Chapter 3
“Knock, knock, knock,”
Mu Chen was woken by the heavy knocking.
“Clip-clop, clip-clop,”
The sound of hurried footsteps came from farther away. He could almost picture a crowd gathering outside his door.
Mu Chen’s long lashes fluttered. He sleepily opened one eye, trying to gather his scattered thoughts and pull himself out of the wonderful dream in which he’d been fishing.
The soft bed beneath him and Sharky, covered in bite marks, came slowly into focus. Mu Chen fell into a brief silence.
No wonder he hadn’t been able to swim fast or bite through the fish...
“Creak,”
Just then, someone opened the door to his bedroom.
Through his still-blurry vision, Mu Chen saw a crowd of unfamiliar faces. Countless gazes jostled to squeeze through the opening.
Those gazes fell on him as if he were some rare curiosity.
It reminded Mu Chen of the cold, slimy feel of seaweed wrapping around him. It made his skin crawl.
He didn’t like being stared at by a crowd.
The little merman lowered his lashes halfway and returned their stares with a cold look.
The man at the head of the group looked a little portly. Dressed in a white uniform and wearing a broad smile, he tried to speak with Quina. “Hello. We’re from the Royal Institute of Biological Research. We’ve come today to give the little merman a comprehensive examination.”
Quina held the door shut with one hand, clearly unwilling to let them in. “I haven’t received any notice. Could it be His Highness’s...”
“It’s an order from the King.”
A royal guard beside them unrolled a wax-sealed decree and spoke in a cold, unquestionable tone.
“That’s right. We came especially at King Jorah’s command. I forgot to introduce myself—I’m Geluoke, director of the Royal Institute of Biological Research...” The portly man nodded with a smile, then gestured toward the tall, thin man beside him, who wore thick black-rimmed glasses. “This is Dr. Cole, our institute’s most outstanding researcher.”
Cole seemed not to have heard the director at all. He had no interest in exchanging pleasantries. Treating everyone around him like thin air, he peered over the crowd, trying to get a clear look at Mu Chen.
The director masked his embarrassment with a smile. He seemed used to Cole’s coldness, and instead waved to Mu Chen. “This must be the little merman. He’s quite beautiful. But don’t worry—all today’s examinations are solely for the sake of his health. We’re sincerely delighted for Prince Wright...”
Beautiful?
How could anyone describe a merman with such a shallow word?
Cole frowned in displeasure.
Of course, if they could do something as foolish as entrusting a precious merman to a prince who knew nothing but mecha, what wouldn’t they do?
If he hadn’t been able to see a merman today, he wouldn’t have come to this wretched palace. The place was so foolish it was suffocating.
Cole strode into the bedroom on his own, only to find that the little merman had already gotten out of bed. Holding a shark plushie, Mu Chen was studying him just as intently.
The moment their eyes met, Cole’s gaze seemed to lock in place. All he could see was the merman’s silky silver hair, his shimmering blue eyes, and his flawless features.
Too perfect...
At last, he was seeing with his own eyes the creature he’d spent nearly half his life studying.
Cole’s breathing grew a little ragged. His Adam’s apple bobbed. This...
This was a work of art created by the heavens.
He instinctively reached out, wanting to touch Mu Chen’s silver hair, but Mu Chen dodged him.
Mu Chen frowned. “Who are you?”
If he’d been in the water, this man would probably already have been slashed by his fin.
The little merman eyed the man in front of him with curiosity.
Cole’s features were actually quite regular. His white lab coat made him look a little thin, but his unnaturally stiff expression made him seem like a neurotic oddball who’d become that way from reading research papers all his life. The strange fervor behind his thick, dull lenses only made it worse.
Faced with Mu Chen’s question, Cole couldn’t think of a suitable response. Even the dry jokes he usually excelled at were no use.
His lips moved twice, but his gaze stayed fixed on Mu Chen as he tried to read his expression.
A frown... does that mean he’s... unhappy?
A brief sense of defeat flashed through Cole’s mind.
But he’s so cute...
Merman younglings are so cute.
Mermen really are the most perfect creatures in the world.
Under the little merman’s increasingly puzzled gaze, Cole felt his face grow hot. He gave two stiff “ha-has” and delivered what he considered a humorous line. “You probably haven’t read any of my papers in academic journals, have you?”
Mu Chen: “?”
He went straight to hide behind Quina.
The most effective way to solve a communication problem is to refuse to communicate.
Quina blocked Cole and looked at the director in displeasure. “Director Geluoke, does your researcher not know the most basic rules of etiquette?”
