes to look at it and curled his fingertips slightly.

The next moment, a warm, fair hand unexpectedly rested on his cold fingertips.

Deng Xi, who had been looking at the silver-tail in fear just now, took the initiative to hold his hand. He was so scared by the school of sea snakes that his face was pale. He pulled up the corners of his pale lips and curved his eyes slightly. “Thank you for coming to find me, Little Mute.”

Si Jisheng’s tense body relaxed slightly. He took Deng Xi’s hand and swam out. Just as they were about to leave the cave, the silver-tail turned his head and glanced at the sea snake carcasses floating in the water. He picked up a few and prepared to take them back as food for tomorrow.

Deng Xi quietly watched the silver-tail’s movements.

He suddenly remembered that in the previous sea area, in the red coral in front of their old lair, he had once found a sea snake.

A venomous snake whose fangs had all been knocked out.

But were they really knocked out by the reef?

Was he really that lucky that every day he went out to hunt, he could find just enough food for himself and the little mute right at his doorstep?

Deng Xi lowered his eyelids and looked at the cold palm holding his. He suppressed his doubts, because besides this, there was another question he wanted to know even more.

When the noisy Deng Xi quieted down, and there was no one to talk to, the atmosphere between the two of them became exceptionally lifeless.

Deng Xi mustered his courage. “Little Mute.”

Si Jisheng lowered his eyes to look at him.

Even without any emotion, the silver, slitted pupils looked cold.

Deng Xi paused, then said hesitantly in a small voice, “Are you…”

Si Jisheng expressed his confusion, his slitted pupils narrowing slightly.

The stare made Deng Xi’s scalp tingle. He paused again and asked cautiously, “I want to catch a few jellyfish, so it won’t be so dark in the lair.”

Si Jisheng nodded, released the hand he was holding, and gestured for Deng Xi to go catch them.

Deng Xi swam to the seaweed on the cliff and casually caught a fluorescent jellyfish. He stood there for a while, then squeezed it and muttered, “Ask, don’t ask, ask, don’t ask…”

With each word, Deng Xi caught a fluorescent jellyfish, until he caught the last one. “…ask.”

Deng Xi pursed his lips.

He couldn’t hold any more jellyfish in his arms.

Then ask!

Deng Xi turned around and mustered his courage again. “Little Mute?”

Si Jisheng quietly looked at him.

Deng Xi was about to speak, but because he was holding too many jellyfish, one of them fell into the seawater as he moved.

It became “don’t ask.”

Deng Xi frowned in annoyance, then suddenly let go, releasing all the jellyfish, leaving only one.

And only this one.

The fluorescent jellyfish waved their transparent tentacles and swam in circles around Deng Xi. They were naturally attracted by the affinity of the merman species. The jellyfish would touch Deng Xi’s golden hair and his hands.

Upon contact, the jellyfish would light up.

In Si Jisheng’s eyes, the blue Jiaoren before him was surrounded by a soft, fragmented light. His blue eyes reflected only his figure, and his tone was filled with an indescribable curiosity.

“Little Mute, can you speak now? Were you calling me just now? Were you calling my name?”

Was it for me that you spoke?

Si Jisheng clenched the conch shell in his other hand and nodded slightly.

Deng Xi’s eyes curved into a smile. “I want to hear it again.”

Si Jisheng’s Adam’s apple bobbed slightly. He rubbed the patterns on the surface of the conch shell with his fingertips. Deng Xi’s eyes were very happy, purely happy for him. His blue eyes sparkled with joy.

It was impossible to refuse.

“Deng Xi.”

Si Jisheng’s lips pressed into a cold, straight line as he indifferently uttered the two merman syllables. But his gaze, which was on Deng Xi, shifted slightly, no longer looking directly at him.

The silver-tail’s voice was extremely deep. Because he hadn’t spoken for a long time, it had a hoarse quality. His tone was cold and indifferent, making Deng Xi’s name sound very nice.

Deng Xi’s lips curled up in satisfaction. “This is the first time another kinsman has called my name besides myself.” He thought for a moment, his blue tail fin swaying leisurely, and said with a hint of loneliness, “If there were older kinsmen in my clan, what would they call me?”

