Chapter 29
Lux raised an eyebrow, caught both of Ruan Chen’s little paws, and pulled him closer until they were looking directly at each other.
“Stupid goldfish?”
Only then did Ruan Chen remember that they could communicate now.
“…”
They were far too close.
He struggled a few times but failed to break free.
Ruan Chen, Coward Extraordinaire, met Lux’s pale golden eyes and stubbornly tried to defend himself.
“Meow meow! (You’re gold all over. What’s wrong with calling you a goldfish?)”
Then he remembered what Joshua had told him earlier and felt a little more confident.
Ruan Chen glared at him.
“Meowx, meow meow? (What else am I supposed to call you? Meowx?)”
He put on a perfectly fierce front.
But when Lux lowered his gaze, he immediately saw Ruan Chen’s curled-up toes and slightly trembling legs.
Ruan Chen had assumed Lux would get angry after being insulted.
So when the merman grabbed his arms and pinned him onto the bed, Ruan Chen was completely dumbfounded.
Lux had never expected his human’s cries to sound so soft and sweet while the translated meaning was completely different.
He pinched Ruan Chen’s chin, his gaze dangerous.
“If I’m a stupid goldfish, then what are you?”
Ruan Chen swallowed.
He did not dare speak.
Lux stared at those round, pitch-black eyes and found it utterly impossible to reconcile the words from earlier with the human in front of him.
“Have you been insulting me behind my back this whole time?”
“…”
Ruan Chen turned his head aside in silent resistance.
Lux, however, had no intention of letting him off.
He curled a finger and scraped it lightly across Ruan Chen’s cheek.
“What else have you said? I’ll give you one chance. Tell me now, and I won’t hold it against you.”
Like hell I believe you!
Ruan Chen pressed his lips together tightly and vowed to resist to the death.
Seeing this, Lux thought back.
Actually, there had already been clues from the very first time they met, when Ruan Chen had scratched off one of his scales.
Lux suddenly laughed in exasperation.
“You’re so adorable. How did you end up with a personality like this?”
Ruan Chen’s eyes widened.
“Meow meow! Meow meow meow… (I’ve always been like this! Who told you I’m adorable? Stupid goldfish, stupid goldfish, stupid goldfish…)”
Halfway through his rant, he abruptly froze.
“Mew… (What are you doing?)”
Lux lowered his head toward the side of his neck.
Ruan Chen panicked.
“I’m a stupid goldfish, aren’t I?” the merman murmured beside his ear. “Let me smell just how fragrant you are.”
Ruan Chen’s hands were pinned and could not move.
He tried kicking Lux instead, but the merman’s body was as hard as a steel plate. There was simply no way to fight back.
“Meow meow… (Get off me.)”
Lux’s long hair brushed against his sensitive neck.
Ruan Chen was so ticklish he wanted to laugh, and his threatening words came out warped and weak, without the slightest intimidation.
After being held down and sniffed for ages, he finally heard the merman let out a satisfied hum.
“Mm. You really do smell good.”
“…”
Humiliated and furious, Ruan Chen turned his head and bit down hard on Lux’s wrist.
Who would have thought the fine scales covering the merman’s skin would be so ridiculously tough?
Ruan Chen’s teeth struck painfully against them.
“Hiss—”
He hurriedly released Lux, his eyes already reddening from the pain.
Lux frowned and turned his little head back.
“Did you hurt your teeth? Let me see.”
Ruan Chen’s mouth was pried open.
He protested indistinctly and angrily,
“Meow meow meow… (Get off me…)”
Afraid he might truly anger him, Lux checked that nothing was wrong, then released him.
He pressed the back of his hand against Ruan Chen’s forehead.
“Why is your face always so red?”
The human was flushed from his cheeks all the way down to the base of his neck.
Half of it was embarrassment.
The other half was fury from being pinned down and completely unable to beat Lux.
Ruan Chen had been puffed up with anger, but when he looked up, he suddenly noticed fresh red blood spreading faintly beneath the bandage on Lux’s shoulder.
The merman did not seem to have noticed.
