After Deng Xi agreed, he immediately sprang into action. He cradled his collection of treasured shells and asked, “Can I take these with us too?”
Every shell was a treasure to Deng Xi, witnesses to his journeys across the vast and varied seas of this planet. He could not bear to leave them behind.
Si Jisheng nodded.
Overjoyed, Deng Xi piled them together. “Little Mute, you must remember to bring the conch I gave you, too.”
Si Jisheng glanced at the conch he kept close by, almost always on his person. Under Deng Xi’s watchful gaze, he proactively took it into his palm.
He would.
Suddenly, a thought struck Deng Xi. He flicked his tail fin, swam in front of the silver-tailed merman, and held out his palm.
Without asking why, Si Jisheng simply placed the conch into Deng Xi’s hand.
Deng Xi pulled out a length of fishing line. It was actually a lateral line taken from a fish he had eaten recently and kept in his nest. He wound the silver-colored thread around the tip of the conch and tied a beautiful little knot.
Deng Xi lifted the line and gave it a shake. The conch dangled and swayed steadily without falling. His eyes curved into crescent moons. “There! Now you won’t lose it.”
The little merman swam closer to the silver-tail, leaning in. He took the two ends of the line and measured them against Little Mute’s neck.
Because they were so close, Deng Xi’s golden hair, floating in the seawater, brushed against Si Jisheng’s body. The curled golden strands swept lightly across the pale, bare skin of his neck and shoulders, leaving a faint, ticklish sensation in their wake.
Uncomfortable, Si Jisheng instinctively leaned back.
Deng Xi puffed out his cheeks. “Little Mute, don’t move.”
Si Jisheng had no choice but to hold still.
Deng Xi hung the crude, handmade conch necklace around the silver-tail’s neck. It looked like a collar tethering Si Jisheng, a set of shackles placed upon a powerful merman.
The silver thread was long, allowing the delicate conch to rest against Si Jisheng’s chest, its cold, spiraled texture pressing firmly against his bare skin.
The golden-haired, blue-tailed merman braced himself against the shell bed where Si Jisheng sat. As he leaned in, their tails—one silver, one blue—nearly touched. He poked the shell innocently with a fingertip. “Is it a bit heavy?”
The conch was roughly the size of Deng Xi’s palm, but to Si Jisheng, it was a normal size.
His fingertips stiffened with tension. He silently shook his head, exercising restraint to maintain a boundary with the blue merman.
Deng Xi straightened up and looked at his work with satisfaction. “Little Mute, you have to wear it forever and ever.”
Si Jisheng nodded.
Deng Xi went back to packing his treasures, touching a new shell here and a weathered one there. “Can these really all come with us?”
In the interstellar era, the market would surely be filled with far more beautiful shell beds that would dazzle Deng Xi; there was no practical need to add to their burden.
Yet, Si Jisheng nodded.
They could.
Deng Xi’s eyes crinkled with a smile. “Where are we going? Should I call Big Whale? Can Big Whale come with us?”
Si Jisheng shook his head.
Deng Xi’s eyes lowered in disappointment.
The blue whale’s size was simply too massive. Putting aside whether a starship could even accommodate it, even if they took it away, the Imperial Marshal certainly didn’t lack the means to keep a whale—but if he couldn’t replicate a suitable seawater environment or find a proper ocean to release it into, the creature would likely die.
As this thought flashed through his mind, Si Jisheng glanced down at the blue merman’s tail. His brow furrowed, and he reached out to grasp Deng Xi’s wrist.
Deng Xi froze, and before he could react, he was pulled out of the nest by the silver-tail.
Their tail fins churned the seawater as blue and silver streaks cut a vibrant path through the deep ocean. They moved at high speed before suddenly breaking through the surface.
It was too sudden.
Towed by the silver merman, Deng Xi could barely keep up with his speed. When they breached the surface, his respiratory system hadn’t yet transitioned. His ear-gills quivered dizzily before he slowly took a deep breath through his nose.
The sea and the land were two entirely opposite worlds.
Undersea creatures primarily relied on gills to absorb oxygen from the water; they could not survive once they left it. However, evolution had gifted Deng Xi with two respiratory systems: one for seawater using his ear-gills, and one for the air, using his nose and mouth to pull oxygen into his lungs. In most cases, Deng Xi could switch between them naturally, allowing him to leave the water for short periods.
