Stop Thinking Chapter 34: Spoiled

Chapter 34: Spoiled

Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations

Editor: Karai

Ruan Yu pursed his lips until they turned pale, waiting for the scolding while holding back two trembling packets of tears. He forcibly shifted the blame onto Gu Xiuhan, saying, “Actually, it was me who initiated this.”

Although from any perspective Ruan Yu was the one who bore the brunt, easily brought to tears with just a slight push, unable to escape even if he wanted to. Considering their age gap, from a human standpoint, the burden of initiating such a thing would weigh heavier on the older party, and it would be harder to accept.

Gu Rong suddenly widened his eyes, emitting a fierce anger akin to that of a bull through his nostrils, and sternly questioned, “You initiated it?!”

Was this foolish cabbage really the one who ran into trouble by himself?!

Ruan Yu had never been scolded so fiercely by Gu Rong before, his forehead sweating in panic, his eyes instantly turning red, and as he shook his head vigorously, the tears couldn’t be contained any longer, streaming down like raindrops.

“Oh dear, Ruan Ruan, don’t cry, we’re not angry with you. Don’t cry…” Shen Jingya hurriedly approached, embracing the tearful little one with a face flushed from holding back tears, rubbing his head gently and soothingly. Then she turned to scold her husband, “Gu Rong, what’s wrong with you? If you have something to say, say it nicely. Suddenly roaring like that, trying to scare someone to death?”

“Tsk.” Gu Rong approached barefoot, taking large strides. Since Ruan Yu was hanging his head and couldn’t see his face, Gu Rong circled around to Shen Jingya’s back, arching his back and peering up, furrowing his thick eyebrows and confirming in a rough voice, “You’re crying? Really crying?”

Shen Jingya had been provoked to tears many times during her young days of dating Gu Rong, and when she saw his straight, foolish appearance, she got irritated. She slapped Gu Rong on the back, saying, “What ‘really crying’? If you can’t speak properly, don’t say anything.” Then she turned her head and gently reassured, “Ruan Ruan, Uncle Gu and I actually already knew about your and Xiuhan’s matter, no need to be afraid.”

“… Knew?” Ruan Yu hesitated, realizing from Shen Jingya’s tone that she wasn’t angry. His nervousness and panic quickly subsided, but his tear ducts didn’t shut off in time, still pitifully dripping tears.

“That day I felt something was wrong, so I asked Xiuhan, and he told us,” Shen Jingya tucked away some stray hairs behind her ears, sighing. “Blame me, I didn’t think it through properly, just worried that you’d feel embarrassed. I thought I’d wait for you to gather your courage and talk to us in a few days. I really didn’t expect your burden to be so heavy… Did you spend the journey back overthinking? Didn’t discuss it with Xiuhan?”

She knew that according to mermaid logic, this wasn’t a big deal, but Ruan Yu was obviously thinking from her and Gu Rong’s perspective, which made him more afraid the more he thought about it.

He hadn’t consulted Gu Xiuhan either.

Shen Jingya took a step back, looking at Ruan Yu’s tear-stained face, feeling a bit amused. “What, afraid that Uncle and Auntie wouldn’t accept it and would separate you two?”

She wiped Ruan Yu’s wet face and continued, “You two are so good together, we can’t bear to separate you, and there’s no need to. At first, when I heard Xiuhan admit to this, I was indeed surprised, but later Xiuhan talked to me a lot, and your uncle and I gradually understood. Your relationship is precious and beautiful… We’re so happy, how could we oppose it.”

“…”

Who’s happy?

Gu Rong raised an eyebrow, unable to speak but wanting to hum a tune, but before the air could be expelled from his nostrils, he was predictably judged, being stared at fiercely by Shen Jingya’s cold eyes. Forget about humming, even if he wanted to grunt, he had to stiffen his scalp and hold it in halfway.

Ruan Yu’s nostrils twitched twice, glancing uncertainly at Gu Rong. His voice was still small, “Then why did Uncle Gu just now…”

“He still sees you as a child,” Shen Jingya said after a moment of silence, still speaking kindly for her husband’s sake, “worried that you’re too young and might be bullied.”

Ruan Yu subconsciously wanted to refute, “How could Brother Xiuhan bully me,” but the words choked back before reaching his tongue.

Finally, the conversation touched on a topic he was familiar with. Gu Rong cleared his throat eagerly, saying, “If that kid dares to bully you, you come to me! I’ll take care of him for you!”

Ruan Yu, who always defended his brother to the point of not tolerating a single bad word, nodded solemnly, excitedly almost blowing a bubble of snot, “Yeah!”

As it turned out, Gu Rong’s words weren’t just empty talk.

