Chapter 74: Heart-Manipulating Older Chaebol

Meanwhile.

Zheng Shiyan had made thorough preparations for this dive.

He wore the latest diving suit and was equipped with a high-precision locator.

He gripped a powerful harpoon gun in his hand, while several experienced professional divers worked alongside him.

However, he had still underestimated the supernatural dangers lurking in this seemingly calm stretch of sea.

The waters here were not extremely deep, but the depth was enough for light to fade rapidly.

An oppressive shade of ink-blue cloaked his surroundings. The water pressure was palpable, making every movement slower and more laborious than it would be on land.

Far below lay the intricate Seabed Canyon.

Vast rock layers had cracked open into bottomless fissures, creating a terrain so complex that only the beam of a diving light could reveal it.

The closer Zheng Shiyan drew to the coordinates marking the suspected merman lair, the more uneasy he became.

His body felt abnormally heavy, his eyelids leaden and hard to lift, while his oxygen consumption rate was alarmingly high.

And then, that eerie, ethereal song—seeming to burrow straight into his brain—began to echo faintly once more.

He forced himself to focus and gestured to the diver beside him, asking if he heard anything unusual.

The man shook his head firmly.

This was already their team’s multiple forays into the area, and they had found nothing before.

Unwilling to return empty-handed yet again, Zheng Shiyan decided to press on alone into the patch of even deeper shadow ahead.

He signaled for his teammates to wait, then swam cautiously toward a massive fissure in the Seabed Canyon.

But as he passed through the canyon’s rock wall, a piercing buzz erupted in his mind. When he glanced back, the other divers who had been waiting right there…

Were gone.

More and more indistinct black shadows began to materialize in the surrounding darkness.

They drifted silently through the water, like souls disturbed from the ocean’s depths.

Zheng Shiyan tightened his grip on the harpoon gun, his heart pounding faster.

Suddenly, a black shadow hurtled toward him at blinding speed.

It was a merman with a bizarre form. Zheng Shiyan instinctively raised his harpoon gun, but in the water, human reflexes could not match the agility of these sea creatures.

The merman did not strike him directly. Instead, it whipped its hard tail against the diving light mounted on his helmet.

With a sharp crack, pain exploded in Zheng Shiyan’s head, and his sole source of light tumbled away.

The beam flickered as it sank.

Suffocating darkness closed in around him.

Zheng Shiyan clenched his teeth and dove after it, desperate to retrieve the light.

But shadows swarmed from every direction, assailing him. In his panic, he squeezed the trigger. The harpoon shot out and struck something.

That only enraged the entire pod of mermen. Their attacks grew more savage.

Zheng Shiyan felt his oxygen tank take brutal hits. The gauge readings plunged as air leaked away at a terrifying rate.

Death’s shadow seized his heart.

Was this where he would meet his end?

In its final moments before failing completely, the sinking diving light cast a feeble beam upward through the murky water.

In that fleeting glimpse, Zheng Shiyan spotted an extraordinarily sleek, pure-white merman.

It cleaved through the darkness at impossible speed, a streak of blinding lightning racing straight for him.

Everywhere it passed, the ferocious, eerie black-shadow mermen scattered in abject terror, fleeing as if from a deadly predator.

For reasons he could not fathom, Zheng Shiyan yearned to see it clearly. But he had reached his limit.

Suffocation crashed over him like an avalanche, his lungs burning, his consciousness slipping away.

Just before blacking out, he felt a powerful arm encircle him, whisking him away at speed.

Was it that white merman?

It moved with astonishing swiftness—in scarcely a second.

He realized he had been carried into the very cave he had sought.

Pitch blackness reigned inside.

Han Wu wasted no time. He sped through the labyrinthine seabed maze, carrying Zheng Shiyan.

Then, with a shove, he forced him into a narrow crevice in the rock.

The spot lay precisely in the Intertidal Zone. When the tide ebbed, it formed an air pocket within the wall’s fissure.

Zheng Shiyan finally managed to break the surface with his head. In the tight confines of the stone gap, he gulped down precious air.

!

He coughed violently, fumbling with trembling hands for the slick rock edge to steady himself. He was still reeling from the ordeal.

The white merman that had saved him—only to trap him here—pressed close now, cradling his body.

Zheng Shiyan’s pulse raced. He could faintly sense the massive, snowy-white fish tail undulating in the chill seawater below. It brushed against him now and then.

In his current predicament, whatever the merman intended…

He had no way to retreat, no means of escape.

The two lingered in silence amid the darkness. In the narrow stone cleft, only Zheng Shiyan’s ragged breaths and thundering heartbeat echoed.

Han Wu first made sure he had recovered his breath, then let out a quiet sigh of relief. But he knew that simply rescuing Zheng Shiyan would not do. It clashed with the persona he had adopted this time.

He needed to do something outrageous…

He shut his eyes and murmured to himself in his mind: I am a bad merman. A bad merman.

