The Little Mermaid Fell for the Jiaoren 9

Chapter 9: Communication

These “foods” were all tangled in seaweed. Deng Xi was the first to see them, so of course, he was the one who caught them.

Deng Xi thought, full of self-righteousness.

Si Jisheng glanced at the pile of sea creatures in Deng Xi’s hands. They had clearly remembered his scent and were trembling in fear, feeling the hierarchical suppression of a Jiaoren at the top of the food chain.

He was silent for a moment.

Deng Xi also looked down at the pile of food that had appeared out of nowhere, then at the silent silver-tail. A possibility occurred to him. He tilted his head, looked the silver-tail up and down in confusion, but saw no new red wounds, nor did he smell any blood.

Si Jisheng’s body, being scrutinized, inexplicably stiffened.

Deng Xi circled the silver-tail, his eyes narrowing suspiciously. “Little Mute, don’t tell me you snuck out before your injuries healed and went into the territories of those dangerous, large creatures?”

Si Jisheng’s expression froze.

Deng Xi’s eyes were tense and worried. Seeing that the silver-tail made no move, the rims of his eyes grew redder.

Si Jisheng pursed his lips and, with a bit of a headache, shook his head.

Deng Xi instantly breathed a sigh of relief. “I can catch fish. Those large creatures are terrifying! Don’t get hurt again.”

“I’m very amazing!”

“I won’t break my promise!”

Si Jisheng glanced at the wounds on his body and nodded.

Yes, very amazing.

To avoid dirtying the lair, they sat together at the entrance of the cave to process the food. Deng Xi watched with curiosity as the silver-tail easily cut open the crab shell with his sharp claws, his eyes wide with astonishment. He also used his own fingertips to touch the other crab.

Not only did he fail to cut it open, but he was also almost pinched by the claws and quickly retracted his hand in fright.

Deng Xi puffed up his cheeks angrily, and without another word, broke the crab in half. He hummed proudly and was about to start eating.

Before he could, his hand was blocked by the silver-tail.

Si Jisheng lowered his silver eyes indifferently and gestured for Deng Xi to look at the crab in his own hands. He slowed down his movements and removed the crab’s gills, heart, intestines, and stomach, throwing them away.

Deng Xi asked curiously, “Why are you throwing them away? Can’t you eat them?”

Si Jisheng nodded.

So Deng Xi clumsily imitated the little mute and began to process his own, memorizing each step.

After he was done, he looked at the silver-tail again.

Si Jisheng had already finished the crab and was starting on the octopus. He cut off the entire octopus head and threw it away, then used his fingertips to slice off the outer skin of the octopus legs and threw that away as well.

Deng Xi watched the little mute process the food while he ate.

For the first time, he learned that eating was not just about filling one’s stomach; there were so many particulars to it.

Si Jisheng cut the octopus legs into slices. One slice for Deng Xi, one for himself. By the time they finished the octopus, which was bigger than his face, Deng Xi was already full. He reluctantly tried a bite of shellfish meat, and the rest, including the two red-tailed fish, all went into Si Jisheng’s mouth.

For the next few days, Deng Xi would find a lot of things near the lair every day when he came back. Even many strange sea creatures he had never seen before would be tangled in seaweed in his little corner.

Oysters, sea urchins, tuna…

And even a sea snake!

Deng Xi was almost startled by the sea snake that suddenly appeared. Seeing it flicking its forked tongue, he was relieved to find that there were no venomous fangs in its mouth.

Were they knocked out?

Deng Xi wondered curiously. He poked the snake’s head before taking today’s food home.

Things had been getting stranger and stranger lately. The weather in this area of the sea hadn’t changed much these past few days, and the water temperature had been stable. No ocean currents had passed through, so he didn’t know where all these sea creatures were coming from.

Late at night.

Si Jisheng glanced at the closed shell in the lair and swam out of the cave entrance. His tailbone had already completely regenerated and healed.

Now, he was preparing for some activity.

Si Jisheng swam to the sea area where the great white sharks were and caught dozens of blood eels. He cut them open with his claws and slowly began to let them bleed. It wasn’t until the entire sea was dyed red with the blood of the eels that he finally got the creature he was waiting for.

In the pitch-black depths of the deep sea, the silver Jiaoren stood indifferently in the water, while several great white sharks, churning up the waves, attacked him from all directions.

His silver, slitted pupils lifted slightly.

Jiaoren were naturally warlike and loved to kill.

If he didn’t vent all his energy tonight, then in a few nights, a Jiaoren who had lost consciousness and was acting purely on instinct would appear.

That was a very terrifying thing.

Both for others and for Si Jisheng himself.

Si Jisheng’s translucent silver gills paused slightly. He turned his head expressionlessly, and his two-meter-long tail fin swept out fiercely, almost creating an entire wall of water, cutting the speeding great white shark in half at the waist.

