The low hum of the mermaid and the infrasound of the Jiao-man harmonized softly in the deep-sea abyss. Deng Xi didn’t have to wait long before the seaweed covering his hiding spot was pushed aside.
The silver-tailed merman swam in, his entire body radiating a chilling aura. Under the powerful pressure of the Jiao-man and sensing the energy in the mermaid’s song, the sea snakes—which had been somewhat placated—instantly regained their ferocity, the spiral patterns on their abdominal eyes deepening in color.
Dozens of sea snakes lunged immediately.
Deng Xi’s eyes went wide with terror. He abandoned his concealment, released his tightly clutched tail, and shouted, “Little mute!”
A Jiao-man’s skin is as hard as mecha plating; had Si Jisheng not fallen into the sea from thousands of meters in the air, he wouldn’t have been so severely injured. Facing a Great White Shark’s bite force of nearly two tons, a heavily injured Si Jisheng would avoid a direct confrontation. But now his injuries were almost fully healed, not to mention a sea snake’s bite force wasn’t even worth noticing.
Deng Xi clutched the bioluminescent jellyfish in his hand; it flashed rhythmically, illuminating the cave with a faint light. The Jiao-man’s sharp claws glinted in the dimness. Before the lunging snakes could even touch Si Jisheng, they were sliced in half at the waist, followed by their vital spots, heads, and abdominal eyes…
Deng Xi watched blankly as the “little mute” one merman, one pair of claws easily dealt with the pack of giant sea snakes that had besieged him for so long. He saw it with both eyes. He saw it clearly.
Si Jisheng calmed his surging emotions. The metallic scent of snake blood lingering at his nose prevented the silver vertical pupils in his eyes from returning to their original state.
The cold, beast-like pupils pierced through the darkness, staring straight at him. Deng Xi couldn’t help but shrink his body, asking blankly as if looking at a stranger, “Little mute?”
Was the little mute really this powerful? Was this his little mute?
Si Jisheng’s body stiffened as he remembered his previous concealment. He then lowered his head in silence; the powerful Jiao-man bowed his head and extended his hand to the little mermaid curled in the corner.
This hand was not pleasant to look at. His fingertips were stained with snake blood, scraps of internal organs were stuck between his fingers, and the lines of his palm were filled with bloody water. It was very dirty. Si Jisheng looked down and slightly curled his fingertips.
In the next second, a warm, white hand unexpectedly rested upon his cold fingertips.
Deng Xi, who had been looking at the silver tail in fear just moments ago, proactively gripped his hand. His face was bloodless from the fright of the snakes, but he pulled back his pale lips into a small smile. “Thank you for coming to find me, little mute.”
Si Jisheng’s tense frame relaxed slightly. He led Deng Xi toward the exit. Just as they were about to leave the cave, the silver merman looked back at the floating snake corpses and grabbed a few, intending to take them back as tomorrow’s rations.
Deng Xi watched him quietly. He suddenly remembered finding a sea snake in the red coral in front of his old nest back in their previous sea area. A venomous snake whose fangs had been knocked out.
But were they really knocked out by a reef? Was he truly that lucky—to find enough food for both of them right at his doorstep every single day?
Deng Xi lowered his eyelids, looking at the icy palm holding him. He suppressed his doubts, for he had a question he wanted to know the answer to even more.
When the talkative Deng Xi went quiet, and with one party unable to speak, the atmosphere between them became exceptionally deathly.
Deng Xi plucked up his courage. “Little mute.”
Si Jisheng looked down at him. Even without emotion, his silver vertical pupils looked chilling. Deng Xi paused, then hesitated and whispered, “Are you…”
Si Jisheng expressed confusion, his pupils narrowing slightly. Deng Xi’s skin crawled under the stare. He paused again and asked carefully, “I want to catch a few jellyfish, so the nest won’t be dark.”
Si Jisheng nodded and released Deng Xi’s hand, signaling for him to go catch them.
Deng Xi swam to the seaweed on the cliff and grabbed a bioluminescent jellyfish at random. He stayed there for a while, squeezing it with his hand, muttering, “Ask, don’t ask, ask, don’t ask…” With every word, he grabbed another jellyfish until the last one: “…Ask.”
Deng Xi bit his lip. He couldn’t carry any more jellyfish in his arms. Then he would ask!
Deng Xi turned around and plucked up his courage once more. “Little mute?”
Si Jisheng watched him quietly. Just as Deng Xi was about to speak, because he was holding too many jellyfish, one slipped from his arms and fell into the water. It became “don’t ask.”
Deng Xi wrinkled his face in frustration. He suddenly opened his hands, letting all the jellyfish go except for one. Only this one.
The jellyfish waved their transparent tentacles, circling Deng Xi as they swam. They were naturally attracted to the inherent affinity of the mermaid race. They touched his golden hair and his hands; upon contact, they emitted light.
In Si Jisheng’s eyes, the blue mermaid before him was surrounded by fine, soft light. His blue eyes reflected only his own shadow, and his tone was full of an indescribable curiosity.
“Little mute… can you speak now? Was that you calling me just now? Was that you calling my name?”
Did he speak just for him?
Si Jisheng gripped the conch in his other hand and nodded slightly. Deng Xi crinkled his eyes and laughed. “I want to hear it again.”
Si Jisheng’s Adam’s apple bobbed. His fingertips rubbed the patterns on the conch. Deng Xi’s expression was full of joy—purely happy for him. His blue eyes were shimmering and bright. It was impossible to refuse him.
“Deng Xi.”
Si Jisheng’s lips were pressed into a cold, straight line as he indifferently uttered the two mermaid-language syllables. However, his gaze shifted slightly, no longer looking directly at the boy.
