Chapter 98: If He Became a Little Mermaid
The early summer sunlight was especially brilliant, heating the sand until it felt scorching.
But Gu Tang did not feel hot at all.
He sat comfortably in the shade cast by a beach umbrella, holding a coconut in his arms and sipping from it one small mouthful at a time.
In the distance, the azure sky and the sea seemed to merge into one. A cool sea breeze carrying a faint salty scent drifted over, and the surroundings were quiet, filled only with the sound of crashing waves and the occasional cry of seabirds.
“Want some fruit?”
Young Master Gu took away the empty coconut shell he had already drained and offered him a freshly cut fruit platter.
Then he speared a strawberry and held it to his lips.
Gu Tang very cooperatively opened his mouth and ate it, but the strawberry was too big. After only two chews, red juice spilled from the corner of his mouth.
Instinctively, he pouted and nudged his face toward Young Master Gu.
But the other man deliberately misinterpreted his meaning, lowered his head, and kissed away the juice at the corner of his mouth.
The two of them exchanged a strawberry-flavored kiss.
Gu Tang’s chest rose and fell as he pushed the man. “I was telling you to get a napkin!”
He had only wanted to wipe away the strawberry juice with a napkin. He had not told Young Master Gu to pull such a shameless move.
“I didn’t bring a napkin out with us. It’s too late to go back and get one.”
Gu Qinian pointed toward the villa estate behind them, meaning: it was too far away, so kissing was faster.
Gu Tang muttered in complaint, “Whose fault is it for making all the staff leave the island…”
It was their wedding anniversary, and the two of them had come to vacation on a private island that belonged only to them.
It had originally been a great arrangement, but Young Master Gu just had to copy what he himself had done back when he proposed, giving all the staff a long holiday so that the entire island was left with only the two of them staring at each other. Even the fruit had to be cut by hand.
Of course, Young Master Gu had taken over every bit of service work.
Gu Tang only had to lie there and open his mouth.
Even so, he still did not understand why it had to be made so troublesome.
“They were getting in the way too much.”
As Gu Qinian spoke, he pulled off his shirt, revealing the strong, fluid lines of his muscles.
Gu Tang’s little face immediately flushed red. “What are you doing?!”
“Demonstrating through action…”
Young Master Gu spoke complete nonsense with a straight face. “…how I’m celebrating our anniversary with you.”
Gu Tang blinked nervously. “Here?”
There was not even anything around them to block the view!
Gu Qinian, however, looked perfectly calm as he wrapped an arm around his lover’s slender waist. “That’s exactly why I sent them away.”
Gu Tang: “…”
“The whole island has no one else on it. We can do anything we want anywhere we want. Isn’t that nice?”
Young Master Gu curled his lips in satisfaction, then leaned down to kiss him, even taking his hand and placing it against his own chest.
Beneath his palm, Gu Tang could feel that heart pounding hard.
They had grown up together since childhood, and they had already been married for so long.
Yet it was only a kiss, and Young Master Gu’s heart was still beating that fast…
Gu Tang had originally felt embarrassed. After all, being intimate out in the open was far too shameful—too unbearably embarrassing. But after sensing the other man’s excitement, he could not help parting his lips and responding to him as well.
He closed his eyes and sank into the deep kiss.
He did not even notice the other man’s hand sliding down from his lower back…
—
The piercing light shone through his eyelids. Gu Tang instinctively frowned and slowly opened his eyes.
The beach umbrella and lounge chair were gone. His naked body was lying on the pure white sand, with a few grains of fine sand clinging to his arm.
There was also no sign of Young Master Gu anywhere around him.
“…Nian Nian?”
Gu Tang propped himself up on his arm and looked around.
Not being able to find his partner right away, along with the overly quiet surroundings, made him feel a little panicked.
He subconsciously reached for the phone he usually kept beside him.
He did not find his phone.
Instead, he touched something smooth and round.
