Dawn was breaking, and the first ray of morning light filtered through the wooden cottage window, spilling across the bed.
The mermaid clan’s beds were made of wood, their headboards adorned with numerous colorful shells and pearls.
Shiyu had gone to sleep late last night, and when the bright light shone onto his face, he was still fast asleep.
Frowning, he pulled the quilt up from his shoulders until it covered his eyes, burying his small, delicate nose deep within the bedding.
Shiyu wanted to continue sleeping, but something felt off.
Something was pressing down on his waist.
That wasn’t right.
Struggling, Shiyu forced his eyes open, looking around drowsily as he tried to roll over onto his back.
But he couldn’t move.
Shiyu: ?
He instantly became much more awake.
Only then did he realize that it wasn’t just his waist there was also a source of heat near his shoulder.
“Morning.” Wennisi’s voice was much hoarser than usual, sounding as though he had just woken up from a deep sleep, and he murmured sleepily, “Awake?”
“Mhm.”
Shiyu blinked in a daze, only then recalling that Wennisi had told him last night how he wasn’t used to sleeping in unfamiliar places and was afraid of the dark.
And then, his soft heart had given in and he had taken Wennisi in.
Clearly, when they went to sleep last night, both of them had been lying flat on their backs on the bed, perfectly well-behaved.
What on earth was going on now?
Both Wennisi and he were lying on their sides facing inward.
The man’s broad palm was resting right on his waist, locking around him layer by layer like a snake tightly coiling around its prey, making it impossible for him to break free.
The difference in build between Shiyu and Wennisi was so stark that Shiyu could clearly feel the heat radiating from behind him.
Wennisi’s chin was pressed very close to his shoulder, as if he only needed to lean forward another inch to rest his head right on Shiyu’s shoulder, pressing his cheek against Shiyu’s.
This distance was far too close.
It was not a proximity that should exist between the two of them.
The rooms provided by the mermaid clan all featured large beds spacious enough that even three tall men sleeping together wouldn’t feel crowded.
Besides, why would Wennisi naturally wrap his arm around his waist like that?
Did he take him for some kind of comforting body pillow to sleep with?
【 Ahhhhhhhhh— 】
【 Oh no, ahhhhhhh! 】
【 Baby, why, why are you two hugging each other?! 】
Lanyin let out a piercing, disbelieving shriek, its linguistic system completely overwhelmed by the shock.
“Lanyin, why don’t you look closer instead.”
Calmly, Shiyu pulled the quilt that had been covering his head back down, revealing a face flushed red from being trapped under the covers, his fair cheeks tinged with a faint pink.
【 Ah! So it was Wennisi hugging baby. 】
【 Oh, then it’s fine. 】
Just as Lanyin let out a sigh of relief, it belatedly realized something was wrong.
It racked its brain to think.
Why would Wennisi be hugging baby?
Lanyin: !
【 Ahhhhhhhhhhh— 】
【 I should have known back then that he was definitely eyeing baby’s beauty from the very first glance. 】
【 O.O.. 】*
【 Baby right now is practically a grain of rice that fell into a rat’s nest. 】
“Not… to that extent.”
Before Shiyu could finish his sentence, Lanyin broke down into a torrential storm of sobs.
【 Ying ying ying— 】
【 Wuwawuwuwu— 】
“After you weren’t around last night, Wennisi came over to find me. He said he wasn’t used to sleeping in an unfamiliar place and was afraid of the dark,” Shiyu explained. “So he asked to sleep with me.”
Shiyu deliberately emphasized the word sleep.
Lanyin flatly refused to believe it.
【 Baby, you’d have an easier time believing he’s afraid of the dark than believing I’m Charlemagne. 】
Shiyu (“…”)
Wonderful. If he had only been half-awake a moment ago, he was now exceptionally, crystal-clear awake.
Although he had already said good morning, Wennisi still maintained this posture, even sleepily burying his face against Shiyu’s shoulder.
Shiyu felt a soft, furry sensation brush against his earlobe.
A flash of inspiration struck, and he tilted his head slightly.
Sure enough, Wennisi’s hair was messy right now, but those two soft ears were drooping right against the side of Shiyu’s neck.
