Chapter 35
Throughout the base, the endless meowing continued to echo.
Even at the detection stations on the outermost perimeter, the merman soldiers had gathered around their communicators, basking in wave after wave of soothing energy washing through their minds.
Those most affected were the injured merfolk in the military hospital who had been infected by Zerg venom.
Vincent happened to be there visiting Captain Cote.
Captain Cote, who had suffered the most severe injuries and remained unconscious, actually began to stir and slowly opened his eyes.
Vincent immediately realized how important this was.
With a flick of his tail, he rushed toward the command room where Lux and Ruan Chen were.
But halfway there, a burst of chaotic noise suddenly came through the communicator.
“Meow meow meow! Meow meow… MEOW MEOOOW—!”
The gentle, soft meowing ended in a short, miserable shriek.
Then every sound abruptly cut off.
Vincent’s heart lurched.
The military hospital and command room were separated by nearly half of Base X.
By the time he arrived, however, he discovered that things were not at all as he had imagined.
Lux was holding the already sleeping Ruan Chen in his arms.
The latter seemed extremely satisfied with everything he had just done and smacked his lips sweetly.
“Mew…”
Vincent breathed a sigh of relief.
“Lux… what just happened?”
Having finally managed to get the little lunatic to sleep, Lux raised a finger to his lips.
He gently placed Ruan Chen on the sofa, then motioned for Vincent to follow him outside to talk.
After closing the door, Vincent told him everything he had felt earlier, as well as the reactions of the wounded merfolk in the military hospital.
“Captain Cote has already woken up. It’s incredible.”
Vincent was visibly excited.
“My guess is that Ruan Ruan’s singing has a powerful healing effect on the mental contamination caused by the Zerg.”
Seeing Lux remain silent, he continued.
“I was thinking… if possible, could we ask Ruan Ruan to sing specifically for the wounded? We could see whether it has any effect.”
Lux considered it.
“He was acting drunk after eating the fruit just now. We’ll ask for his opinion after he wakes up.”
Vincent nodded.
“That’s true.”
Then he thought of what he had seen earlier and asked curiously,
“Huh? Didn’t Ruan Ruan display a second merfolk trait? I heard him cry out and thought you were injecting mental pheromones into him.”
Lux was silent for several seconds.
“No. I checked his entire body. Aside from the gills that appeared the first time, there’s nothing else.”
The song had made him lose control slightly, but it had not been nearly as severe as the first time they met.
After experiencing the bliss of mentally merging with Ruan Chen, something on the level of this little appetizer was no longer enough to affect him so seriously.
As for that scream—
That was purely because Ruan Chen had thrown a tantrum and refused to return the communicator.
Eating the fruit without displaying any reaction was truly unheard of.
Vincent scratched his head.
“Let’s observe him for another few days. Maybe he ate too much and needs more time to digest it.”
“Mm.”
Once they finished discussing the matter, Lux prepared to carry Ruan Chen back to his room.
The moment he turned around, Vincent noticed the little bow-shaped topknot sticking up from the back of his hair.
Vincent stared in disbelief.
Then his expression became increasingly complicated.
Several times, he opened his mouth, only to stop himself.
“Um…”
In the end, he still could not resist and patted Lux on the shoulder.
Lux: “?”
“Y-you should look in a mirror. The back of your…”
Vincent vaguely pointed toward it, his expression twisted between wanting to laugh and desperately not daring to.
Lux turned toward a mirror in confusion.
There was still one topknot he had missed.
It swayed on top of his head with the current, the masterpiece Ruan Chen had left in his hair earlier.
Lux: “…”
Ruan Chen had a dream.
He dreamed he had returned to high school.
It happened to be Monday, during the principal’s speech.
Not only that, Ruan Chen charged onto the stage and snatched the microphone away.
Then, under the gazes of the entire school, he threw his head back and loudly sang Calabash Brothers.
Just as he was getting really into it, the principal standing nearby suddenly charged at him—
By the time the principal reached him, his hair rapidly grew longer.