After the storm of coming out, Ruan Yu found his support.

Every time Gu Xiuhan successfully pushed the boundaries of intimacy with Ruan Yu, he would “consolidate” it endlessly.

After the incident in the treatment chair, Ruan Yu felt like a miserable orange squeezed repeatedly, kneaded, and twisted in a juicer. Every drop of juice was extracted, and he felt like he had to drink gallons of water afterward just to replenish himself.

So in the days after returning home, Ruan Yu became Gu Rong’s little tail.

He followed him around all day except when sleeping, obediently watching Gu Rong play Empire Special Forces and enthusiastically listening to Gu Rong reminisce about his past… creating a lot of family happiness, making the middle-aged foolish straight man blissful, not realizing he was not just a light bulb but a nuclear reactor.

Gu Xiuhan didn’t forcibly fish for the fish in front of Gu Rong, so Ruan Yu had a few days of peace, only communicating with Gu Xiuhan through terminals.

From this, it can be seen that this little fish had insufficient brain capacity. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have so quickly forgotten the principle of less confrontation.

What was even more amusing was that while Ruan Yu stuck to Gu Rong like glue during the day to avoid getting sucked in, he forgot to set up any barriers when going to bed at night.

It’s unknown whether his sense of vigilance needed to be strengthened or if he misjudged Gu Xiuhan’s morality.

Morality was something Gu Xiuhan had before breaking the ice. But how much remained now was hard to say.

In the early hours of the morning, the main house was quiet. Even the faint mechanical whirring of metal fingers stretching was conspicuous.

The light green access ring on Ruan Yu’s bedroom door was gently touched by a metal finger. The door slid open silently. And after that tall, fierce figure entered the room, the sliding door closed again and switched to restricted mode.

In the bedroom, a soft night light simulated starlight softly illuminated Ruan Yu, who was sleeping soundly, curled up with his fishtail. From the pale neck to the fluffy lumbar pit, all that was visible was a dazzling white.

At the sudden narrowing of the lines, where the human body met the fish tail, there were soft scales with silver and pink dots growing, transitioning rapidly from a few subtle ones to a neat and dense pattern. The lines also changed from thin to full, plump, and rounded, with a line of fine silver light rolling at the fullest part… Strictly speaking, fish don’t really have buttocks, but the visual effect was no different.

Gu Xiuhan approached slowly.

The heavy knees pressed into the soft mattress, sinking deeply.

Ruan Yu had always had an absurdly good quality of sleep, especially recently. Because his body had matured completely, he had figured out a way to retract some of his mental network on his own—basically, it was like humans learning to “close their ears,” although he hadn’t mastered it yet, it still had some effect.

With fewer neural signals received at night, he naturally slept even deeper.

Therefore, these external disturbances couldn’t wake Ruan Yu at all. The little mermaid slept soundly, oblivious to being dragged into the arms of the tall man, and even his smooth, pretty lips twitched a few times, blowing out a string of bubbles in his dream.

Gu Xiuhan’s throat tightened.

Gu Xiuhan’s lips softened as he leaned closer, pressing against those plump, meaty lips, unable to resist any longer.

Meanwhile, Ruan Yu slept deeply, completely unaware of the outside world as he dreamed a pleasant dream.

In his dream, Ruan Yu returned to the oceans of his home planet. After years of absence, the homeland had miraculously restored its former beauty, with the pollution cleared, leaving the waters clear and pristine once again. Marine life, on the brink of extinction during the war, now leisurely swam in the water. The ocean currents flowed like shallow blue velvet, everything reminiscent of memories.

The only discrepancy from his memories was the temperature of the seawater in the dream. It wasn’t the cool and refreshing temperature typical of his homeworld’s seas, but rather warm, with a peculiar water pressure that felt like large hands flowing over his body, sending a blush-inducing sensation through him.

Dreams are illogical, and in this dream, Ruan Yu found himself in the ocean with a shell in his palm. He lightly tapped the shell with his knuckles, coaxing it open with mental energy, revealing the tender white meat inside. He leaned in to take a bite, expecting the familiar taste of ocean freshness, but instead, he was met with a flavor resembling toothpaste, with a hint of mint and eucalyptus. Not only was the taste unpleasant, but the texture was strange, and the meat seemed to have a stubborn vitality, resisting his attempts to swallow it.

“?! What’s wrong with this mutated shell?!”

Startled, Ruan Yu abruptly opened his eyes, finding his skin damp and cool, with saliva staining his cheeks and jaw. His mouth was being gently nibbled by two seemingly indifferent thin lips, intertwining and gnawing.

“Mmm… Mmm… Mmm?!”

