I Woke Up To Find Myself Being Kept By A Mermaid – CH56

Chapter 56

It took Ruan Chen a monumental amount of effort to finally explain his relationship with Lux to the little brat, Li Meng.

“So you… mmph… are still in a May-December romance with him. It’s the same thing,” Li Meng said, sitting on the floor with a bowl of fragrant white rice in his hands, muttering around his food.

When some of the words they used were translated, the mermen couldn’t quite grasp their meaning.

Lux flicked his tail fin, rolling the phrase “May-December romance” over in his mind for a long moment.

Vincent quietly leaned over, intentionally poking at a sensitive spot: “Lux, do you think they think we’re too old? First it’s ‘old monster,’ and now it’s ‘May-December romance’…”

After he finished speaking, a long silence ensued before a vaguely displeased voice carried from Lux beside him: “It’s not them.”

Vincent: “?”

Lux shot him a sidelong glance. “It’s just him. Ruan Ruan doesn’t think I’m old.”

Vincent: “…”

Vincent: “Fine.”

Inside the chamber, Ruan Chen decided to abandon the topic. “Even food can’t shut your mouth.”

Li Meng swallowed a large mouthful of shrimp and fish pieces. “Can’t help it. It’s in my blood. My mouth inherits from my old man. The two of us together could make the entire…”

Midway through his sentence, Li Meng seemed to recall something and stopped.

“What’s wrong?” Ruan Chen was listening with great interest. “The two of you together could annoy everyone on Earth to death?”

The moment the words left his mouth, the realization suddenly dawned on him.

Ruan Chen fell silent for a few seconds. “I’m sorry, I forgot.”

Although Li Meng was different from him, he had also been awakened from stasis. After who knew how many years, how could his parents still be around?

“It’s fine.” He polished off his bowl in a few bites, glanced left and right at the mermen outside the glass, and hesitated for a moment before finally asking, “Um… can you tell me where everyone else went?”

Ruan Chen froze.

He didn’t belong to this world at all, so he was entirely in the dark about these matters.

He ruffled his hair, unsure of what should be said and what shouldn’t, and subconsciously cast a glance toward Lux.

The merman lowered his eyes to look at him, offering no response.

Left with no choice, Ruan Chen asked back, “Don’t you remember?”

“I don’t know,” Li Meng knitted his brows. “Were you also tricked by your family?”

“What?” Ruan Chen was completely bewildered.

Li Meng stared at him for a moment, then shifted his words: “When I woke up, I could only see these mermen. Every single one of them was crowding around me singing like they were crazy. What about you?”

“…Me too,” Ruan Chen recalled his initial scene, then asked, “What do you mean by being tricked by your family?”

Li Meng pursed his lips.

His brows furrowed tightly as well, looking as though he were trying exceptionally hard to recall.

A few minutes later, Li Meng said uncertainty, “I don’t remember very clearly. I only know… I seemed to be at school. My old man suddenly said something was up and picked me up from class.”

“When I got back, I found my family was all there, saying something about having a meal together.”

His eyes darted around. “Oh, right! My mom looked incredibly sad. I even suspected my old man was bullying her.”

Ruan Chen: “What happened after that?”

“After that…” Li Meng rubbed his chin. “After that, my old man gave me a glass of milk, and then I didn’t know anything anymore. When I opened my eyes again, I saw this group of mermen.”

“There was definitely something wrong with the milk. Tell me, if that isn’t tricking me, what is?”

He asked Ruan Chen, “What about you? How did you end up here?”

Ruan Chen pieced things together in his mind and instantly guessed the sequence of events.

He verified it with Lux, then told Li Meng about how the Earth of this world had been destroyed and humans had been frozen to preserve them.

Li Meng went blank, his voice trembling: “You… what did you say? Impossible…”

“Then what about the other stasis pods?” He snapped his head up. “Where are the other stasis pods?”

Ruan Chen was startled by his sudden movement. “I-I don’t know either.”

Seeing this, the merman director used the optical computer translation to speak into the glass room: “The other stasis pods are stored in a basement room. Do not worry.”

Li Meng immediately scrambled up from the floor. “Take me to see them!”

Ruan Chen knew what he was thinking. After a moment of hesitation, he said, “Li Meng, the stasis pods will only contain people around our age.”

“…” Li Meng still refused to give up. “I don’t believe it. I want to go see.”

He clung to the glass, opening his large eyes wide toward the closest person, Vincent. “Please, take me to see…”

With their two faces separated by almost nothing but a thin layer of glass, Vincent felt as if he had been struck by lightning.

He turned his head. “L-Lux…”

Receiving a meaningful look from Ruan Chen, Lux nodded toward the merman director. “Take them to see.”

Li Meng was exceptionally cooperative for once, putting on his breathing mask, and was picked up by a merman nurse.