Before Ruan Chen’s eyes, his face transformed into that of a certain golden merman.
Then the merman said,
“Ruan Ruan, you can’t play with that.”
“MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOOOW! (AAAAAAAH!)”
Ruan Chen screamed and flailed wildly on the bed before abruptly sitting up with his eyes open.
A long time passed.
He stared wide-eyed at the familiar room in front of him.
Ding.
His optical computer popped out from his wrist.
A translucent screen unfolded.
Ruan Chen glanced over.
A long string of unread messages flooded the display.
[Houston: Ruan, you’re so cute. I’m laughing myself to death. I never knew you were this kind of Ruan.]
[Houston: Ruan, when you wake up, stay strong.]
[Houston: It’s okay. Everyone is like that when they’re drunk. Totally normal.]
Ruan Chen: “?”
Drunk?
Who was drunk?
Fragments of yesterday’s memories surfaced intermittently in his mind.
He had pried the fruit open with a food can and drunk everything inside.
After that…
What had happened after that?
Hadn’t he been on the sofa in Lux’s command room?
How had he gotten back to the room???
[A merman tagged you! Come take a look~]
Another familiar notification appeared.
Ruan Chen’s instincts told him something was wrong.
But curiosity still convinced him to open it.
[Lux Dorian: @Ruan Ruan I couldn’t tell before, but it turns out you’re a singer too. [Video]]
Ruan Chen’s finger froze over the video.
He first scrolled down and looked through the comments.
[HAHAHAHAHAHA, was he drunk?]
[Front row asking: what does the song mean? [Expectant]]
[Wuwuwu, it doesn’t sound good at all. I’ve only listened to it over a hundred times.]
[?? Why is it only a dozen seconds long?!]
[Expose him!! Give us more, this isn’t enough QAQ]
[Lux must have secretly kept the rest for himself. I’m inexplicably jealous. [Starry Eyes]]
[I hope this video still exists after Ruan Ruan sobers up. [Praying]]
[Wait, unless I’m mistaken, isn’t he holding a communicator? And the kind connected to the main control console… Our broadcasting station has one too. When it’s used, the whole floor can hear it.]
[I hope Ruan Ruan is okay. [Praying]]
What are you all talking about?
Why can I understand every individual word, but together they make absolutely no sense?
Utterly bewildered, Ruan Chen’s hand trembled as he opened the video.
The moment it loaded, the familiar face on-screen nearly made his vision go black.
In the video, he stood with both feet planted on the table, gripping a slender rod topped with a little round ball.
His pose was heroic and unrestrained.
Then his voice rang out from the video—
“He’s taller than the heavens when he rises to the sky, he’s bigger than the sea when he dives below—”
Thank God.
He had not actually sung Calabash Brothers.
Ruan Chen expressionlessly breathed a sigh of relief.
Not even a second later, the melody suddenly changed.
“He outwits demons and defeats monsters, his name is…”
The person in the video seemed to forget the lyrics.
His expression went blank for several seconds.
Before Ruan Chen could press Close, his eyes in the video suddenly lit up.
He raised the microphone again.
“His name is Calabash Boy! Calabash Boy, Calabash Boy, seven flowers on a single vine…”
Ruan Chen: “……”
What were the original lyrics again?
This had to be fake.
It was definitely a fake composite video that stupid goldfish had made just to frame him.
Ruan Chen could no longer hold himself together.
His face slowly heated up.
Within a few breaths, the redness spread rapidly from his cheeks to his neck and ears.
Was that really fucking me?
The video ended there.
One could vaguely hear a certain merman chuckling and saying, “Ruan Ruan,” completely confirming the identity of the video’s protagonist.
Ruan Chen raised both hands and covered his face.
Then he fell flat onto the bed, suddenly losing all courage to face the world.
AAAAAAAH!
Several seconds later, Ruan Chen buried his entire face in the pillow and curled into a ball on Lux’s shell bed from sheer mortification, smashing his head repeatedly into the mattress.
What the hell had he been doing yesterday?!
Why had Lux recorded it?