Gu Tang lowered his head to look—
It was a plump, moon-white seashell.
It was about the size of his palm and felt round and smooth.
But very soon, his attention shifted away from the shell and toward something even more astonishing.
Gu Tang’s eyes widened in disbelief.
His lower body was submerged in the shallow seawater, and his legs had turned into one huge fish tail. Beautiful pearly scales on the tail glittered in the sunlight.
And the reflection in the water showed him that his upper body was still human.
What was going on?!
How had he turned into a mermaid?!!
“Host, host!”
A familiar voice was calling him.
At a time like this, hearing the system’s voice felt exactly like running into family in a foreign land.
Gu Tang searched all around anxiously, but could not see the system anywhere.
And the voice did not sound like it was coming from inside his head, either.
“I’m over here!”
The system prompted him.
Gu Tang followed the source of the voice and saw that the moon-white shell he had just tossed onto the beach was now clacking and wobbling.
“System?”
Gu Tang stared at the palm-sized shell in surprise.
The little shell immediately performed a live demonstration by spraying water through the air for him to see.
A clear stream of water shot out. “It’s me!”
The system had no physical body, so in different small worlds it could appear in any form it wanted.
After their previous experience entering a plot fragment, Gu Tang was not too surprised to see the system had turned into a shell. He more or less guessed that he had probably fallen into some other small world again.
Since that was the case, there was no need to panic too much.
Gu Tang swished the fish tail submerged in the water. “What’s going on here?”
The little shell opened and closed as it spoke. “Reporting to Host, this is a fragment of the male lead’s dream.”
“It’s similar to the plot fragment from last time. You still need to find the male lead here and wake up his soul. Once his soul merges back with his original body, you’ll be able to return to the real world!”
Gu Tang: “…”
Sure enough, the same familiar formula all over again.
In the end, it was all because his appearance had changed the plot of the original book, causing all sorts of fragments to split off.
Some were plot fragments, and now there were dream fragments too…
Who even knew how many more there were?
The mission itself was not too difficult.
He only had to do what he did last time—find Nian Nian, then wake him up.
It was just that the waking-up process was a bit hard on the waist…
With a loud splash, Gu Tang flicked his tail out of the water. “I understand all that, but putting aside the fact that you turned into a shell, why did I grow a fish tail?”
Faced with this question, the system’s two shell halves clapped helplessly, as if saying: no idea.
“That’s something you’ll have to ask the male lead. This world is projected from his dream.”
The round moon-white shell spun in circles on the sand. “Because the male lead doesn’t know I exist, I get to choose my own appearance. But your form, Host, was completely shaped by how the male lead imagined you in the dream.”
“This is what he dreamed you looked like!”
“…”
Gu Tang swished his beautiful pearly fish tail.
What kind of strange dreams had his Young Master Gu been having all these years?
Since it was a dream, it was still based on reality.
Gu Tang looked into the distance and saw that everything within sight looked very similar to the area around their private island.
The only difference was that there were no manor buildings.
This place had preserved the appearance of a pristine, uninhabited island.
Gu Tang sighed. “Anyway, I still have to find Nian Nian first.”
The system said, “Exactly!”
Since Gu Tang had turned into a mermaid, with a naked upper body and a fish tail below, he did not even have a pocket anywhere on him. There was no way for him to carry around the round, plump little shell system with him.
So he dug a small pit in the sand and carefully set the system inside it. “System, I’m going to swim around the coastline and see if I can find Nian Nian. Can you wait here for me?”
The system nestled comfortably into the tiny sand pit. “No problem, Tangbao!”
Gu Tang was very familiar with the waters around his private island, so after settling the system in place, he turned and leaped into the sea.
His fish tail splashed up a spray of water, and the beautiful pearly scales shimmered beneath the surface.
Watching Gu Tang swim away, the system chuckled happily. “Hehe, my host is so pretty!”