But what about leaving it permanently?
Si Jisheng found a reef protruding from the sea. The surface was free of sharp pebbles that might cause injury; the jagged edges were mostly blunt and flat, capable of supporting the blue merman and allowing him to be completely out of the water.
He wanted to conduct an experiment.
Si Jisheng pulled Deng Xi to the reef and patted its surface.
Deng Xi blinked in confusion. “Do you want me to go up there?”
Si Jisheng nodded.
The reef was somewhat large and high. Deng Xi swam around it until he found a smooth spot. With a powerful flick of his tail, he leapt from the sea. His blue tail traced a perfect, brilliant arc in the air. He turned mid-leap and sat steadily on the reef.
His long blue tail draped naturally over the edge, the fan-shaped tail fin dipping into the water, occasionally stirring the surface.
Si Jisheng watched that segment of the tail submerged in the water. He unconsciously rubbed his fingertips and glanced at the naive Deng Xi.
Deng Xi felt that glance was a bit strange. He instinctively tried to flick his tail, but before he could move, a sudden numbness—hot and itchy—shot through his fin. The sensation was so sharp that Deng Xi instantly jerked his back straight.
His ta-ta-tail!!!
He looked down and saw that the silver-tail had placed his hand on Deng Xi’s tail fin.
He… he’s touching it…
Deng Xi’s eyes went wide. He didn’t dare move a muscle.
Although Deng Xi’s body temperature was slightly higher than Si Jisheng’s, a palm is generally warmer than the rest of the body—especially when touching a tail that had been soaking in freezing seawater.
It was a strange sensation: warm, almost burning.
A merman’s tail is the most sensitive part of their body. Even though the silver-tail was merely resting his hand there without moving, Deng Xi felt an overwhelming urge to curl his tail to soothe the continuous, tingling itch.
Deng Xi slowly tried to pull his tail away. Just as he moved, the silver-tail pressed down firmly—and then placed his other hand on it too!!!
Among the merman race, “intertwining tails” (mating) was an act of courtship. Therefore, touching the tail was a request to mate—which was effectively the same as courting!
Although Deng Xi hadn’t been able to resist touching the silver-tail when they first met, the silver-tail had been unconscious then and couldn’t have misunderstood. This was completely different.
With his ears turning red, Deng Xi whispered, “Little Mute, even though we’re the only ones left in our tribe, the gender I chose upon reaching adulthood wasn’t female, so we can’t mate—”
Hearing this, Si Jisheng, who had been lifting the blue merman’s tail out of the water to place it on the rock, felt his fingertips curl slightly. He lowered his eyes and smoothly withdrew his hands.
Deng Xi, whose voice had grown quieter and quieter until he completely stalled, was utterly stunned. In the next heartbeat, his face exploded in a bright red flush.
The little merman stole a glance at the silver-tail and slowly buried his burning face into his joined palms. His eyelids grew misty with heat, and a crimson blush spread across his snowy skin, from his ears down to his neck. His entire body turned a shade of pink.
Help.
He was so shameless.
A long, heavy silence permeated the small reef.
Much later, a very soft, muffled chuckle suddenly sounded.
Deng Xi immediately lifted his face from his palms, looking indignant. “Little Mute, you’re not allowed to laugh at me!”
A faint glimmer of amusement surfaced in Si Jisheng’s silver eyes.
The silver-tail usually had no expression on his face, and since he had difficulty vocalizing, this was the first time Deng Xi realized Little Mute could let out a low, muffled laugh.
Deng Xi kept a “grumpy” face, trying hard to look angry. After holding it for a while, he couldn’t help himself and his eyes crinkled into a smile as well.
Across the boundless sea, a light breeze blew. It was afternoon, and the sun was slowly drifting westward; the rays were not harsh.
Deng Xi curled his tail up onto the reef and lay half-reclined, comfortably enjoying the sunbath and the salty sea breeze.
Si Jisheng also leaned quietly against the reef, gazing at the distant horizon.
