The Little Mermaid Fell for the Jiaoren 16

Chapter 16: Not Over

Si Jisheng opened the communication interface with his adjutant, typed a line of text, and sent it, “Investigate whether the Council of Elders has researched my identity.”

Sent successfully.

Si Jisheng did not close the comm. He sat at the entrance of the dim lair, staring at the communication record for a long time. It wasn’t until the sky was bright that he swam into the lair. He glanced at the sea snake carcasses that had been tied up with seaweed and placed at the entrance, then paused again.

The silver-tail extended his claws and silently cut off the venomous fangs from each sea snake’s head. After meticulously processing them, he threw the fangs into a corner outside the lair that was not easily accessible, then lay down on the seaweed in the corner and closed his eyes to rest.

The lair remained quiet until almost noon before there was any movement. The shell was slightly lifted, creating a crack. The fluorescent jellyfish, which were very fond of Deng Xi, immediately squeezed in and flickered inside the dark shell.

The drowsy Deng Xi was pricked by the light and closed his eyes, rubbing them. He couldn’t help but laugh as the jellyfish’s tentacles brushed against him.

In the quiet lair, Deng Xi’s light laughter was exceptionally clear. He was startled and immediately clamped his mouth shut. He cautiously lifted the shell and glanced at the seaweed in the corner.

The silver-tail was sleeping soundly on it.

Deng Xi breathed a sigh of relief, placed his index finger to his lips, and made a small “shh” sound to the fluorescent jellyfish, mouthing, “Don’t wake Little Mute up.”

The fluorescent jellyfish seemed to understand, bobbing up and down in the water, no longer tickling Deng Xi with its tentacles.

Deng Xi was a little hungry.

He swam out of the shell and picked up the sea snake carcasses that were tied up with seaweed. He recalled how the little mute had processed the sea snakes before eating.

Deng Xi was about to use a sharp shell to cut open the snake skin and peel off the inedible parts when he saw a snake head with its mouth wide open.

The venomous fangs in the snake’s head were gone.

Deng Xi was stunned. They were there yesterday.

They had brought back a total of five sea snakes yesterday. Deng Xi checked them one by one, and every single sea snake’s fangs had been completely removed.

Deng Xi swore that he had slept in the shell from the time he came back yesterday until now. It wasn’t him, so it could only be—he glanced at the silver-tail on the seaweed.

It was the little mute.

Deng Xi then remembered the snake from before, which was alive but had its fangs removed. He blinked blankly, suddenly realizing something.

So all that food from before was actually found by the little mute?! And he had been taking that food back every day to show off to the little mute, saying that he had caught it all himself!

Deng Xi’s face instantly flushed hot, the pink blush spreading all the way to the corners of his eyes. He buried his face in his hands, wishing he could find a crack to crawl into.

The little mute had been able to survive in the ocean without inheriting the merman’s song. Although he couldn’t deal with large fish, he was definitely much stronger than him. Catching some small fish and shrimp was certainly not a problem.

He was so useless.

Deng Xi thought with a bit of loneliness.

The little mute could have caught fish without him. And now his injuries were healed, he could speak, and he had even learned the merman’s song.

The little mute no longer needed his protection.

On the contrary, it was he who truly needed the protection of his kinsman. The food was found by the little mute, the new lair was also found by the little mute, and when he was caught by the sea snakes, it was the little mute who had saved him.

Only Deng Xi truly needed the protection of his kinsman.

Would their agreement be voided?

Would the little mute leave him?

No!

Deng Xi pressed his lips together tightly. The little mute had already promised to stay; he couldn’t go back on his word.

After a while, Deng Xi lifted his face and comforted himself. These were all just his guesses. What if, what if it wasn’t the little mute who had caught them?

Deng Xi took a deep breath, no longer in the mood to eat.

He nibbled on some edible seaweed and quietly waited for the silver-tail to wake up.

Deng Xi didn’t have to wait long. Si Jisheng controlled his sleep time to within six hours every day. He had fallen asleep in the morning, and by noon, it was time to wake up.

After waking up, it was naturally lunchtime.

Si Jisheng glanced at the blue Jiaoren sitting at the entrance of the lair, head down, picking at his hands, his tail fin swaying unconsciously. He was exceptionally quiet today.

