The little merman’s life was no longer in danger, and it was becoming highly inappropriate for the two of them to remain squeezed together in the bathtub, especially since the little merman was bare-chested. LAN struggled to turn his body and stood up with his back facing An Ming.
“Retract your tail first,” he said.
There was a universal consensus across the galaxy: the tails of the Dragon race and the Merman race were extremely private parts. Except for close relatives or lovers, they were generally not shown to outsiders.
LAN was soaked to the bone. His blonde hair clung in strands to the back of his neck, completely exposing his perfect facial profile. The thin commander’s uniform he wore was made of a very soft material, making his chest muscles, abdominals, and mermaid line clearly visible, while also accentuating the powerful and athletic lines of his thighs.
An Ming stared with a blank expression, his reaction lagging by half a beat. “Ah? But I… I don’t know how to turn back into legs…”
LAN: “…”
He had already placed the little merman in a position of extreme helplessness, yet this still… greatly exceeded his expectations.
He truly didn’t know how this creature had managed to survive for nineteen years; it was a miracle he hadn’t been killed by black-market traffickers.
Unless… a vertical green-gold pupil instantly flickered in LAN’s eye as he cast a dangerous look at the little merman.
An Ming was startled, his tail twitching.
He knew that saying this would easily arouse suspicion again, but how could he explain? That the world you live in is actually a book? And that he had accidentally transmigrated into it?
Explaining that would be far too troublesome, and no one would believe him anyway.
“I really… really don’t know how…” In the end, he could only mumble the words repeatedly.
LAN watched the little merman.
An Ming said sheepishly, “Truly, I don’t…”
LAN lightly pressed his hand to his forehead. He dismissed his previous suspicion too silly and stupid; the probability of him being a spy was absolutely zero.
He lifted his wrist and spoke to his optical computer watch: “Number Nine.”
Number Nine’s database was vast. LAN was highly ambitious; from the initial design, he had positioned Number Nine as “omniscient and omnipotent,” covering all scientific and humanities fields in the galaxy, performing high-speed deep learning and self-optimization every second.
The fact that he could build a rebel army of considerable scale within a single year was largely due to Number Nine’s role as the perfect assistant.
The “mighty and powerful” Number Nine did not respond.
LAN tapped the watch. Number Nine’s neural network was spread across the base planet and all rebel ships; the backup technology was complex and had never malfunctioned.
But it was playing dead.
“Number Nine, send over a book regarding the physical development of merman adolescents,” LAN continued.
He paused. “Make it something simple and easy to understand.”
Number Nine still gave no response. Being stared at blankly by the little merman from the side, LAN felt that a certain AI was finished.
He couldn’t just leave the fish tail as it was. It wasn’t convenient for LAN to look, let alone touch that slippery skin again. Furthermore, the little merman needed to leave the bathroom and return to bed to rest.
LAN had no choice but to combine his own experience of retracting dragon wings and tails to guide An Ming.
“Relax. Feel it… move it… good… slowly pull it back…”
An Ming inhaled the scent of the pheromones emanating from LAN’s body faint, like a popsicle in summer. Under the other’s soft soothing, he slowly changed back into legs.
The youth’s fair and beautiful body was submerged in the water, appearing hazy as the ripples shimmered, yet it remained fully exposed.
“!” An Ming was both shy and joyful; he had been worried his “missing parts” were gone for good!
LAN didn’t even want to look directly at the “vermilion beads” on the little merman’s chest, let alone anything lower. He averted his gaze in time. “Are you going to continue bathing?”
After splashing around in the water for so long, his body had already been rinsed clean.
An Ming shook his head, then realized the other wasn’t looking at him and immediately answered verbally, “No more washing.”
LAN opened the cabinet, took out a bathrobe, and stretched his hand out toward the little merman, never turning his head from start to finish. An Ming was also embarrassed; he leaned up slightly, grabbed it, and hurriedly wrapped it around himself.
Strange, aren’t we both men? I’ve clearly been to public baths with classmates before, and when I was sick, my brother took care of me and wiped me down.
Perhaps… Alphas and Omegas are just different after all.
Number Nine never called back. LAN pushed open the bathroom door; An Ming didn’t dare look the other in the eye either and hurried out.
As he passed by LAN, a puff of sweet, hot air wafted over. It was much hotter than the lukewarm water in the bathtub.
The popsicle was melting.
An Ming tightened his bathrobe and sat on the edge of the bed, not daring to say something like “You can leave now, I want to rest.” After all, the man had just saved him; such words felt too much like kicking him out. But having LAN here was truly awkward. Even though there was a distance between them, An Ming couldn’t help but notice the man’s tall, slender frame, which triggered memories of the strange tactile sensations from moments ago.
His mind was elsewhere, and his face felt hot. Yet LAN unexpectedly followed him over and squatted down face-to-face, scrutinizing him carefully.