The nurse’s embrace was very soft, which made the small youth feel rather unaccustomed, not quite daring to move.

The storage location of the stasis pods was right beneath the Western Sea Breeding Center, the level right above where Ruan Chen had initially been confirmed dead and prepared for burial.

The main doors opened, revealing the room before Ruan Chen.

A dozen or so stasis pods were neatly and carefully stored inside this basement room.

Ruan Chen looked through them one by one, discovering that the exterior of every stasis pod bore a look of being heavily weathered by time.

Serial numbers were marked right in the center; some were already so worn down that they were illegible. Only the national flags still retained a slight shred of color, allowing him to discern where the humans inside these pods had come from.

Ruan Chen had arrived in this world simply by waking up from sleep, so he initially hadn’t felt much of a sense of belonging to the Earth and humans here.

But at this very moment, he and Li Meng exchanged a glance, both detecting a wave of bleakness from each other’s gaze.

Li Meng found it even harder to believe than he did.

“So many people… and only…” His voice was trembling. “Only this little bit is left?”

Vincent’s optical computer was still diligently translating.

The merman director explained to him, “No, this is only a portion. In reality, over a thousand stasis pods have been preserved. However, the scheduled opening time for each one is different, so we only store the ones with approaching dates here. The rest are in a safer location.”

Li Meng clutched his breathing mask, rubbing his eyes. “Over a thousand… only over a thousand…”

The stasis pods that had been preserved were, just as the director said, young people who similar to them possessed excellent physical constitutions to begin with.

Li Meng was actually an exception; logically speaking, he shouldn’t have been qualified.

Looking at his pampered young master demeanor, Ruan Chen guessed that his parents had most likely pulled some strings to secure a spot for him, which was why he was so thin he had almost lost his form.

But during that great catastrophe, Li Meng’s family was definitely entirely gone.

Ruan Chen couldn’t find any words to comfort him.

Watching Li Meng turn his back to them to secretly wipe away his tears, a suffocating ache welled up in his own heart as well.

Ruan Chen’s rims turned a bit red, and Lux immediately scooped him into his arms.

He didn’t speak, merely smoothing a hand gently down his back to soothe him.

Pressed against his shoulder, with the merman patting his back stroke by stroke, the gloomy frustration in Ruan Chen’s heart dissipated considerably.

“Li Meng, don’t cry. You still have us, don’t you?” Seeing such a tiny human so heartbroken and distressed, Vincent felt his own heart was about to break along with him. “You’ll make many new friends in the future, like Ruan Chen, and me, and… and your future partner.”

It would have been fine if no one was comforting him, but seeing his demeanor, Li Meng’s tears became even more unstoppable. “I didn’t cry! Waaah…”

Vincent panicked. “Oh dear, don’t cry… If you keep crying, if you keep crying, I’m going to cry too…”

As he spoke, his face actually contorted, and he forcefully squeezed out two tiny tears.

Li Meng sobbed, “You’re so… sniff… you’re so annoying!”

He had just been secretly wiping away his tears, yet Vincent had gone and made him cry like this right in front of so many mermen.

Li Meng’s face flushed completely red. Wiping his tears clean, he spoke even more fiercely: “Stay away from me, hic… I’m definitely not making friends with you, you crybaby!”

His momentum was very strong—it would have been perfect if he hadn’t let out that sob mid-sentence.

Failing to comfort him and getting scolded instead, Vincent: “…”

Please, who exactly is the crybaby here?

Sigh.

Forget it.

Who told you to be a human? Even your fierceness is cute.

After viewing the location where the stasis pods were stored and satisfying the wishes of the two humans, the mermen prepared to return.

Ruan Chen was held by Lux. Although his mood was very low, he also shrunk submissively into his embrace, enjoying the merman’s neck massage, which felt very comfortable.

Li Meng glanced at the merman nurse who had carried him over.

Being carried in the arms of a female made this young master feel that his self-esteem was heavily wounded.

Consequently, when the merman nurse swam over, he resolutely rejected her.

Li Meng turned his head and raised his chin, curling his finger at Vincent, who had just provoked him earlier. “You, come here.”

Vincent was pleasantly surprised. “You’re willing to make friends with me again?”

“Make friends my ass, are you worthy!” Li Meng let out a huff. “Didn’t you want to make me happy just now? I’ll tell you how I can be happy.”

Failing to detect the trap in his words, Vincent asked curiously with his head lowered, “How?”

A few minutes later, Ruan Chen opened his eyes wide. “L-Lux…”

The merman turned his head at the same time he did.

Behind them, Li Meng was riding arrogantly on Vincent’s shoulders, clutching the other’s hair tightly in his hands. “Steady now! I’m about to be shaken off by you. Do you, a fish, still need me to teach you how to swim?”

