Chapter 70
The winter rain was relentless, the dampness seeping into the house.
The two branches in other planes were being set up. Shadow Isle, skilled in crafting intricate machinery, had made a batch of excellent nail art brushes. Maureen, having replaced the handles with crystals or rare wood, declared that all qualified enchanted manicurists deserved tools that matched their status, and heavily overcharged the magicians serving the nobles.
The centaurs, hearing about Ning Zhixia’s expansion plans, had finally become useful, making fluorite UV lamps for the branches.
Qu Banqing had returned to Shadow Isle to help, and the house was unusually quiet, only the sound of rain against the window.
Ning Zhixia turned on the floor heating, and both he and the cats relaxed, the kittens sprawled out on their backs, and he happily read comics, sipping his ice-cold cola.
“Not busy today?”
The beanbag chair beside him dipped as Audrow sat down, his arm around Ning Zhixia’s waist, casually picking up a comic book.
“Yeah, taking a day off.” Ning Zhixia mumbled, then glanced at the cover of the comic Audrow had chosen—My Days as a Merman’s Plaything
Gah!
Ning Zhixia’s heart skipped a beat, and as Audrow turned the first page, he snatched the book away.
Audrow narrowed his eyes, a look of displeasure on his face.
Ning Zhixia ignored him and shooed him away, “Go watch cartoons in the living room, this isn’t your study material!”
Audrow refused to budge: “I’m bored, I don’t want to watch cartoons.”
Ning Zhixia, remembering his recent “overcooking,” muttered, “You can’t read comics anyway.”
Audrow paused, then said, “Fine.”
So agreeable, what was he up to?
Ning Zhixia was suspicious, closed the book, and looked at him.
Audrow raised an eyebrow: “Reading is boring, want to visit my plane?”
Ning Zhixia frowned, as if considering it.
Audrow sweetened the deal: “It’s not cold, and there are pink dolphins.”
What? Pink ones?!
Ning Zhixia immediately raised his hand: “Me, me, me! I want to go!”
Ning Zhixia hadn’t been to that mysterious sea since his sleepwalking incident, and as Audrow took him there again, he couldn’t help but gasp.
Unlike the dark and terrifying stormy night in his memory, the sea surface under the warm sunlight was a soft, light blue, the waves calm.
The distant coastline looked slightly damaged, perhaps from a past war, deserted, but a few pink heads poked out of the water, observing them.
An ethereal melody sounded, and the creatures, seemingly having received the merman’s permission, swam closer and circled Ning Zhixia, one cautiously approaching and nudging his arm with its snout.
Ning Zhixia petted its smooth head, and the delighted dolphins, echoing the merman’s song, circled him again, then swam off to chase the fish attracted by the music.
“How did you know they were here?” Ning Zhixia hadn’t expected to see so many pink dolphins at once.
“Not just them, there are also a few whales, but they’re out hunting now.” Audrow explained, “Their duty is to guard the cave, they don’t go far.”
Ning Zhixia was intrigued: “Is it a treasure cave?”
Audrow thought for a moment, then decided to take him there.
His light-colored tail cut through the water. Audrow’s upper body was a perfect inverted triangle, not the bulky kind from the gym, but lean and toned, his movements powerful.
Ning Zhixia rubbed his face, not daring to look at Audrow in his merman form, afraid that a prolonged gaze would trigger the primal fear of being watched by a predator.
As they descended deeper, Audrow, thinking he was afraid, held him closer and started singing softly.
Countless glowing fish gathered around, like stars lighting up the deep sea, and Ning Zhixia, looking up at the mesmerizing scene, gradually relaxed.
Under Audrow’s protection, Ning Zhixia felt no discomfort and was soon led to a hidden cave.
The glowing fish stopped outside, but they no longer needed their light.
A soft blue light filled the cave, and Ning Zhixia, following Audrow’s gaze, his pupils constricting slightly, “What’s that?”
A glowing orb, like a bright lamp, hovered in mid-air, radiating power, its pulsating veins faintly visible up close.
Ning Zhixia stared, mesmerized, a cold, broad chest pressed against his back, and Audrow, his arms around him, said calmly, “My heart.”
“What?!”
Ning Zhixia turned around and pressed his hand against Audrow’s chest, but he couldn’t feel a heartbeat.
