I Woke Up To Find Myself Being Kept By A Mermaid – CH51

Chapter 51

The effects of the Mate Festival on the mermen lasted for a full three days.

Ruan Chen really lived out exactly what Joshua had said; during these past few days, he had spent the entire time in bed with Lux in an utterly shameless blur.

But since it was a matter he had agreed to himself, he had to see it through even if it made him cry. Ruan Chen stubbornly accompanied Lux until they finally carried through it.

If he had to put it a certain way, it was actually a mix of pain and pleasure.

The physical capability gap brought by their respective species was simply too vast. Whenever Ruan Chen was exhausted to his limits, Lux would rest right along with him.

As a result, on the fourth day, Ruan Chen didn’t lazily wake up until nearly late afternoon.

Before he even opened his eyes, he heard the sound of someone speaking nearby.

It was Lux.

“Understood. Pass the notice along, I’ll head over immediately.”

Ruan Chen quietly cracked his eyelids to peek out, only to see Lux with his back turned to him, turning off his optical computer and getting up to retrieve his military uniform from the wardrobe.

The merman turned around, and Ruan Chen hurriedly closed his eyes, leveling his breathing.

He felt the soft clam bed dip downward.

Ruan—pretending to be asleep—Chen did everything in his power not to give himself away.

After waiting for a few seconds, a few strands of hair fell against his exposed neck.

It tickled slightly.

Ruan Chen’s eyelashes gave a sudden flutter.

The next moment, he felt a soft object touch his forehead.

Very light.

Very brief.

And very gentle.

It wasn’t until Lux left and the sound of the main door closing carried out that Ruan Chen snapped his eyes wide open.

He looked up and sprawled his body out, panting heavily a few times and blowing a large bubble into the water.

That touch just now…

Lux had kissed him.

Over the past few days, the number of times they had kissed couldn’t be counted even if he used both his hands and feet.

They had clearly engaged in far more intimate acts, yet this gentle touch on his forehead before leaving—and the way he carefully avoided waking him—still caused Ruan Chen’s heart to beat at an unusual rhythm.

He raised a hand to wipe his face, rolling over to sit up from the bed.

It was entirely too embarrassing.

Ruan Chen refused to face the things that had occurred during these past few days.

Although the bed had been cleaned up by Lux, he could still recall certain frames just by looking at it.

Ruan Chen kicked the blanket aside, swam to the living room, and shifted his base to the sofa.

The moment he turned on his optical computer, he received a barrage of messages from Joshua.

[Joshua: Ruan, I think I’ve entered the second stage of the transformation period.]

[Joshua: Hugh discovered it this morning. Look at my ear fins! They’re so cute!]

[Joshua: [Image] [Image]]

The photos were taken from behind Joshua, clearly the handiwork of Houston.

In the pictures, the human’s ears had visibly begun changing toward the shape of a merman’s long, pointed ears. A ring of tiny, translucent ear fins had grown on the sides of his ears, matching the exact color of Houston’s.

Ruan Chen subconsciously touched his own ear.

It was still in the standard shape of a human, completely smooth.

When his fingers brushed his earlobe, it felt a bit swollen and sore.

Damn it.

Thinking of what the culprit had done to this patch of soft flesh made his face burn hot.

This message had been sent two days ago, which was the second night after the Mate Festival.

Had they actually finished so quickly?

As the thought cropped up in Ruan Chen’s mind, he expressionlessly gave his head an aggressive ruffle, trying to clear his mind.

He continued scrolling down.

[Joshua: Why haven’t you been online at all?]

[Joshua: Ruan, did you agree to Admiral Lux?]

[Joshua: It’s already night and you’re still not online…]

[Joshua: Hugh said Admiral Lux isn’t online either. I understand now.]

[Joshua: Wishing you guys happiness.]

Ruan Chen: “???”

The latest message had been sent this morning.

[Joshua: ??? It’s been four days!]

[Joshua: Ruan! Are you still alive! Squeak if you’re alive!]

Ruan Chen: “…”

[Joshua: It’s almost afternoon. Heavens, are you two trying to challenge a new record on Ocean Planet?]

Could a thing like this even have a record?

Ruan Chen brought up the keyboard, typing away rapidly.

Before he could even hit send, he heard a few more new messages chime in from Joshua in quick succession.

