I Woke Up To Find Myself Being Kept By A Mermaid – CH6

Chapter 6: Giving Him a Punch

Inside a certain room within the breeding center.

Ruan Chen let out an incredibly faint whimpering cry.

The sharp agony of the razor teeth piercing into his neck was swiftly replaced by a much stronger, stranger sensation that followed right after.

It felt as though countless pairs of tiny hands were gently massaging and soothing his brain.

Light-headed and euphoric—that was probably the only way to describe this exact feeling.

Ruan Chen heard his own heartbeat racing faster than ever before; he even suspected it was about to pop straight out of his throat.

The sound in his ears was no longer the rushing of water, but the rhythmic gurgling of blood flowing.

His eyes were wide open, yet his gaze was completely unfocused.

“Whimper…”

A few minutes later, he finally lost his very last shred of strength and went entirely limp, relying completely on the sturdy arms of the merman in front of him for support.

“Admiral Lux!”

The other mermen who had given chase finally found them.

Taking in the scene currently unfolding before them, the merman nurses and researchers covered their mouths and cried out in astonishment.

The small-statured human was pinned firmly against the wall by the entirely gold-toned merman.

The merman’s sharp teeth were sunk into the human’s neck, and faint wisps of blood leaked out, dispersing into the water.

The black-haired human looked as though he were enduring intense pain, yet it also seemed like pure bliss; his legs had instinctively coiled around the merman’s waist, and even his toes were twitching slightly.

The rate of oxygen intake slowed down, and the respirator constantly leaked bubbles.

Vincent stepped in front of the mermen who were trying to move forward. “Don’t look for a death wish!”

“But, but that human!” Ager, the merman researcher who had awakened Ruan Chen, was frantic with anxiety.

Vincent kept his eyes locked on the situation over there, pressing his lips together. “He won’t harm that human.”

Ager: “How do you know…”

“But if you go over there, I can’t guarantee you’ll come back alive,” Vincent warned him.

A merman’s possessiveness over a human would reach its absolute peak during the injection of mental pheromones. Furthermore, Lux was currently in a state where he had lost his rationality; going over now was simply being tired of living.

The only option was to wait.

Time ticked away, minute by minute.

Ruan Chen’s weakly floating legs suddenly twitched.

Following his movement, Lux also slowly let go and released him.

With the constraint on his body gone, Ruan Chen finally returned to reality from that blissful, floating state. He took several large gulps of oxygen, his vision gradually regaining focus.

The mental pheromones had already entered his body. Without their numbing effect, a piercing, throbbing pain flared up once more from the bitten wound on the side of his neck.

Ruan Chen knitted his brows, raising his hand to cover the bleeding wound.

Lux had also regained his rationality.

Taking in the situation before him, he raised his hand in an attempt to soothe the human.

In the next split second, a fist swung violently right before his eyes—

This strike was delivered with every ounce of strength Ruan Chen could muster, driven by sheer fury. Caught completely off guard, Lux actually had his head punched to the side.

A more concentrated scent of blood, along with a tiny fish scale that had been sent flying from the side of his face, drifted past him. Lux’s golden pupils contracted sharply once more.

“Admiral!” Vincent rushed forward.

Lux extended his tail fin, blocking Vincent.

Casually wiping the side of his face, Lux looked back at Ruan Chen. “I’m fine.”

“Meow-ow-ow-ow-ow—!”

This human looked utterly incensed. He brandished his arms to block the merman nurses from grabbing him while twisting his head to snarl furiously at Lux.

“Be good, good baby, let me bandage you up. Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid, he won’t bite you again. Be good now.”

The merman nurse used every trick in the book and finally managed to hold him still.

Lux gently caressed the water currents, clamping that scale of his between his fingertips, and cast his eyes down to look at it.

How many years had it been?

No creature had ever been able to get the upper hand against him, let alone pluck a scale from his body.

Even if it was just the thinnest, smallest scale from the side of his face.

And this was merely a human so weak that he could wantonly dictate their life or death.

“Admiral Lux, he was just too frightened. He didn’t mean it…”

The merman nurse felt her heart tremble with fear upon seeing his movement.

But it was very clear that the human who had just given him a punch didn’t appreciate her tactful intervention in the slightest. His eyes remained wide and round as he glared. “Meow-wu, meow-ow-wu…”

Although he couldn’t understand the words, Lux could still surmise from his expression that the human was fiercely scolding him.

