He and It Chapter 26: The King’s Pearl (26)

Chapter 26: The King’s Pearl (26)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

Fabian laughed hoarsely, “Fucking bitch… You really betrayed your race, didn’t you?”

It seemed he doesn’t know what I am, Jiang Mian ignored Fabian’s impotent rage and asked bluntly, “What do you want?”

Fabian spat out blood intermittently, “I want the antidote to mermaid blood… Give me the antidote!”

Jiang Mian laughed and sneered, “How do you want it?”

If the delusional maniac behind him really wanted to blackmail Raperth with Jiang Mian’s life, then, the moment he made his demand, Jiang Mian would have retaliated against him in his own way. The fever had ignited the mermaid’s blood, and these days, his bones were harder and his muscles tighter and stronger, Jiang Mian was undergoing a transformation, and Fabian was the first to experience the effects.

“I don’t believe your monster!” Fabian’s eyes were wide open, his face twisted with severe pain, “You must know… You must know Jiang Pingyang’s wisdom code, find it… I want the antidote, I want the antidote to the Immortal Water! There’s no way he doesn’t have a backup, I want Jiang Pingyang’s last research manuscript!”

Jiang Mian was stunned for a long time.

Fabian only believed in his own kind, his obsession with Jiang Pingyang’s research wasn’t something Jiang Mian couldn’t understand. It was just that ever since he learned of his mermaid identity, Jiang Mian had been running away from things that concerned Jiang Pingyang, he never opened Jiang Pingyang’s notebook, and never mentioned his adoptive father’s name to Raperth. Perhaps this was a providential moment for him to confront Jiang Pingyang’s last legacy.

“Haven’t you been keeping the terminal in the VIP room?” Jiang Mian asked. “I want to find it, but I have no idea where to look.”

Fabian gasped, grabbed Jiang Mian by the protective suit on his shoulders, and pulled him back step by step, with the mermaid following closely behind.

They crossed the long corridor in a difficult and comical state, passing countless rooms with closed doors, and at the end of the corridor, Fabian unlocked the DNA lock on the main room and dragged Jiang Mian into it.

Jiang Pingyang’s personal terminal was planted in the very center, surrounded by a surrounding stream of parsed data — it seemed that the Institute had never given up on cracking the barriers of this thing.

Jiang Mian’s lower jaw was pressed against a cold kitchen knife, still covered with half-dried blood, and he looked down with a calm expression on his face.

“In fact, holding a knife against me may not be able to prevent the mermaid blood inside you.” Jiang Mian opened his mouth, and in response, Fabian turned the blade upward with a vengeance and said in a mute voice, “Shut up! Now you are in my hands… I’ll see if that freak is afraid!”

Jiang Mian laughed, “You used to be jealous of Dr. Jiang, right? When it came to life and death, you had to give in to the genius you once desperately wanted to surpass, it’s not a good feeling, is it?”

In the distance, the mermaid was watching, and after the gunfire, the body was rampant with boiling mermaid cells, Fabian was able to stand here by virtue of Jiang Mian’s blood and the Immortal Water of the first generation, he was able to spit out the whole sentence intact, but really by a will to die. The room was foggy, but he was sweating like he was dehydrated, as if he had just gotten out of the sea, and when he got close enough to listen, Jiang Mian could hear the sound of the teeth grinding together, creepy like breaking ice.

But that was the end of it, even with a superhuman steel will, enough to support Fabian to this point, the intense pain and long nibbles still wear his mind, making it difficult for him to detect Jiang Mian’s unusual calm. He had resolved to throw in the towel, he wanted to live, no matter what, remove the gain of Immortal Water, he was still very young, not one of those old things with half a foot in the grave!

As long as I can remove the immortal water from my body and release the mermaid from the harsh torture and control… 

“I just want the antidote, find it for me!” Fabian ignored Jiang Mian’s sarcasm, his eyes bulged, and he roared like a madman, the blade of the knife deep into the throat of the hostage. Even if it was a dull knife, a normal person would have been stuck unable to breathe, but Jiang Mian only slightly raised his neck, his eyes didn’t ripple.

He smiled and glanced at Raperth’s expression — if his eyes could kill, Fabian would be cut into 11,000,000 pieces of flesh, but since Jiang Mian was safe, the mermaid still firmly adhered to the rules of the hunting season, only circling the field, not presuming to interfere with the partner’s disposal of the prey. 

“Please enter the bioelectronic code.” Sensing someone approaching, the cold electronic female voice rang out, projecting a cloud of blue light of indeterminate form in the air.

“Fine. Since you want it so badly…” Jiang Mian stretched out his hand and pressed on the fingerprint code, “Then I’ll also see what’s in the things Dr. Jiang left behind.”

The blue light scanned Jiang Mian’s fingerprints and iris from top to bottom, showing a passing white light, and the original mechanical voice was gone, replaced by Jiang Pingyang’s familiar, serious and slightly tired voice.

“Password.”

Jiang Mian closed his eyes for a moment.

