Stop Thinking Chapter 2: Chubby Rolls

Chapter 2: Chubby Rolls

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

After turning off neurosensing, Gu Xiuhan’s right arm was instantly reduced from an intelligent mechanical prosthesis to an ordinary tool. It was like using an iron poker to pick up a piece of coals, and the hand could not sense the heat.

When he rubbed the fishtail with the palm of his alloy hand, all Gu Xiuhan could feel was the pressure coming from the articulation of his right shoulder.

Ruan Yu’s fish tail was elastic and tough, the scales were tender and thin, and the force applied with the mechanical arm would make it shallowly concave, a vast pearl white soft light flowed up and down in rhythm with the ups and downs of the massage.

“Mn… ” The pain that felt like ant bites was slightly relieved and Ruan Yu felt so comfortable that he hummed, the tip of his tail was so happy that it kept curling and stretching, and even his mental network rippled into seaweed-like waves.

Gu Xiuhan lowered his eyes, his pupils were as dark as two drops of ink, and even the most adept spiritual healers had trouble extracting emotions from them.

He had to be careful and restrained. He still clearly remembered the feel of Ruan Yu’s tail. Unlike the delicate and slender fishtail at this moment, Ruan Yu’s fishtail was short and puckered and chunky during Ruan Yu’s time as a baby.

That year, when he was just living in Gu Xiuhan’s house, Ruan Yu was only two years old. After the locust-like army of alien species leveled the entire territory, the ocean planet on which the mermaids lived became devastated. The mermaid clan was on the verge of extinction, with no more than a couple of survivors, and only Ruan Yu was left as mermaid royalty with a rare bloodline.

After being brought back to the capital planet by Gu Xiuhan, Ruan Yu, as an interstellar stranger with no place to belong, needed to cooperate with the research institute to conduct a series of experiments based on the protection of his right to life and health. 

His home should have been the Military Research Institute, however, after it was determined that Ruan Yu could cure Gu Xiuhan’s mental deficiency, Gu Xiuhan’s parents, who were then senior military officials and top researchers, used their privileges to give the young mermaid a research institute ID card, but actually placed him in Gu Xiuhan’s estate, allowing him to live with Gu Xiuhan. The actual situation was that he was placed in the manor under Gu Xiuhan’s  name, so that he could live with Gu Xiuhan in order to provide treatment.

As for the research institute, Ruan Yu only needed to cooperate with them once or twice a month to conduct harmless experiments. This was the best arrangement for Ruan Yu. The research institute would certainly guarantee his survival needs, but the environment was obviously very different from living in the Gu Family.

During his first few days at the Gu residence, Ruan Yu was fearful of Gu Xiuhan.

The SSS genes were a double-edged sword, giving the organism almost superhuman physical attributes and combat power, but also bringing negative personality traits such as tyranny, wariness, and desire to conquer, leading to abnormal mental development, irregular outbursts of mental energy, perceptual impairment, and personality defects, mainly narrative disorders.

They were like war machines given to the herd by the laws of evolution.

As a teenager, Gu Xiuhan looked handsome, with sharp lines and excellent appearance, but unfortunately, his eyes were dark and empty, like two holes dug in his face, looking at people with a look, almost like a humanoid alien.

Not to mention the asphalt-like scorched and distorted mental body and often on the verge of berserk EEG signals…

Ruan Yu could sense it all.

The two-year-old Ruan Yu was a clingy little thing.

The oceans were so vast and the currents so complex that young mermaids evolved a survival strategy similar to “imprinting”, following their perceived kin – meaning the closest nurturers in the same group – like a little tail that cannot be shaken off to avoid premature death by straying from the group.

Because he was saved by Gu Xiuhan’s manipulative mecha, young Ruan Yu identified Gu Xiuhan as his kin, clinging to him but at the same time afraid of him.

It was extremely contradictory.

Whenever Gu Xiuhan was away from the artificial lake for more than a certain period of time, the little fish baby would ” boom, boom, boom ” and spray water bubbles and water arrows towards the lake shore to show his presence, seeking Gu Xiuhan’s care and comfort, like a baby crying all night because it was unaccompanied.

No one other than Gu Xiuhan could get little Ruan Yu to stop this behavior. But once Gu Xiuhan walked to the lake and asked Ruan Yu what he needed with a hollow, cold gaze, the joy on little Ruan Yu’s pink doughy face would ebb at light speed.

His Kin had disappeared again; make a scene.

His kin came.

Ee…

This kin was not right!