And why had he posted it online for so many fish to see?!
Wait.
No.
It was fine.
Ruan Chen’s face was burning red when he abruptly stopped.
He had just seen a comment asking what the song meant.
Aside from him and the few merfolk with translators, the other merfolk could not understand what he was singing.
To them, it probably sounded no different from listening to a foreigner sing.
At most…
His singing posture had been a little…
Undignified.
His hand accidentally touched the optical computer again.
The video began playing once more.
Ruan Chen jolted all over and frantically exited at lightning speed.
He had never moved that fast even during an online argument.
At the same time he closed the video, a faint sound seemed to come from outside the room.
Without another word, Ruan Chen shut off his optical computer, pulled the blanket over himself, lay flat, closed his eyes, evened his breathing—
Peaceful.
“Still hasn’t woken up.”
“You go ahead. I’ll wait for him to wake up.”
“All right.”
It was Lux and Vincent.
Ruan Chen heard the door close.
The water around him shifted.
Finally, Lux stopped beside the bed.
Ruan Chen’s heart rose into his throat.
Don’t wait for me to wake up.
I’m never waking up.
Lux lowered his eyes and looked at the obvious flush on the face of the person lying on the bed.
He silently chuckled.
For a long time, Ruan Chen heard nothing else.
He became confused.
Just as he was about to squint and peek at what was happening, he heard the sound of an optical computer activating beside his ear.
A familiar voice, slightly slurred from drunkenness, entered his ears—
“Ruan Ruan is… Meowx’s little treasure.”
Ruan Chen: “?!”
What the hell is that?????
As though deciding the stimulation was not strong enough, Lux turned the volume all the way up.
He even placed the optical computer directly beside Ruan Chen’s ear.
The soft voice repeated endlessly.
“Ruan Ruan is Meowx’s little treasure. Ruan Ruan is…”
Beneath the blanket, Ruan Chen clenched his little fists.
Lux sounded slightly surprised.
“That still won’t wake you up?”
At that, Ruan Chen could no longer keep pretending.
His eyes flew open.
He met Lux’s smiling golden gaze.
Half a second later, he launched himself at him.
“Stupid goldfish! Delete it! AAAAAAH!!”
I’ll fight you to the death!
The merman effortlessly caught both of his little paws in one hand.
Ruan Chen’s entire body was trapped in his embrace.
Unable to struggle free, Ruan Chen exploded.
“Meow!”
He lowered his head and bit Lux’s finger.
This time, Ruan Chen had learned his lesson and deliberately avoided the scales.
Yet the merman acted as though it neither hurt nor itched.
He even chuckled above Ruan Chen’s head.
“Ruan Ruan, do you remember what happened yesterday?”
“…”
Ruan Chen’s neck was bright red.
Originally, he had not remembered much.
But with all these reminders, everything he had done yesterday gradually returned to him, one thing after another.
Lux had taken him for an examination.
Then he had coaxed him into playing some bullshit game where losing meant a kiss and winning also meant a kiss.
Finally, Ruan Chen himself had…
Snatched the command room communicator, treated it like a microphone, and sung several children’s songs.
From Nezha to the Calabash Brothers.
Even Black Cat Detective had not escaped him.
And Lux had been wearing the translator.
Ruan Chen squeezed his eyes shut tightly.
Maybe he should just drag this merman down with him and die together.
“Why are you so angry?”
When Lux pulled his hand free, there was already a neat row of clearly visible teeth marks on it.
Pretend.
Keep pretending.
Ruan Chen glared furiously at him.
“Why did you…”
He paused.
He was too embarrassed to ask about that humiliating game.
So he changed his question.
“Why did you post a video of me drunk online?”
His eyes were red.
His face was filled with anger.
There was grievance mixed into the anger, and humiliation leaking through the grievance.
Worst of all, he could not beat this merman.
He was completely helpless.
Lux said solemnly,
“Because Ruan Ruan sings very beautifully.”
Ruan Chen: “?”
Ruan Chen: “…”
Like hell I believe you!