Though Deng Xi didn’t know what the silver-tail was trying to do, he obediently followed instructions and kept his tail out of the seawater. Gradually, Deng Xi’s eyes began to blink slower and slower. His little head nodded off until he finally closed his eyes and fell fast asleep.
Si Jisheng watched the tail, which remained unchanged despite being out of the water for so long. The humidity over the sea was high; even the breeze carried droplets of seawater. It would likely take a long time for the blue merman’s tail to actually dry out.
Si Jisheng rubbed the transparent optical computer ring on his thumb. He paused, but ultimately did not turn it on.
Deng Xi didn’t sleep for long.
After an hour or two, he was woken up by an itch.
In his sleep, he had unconsciously rubbed his tail, scratching lightly with his fingertips and stretching his tail against the uneven surface of the reef.
Si Jisheng noticed the abnormality immediately.
Deng Xi had only scratched a few times before he woke up in a daze. He propped himself up, rubbed his eyes, and looked down at his tail. He went to scratch it again, but Si Jisheng caught his hand.
Deng Xi tried to pull his hand away but couldn’t. He complained pitifully, “It itches, Little Mute. My tail itches.”
Because it had been out of the water too long, the residual moisture on Deng Xi’s tail had been evaporated by the wind. The scales on his blue tail had even turned pale and translucent, with some edges curling up. His unconscious rubbing against the reef had even caused a few scales to fall off.
The loss of a few scales didn’t register immediately, but as soon as he moved his tail, he felt a stinging pain. “It hurts.”
Deng Xi wrinkled his face. He leaned over and looked, his heart aching as he picked up the few fallen scales from the reef. He showed them to the silver-tail, looking as though he were about to cry. “My scales fell off.”
Would all his scales fall off? Would he become a very, very ugly merman? Panicking, Deng Xi’s blue eyes welled with tears. His other hand reached helplessly toward his tail again, only to be restrained by the silver merman.
Unable to free his hands, Deng Xi was on the verge of tears. “It itches. I need to touch it.”
“Touch it.”
As soon as Deng Xi spoke, the silver merman rose from the water and gathered him into his arms—one hand supporting his back, the other cradling his tail.
Deng Xi’s watery blue eyes widened.
He was stunned as Si Jisheng placed him back into the sea. The moment the dehydrated tail touched the water, it absorbed moisture rapidly, and the stinging itch subsided significantly.
Si Jisheng released him with restraint.
Deng Xi floated dazed in the water, staring blankly at the silver merman. He didn’t even wag his tail fin. After a long while, he managed to stammer out a “Thank you,” very softly.
The sensation of smooth, slick skin lingered on Si Jisheng’s fingertips.
His breathing was slightly ragged as he gave a slight nod.
Deng Xi had regained his composure. He reached down to touch his now-smooth tail and sighed in relief. “So, was I just dehydrated?”
Si Jisheng nodded.
Deng Xi guessed, “Did you want to see what happens to me when I leave the water?”
Si Jisheng nodded again.
Deng Xi said worriedly, “That was very dangerous just now. We can’t leave the water for too long, or our tails become very fragile. The scales fall off at the slightest touch.”
He had never tested how long he could last out of the water before.
A hint of apology appeared in Si Jisheng’s eyes.
Even after his merman transformation, he could survive out of water without any side effects. But the blue merman was clearly different. Deng Xi had never left the ocean since birth, so he naturally couldn’t adapt all at once.
The blue merman had never experienced the human world and was much more fragile by comparison. Being out of the sea for less than three hours triggered severe side effects.
I wonder if the symptoms would lessen if he had human legs, Si Jisheng thought, his brow furrowing. The blue merman had likely never even seen human legs.
Si Jisheng was bare-chested, and his transformed silver tail was only partially draped in merman fins with no clothing to cover him. He had to abandon the idea of changing back into his human form for now.
After the scare, the silver merman took Deng Xi to catch a full meal, which made the little merman’s eyes curve into smiles again. Upon returning to the nest, he collapsed exhaustedly into his old shell bed.
Deng Xi collected the fallen scales. He couldn’t bring himself to throw them away, so he strung them together using the fishing line he had saved.
The shed scales were translucent, about half a finger long, with tips of deep blue that faded into light blue at the base. Once strung, they made a particularly beautiful bracelet.
