He and It Chapter 5: The King’s Pearl (5)

Chapter 5: The King’s Pearl (5)

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: KarateChopMonkey

 

Jiang Mian was curled up on the carpet, having been wheeled in by two guards.

The mechanical sound of a locked door came from behind him, and Jiang Mian’s mind was a muddle, completely numb. The strong electric light still remained in his vision, flickering so violently that he could barely see what was in front of him.

Covering his bursting temples, he struggled to peel off his protective hood, stumbled into the lavatory, turned the faucet on as hard as it would go, then dove into the sink and waited for the familiar stinging sensation to overwhelm him.

The Sigma Institute was heavily guarded, and its domestic water was particularly special, with some allergy-inducing chemicals added to it, others were fine, only for Jiang Mian, when he touched it a little longer would be like being painfully burned by a highly concentrated disinfectant, so he had to use pure water for washing.

But Jiang Pingyang was gone, and no one would pay attention to his self-harm anymore. The cold, cold water washed down over his face, not over the bridge of his nose. Jiang Mian opened his mouth wide and knelt at the sink, inhaling deeply, his lungs dry, with an uncontrollable thirst.

The water calmed him, and even though they would soon burn with fervor, jumping and poking at his skin, for a short time he did feel much better.

The youth’s hair was wet, floating loosely beside him in the water, and his eyelashes were covered in tiny droplets of water. When he returned to the familiar confined space, he could no longer control himself, his eyes turned red and tears rolled down his cheeks before his allergic reaction, Jiang Mian buried his face in the water and cried silently.

Raperth didn’t belong here, nor did the mermaid from six years ago, all of whom were captured for selfish reasons and held here by force for research — as if they couldn’t cry, laugh, hurt, or speak… 

Immortality from blood, artificially deformed immortal water, what kind of people will gleefully drink it?

Jiang Mian once argued with Jiang Pingyang, but Jiang Pingyang just looked at him indifferently and said, “My life, including your life, is the result of mermaid research, you don’t want to do it? Well, the word is out, tomorrow we will have to be secretly executed with our heads on and our bodies dragged out to feed the sharks. You’re arguing with me about ideals, about justice and reason, who talks to us about how to live?”

Jiang Mian couldn’t refute his adoptive father, but he knew it was wrong, and he always insisted in his heart that it was wrong. Jiang Pingyang often bemoaned in private that he was the right kind of fool. A fool may be a fool, a right kind of fool would be much better than a wrong kind of wise man.

Until today, when he once again witnessed the Institute’s vicious acts against mermaids, and they were more than ten times more violent than the last time.

Jiang Mian wanted to scream, wanted to run far away, wanted to rush out and smash it all, all the time expecting an unpleasant retribution. The painful anger was like lava, swelling his frail, sickly body. This cold, hard place of steel was always squeezing his decent but fragile moral values, trying to make him into a person who could be indifferent to the cruel persecution and then happily push the electric shock button.

Jiang Mian’s heart was weak, and every time he collided with it, he was bruised. The repressed anger had nowhere to go but to burn bitterly in his heart and torment himself.

No, his throat was convulsing with his stomach, his breathing was rapid, his windpipe was boiling, and his heart was beating so fast that it was almost slamming his chest… No.

The pool water was starting to get hot on his skin, and Jiang Mian could only push himself to the ground with all his might, an allergic reaction was coming, and if he didn’t get off the sink, his face would be swollen like a nest of hornets by tomorrow.

Okay, now breathe in, breathe out, keep the same frequency, breathe in, breathe out, and start counting from one to three.

One, two, three…- Okay, then count from one to five again, being careful to keep breathing without interruptions and not being forced to induce intense angina again, like last time… 

And then, find five things he could see, four things he could hear, three things he could touch, two things he could smell, and one thing he liked best… It’s okay, everything will be fine, you can do it, believe in yourself, it’s okay… 

Jiang Mian knew that after months of witnessing the torture of live electric shocks, he had another panic attack.