Compared to a normal Jiaoren, who was over three meters tall including their tail, the blue Jiaoren’s body was simply too small. If the Jiaoren clan still existed, Deng Xi would definitely be the one with the best temper and the most well-behaved.

Although he would sometimes cause trouble, no Jiaoren would be willing to blame him.

Si Jisheng thought that they would probably give him a soft, sweet nickname, making him sound like a beloved cub of the Jiaoren clan.

If it were him…

Si Jisheng subconsciously mumbled two syllables in the interstellar language.

Because of the unfamiliar language and the silver-tail’s low voice, Deng Xi didn’t hear clearly and blinked blankly. “What?”

Si Jisheng’s lips pressed into a rigid, tight line, and he refused to say another word, but he repeated it again in his mind.

Xixi.

Si Jisheng took a deep breath and, without another word, turned and swam up towards the exit of the abyss. Deng Xi didn’t know what was wrong with the silver-tail and followed him up blankly. “Wait for me, wait for me.”

Si Jisheng paused and slowed down.

After more than half an hour, they finally swam out of the abyss and into the normal seabed world. After another ten minutes or so, they returned to their new lair.

Deng Xi and the silver-tail sat together at the entrance of the cave, their long tails dangling, floating in the seawater. He released the fluorescent jellyfish in his palm, gently pushed it with his fingertips, and watched with a smile as the jellyfish swayed into the lair.

He had been woken up in the middle of the night and had gone through several scares. He was mentally exhausted, and his eyes were so sleepy he could barely keep them open. But Deng Xi still pulled the silver-tail to sit at the entrance of the cave. “Little Mute, give me your hand.”

Si Jisheng’s slitted pupils had just disappeared, and the Jiaoren’s sharp claws had not yet retracted. His hands were already very dirty. Normally, he would wait until his claws retracted before slowly and methodically cleaning them.

Si Jisheng subconsciously extended his hand.

Deng Xi carefully avoided the sharp claws, rolled a few stalks of seaweed into a ball, and little by little, used the seaweed ball to wipe the blood from the lines on Si Jisheng’s palm. He then picked out the fragments of entrails from between his fingers and wiped the blood from his claws clean.

Si Jisheng’s hand was white again. He looked at Deng Xi, slightly stunned.

Deng Xi suddenly leaned over.

Si Jisheng’s body stiffened.

Deng Xi grabbed a lock of Si Jisheng’s silver hair.

The silver-tail’s silver hair was also stained red with blood. His sharp fingertips made it impossible for him to clean it himself. Deng Xi used the merman’s rounded fingertips to clean the bloody, sticky liquid, making the silver hair smooth again.

Like grooming a doll, he cleaned the dirty little mute until he was spotless, then smiled. “Alright, Little Mute, let’s go to sleep.”

Si Jisheng nodded stiffly and averted his gaze, a little uncomfortable. Deng Xi flicked his tail fin and swam into the cave, curling up tiredly in the shell. This time, he firmly remembered to close the shell.

This was not the first time Deng Xi had experienced being fish-napped in the middle of the night. He had a natural affinity for the creatures of the natural world, but on the other hand, this also made him particularly conspicuous in the eyes of creatures higher up on the food chain.

Every time he moved to a new home, if he wasn’t familiar with his neighbors and didn’t close his shell tightly, he would find himself being treated as a food reserve by the original owner of this sea area, who would fish-nap him without a second thought.

Although he could always talk his way out of it with the merman’s song, it was still a life-threatening risk, walking on a tightrope.

Deng Xi rubbed his sleepy eyes. Before closing the shell, he suddenly looked curiously at the silver-tail sitting motionless at the entrance of the cave and asked, “Little Mute, do you have a name?”

Si Jisheng turned to look at Deng Xi.

He could say Deng Xi’s name, but he couldn’t say his own. In the end, he just slowly shook his head.

“Then I’ll just keep calling you Little Mute, okay?”

“Mmm, Little Mute, I’m so sleepy. Good night.”