He was efficient at completing missions, and he was unbelievably good-looking too.
Its host was the most outstanding in all dimensions!
Even in the middle of everything, its host had still taken the time to dig a little nest for it…
It really was loved by its host!!!
The system lay happily in the little sand pit Gu Tang had made for it, lazily opening its shell to sun itself. The soft flesh inside drooped over the edge of the shell like a little tongue.
The sand was soft, and the sunlight was gentle.
The system grew so comfortable that it started to drift toward sleep.
It did not notice the huge dark shadow appearing beneath the nearby sea surface.
The shadow approached the round white shell without a sound.
The little shell remained completely unaware, still sleepily exposing its soft flesh.
Suddenly, a dark tentacle rose from the water.
By the time the system sensed danger, it was already too late.
The little shell did not even have time to shut itself before the tentacle slid inside.
The tip of the tentacle kneaded the soft flesh within the shell.
The moon-white shell gradually flushed pink, and the entire shell began trembling faintly.
“Senior…”
The system’s electronic voice trembled.
Hearing the little system call out to him, the tentacle paused.
Seizing the opportunity, the system shrank back and snapped its two shell halves tightly shut, desperately protecting the soft flesh inside and refusing to let the other touch it.
However, that little act seemed to provoke the tentacle.
The dark appendage stroked its smooth outer shell, then wrapped around the little shell and dragged it into the sea…
—
Gu Tang swam all the way around the island’s coastline and still could not find Young Master Gu.
This was a dream fragment belonging to Young Master Gu, already detached from the original book’s plot itself, so the system had no way to arrange some convenient identity that would let him get close to him.
“If I can’t even find him, how am I supposed to wake him up…”
Gu Tang muttered to himself, thinking maybe he should go back and discuss it with the system.
Just then, from the corner of his eye, he spotted a dark shape lying on the shore not far away.
Could that be Nian Nian?
Gu Tang swished his tail and swam over.
But even after reaching the shore, he was still some distance away from the dark figure.
So he could only drag his fish tail up onto land.
A mermaid’s body was very agile underwater, but on land it became extremely inconvenient.
Gu Tang flopped across the sand like a stranded fish, forced to use both arms to inch himself forward bit by bit.
Although his fish tail was covered in scales, it was actually delicate and sensitive. Even rubbing against the fine sand made it burn painfully. After only moving a short distance, the places that had rubbed were already turning red.
Gu Tang: “…”
Why was he so delicate in Young Master Gu’s dream?
Was this how Young Master Gu usually thought of him?!
Gu Tang rolled his eyes.
He decided that once he got back, he was definitely going to punch the man twice.
After much difficulty, he finally drew close enough to see what was lying there—
A huge black cat!
No, to be precise, it was a young, powerful male black panther.
The black panther was lying prone on the ground, as if gravely wounded. There were wounds on its waist, abdomen, and back deep enough to expose bone, still pouring blood nonstop.
Only, because the fur was pure black, the blood did not stand out clearly on its body. Instead, it had spread into a dark red stain on the white sand beneath it.
The black panther lay motionless on the ground as if unconscious.
If not for the rise and fall of its ribcage, Gu Tang would have thought it was already dead.
Under normal circumstances, if you encountered a dangerous carnivore like a black panther, you should run as far away as possible while it still could not move.
Especially since Gu Tang was dragging around a fish tail and could barely move properly himself.
If the black panther woke up and turned around,
Gu Tang would become its little snack.
Even if it was injured, it was still a wild beast!
This was no time for overflowing saintly compassion.
Gu Tang turned to leave, wondering whether in Young Master Gu’s dream he could somehow contact an animal protection association…
Wait!
In a dream?!!
Why would there be a black panther in Young Master Gu’s dream???
Gu Tang suddenly felt that something was wrong.
He turned back and looked at the black panther more carefully.
From this huge beast, he sensed Young Master Gu’s presence!