[Joshua: You’re finally online!]

[Joshua: Are you alright? [Blushing]]

[Ruan Ruan: .]

[Ruan Ruan: I’m perfectly fine.]

After sending the sentence, Ruan Chen shifted his seating posture, accidentally straining his abdomen and instantly grimacing from a wave of soreness and pain.

[Joshua: That’s good, that’s good. I was really worried you’d be… As long as you’re fine. [Twiddling Fingers]]

Ruan Chen stared at this suspicious string of ellipses.

A few seconds later, he slowly typed out a “?”.

[Joshua: Oh come on, I was just worried about you guys. After all, it’s the first time either of you has encountered this situation.]

[Joshua: Did you see the pictures I sent!]

This method of shifting the topic was exceptionally clumsy.

Ruan Chen pursed his lips, pulling a cushion behind him to prop himself up.

[Ruan Ruan: I saw them. They’re very beautiful, congratulations.]

[Joshua: Hehe, I was a bit scared at first, thinking it would hurt.]

[Joshua: But it feels like there’s no sensation at all. If Hugh hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t even have known.]

[Joshua: Oh right, I should congratulate you too!]

[Ruan Ruan: ?]

[Joshua: Congratulations on taking your relationship with Admiral Lux a step further! [Throwing Confetti]]

[Joshua: How do you feel? Has your transformation period advanced any further? I really want to see what Ruan’s ear fins will look like. They’ll definitely be gorgeous!]

[Ruan Ruan: …]

[Ruan Ruan: No.]

[Joshua: Huh?? Don’t be shy, not logging into the optical computer for four days, I get it.]

[Ruan Ruan: …………]

[Joshua: Ah… Could it be… Admiral Lux forced you? [Shocked]]

[Ruan Ruan: …Not exactly.]

[Joshua: [Puzzled] Then what exactly is going on with you guys?]

[Joshua: It can’t be that he ate his fill and then refused to take responsibility, right!]

[Ruan Ruan: .]

Thanks, I feel targeted.

The one who ate his fill and refused to take responsibility seemed to be himself.

Ruan Chen ruffled his bangs, took a deep breath, and racked his brains trying to make Joshua understand the events of the past few days.

[Ruan Ruan: No one is refusing responsibility, but it’s not like how it is between you and Houston either.]

[Joshua: Huh?]

[Ruan Ruan: I was afraid he’d have a mental riot and die at home, so I just soothed him for a few days.]

[Ruan Ruan: Nothing else happened.]

After this message was sent, Joshua didn’t reply for a long time.

Forget about Joshua, even Ruan Chen himself felt his argument couldn’t hold water.

Feeling a bit frustrated, he leaned back forcefully against the sofa, extending his legs, and with a clack, kicked something over.

Ruan Chen sat up to look and found it was two cans of snacks originally placed on the coffee table.

He painstakingly bent down to pick them up, noticing an electronic sticky note attached to the snack cans.

[I’m heading to the military headquarters for a meeting, will return in the evening. Leave a message in our private chat for whatever you want to eat. Rest well. —Lux]

A squiggly little heart was drawn at the very end.

Ruan Chen stared at that heart, maintaining his bent-over posture. Only after a long moment did he purse his lips, lower his eyelashes, and carefully put the two cans of snacks back in order.

Lying back down on the sofa, he pondered for a moment, still feeling a bit unsettled.

So he climbed back up and peeled off that electronic note.

Ruan Chen rubbed his thumb over the small heart at the end of the sentence a few times.

“What an ugly drawing,” he grumbled fastidiously, yet the corners of his mouth were curved upward.

Right at this moment, a new message from Joshua arrived.

[Joshua: I understand now.]

[Ruan Ruan: ?]

[Joshua: You were worried he’d be uncomfortable, terrified he wouldn’t survive a mental riot, so you kissed and hugged him and did the most intimate things, but you guys don’t have any relationship at all.]

[Joshua: [Teary-eyed]]

[Joshua: An Admiral Lux without status or title.]

[Ruan Ruan: …]

As dinner time approached, Ruan Chen lost count of how many times he had glanced toward the doorway, yet Lux still hadn’t returned.

There wasn’t even the slightest sound of a flying shuttle landing outside the window either.

Ruan Chen opened the private chat window with Lux, closed it, and opened it again.