Little fish baby flattened his mouth in fear and aggression, and the fish tail swung into the bottom of the lake.

A few solidifying, hardening crystals were floating on the surface of the lake.

Gu Xiuhan, “…”

He scared the young mermaid and made him cry again.

Gu Xiuhan stood motionless. After a long time, he slowly leaned down, crouched on one knee at the edge of the lake, and plucked the gentle azure water with his fingertips.

As if in an attempt to communicate with Ruan Yu.

The SSS gene caused Gu Xiuhan’s personality defect to be a serious expression disorder, especially outside the realm of logic, the verbal expression of emotions. Even with the intention of caring, his face remained rigidly cold and morbid, like a mask that traps all emotions.

Three meters underwater, Ruan Yu cowered, hugging the fat short fishtail with his root-like arms, trying to reduce his size, the instinctive action of a young mermaid trying to avoid the attention of predators. He heard Gu Xiuhan get up and walk away, and after a while, returned to the shore to do something, and then walked away again.

After an undetermined amount of time, tormented by the fear of losing track of his kin, Ruan Yu anxiously surfaced.

On the shore of the lake was a fresh, clean pot of small silver fish, with the spines, scales and guts removed, a holographic sphere dedicated to children’s programs, an assortment of waterproof toys, a clean military uniform and a finely crafted mecha model made in the same scale as Gu Xiuhan’s exclusive mecha.

Food, fun or security, Gu Xiuhan put everything Ruan Yu might need at the lake.

For the rest of the afternoon, Ruan Yu’s head drooped and he leaned against the lake wall, wilting and pulling his tail fin. It was like a human child picking his fingers with a shy frown.

That kin is good.

That kin also saved him.

He was too timid, and made the kin sad.

…

When Gu Xiuhan was once again summoned to the lake by Ruan Yu’s water bubbles and water arrows, Ruan Yu did not panic and hide at the bottom of the lake as he had done the previous times.

On the contrary, the little Ruan Yu actually struggled to twist his short tail towards the lake shore and arched up. Responsible for swimming, his fish tail was strong, but the young mermaid was clumsy in getting to the shore, in order to use the force in the lake to fling wildly, splashed Gu Xiuhan completely with water.

Gu Xiuhan was stunned, afraid to disturb the timid baby Ruan Yu, did not dare to move, not even dare to hide, let the lake water drip along his pants leg.

“Eeya…”

You do not hurt me ah.

Ruan Yu let out a childish cry as he shivered and moved easily to Gu Xiuhan’s feet.

Seeing no sign of Gu Xiuhan’s mental energy breaking out, Ruan Yu reluctantly overcame his fear and wobbled to stand on his tail and raised his arms to grab Gu Xiuhan.

Ruan Yu’s hand was extremely small, bulging white, round fat five fingers connected with a layer of watery transparent webbing. He used the strength of a child carelessly, one hand, firmly clutching Gu Xiuhan covered with thin calluses of light wheat-colored fingers.

Then, Ruan Yu tugged Gu Xiuhan to the ground and struggled to lift his tail – which was so short and fat that it actually bent a little towards Gu Xiuhan with great effort. He took Gu Xiuhan’s hand and pressed it against his pink and pearly white fish tail, his ear, elbow and tail fins all trembling with instinctive fear, but the force transmitted to Gu Xiuhan from those tiny hands was firm.

Permission to touch the important tail.

–This is a sign of peace between tense mermaids that “defenses have been taken off”.

The fish’s tail was cool and smooth, and because of the tightly embedded scales, stroking it brought subtle resistance to the palm of the hand, like silk soaked in cold water. The palm of the hand that often holds cold, hard firearms and mecha joysticks rarely experienced such a tactile sensation.

At that time, Gu Xiuhan only felt that it was wonderful and soft, like stroking a kitten.

But now…

Gu Xiuhan collected his thoughts that were sliding towards the edge of the penalty box. The mechanical arm was more accurate than a human hand in terms of force and musculoskeletal distribution, making it quite suitable for massage.

The comfort with the foul technique let Ruan Yu relax too much, and since his previous rest was not good enough because of the tail pain, with his sleepy eyes half-squinted he collapsed into a piece of drowsy fish cake on the lounge chair. Until the mechanical arm touched the nerve-ridden tip of the tail, Ruan Yu was shocked and shook his tail fins to wake up –

He had business to attend to.

Ruan Yu turned his face at a tiny, furtive angle and examined Gu Xiuhan in a self-consciously stealthy manner.