Cole’s neck flushed red. He was about to defend himself when the director, who was just as fed up with him, pulled him aside. “I’m sorry. Dr. Cole isn’t very good with words. I’m terribly sorry. Please come with us to the exhibition room on the second floor. The testing equipment is all ready.”
Quina took Mu Chen’s hand and followed the researchers. She didn’t forget to add a pointed remark: “Being inarticulate is no excuse for rudeness.”
...
The exhibition room on the palace’s second floor held fossils of many rare species. Skeletons assembled on tall platforms had been restored to their former grandeur with holographic projection technology.
Perhaps to create the immersive illusion of a sealed environment, there was a huge open pool at the entrance. A network of pipes ran in from every direction to the transparent, reinforced bulletproof glass panels. Wherever you looked, you could see marine life swimming by.
At the very center of the exhibition hall stood an empty rectangular tank, surrounded by all kinds of cold, impersonal equipment.
It had all been prepared for Mu Chen.
I don’t like this...
I don’t want to go.
The moment he reached the exhibition room, Mu Chen’s resistance reached its peak.
Everyone’s eyes were fixed on him.
Their expectant gazes, so heavy they were almost suffocating, gradually merged with a voice from Mu Chen’s memories:
“You’re a blue-blooded merman, Atlantis’s last hope. How could you disappoint me?”
It was the memory he least wanted to revisit.
So, while the others weren’t paying attention, Mu Chen wrenched his hand free of Quina’s.
“Splash!”
He leapt into the enormous pool by the entrance. His legs transformed into a long, graceful tail, and his gauzy fins swayed nimbly in the water.
Almost instantly, Mu Chen dove to the bottom of the pool, leaving everyone far behind.
A few researchers came to their senses. “Director, he escaped!”
They pulled nets from their equipment and tried to stop Mu Chen.
Cole stood rooted to the spot, completely stunned. Beneath the deep, mysterious surface, like the sea itself, the merman’s silver hair streamed behind him. As he swam, he cast them a casual glance with a face so exquisite and enchanting it was beyond compare.
Like a god bestowing a gift upon mortals.
Sacred and untouchable.
He thought in a daze that if any creature in the world was more beautiful than a merman, it had to be a merman in the water.
The crackle of electricity abruptly pulled Cole out of his reverie.
He spun toward the researchers trying to fish Mu Chen out, snatched a harpoon from one of them, and shouted, “Are you idiots? Turn off the electric net!”
He was so agitated that he nearly struck one of them.
At Cole’s reminder, the researchers scrambled to switch off the current.
After all, this was a merman of the royal family. They couldn’t afford to have him injured.
Five people and ten hands flailed about at the edge of the pool, but they came up empty. Mu Chen was astonishingly fast underwater; his silver-black tail fin seemed to turn into a sharp blade, and in an instant he vanished from everyone’s sight.
As everyone stood helplessly around the pool, a measured set of footsteps suddenly sounded from farther away.
“What are you doing?”
It was a low, stern male voice.
The moment the researchers saw who had arrived, the room fell silent.
“Prince Wright.”
“Your Highness.”
Wright walked in with several guards behind him. He’d changed into casual clothes, but the aura around him still made everyone afraid to meet his eyes.
“Who gave you permission to come in?”
Director Geluoke hurried forward with a smile to explain why they were there. He pulled Cole forward, asking him to explain from a scholarly perspective why the examination was so important.
Cole had publicly mocked Wright on an interview program before, but now that he was face-to-face with him, he suddenly found himself at a loss for words. “Hello, I... I’m...”
Wright glanced at him and said wryly, “I’ve seen your show... and your opinion on the royal engagement.”
Cole’s neck turned red again. His upper lip moved stiffly.
Geluoke smoothed things over for him. “I’m sorry, Your Highness. Cole is usually rather humorous, and even more unrestrained on interview programs. But I assure you, he’s our institute’s most outstanding researcher.”
Wright smiled. “Calling that ‘humor’ is far too generous.”
...
Cole felt as if he’d nearly forgotten how to speak. He awkwardly pushed up his glasses and got straight to the point. “Prince Wright, health examinations are important for mermen. They’re an extremely unusual species, and their immune systems are structured differently from those of humans...”
Wright glanced at the fishing equipment scattered in a heap beside the pool and cut him off. “So you scared the merman away to test his reflexes? I suppose that was part of the examination too?”
“Uh...”
Cole awkwardly rubbed his nose. “It was an accident. We’re trying to get him back.”
Clearly, they weren’t having much success.
