The Little Mermaid Fell for the Jiaoren 83

Chapter 83: He’s Not Stupid

The black-haired merman did not let Deng Xi continue to sing. This place was simply too close to the Marshal. The slightest sound would make him tremble with fear. “I have to go now. This is my communication.”

He touched Deng Xi’s comm with his own.

The black-haired merman moved away from the side of the channel that connected to the pool and stopped at the outer periphery of the channel. Before he left, he looked back again. After waiting for a while, he still did not get any response.

In the end, he steeled his heart and left.

The dark underwater tunnel instantly became very quiet, but also very noisy. Deng Xi’s mind was in chaos, echoing with the words of the black-haired merman just now.

“Only aliens will go berserk and get sick.”

“If you’ve always thought you were an alien, haven’t you ever thought about why you’re the most special one among the aliens?”

It’s not like that.

Clearly, those alien cubs also had their own abilities. Clearly, it was the little mute who had grown up in the dangerous human world and had to protect himself, which was why he had become so amazing.

He was lying.

He must be lying.

His gills were trembling with difficulty. Deng Xi could barely breathe. He opened his own comm and looked at the image displayed on the tracker.

The little mute was still upstairs, while he had swum outside the pool.

The two little red dots were no longer next to each other. There was a very obvious dividing line between them.

Deng Xi stared blankly for a while, then suddenly asked, “Comm, can you tell me what kind of species a Jiaoren is?”

His voice was very small, and a large part of it was a breathy sound, as if it would shatter like a fragile bubble with a single puff of air.

The comm’s sweet, mechanical voice sounded in the dark tunnel. “A Jiaoren is an ancient Eastern species, with a fish tail and a human body. They are born to be brave and good at fighting, fierce and invincible.”

Deng Xi let out a very small sound of agreement, then asked softly, “Then is it the same species as a merman?”

Even though the comm was set to a girl’s sweet voice, it couldn’t hide the mechanical indifference in its tone. “No.”

“A merman and a Jiaoren are two different species. Although they are similar in appearance, it is said that a merman is an extremely fragile creature. But a Jiaoren is the opposite. In the Empire’s year 5344, the Marshal once transformed into a Jiaoren on the battlefield, detaching from his mecha, and used his sharp claws to pierce through the body of the Zerg King, killing it.”

This was a battle from two years ago.

Deng Xi still had an impression. It was when he had first triggered Xiao Zhi in the audio-visual room that day.

He remembered that photo, remembered the collapsed body of the Zerg King in front of the man in the photo, and the other party’s almost-bent-back fingertips.

Deng Xi was quiet for a long, long time before he politely said, “Thank you,” and said quietly, “I know.”

The comm became quiet again without a sound.

The blue tail fin swayed meaninglessly. After a long while, Deng Xi finally swam back to the pool from the tunnel. He slowly swam to the shore by himself. After waiting for a while, he belatedly remembered what he had to do.

He was going to find the little mute.

The blue fish tail turned into a human’s fair legs. Deng Xi clumsily used a bath towel to dry the water droplets on his body and carefully walked on the slippery shore to put on the clothes that the little mute had prepared for him.

Where was the little mute?

He seemed to be upstairs.

Deng Xi walked very slowly. Without the little mute supporting him, he had to be careful himself. When he passed by the living room, he saw that dinner was already set on the table.

But it was still a long time until evening.

Deng Xi walked in and found a small note on it. The interstellar characters were short and fluent.

He could understand them all.

—You can eat dinner first. I’ll be a little busy. I’ll be down after I’m done.

The little mute didn’t want him to go up.

Deng Xi saw the underlying meaning of this note at a glance.

He blinked his eyes, at a loss. The steps he had been about to take upstairs paused. Deng Xi sat in a corner of the sofa, hugged the little whale pillow in his arms, and held it very, very tightly, burying his face in the soft cotton.

He was so stuffy he could barely breathe, but he refused to lift his head.

For some reason, he was suddenly a little sad.

He knew that he was a little stupid and would often disturb the busy little mute. But Deng Xi had always felt that the little mute would not find him troublesome.