Ruan Chen poked his arm and said with a stiff expression,
“Mew. (Your wound is bleeding.)”
Lux hummed, but his gaze remained fixed on Ruan Chen’s face.
“Meow! (What are you looking at?)”
Ruan Chen wrinkled his nose.
“Meow meow… (I already told you, this is just what I’m like…)”
Adorable?
That word had absolutely nothing to do with him.
“Meow meow… (I’m not some cute little baby who plays with toys and drinks from milk bottles.)”
Ruan Chen lowered his head and picked at his fingers.
“Meow meow. (If you don’t like me anymore, then let me go.)”
It was not as though he wanted to date a merman anyway.
“Let you go?”
Lux found his expression amusing and deliberately asked, “If I let you go, where would you go?”
Ruan Chen fell silent.
So he really did not like him anymore.
He had kissed him.
Touched him.
Was calling him a stupid goldfish really that serious?
Scumbag fish.
In his mind, Ruan Chen stabbed a little straw doll named Lux ten thousand times.
Then Lux spoke again.
“The milk bottles are because that’s the only practical way to feed you underwater. Drinks designed for humans all come in that packaging.”
Ruan Chen raised his head.
“The toys were recommended by one of my subordinates. His human likes them very much,” Lux continued. “I thought you would too.”
He smiled at Ruan Chen.
“You like weapons. You like combat simulators. I know that.”
Lux raised a hand and rubbed his hair.
“From now on, tell me what you like. I’ll buy it for you.”
Ruan Chen went silent.
Several seconds later, the heat that had only just faded surged right back up to his forehead.
“Meow! (I don’t like you touching me whenever you want!)”
He slapped Lux’s hand away and used fierceness to conceal his embarrassment.
“Meow meow. (Stop talking about irrelevant stuff and go bandage your wound.)”
Lux laughed and rubbed Ruan Chen’s hair one more time before finally standing up.
The wound on his shoulder had not had its dressing changed since the day he left.
After two days of high-intensity fighting and inadequate rest, it had not healed particularly well.
Afraid Ruan Chen would be frightened by the sight, Lux turned his back before tearing away the bandage.
But the wound was in an awkward spot.
Handling it one-handed was difficult.
Ruan Chen stood behind Lux and watched him fumble around for a long time.
His brows knitted tightly.
His gaze caught several traces of scarlet carried away by the currents.
A few minutes later, Ruan Chen kicked off the bed and lunged over.
“Ruan Ruan?”
Lux looked at the human who had suddenly appeared in front of him in surprise.
Ruan Chen wore a stern little expression.
Impatiently, he slapped Lux’s hand aside and held out his palm.
“Meow. (Give me the medicine.)”
Lux placed the medication in his hand.
Back when Ruan Chen used to spar and fight with other people, getting injured had been a regular occurrence.
Treating wounds was practically second nature to him.
With practiced movements, he dripped the medicine over the injury.
Whatever the solution contained, it immediately sank into the wound, and the blood quickly coagulated.
Still, Ruan Chen had to admit that this was his first time seeing such a large wound from so close.
His hands trembled slightly as he wrapped the bandage.
“I can do it,” Lux said, reaching out.
Ruan Chen slapped his hand away again.
“Meow meow. (You’re clumsy. Stop moving around.)”
He shot Lux a glare and quickly finished bandaging the wound.
It seemed a little crooked.
But…
It was fine.
As long as the wound was covered.
Once he finished, Ruan Chen still wore a wooden expression.
“Meow meow. (Done.)”
“Thank you, Ruan Ruan.”
Lux squeezed his hand.
This time, Ruan Chen did not pull away.
The merman was injured.
He should indulge him a little.
That was all.
Early the next morning.
When Ruan Chen woke in his conch bed, rubbing his eyes, Lux had already left again.
His optical computer popped up.
A notification appeared on the screen.
[Ruan Ruan, the battle has not ended. I have to continue commanding at the front line. There is a bag of straws on the table. If you don’t like milk bottles, you can insert one into the bottle and drink through it. You forgot to take your nutritional pills over the past two days, so I mixed them into your breakfast. Remember to eat your meals on time.]