Five things he could see, the tiles, the door frame, the standing cabinet, the soap box on the standing cabinet, the soap in the soap box, which was his favorite scent of sea salt;

Four things that could be heard, the sound of the wind, the sound of breathing, the sound of water dripping from the sink, and, on second thought, not forgetting to breathe… and the sound of a heartbeat, yes, the sound of a heartbeat;

Three things to touch, the cold, cool tiles, the cold, hot water, his sticky, wet cuffs;

Two things he could smell, the Institute’s domestic water, which smelled like disinfectant, and the fishy smell of fish blood, which still seemed to linger between his fingers through his gloves;

And, the last one, his favorite thing.

Through his pocket, Jiang Mian clutched the old fountain pen inside, which was Jiang Pingyang’s favorite thing in his life, and now, only this pen remained with him.

Breathe in and out.

His arms and shoulders were twisted in the struggle just now, and now they were burning hot and sore. Strong and powerful was the basic configuration of the Institute’s guards, and for Jiang Mian to resist them was like hitting a stone with an egg.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Okay, no problem, you’ll be fine… 

After lying down for an unknown amount of time, until his heart rate calmed down, Jiang Mian tried to sit up little by little.

Leaning against the sink for a moment, he lifted his shaking hands, struggling to tear down the sweaty protective clothing, soaked to his waist, Jiang Mian slowly twisted his head, glanced, saw four red and purple finger marks indented on his upper arms, his shoulders and collarbone also had clamp marks.

His skin had always been pale, and he was prone to scarring, so the bruises on his shoulder were particularly alarming, and wouldn’t go away for a week or so.

Jiang Mian glanced listlessly for a moment, then turned his head back to the floor and stared unmoved.

What should he do?

He picked up a paper towel and dried his face, his fingers still trembling uncontrollably.

Compared to his psychologically strong and skilled colleagues at the Institute, he himself had a bit of an autistic personality, not good at hiding his emotions at all. Today he completely lost control once, and caused a serious experimental accident. It was likely that Fabian would kick him out of close contact with mermaids… 

According to the conditions of joining the project, Jiang Mian not only needed to be responsible for Raperth’s pacification and feeding, but also needed to crack Jiang Pingyang’s intellectual library. The experiment station was in dire need of research data with tangible support to combine with their current progress.

——Assuming he was no longer the mermaid’s handler, Jiang Mian was equal to being expelled from the project’s inner circle, and his duties were only left to crack the intellectual database and get the research data involving the mermaid’s slate book during Jiang Pingyang’s lifetime.

This conclusion was undoubtedly terrifying, and Jiang Mian’s breathing slowed down as he frowned in thought.

First of all, Jiang Pingyang’s intellectual database wasn’t something that could be broken just by saying so. This was bound to be a hard and long process. There was the waiting time, but anyone who made substantial progress on Raperth, then Jiang Mian’s value would be repeatedly devalued, until he was completely worthless.

At that time, his situation would be very dangerous.

Secondly, the safety of the mermaid was his only close concern at the moment. Jiang Mian was willing to take the risk and venture into the German’s research group in order to do his best so that the end of six years ago wouldn’t be repeated.

What was the point of fighting to get in if he was kicket out so soon?

It was me who was too reckless, he chided himself with chagrin, It was me who was too impulsive, too childish, if I could have held back then… 

But he asked himself, did he really hold back at that time?

Jiang Mian covered his face, he knew that a hundred times, a thousand times, he would still do the same thing. Accidents during experiments were inevitable, not to mention that Raperth was not a dead thing, he was a wounded mermaid, forced to be held in a strange prison. He didn’t even attack Jiang Mian, which really only qualified as a bit of stress.

Jiang Mian could find no reason for this unreasonable torture other than to destroy the will of the mermaid and bring him to his knees.