Si Jisheng also silently processed yesterday’s sea snakes, sat at the entrance of the cave, and handed the sliced snake meat, wrapped in seaweed that could remove the fishy smell, to Deng Xi.

Deng Xi quietly took it.

This was the quietest and most oppressive lunch they had had since they met.

They were both thinking the same thing.

There was something to talk about after they finished eating.

After lunch, Si Jisheng threw the remaining bones and snake skin out of the lair. When he came back, he didn’t swim to Deng Xi’s side to sit down, but swam in front of him. His silver tail drooped, floating in the water, as he faced Deng Xi, who was sitting at the entrance of the lair.

He clearly had something to say.

He’s not here to discuss leaving, is he?!

Deng Xi curled his palms, looked up at the silver-tail, then suddenly closed his eyes tightly and braced himself to refuse, “No!”

“I don’t agree!”

A long silence.

Deng Xi pricked up his ears to listen, then cautiously opened his blue eyes. Before him was a large, open palm, and on it was a familiar black iron ring.

Deng Xi’s pupils widened slightly. He was stunned, staring blankly at the silver-tail who had tilted his head in confusion.

“I-I thought you wanted to…” Deng Xi trailed off, his head drooping dejectedly. “I’m sorry.”

Si Jisheng pursed his lips, his expression blank. He stubbornly lifted the ring in his palm, presenting it before Deng Xi’s face.

Explain.

Deng Xi didn’t understand. He tilted his head. “What’s wrong?”

He took the black iron ring from the silver-tail’s hand and randomly poked it with his fingertip. “I remember I threw it away… I think I threw it in the sharks’ territory. How did it end up in your hands, Little Mute?”

Si Jisheng’s silver eyes narrowed slightly, and the fingertips of his withdrawn hand tensed.

Deng Xi poked for a long time before he hit the right spot, and the familiar blue screen reappeared before his eyes.

He acted as if he had no idea what it was. As a blue Jiaoren who was born and raised on this primitive, backward planet with no technological elements, this was a perfectly normal reaction.

Si Jisheng’s tense fingertips relaxed.

Deng Xi curiously poked the blue screen. “How did you find it? I thought it was broken because it wouldn’t light up, so I threw it away.”

After being poked, Deng Xi didn’t know what he had touched, but the interface suddenly changed.

“This can change too, it’s so magical.”

Deng Xi thought of that extremely ugly human from that day, then looked up at Si Jisheng again and said seriously, “But there’s a bad guy in here!”

“That big bad guy is very, very ugly, and he said some strange things. He’s stupid.”

Si Jisheng’s silver eyes curved slightly, a faint smile appearing in them. He nodded to show that he understood, then reached out and took the black iron ring, turning off the blue screen.

Deng Xi stared blankly at the little mute’s skilled operation. He belatedly realized that he seemed to have found this ring in the sea area where the little mute had fallen.

So…

“Is this Little Mute’s thing?”

Si Jisheng nodded slightly, transformed the ring into a finger ring, and slipped it seamlessly onto his thumb knuckle. To Deng Xi’s surprise, he didn’t know where he had touched it, but the black of the ring instantly disappeared, becoming transparent.

It was completely invisible to the naked eye.

Deng Xi poked the silver-tail’s knuckle with his fingertip and only then felt the presence of the ring. “So amazing. What is this? Why don’t I have one?”

They were both mermen, both hatched and raised on this planet. Why did the little mute have one and he didn’t?

Deng Xi was confused.

Si Jisheng’s language system had not fully recovered, so he couldn’t explain. He silently shook his head.

Deng Xi’s curiosity faded quickly. He nodded, then suddenly got up and swam into the lair, took out the remaining sea snakes, and asked with blinking blue eyes, “Did Little Mute pull out their fangs?”

Si Jisheng nodded in admission.

Deng Xi’s heart skipped a beat. He held his breath and asked nervously, “Then… before we moved, did you catch all that food?”

“Actually, in the deal we made, you already caught those hundred fish for me, right?”

So, the deal is over, right?

Deng Xi asked silently in his heart.