If Young Master Gu could turn him into a mermaid in the dream, then turning himself into a big black cat was also completely possible!
But right now, this black big cat was heavily injured and at death’s door.
Gu Tang did not understand why Young Master Gu could be so badly hurt even inside his own dream, but he had no time to think too much about it. He wriggled desperately toward the black panther.
It took a great deal of effort to finally move up next to the big mass of black fur.
“Nian Nian!”
Now that Gu Tang was sure the black panther was Young Master Gu, he was no longer afraid. He gently touched the beast’s cheek and called out to him.
The black panther’s eyes remained tightly shut, showing no reaction at all.
“Nian Nian, don’t scare me. Wake up.”
Looking at the eye-catching pool of bright blood collecting beneath the black panther, Gu Tang did not dare push him too hard.
There was no phone, so he could not call a doctor.
There was no first-aid kit nearby either, so he could not even bandage the black panther.
Gu Tang grew frantic, and his eyes gradually reddened. “Don’t die…”
The black panther still did not respond.
If Young Master Gu died inside this dream fragment, then Gu Tang would not be able to wake him up, and he would never be able to return to the real world.
And it was very likely that the Young Master Gu in the real world would also end up in trouble.
No, no, that couldn’t happen!
This was only a dream fragment. Surely it would not start at hell difficulty level.
Gu Tang took a deep breath. In his panic, an idea struck him, and he leaned close to the black panther’s ear and shouted, “Gu Qinian! If you die, I’m remarrying! I’ll let someone else sleep with your wife!”
Whether or not the shock treatment worked, the black panther’s thin ear twitched once.
Its brow knitted tightly.
“You heard that?”
Seeing hope, Gu Tang continued speaking harshly.
But no matter what, the half-dead beast in front of him was still his beloved.
Back in the plot fragment world, he had already been unable to bear seeing the healed scars on Boss Gu’s body.
Not to mention now, seeing Young Master Gu covered in blood.
Gu Tang’s heart ached terribly.
As he spoke, he started choking up, tears pattering down one after another.
He clung to the panther and sobbed in complaint. “Is there something wrong with you? Why did you make yourself so miserable in your own dream…”
The black panther did not answer him. It only let out a low whine from its throat.
“Huh?!”
It could make a sound now?!!
What had made Young Master Gu recover?
Gu Tang wiped away his tears.
Experimentally, he rubbed the liquid from his hand onto the wound on the black panther’s back.
And sure enough—his tears could heal wounds!
Just now, when he lowered his head after hearing the black panther make a sound, he discovered that a large part of the wound on the black fur before him had already healed.
He knew perfectly well that he had not used any medicine on it.
That patch had only happened to be moistened by his tears.
He never expected that in Young Master Gu’s dream, mermaids would be designed like this too!
Did Young Master Gu really like seeing him cry that much?
He did not usually cry very often. The place where he cried the hardest was only…
Gu Tang suddenly thought of what happened when the two of them were in bed together.
In his heart, he cursed, “Pervert.”
Then he continued to cry all over the black panther, smearing his tears across the wounds on its body.
Those wounds, which had looked so savage and terrifying, miraculously began to heal.
Very soon, they stopped bleeding.
From there, the rest would depend on the black panther’s own blood-making ability.
Gu Tang pressed his cheek against the black panther’s fluffy head. “I need to go back into the sea and soak for a while. You stay here and behave.”
A mermaid was never meant to stay out of water for too long. On top of that, he had shed so many tears that he had lost too much moisture, and his entire body felt dried out. If he did not get back into the water soon, he would turn into dried fish on the spot.
Gu Tang picked up a huge banana leaf and placed it over the black panther’s head to block the sun for him.
Then, just as he had done before, he slowly inched his way back into the sea.
The moment his body entered the water, he instantly felt a wave of exhaustion spread through every limb and bone.
He had stayed on shore too long just now. He desperately needed rest.