After repeating this several times, he sat up and typed rapidly.

[Ruan Ruan: I want to eat jelly spheres.]

[Ruan Ruan: And seaweed fish balls too.]

After sending the messages, he continued to lounge like a salted fish, leaning against the sofa to watch a funny livestream on the pet-raising forum.

After waiting for another two hours or so, the sound of the guards outside welcoming Lux back finally carried inside.

“Ruan Ruan.” Lux returned even a bit later than he had imagined.

Ruan Chen bounded up from the sofa, swiftly raising his head to look over. The merman was carrying a very large bag in his hand.

Had he literally gone and bought an entire crate of jelly spheres at once?

Detecting the merman looking in his direction, Ruan Chen turned his head back around, pretending to continue watching the livestream, and muttered lazily, “What took you so long to return? I’m starving.”

Lux swam to the side of the coffee table, set the bag down, and took out the jelly spheres and seaweed fish balls Ruan Chen had explicitly named. “Tasks piled up over the past few days, so there was quite a lot to handle.”

Piled up… over the past few days…

Thinking of the reason, Ruan Chen’s ears turned hot. “Oh. Then why did you still run off to buy me food when you’re this busy?”

Lux seemed to be in a good mood, his fish tail flicking slightly. “No matter how busy I am, I have to satisfy you.”

“…” Ruan Chen felt like something was wrong with his own brain.

Everything he heard now felt off to him; colored frames had been flashing continuously before his eyes ever since the merman appeared.
“Which one will you eat first?” Lux blinked and asked him.

Ruan Chen cleared his throat. “Jelly spheres.”

He stole a glance at the large bag that clearly still contained something, unable to suppress his curiosity. “What else did you buy? Why are you being so secretive?”

Lux handed him the jelly spheres and, under Ruan Chen’s watchful gaze, extracted the remaining item from the bag.

It was a large, square box.

The merman looked a bit nervous.

This was highly unexpected; it was Ruan Chen’s first time seeing an emotion like nervousness on his face in a situation like this.

He grew even more curious.

Lux opened the box, revealing the contents inside.

Ruan Chen’s eyes widened. “A cake?”

It was indeed a cake, designed in the most traditional, common style, with a ring of delicate frosted flowers around the perimeter.

In the middle was a cartoon illustration of himself and Lux.

What surprised Ruan Chen wasn’t the cake itself, but the fact that he seemed to have never seen this kind of food in the merman world before.

The food mermen usually ate consisted either of fish, shrimp, and crabs from the seabed, or other snacks suitable for consumption in the water.

He had only eaten rice a few times back at the breeding center. After adapting to life in the water, he had practically forgotten about these foods that originally belonged to the land.

“Where… did you buy this?” Ruan Chen put down the jelly spheres and slid right off the sofa with a swoosh, drawing closer to inspect this object he hadn’t seen in a very long time.

Anticipation shone in Lux’s eyes. “Does it look like this? I was afraid the records were incorrect.”

“What?” Ruan Chen ran his words through his head twice, not understanding.

Lux explained, “I found this kind of food from the archives of Ancient Earth. I heard that you buy it to eat whenever you’re celebrating an important day.”

“Very few records remain, so I don’t know if the reproduction is correct.” His original nervousness probably stemmed from this very reason.

Ruan Chen drew closer.

The appearance was correct, but the ingredients definitely weren’t dairy cream; the merman had likely made it out of something else.

It smelled fragrant and sweet, looking highly appetizing.

Lux’s eyes shone brightly. “Do you like it?”

Ruan Chen pursed his lips. “It’s alright.”

After speaking, he quickly added another sentence: “What day is today? Why are we celebrating?”

Don’t tell me it’s to celebrate us passing the Mate Festival.

If the merman dares to say that, he’ll absolutely make him pay.

To his surprise, Lux’s eyes crinkled into a smile. “It’s the one hundredth day since Ruan Ruan was awakened.”

Ruan Chen was stunned.

“I thought about it for a long time and didn’t know what to give you.” Lux drew close before him, curling his fish tail. “I heard this is what you give on birthdays.”

The merman practically had the words wanting to please you written all over his face.

Ruan Chen hadn’t even remembered how much time had passed since he woke up.

He looked away and said in a low voice, “That’s not my birthday either.”

