Chapter 50
The moment Ruan Chen kissed him, the last shred of patience in Lux’s heart completely shattered.
He raised his hand to cradle the back of Ruan Chen’s head, holding him in place, and lowered his own head slightly to cooperate.
His fingers plunged deep into the human’s soft black hair, the force running through his strands carrying a weight heavier than ever before.
A faint ache throbbed at the roots of his hair.
Yet Ruan Chen’s entire body was screaming wildly, desperate to draw closer to the merman.
Clutching Lux’s clothes, the tide in the depths of Ruan Chen’s eyes swelled even more heavily.
Lux observed his reactions meticulously for a few seconds, confirming that he didn’t show any expression of discomfort.
The tip of his tongue lingered around Ruan Chen’s lips for a brief moment before prying them apart, deepening the kiss.
“Mph…”
An even more violent wave of mental energy coiled around Ruan Chen, scaling over him layer upon layer.
He felt as though he were being pulled down and dragged into a bottomless abyss.
The merman’s long fish tail swayed in the water, the brilliant pale gold scales and tail fin interweaving with the light and shadows.
For a split second, Ruan Chen felt dizzy and spellbound, unable to tell whether this was Lux’s mental energy or something else.
It tickled.
Ruan Chen wanted to reach out and claw at it, but he couldn’t muster even an ounce of strength.
His entire body was soft as mush, leaving nothing but his breathing and a wildly racing heartbeat.
“Lux…”
The sensation of a deep mental blend was far more intense than their previous experience.
The feeling of integration in the deepest recesses of his soul was so violent that a tiny tear welling up at the corner of Ruan Chen’s eye quickly dissolved into the seawater.
Lux kissed the corner of his eye and his lips. “Good boy.”
Once a mental blend began, it became entirely impossible to suppress.
Wave after wave of the merman’s mental energy surged and cascaded into Ruan Chen’s mind.
It felt as though countless hands were gently reaching into his brain, guiding his mental energy to entwine and dance with Lux’s.
The sensation was so profound and mystical that Ruan Chen’s breathing grew rapid, and he couldn’t help but open his eyes. “Wait a minute…”
For the merman, things had only just begun; calling a halt at a time like this was simply impossible.
Detecting his struggle, Lux’s pupils constricted slightly, the fierce instincts in his bones barking uncontrollably.
He stared intently at Ruan Chen for a few seconds, and an even more rapid surge of mental energy flooded toward Ruan Chen, blanketing everything.
A low, delighted sound vibrated deep within Lux’s throat.
“Ruan Ruan…”
“Don’t be afraid.”
“Don’t resist me.”
Ruan Chen’s token attempts to push him away had absolutely no effect, serving only to let the merman’s mental energy submerge him even more wantonly.
He had completely lost the capacity to think, capable only of letting out soft whimpers.
His eyes opened to their absolute limits, every subtle nerve ending unfurling in tandem with the merman’s mental energy.
Intoxicated and light, he felt as if he were floating, soaring among the clouds.
For a human who had not yet undergone transformation, a merman was still entirely too overwhelming to take in.
After soothing Ruan Chen, Lux lowered his gaze to scan him.
The longing in his mind pricked like needles.
But he knew he couldn’t.
Ruan Chen would get hurt.
Instinct and reason locked horns in a fierce battle.
The veins on Lux’s forehead throbbed tightly.
Grasping Ruan Chen’s hand, the explicit thoughts in his mind practically spilled out from his eyes, yet the voice he spoke with remained restrained and gentle: “Ruan Ruan… help me, alright?”
Ruan Chen actually retained his consciousness.
He knew exactly what the merman meant by those words.
He ought to resist.
Yet inexplicably, hearing Lux’s low, hoarse, and strained voice, a desire to cooperate with him surged from the bottom of his heart.
The sensation against his palm sent a violent jolt through his entire body.
Something was definitely wrong with him.
Ruan Chen closed his eyes in utter self-abandonment.
His heartbeat and brain had completely spun out of control.
Nothing remained but his senses, intimately entangling and drowning alongside the merman.
Ruan Chen ultimately cried himself to sleep.
Joshua really hadn’t lied to him; the physical capability of these mermen could no longer be described by the word “terrifying” alone.
Furthermore, any resistance only seemed to make him more excited.