This was a memento, too—to remind Deng Xi that he couldn’t stay out of the water for too long.
Merman scales are precious. They do not shed their skin frequently like sea snakes. Every scale on his tail had grown with him since he was small; once they were gone, they were gone, and it was very difficult for them to grow back.
Deng Xi decided to give this memento to Little Mute.
He placed the scale bracelet in the silver-tail’s palm. “Goodnight, Little Mute.”
Si Jisheng closed his hand, clutching the bracelet. He watched quietly as Deng Xi, on the opposite side, curled into his shell. The little merman rubbed his tired eyes, slowly tucked his tail inside, and finally, with a “click,” closed the shell.
Si Jisheng lifted the bracelet and studied it under his gaze. He spun it once around his fingertip, then touched the conch around his neck, looking at them for a long time.
As an Imperial Marshal, Si Jisheng rarely wore luxury decorations. To maintain a perfect public image, his attire was always crisp and efficient, devoid of unnecessary adornments—he would never allow himself to wear things like necklaces or bracelets.
The only “decorations” he ever wore were the various medals symbolizing the Empire’s glory: heavy, golden medals pinned thickly to his shoulders.
Si Jisheng untied the line holding the scales and, with a sense of novelty, wrapped it around his wrist. Because it was meant as a bracelet, the line Deng Xi chose was short; once knotted, the scales pressed tightly against Si Jisheng’s wrist bone.
He flicked them slightly.
The sensation of touching the blue tail seemed to spark in his fingertips again.
Si Jisheng took a deep breath and looked away. Instead, he opened his optical computer and quickly issued a command: “Equip the returning starship with an empty water tank, at least three meters wide.”
His adjutant replied instantly: “Understood.”
A second later, the adjutant requested a communication link. Once connected, he asked impatiently, “Marshal, when can we send a team to pick you up for the return journey?”
As soon as the words left his mouth, the adjutant’s eyes widened in shock.
He knew the Marshal had fallen into the ocean of some planet, and the backgrounds of their previous two communications had been the endless sea surface or the pitch-black deep sea.
But now…
The adjutant swallowed hard. He stared in disbelief at the delicate, beautiful, incredibly “girly” pearlescent shell behind the Marshal. Then his gaze drifted to the conch necklace hanging from the Marshal’s neck, and finally to the wrist exposed as the Marshal typed.
What was that sparkling blue translucent thing?? Could it be a bracelet?! Wait, did something just flash behind the Marshal?
The adjutant looked closer and realized there was a glowing fluorescent jellyfish floating back and forth behind the Marshal.
The adjutant’s pupils shook.
Where was their cold, powerful, silent Marshal who slaughtered Zergs like he was taking a stroll??
Si Jisheng gave a light cough.
Though his speech system was broken, he could produce basic sounds like coughing or laughing after some “rehabilitation.”
The adjutant snapped back to attention.
Si Jisheng silently sent a message: “Any findings?”
The adjutant shook his head solemnly. “No anomalies detected yet. Once we interrogate the mole and find out who they are, we’ll know if those sanctimonious bastards ever stole your genes for human experimentation.”
Si Jisheng sent another message: “Send the starship once you have the results.”
The adjutant paused before exclaiming with joy, “To bring you home?! I’ll have the military starship depart secretly as soon as the interrogation is over! Marshal, remember to keep your positioning on so we don’t lose your location.”
“Also, is your injury better? Do you need a psychologist on the ship? Or do you need any supplies? Does the planet you’re on have enough energy—”
The adjutant stopped mid-sentence, his expression stiffening awkwardly as he read the Marshal’s new message.
“Bring enough water and food. Prepare plenty of seafood sashimi. Make sure the water tank is filled with seawater.” Si Jisheng paused, glancing at the closed rose-pink shell across from him. With a cold expression, he continued typing: “Don’t bring too many people. Prepare several sets of clean new clothes, two sizes smaller than mine.”
Adjutant: “???”
He looked down at the message, up at the expressionless Marshal, and back down at the message.
Two sizes smaller?
It definitely wasn’t for the Marshal himself. Then who else could it be???
