He and It Chapter 14: The King’s Pearl (14)

Chapter 14: The King’s Pearl (14)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

What’s happening?

With an almost solicitous look, the guard neatly removed Jiang Mian’s shackles. He looked down and saw four abrasive dents on his slim wrists and ankles. His skin was originally white, and the wounds looked very alarming.

Perhaps Fabian developed a new type of immortal water, so his value was no longer so important?

No, it couldn’t be. In any case, Fabian abhorred non-human intelligent beings, and especially despised those who would admit it. What was more, how could the top brass of the Sigma Institute give up a bargaining chip that could threaten a deep-sea mermaid?

Jiang Mian couldn’t figure out the reason for his sudden release even if he thought about it.

Following a few accompanying guards, he walked through the empty corridor. The silence around him, Jiang Mian gradually smelled a hazy and salty watery smell, if any, on the tip of his nose, for no apparent reason, it was damp.

He looked around suspiciously and carefully, slippers gently touching the soft carpet, the dim light at the end of the long corridor blurred the vision of people, somehow, he suddenly felt that a line of people was walking in the throat of some giant beast.

This feeling made his heart chill and uncomfortable.

Going up and down the elevator, using the permission card, unlocking the iris DNA code, opening the metal doors… The familiar scene came into view, and Jiang Mian had to pinch hard on his hand to prove he wasn’t dreaming.

The experiment station reopened, the noise of people came, standing below, Jiang Mian could see the rush of researchers running back and forth behind the windows, the hall was empty, no patrol guards, and the mermaid observation room was cleaned and watery, the rippling blue light illuminated the high open space, Raperth eagerly pressed against the foggy glass wall, waving at him vigorously.

Time seemed to rewind, back to before the mermaid had gone on a rampage, before the display of superhuman abilities, control infrasound before the killing spree…

The unreasonable logic and bugs were too much, Jiang Mian’s brain instantly went down, he didn’t have time to rejoice, just stood frozen, looking at Raperth, until the guards kindly asked him to go up. Jiang Mian, like he was sleepwalking, followed them up to the experimental station.

As soon as he entered, all the researchers involved in the mermaid project — that was almost the entire top of the institute — stopped their work in unison and looked up in unison, smiling at Jiang Mian. Dozens of faces as pale as masks, the corners of their mouth raised up, also like the standard print.

Jiang Mian couldn’t help but take a step back, his scalp vaguely tingling.

…It was thicker, the salty fishy smell in the air.

“Mr. Jiang!” The white hair of Dr. Brown out of the crowd, walked to Jiang Mian, he raised his hand, as fast as if to slap Jiang Mian, but stopped himself and with utmost care, just gently patted Jiang Mian’s shoulder.

Or perhaps that couldn’t be called a pat, it was just a rub with Jiang Mian barely feeling the strength.

Jiang Mian’s eyes went wide, he was unable to speak after the “pat”, only retreated repeatedly. What’s going on, why are they behaving so strangely, just like a group of robots that have just been restored to their factory settings?

The old man looked at his thin palm and then up at Jiang Mian, the wrinkles on his face twitching a little, as if he was struggling to adjust his slack facial muscles.

“Mr. Jiang,” he lowered his hand, gathered his warm smile, and his expression suddenly became solemn, “we offer you our sincerest apologies for our foolish and erroneous decision, you have been wrongly detained for too long, welcome back to your post.”

“Welcome me…?” Jiang Mian spoke in a low voice, his voice distinctly hard and hoarse from not speaking to anyone for so long, “I… don’t understand.”

With a quick sweep, he didn’t see either Fabian or Ted in the crowd.

“Where’s Dr. Fabian?” He asked wearily, “Was this his idea?”

He asks politely, but the words weren’t polite, as close to saying if this was Fabian’s doing.

“Dr. Fabian is sick,” another scholar came up smilingly, she seemed to have not slept for some days, a heavy black and blue under her eyes. “Very sick, so he had to rest in bed first. He’s away, but the work still has to be done, and who else could be better at accompanying mermaids than you? So, we asked you to come.”

“Sick enough to ask me to come?” Jiang Mian looked at the group coldly, since he had already torn his face from them, what was there to worry about?

“—He treated me as a prisoner with no human dignity, locked up in a fully enclosed cell for almost a month, and kidnapped me and forced me to take the blood of a mermaid, which was a decision you all agreed to together. Now you look at me, as if nothing had happened, as if all the damage had never happened? It’s ridiculous, you guys are really ridiculous…”

Jiang Mian’s eyes were oozing with haggard red blood, he didn’t care how sick Fabian was, he only cared if Fabian could just die in bed from the disease. Jiang Mian hated Fabian, and he hated the top brass at the Institute just as much as he hated them.

