Chapter 40
Ruan Chen leaned against the wall, his mind completely filled with Lux’s heartfelt confession from moments ago.
His heart was pounding so hard that he failed to hear what Lux said after discussing the situation with the merman researchers—
“Give him the remaining vaccine dose.”
He quietly slipped back into the previous room.
When Lux returned and saw that he was awake, his face immediately lit up.
“Ruan Ruan!”
Ruan Chen was pulled into his arms.
The hand that instinctively wanted to push him away paused, then settled against Lux’s chest instead.
Stupid goldfish…
Since you said such sweet things…
I’ll let you hug me.
“Do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”
Lux squeezed his palm and lowered his head to ask.
Ruan Chen shook his little head.
“No.”
“Admiral Lux, please come with me. The vaccine will be administered in another room,” the merman researcher beside them said with a smile.
Ruan Chen: “?”
It was not until Lux carried him over and extended his right arm that Ruan Chen belatedly sensed something was wrong.
An enraged—
“MEOW MEOW MEOOOW!”
—rang through the entire room.
“Be good.”
Lux covered his eyes.
“This is good for your body. You have to get it. Don’t be afraid. It won’t hurt.”
“…”
Ruan Chen could not stand being coaxed in such a soft voice.
He stiffened his neck and said,
“I don’t want the shot in my right arm.”
Seeing this, Lux helped place his left arm on the table instead.
“Then we’ll use the left arm.”
Ruan Chen’s fear of needles dated back to kindergarten.
He had been very sickly as a child. Before elementary school, he had practically lived at the hospital and had received so many injections that he should have become numb to them.
Originally, he should not have been afraid.
But one night, he developed a fever, and the nurse on duty happened to be a beginner.
After inserting the needle, she had moved it around beneath his skin trying to find the vein.
It had hurt so badly that Ruan Chen nearly died on the spot.
That alone would have been bad enough.
But after searching for ages, she still failed to find the vein.
Both his hands ended up infiltrated and swollen like ping-pong balls.
In the end, with no other choice, they had to insert the needle into his foot.
Ever since then, Ruan Chen had developed a psychological shadow regarding injections.
Afraid he would struggle, Lux held Ruan Chen’s wrist with slightly more force.
His other arm also securely restrained him against his chest.
The unknown only intensified Ruan Chen’s fear.
He pried Lux’s hand away from his face.
The moment he looked up, he saw the merman nurse take out a rubber tourniquet.
“Mew… (Be gentle.)”
Ruan Chen’s entire body went rigid.
“Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. Be good,” the merman nurse coaxed. “Admiral Lux also has physical examinations and injections every year. Everyone gets them. It’s fine. Don’t be scared.”
The moment she finished speaking, Ruan Chen let out another fierce series of meows.
The nurse froze.
Lux smiled and translated for him.
“He said to hurry up and make sure you hit the vein properly.”
“O-okay.”
The merman nurse had not expected that kind of request.
She immediately and efficiently took out the syringe.
Ruan Chen pressed down Lux’s hand when he tried to cover his eyes again and turned his head with a frown.
“I’m not afraid of injections!”
“…All right.”
Lux suppressed a smile.
“You’re not afraid. You’re very brave.”
Ruan Chen had already made his bold declaration.
But when he actually saw the needle glinting coldly, he still could not stop himself from shrinking back slightly.
The instant the needle pierced his skin, he instinctively turned his head away and pursed his lips hard.
He stubbornly endured without making a sound.
To prevent swelling and soreness afterward, the merman nurse administered the injection very slowly.
She also continuously used a small cotton ball to massage the surrounding skin.
Ruan Chen endured until he reached his limit.
“Meow…”
“Almost done. There’s only a little left,” Lux soothed him.
Hearing the urging, the merman nurse became even more nervous.
Fortunately, nothing went wrong.
Once the injection was finally finished, Lux helped press down on Ruan Chen’s arm.
“Done.”
Ruan Chen stubbornly held out his hand.
“I can press it myself.”
“Such a good boy. Much better behaved than when he got his first shot,” the merman nurse sighed. “It seems he really likes you.”
Ruan Chen, who was wearing his translator earpiece, heard her perfectly clearly.
“I wasn’t afraid the first time either,” he argued. “They kept holding me down, and I didn’t even know they were giving me an injection…”
Ruan Chen had no idea that his bright-red cheeks and neck had completely betrayed him.
He still tilted his head up, trying to rebuild his image in front of Lux.
Lux chuckled.
“Mm. Ruan Ruan wasn’t afraid. He was just a little loud.”