Shiyu didn’t push Wennisi’s arm away.
Instead, he quietly turned around.
Sensing his movement, Wennisi’s arm slackened around his waist for a split second.
The moment Shiyu successfully turned over, the arm wrapped around him once more.
Wennisi kept his eyes closed, looking half-asleep as if acting purely on instinct.
Yet at this moment, Shiyu’s heart felt soft.
So fluffy.
Taking advantage of the fact that Wennisi wasn’t fully awake yet, Shiyu decided to make up for last night’s regret.
Since he had caved in too quickly to Wennisi’s pitiful request and failed to make him pay any price,
he would collect his reward right now.
Wennisi’s deep, handsome brows were lowered, and the white, fluffy fur on the ears amidst his hair was tousled and messy, resembling the ruffled fur of a puppy that had been rolling around.
“Little puppy…”
Shiyu’s eyes sparkled, but his movements were stealthy.
He slowly stretched his hand out toward Wennisi’s hair.
He gently brushed the tip of an ear, then snapped his hand back instantly.
He felt thoroughly guilty, like a thief caught in the act.
So soft and fluffy.
Just like Shiyu had imagined.
It was warm and plush.
Wennisi didn’t seem to notice that his ears were being touched at all—perhaps because Shiyu’s movements were exceedingly light.
Emboldened by this, Shiyu grew much more daring.
His palm cupped the fluffy ear directly, kneading it with moderate pressure a couple of times as the soft puppy ear obediently drooped downward.
It looked as though it was entirely at the mercy of its master, submitting with a well-behaved and docile posture.
As Shiyu kneaded and squeezed, he inevitably brushed against Wennisi’s hair, making it look as though he were petting the man’s head as well.
Eyes shining with delight, Shiyu played with them for quite a while.
Until Wennisi suddenly opened his eyes, his thick, dark eyelashes lifting slowly to stare straight at Shiyu.
“Is it fun to touch?”
Shiyu’s hand was still resting on Wennisi’s head present and incontrovertible evidence of his crime.
Shiyu pressed his lips together before answering, “Very fun to touch.”
Wennisi’s gaze was far too direct, carrying a relaxed, languid air quite different from his usual disguised demeanor.
The Wennisi of right now was enveloped entirely in an aura of aggression.
He released his grip around Shiyu’s waist, propped himself up on his side, and leaned closer to Shiyu.
Until the distance between their gazes left nowhere to retreat.
“It’s fine. Touch it all you want.”
The dangerous aura around him vanished as he lazily faced Shiyu, adopting a posture that invited whatever he wanted to do.
To use an inappropriate metaphor, it was practically an act of seduction.
Yes, using a pair of fluffy little puppy ears.
【 Baby… 】
【 With behavior like this, it reminds me of a book I read before. 】
Lanyin unsparingly started roasting him.
【 There’s a line in it that describes it like this. 】
【 This is practically brothel-like conduct. 】
Blinking in confusion, Shiyu tilted his head and asked, “A brothel? What’s that?”
“Um, about that…” Lanyin paused, inwardly regretting running its mouth.
How was it supposed to explain a term it had learned from some vernacular literature?
Before Lanyin could come up with a suitable explanation, Shiyu had roughly figured it out.
“I get it.” Shiyu smiled. “So if this were a brothel, would Wennisi be the top-ranking attraction?”
The little puppy headliner.
With customers like him willing to pay for the puppy.
With the corners of his eyes and lips curved in a smile, Shiyu followed his heart’s desire and stroked the fluff atop Wennisi’s head.
Even though Wennisi was wide awake right then, gazing at him with an intense, unmasked stare.
It was rare for the mermaid clan to appear all at once, and countless fish tails could be seen swimming through the waters surrounding Mermaid Island.
It looked just like a colorful, magnificent oil painting.
Standing on the shore, the group of blood hunters all wore expressions of awe.
They had seen plenty of young little mermaids when they arrived last night, but the ones appearing today displayed the true appearance of the mermaid clan.
The tails of the older mermaids were robust, thick, and filled with a sense of raw power.