Fresh blood instantly scattered like a sea mist.

The next moment, the entire great white shark was torn in half with his bare hands, from the mouth down. Soaked in the salty, metallic blood, his silver pupils became even more slitted, like a beast’s.

Slaughtering a school of great white sharks was not much different from slaughtering a Zerg army. This one-sided massacre ended within the time Si Jisheng had anticipated.

It only took five minutes.

Si Jisheng was bathed in the blood-red water, his expression blank as he lowered his eyelids and quietly watched the shark carcasses slowly sink below.

He chose one that was relatively intact and not too gruesome, and swam over. Just as Si Jisheng picked it up, he noticed something shimmering in the dim, bloody mist.

He closed his slitted pupils and used his gills to feel the fluctuation of the seawater in that area.

It was a dead object.

Si Jisheng swam to the seabed, reached out, and picked it up. His mind was still a bit chaotic. He gently rubbed the smooth surface, his silver pupils slowly closing, and then he belatedly realized.

This was his comm.

Si Jisheng cherished it, yet dared not touch it. He gently wiped it with the pad of his finger, only to find that his comm was still covered in blood.

He wiped it many times, but he couldn’t get it clean.

He belatedly realized again that he was not on the Imperial Capital Star, but in a pitch-black, deathly silent seabed, accompanied only by blood and corpses.

Si Jisheng was slightly stunned. He looked at the comm in his hand for a long time, until his eyes ached, and then he realized he had forgotten to blink.

He closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, the beastly slitted pupils had returned to human pupils.

He had returned to being the always calm and self-possessed Imperial Marshal.

Si Jisheng leaped out of the sea with the comm. Blood dripped from his body, drop by drop. He unlocked the comm without a care, staring at the blue screen that appeared out of thin air.

The fingertip he used to touch it paused on the blue screen, separated by a layer of air. It stayed there for a long time before he slowly tapped into the main page.

Si Jisheng knew very well what this meant.

The moment he unlocked it, the moment his comm’s signal was restored, the Empire on the other side of the galaxy would be able to detect it in the next second.

In the interstellar age, the star network covered the entire universe, and comms had powerful battery life. The blue screen smoothly switched interfaces, and what came into view were the countless pre- or post-battle communication requests from the Empire.

The Imperial military was not so incompetent as to let other departments overstep their bounds to inquire about their own Marshal.

Si Jisheng got a moment of peace.

Soon, he activated the interception program within his comm, cutting off any possibility of being monitored, and dialed a private frequency number consisting only of digits.

This was a secret connection signal within the Imperial military. The next second, the communication was immediately connected.

On the blue screen, the adjutant whom Si Jisheng had personally promoted in the military appeared. Seeing that it was really the Marshal, the adjutant was so excited he looked like he wanted to jump through the screen. He choked out, “Marshal! We, we really thought…”

…that you had died in that war with the Federation.

Si Jisheng’s eyes were cold. He made a gesture for silence and used his eyes to signal the adjutant to begin his report.

With years of cooperation, even if Si Jisheng didn’t say a word, the adjutant could accurately make the next move. “Ever since the Marshal went missing, we have been searching for your whereabouts. Most of the black boxes from the warships in the battle were destroyed. The investigation department is in the process of repairing them.”

The adjutant gave an Imperial military salute. He was a grown man, but he was on the verge of tears now. He said in a hoarse, resonant voice, “Marshal, rest assured, the military will definitely clear your name of the injustice!”

Injustice?

Si Jisheng furrowed his brow, his expression puzzled.

The adjutant still didn’t notice anything was wrong. He took a deep breath. “The Marshal hasn’t seen the star network, right?” He then said tragically, “Half a month ago, the Empire suffered a disastrous defeat. Almost no one survived that battle. We all thought the Marshal, you also… we were about to announce your death to the entire nation.”

“But your comm signal briefly appeared once after the battle. The high command of the Empire determined that you were not dead. To appease the public, they released the news that you were still alive.”

The adjutant’s voice grew more and more angry. “But no one could contact you personally. You never appeared in public. Even though the military issued a statement that you were likely severely injured, day after day passed, and we could no longer control public opinion.”

He lowered his voice. “Now, the Empire’s star network is saying that you are… a deserter, a… traitor.”

His heart suddenly clenched.

A long time passed.

Only then did Si Jisheng slowly part his lips, his Adam’s apple bobbing with difficulty. Overcoming his psychological stress, he uttered a few meaningless, jumbled sounds.

Hoarse and unpleasant, like a mute whose vocal cords had been cut.

The adjutant suddenly realized something, his eyes wide with disbelief.

Only Si Jisheng knew what he was saying.

He repeated it again in his mind.

Traitor.

Author’s Note:

The Marshal is not a mute, he has PTSD from the war.