Si Jisheng was silent for a long time. He lowered his silver eyes and quietly looked at the blue Jiaoren, who looked so fragile he was about to cry. He thought of the adjutant, who, after receiving the audio, had asked when he could be picked up and brought back to the Imperial Capital, so that the Marshal of the Empire could appear before the public in a dignified manner and give everyone an explanation for the war.

This deal would end sooner or later.

This was a good opportunity.

Deng Xi looked up. The silver-tail’s silence made his heart pound even more. He couldn’t help but drop the sea snake and grab the silver-tail’s cold forearm, which was particularly cold due to his low body temperature. He took a deep breath, and his eyes curved into a smile again. “It’s okay, Little Mute, just say it.”

He was clearly smiling, but the corners of his eyes were flushed red, as if he were about to cry. What did it feel like for a fish to cry in the water? Their tears would disappear into the sea, and no one would see them.

This meant that only the fish itself knew that it was sad, heartbroken, and reluctant.

The trembling of Si Jisheng’s translucent silver gills slowly subsided. He parted his lips slightly, and for the first time without listening to the conch shell, he slowly made a sound, “…”

Meaningless, jumbled syllables.

A sentence that no one could understand.

Deng Xi blinked his blank blue eyes.

Si Jisheng raised his fingertips, leaned over, and very, very lightly wiped Deng Xi’s eyelid. His throat rolled, and as his vocal cords vibrated, the syllables he uttered were extremely hoarse. He said with difficulty, word by word, “No… it… wasn’t.”

It wasn’t me who caught them.

So, the deal is not over.

Deng Xi was slightly stunned, then broke into a smile through his tears. His blue eyes curved slightly. “Little Mute won’t lie to me, right?”

Si Jisheng’s chest heaved heavily once, and he nodded very slightly.

Deng Xi’s smile widened, and a soft dimple appeared at the corner of his lips. “Little Mute, shall we go find a shell that you can sleep in too?”

Si Jisheng closed his eyes and nodded.

Si Jisheng’s tail alone was nearly two meters long. Finding a shell that was nearly three or four meters large was almost impossible.

Even the shell Deng Xi usually slept in was only nearly two meters long, and he had searched for a long, long time to find it. He could barely curl his tail inside.

The largest shells in the deep sea were generally at their limit at two meters long. This type of bivalve was called a giant clam, and they were generally distributed in shallower coral reef areas.

Deng Xi was clearly very experienced. He didn’t lead the silver-tail to search in the coral reef areas on the underwater cliff, but first swam to the surface. He swam around this sea area under the surface, getting a general idea of where the coral reefs were distributed, before preparing to search one by one.

They were very lucky. In the first withered coral reef area, they found a giant clam, but it was only a little over a meter long, far too small.

Si Jisheng didn’t mind. His silver tail could rest outside the shell. It didn’t matter if the shell lid could close or not.

But Deng Xi disagreed. “Little Mute has to sleep for a long, long time. You can’t sleep uncomfortably like this.”

In the second coral reef area, there was also a giant clam. The length was very suitable, over two meters long. When Si Jisheng lay inside, only his tail fin would rest outside.

Deng Xi was very satisfied.

But Si Jisheng stopped him, looking at the giant clam with its extremely colorful mantle with a complicated expression.

The shell was pink, and the part near the opening was a very deep peacock blue. When the giant clam breathed, opening and closing, the colors inside were even richer.

For the beautiful, bright silver tail, it was simply a nightmare.

Deng Xi loved colorful, shiny things. He blinked his eyes in amazement. “So beautiful. Little Mute, shall we move it home?”

Si Jisheng shook his head.

Deng Xi touched the large shell with some regret, but didn’t ask any more questions. “Alright, then let’s go to the next reef area.”

The subsequent giant clams were either too small or too colorful. Deng Xi and the silver-tail searched for a whole day but couldn’t find a suitable large shell. Instead, Deng Xi himself was exhausted. He was determined to end today’s conversation on a perfect note.

But it seemed he couldn’t do it.

Deng Xi lowered his eyelids in disappointment and accepted the dinner handed over by the silver-tail. It was thinly sliced fish meat. He didn’t eat it. He frowned and thought for a moment, then his eyes lit up. “Little Mute, why don’t you sleep in my shell?”

Si Jisheng’s fingertips, which were processing the fish meat, paused slightly, and he shook his head.