He hung his head in frustration, exhausted, tightly shrunken into a ball, from the body to the mind, there was no place that wasn’t painful.

—

Meanwhile, there was silence inside the experiment station, and no one wanted to speak.

The current passing through the observation room instantly was strong enough to trip a city’s electric switch, leaving a late-night satellite map abruptly vacant, but the mermaid was still floating intact in the tumbling, boiling water, its lids closed, as if in mockery.

——No, in fact, it wasn’t completely unscathed.

Looking closely, the mermaid originally floating with the waves of long hair tightly twisted together, as if curled sea snakes, densely wound in its back, waist, and belly. As a large mermaid with a body length of more than three meters, its fins wide as silk, a flashy phrase, after the electric shock penalty, those soft fins were all clustered in the fin spines, as well as sharp appendage skeleton, from a distance, it looked like an encirclement of bladed thorns, arching over the edge of the scorched and rolled wound at the tail of the fish.

…But, what kind of punishment was this?

The wound on its body was caused by the previous capture, did the high voltage electricity only deserve to color the wound?

At that moment, the mermaid suddenly opened its eyes, and it raised its head, its gaze passing through the transparent barrier and landing unmistakably on the porthole of the experiment station.

It slowly opened its thin lips, showing off its sharp teeth, revealing a smile that was almost innocent — creepily innocent.

Fabian narrowed his eyes and immediately reached forward with his arm, about to pull down the second valve switch.

“That’ll do.” The older scholar stopped in a quiet voice, his eyes falling on the mermaid, lighting up with almost frenzied delight, “Dr. Fabian, please don’t vent your personal emotions, what you just did was already very inappropriate. Not to mention the penalty system for failure, mermaids are a hierarchical group of creatures. Have you thought about the impact on subsequent research when you ordered an attack on its handler right in front of it?”

Fabian’s hand gripped the switch and said gently, “Dr. Brown, we all saw that it was the handler who caused the experiment’s mood swings, and in that regard, Jiang Mian’s completely unqualified. Of course, I don’t deny that today’s incident also reveals my mistake, I underestimated this thick-skinned beast. I promise, there won’t be a next time.”

Another scholar with neatly combed silver hair interjected warmly, “Let the young man concentrate on deciphering the slate book, which is his father’s legacy.”

“I hope the next handler will meet the standards you require.” Dr. Brown was unmoved, “We have time, but not a lot of it.”

“We will.” Fabian smiled faintly, “According to the previous situation, the probability that the experiments are still in the ‘curiosity-observation’ stage. Perhaps, we can draw the initial inference that a person whose behavior and scent are gentle and harmless can easily gain its trust.”

“Let’s hope so.” Dr. Brown cooed, “Let’s hope.”

Later that evening, after Jiang Mian had eaten, barely, he tried to find a chance to see the mermaid again.

The situation may be a little more serious than he suspected, two guards moved directly to the corridor where his room was, patrolling, and when they saw Jiang Mian open the door, they even took the initiative to come forward and ask him what he wanted.

Jiang Mian took a deep breath and whispered, “I want to…”

Only two words later, the guard interrupted him decisively, “Sorry, Mr. Jiang, we have been instructed that you can request any resources that will help with the ‘translation work’, just not near the observation room. May I ask what your needs are?”

Jiang Mian clenched his wrist for a moment.

“…What?” He looked up incredulously, “What do you mean ‘can’t go near the observation room’?”

Jiang Mian didn’t know what to say, he thought that he might be expelled from the core circle of the station, he never thought that Fabian would be so shameless and arbitrary as to ignore the previous agreement and directly deprive him of the right to enter and exit the observation room!

He hastily retrieved his personal terminal and opened the online task list, and sure enough, the position of “Handler” had been withdrawn from his information bar, leaving only a useless “Assistant Researcher”.