“…”
Ruan Chen froze.
Unfortunately, both his hands were occupied.
He could not settle accounts with the merman.
Forget it.
Lux liked him so much.
He should indulge him a little.
After the vaccination, they stayed for another half hour of observation.
Once it was confirmed that there were no other problems, Lux carried Ruan Chen back to the airship.
The merman lowered his head and fastened Ruan Chen’s safety belt.
“Is Ruan Ruan hungry?”
Ruan Chen was still pressing his arm.
“No.”
“You can let go now.”
Lux looked at him in amusement.
“It won’t bleed anymore.”
Ruan Chen stiffened.
He carefully moved the cotton ball away and lowered his eyes to inspect the needle mark on his arm.
Lux stared at it with him.
Several minutes passed.
There was no blood.
Ruan Chen finally breathed a sigh of relief and pulled down his sleeve.
“…I knew it wouldn’t bleed.”
He pressed his lips together.
“I just… forgot to stop pressing it.”
Lux lowered his eyes and listened.
Then he reached toward Ruan Chen’s arm.
Ruan Chen immediately shrieked and dodged.
“What are you doing?!”
“Weren’t you unafraid?”
Lux’s smile widened.
“Let me check whether you’re really not afraid.”
He expected Ruan Chen to become furious.
Instead, the human paused.
Then, unexpectedly, he extended his arm toward Lux.
His little face was stern and cold.
“Go ahead. Check.”
Lux raised an eyebrow in surprise.
“So brave?”
Ruan Chen lifted his chin.
“I’ve always been brave. What’s so scary about getting a shot?”
“Oh—”
Lux made a show of reaching for his safety belt.
“Perfect. There is still one vaccine shot left. We can get it today too.”
The human in front of him visibly tensed for an instant.
But only for an instant.
“You’re lying. Vaccines can’t be given back-to-back.”
“Is that so?”
Lux blinked.
“Could Ruan Ruan be remembering incorrectly?”
Ruan Chen froze.
He only knew that in the human world, vaccines were given several months apart.
But in the merfolk world…
He genuinely had no idea.
“I was lying.”
Lux tapped the tip of his nose and smiled.
“The next dose can’t be given for another six months. Don’t be afraid. That’s still a long time away.”
Ruan Chen: “…”
Humiliated and furious, Ruan Chen propped himself up and prepared to fight the merman.
But suddenly—
Crack.
Something snapped against his hand.
He and Lux both looked down.
Ruan Chen’s nails had not been trimmed for a long time and had grown too long.
One of them had struck the armrest and broken.
It had been fine before he looked.
The moment he saw it, it somehow hurt even more.
“It doesn’t hurt, it doesn’t hurt.”
Lux quickly took his little paw, both exasperated and amused.
“Be good. I’ll trim your nails when we get back.”
The pain ran straight through the fingertip.
Ruan Chen’s ears turned red from holding it in.
Yet he still forced himself to look calm and pulled his hand away.
“It didn’t hurt in the first place. I can just tear it off myself. No need to cut it.”
“No.”
Lux frowned and lifted his hand to inspect it.
“The crack reaches right up to the flesh. You’re not allowed to tear it. I’ll trim it for you when we get back.”
“…”
So demanding.
It must be because he liked Ruan Chen too much and could not bear to see him hurt anywhere.
Ruan Chen once again convinced himself.
Lux settled him properly, then returned to the pilot’s seat.
The airship fell quiet.
Outside the glass window, the currents carried the scenery of Ocean Planet’s imperial capital past them at high speed.
Ruan Chen turned his head and looked at the merman’s back in front of him.
“Being able to meet Ruan Ruan was already an incredibly fortunate thing.”
Lux’s words at the breeding center surfaced in his mind again.
Ruan Chen’s eyelids drooped.
Suddenly, he no longer had any interest in admiring the scenery.
Could the problem with his transformation period be because…
He did not originally belong to this world?
It seemed that all the humans here had been awakened after being frozen for a very long time.
But Ruan Chen clearly knew that he had simply gone to sleep in his bed and somehow ended up here.
He knew nothing about being frozen.
Nor did he know what Earth in this world was like.
Ruan Chen glanced at Lux again and irritably ran a hand through his hair.
Who would have thought the broken nail would get caught in the strands?
He stared in shock.
“…Meow?”
When they arrived home and Ruan Chen saw the unfamiliar nail clippers Lux had taken out, he immediately lost his nerve.
“I don’t want you to cut them anymore!”