Wright looked around, then picked up the worn-out shark plushie lying unnoticed on the floor and walked to the edge of the pool.
He gazed quietly at the deep water, as if searching for something.
Cole said, “Mermen are quite sensitive to scents. If you stand here, you might scare him away...”
But before he could finish, a series of little splashes sounded in the distance. A silver fin was swiftly making its way toward the shore.
The next moment, a little merman burst out of the water.
Cole rubbed his eyes. “?”
Had he seen that right?
Mu Chen lay beside Wright’s feet. He looked at the researchers floundering helplessly in the distance, feeling nothing but smug satisfaction. But the instant he looked up at Wright, he deliberately let his eyes droop and put on a forlorn expression. “Your Highness...”
“These people wanted to catch me.”
“But they couldn’t keep up with me.”
As he spoke, he proudly flicked his tail.
Wright wore a relatively casual white shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, showing off his slim waist and long legs.
He crouched down to look at Mu Chen. “How did they try to catch you?”
Mu Chen leaned close to his ear and whispered a few words.
Seeing the scene, Cole was reminded of how the merman had treated him. His heart gave a little lurch.
The merman... wasn’t afraid of Wright? He’d even taken the initiative to talk to him?
Cole felt an unparalleled sense of defeat.
Cole composed himself, stepped forward, and opened his hands toward Wright. “I promise you, I would never hurt a merman. I’ve studied this species for nearly twenty years, so I know how precious he is. If you have any concerns during the examination, you can stop it at once.”
After hearing Cole out, Wright thought for a few seconds, then looked at Mu Chen and asked for his opinion. “How about getting a checkup?”
Mu Chen asked, “Your Highness, will you... stay with me while I’m being examined?”
Wright said, “I will. I’ll stay with you.”
The little merman smiled at Wright, then secretly glared at Cole, as if to say, “Let’s see if you dare act so cocky now.”
Cole: “?”
He could hardly breathe. The merman had actually smiled at Wright?
Cole’s sense of inferiority only grew. He couldn’t think of anything about Wright that would make a merman like him. Maybe his looks were passable, but that imposing aura of his made no one want to approach him.
Besides, Wright didn’t understand mermen at all!
He was the person who understood mermen best in the entire world.
He’d published nearly twenty academic papers about mermen and was a world-renowned biologist.
Why didn’t the merman want to get close to him?
He wanted so badly for the merman to get close to him...
Of course, no one knew what he was thinking at that moment.
Wright stood up and asked, “Do you need this many people to conduct an examination?”
Geluoke waved the other researchers away. “Only Dr. Cole and I need to stay.”
As he spoke, he signaled Cole to get moving and transfer the little merman to the tank in the center as soon as possible.
Cole took a bag filled with colorful coral, pearls, and gold and silver jewelry out of his pack, trying to coax Mu Chen into jumping in. He explained, “Mermen like shiny things.”
He suddenly looked rather confident behind his glasses. From the corner of his eye, he glanced at Wright as if to say, See? Now you realize you don’t understand mermen at all, don’t you?
When it came to interacting with mermen, he was the professional.
But faced with all those glittering treasures, Mu Chen simply floated motionless by the edge of the pool, his beautiful blue eyes full of puzzlement.
Wouldn’t jumping in there get me stabbed by all that stuff?
Seeing that the little merman didn’t react at all, Cole kept waving the bag around. But Mu Chen only drifted farther and farther away from him, and the smile on Cole’s face slowly froze.
Wright stood at the edge of the pool, watching Cole expressionlessly. His slightly furrowed brows betrayed a hint of confusion.
After a brief silence, he asked Geluoke for a bath towel and walked over to Mu Chen. “I’ll carry you over.”
“Okay.”
The little merman, who’d been unmoved just moments ago, immediately swished his tail, hopped onto the edge, and naturally reached out to Wright.
Wright wrapped Mu Chen in the towel, supported his tail, and lifted the dripping-wet little merman into his arms.
Mu Chen put his arms around the man’s neck and leaned against his shoulder. A faint cedarwood scent reached his nose. It smelled lovely.
He watched the drops of water falling from his hair dampen Wright’s clean white shirt. His voice sounded a little guilty.
“Your Highness, I think I got your clothes wet.”
“It’s all right.”
Wright didn’t mind.
He carried the merman toward the tank. As he passed Cole, only one thought remained in the latter’s mind.
What a beautiful tail.
The scales are so pretty.
Why did the merman like someone who knew nothing about merfolk? Why did he like him? Why, why, why...?
Why did the merman like that man who knew nothing about merfolk? Why did he like him? Why, why, why...?