That water tank probably isn’t for the transformed Marshal either. Could it be… the Marshal has hidden a beauty in the sea???
Adjutant: “Were you rescued by someone?”
Si Jisheng gave him a faint, sidelong glance.
The adjutant immediately shut his mouth. Still the same old Marshal. That must have been an illusion just now.
After the call ended, the adjutant rushed to the interrogation. The researchers from the Institute had already been secretly detained by the military. Though the Empire didn’t typically favor torture, they were still in a period of “violent diplomacy”—between fighting the Zerg and expanding territory.
There were no “civilized men” in the military department; those frail researchers probably wouldn’t last a day before confessing everything.
At the latest, there would be a result by tomorrow night. At the earliest, one night was all it would take.
Si Jisheng turned off his optical computer and lay flat in the shell. His silver tail, nearly two meters long, draped out of the opening. Since he couldn’t curl up completely inside, he had to sleep with the shell open.
Consequently, when Deng Xi opened his shell the next morning, he saw the silver-tail sleeping peacefully in the wide-open shell. His sleeping posture was much better than Deng Xi’s: lying flat on the seaweed bed, one hand resting casually on his stomach, the other hanging down.
Deng Xi saw it immediately—the hand was wearing the scale bracelet he had given him last night. Because the merman race lived in the dark depths year-round, their skin was mostly pale. The silver-tail was no exception.
The pale blue scales added a touch of eerie, mysterious charm to Si Jisheng’s pale, vein-lined wrist.
It looked very good.
Deng Xi lay on the edge of the shell bed, propping up his chin, and flicked a scale with his fingertip.
The slight touch caused Si Jisheng to snap awake. Purely by instinct, he grabbed Deng Xi’s wrist, his silver eyes narrowing dangerously as he pulled him in. He was about to pin him down when he met Deng Xi’s innocent eyes.
In the middle of the movement, something was triggered—Si Jisheng’s transparent optical ring automatically activated, and a blue screen appeared in the seawater.
Si Jisheng’s silver eyes clouded slightly.
Deng Xi was no longer afraid of the silver-tail. He didn’t complain about his wrist being squeezed. Instead, he gave a good-natured greeting: “Morning, Little Mute.”
Si Jisheng let go. He paused when he saw the red marks lingering on Deng Xi’s wrist, then looked at the accidentally opened blue screen, noting the red notification dot from his adjutant.
The optical computer was shut down immediately.
He took out the red herbal remains from treating his previous injuries and, brook no refusal, made Deng Xi hold out his hand. He squeezed out the red medicinal juice and massaged it in lightly.
The silver-tail’s touch was very gentle, making Deng Xi feel a bit ticklish. He chuckled softly, “It’s fine, it doesn’t hurt.”
Si Jisheng pressed down firmly.
Deng Xi let out a small hiss and pouted. “Okay, maybe a little bit.” He held up two fingers to measure a tiny gap. “But I also woke you up, so… we’re even.”
After applying the medicine, they would normally go hunting for their first meal of the day. But since there was some shell meat left from yesterday, Si Jisheng sliced it thin and gestured for Deng Xi to eat first.
He left the nest and swam to the surface alone.
The sun had not yet risen above the horizon. The sky was a pale, dim white, and the entire ocean was still shrouded in residual darkness, exceptionally cold.
The optical computer was turned on, and the blue screen lit up. Si Jisheng clicked on the message from his adjutant. It contained only three short words: “We found it.”
There was no summary.
Only when there was major news—and to prevent data theft—would his close subordinates avoid sending results directly, requesting a face-to-face transmission instead.
Si Jisheng entered a specific frequency and dialed. The adjutant, who had been waiting, answered immediately. His expression was heavy. “Marshal, the results of the interrogation are in.”
“A high-level researcher at the Institute was turned by the Council of Elders. Your genes were leaked long ago. That is exactly how they were able to research a way to trigger your merman transformation on the battlefield.”
“And according to the researcher’s confession, they indeed conducted human experiments. Using your genes, they successfully engineered a merman. All research data and records from that year were destroyed.”
Seeing that the Marshal’s expression remained unchanged and cold, the adjutant braced himself to continue the report.
“We only know one thing.”
“That merman was a failed product of the experiment.”