Strangely enough, the distinguished scholars and researchers in front of him, who considered themselves superior, didn’t get angry at Jiang Mian’s rare and disrespectful remarks.

Dr. Brown, standing at the front of the room, nodded calmly and said, “Then, Mr. Jiang, allow me, in my own way, to make amends to you.”

Before Jiang Mian could ask what your way was, he saw the old man with white hair find a table and slam his head into it!

Jiang Mian jaw dropped, before he could react, everyone in the experiment station as if they had lost their minds, madly grabbing the table with their heads. Like dozens of emotionless, only-know-how-to-obey-orders-and-kowtow machines. Loud bang bangs sounded incessantly, papers sent flying by their hits, a chaos and mess.

Jiang Mian was horrified, but was shocked and disoriented for a moment, and when he came back to his senses, many people in front of him were already bleeding, almost dying alive on the corner of the table.

“Stop! All stop!” Jiang Mian shouted, “Are you crazy?

As soon as he said that, those people immediately stopped.

Dr. Brown’s face was covered with blood, and the wound on the corner of his forehead was almost bone deep. However, he still maintained a calm smile and said, “I apologize to you, Mr. Jiang.”

Jiang Mian was so creeped out that he clasped his arms and took an alert step backwards, muttering, “You’ve become like this, Ra— I mean the experimental subject, he…”

“Oh, you said the experimental subject!” As if by reflex, a buzz of easy laughter rang out in the room, like flies and mosquitoes spewing out of their nests, “It’s okay, it’s okay! Our experiments have come to fruition, for the time being, we can’t use mermaids, it doesn’t matter if we relax the intensity of supervision.”

…It’s okay? It doesn’t matter?

Jiang Mian more and more felt that this was a dream, moreover, was a most absurd and strange dream.

What did he mean it didn’t matter? Just a month ago, the entire Institute’s top brass was scared out of their wits by Raperth, wishing they had been born in a vacuum to avoid the horrific slaughter of infrasound. Unexpectedly, within a thousand kilometers, Jiang Mian was the only one who could get close to Raperth.

At this moment, standing here with a wide grin, you act and speak as if you aren’t afraid that he can decide your life and death on a whim, and didn’t imprison a deep-sea mermaid, and then kidnap me to threaten his blood… 

Yes, mermaid blood… …Raperth said that it must be mermaid blood that went terribly wrong! Seeing their reaction, weren’t their brains stirred up by the Immortal Water?

Jiang Mian shook his head incredulously as he looked around and asked tentatively, “Where’s Ted?”

“Mr. Ted has been offered a promotion,” Dr. Brown said, uncharacteristically answering Jiang Mian’s questions, “He’s gone to sea with the research vessel and is expected to return in four months.”

Through the spilling blood, he stared at Jiang Mian encouragingly and eagerly, expecting him to ask his next question.

“I-I have nothing more to ask.” Jiang Mian shook his head numbly, eager to get out of this bizarre, absurd situation. Being here was like stepping into a rickety canoe that could capsize at any moment, and he had to get out and find the solid anchor he could, “I’m going down now…”

He paused for a moment and said vaguely, “…I’m going down to Raperth.”

In the past, this was a slip of the tongue that couldn’t be let off lightly, for the mermaid was an experiment, and the experiment didn’t deserve a name, even one defined for him by the human academy. However, the mistake was overlooked by all, and their eyes glowed with excitement as if Jiang Mian had made a great claim, begging unanimously, “Please go!”

The pale, blinding lights of the experiment station seemed to melt everyone’s features and eyebrows into the same shape, as if they were mass-produced, flesh-and-blood figurines, and Jiang Mian’s hair stood on end as he stumbled back a few steps, hastily pushing past the guards and running to where Raperth was.

He couldn’t take it anymore, it was really too weird!

Raperth, Jiang Mian’s anchor point, the only remaining, loyal, constant thing in his life, was now pressing his massive body against the back of the glass wall, showing a wet puppy dog expression and urging him eagerly to hurry over.

“Raperth!” Seeing him, Jiang Mian really felt grounded, and forgetting his tired body, he flew up the steps to the feeding port, where the male mermaid then leapt out of the water, splashing against his glittering scales and skin, turning into a million points of crystal clear dust… 

Wait, leap out of the water?

Jiang Mian froze, he looked at the open terrace pool in front of him, it was almost difficult to link it with the previous solid and closed narrow feeding mouth.

Forgive him, but Jiang Mian’s upbringing has made him a man of few words, but at this point, he wanted to scream:

——What the hell is all this!

Raperth flicked his tail so nimbly that he could float up at once, so he had to show off his diamond-shaped scales, flashing his white fangs and gold-cut claws. The long and wide tail fins swayed and swung, each line of strength is precise to the harsh, quite deliberate to present a dance-like elegant rhythm.