[Message from: Lux.]
Ruan Chen turned toward the dining table not far away.
The straws Lux had mentioned were sitting there, along with two cans of food.
Beside them were the pills he had forgotten to take for the past two days.
Ruan Chen: “…”
He pinched the edge of the bed and awkwardly swam over.
After staring at everything on the table for a long time, he finally scooped up a huge spoonful of food and stuffed it into his mouth.
He poked one of the straws with a finger, then opened the cabinet, took out a bottle of his drink, pushed the straw into it, and took a sip.
Stupid goldfish.
He was so huge, yet surprisingly thoughtful.
Trying to win him over was useless.
They were different species.
Ruan Chen would never agree to date a merman.
His resolve remained firm.
Yet the tips of his ears, hidden beneath his hair, quietly turned red.
He continued scrolling through his optical computer, intending to see whether there was any interesting new information today.
He had received quite a few replies from Joshua on the forum.
Most of them were about how sweet and loving Joshua and his merman were.
Ruan Chen scrolled down expressionlessly.
[Houston: Ruan! Something terrible happened!]
[Houston: Did you see today’s news?]
[Houston: Oh my God, it’s horrifying. I don’t believe Admiral Lux would do something like this…]
[Houston: If you can find out what really happened, could you tell me? Hugh seems extremely worried.]
Ruan Chen: ?
He exited the forum and opened the news app.
The moment it launched, an enormous headline filled the screen.
[Admiral Lux Suffers Defeat in First Battle, Two Squads Completely Wiped Out—Was It a Command Error?]
Ruan Chen’s expression immediately darkened.
Something this serious had happened to Lux?
Why had he not mentioned a single word about it yesterday?
Ruan Chen opened the article and began reading.
But after going through the entire piece, he discovered that it contained almost no valuable information whatsoever.
It was nothing but the author’s speculations and conjectures, all of them conspiracy theories painting the situation in the worst possible light.
In the article, Lux had practically become a villain who had spent years in a position of power, acting arrogantly, looking down on every other merman, and abusing his authority.
His goal was supposedly not to protect the planet or the merfolk, but to seize sole control of power and rule Ocean Planet as its king.
And it was precisely because of this attitude that he had underestimated the enemy and caused the battle to suffer catastrophic losses.
The article ended with a deeply sarcastic remark insinuating that Lux was foolish and incompetent, had been relentlessly pressuring the royal family, and even intended to overthrow them and crown himself king.
There was not a single positive sentence in the entire article.
By the time Ruan Chen reached the comments, his rage meter had hit its absolute limit.
[Sain: This report is well-reasoned and supported by evidence. Lux’s hunger for absolute power was already obvious when he privately stole away that precious purebred Chinese human. Not only that, he even corrupted the human and taught him to violently attack other merfolk in the hospital… I was one of the victims.]
[Heaven knows I could never bring myself to hurt a weak human, so I had no choice but to endure several blows from him. Like merman, like human. Ocean Planet should not be ruined in the hands of an admiral like this. I petition for his immediate recall to the home planet and suspension pending an investigation into the truth behind this defeat.]
Ruan Chen: ??
He clicked on the profile picture attached to the popular comment.
Wasn’t this the fucking idiot merman who had forcibly tried to hug him that day and gotten thrown over Ruan Chen’s shoulder?
Lux had worked himself half to death, gone into battle while injured, and become so busy he did not even have time to stay with him.
And these merfolk were just casually slandering him online like this?
Ruan Chen’s face darkened.
With the typing speed of a single internet-addicted teenager honed over more than a decade, he expressionlessly began hammering away at the screen.
[Ruan Ruan: @Sain Even a blind fish would read this article and call it complete bullshit, yet you somehow think it’s well-reasoned and supported by evidence? Did you write this garbage yourself? The worst thing Meowx ever did was stopping me that day. He should’ve let me crack your skull open and check whether it’s filled with seawater.]
[Ruan Ruan: @Sain Come fight me online.]
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