Reduced to a means of transportation, Vincent felt the human’s warm thighs pressed against his neck, and his entire face turned impossibly red.

He didn’t even notice having a few strands of hair yanked out. His hands didn’t dare to touch Li Meng’s body at all, loosely hovering around him to shield him.

His gaze darted around randomly, yet his tone couldn’t conceal his delight: “Yes, yes, yes, hold on tight. Hold on tight, don’t you dare fall off.”

Ruan Chen: “…They…”

Lux let out a low chuckle. “Let’s go, ignore them. The director also said he wanted to talk to us about the transformation period treatment plan.”

Stiffly turning his head back around, Ruan Chen rubbed his nose. “Transformation period… treatment plan?”

“Yes.”

So fast?

Ruan Chen was brought into the consultation room, still somewhat unable to snap out of it.

The merman director and researchers stood in standard formation, nodding to Lux: “Admiral, the preliminary treatment plan was developed in collaboration with the Southern Sea Breeding Center. They transmitted the conclusion just half a minute ago, so…”

Lux had no interest in these perfunctory pleasantries, waving his hand. “Go straight to the conclusion.”

“Yes, alright.” The director tapped open his optical computer. “According to our research, you and your partner are actually more than just a perfect match.”

Lux and Ruan Chen raised their heads at the same time.

The director displayed the data chart from the optical computer to them: “The initial test results indeed showed a perfect match, but we later discovered that it was because this machine can only display a maximum compatibility value of 100%.”

“In other words… the compatibility value between you and your partner actually exceeds 100%.” The director’s voice lowered slightly. “The higher the compatibility, the more stringent the requirements of the transformation period become, and an ultra-perfect match… naturally holds an extraordinary requirement regarding the soul affinity between the two of you.”

“The failure of the transformation period is mostly because your soul affinity hasn’t met the requirements of the mental compatibility yet.” The director looked a bit embarrassed. “To put it simply, the two of you still need to bond and communicate your feelings more.”

Ruan Chen stood frozen like a wooden chicken. “What do you mean by communicating feelings?”

Saying sweet nothings every single day?

“Uh…” The director’s old face flushed red.

The young merman researcher beside him said with total seriousness, “Engage more in behaviors between partners. Physical contact is better; for example, behaviors involving fluid exchange like kissing can offer a certain amount of help.”

Ruan Chen’s face flushed bright red in a flash.

Lux pressed him into his chest to let him hide, asking, “Is that all?”

“No,” the researcher continued to speak in his flat cadence. “The most important thing is still spiritual communication, where affection flows naturally. The transformation period will naturally make progress then; physical contact can only serve an auxiliary effect.”

“You mentioned last time that your partner once experienced your memories. If you can also enter his memories, or if he displays a need for pheromones once again, that will signify a breakthrough in the treatment of the transformation period.”

A sharp pain shot through Lux’s shoulder—he had been pinched by Ruan Chen.

He maintained a straight face. “Understood.”

“There is one more thing,” the director hurried over. “This matter is exceptionally important, and it was also discovered during this specific research project.”

Lux: “Speak.”

Ruan Chen thought to himself, If you say anything else weird, I will fly over and give you a kick.

The director didn’t give him the chance.

He was a bit excited: “The transformation issue we have been researching all this time has experienced a breakthrough!”

“Transformation issue?” Lux was puzzled.

The director stated, “That is, the mutual transformation between the merman and human forms. We discovered that this seems to be correlated with mental compatibility, but the specifics will still need you and your partner to verify.”

“This discovery concerns our future, Admiral Lux. Please, you and your partner must cultivate your feelings properly. Wishing the two of you an early… early true mutual affection!”

Stepping out of the room, Ruan Chen still wore a dazed expression.

Lux, however, was very calm. “Don’t listen to him. Between us, you call the shots. We’ll take it slow, there’s no rush.”

“…” Ruan Chen raised his hand to rub his face. “Could it be that you still want to…”

The few words the merman researcher had spoken just now were too explicit; he couldn’t bring himself to say them.

Lux hurriedly denied it: “I didn’t.”

Ruan Chen: “?”

The speed of this denial was even more suspicious.

“However, I think what they said makes sense too.” Lux, as expected, still had a card up his sleeve.

Ruan Chen asked subconsciously, “What makes sense?”

Lux smiled as he leaned in close. “Physical contact has an auxiliary effect. Ruan Ruan, in the future we should…”

Before he could finish his sentence, he caught a claw straight to his face: “Auxiliary my ass! You were the one who said we’d take it slow!”

“Kiss a few more times…” Lux looked aggrieved. “Where did your thoughts wander off to?”

Ruan—mind full of explicit nonsense—Chen: “…”

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