Even though he knew his true identity, knew that Jiang Pingyang had been using harsh methods to contain his mermaid blood, allowing him to witness the tragic situation of his kin being torn and tortured before his eyes, Jiang Pingyang was after all his father, the father who had raised, and sheltered him, the only family member he had been with for over twenty years.

Fabian hissed and urged, “Say the password, say the password! Say it!”

Jiang Mian frowned in annoyance as he opened his eyes and heard Jiang Pingyang’s voice continue, “…If you’re the right person, you should know what kind of way you can use to open my personal terminal.”

The white light gathered and converged into the shape of a door lock.

Jiang Mian stared at the lock, the shape of the lock core looked familiar, and so did the inscription on the lock. It was the lock of Jiang Pingyang’s office, where Jiang Mian spent his entire childhood and most of his teenage years.

During the many old and yellow days, Jiang Pingyang used to sit on a wide chair, looking at Jiang Mian’s quietly studying back, occasionally calling out to him, telling him not to rush to read and not to forget to drink water; in summer nights, Jiang Pingyang took him up to the top floor of the institute, teaching him to point out the stars in the sky and look at the distant coastline; the old man was stereotypically strict, but whenever Jiang Mian achieved his class requirements, he always showed a small smile, driving the two deep lines on his cheeks… 

Jiang Mian took a deep breath and called out in a trembling voice, “Dad.”

“That afternoon, in my office, what important thing did I return to you?” After a moment of silence, Jiang Pingyang’s voice asked again.

Jiang Mian hesitated for a moment, and when he opened his mouth, his tone was already much more subdued.

“It’s the nib of my gold fountain pen.”

“For what?”

“For… Lady Red’s accidental death.”

There was a click and the door lock opened.

The terminal was silent for a long time, and once again Jiang Pingyang’s voice came out.

The old man exhaled slowly and whispered wearily, “Okay, what I say next, cannot be skipped or cut, if there’s a single word change, then the people in the institute will know what will happen.”

As his words fell, the door of the main room closed with a bang, and the alloy doorstop flew down, rotating and nesting, as if it had touched some hidden command mechanism, and the mechanical electronic voice rang out again at the same time, “Sigma Institute is closed, awaiting unsealing instructions.”

Jiang Mian was so stunned that he couldn’t care less about the knife on his neck and hurriedly turned his head to look at Jiang Pingyang’s terminal.

Fabian’s eyes were about to bulge out of their sockets, “The highest authority of the Institute? How can it still be in… He has it…!”

“I know, there’s only one reason why this voice was triggered, and that’s my death.” Jiang Pingyang said to himself, “No matter whether one is alive or dead, coming or going, one is always alone in the world. I can’t die without making plans for my son, so former colleagues, for the sake of our orphaned old father, let’s not count on it.”

Jiang Mian’s lips quirked and he didn’t speak.

“In fact, there’s no such thing as Dr. Jiang’s terminal, here are just a few words I said to him. After my death, my successor will most likely be Dr. Fabian, Jiang Mian will be isolated, and my terminal will definitely be withheld by Sigma. If this last message were to see the light of day, there are only two possibilities: Jiang Mian is free and his clansmen have found him; you have discovered his true identity or have made no further progress in the research of the Immortal Water and are planning to unload and squeeze the last bit of value out of Jiang Mian to force him to open my terminal.”

Fabian was already frozen in place.

“The clan…?” He asked in a low voice, “What clansman? Who’s your clansman?”

Jiang Pingyang threw down this big thunderbolt, but didn’t go deeper into the explanation, just started another conversation and slowly said, “Son, I’m sorry for you.”

“I’m not a good person, good father, I have lied to you too much. That day, I led Sigma’s research vessel, at sea to carry out the mission of the Institute, vowed to find out the traces of mermaids. In the past, I was young and impetuous, bent on going to the most dangerous places, believing that high risk has high reward. Now that I think about it, that day was indeed a convergence of many coincidences that allowed me to monitor the strange movements of Drake Passage and to discover you.”

“When I saw you, you were lying in a cradle made of coral and bathing hornbone sponge, floating alone at sea, crying and weeping… I fished you up and saw that the cradle was made, really exquisite, with a special book of stones inside. That scene was imprinted on my heart for too many years. You were smaller than a human baby, below the waist, a translucent fish tail, I still remember that night there were no dark clouds, starlight filled the sky, illuminating your whole body with a milky white light…”

Jiang Mian stood stunned in place, he had never heard Jiang Pingyang speak to him in such a tone, as if pouring out the tenderness of a father.

“The first time I saw you, I picked you up,” Jiang Pingyang smiled faintly, “You were so cold, so small, so fragile. I was dumbfounded, I actually thought, is it too cold, that’s why you cried more? So I went to cover you with my bare hands, trying to warm your body.”

He paused, as if recalling the scene, and then sighed, “At that moment, a strange sight appeared: you lay in my hands, the scales gradually receded, the fins on the side of your face slowly became human ears, the small fish tail also gradually differentiated into two human legs… My jaw dropped, it was so fast that it was like a dream, and when I looked back, you were completely a human baby.”

There was silence as Fabian’s questioning was spiteful and shocking, “You… how could you be a mermaid?”

Jiang Mian said through clenched teeth, “Shut up.”