In the war of courtship, there were no lazy males, and even if there were, their genes and bloodline were like fragile bubbles, long since obliterated in the endless waves of the sea.

Jiang Mian’s breath slightly suffocated, and he couldn’t help but pause for a moment.

Standing in his perspective, the extravagantly dense dark hair curled, swirling along the broad shoulders, winding around the mermaid’s toned back muscles like a carving. Even in such a puzzling situation, Jiang Mian couldn’t help but secretly measure Raperth’s length and stature, and silently pressed his heart, sighing that he was really a huge, huge creation… 

…No, you’re off topic again, this isn’t the time to think about that!

“Raperth, what the hell is going on?” The youth came back to his senses and hurriedly asked, “Everything is so weird, so weird that it scares me… Is this the portal they opened for you?”

Let me diagnose your condition first, Pearl.

Raperth stared at him unblinkingly, gill lines opening and closing. Although only twenty-seven days had passed since he had last seen Jiang Mian, which was nothing to the long life span of a mermaid, for Raperth, who had been forced to part with his mate, it had been an eternity.

There was no doubt that Jiang Mian had lost a lot of weight again, the sour smell of exhaustion that wisped into the ripe sweetness of the pre-hot flash… But dry, pale pink lips? Lovely. Fine white soft fingers? Lovely. Shy, bright black eyes?

Lovely. Climbing up the steps, reddened cheeks puffed out from panting and discontent? So cute, absolutely adorable, a round little jellyfish, that both of Raperth’s hearts swell up with it and he just wanted to take Jiang Mian in his mouth.

“…Raperth?” Jiang Mian asked suspiciously, he saw the mermaid’s unblinking look, the other side not only blushed, his golden eyes were also frighteningly bright.

Jiang Mian slowly moved backwards, his skin tightening under the gaze, and an inexplicable wave of heat spreading from his aching bones, intent on numbing his arms and legs. He couldn’t resist clearing his throat and tried again, “Raperth?”

The male mermaid’s pupils quivered, and as Jiang Mian moved backward bit by bit, he slowly approached.

Jiang Mian desperately swallowed saliva, no, Raperth wasn’t a predator, he wasn’t angry, had no killing intent, nor did he make a hunting gesture, but somehow, his approaching aura, his silent breaking the surface of the water, and that hungry look… In Jiang Mian’s eyes, all of them were hundreds of times worse than hunting.

“Raperth…?” Jiang Mian spoke in a whisper, “Can you…? Can you just stay where you are…”

“You’re moving away from me.” The mermaid grunted in aggravation.

Jiang Mian’s eyes widened, “That’s because you’re moving closer to me! As long as you stop, I won’t move.”

“Uh-huh, okay.” Raperth said, continuing to move closer, “If you stop, I won’t move either.”

“Okay,” Jiang Mian breathed, pulling a killer move that he’d read about in books, when friends were dating, “but if I stop and you don’t, I’ll just… I’ll never talk to you again, okay?”

Oops, the mermaid’s quietly outstretched claws froze, okay.

Jiang Mian was in shock, rubbing his burning face in a wretched attempt to cool down and get the conversation back on track, “Seriously, what the hell is going on here? Those people are so weird, it’s creepy as hell.”

He took a moment to glance up at the upper viewport, and Raperth took the opportunity to squeeze forward a short distance, and then immediately stood still as Jiang Mian withdrew his gaze.

The male mermaid replied slowly, “My blood? I guess.”

“What’s wrong with your blood?” Jiang Mian asked.

[You don’t need to know, Pearl.] Raperth smiled a little and said vaguely, “It could be a hallucination, my blood… has strong… hallucinogenic powers.”

Jiang Mian opened his mouth, his shapely brow furrowed in contemplation for a moment.

“Is that even possible? I mean, hallucinations alone can make them so, so… You didn’t see how they acted upstairs just now! It’s really freaking me out.”

“It’s like hypnosis, with a little guidance… can be. It’s just that their behavior… it gets weird.” The king smiled compassionately, his marble-hard face looked a little softer for it, “As soon as I succeeded… I let the humans… immediately release you… and opened this again.”

Don’t be afraid, Pearl, that’s only a small punishment they deserve.

Jiang Mian looked at him in surprise, his eyes overflowing with joy, almost jumping for it, “That’s why you willingly gave them the blood, because you knew its side effects are hallucinogenic! Great, now you can get out of here, you’re free!”

Raperth looked at Jiang Mian with fondness and agreed absentmindedly, “Yes, hallucinogenic… of course.”

Addis: I want someone to love me so much that they would use their blood to turn all my enemies into mind-controlled soulless zombies. 🙁