Zheng Shiyan felt the merman drawing even nearer. What did it want?

If it meant to eat him, why bother saving him in the first place…

It had saved him, hadn’t it?

Could mermen even communicate? Suddenly, Zheng Shiyan’s eyes flew wide.

He could scarcely believe it. The merman had pinned him here… for this?

How else to explain the sensation…

It was enormous, like a snake.

The space was far too confined, swallowed in darkness, hemmed in by cold, unyielding stone on all sides. There was no escape.

Pushing the merman away would only plunge him back into the icy sea.

But this nonhuman thing—it was too much. He cursed and struggled all the same.

“Fuck! Don’t…!”

Han Wu remained silent, merely pressing him harder against the stone wall.

He was only playacting, not exerting real force. Yet Zheng Shiyan’s state-of-the-art diving suit proved no match.

It tore easily in his grasp.

The clinging fabric stretched taut across his body before ripping to expose bare skin.

Zheng Shiyan must have felt the chill scales more keenly against his flesh now,

And that terrifying…

The shock overwhelmed him. Panic-stricken, he slipped under the water once more, darkness and asphyxiation closing in.

Han Wu yanked him back up in a hurry.

The air pocket was still too small. Zheng Shiyan was clearly lightheaded, his mind foggy, sustained only by the frantic thud of his heart.

He feared the merman terribly, yet he could not shove Han Wu away. Instead, he clutched at him desperately.

“Don’t… This can’t happen… Please, stop…”

Han Wu could feel how terrified he was, so he held him tightly, making sure his head stayed above water.

Zheng Shiyan began to tremble. Oxygen deprivation left him limp and powerless, his face flushed bright red as he gasped for air.

The merman’s innate fluid, meant to make a mate compliant, instead sent his body temperature soaring. Arousal surged through him, and his mind started to drown in haze.

“Ah…!” He suddenly cried out, his reaction explosive. His whole body arched, nearly filling the narrow crevice in the rock.

Han Wu gritted his teeth. No, no—this was too tight.

And at this rate, Zheng Shiyan wouldn’t have enough air.

It could turn dangerous if it dragged on.