“I’ve been a staunch materialist up until this point, but after watching this scene, I had a moment of doubt in myself. I know I should have given you to Sigma, both out of duty and out of curiosity about the unknown, and I should have marked you as a rare experiment.”

The old man whispered, “I still hesitated because of that momentary, soul-touching sensation… How could I bear to let you grow up in a sterile laboratory and endure countless mutilations? Two thoughts pulled back and forth in my heart, and finally, I decided to take the image of the slate book, destroy it along with the cradle, and lie that you were the orphan I picked up from the sea…”

Jiang Pingyang said softly, “I named you Jiang Mian, not for the sake of the poem, but because the first time I saw you, you were sleeping on the sea, it was a strange scene. Although I have you as a son, my heart is constantly thinking: picking you up, adopting you, in the end is that good or bad?”

“You’re an anomaly, not only from your bloodline, but also your character and heart. When you were little, you didn’t like to laugh, nor talk. The way of thinking and speech and behavior were very different from ordinary children. I became your adoptive father, but also took you to a crisis-ridden place. In order for you not to show mermaid characteristics, I added a disinfectant formula similar to shark repellent to the water in Sigma, not allowing you to eat raw fish or raw meat, trying to cover up your special features. Sometimes I ask myself: why didn’t you let him go, why couldn’t you have pretended you didn’t see him that day and continued to let him drift on the ocean?”

“But there is no if, some things are like that, take the first step, and you can never turn back, only step by step…”

Raperth narrowed his eyes as he watched Jiang Mian’s reaction and saw his face was stunned and his gaze was incredibly complex.

Poor Pearl… 

He pressed on, it wasn’t time to snap.

“I researched the mermaid population and guessed that the slate books may not contain very important documents, and I also found out that mermaids possess a semblance called ‘soulmate’. Perhaps you’re thinking, since I know your identity, how could I let you take care of the mermaid you called ‘Lady Red’ and let you see all her misery?” Jiang Pingyang’s low voice echoed in the VIP room, “You have always been an intelligent child, you should be able to guess that, yes, I have forced you to make a choice in my heart…”

Fabian couldn’t take it anymore, he was already losing consciousness from the pain. He snarled, “Are you done with this? I…!”

“Shut up!” Jiang Mian was so full of anger that he had nowhere to go, and the German behind him interrupted Jiang Pingyang several times, causing him to pretend that he couldn’t go on anymore.

Raperth was ready to turn his skull into a bowl of tofu crumbs, but Jiang Mian hit first, slapping the delirious German to the ground.

The mermaid was originally poised to strike, but moved backward with his tail twitching, ear fins also closed.

Pearl is so fierce! But so cute…  

“…I’m selfish, self-interested, not destined to live long, bound to Sigma for life, and can no longer get a step away from here, but I have studied your blood and know that you are a mix of human and mermaid. I want to know whether you will retreat back and choose the human identity; or decide to go forward and choose the mermaid identity.”

“If you chose the identity of a human and chose to live with me, I wouldn’t say you were cowering; if you chose the identity of a mermaid and chose to save that mermaid…”

Jiang Mian hand clenched into a fist, deeply embedded in the palm, tormented waiting for Jiang Pingyang’s next words. At his feet, Fabian gasped in pain and moaned uncontrollably.

“…I won’t blame you for leaving me behind, I’d helped you, I’d helped you escape from here and go where you should have been in the first place.”

Jiang Mian’s eyelashes trembled slightly, and his hands suddenly loosened.

“I just didn’t think that maybe you saw the end of her certain death and didn’t recklessly save her from it, but opened the pen I gave you and gave her a chance to master her death… I have mixed feelings in my heart, I don’t know whether I should be joyful, or should feel guilty.”

After saying this, Jiang Pingyang was silent for a long time before he continued to speak.

“I am a congenital heart patient, originally not being able to live long. I refuse to use the Immortal Water to extend my life, but in these twenty years, I’m grateful, you could accompany me, son.”

He whispered, “Well, that’s enough of these verbose last words. As I said earlier, if these words ever see the light of day, there are only two possibilities: that Jiang Mian is free to leave Sigma, or that you intend to kill him. Either way, I’m well aware of the power of mermaids and how resilient they are. The Institute’s highest authority has been copied by me, and I expect that in two minutes and forty seconds, the self-destruct device for emergency evacuation will operate — a fourteen-ton TNT charge, and you will not forget that the Sigma Institute is built underground on the seafront one hundred and twenty meters, and the underground water resources are still unusually rich, right?”

“Goodbye, son.” Jiang Pingyang said, “I’m sorry, and proud of you. Just leave everything I have here, don’t bother taking it away.”

Jiang Mian was too shocked to digest the message and turned to Raperth in a panic, “Get out of here! This place is about to collapse, he wouldn’t lie!”

Raperth scampered up, tail seemingly unintentionally whipped over Fabian, and jerked him like garbage into the adjacent alloy wall, where the mermaid whispered, “Outside, there are still some people you want.”

Jiang Mian said anxiously, “You can take them with you! I know that underneath the Institute is an artificial dark river, a waterway for submarines!”