The Little Mermaid Fell for the Jiaoren 24p1

Chapter 24 p1: Auction

The impact on the shell, though lessened by the water, was still distinctly felt. The sleeping Deng Xi dreamt that the little mute had caught a hundred fish for him and had even said that even after giving them to him, the deal was not over.

The little merman happily ate the fish.

Suddenly, the ocean trembled, and a tsunami instantly rose, crashing down with overwhelming force. The fish in Deng Xi’s mouth, which should have been dead, came back to life, frantically flapping its tail, which was nothing but bones.

His food leaped from his mouth into the bottomless sea, then suddenly leaped out of the water. The fish bones grew larger and larger before his eyes, its gaping, bloody maw charging straight at Deng Xi along with the rushing tsunami.

“Don’t eat me!”

Deng Xi woke up with a start, propping himself up.

With a “thump,” because he had gotten up too suddenly, his head hit the shell. Deng Xi clutched his forehead and sat there blankly for a while, in pain, as the after-effects of the nightmare, which had abruptly turned from a sweet dream, slowly faded.

Deng Xi breathed a sigh of relief in lingering fear, rubbed his head, and, afraid of waking the sleeping silver-tail, he gently opened the shell. The first thing he saw was the empty seaweed bed on the opposite shell.

In the past, the little mute had also woken up earlier than him. Usually, at this time, the silver-tail would be sitting at the entrance of the lair, quietly waiting for him to wake up.

Deng Xi skillfully shifted his gaze to the entrance. “Good morning, Little Mute! I just had a very, very scary nightmare—”

The entrance of the lair was empty.

Deng Xi tilted his head in confusion. “Little Mute?”

Deng Xi looked left and right, scanning the entire cave, but he didn’t see the familiar bright silver. He instantly swam out of the shell in a panic.

He didn’t know if the little mute’s illness had gotten better. If he went out by himself, he might not even be able to find his way back home.

It wasn’t until he had swum out of the shell that Deng Xi noticed something was wrong. His nose twitched slightly as he sniffed the scent in the seawater. He seemed to smell a faint scent of blood.

But he was fine, not injured.

Was it the little mute’s blood?

Deng Xi’s heart suddenly clenched. He closed his eyes and carefully tried to distinguish where the scent of blood in the seawater was coming from. Because it had been diluted by the ocean, the smell of blood was very faint.

But the merman’s keen senses allowed Deng Xi to swim slowly. He placed his hand on his shell, and then with a “click,” he pressed down hard.

Deng Xi opened his eyes. Before him was a large patch of bloodstains. The back of the rose-red shell was covered in solidified, mottled bloodstains. His blue eyes shrank in horror, and his trembling fingertips gently wiped it, instantly covering his hand in blood.

Many fantasies flashed through his mind. The first thing he thought of was that, just like last time, because he hadn’t closed the shell, the native sea snakes in the abyss had smelled him, and he had been dragged away as a food reserve.

Could it be that, just like him, an unknown sea creature had secretly swum in and, taking advantage of the silver-tail’s illness, had dragged his little mute away?

But he hadn’t heard anything.

The sound of fighting, the sound of injury, the sound of the little mute being dragged away.

Was he sleeping too soundly?

The bruise on his head from hitting the shell suddenly became extremely painful. It hurt so much that Deng Xi couldn’t breathe, couldn’t move his gills. He thought, almost suffocating, how could he have not heard anything?

With a flick of his blue tail fin, Deng Xi swam out of the cave, following the lingering scent of blood in the seawater. There’s still time, there must still be time.

The little mute had found him that day.

This time, he could also find the little mute.

Just wait for him a little longer.

Deng Xi didn’t swim fast, because the scent of blood in the seawater was simply too faint. He had to distinguish it very, very carefully.

He swam past patch after patch of sea, through countless coral reefs, until he broke through the water. The golden-haired, blue-tailed little merman froze on the surface of the sea, looking blankly at the behemoth in the distance.

What was that?

In the distance, a large black object, bigger than a whale, was floating on the sea. It was motionless, and there seemed to be several black figures climbing on it.

They had no tails. From the waist down, they were split in two, but their movements were strangely agile. After climbing onto the large black thing, they bent down and dragged something out of the sea.

It was a large net, denser than tangled seaweed.

The first thing to be pulled out of the sea was a familiar flash of silver.

The unconscious silver Jiaoren was motionless, covered in a giant net. Blood dripped down the net, drop by drop, cruelly dyeing the seawater below red.

Deng Xi’s eyes widened.

It was the missing little mute.

His little mute had been captured.

Deng Xi had never swum so fast. With the flick of his blue tail, he swam swiftly towards the black behemoth. Every time, every single time, Deng Xi had rushed towards the little mute who was in danger like this.

Don’t hurt my little mute.

Don’t take my little mute away.

A merman’s tail was not that long. No matter how hard Deng Xi swam, he still couldn’t catch up to the speed of the black behemoth. He could only watch helplessly as the distance between himself and the silver-tail grew larger and larger.

Until that speck of silver shrank to a dot and was pulled into the black behemoth.

