Chapter 62: Arrangement
The little merman, who was dying of shame, stayed far away from the silver-tail. Often, the silver tail fin would sway several times before the blue fish tail would slowly follow. After swimming for half a day, he was still near the shell bed.
Si Jisheng would stop to wait for him from time to time. When he had waited for a long time, he would turn back and look at the dawdling Deng Xi from afar.
Only then would Deng Xi swim a long distance.
But when the silver-tail turned back again, the little merman would revert to his old ways. After a few times, more than ten minutes had passed, and they were still on the seabed.
Deng Xi hugged his big tail and stopped behind a reef on the seabed. He spun around in place with his fan-shaped tail fin, then forced himself to calm down, let go of his big tail, and covered his still-hot cheeks with both hands.
He rubbed and rubbed.
He patted and patted.
The little jellyfish that was circling around Deng Xi wrapped its tentacles around the golden hair that was scattered in the seawater. It had been happily playing with the strands of hair, but when it noticed that the little merman, who had not been very smart to begin with, seemed to have become even stupider after their reunion, it slapped itself twice with a “smack, smack.”
The little jellyfish also tentatively patted Deng Xi’s face with its tentacles.
It was the first time Deng Xi had been hit by the little jellyfish’s soft tentacles. He was stunned for a moment before he reacted and lectured it like a little adult, “You can’t hit me.”
After a perfunctory lecture, he continued to wish he could bury himself in the reef.
It was all the humans’ fault. Why did they invent such strange things, and even say, even say that it was some broken balloon.
It was too much. How could they trick a fish!
In their merman species, where cubs were scarce, for the sake of the continuation of the merman species, they would not let go of any chance to give birth to a new merman egg.
A merman egg was so small, so cute. The cub would sway its clumsy tail fin, so well-behaved.
Deng Xi thought for a moment. He admitted that some of the human cubs were indeed not very cute.
He lowered his eyelids. If he and the little mute were not same-sex mermen, then they seemed to be able to have little merman eggs.
Deng Xi pursed his lips, and the tips of his ears unknowingly turned red again. He imagined the scene after he had chosen to be female, and then he imagined if the little mute were female—
The little merman suddenly straightened up and shook his head.
They both seemed very scary.
“What are you thinking about?”
“I’m thinking about what if Little Mute were fem—”
Deng Xi suddenly reacted and forcibly stopped the rest of his words, shaking his head as if to deceive himself. “Nothing!” He belatedly realized that his reaction was too intense and added in a small voice, “I wasn’t thinking about anything.”
The silver-tail indifferently raised his eyes. “You swim first.”
Deng Xi swam in front with his head lowered. Because he wanted to be far away from the silver-tail, he swam much faster than before.
But the swimming speed of a Jiaoren and a merman was still very different.
Si Jisheng easily caught up.
The silver-tail and the blue-tail swam to the shore together. Deng Xi’s mood slowly calmed down with the rhythm of his tail fin’s swaying. The moment he broke through the water, his gills were filled with seawater.
Deng Xi closed his eyes, squeezed the seawater from his eyes, and breathed in hard with his nose, as if thirsty for water. With every breath, a low voice suddenly sounded by his ear.
Si Jisheng said, word by word, “I will not be female.”
His closed blue eyes instantly opened and widened. Deng Xi stammered, “You, you, you—how did you know? I, I didn’t say.”
Si Jisheng narrowed his eyes slightly.
Deng Xi, who had instantly realized that he had been exposed, quickly covered his mouth.
This time, he had said everything.
Deng Xi guiltily looked at the little mute who was swimming to the shore, and was almost too embarrassed to eat dinner with him.
He asked slowly, “Can’t Little Mute choose his own gender?”
The merman species would, on a certain day after their cub period, usher in a critical moment to choose their own gender.
Si Jisheng was slightly stunned and suddenly fell silent.
An atavistic Jiaoren, of course, could not choose. From birth, a human’s gender was already destined.
Deng Xi, who had asked out of curiosity, was already completely attracted by today’s sumptuous dinner. He looked at the raw crab meat that was bigger than his face, and his eyelids curved in pleasant surprise, and also the raw marinated shrimp meat that was as long as his forearm.
Si Jisheng: “Compensation for not being able to play with the ‘balloon’.”
Deng Xi: “I already said not to say it!”
After dinner, Deng Xi transformed into his human form, changed into his whale pajamas himself, and his wet feet left a string of dirty footprints on the smooth floor. He couldn’t wait to “patter, patter” away from the pool.
The silver-tail, who had his back to Deng Xi, only then turned around and put on the combat suit he had taken off.
When he returned to the living room, he saw Deng Xi sitting on the carpet alone, fiddling with the express delivery he had opened today.
He had his back to Si Jisheng. When he heard the footsteps, he only pricked up his ears and did not turn back to look, not even making a sound.
An attitude of refusing to communicate, of “stay away from me.”
He had gone too far with the teasing.
Si Jisheng quietly watched as Deng Xi rearranged the objects he had arranged according to his own ideas.
The neat living room instantly became a mess.
A whale chair as tall as a person was placed by the side of the carpet. There was a soft hole in the center, and it looked as if one would sink into it the moment they sat down.