The face with a sharp profile, black eyebrows and eyes, as cold as jade frozen under a thick crust of ice, reflecting his coldness, illuminated by the lake water with a layer of sparkling dim light.

A year without meeting, but the appearance did not change. A cool sweeping glance could stop a child from crying at night and a fish baby from spitting water bubbles in the middle of the night. However, after returning to the capital star from the border, Gu Xiuhan really had become different somewhere.

Ruan Yu stared and pondered. He focused all the energy of his mental net on Gu Xiuhan, detecting Gu Xiuhan’s mental state. When he was a teenager, the SSS-level mental energy was too strong to manage, and Gu Xiuhan often faced the danger of mental energy outbursts.

Ruan Yu, who was still young at the time, taught him a way to build a “mental dam”. This mental dam could trap Gu Xiuhan’s flood of mental energy, minimizing the frequency of mental energy outbursts. But at the same time, the mental dam would also block Ruan Yu’s mental perception, making it difficult for Ruan Yu to capture Gu Xiuhan’s EEG signals, even the most basic emotional perception required mobilization of all of his mental energy and full attention.

At this moment, Gu Xiuhan’s mental body settled into a dull blue, melancholic and depressed.

This proved that Gu Xiuhan was in a depressed and negative state. Earlier today, Ruan Yu asked Gu Xiuhan if he was unhappy, but he was choked back with a stiff “nothing”.

This was expected.

Gu Xiuhan always spoke freely, but apart from giving military orders, he only said a few words every day – nothing, what’s wrong, I know, Ruan Ruan…

How much unhappiness would just be silently held in.

As for the brain waves, Ruan Yu could not hear any meaningful sentences, even if he put up his ear fins and listened desperately, he could only barely intercept some garbled brain waves, like the static sound when the communication signal was poor.

[Zizi… Zizi…]

[zi… Zizi…]

Ruan Yu just had to give up listening and sorted through logic.

There should be no big event on the border star, otherwise even if Gu Xiuhan didn’t say anything, the reports on the star network would have been all over the place.

In other words, what upset Gu Xiuhan was a minor matter.

… Could it be jet lag?

The difference between the circadian rhythms of the border star and the capital star was large, and the cold change of environment could lead to jet lag syndrome, which in turn led to emotional sensitivity and easily depressed feelings caused by some small things…

Because of pondering too much, Ruan Yu had forgotten to cover up, clasping his arms and holding his cheeks, his eyebrows tightly knitted, his gaze straight and direct, staring at Gu Xiuhan.

It was so obvious that Gu Xiuhan could see with his peripheral vision that Ruan Yu was fiercely speculating about him.

Gu Xiuhan, “…”

A soft emotion surged through his heart, dispelling the sullenness.

“Brother Xiuhan,” Ruan Yu realized, serious and caring, “Are you jet lagged, have you taken your medicine?”

“Hmm,” Gu Xiuhan fooled the fish, “just took it.”

Sure enough. Ruan Yu held back, but did not resist, complaining softly, “I knew that the medicine to prevent jet lag should be taken in advance on the starship, I specifically reminded you that day, but you still forgot…”

Gu Xiuhan froze a little, and his ice-like voice, with cold words that could scare the soldiers, now carried no pressure, “I’m sorry.”

Gu Xiuhan admitted his mistake with a good attitude, Ruan Yu instantly softened and said in a small voice, “Well… Then I will remind you a few more times next time there is such a situation.”

After the words, Gu Xiuhan’s spiritual body had slowly changed from dull blue to light gold. It was a warm and pleasant, smiling like state. It was true that Brother Xiuhan was strong, and he also needed the concern of his kin when he was down.

Ruan Yu was satisfied and a little embarrassed as he twisted his tail, withdrew his energy from Gu Xiuhan and stopped examining his mental state.

“Wait a minute, I want to flip.” Ruan Yu said, changed from lying on his back to lying on his stomach with one bounce.

The fish’s buttocks must also be pressed for the fish.

Gu Xiuhan froze again and then his mechanical arm sluggishly explored. With Ruan Yu lying on his back, he could see his waistline. The edges were covered with soft scales, and the light gray shade of the depressions made the surrounding area more and more white and silky, like the miniature swirls caused by stirring buttermilk with a spoon in a circle.

When pressed elsewhere, they were slightly distorted by tension.

Abstinent to the bone, Gu Xiuhan restrained even his thoughts.

Even with the spiritual dam in place, Ruan Yu couldn’t hear anything, and he refused to let his thoughts flourish.