He was incredibly furious.

After finishing the injection of mental pheromones, his reaction to this human’s cries was no longer as overwhelming as before; hearing it now simply made him feel physically and mentally refreshed, and he would no longer lose his mind. He could even faintly perceive the human’s emotions.

Seeing his pitch-black eyes, his reddened eye circles, and hearing that fiercely adorable caterwauling by his ear, Lux curled his lips in a thoroughly pleasant mood.

He looked exactly like a young beast that was clearly terrified but still trying its absolute best to pretend to be ferocious.

Suddenly, his nose twitched as he caught the scent of blood in the water. His gaze fell upon the scratch wound on the back of Ruan Chen’s hand, and he frowned. “Treat his wounds.”

This meant he wouldn’t pursue the matter, and the merman nurse let out a sigh of relief. “Understood.”

After a great deal of tossing and turning, Ruan Chen proudly claimed two injuries. Having been pasted with two large, cool-to-the-touch bandages, the mermen put him back into the glass room once more.

The moment his feet touched the ground, he rushed over to the seashell bed and curled himself into a tight ball, refusing to acknowledge anyone.

Outside the glass room, Lux watched his reaction and turned to ask, “Will he hold a grudge against me?”

Vincent, the expert on human-rearing via social media, waved his hand. “No way, no way, rest assured. Every human resists when they’re first bitten, it’s just that yours… seems to have an exceptionally explosive temper.”

The merman nurse also nodded. “That’s right. If he doesn’t suffer a rejection response to your mental pheromones, once you take him home, just hold him more, brush his hair, feed him, and play with him. His impression of you will definitely change.”

Lux nodded. “Understood.”

“Ah, but it seems we can’t take this human home to rear anytime soon. We have to set out for Base X immediately,” Vincent said.

This wasn’t some classified secret; there was no harm in telling these researchers.

The merman director nearby smiled. “That’s easily handled. We provide foster care services. We can send you real-time surveillance footage of him every day. Whatever you want to feed him, we will feed him, and you can even remotely control a mechanical assistant to play with toys with him. It won’t delay the bonding process between you two at all.”

“Right, right, right! A streamer I like went on a business trip and fostered his human at the breeding center,” Vincent remembered. “Put that way, it really doesn’t have much of a negative impact.”

Lux’s gaze remained fixed on the small, protruding lump on the seashell bed.

After a long while, he said, “I have already injected him with my mental pheromones. Is the auction still necessary?”

The director looked embarrassed. “Uh… well, according to the regulations, we must follow standard procedures. Furthermore, this human is of a special breed and has already caused a massive sensation. If we don’t hold an auction…”

Vincent: “Those old geezers in the royal family will use this matter to nag at you for ages.”

The director didn’t dare echo his words. Rolling his eyes, he came up with a solution: “The auction will still proceed as scheduled. When the time comes, you can place a bid to buy the rights to test him, so he will still be yours. We will keep this matter confidential. What do you think?”

Lux gave an “mm.” “Then let’s settle it this way.”

“Excellent, excellent.” The director nodded with a continuous smile. “Rest assured, we will definitely take good care of him.”

Recalling what the merman nurse had said earlier, Lux added, “Perform the deworming and other checks only after his mood improves.”

“Understood.”

Ruan Chen remained shut down in his own world until late into the night.

After he was bitten, the mermen had stopped torturing him for some unknown reason, and they had even left a serving of dinner in the room.

He had been throwing a fit earlier, so he had no desire to acknowledge those fish, much less eat the food they charitably provided.

Now that he had calmed down, Ruan Chen was genuinely starving.

He crawled up from the soft seashell bed, but this movement yanked the wound on his hand, making him hiss in pain. “Hiss.”

“Awake?”

The glass to the adjacent room slid open once more.

All the lights around them had been extinguished; Ruan Chen guessed it was currently night.

He could only roughly map out Joshua’s silhouette. Ruan Chen gave his hair a frustrated tug. “I can’t see you.”

The moment the words left his mouth, a ring of warm-toned lights illuminated around the soft seashell bed.

Ruan Chen was startled.

Joshua walked over. “Here, press it.”

Following his movement, Ruan Chen finally noticed a fluorescent button on the side of the seashell bed.

“OK, sank (thank) you.” He wanted to give a thumbs-up, but his hand genuinely hurt too much. He raised his bandaged right hand. “Sorry, I…”

“I know, that’s fine.” Joshua gestured understandingly with his hands. “You’d better eat something.”