In the final second before losing consciousness, he bit down savagely on the shoulder of the merman, who kept bullying him and refused to stop no matter what he said.
He left a perfectly clear, complete bite mark.
The next morning.
Ruan Chen sensed light.
His eyelashes fluttered slightly.
The moment he opened his eyes, he ran straight into Lux’s pair of pale gold eyes.
Ruan Chen: “…”
He stiffly averted his gaze, only to realize he had absolutely no idea where he was supposed to look.
Lux had clearly just fallen asleep last night while holding him.
Right now, the human and the merman were still maintaining a lingering, intimate posture. Lux wasn’t wearing a top, exposing a section of his shoulder and collarbone outside the blanket, his long golden hair somewhat disheveled.
The merman’s tail encircled him in his embrace as if marking his territory, the tail fin cocked high up, its tip resting against Ruan Chen’s back.
Spacing out for a moment, Ruan Chen spotted the evidence of his crime from last night on Lux’s shoulder.
That glaring bite mark instantly dispelled any thoughts he had of escaping reality.
I might as well just die.
His face was taut, completely expressionless.
“Ruan Ruan…” Seeing that he was awake, Lux gently curled his tail and lowered his head.
Ruan Chen hadn’t yet processed what he was about to do.
Only when the merman’s face drew close, his lips nearly pressing against his, did he snap out of it completely, raising a hand to block the other’s movement and shoving him hard.
Unprepared, Lux was almost pushed right off the clam bed by the sudden shove.
This sudden movement strained his waist and legs.
A sharp ache rushed straight to his brain, making Ruan Chen grimace in pain, staying frozen on the spot for a long while to recover.
Both furious and embarrassed, he whipped open the blanket and looked down.
The area hidden beneath the blanket was flushed entirely red.
Certain unspeakable scenes rushed back along with his memory.
It was somewhat different from what he had imagined; it wasn’t that mermen didn’t have that place, but rather that it was usually hidden away beneath the scales at the upper section of the fish tail.
The merman holding his hand…
What came after was even more excessive—he had directly pressed his legs tightly together.
That was exactly how the red chafing marks had been left behind.
Ruan Chen’s face turned so red it looked ready to bleed.
“You motherf—” He opened his mouth to swear, but after letting out a few sounds, he realized his throat was also completely hoarse.
He let out several consecutive coughs, his eyes instantly turning watery, completely draining him of any intimidating edge.
Seeing this, Lux hurriedly fetched a small milk bottle and inserted a straw. “Ruan Ruan, drink some to soothe your throat.”
Ruan Chen slapped it away into the water with a single swing. “Get out… cough, cough-cough-cough…”
Propping himself up to sit on the bed, he glared at the merman before him.
Although his body felt rather uncomfortable, Ruan Chen could not deny that the mental blend last night felt as though it had washed his soul clean from the inside out. Even though he had been exhausted to his limit by the end, he actually woke up today filled with abundant energy.
This bizarre discrepancy only served to make him feel more defensive and mortified.
It proved all the more that the entire incident couldn’t be blamed solely on Lux; he had thoroughly enjoyed it as well.
Lux met his gaze, and everything that had transpired last night replayed continuously before Ruan Chen’s eyes.
He felt as if he were sitting on pins and needles, unable to stay here any longer.
“Ruan Ruan…” Lux drew closer to his side.
Ruan Chen’s gaze uncontrollably darted toward the area below the merman’s waist.
Realizing what he was looking at, Ruan Chen bounded right off the bed, rushed rapidly into the adjacent small conch bed, and slammed the lid shut.
With a sharp click, he shut himself away in self-isolation.
Lux swam over, intending to tap on the top lid of the conch bed.
Ruan Chen’s muffled, furious voice carried out from inside: “Get lost, don’t come bothering me!”
The merman’s hand froze over the shell, halting in place.
It seemed he had… truly angered him.
Lux lowered his eyes to stare at the conch bed, his lips pressed straight.
After a long while, he finally retreated back onto his own clam bed, curling the blanket Ruan Chen had used right in the middle of his body, resting his head on it as he lay down quietly facing Ruan Chen’s direction.
Ruan Chen buried his face in the pillow.
He had originally wanted to avoid Lux to let himself calm down a bit.
But he found it was completely useless.