The pearly white shell closed with a “click.”

The sky was already brightening slightly, and there was a faint light on the seabed.

It was already the third day.

Si Jisheng opened his comm again and carefully reviewed the speech he had written. He held the conch shell to his ear and listened quietly for a while, then opened the audio and began to record.

This was not a confession.

Si Jisheng always felt that there was something more to the battle between the Empire and the Federation that he hadn’t found yet.

Si Jisheng recorded it over and over again. After a difficult rehabilitation, he finally recorded an audio that was at a normal speed, without any pronunciation errors, and was listenable.

He was not completely healed yet.

Si Jisheng put down the conch shell and sent the audio to his adjutant.

With that matter settled, Si Jisheng looked at all the people who had contacted him and the messages they had sent him during this period, and analyzed the current political situation on the capital star after his disappearance.

Suddenly, his fingertips paused slightly.

His silver eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at a communication record on the blue screen. The time was when he had just fallen to this planet, his comm was missing, and he was in a coma.

The other party was the Elder of the Council of Elders, who had always been at odds with the military.

The communication time was nearly two minutes.

Two minutes.

If it was an accidental touch during the fall, the Elder of the Council of Elders would have no reason to communicate with an empty other side, wasting these two minutes.

Besides him, who else on this planet could have initiated this communication?

Si Jisheng’s breath hitched for a moment. He closed his eyes tightly, then slowly turned his head to look at the closed shell in the lair.


The Little Mermaid Fell for the Jiaoren

The Little Mermaid Fell for the Jiaoren

小美人鱼跟鲛人好上了
Status: Completed Native Language: Chinese

1 unlock every tuesday and saturday

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[Jiaoren Gong x Merman Shòu]

Deng Xi lives on a planet that is all ocean, with no land.

He is the only merman on the entire planet.

Hugging his big tail and counting the days on his little fingers, the lonely little merman grew up day by day.

One day, he discovered another "merman"!

The other was injured and bleeding nonstop. His face was pale and weak—he looked so, so pitiful!

Deng Xi decided that he had to protect this precious, newfound member of his kind.

However, the other seemed to be a little mute and wouldn't speak to him.

Deng Xi painstakingly nursed the "little mute" back to health, only to discover with a heavy heart that once he was healed, the little mute had disappeared.

The other had left him, and Deng Xi was all alone once more.

A long, long time later, the merman was captured by offworlders who invaded his planet. Star pirates began to live-stream an auction for this merman, the only one of his kind in the entire universe.

Inside a cramped water tank, a chain locked around his neck, the merman huddled pitifully in a small corner.

Factions from all corners of the universe were in a frenzy. Who would win the bid for this new species of celestial beauty? Just as the astronomical deal was about to close—the starship's door was blasted open, and a man with features as sharp and cold as a blade stormed in, brandishing a weapon.

The Imperial Marshal, whose very name struck terror into the hearts of his enemies, apprehended all the star pirates and took the little merman home as a spoil of war.

The man gently and patiently taught the little merman everything about the interstellar age.

The sight of the Marshal's features softening left the entire universe slack-jawed.

·

On the very first day he was brought back, Deng Xi discovered that the Marshal also had a large tail. He thrashed it in delight and threw his arms around him, exclaiming, "Little Mute!"

Deng Xi was overjoyed to have found one of his own kind again, so much so that he failed to notice the man's slightly strange expression.

Si Jisheng held Deng Xi's hand, swimming slowly with him in the pool. Actually, he thought, I'm not one of your kind.

I'm not a merman. I'm a Jiaoren.

The Jiaoren of the East are immensely powerful, every part of their bodies a lethal weapon.

Whereas the mermen of the West are weak and powerless—nothing more than useless beauties.


Tags: Devoted Love, Match Made in Heaven, Interstellar, Adorable Protagonist, Light-hearted

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Jiaoren (鲛人): Mythological creatures from Chinese folklore, often depicted as powerful, warrior-like merfolk whose tears turn into pearls. They are distinct from the typically more gentle Western concept of mermaids/mermen (人鱼, rényú)

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