The silver tail’s voice was remarkably deep. Because he hadn’t spoken in a long time, it carried a raspy texture; his tone was cold and flat, yet he made Deng Xi’s name sound very beautiful.
Deng Xi curled his lips with satisfaction. “That’s the first time someone other than myself has called my name.” He thought for a moment, his blue tail fin swaying lazily as he said somewhat forlornly, “If there were elders in my tribe, what would they call me?”
Compared to a normal Jiao-man—who would be over three meters long including the tail—the blue mermaid was truly tiny. If the Jiao-man tribe still existed, Deng Xi would surely be the one with the best temper and the most well-behaved. Though he might occasionally cause mischief, no one would ever have the heart to scold him.
Si Jisheng thought that they would likely give him a soft, “glutinous” nickname, one that sounded like a pampered cub of the tribe.
If it were him… Si Jisheng instinctively mumbled two syllables in the Interstellar language.
Because it was a foreign language and his voice was too low, Deng Xi didn’t hear it clearly. He blinked blankly. “What?”
Si Jisheng pressed his lips tight, refusing to say a word, yet he repeated it once more in his heart.
Xixi.
Si Jisheng took a deep breath and turned to swim toward the exit of the abyss without a word. Deng Xi didn’t know what was wrong with the silver tail and followed him blankly. “Wait for me, wait for me!”
Si Jisheng paused and slowed his swimming speed.
Half an hour later, they swam out of the abyss and into the normal underwater world. Another ten minutes passed before they returned to the new nest.
Deng Xi and the silver merman sat together at the entrance, their long tails dangling and floating in the seawater. He released the jellyfish in his palm, pushing it gently with his fingertip, watching it wobble its way into the nest. Having been startled awake in the middle of the night and gone through several waves of fright, his spirit was exhausted, and he could barely keep his eyes open.
Yet, Deng Xi still pulled the silver merman to sit at the entrance. “Little mute, give me your hand.”
The silver vertical pupils had only recently vanished, and the Jiao-man’s claws hadn’t been retracted yet. His palms were very dirty; usually, he would wait until the claws were retracted to clean them meticulously.
Si Jisheng instinctively reached his hand out.
Deng Xi carefully avoided the sharp claws. He bunched some seaweed into a ball and used it to wipe away the bloody water in the lines of the palm, bit by bit. He then picked out the scraps of organs from between the fingers and cleaned the bloodstains from the claws.
Si Jisheng’s hands became white once more. He watched Deng Xi with a slight daze. Suddenly, Deng Xi leaned in close. Si Jisheng’s body stiffened.
Deng Xi grabbed a strand of silver hair. The hair was also stained red with blood; the sharp claws made it impossible for the merman to wash it himself. Deng Xi used his rounded mermaid fingertips to clean away the bloody slime bit by bit, making the hair smooth once more.
Like grooming a doll, he cleaned the messy little mute until he was spotless. He then smiled. “There, little mute. Let’s go to sleep.”
Si Jisheng nodded stiffly, averting his gaze with a touch of unease. Deng Xi flicked his tail fin and swam into the cave, curling up tiredly into the seashell. This time, he firmly remembered to close the lid.
Deng Xi was no stranger to “fish-stealing” in the middle of the night. He had a natural affinity with creatures of the natural world, but conversely, this made his presence very prominent to creatures higher up the food chain. Every time he moved, if he hadn’t gotten acquainted with his neighbors and his shell wasn’t tightly closed, he’d find himself being treated as “emergency rations” by the original owners of the area. Though he always managed to negotiate his way out through song, it was always a life-threatening walk on a tightrope.
Deng Xi rubbed his eyes sleepily. Before closing the shell, he suddenly asked the silver tail sitting motionless at the entrance:
“Little mute, do you have a name?”
Si Jisheng turned to look at Deng Xi. He could say Deng Xi’s name, but he couldn’t say his own. In the end, he only slowly shook his head.
“Then I’ll just keep calling you ‘little mute,’ okay? Mmm… little mute, I’m so sleepy. Goodnight.”
The pearly white shell closed with a click.
The sky was beginning to brighten; a faint light had reached the seabed. It was already the third day.
Si Jisheng reopened his computer and rigorously reviewed the speech he had written. He held the conch to his ear, listened quietly for a while, opened the audio interface, and began recording.
This was not a statement of confession. Si Jisheng felt that there were still missing pieces regarding that battle between the Empire and the Alliance.
He recorded many times. After completing his difficult “rehabilitation,” he finally produced a segment where the speaking speed was normal, the pronunciation was correct, and the audio was presentable.
He hadn’t fully recovered.
Si Jisheng put down the conch and sent the audio to his adjutant. With the matter temporarily settled, he looked at all the people who had contacted him and the messages sent to him during this period, analyzing the current political situation on the Capital Planet since his disappearance.
Abruptly, his fingertip paused.
His silver eyes constricted slightly as he looked at a communication record on the screen. The time was just after he had crashed onto this planet when his computer was missing and he was unconscious.
The contact was a veteran of the Council of Elders who had always been at odds with the Military Department.
The duration was nearly two minutes.
Two minutes.
If it were an accidental touch during the crash, there was no reason for a veteran of the Council to stay on the line with an empty call for two minutes.
On this planet, besides him, who else could have proactively dialed this call?
Si Jisheng’s breathing hitched for an instant. He closed his eyes tight and slowly turned his face to look at the closed shell in the nest.
Do you think Si Jisheng suspects Deng Xi of having a secret connection to the Empire, or is he looking for another explanation?