A few seconds of silence ensued. Ruan Chen didn’t know what he was saying himself, only wanting to finish the conversation quickly so he could divert his attention away from his erratic heartbeat.

He lowered his head. “And… the custom where I’m from isn’t to eat this. This belongs to other countries.”

Lux’s posture stiffened.

He said with a hint of dejection, “I’m sorry, I didn’t research carefully enough.”

The records regarding Ancient Earth were already sparse, and such granular information was even rarer.

Lux asked softly, “Then what do you eat for birthdays where Ruan Ruan is from? Tell me, I’ll go make it for you right now.”

“…Even if I told you, you wouldn’t be able to make it.” Ruan Chen knew he was intentionally making things difficult for Lux.

He didn’t understand what was wrong with himself either.

He just… didn’t want to let this feeling run rampant. This feeling of losing control, where his heart always raced in front of the merman.

He felt he urgently needed to do something to maintain a position of holding the upper hand.

Otherwise, everything would spin completely out of his control.

It was too strange.

Lux still patiently took his hand. “Tell me first, Ruan Ruan. I’ll definitely do my best to make it for you.”

Ruan Chen’s small hand was completely enveloped within his palm.

In the past, he would have pulled it out long ago, but he didn’t now.

He didn’t even really want to.

He even felt the pressure of the merman squeezing his palm was very comfortable.

Ruan Chen muttered sullenly, “We eat longevity noodles.”

Lux froze.

Ruan Chen shot him a glance. “See, I told you you didn’t know. It’s useless even if I tell you, you guys simply can’t make them.”

Where would one get rice or wheat flour to eat in the sea?

Seeing that Lux’s mood had visibly plummeted, Ruan Chen felt a wave of frustration vexing his heart again. “Actually, we eat this cake too.”

The merman raised his eyes, looking as though he hadn’t been comforted in the slightest by this sentence that sounded like pure perfunctory placating at first listen.

Ruan Chen closed his eyes. “Really, stop making that face.”

Lux let out a very soft sigh. “Did I fail to do well again?”

“No.” Ruan Chen had finally learned what it meant to shoot oneself in the foot. “I was lying to you. We really eat this, it’s called a cake, and it’s exactly what we eat during birthdays.”

He tried to make amends. “We eat longevity noodles too. Both work.”

Lux lowered his eyelids to look at him. “Are you really not just comforting me?”

“I’m not comforting you. You’re so annoying, forget it if you don’t believe me!” Ruan Chen pulled his hand out, feeling a bit defensive and mortified.

Lux had been busy all day, yet he had bought him food upon returning and had spent so much effort reproducing an Earth cake to celebrate a day that he himself didn’t remember at all.

His one hundredth day in this world.

Lux rummaged through the bag again, fishing out two small objects.

Under Ruan Chen’s puzzled gaze, he gently inserted two small cards onto the cake—one showing “100” and the other bearing the Chinese characters for “May Ruan Ruan be forever happy and joyful.”

With a soft beep, Lux operated his optical computer to turn off the lights in the house.

Subsequently, a faint, warm light flickered from the top edges of the cards on the cake.

It was an effect achieved using lights, similar to candles.

Ruan Chen clearly felt the final line of defense he held onto in his heart being dismantled bit by bit by the merman in his gentle yet irresistible manner.

“I believe you,” Lux said, looking levelly at Ruan Chen in the dim light. “Next time, I’ll strive to make up the longevity noodles to you. For today, let’s compromise a bit, Ruan Ruan, and eat cake, alright?”

His pale gold eyes and eyelashes were illuminated by the faint, warm glow, as if starlight were dancing within them.

Ruan Chen’s throat gave a sudden tremble.

He repeatedly pursed his lips several times, murmuring in a tiny voice under Lux’s expectant gaze, “It’s not like it’s completely out of the question…”

After speaking, he added, “Lux…”

Lux: “Hmm?”

Ruan Chen spoke at a speed as if a ferocious beast were chasing him from behind.

“I did that on purpose just now. I didn’t feel compromised, I just wanted to… You’re always like this, making it so easy to make me…”

Make him what?

Ruan Chen was incoherent.

He gave up, raising his head cleanly and looking straight into the depths of the merman’s eyes.

“Lux.”

“Let’s date.”

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