Another small whale pillow and a pink small jellyfish pillow were piled on the cold, white sofa, adding a touch of liveliness.
The translucent pink vase was filled with a few flowers that Deng Xi had secretly picked from the garden when he had come home today.
His tender fingertips flicked a few drops of water onto the blooming petals, and the green stems seemed to have become tougher in the blink of an eye.
Deng Xi’s eyelids curved happily.
These were all things that were placed on the carpet, things he could reach with a single stretch of his hand. The things that were further away were silently handed over by Si Jisheng.
They were like when they had moved to a new lair in the ocean, cleaning up the moss and dust in the lair. Deng Xi, who had lived in the human world for so long, finally had the energy to arrange their new home with the little mute.
The silver shell was moved by Si Jisheng to the opposite of Deng Xi’s shell bed. The original rose-red giant clam shell was placed in Si Jisheng’s study after it had been dehydrated.
In the spotless, neat study, a touch of abrupt rose-red was added to the white. A dry seaweed bed was placed in the wide-open shell, and a fluffy goose-down carpet was laid out.
Because he had walked too much today, Deng Xi, who had to ride a flying chair instead of walking, happily touched the rose-red shell.
This way, when the little mute was working, he could lie in the shell, play with his comm, and accompany the little mute!
Mmm, when he was playing with his comm, he could also listen to Teacher Xiaomei’s lecture!
Deng Xi had even bought a set of jellyfish pajamas. The graffiti was a tender yellow, like a light bulb, very beautiful.
After he had taken it out, he hesitated for a while, then secretly extended his hand, turned his head to the other side, but his hand handed the pajamas in the opposite direction.
He stammered and awkwardly spat out a word, “Wear.”
At night, when it was time to sleep, Deng Xi did not wait for the little mute. He returned to the bottom of the pool by himself and firmly closed the shell.
Si Jisheng silently transformed into a silver-tail and swam to the side of the silver shell bed. He gently knocked on the top of the shell twice. After a long while, the white shell bed opened a crack, and a few strands of golden hair peeked out.
“Good night.”
He thought that Deng Xi was still angry. He paused for a moment, then continued, “I can buy you the butterfly balloon I bought last time to play with.”
Deng Xi never wanted to hear the word “balloon” again. He covered his ears, and his tail curled up. He let out a muffled “hmm.”
Si Jisheng heard his unhappiness and added, “There are also dolphin balloons.”
Deng Xi said in a small voice, “I want one.”
“Alright.”
“Good night!”
·
The doctor at the treatment center, after finishing her night shift, also returned home with a body full of fatigue. She was the doctor that Dr. Li had instructed to look after the cubs at the rescue station today.
Her surname was Zhang.
Dr. Zhang was specially responsible for looking after the aliens in the rescue station. She sat on the sofa, exhausted, greeted her family, and boredly looked at her comm.
A doctor who had returned home from work was no different from an ordinary person.
Dr. Zhang thought for a moment, then opened the video she had recorded today. She put the comm’s sound into her earphones and quietly watched. The golden-haired youth’s low, soft humming entered her ears.
It didn’t sound that magical.
But she couldn’t help but listen to it the first time, the second time… she didn’t know how many times. Her fatigue seemed to be slowly blown away by the song that she couldn’t understand.
“Cousin?”
Dr. Zhang, who had been immersed in the song, suddenly came back to her senses and looked at her cousin, a girl with a high ponytail, with an earpiece still clipped to her collar, which she had forgotten to take off.
Dr. Zhang pointed at her collar.
The high ponytail finally came to her senses and said with a smile, “I had a few interviews today and was too busy to tidy up. Auntie is calling you to eat.”
Dr. Zhang yawned and put down her comm. “I’ll go and take a hot shower first.”
After her cousin had walked away, the high ponytail curiously picked up Dr. Zhang’s comm. Her cousin’s attitude towards other things was usually very indifferent. Why was she so uncharacteristically staring at her comm as soon as she came back today?
The comm was successfully identified.
The paused video resumed playing.
At first glance, the high ponytail was completely attracted by the golden-haired youth on the blue screen. Even though she was not wearing earphones, in the silence, she could not look away at all.
She subconsciously picked up her cousin’s dropped earphones and put them on anxiously.
What entered her ears was an ethereal, unfamiliar language.
She ran a public account on the star network, with countless fans. She had interviewed celebrities from various galaxies. With the help of the machine translation system, the high ponytail was also familiar with the languages of various galaxies.
But it was obvious that the language spoken by this golden-haired youth did not belong to any interstellar galaxy.
This unfamiliar language seemed to have come from a long-buried, ancient, and mysterious civilization.
Her keen sense of popularity made the high ponytail quickly confirm. She recorded it on her comm, sentence by sentence, and searched the entire star network. After confirming that there was no similar language and that the comm could not translate it, she, as if she had smelled a big news, transferred this video to her own comm.
She then patiently finished watching it.
The sunlight from outside the window shone on the golden-haired youth in the wheelchair. His weak legs hung down quietly, his skin was pale, and his lowered blue eyes were as fragile and clear as crystal.
The ethereal song was constantly soothing the struggling little raccoon in his arms. His exquisite features were always slightly curved.
He would definitely be liked by many people.