The moment he opened his eyes, his mind was filled with the scenes of the merman acting all intimate with him last night.
The moment he closed his eyes, those frames didn’t vanish, but grew even clearer instead.
Even the slightly hoarse voice Lux used when speaking, his rising intonation, the strength of his arms, and the texture of his waist and skin were all fully restored in his head.
Ruan Chen contorted his face fiercely, staring at the top lid of the conch bed.
Gradually, Lux’s pair of dark, profound eyes surfaced again.
His gaze had been direct and intense; the merman simply hadn’t made any attempt to conceal his emotions from beginning to end.
What was most fatal was that he didn’t feel any aversion to Lux’s gaze, and had even… been enticed into a momentary fit of heat, submissively cooperating.
And he was the one who had started all of this in the first place.
After the mental blend, the sensation surging straight up from the bottom of his heart had left him completely unable to hold back.
He had been worried that the merman would lose his sanity and do something to him, yet in the end, the one who lost his sanity first and kissed the other was himself.
What did it feel like to kiss him…
His lips were quite soft.
It felt very comfortable.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
No matter what, the one who ultimately did wrong was Lux.
Even if he had given him a kiss, it had only been pressing against his lips, yet the force the merman used to return the kiss was less like kissing and more like biting.
The moment he thought of this, the memory of the merman’s slightly cool palm cupping a certain area came flooding back too.
He hadn’t resisted, and had actually quite enjoyed it.
The merman had helped him, so helping him back seemed somewhat justifiable… justifiable my ass!
What the hell am I thinking?!
Ruan Chen clawed at his hair in a breakdown, turning his body around to slam his head viciously against the pillow several times in a row with loud thuds.
The small conch bed thrashed and rocked on the spot from his thrashing, looking ready to take flight right then and there.
Lux opened his eyes and braced his body upward. “Ruan Ruan?”
“Shut up!”
A fierce voice cut him off savagely.
Hearing this, Lux paused, then lay back down again.
Ruan Chen remained entirely self-isolated inside the conch bed for the whole morning.
During this time, he inspected his entire body from top to bottom, discovering that Lux hadn’t crossed the line and hadn’t gone through with the final step.
He thought back to the things Joshua had said about being unable to get out of bed for several days.
Lux had actually managed to suppress his instincts?
Then again, given how massive that thing was, it probably would have cost him his life right on the spot.
The flush that had just receded a bit from Ruan Chen’s face flared up once more.
He rubbed the sore and aching area at the base of his thighs.
He felt a bit hungry.
Curled inside the bed, Ruan Chen listened to the noises outside.
It was very quiet.
So much time had passed, yet Lux hadn’t come to look for him at all.
A strange feeling cropped up in the depths of Ruan Chen’s heart.
He quietly pried open a crack in the conch bed, poking his head out to steal a furtive glance.
Lux was on the clam bed not far away.
His entire body was curled into a ring, his fish tail encircling the blanket as if guarding some precious treasure.
That was the blanket he had slept with last night.
Ruan Chen let go of the lid, shrinking back inside once more.
After waiting for a few seconds, he still climbed stealthily out of the conch bed, preparing to head to the living room to get some food.
As he passed the merman, Ruan Chen couldn’t help but turn his head to steal a glance at him.
This single glance made him knit his brows.
Lux’s complexion didn’t look very good, as if he were trying hard to endure something.
Ruan Chen had made a slight noise here, yet the merman acted as if he hadn’t heard a thing, offering no reaction whatsoever.
What was wrong with him?
Forget it, whether he lives or dies is none of my business.
Ruan Chen turned back around to swim toward the living room.
A moment later, he backed right back in, swimming back to Lux’s side as if resigning himself to his fate.
Ruan Chen poked the merman’s tail with his finger. “Hey.”
No response.
After waiting for nearly a minute, Lux finally opened his eyes slowly.
Upon seeing him, a look of pure delight immediately surfaced in his eyes. “Ruan Ruan.”
No matter how obtuse Ruan Chen was, he could tell something was wrong with his voice now.
It was incredibly low and hoarse.
“What’s wrong with you?” he asked with a taut face.
The one whose throat was scolded hoarse yesterday wasn’t you, was it?
Lux looked at him with an aggrieved expression.
Ruan Chen instantly felt like a major scumbag who had loved and left, pulling up his pants and bolting.