You’re clearly trying to destroy my lifelong reputation!
“It’s true.”
Lux smiled.
“I came back because I wanted to discuss something related to this with Ruan Ruan.”
Ruan Chen frowned.
“What?”
Lux carefully considered his wording.
“After our first battle ended in defeat, more than a dozen merfolk suffered varying degrees of infection.”
Ruan Chen’s expression clearly said:
Let’s see what bullshit you come up with. If I’m not satisfied, you’re dead.
Lux continued, “I want to ask you to sing for the wounded at the military hospital.”
Ruan Chen: “???”
Was yesterday not humiliating enough for you?
Lux hurriedly explained.
“Your voice is somewhat special to us. Do you remember when our minds merged?”
Why bring that up all of a sudden…
Ruan Chen lowered his head.
“I remember.”
The sensation had been so euphoric he had practically ascended on the spot.
Even after so much time, Ruan Chen could still remember it clearly.
“Yesterday, we discovered that your mental energy can soothe other merfolk through your singing,” Lux said softly. “It’s especially effective on the wounded who have been infected by the Zerg.”
Ruan Chen froze.
Seeing the anger on his face fade, Lux continued.
“After you finished singing yesterday, Captain Cote, who had remained unconscious all this time, successfully woke up. His condition is much better now.”
“So…”
Lux held Ruan Chen’s little paw.
“Ruan Ruan, I’d like to ask you for this favor.”
Ruan Chen raised his eyes.
The merman looked down at him, his gaze filled with hope.
It was the kind of look that made it very difficult to refuse.
“…”
Ruan Chen’s ears went numb under that gaze.
His head heated up, and he blurted, “Then I’ll sing.”
Lux’s eyes curved with a smile.
“All right. I’ll thank Ruan Ruan on behalf of the wounded first.”
Ruan Chen pressed his lips together.
“…You’re welcome.”
How had he agreed so easily?
Forget it.
It was just singing.
Besides, without translators, the merfolk did not know what he was singing anyway.
If randomly belting out a couple of songs could help the injured recover, there was no reason not to take such a good deal.
Suddenly, Ruan Chen remembered something.
He grabbed the hem of Lux’s clothes and looked up.
“I have one condition.”
Lux blinked.
“Go ahead.”
Ruan Chen knitted his brows and wore a stern little expression.
“Besides those two videos, what else did you secretly record?”
Lux: “…”
His human really was far too sharp.
After practically turning Lux’s optical computer inside out in the room, Ruan Chen finished checking everything.
Only after confirming there were no overlooked videos capable of damaging his image did he allow Lux to hold his paw and lead him to Base X’s military hospital.
Maybe it was his imagination, but all the way there, he kept feeling merfolk secretly looking at him.
Their gazes were filled with gratitude and affection.
Inside the military hospital—
Just as Lux had said, more than a dozen wounded merfolk had been placed in the largest room.
Several were especially badly injured.
Even through the bandages, Ruan Chen could clearly see black mist spreading upward from their broken wounds.
The wounded merfolk saw him arrive and began pushing themselves upright on their beds.
Faced with more than a dozen pairs of expectant eyes, Ruan Chen tightened his little paws around the loudspeaker.
Uncertainly, he turned and glanced at Lux standing nearby.
The golden merman smiled faintly at him and nodded encouragingly.
For some reason, the sentence echoed in Ruan Chen’s ears again—
“Ruan Ruan is Meowx’s little treasure.”
His face heated slightly.
Ruan Chen turned back toward the wounded.
He racked his brains and finally thought of a new song.
Drawing in a deep breath from his diaphragm, Ruan Chen opened his mouth and sang,
“Little conch horn, toot toot toot, the seagulls hear it and blindly—”
“…”
“The seagulls hear it… and spread their wings to fly…”
The author has something to say:
While writing this chapter, my toes nearly dug through the floor of my room from secondhand embarrassment.
Ruan Chen, Destroyer of Children’s Songs.
The lyrics are taken from Young Hero Little Nezha, Calabash Brothers, and Little Conch Horn.
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