Chapter 75: Mating Season
“The test results are the same as last time.”
The treatment pod stopped running. Dr. Li checked the data. “Your love…” She paused and corrected herself, “Deng Xi’s body is very healthy.”
Deng Xi was wearing a light summer outfit today, with his arms and legs exposed, and his golden hair was loosely tied behind him.
He looked very cool.
A normal person wearing this outfit would usually feel very cold in the treatment center, which was constantly releasing cold air.
But Deng Xi did not feel anything unusual.
Dr. Li was also in a difficult position. “If you’re really not at ease, why don’t we follow the procedure and have Deng Xi do a blood test?”
Deng Xi nervously gripped the corner of the little mute’s clothes. “Will it hurt a lot?”
Si Jisheng replied in a low voice, “No.”
But even if it only hurt a little, for a merman with a fragile constitution, the pain would be magnified.
Deng Xi, who believed the little mute very much, followed him to the blood test area with a peace of mind and extended his hand.
The moment the needle pierced his blood vessel, Deng Xi’s blue eyes immediately filled with tears, and he watched as his blood was slowly drawn into a transparent tube.
He was so scared he didn’t dare to move.
Deng Xi’s vision suddenly went black. A large palm gently covered his eyes. The silent companionship made the fear in his heart slowly fade. With another pang of pain in his hand, the needle was withdrawn, and the light before his eyes reappeared.
The moment Si Jisheng lowered his eyes, he saw a pair of eyes with red-rimmed corners, on the verge of crying but holding back the tears.
Deng Xi sniffled. “It really did hurt.”
Si Jisheng apologetically wiped the tears from Deng Xi’s eyelids with his fingertips. “Let’s stop the bleeding first.”
Si Jisheng bent down and pressed a cotton swab on Deng Xi’s wound. The merman’s fragile constitution made the bleeding stop very slowly. It wasn’t until he had changed to a second cotton swab and pressed for several minutes that the bleeding from the small wound was stopped.
Because of the precedent, Si Jisheng was always very careful.
Although Deng Xi was different from him, he was just as precious. The blood of the last merman in the entire galaxy, it was hard to guarantee that it would not be coveted by someone with ulterior motives.
The blood test department was in the alien branch of the treatment center. Dr. Li had driven away the original doctor on duty and had personally “operated.”
Si Jisheng had personally witnessed this cotton swab being soaked in a hemolytic agent. It wasn’t until the blood was completely dissolved and the potion was poured down the drain, including the syringe and the test tube, which were also destroyed in the same way.
Dr. Li held the small tube of blood and asked very tactfully, “The laboratory is at the end of the corridor. Marshal, are you waiting here, or are you watching from the side?”
Si Jisheng said, “I’ll go in person.”
The process of the test was tedious and boring. Si Jisheng left Deng Xi outside and instructed, “Don’t run around.”
Deng Xi obediently nodded his head. After the little mute had gone in, he looked around, found a chair to sit down, and curiously observed his surroundings.
Most of the people coming and going in the alien branch were also aliens. They would all show varying degrees of bestialization, just like the alien cubs at the rescue station.
Deng Xi could even see an alien with a black and white panda head. The other party seemed to know that he was very scary and was walking with his head down, wearing a large hat and a mask.
That outfit was cool.
There were also many normal aliens like him, who had no bestialized parts. There were many people, coming and going.
Deng Xi leaned back in his chair and picked at his hands out of boredom, like a child waiting for his parents to pick him up after school.
“Click—”
A flash of white light suddenly flashed in the distance, right in front of him. Deng Xi was stunned for a moment, then looked up and saw an alien girl with a camera hanging around her neck, holding her stomach and carefully walking over.
Deng Xi looked at the other party’s flat abdomen and the two rabbit ears that were standing up on her head. It was a bunny girl.
The bunny girl was very enthusiastic. “Excuse me, can I sit next to you?”
Deng Xi nodded his head in a daze.
The bunny girl very politely sat down a seat away from Deng Xi. She excitedly took out her comm and looked at it, then looked at Deng Xi, compared them several times, and then said excitedly, “Are you the person who was on the headlines of the star network yesterday?”
Deng Xi blinked his eyes, not understanding.