This made it even harder for An Ming to endure. His heat cycle hadn’t completely ended, and a small flicker of warmth rose within him, burning his face until it was as red as a cooked shrimp.
LAN was also stiff, but he still swept his gaze over the skin exposed outside the bathrobe to confirm that the little merman hadn’t scratched himself again.
On the contrary, LAN’s own left sleeve was torn, and beads of blood were seeping through the skin of his forearm. It must have happened when he was fishing the little merman out.
“You… you’ve broken the skin. Do you need a bandage…” An Ming noticed the wound as well, feeling both startled and vexed.
“If this needs a bandage, then I’d have to be wrapped up like a mummy every time I leave the battlefield.”
LAN stood up.
“You rest first. I’ll briefly tidy up the bathroom.”
“Oh…” He thought LAN was finally leaving.
He was still a bit afraid of LAN. But at the same time, many indistinct emotions had surfaced. Although LAN was the great villain of the book and had threatened him at the start, no matter how harsh his words were, his actual actions were very friendly.
LAN entered the bathroom and even closed the door behind him. An Ming sat on the edge of the bed, listening to the rustling sounds coming from inside, feeling that the current scene was a bit bizarre.
It felt as if he were waiting for the person inside to finish washing up.
An Ming quickly lay down and pulled the thin quilt over himself.
Emm… it’s still very strange.
Outside, An Ming felt restless, unable to sit or lie down comfortably. He was afraid LAN might come out at any moment and didn’t even dare change his clothes, just fidgeting awkwardly in his bathrobe.
Inside, LAN stood in the middle of the bathroom, staring blankly at the bathtub.
He had turned on the cleaning robot, which was buzzing as it sucked up the spilled water on the floor. Number Nine was still offline, clearly playing truant maliciously.
After being tossed about by the little merman, he hadn’t been in good condition today to begin with, and now he felt exhausted all over, as if he had caught a cold.
Leave now, go back to my own room to change and rest. Even as he thought this, his feet didn’t move.
He was too weary… and the bathroom was filled with the little merman’s refreshing pheromone scent. It was even more concentrated in the water, like a pool of early spring thaw infused with flower petals.
At the bottom of the clear tub, a few merman scales lay quietly, shimmering under the warm lights. LAN remained silent for a long while, then bent over to pick up a scale and, possessed by some strange impulse, held it under his nose to sniff it.
Odorless yet heart-refreshing air entered his lungs, and the feeling of congestion in his body eased significantly. By the time LAN realized what he was doing, he had already pressed his lips against the scale.
LAN stayed in the bathroom for a long time before coming out. His body radiated damp heat, and his state was a bit odd.
“I’m leaving.” He didn’t look at An Ming.
An Ming had already been imagining many things while lying in bed. If LAN asked him to stay, he would surely agree. He had nothing to lose anyway; if biting his neck to mark him would make LAN’s life more pleasant, he wouldn’t mind.
Besides, LAN was actually quite gentle.
“Ah? You’re leaving?” The words slipped out of An Ming’s mouth. He immediately realized the phrase was prone to misunderstanding and added, “Weren’t you here to see me?”
LAN wasn’t a prophet; he couldn’t have come specifically to save him. He must have had something to say.
“…I came to formally bid you farewell.” LAN’s footsteps paused. His voice was no longer as mild as it had been in the bathroom; instead, it was coated in a layer of frost.
“Number Nine will prepare a suitcase for you in advance, stocked with enough clothing and daily necessities. It will also open a universal interstellar account for you with one hundred thousand Star Credits it should be enough for half a year.”
As he said this, LAN was already walking quickly toward the exit, acting as if he were keeping him at a distance.
“We will arrive at Planet α-875-A in three days. I won’t see you off then. Evan will accompany you to the surface and help you find a place to stay before he leaves.”
With that, he didn’t give An Ming time to speak and departed directly.
An Ming got out of bed to see him off, but standing at the bedroom door, he could only watch the distant main door of the living room slam shut. “…”
He didn’t know how to describe the feeling in his chest.
He was a little angry.
But there didn’t seem to be a reason to be angry.
So he was angry at himself. I was just flattering myself, wasn’t I? The man is allergic to you and doesn’t care for you; he already planned everything out clearly and said goodbye three days early. What on earth was I overthinking!
An Ming huffily stripped off his bathrobe and changed into the standard military uniform Number Nine had sent it fit quite well. He flopped back onto the bed with a “huff,” closed his eyes, and went to sleep!
He had actually slept enough, so he was in a daze between sleep and wakefulness. He didn’t know how much time had passed about two hours when the room’s main door was pounded on once again.
The person knocking seemed in a great hurry. Before An Ming could open his mouth to respond “BANG—CRASH—!!!” The floor vibrated.
An Ming scrambled up to look and was dumbfounded.
The alloy door had been kicked flying once again.
“What did you do to LAN this time! Come with me!!!” A nearly three-meter-tall alien Zerg with blade-like claws hooked An Ming by the collar and began dragging him out.