Gu Tang grabbed a piece of seaweed and draped it over his belly. That also kept him from drifting too far away and losing track of where Young Master Gu was. Then he closed his eyes and fell asleep floating in the sea.
He only slept lightly, but it was enough for his strength to recover.
Then, faintly, he heard noisy human voices not far away.
Gu Tang quickly surfaced.
It was already evening outside. Around the once-silent private island, there were now quite a few ships anchored nearby.
He could see a crowd of people surrounding a tall figure as they escorted him toward one of the ships.
“…Nian Nian?”
That figure looked so much like Gu Qinian.
There was no way he could mistake the person who slept beside him.
But had Young Master Gu not turned into a black panther?
Confused, Gu Tang hurried back to where he had treated the black panther.
Sure enough, the big black cat was no longer there.
Only a patch of dried dark red bloodstains remained on the ground.
In the dream, Young Master Gu could switch seamlessly between beast and human form too?!
This was getting ridiculous!!!
Gu Tang immediately turned and swam after the ship.
But those ships were powerful, cutting through the waves at great speed.
He chased desperately behind them as a fish, his tail swinging until it ached, and could only just barely keep up with their speed.
This won’t do!
If he lost track of them, he would have no idea where to find Young Master Gu!
Gu Tang clenched his teeth and swam with all his might.
At that moment, he saw a familiar figure step out onto the deck at the front of the lead ship.
The person standing there was not the present-day Young Master Gu. His face and build still carried the strong air of youth. He looked more like Gu Qinian at seventeen or eighteen.
So this was a dream from Young Master Gu’s teenage years…
Perhaps because his grave injuries had only just healed, the boy’s naturally pale skin looked a little unhealthy, and his thin lips had no real color to them. They were pressed tightly together, the lines of his side profile cold and sharp.
Yet on top of someone that aloof were two cat ears.
So even in human form, the ears would not disappear?
What kind of unbearably adorable setting was this!
Once he caught him, he was definitely going to pet them to his heart’s content!
Gu Tang waved excitedly at him. “Nian Nian—”
A mermaid’s voice was beautiful, distant, and ethereal.
Although the boy could not hear clearly what he was calling, he still noticed the mermaid in the water and turned his dark black eyes toward him.
“Young master.”
One of the subordinates at his side offered a suggestion. “A mermaid’s tears have excellent healing effects. Shall we capture him—”
Before he could finish, the boy shot him a cold glance.
That gaze was like a blade dipped in frost.
The subordinate felt as if his throat had been sliced open. His mouth hung open, but not a single word came out.
Gu Qinian turned back and looked at the mermaid in the sea once again.
A creature of ultimate beauty.
But delicate and fragile.
“Slow the ship down. Watch the propellers. Don’t hurt him.”
Gu Qinian gave the order calmly.
“Yes!”
The subordinate finally found his voice again. He no longer dared covet the little mermaid and instead lowered his voice and said to his master, “Young master, your injuries haven’t fully healed yet. Would you like to return to the cabin and rest?”
Gu Qinian said nothing. Only after giving the mermaid one long, deep look did he turn and head back into the cabin.
“Why did he leave?!”
Gu Tang smacked the water with his tail in anger. “Heartless!”
He had cried for him for so long, too.
And yet after Young Master Gu turned back into a human, he still did not recognize him!
This dream was bizarre and strange.
Gu Tang strongly suspected it was because Grandma Mei had always loved telling the two of them stories of The Little Mermaid.
Young Master Gu had clearly been fully brainwashed by it.
Although he still had not managed to speak directly to Young Master Gu, Gu Tang was delighted to discover that the ship had slowed down a great deal.
He no longer had to work so hard to keep up and could simply swim along beside it.
The little mermaid gracefully swished his beautiful pearly tail and moved alongside the hull.
Sometimes when he grew tired, he even cleverly grabbed the edge of the ship with one hand and secretly rested for a while.