Audrow gasped at his touch, twitched his ear fins, grabbed his hand, and gave it a warning nip.
“Wuwuwu…” Ning Zhixia was heartbroken. Even plants had a pulse, but his fish was missing a vital organ. He said angrily, “What happened? Who took your heart?!”
Audrow swayed his tail, then said softly, “I did.”
The unexpected answer stunned Ning Zhixia. His first thought was how painful it must have been, and imagining Xiao Ao enduring such pain, he hugged him tighter, his face tilted upwards as he asked, “Why? Doesn’t the Lord God favor you?”
Audrow seemed to no longer care, spun Ning Zhixia around, his tail creating a trail of bubbles, and recalled a distant memory.
His mother was a powerful mermaid, having won control of the sea in a bloody battle. When she reached mating age, she lured a royal ship with her song and took a handsome prince.
She hadn’t expected the prince to be so compliant, staying on the small island without protest, listening to her sing, basking in the moonlight with her, and soon, she laid an egg.
The little merman that hatched was as delicate as a doll, lying in his clam shell cradle, swaying with the waves, occasionally blowing bubbles at his parents, sometimes ignoring them, leaving his cradle and mimicking his mother, his short tail wiggling as he practiced swimming in the shallows.
The mermaid, afraid her lover would be bored, brought him various treasures, even his favorite painting materials.
As painting after painting was completed, the little merman also mastered this human form of entertainment.
Until one day, the prince refused the food she offered, his expression increasingly melancholic.
“Do you want to go back?”
“Yes, I want to see my father.”
“Will you return?”
“Of course.”
The mermaid disappeared for a day and a night, and when the sun rose again, she had the waves bring a ship laden with gold and silver to the shore.
“Thank you.” The prince, overjoyed, hugged her, kissed her silver-gray hair, and sailed away.
The little merman then had a new routine, accompanying his mother to a reef forest and gazing at the distant royal city.
After a long time, the bells of the land announced the coronation of a new king and his marriage to a princess from a neighboring kingdom.
The long-gone man returned with a fleet of warships, intending to plunder the sea’s treasures and capture the mermaid who loved him.
“You lied to me, human!”
Furious waves surged, towering over the warships, which were shattered before they could even fire their cannons. The mermaid caught her prey, her arms around the screaming man as they sank into the crimson water.
The mermaid didn’t regret loving a human, she only regretted not following her instincts and keeping him prisoner forever.
None of the elite navy survived. The mermaid’s power threatened the land’s royalty, and a long and bloody war began, countless lives lost on both sides.
The little merman was also forced to join the war, and on the day he came of age, he saw the ravaged land, the cries of the commoners more despairing than any storm.
The endless tsunamis and destruction plunged the world into darkness and fear, and he hesitated, returning to the deep sea to find his mother, now consumed by madness, and said calmly, “Stop.”
The mermaid refused. She hated all beings and civilizations of the land, believing they were the reason for her lover’s departure.
Audrow resurfaced, the dolphins and whales that had followed him now shattered corpses floating around him. He looked at his webbed hands, his sharp nails stained with blood and gore.
He was tired, he wanted to end this, so he challenged his mother for control of the sea.
It was a fierce and brutal battle, ending with him piercing her chest.
“Audrow, a human’s love fades quickly, if you ever find it, hold onto it tightly!”
The mermaid, after her final warning, embraced the skeleton and sank into the depths of the clam shell, becoming a lonely tomb.
Audrow, as if having lost his last connection to this world, wandered the ocean alone.
A merman’s heart was like ice, it didn’t beat, but because of his human blood, he had a heartbeat, as if to prove that he was different from his mother.
He removed his heart, maintaining the collapsing plane, his chest a gaping wound as he lay on the reef, his mind filled with the image of his mother, holding the skeleton and weeping in despair.
A large, golden hand reached down from the sky, and Audrow opened his heavy eyelids, hearing a gentle, kind voice, asking if he wanted to leave.
Audrow, feeling tired, nodded slightly and closed his eyes again.
“Waaah… wuwuwu…”
The crying grew louder, and Audrow’s eyes flickered in surprise. He tilted the young man’s chin up and kissed his reddened eyes: “Don’t cry.”