The bunny girl saw his confusion and quickly opened her comm’s access rights. A blue screen appeared in the air, and the video playing on it was of Deng Xi, who was sitting in a wheelchair and hugging a little raccoon.
Deng Xi hesitated before nodding again. “That’s me.”
The bunny girl was so happy she was about to jump up, but thinking that she was pregnant, she held it in. She caressed her abdomen. “I thought this video was beautified, but I didn’t expect you to be so good-looking in real life too!” She exclaimed, “The merman species is too magical.”
Deng Xi listened blankly as the bunny girl blurted out one sentence after another. He interrupted her a little embarrassedly, “Um, who are you?”
The bunny girl was at a loss for words for a moment. “I guess I’m your fan? By the way! Can you sign an autograph for me? Your singing is too good, even better than those singers.”
Fan? Autograph?
Deng Xi subconsciously thought of the adjutant’s mate. A fan seemed to mean someone who liked him. But now it was different from the past. He could write his own name, and he could also write the little mute’s name.
He had secretly practiced for a long time!
The little mute had even praised him for writing it beautifully.
Deng Xi’s impression of the bunny girl instantly improved. He was a little at a loss. “Thank you! I’m still not very good at writing my own name. It might not be good-looking.”
The bunny girl quickly said, “It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m very happy that you can sign for me. I know that the planet you used to be on is very far from the Empire, and the civilizations are not interconnected. It’s very normal!”
Those star pirates who captured aliens really deserved to die.
The bunny girl thought of what she had seen on the star network today and gritted her teeth in hatred. A while ago, the news had been suppressed, and not many people had seen the matter of the military using a hundred-billion auction to annihilate an alien gang. It wasn’t until yesterday that the Empire’s official announcement had been released, which had shut the mouths of those netizens.
Especially when everyone had seen the video of the little merman being auctioned and had learned of his terrible experience at that time, they were all heartbroken.
Deng Xi’s eyelids curved, and he asked with novelty, “Then how do I sign for you?”
The bunny girl took out a notebook and a pen from her backpack. Seeing Deng Xi clumsily holding the pen and writing his name, stroke by stroke, neatly, as a mom fan, her heart was about to melt. “Deng… Xi?”
Deng Xi nodded his head. “That’s my name.”
He returned the notebook to the bunny girl.
“Are you here at the treatment center to treat your leg injury?” The bunny girl looked at Deng Xi’s legs and asked worriedly.
Deng Xi explained, “No, I’m not injured. I was just too tired at that time, so I was resting in a wheelchair.”
The bunny girl was relieved. She touched her stomach. “I’m here for a pregnancy check-up. I just had my blood drawn.”
Deng Xi couldn’t help but look at the other party’s flat abdomen. Was the bunny girl pregnant with a bunny baby? But why didn’t it look like it?
Just as he was about to ask something, a doctor walked over to the bunny girl, holding a color ultrasound and a blood test report. “This was printed out by the treatment pod. I’ve confirmed it repeatedly. Miss, you’ve already come to our treatment center three times this month.”
“You’re really not pregnant.”
The bunny girl took the report and lowered her head without speaking for a long time. The doctor seemed to be used to it and left, shaking her head.
Deng Xi looked at her worriedly, again and again. Before he could speak, the bunny girl suddenly muttered to herself, “I remember now.” She said in annoyance, “Why do I always forget that I’m in a false pregnancy.”
Deng Xi: “False pregnancy?”
The bunny girl explained, “This is unique to our race. In the month after a rabbit’s mating season, they will usually have the illusion of being pregnant, but in reality, it’s just self-deception.”
The most important thing was that the hypnosis of the physiological reaction would make them forget that they were in a false pregnancy. Every time the bunny girl had come to the treatment center for a check-up, a few days later, she would think that there was a bunny baby in her stomach that needed her careful care, and then she would come to the treatment center for a pregnancy check-up again, worriedly, repeating it several times, endlessly.
Mating season? False pregnancy?
Deng Xi’s speed of receiving new information was very slow. He dizzily memorized it in his heart. Before he could figure it out, the bunny girl sighed, tired. “Don’t worry about me for now. What about you? Why did you come for this check-up? Are you sick?”
