He and It Chapter 29: The King’s Pearl (29)

Chapter 29: The King’s Pearl (29)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

Spring turned to autumn, summer to winter.

Jiang Mian and his mermaid wandered between the major seas. They went to the equatorial ocean, where Jiang Mian tasted fresh coconuts for the first time. Raperth, curiously holding the hard fruit, accidentally burst two shells and splashed coconut juice all over his hands, causing Jiang Mian to laugh;

They have also been to the bone-chilling polar regions, where the animals on the glaciers had abundant fat and fur, and the fish that lived there were firm, sweet and chewy. On windless, moonless nights, Jiang Mian lied on top of Raperth, eating fish and looking up at the aurora borealis, which spanned the sky like a river of illusion;

Raperth taught him how to tell the weather, how to tell by smell whether it was a playful time or a day of fury when he had to dive for cover… 

They also punish, and destroy, the whalers who have the audacity to do so. When it came to Jiang Mian, Raperth could become the most gentle and patient teacher under the sun. He guided Jiang Mian to use his vocal organs properly, telling him that the voice was one of the many wonders that could be displayed in a mermaid.

When Jiang Mian managed to melt the whaler’s navigation and communication systems with just one sound wave, sending it spinning awkwardly in the middle of the ocean, he and Raperth listened to the ship’s increasingly panicked commotion, cowering in the coral reef like two children who had succeeded in their mischief, laughing together. Then, chasing each other, they wandered off into other waters.

Jiang Mian had to make up for his confined childhood, and Raperth had to make up for the days he should have spent with his partner, but had to regret missing. They never said a word of love to each other, but their bond with each other was so deeply rooted and indestructible that every moment they looked into each other’s eyes deepened this passion that never dried up.

They didn’t argue, disagree, or fight coldly. In the past, Jiang Mian had listened to those at the Institute discuss in his spare time what a truly healthy relationship would look like, and thus he would ponder whether his relationship with Raperth, who respected him, praised him, and never disobeyed his wishes or intentions, was a healthy one. But it seemed that in this symbiosis of souls, he and Raperth were too dependent, too enamored of each other, so closely intertwined that they could hardly fit anything else in.

Of course, this wasn’t a bad thing, in fact, Jiang Mian sometimes even felt a vague fear, because what he got was so wonderful and unbelievable that he had to doubt himself and imagine that it was a dream and that he would wake up.

In response, Raperth commented, “I don’t understand you, Pearl.”

After some thought, he switched to a more fluent mermaid language, [You are half human raised by humans, although the lifespan of a mermaid is very long, you will spend time in the sea, more than dozens of times longer than on land, but the foundation of these twenty years, has made you a completely different life than a mermaid. I don’t understand you, because your mind is profound and delicate, and your ideas are infinitely varied, you can think, but some of our kin have long been spoiled by great power and long life, and have become fierce beasts that act only by instinct.]

[This bitters me, and makes me happy. I don’t know you well enough yet, so every time I guess your mind, I feel joyful and feel one step closer to your heart.] His hand made soothing little circles on Jiang Mian’s back, [You see, the waves travel in an unpredictable way, and the sea is ever-changing, nothing is unchanging, as you are growing, and that growth will not be fixed. As long as you are here, my joy will not dissipate.]

He smiled tenderly, his golden eyes shining, [I know myself well enough to be able to assure you of this.]

Jiang Mian wept as he rubbed his body into Raperth’s chest, leaving a sweet, long, passionate kiss on the mermaid’s lips that made the fish’s tail curl.

The following year, they returned to Drake Passage, Stormhaven Bay, Jiang Mian’s true home.

Raperth’s parents were still the rulers of the sea, depending on whether Raperth wanted to take over the real throne now, but Raperth was still too young to be the monarch of an ocean, and he wasn’t even a hundred years old.

Moreover, he preferred to spend time with Jiang Mian, not even wanting to waste time and divide his eyes between other people or things.

Holding Jiang Mian’s hand, Raperth finally took him to the Tidal Library. In the darkness of the sea abyss, Jiang Mian heard an incomparably vast, drifting almost musical murmur, like a fine snow landing on the bottom of the sea. The placid jellyfish trailed dozens of meters of silky swinging tail, gracefully reverberating in the star-like band of light, which was the whisper of the ocean, while at the same time, the long whistle of cetaceans came from afar, like a clear morning bell, resolutely crossing all the sound of floating snow and broken rain.

[In human terms,] Raperth took his hand, [Perhaps… Is this a dating mecca?]

Jiang Mian smiled; this was the deep sea, and he had to use the mermaid’s sonic communication, he agreed, [True to its name.]

Above the sea cliff, illuminated by the sky’s glowing light, they shared a light and long kiss.

As for the shipwreck site, it was marked by Jiang Mian as the first place to love adventure. He was Raperth’s soulmate, and no creature under the sea that had lost its wits and tried to die dared to harm him, and Jiang Mian was too late to expand his curiosity — for example, when he tried to sneak up on a too-small and brightly colored octopus from behind, it had sensed the heavy threat from the male mermaid and hurriedly spewed out a large cloud of ink in a panic, then scurried into the dark waters and disappeared.