He frantically kicked his arms and legs, slipped out of Lux’s embrace, and in the blink of an eye squeezed himself into the bedroom wardrobe.
“Ruan Ruan.”
Lux watched helplessly as he crammed his hair into a complete mess.
“It won’t hurt. Come out.”
Ruan Chen stared fixedly at the tool in Lux’s hand.
It was almost half the size of his palm.
He shook his head like a rattle.
“I really don’t need them cut. I can bite them off myself.”
When he was little, he had seen plenty of friends chew their nails.
They never needed clippers.
They gnawed them perfectly neat.
“Bite them off?”
Lux tried to reason with him.
“If you don’t trim them and they catch on something else later, the part attached to the flesh could tear off with them. Then you’ll really know what pain is.”
The little figure curled up inside the wardrobe remained completely unmoved.
In the end, the standoff failed.
After a battle of wits and courage, Ruan Chen was still caught by the wrist and carried all the way from the wardrobe to the living room sofa.
The merman easily restrained his flailing arms and legs and forced his fingers open.
The moment Ruan Chen saw the nail clippers approaching, he did not dare move anymore.
Snip.
The broken nail was clipped away.
Ruan Chen jolted all over.
“Be good.”
Lux’s deep coaxing voice came through the translator.
“Once we’re done, I’ll open another box of snacks for you.”
Ruan Chen’s eyes widened.
He looked up.
“MEOW MEOW MEOW MEOOOW!”
Lux’s translator earpiece had been knocked away somewhere during their earlier struggle.
Hearing the cries, he smiled gently.
“Mm. Ruan Ruan is right.”
Ruan Chen: “…”
I’m fucking cursing you!
Feeling the merman clip two more nails in succession, Ruan Chen could not resist turning his head to peek.
They were not ugly or cut painfully short as he had imagined.
Every nail had been trimmed into a perfect curve following the shape of his finger.
It was obvious this was Lux’s first time doing it.
His movements were still somewhat inexperienced.
But his attitude was extremely serious and meticulous.
When the person in his arms suddenly quieted down, Lux was almost unused to it.
He activated the translation function on his optical computer and asked beside Ruan Chen’s ear,
“Is Ruan Ruan in a bad mood?”
“…No.”
Ruan Chen turned his face slightly away.
Realizing his tone had been too stiff, he softened it.
“I’m not in a bad mood.”
What did he have to be upset about?
The one who should be upset was Lux.
After all, Ruan Chen was not the one who had suddenly lost several hundred years of his lifespan.
Unexpectedly, the merman asked again,
“Then why did Ruan Ruan keep staring at me on the way home?”
His movements had been so discreet.
How had Lux still noticed?
Ruan Chen shifted his bottom slightly and did not answer.
After finishing all of his fingernails, the merman reached for one of his little feet.
His sole tickled.
Ruan Chen instinctively pulled his leg back.
“My feet are dirty…”
The roots of his ears burned.
He reached for the nail clippers.
“I can cut them myself.”
Lux did not let him pull away and held his foot firmly.
“Don’t move. Otherwise I’ll cut them crooked.”
That single sentence struck Ruan Chen’s fatal weakness.
The human’s toes were small and delicate, each one pale and soft.
Lux did not even dare use much force, afraid he might hurt him.
Ruan Chen’s foot rested in the merman’s palm.
The size difference was striking.
Ruan Chen glanced once and immediately looked away.
After a long time, he finally managed to say,
“Actually… I heard what you were talking about in that room.”
Lux’s movements paused.
The human and merman fell silent for several seconds.
“Don’t overthink it.”
Remembering the contents of the conversation, the merman lightly scratched the sole of Ruan Chen’s foot.
“It’s not that serious.”
Ruan Chen pressed his lips together.
“I’m not stupid. I know whether it’s serious.”
“…And I’m not overthinking it.”
He lowered his lashes.
“I just wanted to tell you…”
“I’m very healthy. Everyone in my family lives a long time,” Ruan Chen said. “My grandfather lived into his nineties and was never sick. My grandmother died a little earlier, but that was because of an accident. She fell down. Before that, she was even healthier than my grandfather.”
Lux listened quietly.
Ruan Chen rubbed the hem of his clothes, still wearing that stiff, awkward, and indifferent expression.
“Don’t believe what that guy in the white coat said. I’m not only going to live a few more decades.”
Lux’s heart stirred.
Ruan Chen raised his eyes toward the merman, completely unaware that his flushed cheeks had betrayed him once again.
“So… you don’t need to worry.”
“You’ll definitely live a long life too.”
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