Deng Xi hesitated and shook his head. “I’m not sick.” He thought for a moment, then pursed his lips, not saying his own situation to a stranger. As his eyes curved, a small dimple appeared at the corner of his lips. “Thank you, I’m fine.”
The bunny girl was relieved. She looked at the report in her hand and sighed.
Deng Xi asked curiously, “What’s wrong?”
The bunny girl said, “This month will be over soon, and my next mating cycle is coming. But I still haven’t found someone to spend the next mating season with.”
The tips of Deng Xi’s ears secretly turned red. He was not used to discussing these things with strangers. Humans were really so open. But he felt that the psychological state of not being shy about sex was actually very healthy.
He tried his best to treat it with a normal heart. “Then what should we do?”
The bunny girl said, “The person who spent the last mating season with me left a few pieces of clothing for me to build a nest. It should be able to last for a few days, right? By the way.” She smiled. “You probably don’t understand. Let me explain.”
“Humans are different from animals. Most animals have a mating season. A small number of alien humans will also have this situation. And we rabbits are the easiest to be induced into mating season.” She said generously, “At this time, a rabbit in mating season’s body temperature will be higher than usual, and they will also have an extreme desire to be surrounded by the other party’s scent. So they will build a nest with the other rabbit’s fur.”
“In an alien, it’s the desire to be with the other party at all times.”
“Especially now that humans are very hostile to us aliens, the military’s treatment center is the only hospital that can accept aliens for treatment. But human doctors don’t understand most of the habits of aliens and can’t develop a corresponding drug to suppress it. It really affects our lives.”
“Deng Xi, look, Deng Xi?”
Deng Xi suddenly came back to his senses. He was flustered, as if he were trying to hide something, but his stammering words couldn’t hide it at all. “W-what’s wrong? I-I was just distracted! I’m sorry.”
The bunny girl said it was okay. She picked up the camera hanging around her neck. “I’m a travel photographer. This is what I just took. The photo has already been developed. Take a look.”
Among the crowd of beastmen who were walking in a hurry in the treatment center, the golden-haired youth was sitting quietly in his chair with his head lowered. His skin was fair, and his side profile was exquisite. It was a stark contrast to his surroundings.
It was as if two worlds had merged together, but because the color tone was consistent, it was overly harmonious.
“This is for you.”
A photo was suddenly stuffed into Deng Xi’s hand. He looked at the bunny girl, at a loss. She said with a smile, “Let me tell you a secret. We’ve created a fan group for you. There are hundreds of thousands of people.”
“We all like you very much! Keep it up!”
“Whether it’s adapting to the human world or wanting to return to your old home, no matter what, be careful not to get hurt again.”
After the bunny girl had left, Deng Xi was still sitting there, holding the photo in a daze. After a long while, he curved his blue eyes and smiled very happily.
The photo was so beautiful.
He liked it very much.
Thank you, bunny girl.
Deng Xi touched his own image on the photo, looked at it again and again, and then couldn’t help but look at the tightly closed laboratory door. Thinking of the words he had just been taught in popular science, his smiling little face scrunched up in trouble.
He really liked to smell the other party’s scent.
He wanted to be with him all the time.
Induced into mating season.
Every one of them matched. Deng Xi’s body temperature seemed to have risen again. His face seemed to be steaming hot. He took a few small breaths.
Deng Xi shook his head in denial. Impossible. He was not a little rabbit, nor was he a female. How could he be induced into mating season?
He was just sick. The little mute was still helping him with his check-up. He must be sick. Deng Xi comforted himself in a bit of a panic.
But if it really was, what should he do?
Deng Xi gripped the corner of his clothes, at a loss. Should he stay away from the little mute? Or, like the bunny girl, find someone to help him get through his mating season?
But besides the little mute, he was the only male merman. He couldn’t find any other female mermen.
Deng Xi didn’t want to come into contact with other people either.
But what if he couldn’t get through the mating season?
Would he be so uncomfortable that he would die?
The moment Si Jisheng walked out of the laboratory, he saw the little merman with red eyes, sitting in his chair with his head lowered. He frowned and walked over. “What’s wrong?”
The moment the familiar footsteps sounded, Deng Xi’s tears could no longer be held back. He sobbed, and slapped away the mechanical finger that was trying to wipe his tears.
“Little Mute, don’t touch me.”