What Gu Tang did not know was that all of this had fallen into a pair of dark, heavy eyes.
Inside the cabin.
Gu Qinian watched the soft, adorable little mermaid without blinking.
He did not know this mermaid.
Nor did he know why the other had been following the ship all this time.
He had been cast out and left on his own for eighteen years, suffering endless abuse. It was only when he was on the verge of death that his family had finally found him and brought him aboard.
But Gu Qinian had always felt that something was wrong.
He had been gravely injured, practically dying.
So when his family found him, how could it be that he only felt weak from blood loss, while not even a single wound remained on his body?
—A mermaid’s tears can heal anything.
“Was it you?”
Through the glass of the porthole, Gu Qinian lifted a hand and lightly traced the little mermaid’s cheek with his fingertips. “Was it you who saved me?”
The ship ran on powerful energy.
In the end, the little mermaid’s stamina was limited.
Gradually, the movement of his tail slowed more and more.
He seemed utterly exhausted.
His eyelids drooped, but he still stubbornly kept moving his tail on instinct to chase after the ship. In the end, though, he still began to fall farther and farther behind.
“Stop the ship.”
Gu Qinian gave the order.
Even with the ship slowed down, Gu Tang’s strength was limited.
He could not keep up anymore, and miserably rubbed his aching tail that felt close to cramping.
This was far more exhausting than when he had run the 3,000-meter race at school sports meets.
And Young Master Gu did not even know how to wait for him…
He was just about to take a short rest when suddenly,
a huge net dropped from above.
“!!!”
Gu Tang was trapped inside it.
Before he could even struggle, he was hauled upward and thrown onto a small boat.
Several ugly-looking men were staring at him, and their gazes made Gu Tang extremely uncomfortable.
“Boss, this little mermaid is really cute!”
“Bet his skin’s nice and smooth too, right?”
One of the men reached a hand toward him, but Gu Tang recoiled in disgust.
“Don’t touch him.”
The leader stopped him. “What if you make him cry? Mermaid tears are valuable. We don’t have sterile equipment on board to collect them.”
Another man laughed obscenely. “Now that we’ve already caught him, it won’t be hard to make him cry later.”
At that, the group burst into loud laughter.
Gu Tang noticed that all of these men had hyena ears on top of their heads.
So in this dream fragment world, everyone had some kind of animal form.
He stayed as calm as he could, shrinking back into the stern of the boat.
Then suddenly, the men’s laughter stopped.
When Gu Tang looked up again, he saw that all those hyenas had had their throats slit and had been thrown into the sea.
“Don’t be afraid.”
The tall, long-legged cat-eared youth jumped down onto the little boat, rocking it beneath his feet.
As he walked toward him, he explained slowly, “Those hyenas are pirates. They’ve been causing trouble in these waters for years. I fell into their trap today too, and nearly died on an uninhabited island.”
As the other drew closer and closer, Gu Tang nearly blurted out “Nian Nian.”
But then he suddenly remembered that in the plot-fragment world,
it had been because he called Boss Gu “Nian Nian” that the man had become consumed with jealousy and nearly failed to wake up at all.
After thinking it over, Gu Tang swallowed the words back down.
This time, he had to seize Young Master Gu’s heart in one shot and wake him up as fast as possible!
“Did they scare you?”
Seeing the little mermaid, who had been lively before, now biting his lip silently and only staring up at him with a pair of wide round eyes,
Gu Qinian thought he looked frightened.
His heart softened, and he bent down, easily lifting the little mermaid into his arms. “Why aren’t you speaking?”
Gu Tang’s eyes shifted slightly, then he curved them into crescent moons, tipped his face up, and kissed the boy lightly on the cheek. In a gentle voice, he said, “Thank you for saving me.”
After saying that, he obediently rested his head against the other’s shoulder.
Gu Qinian only felt his heart skip a beat first—and then begin pounding violently.