Quite a few elderly mermaids with snow-white hair sported scars or missing parts on their tails, yet they still showed up for today’s courting ritual, dressed in meticulously chosen attire to participate in an important milestone for the younger generations of their tribe.
When Shiyu and Wennisi arrived, the courting ritual was about to begin.
The young mermaids were all dressed in shark-silk they had woven themselves, gleaming radiantly under the sunlight.
The raw material for shark-silk was harvested from the mermaids’ own tail fins a trait they were born with. Since the amount of tail fin a mermaid could grow in a lifetime was limited, it was exceptionally precious.
Naturally, mermaids possessed different tail colors, so the colors of their shark-silk varied accordingly.
Dressing up in shark-silk during the courting season could be considered a display of one’s own appearance.
Unlike external views on courtship, where humans claimed that character and talent mattered far more than looks,
mermaids didn’t care about that at all.
To put it colloquially, mermaids were extreme believers in first impressions.
What was a first impression?
It was the very first glance at the other person.
In plain terms: appearance.
Mermaids were creatures obsessed with aesthetics, and they possessed innate beauty themselves.
The young mermaids swam toward the shoreline one after another, the sun-drenched sea glittering and sparkling so that their tails shimmered against the watery light.
A completely dreamlike palette of colors.
The blood hunters stood alongside the elderly mermaids.
During the courting ritual, the young mermaids would present their shark-silk to the person they fancied to express romantic affection.
Diyou was the High Priest of the mermaid clan, and he wore the exact same attire Shiyu had seen last night.
A black and gold priestly robe winding with countless ancient, mysterious runes, exuding a solemn and elegant aura.
A sea breeze swept across from afar, rustling every blade of grass and tree on Mermaid Island.
On the island, Diyou spoke a string of sentences in the mermaid language.
The next instant, all the mermaids closed their eyes, paying respectful homage in the unique posture of the mermaid clan.
The elderly mermaids beside Shiyu stepped forward with trembling steps.
Most of them bore massive, bone-deep wounds on their tails. Unlike the young mermaids who moved swiftly, not a single person urged them to hurry.
Shiyu noticed that the young mermaids were gazing at them respectfully.
Once the elderly mermaids reached the center of the crowd, they softly began humming an ancient tune.
It started as the singing of just a few mermaids, but soon all the mermaids joined in, and the singing instantly permeated across Mermaid Island.
Mermaid voices were naturally melodious, carrying an enchanting ambiance.
Swept along by the sea breeze, the singing grew distant and ethereal, echoing near and far by turns.
In a daze, Shiyu drifted off for a moment.
Soon, he lifted his gaze to look at Wennisi beside him.
The song the mermaids were singing right now had the effect of mesmerizing minds.
But they meant no harm.
As the singing drifted further and further away, Shiyu spoke up in a soft voice.
“What’s going on?”
“The sacred anthem of the mermaid clan,” Wennisi told him. “A long time ago, fishermen used to vanish en masse in the ocean, and some said the mermaid clan were actually sirens who used their songs to make sailors lose their way.”
“That might be false, but rumors also hold a kernel of truth the songs of the mermaid clan can indeed make people involuntarily immerse themselves in them.”
“Did you also lose consciousness in the song just now?” Shiyu’s focus took a different turn as he asked Wennisi.
The corners of Wennisi’s mouth curved upward, and he told Shiyu with a hint of regret: “No, I didn’t.”
Shiyu (“…”)
The blood hunters were also gradually regaining their clarity.
The one who reacted the most violently was Zhou Ji.
“Crap, crap, crap, what were they singing just now?”
“Just now, it felt like I lost consciousness and couldn’t remember anything.”
“You? Are you alright?”
Zhou Ji looked at Shiyu, completely bypassing everyone else.
Shiyu cast a strange look at Zhou Ji and told a white lie: “Me too.”
Though Zhou Ji didn’t show it, he was definitely breathing a sigh of relief.
Shiyu smiled helplessly.
He could tell that ever since Zhou Qi and Zhou Ji had decided he was just tagging along, Zhou Ji had placed himself right on the same starting line as him.
Since they were both just slacking off and riding along, Zhou Ji was determined to be number one out of the two of them.
How childish.
If you’re going to compete, shouldn’t you compete upwards?