No matter how busy he was, he would always find the time to answer his various strange and very ordinary questions. Now, Deng Xi had a question he wanted to ask the little mute, but he was told that he could not disturb the busy little mute.

“Little whale, do you think I should go and find him?”

The little whale pillow was just a doll, not a real blue whale. It could not answer Deng Xi’s question.

Deng Xi waited for a long time, but he did not get an answer.

He glanced at the vast living room and the high second floor. A human’s house was very large. Once he was all alone, he would feel an incomparable emptiness.

It was too quiet.

Deng Xi could no longer bear it. He glanced at the spiral staircase and “thumped” up it, running to the little mute’s study. When the other party was working, he was usually there.

But the door to the study was wide open, and there was no one inside, only neatly arranged documents.

He’s not here, then where is he? What is the little mute busy with? Why has he been out for so long, and the little mute hasn’t noticed that his tracker has moved, and he’s not allowed to go upstairs.

Deng Xi lowered his eyelids.

He couldn’t answer a single question.

Deng Xi tentatively walked to the little mute’s room. The tall, thick door was tightly closed. He pushed it, but it didn’t move. Deng Xi thought it was because he was weak. He then tried to turn the doorknob, but it didn’t move. He belatedly realized that it was because the door was locked, so he couldn’t push it.

The little mute had locked the door and wouldn’t let him in.

Deng Xi pressed his ear against the door and listened. The thick door had a very good soundproofing effect, and he didn’t hear anything.

He knocked on the door again and waited for a while, but the person inside did not open the door for him. His legs, which had been standing for too long, began to ache.

The little merman, who was locked outside, couldn’t help but sit on the ground. He leaned against the door behind him, hugged his knees, and sullenly rested his head on his legs.

It wasn’t because the little mute was his kinsman that he had saved the injured silver-tail. Deng Xi thought seriously, he had been attracted by the little mute’s beautiful tail.

He had actually accepted a long, long time ago that he was the only merman in the entire world. Although Deng Xi really wanted a companion to be by his side.

Then one day, the little mute had appeared.

The first time he had seen the silver-tail, Deng Xi had wanted to touch his tail. It was really very beautiful.

And then?

Deng Xi asked himself, was it because the little mute was his kinsman that he had wanted to find the silver-tail at all costs, and wanted to stay in the human world to accompany his only kinsman?

No, it was because it was the little mute that Deng Xi didn’t want to never see the silver-tail again. That was why he was willing to stay.

It was because the other party was the little mute who would protect him, accompany him, listen to him, and was willing to work hard to overcome difficulties, to talk to him, and to teach him everything.

Deng Xi sat on the floor in front of the door like a poor little thing.

He unhappily buried his face in his arms, and the hot breath he exhaled also made his eyes wet and hot.

What Deng Xi hated was that the little mute might have lied to him.

Deng Xi didn’t know how long he had been sitting, how long he had been waiting. What he had waited for was not the door behind him to open, but the robot butler, who had cleaned up to this floor, to wake him up. “Good evening, young master. The floor is very cold. For your health, you can rest on the sofa in the living room on the first floor!”

Deng Xi refused in a small voice, “I don’t want to go.”

He thought for a moment. “I can’t get in. Little butler, can you help me?”

The robot butler was only about half as tall as Deng Xi and was flying in the air. Its body was round, but it had a square, wide head, and many cute emoticons would flash on its electronic screen.

The young master had the authority to enter the master’s room.

The butler immediately said, “Of course!”

After the system’s authority was passed, the thick, tall door automatically opened. Deng Xi’s eyelids curved, and he said, “Thank you.” Because he had been in the same position for too long, his legs were a little numb.

He struggled to get up, held onto the doorknob to support his body, and struggled to push the door open. Then he cautiously poked his head in to look inside.

The lights in the room were not on, and it was very dark.

Deng Xi looked behind him. The robot butler was huffing and puffing as it cleaned the dust on the carpet.

He mustered his courage and stepped in. The door behind him automatically closed again, and the surroundings were completely dark.

Deng Xi was not wearing shoes. He stepped barefoot on the ground and looked at the darkness before him, at a loss. For some reason, he felt that his feet were a little wet, as if there were water stains.