Deng Xi ate the fish meat. Because it was so delicious, his eyes curved into a smile. “It’s okay. If we can’t find a suitable one, I’ll just give you mine. We can just find a new one for me.”

Si Jisheng didn’t need Deng Xi’s compromise, but in the end, he still nodded in agreement.

They moved the colorful giant clam from the second coral reef area to a reef on the surface of the sea, preparing to let it die naturally in the sea breeze.

Before the new shell was ready, Deng Xi still slept in his old one. The night would slowly pass, and tomorrow would be a new day.

At night, Si Jisheng dealt with the government affairs that had been out of his hands for nearly a month and required his personal decision. At this time, the adjutant sent another communication request.

After answering, the adjutant’s grave face immediately appeared on the blue screen. “Marshal, we found it.”

Si Jisheng’s movements paused slightly. He glanced at the entrance of the lair without changing his expression and made a gesture to wait.

Si Jisheng temporarily cut off the communication, swam to the entrance of the lair, and checked if Deng Xi’s shell was closed tightly before swimming away from the lair and to the surface of the sea, resuming the communication.

The audio statement released today had achieved very good results. The public’s emotions had calmed down a bit, but a louder cry had emerged. They wanted to see the Marshal of their Empire in person.

After a brief report, the adjutant asked, “Marshal, when will you return to the capital star? The military has confirmed that the Council of Elders interfered in our war with the Federation.”

Si Jisheng’s breath hitched. Without warning, the list of over a hundred thousand martyrs flashed through his mind. A long-suppressed anger surged in his heart, and his silver, slitted pupils narrowed without warning. He suppressed his emotions and gestured to continue the report.

“The Elder seems to already know that you are not human. The military is urgently investigating who leaked the information, but it’s also very likely that the secret experimental data from the research institute was stolen.” The adjutant’s eyes were also filled with suppressed anger. Thinking of the data he had found today, even in front of the Marshal, he couldn’t maintain his composure and cursed, “We suspect that it’s that group of old fogies from the Council of Elders who colluded with that group of lackeys from the research institute.”

The only people who knew that Si Jisheng was not human, besides his few confidants in the military, were a few high-level researchers at the research institute who had been studying the Marshal’s genes.

“Marshal, this war was not your fault. It was a setup against you! I know you’ve taken all the responsibility for your Jiaoren transformation on the battlefield, but your transformation was very likely designed by the Council of Elders.” The adjutant pleaded, “You can’t let the brothers who followed you die in vain. The investigation team has been working day and night for months just to recover the black box data from your warship.”

“But the Council of Elders and the royal family are watching. If you don’t come back, as soon as the black box is stolen, you and those hundreds of thousands of people will be wrongly accused and die!”

Si Jisheng’s expression was cold, and he said nothing.

Even the adjutant didn’t know what Si Jisheng was thinking. He ran his hands through his hair in frustration, his eyes bloodshot. “Marshal, please make a decision.”

This was a fact that both the adjutant and Si Jisheng knew.

The power of his Jiaoren form had brought the Marshal to his high position today. At the same time, this identity was also like a sword of Damocles hanging over the Marshal’s head at all times.

Not to mention, the side effects of the Jiaoren transformation were extremely dangerous.

Over the years, the Marshal had been very good at controlling the side effects and had even secretly cooperated with a few researchers from the research institute in an attempt to eliminate them. The adjutant was also one of the personnel who knew about this experiment.

When did the Council of Elders find out about the Marshal’s identity? And did they induce the Marshal’s Jiaoren transformation on the battlefield? The damaged black box was the Pandora’s box that held the answers to these questions. Once opened, they would know if there was any conclusive evidence inside.

If it was stolen, even if the data inside was recovered, it could be arbitrarily tampered with by the Council of Elders.

Si Jisheng rubbed the conch shell he had just brought out of the lair. He relied on the slightly rough texture to keep himself calm and his thoughts clear. After a long while, he shared his interstellar coordinates with the adjutant.

The adjutant’s expression was instantly invigorated. “The military will immediately dispatch a starship in secret.”

Si Jisheng typed a line of text, “No, don’t alert the enemy. First, create the public opinion that my injuries are severe. Before you send the starship, I want you to investigate something.”

“Did the research institute ever steal my genes and conduct human experiments before?”