Han Wu had come to save him, after all. With his long, slender hand, he pressed against Zheng Shiyan’s forehead and knocked him unconscious.

~~~

When Zheng Shiyan came to again, the first sensation was the sea breeze whispering across his cheek.

He snapped his eyes open. A gray, overcast sky filled his vision.

He wasn’t in the water anymore?

He pushed himself up in a hurry and looked around.

This was a remote beach. Jagged rocks half-encircled the spot where he lay, perfectly shielding it from distant eyes.

His diving suit was torn in several places, and his skin was covered in abrasions and bruises of varying severity. His forehead throbbed with dull pain, and when he touched it, he found a swollen lump.

That must have happened when the light got knocked away.

Those mermen had probably been dead set on killing him. But… that white merman.

Had it been the one to drag him here?

A certain spot on his body ached right now, too.

Proof that it hadn’t all been a dream.

Zheng Shiyan’s expression grew complicated, his feelings toward that merman a tangled mess.

But the relief of surviving overrode everything else.

Almost on instinct, he checked his gear.

The locator was still there.

Thank goodness.

Sure enough, it wasn’t long before anxious shouts and his name echoed from the distance.

His subordinates arrived in a rush, rescue gear in tow. When they saw him slumped on the sand—battered and bedraggled but very much alive—everyone let out a collective breath of relief, their faces etched with lingering fear.

“President Zheng! We’re so glad you’re safe!”

One subordinate hurried forward and draped a thick bath towel over his shoulders. “The other divers said you vanished in the blink of an eye. We almost thought…”

Zheng Shiyan waved him off, signaling that he was fine.

He pulled the towel tight around himself and quickly assessed his condition. Aside from the surface wounds and utter exhaustion, nothing seemed critically wrong.

He remembered the photography gear he’d lost underwater.

“My camera equipment fell,” he said, his voice hoarse from choking on water and weakness. “The drop-off isn’t too deep, and there are plenty of rocks down there. It’s probably snagged somewhere. Organize a search party right away—we have to recover it.”

Just before total darkness had claimed him, he’d gotten a clear look at a strikingly beautiful pure-white merman.

The equipment had likely captured crucial footage.

He was going to track that merman down.

And make the others pay.

The trip had been perilous, but once Zheng Shiyan calmed down, he felt no fear or regret.

Instead, anger boiled in his chest, mingled with a fierce urge to dominate.

He could still vividly recall the humiliation of that deep-sea helplessness, completely at their mercy.

Just wait. On land, he’d show them who was in charge.

Meanwhile, at the mouth of a hidden river flowing into the sea, Han Wu surfaced without a sound.

He swam swiftly to the shore and retrieved his clothes from a crevice in the rocks, changing into them.

Back in the hotel room, his body was soaked through, his clothes filthy.

He headed straight for the bathroom. Turning on the faucet, he sank into the bathtub that had become all too familiar.

Having swum for so long today, Han Wu let out a weary breath.

Gradually, he submerged his head completely, closing his eyes to rest.

In the darkness, though, his thoughts drifted unbidden to Zheng Shiyan’s suppressed, ragged breathing right by his ear.

He should be okay, right?

It wasn’t long before he heard the door to the room open.

Zheng Shiyan was back.

And he came straight into the bathroom.

He’d changed into fresh clothes, a patch of gauze on his head and a plastic bag from the pharmacy in his hand.

The man braced his hands on the sink, brows furrowed deep in thought.

He didn’t even notice Han Wu was there before he started unfastening his pants.

Han Wu stared at him in a daze.

It was only when Zheng Shiyan awkwardly twisted to inspect his injury that he finally turned and spotted Han Wu.

Zheng Shiyan’s face went beet red. He wondered if his head had taken too hard a knock.

“You—go out first.”

Han Wu blinked, not budging an inch.

Zheng Shiyan drew a deep breath. “I shouldn’t have lost my temper with you this morning.

I’ll take you out for a meal in a bit. Just… go out first…”

Han Wu did stand up from the tub, but instead of leaving, he walked right over to Zheng Shiyan. He even squatted down and tilted his head.

He seemed utterly curious about what Zheng Shiyan had been doing.

“What are you—don’t look!”

Zheng Shiyan was mortified, his face burning even hotter.

But Han Wu’s expression remained calm. He glanced at Zheng Shiyan, then at the medicine, showing no sign of leaving, mocking, or even asking questions.

Zheng Shiyan clenched his jaw, his ears turning scarlet. In the end, he gave in.

“You… help me check if it’s injured.

If it’s bleeding, put some ointment on it.”

He really didn’t want to drag himself to the hospital over this, and he couldn’t ask anyone else for help.

Han Wu was his only option.

Zheng Shiyan simply sat down on the toilet lid but hesitated to assume the position.

The young man leaned in closer and closer, peering with intense focus.

Zheng Shiyan gazed at Han Wu’s pure-white eyelashes and exquisite features, so close to his most private spot. His breath hitched…

A bizarre sense of shame washed over him…

Perhaps to dispel the awkwardness, Zheng Shiyan spoke up.

“Today when I was diving, I think I saw a white merman…”

Han Wu’s movements froze.

“So mermen can get albinism too? I didn’t get a good look, but the camera probably caught it… Ah!”

Zheng Shiyan bolted upright midway through, shock turning his face crimson.

“What are you doing!”

Han Wu looked up at him, expression serene.

“Applying the medicine.”

Zheng Shiyan gritted his teeth and seized his wrist, his voice strained.

“Out.”

Han Wu didn’t get it.

“Didn’t you want medicine applied?”

Zheng Shiyan faltered suddenly, unsure what he meant.

“Is it bleeding?”

Han Wu lowered his lashes, offering no reply. He just kept applying the ointment.

“Urgh.” Zheng Shiyan’s hands clamped onto the edge of the sink, color flooding his neck…

“Wait—hold on.” He tried to push the young man away, but Han Wu held firm… the ointment swirling.

“Are… are you mad at me?”

Zheng Shiyan was a flustered mess all on his own. “I never expected the merman to… ah.”

To his surprise, Han Wu actually lowered his head.

What the hell was going on here?

No… Zheng Shiyan’s face burned red as if it were on fire. But the lingering effects from the merman must have still been at work—the impulse had come on so suddenly and fiercely that his reason simply couldn’t hold out against it. For a moment, his mind went completely blank.

He reached out and pressed down on Han Wu’s head.

…

During dinner, Zheng Shiyan was dressed impeccably in his suit, but his expression was strangely off. He kept stealing glances at Han Wu.

The young man ate with intense focus, savoring every bite and wolfing it down at a rapid pace.

It was as if Zheng Shiyan had been starving him—Han Wu barely spared him a look.

Yet Zheng Shiyan’s ears were still burning hot. And inside his body…

What on earth had happened in the bathroom? How could Han Wu have been so…

Once just didn’t feel like enough.

Han Wu had even tried to push things further, but when Zheng Shiyan said he was injured, he’d backed off immediately.

He’d never realized the boy could be so considerate before.

Taking advantage of someone so young like this… it made Zheng Shiyan come off like some kind of pervert.

“Ahem.” With a newfound respect for Han Wu, Zheng Shiyan cleared his throat and spoke to him in a gentle tone.

“I had those two fish prepared for you as well, but where exactly did you get them from?”

Han Wu glanced at him, his chewing pausing for a moment, but he offered no reply.

At that moment, one of his subordinates knocked on the door and entered.

“President Zheng, we’ve found the camera.”