How did the esteemed Imperial Admiral find his way into someone else’s room in the middle of the night?!

Blushing from head to toe, Ruan Yu shrank back, avoiding Gu Xiuhan’s gaze.

Gu Xiuhan paused for a moment, then pressed his forehead against Ruan Yu’s, affectionately nuzzling him. In a soft voice, he murmured, “Baby… I miss you.”

Clearly, the experienced Admiral knew exactly how to breach a mermaid’s defenses.

Ruan Yu, soothed by the gentle words, relaxed his tense tail.

“I have some things to take care of in a few days,” Gu Xiuhan began slowly. “I’ll be away for about half a month, so…”

“What things?” Ruan Yu had initially wanted to complain about Gu Xiuhan’s nocturnal antics, but upon hearing about the upcoming separation, he forgot all about it. Curling his tail around Gu Xiuhan’s leg, he asked eagerly, “Why do you have to leave again? What mission is it this time?”

Gu Xiuhan pulled Ruan Yu close, laying him down and holding him in his arms, peppering him with gentle kisses. “It’s not a mission, it’s personal matters.”

“What personal matters?” Ruan Yu’s curiosity got the better of him. “Tell me.”

Gu Xiuhan remained silent for a moment before replying, “It’s a secret.”

His voice still cool, but with a hint of liveliness, as if teasing a cute lover.

“… A secret?” Ruan Yu was momentarily taken aback before stubbornly shaking his tail and breaking free from Gu Xiuhan’s embrace, sitting up straight. “Are you deliberately keeping secrets from me?”

The juxtaposition of “secret” and “Gu Xiuhan” felt off, sparking Ruan Yu’s curiosity. He tilted his pink cheeks upwards, allowing Gu Xiuhan to kiss him, but his mind was preoccupied with questioning, “What secret?”

Gu Xiuhan remained calm, a faint smile playing at his lips as he gently pinched Ruan Yu’s seemingly aggrieved face with his thumb and forefinger, softly saying, “This… I’ve been planning for a long time.”

“I wanted to surprise you.”

Gu Xiuhan wasn’t accustomed to such intimate gestures or sweet words, so both his body language and tone carried a slight awkwardness and clumsiness, adding to his naturally cold demeanor, yet somehow, it made him all the more endearing.

If it weren’t for the intrusive thoughts flooding Ruan Yu’s mind, he might have been even more moved.

As a result of Gu Xiuhan’s tender actions and words, Ruan Yu’s resolve to sleep separately from Gu Xiuhan that night crumbled once again. Despite the excellent soundproofing in the bedroom and the knowledge that even if Gu Rong and Shen Jingya heard anything, they wouldn’t interfere, the taboo of “misbehaving while elders are at home” forced Ruan Yu to keep his mouth shut, only allowing soft whimpering to escape when he reached his breaking point, tears streaming down his face.

Mermaid tears contained special compounds that quickly transformed into a pearl-like substance upon exposure to air, shimmering with various colors depending on the emotions involved.

Gu Xiuhan wiped away Ruan Yu’s tears, watching as they congealed into beautiful pearl-like droplets on his fingertips. He asked softly, “Does it hurt?”

Despite knowing that the pale pink color signified something, he still asked.

Because he knew that the innocent mermaid, who only knew how to speak honestly, would unintentionally say many sweet words in such situations.

“It’s… not painful.”

Ruan Yu took advantage of the slight gap between their lips, separated from their sealed state, to speak in a muffled, sticky voice.

“Maybe it’s just… too comfortable, that’s why tears came out… I didn’t mean to cry…”

“If you hold back from crying, it might burst out eventually.”

That would be too embarrassing.

Ruan Yu somewhat understood why humans were so fond of these activities, to the point where they didn’t even have a concept of mating seasons and could engage in them any day they pleased.

Perhaps it was because humans, on average, had slightly higher intelligence than mermaids, yet didn’t always use it for serious matters. Human behavior was truly diverse.

“And… sometimes you kiss too hard and bite, it hurts a lot, and it makes me want to cry.”

Ruan Yu took the opportunity to voice a complaint.

In truth, Gu Xiuhan had a good grasp of the intensity of his kisses and was careful not to hurt Ruan Yu. Even if mermaids were more fragile, it wouldn’t be “hurting a lot,” and it wouldn’t compare to being bitten by a mosquito. Yet, here he was, being spoiled and pampered.

“Okay,” Gu Xiuhan’s voice was low and husky, “I’ll kiss you gently from now on.”

That’s what he said. But when it came to Gu Xiuhan making promises, it might just be this one in his lifetime.

In the end, he still left Ruan Yu’s lips swollen and red.

 

 

 

 

 

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