He fumbled and reached out his hand, and slowly walked in, step by step. The further in he went, the more obvious the wet and cold water stains under his feet became, giving Deng Xi a bone-chilling coldness.

“Little Mute?” Deng Xi called out in a daze.

No answer.

He didn’t hear any sound. The darkness was silent. It wasn’t until he had turned the corner of the entrance that a little light appeared in his vision. The light was coming from the tightly closed, frosted glass bathroom door.

Is the little mute in there?

Deng Xi lifted his foot. As he walked forward, he stepped into a puddle of water. He looked down and only then realized that from the tightly closed bathroom door all the way out, extending into the darkness behind him, there were large patches of obvious drag marks.

Was it caused by a tail?

Deng Xi couldn’t figure out the situation. He carefully avoided the puddle and walked to the bathroom door, gripping the equally wet doorknob.

He opened it.

The moment the bathroom door was pushed open, a blast of cold, damp air hit him. Deng Xi looked down at the large patches of water stains on the floor and the bathtub, which was half-empty. He walked in, at a loss, and looked around. “Little Mute?”

Still no answer.

There was no one in the bathroom. The little mute was not here.

But Deng Xi noticed an empty test tube on the bathroom’s niche. His blue eyes instantly widened. He guessed what it was. It was the gene-suppressing drug.

He had always kept it hidden in the rose-red shell in the living room, in a briefcase. He would check it every day to see if the gene-suppressing drug had decreased.

How could it be here?

Did the little mute take it? How did the little mute know that he had hidden it there?

No, no.

It was clearly the day after tomorrow that it was time to take the medicine. Why did the little mute take it today, and without telling him, he had hidden away and taken it by himself again.

Why was it like this again?

It was like this again. Last time, it was because he was worried that he would hurt him, so he had not told him anything and had taken all the gene-suppressing drug by himself, preparing to bear it all.

Why was it always like this?

There were only two days left. They had clearly agreed. Deng Xi would look at the calendar every day and count in his heart. With every passing day, he would cross it off with a pen.

He was very serious and had worked hard to keep this matter in mind.

He also wanted to do something for the little mute, so when Dr. Li had found him, Deng Xi had been particularly happy.

Why was the little mute always like this, not telling him anything, not saying anything to him, and hiding so many things from him?

Deng Xi struggled to take a small breath.

The little mute’s past was told to him by others, and he had found it himself through his comm. The matter of him getting sick was because he had discovered it by accident. The difference between an alien and a merman was also told to him by the black-haired merman.

Everything about the little mute was discovered by himself.

If it weren’t for these things, would the little mute never have told him these things, and would he have only ever told him to stay quietly by his side when he was in danger?

But, he was not that stupid.

He could also be of some use. He was not someone who didn’t understand anything.

Deng Xi sniffled, and the corners of his eyes couldn’t help but turn red.

His fear was never from the danger they were facing, but that he didn’t know, he didn’t know what kind of harm the little mute would suffer when he was facing it alone.

Just like now, he couldn’t find the silver-tail, who had taken the gene-suppressing drug, had lost his reason, and had gone who knows where.

Deng Xi rubbed his wet eyelids.

He turned around and ran out anxiously, wanting to call the robot butler to help him find him.

Because he was too flustered, the moment he stepped on the puddle, the running Deng Xi unexpectedly slipped down. After a small cry of surprise, the little merman closed his eyes tightly and fell to the ground.

What caught him was a cold, damp embrace. The familiar cold aura enveloped him. Before Deng Xi could react, a large hand with sharp claws covered his face, dragged him away from the bathroom door, and pulled him into the darkness.

From the moment Deng Xi had stepped into this room, the silver Jiaoren who had been hiding in the darkness had noticed him. The one after another of calls had constantly been waking up the silver Jiaoren, who had been a little drowsy from listening to the song in the conch shell earring.

The door was locked, and there was no one in the bathroom. The ground was covered in the drag marks of a fish tail. Then the silver Jiaoren, who had lost his reason, was of course hiding in the darkness.

Deng Xi belatedly realized.

He had been being watched all along.