“He banned me?” Jiang Mian stepped forward, his face flushed red with anger, “He’s a—”

“Please don’t give us a hard time, Mr. Jiang.” The guard blocked his way, using his tall, sturdy body as a wall, “You should stay in your room and concentrate on your work.”

“I don’t need you to remind me of what I should and shouldn’t do.” Jiang Mian’s shoulders shook and he spat out words sharply and quickly, “I have something for Dr. Fabian.”

“Please don’t give us a hard time, Mr. Jiang.” The guards repeated, looking straight ahead, guns on their chests, not even glancing at Jiang Mian, standing firmly in place.

The feeling of humiliation returned, like a fire, shaking Jiang Mian’s eyes with a heavy shadow. He gnashed his back teeth, trying to suppress the heat rising from his eyes, and without a word, he turned around and heavily closed the door to the room.

He couldn’t just sit around and wait for death. In this results-oriented place, Jiang Mian was too young, and several projects were halfway done before Fabian ordered them to be terminated or replaced by someone else. No results meant no connections and no power. The only reason he didn’t end up with nothing right away was because there were few director researchers who had personal relationships with Jiang Pingyang, but that was about it.

In the team responsible for the living mermaids, it was Fabian who had the upper hand, while Jiang Mian was worthless and couldn’t move an inch.

…Slate book.

Jiang Mian jumped to the workbench, his only way out was to continue his father’s research on the decipherment of mermaid slate books.

Jiang Pingyang had done many research projects during his lifetime, but only two remained unresolved: one puzzle came from the physiology of mermaids, and the other from their culture.

The unsolved physiological mystery was due to the accidental death of a female mermaid he acquired six years ago in an experimental accident; and the unsolved cultural mystery was the mermaid slate book Jiang Pingyang obtained from his exploration under the sea.

The slate book was shaped like a loose-leaf page, and the smooth lead-gray stone surface was engraved with tiny characters inlaid with gold, with complicated strokes and archaic shapes, which had a strong pictorial nature. Jiang Pingyang once showed a female mermaid the text of the slate book, and she “showed unprecedented surprise and seriousness, trying to show her questioning of the origin of the slate book”.

Jiang Pingyang therefore deduced that the importance of the tablet book couldn’t be overstated, and that it might carry a history of mermaids, or perhaps a document of great importance. If it could be deciphered, the human side would undoubtedly have a powerful lever to pry open a corner of the mermaid mystery.

He was already standing on the shoulders of Jiang Pingyang’s achievements over the past ten years, Jiang Mian said to himself, and if there was even the slightest sign of a breakthrough, he could use it as a key to unlock the door to the observation room.

He was worried about Raperth’s health, his life and safety, and that if he wasn’t quick enough, then the first meeting during the day would be the last meeting of their lives… 

Jiang Mian spent all night writing, but in the end, he couldn’t bear the physical pain, and while the lights were still on, he was already lying on the workbench and the messy and complicated drafts on the table, half asleep and half unconscious.

The next day, Jiang Mian came back to his senses, and the first news he received was about Raperth after he opened his eyelids.

——The mermaid had gone berserk.

The newly appointed handler was dragged into the water prison after less than thirty minutes of service. The protective titanium cast feeding opening could only fit half an adult’s shoulder through, so he was yanked alive to death. The mermaid prayed to him for food in a harmless disguise, and the newcomer then took it seriously that he was stronger than his predecessor and could tame this fierce and beautiful male beast.

His hand was repeatedly stretched in the water, greeting the black-haired, golden-eyed king’s heir. Had Jiang Mian been present, he would’ve been lucky to get a warning: respect the mermaid’s sense of territory and don’t invade their private sphere without their explicit consent.

Unfortunately, the price of imprudence came too quickly, and none could see his movements when the mermaid struck, except for the spray of blood that gushed like a fountain. The remnant of the handler’s arm floated in the water, and the neck was instantly crushed on the edge of the titanium steel, the body clogged haphazardly in the feeding opening, like a large mass of food waste.