Deng Xi didn’t know who they were, nor did he know what that thing was. He knew nothing, but he knew that if he didn’t catch up today, he might never see his little mute again.

The silver-tail would very likely be tortured by them and die alone in a corner. His bones might not even return to the sea.

That was too pitiful.

Don’t go.

Wait for him a little longer.

He would swim there very, very quickly.

Deng Xi passed through countless turbulent currents, and his stamina quickly began to be overdrawn. His tail began to ache, and every flap of his gills was exhausting, but he didn’t give up. His blue eyes were filled with tears, which flowed down from the corners of his eyes, drop by drop, wetting his cheeks along with the seawater.

This time, the merman crying on the surface of the sea, his tears were finally not covered by the seawater. But the terrifyingly large ocean was left with only Deng Xi himself.

Still, no one could see him crying.

Almost there, just a little further.

A ray of hope burst forth in Deng Xi’s blue eyes.

After thousands of years of updates and upgrades, the speed of an interstellar cruise ship was already immeasurable. But Deng Xi was still about to catch up. He was within reach, and he waved his tail fin.

But the interstellar cruise ship had already reached its designated destination. Its speed increased again, creating a long distance between it and the little tail that was chasing relentlessly behind.

“Wind speed and direction suitable—”

“Speed has reached maximum—”

“Fuel is being prepared—”

“Countdown—”

The adjutant quickly gave an order, “Launch.”

Besides being able to travel on the sea, an interstellar cruise ship could also directly change its form, returning to a warship cabin mode, and rely on the impact of the fuel to leave the atmosphere, rush out of the planet, and dock with the starship waiting in space.

The tranquilizer might not be effective on the Marshal for long. Only the specially equipped treatment pod on the starship could soothe the Marshal’s rampaging mental power. Even though the adjutant was nervous that the Marshal would lose control and cause the entire cruise ship to be annihilated, he was still calm and unhurried, handling the entire process with exceptional skill, because he couldn’t remember how many times he had dealt with such emergencies.

The countdown ended.

The warship cabin was launched from the surface of the sea in an instant.

The hope that had been within reach was completely shattered.

Deng Xi watched as the black behemoth suddenly accelerated, taking the little mute further and further away from him. Suddenly, just like in his nightmare, the entire ocean trembled, and a huge tsunami rose.

The black behemoth was like the fish bones in Deng Xi’s dream. It opened its bloody maw and swallowed his little mute, then flew into the sky in an instant.

The little merman looked up blankly, at a loss. He couldn’t help but wonder if his dream had not yet ended. Otherwise, how could he see so many strange and bizarre scenes? The little mute who had been captured might be just outside his sleeping shell, obediently waiting for him to wake up.

It must all be fake.

His little mute had not been taken away.

Deng Xi closed his eyes, and tears rolled down from his eyelids. He carefully opened them again.

Nothing had changed.

Before him was still the empty ocean and the sky that he could never touch.

The sky was so high, so vast.

No matter how Deng Xi flicked his tail fin and leaped out of the sea, he would never be able to fly up from the surface.

He was just a little merman who knew nothing, understood nothing. No matter how high Deng Xi leaped, he could only crash back into the sea, the pain intensifying each time.

Deng Xi didn’t know.

The distance between him and the silver-tail was the distance of two eras. The backward, primitive blue planet had nothing but a vast ocean for Deng Xi to play in. But the vast, boundless starry sky was a world Deng Xi had never set foot in, a world with high technology that he could never understand.

He could only gaze helplessly at the vast blue sky.

He had never been more clearly aware that he might never see his only kinsman again.

The ocean was once again left with only him, a little merman.

No one would ever listen to him attentively, accompany him to sleep, swim with him in the sea, and eat happily every day.

No more.

Deng Xi finally couldn’t help but scrunch up his little face. He looked up, suppressing all his sobs in his throat. Tears flowed down from the corners of his eyes, wetting his already damp golden hair, and then silently fell into the sea.

The chattering little merman suddenly became as quiet as the sea, even in his sadness, because there was no one left to listen.

So tired.

The after-effects of his overexertion enveloped Deng Xi like a nightmare. He was dragged into the sea by the nightmare, closed his eyes, and sank deeper and deeper, until he was on the seabed, thousands of meters below.

Deng Xi hugged his big tail and curled up into a small ball, motionless for a long, long time.

It wasn’t until night fell on the sea and the ocean was plunged into darkness again.

The curled-up blue tail finally moved slightly. Deng Xi, who had cried himself tired, stiffly propped himself up, looked around, and rubbed his eyes.

Deng Xi didn’t know where he had swum. After realizing that the seabed he was in was a completely unfamiliar sea area, he knew that he might not even be able to find his way back to the lair tonight.

And there was no more silver to guide him on the seabed.

Deng Xi swam around blankly for a bit, then gave up and closed his eyes on the seabed. A merman’s cry sounded without warning, and a low, soft sound wave spread out from the sea area. The special merman’s low call could only be heard by specific species.

Deng Xi’s call successfully passed through the blue whale’s fat layer and into its middle ear.

The blue whale’s response soon sounded.

Following the direction, it found Deng Xi, who was staring blankly at the seabed.