He touched the tip of his nose, his tone softening considerably. “What are you doing? I was the one… exhausted to that extent yesterday, and I haven’t even said anything, so why are you looking all weak and fragile?”
“Is Ruan Ruan angry with me?” Lux didn’t answer, tentatively brushing his tail fin against the hem of Ruan Chen’s top.
“…” Ruan Chen pursed his lips.
It wasn’t entirely Lux’s fault either.
Lux reached out to hook his index finger around Ruan Chen’s fingertip, the intent to please and sue for peace blindingly obvious.
Ruan Chen couldn’t handle him acting this way. “I’m not angry, alright? What on earth is wrong with you? Your voice is hoarser than mine.”
Lux fell into silence once more.
Only after a long while did he gently tilt his head up, looking pitiful. “I still want more.”
Ruan Chen: “?!”
Ruan Chen: “What did you say? Say that again??”
His voice grew louder, scaring the merman’s tail into shrinking back again, terrified that he would infuriate him somewhere and cause him to ignore him.
Lux lowered his eyelashes. “Nothing, it’s fine. I’ll be fine after resting for a few days.”
???
Is this kind of thing something that can be fixed just by resting?
Ruan Chen felt that he was simply testing the absolute limits of his patience on purpose.
Grinding his teeth for a long moment, he lifted his legs to climb onto the bed. “Lift your tail.”
“…” Lux’s tail fin flicked slightly, but he didn’t move.
Ruan Chen simply took matters into his own hands, huffing and puffing as he pulled the merman’s massive tail out from its curled state.
Sure enough, the area near his abdomen was packed into a massive bulge again, and the scales at the front already showed signs of being pushed open.
A visible flush spread across Ruan Chen’s face.
“How can you be so…”
Then again.
Joshua truly hadn’t deceived him.
A merman’s combat capability in this regard really wasn’t something that could be resolved in a single day.
“If I ignored you, were you planning to just keep holding it in like this?” Ruan Chen looked at him with a taut face.
Lux hung his head down, looking like a little bride who had done wrong. “I made you angry. I’m sorry.”
Ruan Chen was caught in a death grip by his demeanor.
The merman added softly, “I don’t want you to hate me.”
The fact that he had restrained himself to the point of exploding yesterday without going through with the final step was also because of this.
He didn’t want to hurt Ruan Chen, much less have Ruan Chen detest him because of it; that would feel more miserable than anything.
Unbelievable.
Ruan Chen thought to himself, I guess I’ve completely lost to you.
He vacillated on the spot for a moment, then approached with a red face. “I don’t hate you.”
Lux snapped his head up rapidly.
Ruan Chen closed his eyes. “You… I was also part of the reason yesterday. It takes two to tango.”
A real man admits when something feels good; the feeling in his heart couldn’t lie.
There was nothing to run away from.
He let out a breath. “Then in your current situation…”
Ruan Chen stole a glance; the upper section of the fish tail had become even more pronounced.
Ruan Chen: “…”
He ran right into Lux’s expectant gaze.
Cursing silently in his heart, Ruan Chen threw caution to the wind. “I’m the one who started it, so I have to take responsibility for you.”
“Ruan Ruan…” The moment the words left his mouth, Lux had already swept his fish tail, drawing him right into his embrace.
Ruan Chen’s brain felt completely numb.
He turned his head away, trying hard not to look. “I call the shots on how we do this. You can’t act like you did yesterday.”
His legs were still swollen and throbbing with pain.
As if guessing his thoughts, Ruan Chen heard Lux get up. “I can help you recover.”
“What?” Ruan Chen startled.
Lux leaned his body down.
“What are you doing? I’m the one helping you, I don’t want it!” Ruan Chen panicked completely.
If they did it again, he would literally lose his life.
He wasn’t a terrifying creature like a merman.
Lux made no other moves, simply blinking at him.
Ruan Chen suddenly came to his senses.
Oh.
Right.
A merman’s saliva.
Could fucking heal things.
Lux lowered his head.
Ruan Chen gripped the blanket beside him tightly, letting out a muffled groan.
He tilted his head to the side, catching sight of the posture between the merman and himself at this very moment through the glass cup beside them.
Unable to look at the sight, Ruan Chen covered his face.
Just who…was helping whom here?