“I, I don’t want to cry either, but I can’t stop…”
Ning Zhixia sobbed, unable to imagine such loneliness, and nuzzled Audrow’s empty chest gently, “It must have hurt so much.”
“Maybe, I don’t remember.” Audrow’s light voice seemed indifferent to the past.
The large hands, capable of tearing apart ships, were now gentle, soothingly stroking the young man’s back.
Water flowed past, and Ning Zhixia heard Audrow’s voice beside his ear, “If it were you, would you be willing to live in the sea with a merman forever?”
“No.”
The decisive answer made Audrow’s lazily swaying tail freeze.
Ning Zhixia stroked his chin and pondered, “Just eating seafood isn’t enough, and I’ll get rheumatism from being in the water all the time, my knees will hurt when I’m old.”
“You… have a point.” Audrow’s voice was unusually hoarse, his chest aching even without a heart. It felt terrible.
But then he heard Ning Zhixia continue, “So I should build a big house by the sea, with a flower garden and a large pool to keep you in!”
“Keep me?”
Audrow blinked, his tail swaying again.
“Yes, what’s so difficult about keeping a merman?”
Ning Zhixia took his hand and said happily, “Then we can go to the sea once a week, go fishing when the weather is nice, and bask in the sun on the beach!”
Although it was just a hypothetical scenario, Ning Zhixia’s imagination ran wild.
As if infected by the young man’s sweet smile, the dark thoughts in Audrow’s mind dissipated, and he stared at him silently, then chuckled softly, “Okay.”
The lord of the sea swayed his beautiful, long tail, circled Ning Zhixia, his translucent fin brushing against his legs, then pulled him close and swam towards the surface.
The setting sun cast a warm glow on the horizon, even the seawater seemed warmer.
Ning Zhixia emerged from the water, closed his eyes, shook his head, and sat on the beach with Audrow, their heads together, letting the golden waves wash over them.
“Xiao Ao, your tail is so long!” The water, reaching only his waist, was crystal clear, and Ning Zhixia, looking at the fishtail beneath the surface, couldn’t help but exclaim.
“Yes, I’m very long.”
Audrow, drowsy from the warmth, opened his eyes and flicked his tail, pushing the waves back, sending droplets of water scattering like pearls.
A merman’s scales had to be meticulously cared for, they were armor against enemies and a weapon for attracting mates.
Ning Zhixia, like a country bumpkin, exclaimed repeatedly, carefully touching the jewel-like scales.
Whose pretty little fish was this? Ha ha, Ning Zhixia’s, of course!
The scale he had plucked and given away had grown back, only slightly lighter in color than the others.
“Don’t pull them out again, it hurts!”
Audrow tilted his head and agreed, then suddenly said, “A kiss will make it better.”
“In your dreams.”
Ning Zhixia knew what he was up to, his ears turning red as he avoided Audrow’s gaze, his fingers idly tracing the scales.
His fingertip accidentally slipped into a noticeable gap between two scales, and the swaying tail instantly tensed.
Ning Zhixia paused, looked down, and made a curious sound, reaching out to touch it again, but his wrist was caught.
“Don’t.”
Audrow smiled slightly, pulled his hand closer, and nudged his palm suggestively, “You’ve seen it before.”
Ning Zhixia blinked, realizing what it was: “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
But it was too late. Ning Zhixia was pulled towards the familiar reef, the waves tossing them around, their lips brushing against each other.
The cool, spiral scales grazed his thighs, and Audrow’s expression was calm, but his movements became more urgent. Ning Zhixia gasped as he was pulled closer, clinging to his only support, the lone boat in this vast sea.
…
Waves crashed against the reef, neither of them able to stop.
Unfamiliar words, like a soft chant, whispered in his ear, and Ning Zhixia shivered, tightening his grip on Audrow’s arm, asking what he was saying.
Audrow’s light-colored eyes were filled with emotion. He didn’t reply, only chuckled softly and kissed his glistening lips.
He had wondered, if Ning Zhixia had firmly refused without any further explanation, if he would have kept him trapped in this world, alone with him.
Audrow thought, probably not.
The merman’s soft moans were carried by the wind to an unnamed grave in the distance, and the entire sea heard his vow-like reply—
I crave your love more than I crave you.