This couldn’t help but make Jiang Mian very discouraged.

In this case, Raperth must put the king’s court treasure map.

It must be admitted that Jiang Mian had a great time looking for it. He traveled through those 7th to 17th century shipwrecks, where the sea corroded some things, but left more. Silk, wood, ivory and rhinoceros horn, lacquer and leather… Many materials of art have long since broken and decayed under the action of salt and condensation, but those of minerals, bronze, gold and silver, tin and aluminum, ceramics… Jiang Mian recovered a new-looking bronze nautilus ornament from an old merchant ship.

The craftsmanship was exquisite and the bronze color was so beautiful that Jiang Mian decided to place it in his and Raperth’s lair, along with the mermaid statue and emerald fork Raperth had found earlier, as a souvenir of their new home.

“Little one,” after much deliberation, Raperth decided to speak up, “What is this?”

In front of him, a marble statue of a mermaid stood straight up, holding a green fork and wearing a green nautilus on its head.

“Art.” Jiang Mian nodded haughtily, “Art is mixing and matching.”

Raperth opened his mouth, showing his sharp teeth in confusion, he hesitated, but nodded heavily, “…Yes! Very classy.”

In the third year, they met Ted.

At that time, after Raperth took control of the Institute, he first absorbed some of the people’s memories and knew that Ted had a more friendly relationship with Jiang Mian than the normal people. This land folk was timid, cowardly, and incompetent, but in the circumstances, he after all retained a part of the soft heart, willing to show Jiang Mian human interaction in good faith.

Humans usually believed that it was easy to add flowers to the cake, but difficult to send charcoal to the snow, and for this difficulty, Raperth granted him permission to leave in a boat, without having to suffer from the eternal Immortal Water.

Jiang Mian surfaced and looked at the figure standing on the bow of the boat as Raperth quietly appeared behind him.

“He doesn’t look too bad.” Jiang Mian leaned back, his head resting gently on his mate’s chest.

“I let him go and gave him a boat,” Raperth replied invitingly, “and he certainly looks good.”

Jiang Mian smiled, the complete destruction of the Sigma Institute and the devastating blow to the maritime power of the Sigma Group had made Ted almost a triple exile, the research vessel that had followed him out to sea at the time was his if he wanted it.

Ted turned around, he seemed to notice something at sea. Not waiting for him to run over to see what was going on, Jiang Mian waved his hand, and took Raperth to dive into the sea.

[It’s better to stay away.] When the ship had shrunk to an invisible dot in the ocean, Jiang Mian said, [Good for him.]

Raperth didn’t care about a landlubber, he only cared about Jiang Mian, and seeing his mate’s slightly disappointed look, he thought for a moment and whistled without moving.

Not long after, the waves tossed, and several lively small dolphins quietly swam from behind, coldly topping Jiang Mian’s waist.

“Ouch!” Jiang Mian was startled, he looked back and saw these lively puppy-like… No, they were even more lively than puppies, so he smiled and threw his frustration to the sky.

Dolphins were by nature so agile and intelligent that even a deep-sea mermaid like Raperth wouldn’t venture to add them to the recipe, treating them in a manner more akin to treating a pet that scurries about the sea. Moreover, they were mammals that needed to surface from time to time and breathe with their lungs, and young dolphins need more care from their elders, so when mermaids see dolphins in distress, they usually give a helping hand.

Perhaps to the dolphins, the mermaids were like a human-looking but much stronger parent, Jiang Mian thought as he followed the young dolphins around the coral reef, over the heads of the jellyfish, and then onto Raperth… The male mermaid patiently watched over the cubs, sending them up to the surface to breathe every now and then.

When they were tired of playing, Jiang Mian waved goodbye to the dolphins and watched them return to their own group. Gradually, Jiang Mian was held in Raperth’s arms and saw the sun setting in the distance, the golden red haze shimmering in the quiet sea, like countless broken fires, jumping on the snow-white wave tips.

“The sun is going down.” Jiang Mian said.

Raperth said, confused, “The sun has gone down to the sea.”

Jiang Mian stifled his laughter and continued, “The stars are rising.”

Raperth agreed and said, “The moon is coming up too.”

The sea breeze grew cold and wet, and if Jiang Mian had been a mere human, he would have had to wrap his whole body in a down jacket to withstand the cold, but his mermaid blood had made him impervious to the cold and heat, and he could only smell the sunlight still lingering in the pounding wind.

The sun completely set, the stars began to shine, and the moon rose from the other side, covering the sea with a soft light, as if the silence of the snow, the waves condensed into a silver-white, flawless and voluminous mirror.

“People often say,” Jiang Mian spoke quietly, “that the moment after the sun goes down and before the moon rises is the loneliest moment of one’s day.”

Raperth said in disbelief, “It’s just a very ordinary, but very beautiful moment.”

Jiang Mian laughed and lay in his partner’s arms, unable to stop his sleepiness, he tilted his head and rested his forehead against the side of the mermaid’s neck, murmuring and repeating the other man’s words, “Yes, it’s just very ordinary… But it’s beautiful, that’s all.”

In the long hours of their lives, the past was turned over and a new day would dawn.