He pointed toward the serving of food in the corner of the room.

The food had already gone cold, but that didn’t stop it from broadcasting a wonderful aroma.

Ruan Chen swallowed hard.

Although he knew the mermen were probably genuinely absent right now, having been snatched twice made him still harbor a lingering dread toward that particular corner of the room.

“Don’t be afraid,” Joshua said, walking over to help him carry the bowl and utensils over. “Here you go.”

Ruan Chen took them, offering him a smile. “Sank you, thanks!”

“Xie-xie?” Joshua mimicked his pronunciation.

Seeing someone interested in Chinese, Ruan Chen very enthusiastically corrected his pronunciation: “Xie-xie. It means sank you.”

Joshua nodded. “Got it.”

Standing was inconvenient, so Ruan Chen sat down on the adjacent seashell sofa, burying his head to wolf down the food.

He was truly famished.

The exact instant that first bite of food entered his mouth, Ruan Chen even had a bizarre illusion that he hadn’t just gone hungry for a day, but rather hadn’t eaten for hundreds of years.

“They hurt you?” Joshua suddenly asked. “Who bit you?”

Ruan Chen raised his head in confusion. “What?”

Joshua stared at him for a few seconds, pointed to his own neck, and made a biting gesture. “Who did this?”

Ruan Chen understood, and bringing this up immediately sparked his rage. “Gold! Gold fish!”

Joshua nodded.

Terrified that the other boy would think he was useless, Ruan Chen displayed the injury on his hand and brandished a fist. “I his scale!” Having said that, he poked his own cheek.

This time, the one left perplexed was Joshua.

Ruan Chen let out a sigh, set the bowl down, and stood up.

“Look me!” He curled his finger.

Joshua offered an “uh-huh.”

Ruan Chen mimicked the way that gold merman had bitten him earlier, switched to the other side, and clutched his neck. “He bite me neck.”

“I am very angry.” He widened his eyes into round circles. “I must give him some color see see.”

Joshua looked curious. “And?”

“And I…” Ruan Chen settled into a textbook martial arts opening stance.

He violently swung a fist forward, providing his own sound effect: “Bang-dang!”

“His scale.” He pointed to the side of his own face. “Piu—fly into the water.”

“Gold fish scream ah-ah-ah!” Ruan Chen dramatically covered his face, mimicking the way Lux had pinched the scale with his fingers, looking utterly heartbroken. “My dear scale!”

Having finished his demonstration, Ruan Chen took a breath, sat back down, and arched an eyebrow at Joshua. “How about that? I… I say I can beat fish all over the floor looking for teeth, right?”

“Although this time it was not teeth, but it’s also so-so.” He grinned. “I can protect you, believe me!”

Having finished speaking, he panted heavily a few times.

Ruan Chen knitted his brows.

What was going on with this body of his? Was it a post-transmigration side effect?

Not only was he reduced to skin and bones, but even a tiny bit of exercise left him feeling like he was about to run out of breath.

But he didn’t dwell on it, turning to look at Joshua with anticipation.

Joshua only half-understood the explanation, but he could roughly gather that Ruan Chen had gotten into a physical altercation with a merman.

He said worriedly, “Last time, another man who lived in this room, he was bitten by another merman.”

“And he never showed up again.”

“What-what-what?” Ruan Chen saw stars before his eyes and threw up his hands in surrender. “So much English! Can’t understand!”

He assumed Joshua was feeling frightened.

“Ha, don’t worry!” Ruan Chen pointed a thumb back at himself. “That gold fish, I think he is fish king.”

“He is not my opponent.” He offered a small smile, patting Joshua’s shoulder exactly the way he had seen in movies, carrying a distinctly boss-like aura. “Don’t worry, bro.”

That gold merman looked massive, but his reaction time was abysmally slow; he hadn’t even dodged such a slow punch from him, so there was absolutely nothing to fear.

If those helpers of his hadn’t held him back afterward, he definitely would have surged forward to give him a kick and send a few more of his scales flying.

Recalling that refined yet astonished look on the other party’s face as he pinched the scale, Ruan Chen curled his lip in disdain.

What a show-off of a smelly goldfish.

If he ever ran into him again, he would definitely give that guy a severe beating to avenge these two puncture holes in his neck.

Click here to download the full novel (PDF & EPUB)