MASG chapter 124

 

However, when Xia Yu blinked again, the fish gills seemed to have disappeared!

What was going on? He hurriedly stood up and nervously stared at the side of Mo An’s neck. He slowed his breathing to be very light and careful. His sudden movement naturally caused dissatisfaction from behind because he unconsciously blocked other people’s view. Those behind him shouted, “Sit down quickly!” But Xia Yu did not move, still staring at Mo An as if frozen.

“Bro! Bro!” Xia Xiaoxiao tugged at him.

Xia Yu still did not move.

“Sit down quickly! The people behind you can’t see! If you keep this up, they’ll argue with you.” Xia Xiaoxiao tugged him again, finally pulling her dreamlike brother back. Xia Yu swayed as he sat down. He had not yet fully pulled himself out of his recent hallucination. He hurriedly grabbed his sister’s wrist, breathing rapidly. “Xiaoxiao, did you see Mo An’s neck?”

“Mo An’s neck? What’s wrong with him?” Xia Xiaoxiao looked toward the starting block.

Since the 1500-meter race was a long-distance event, there was no preliminary or final round, only one race, so the lane positions were randomly drawn by computer. Mo An was in lane 8, the closest to them. The people in lanes one to seven were not ready yet—some were taking off their clothes and some were warming up. Only Mo An had stepped onto the starting block.

He placed one foot on the slanted board and the other on the flat board, planting them firmly. Both of his hands gripped the edge of the flat board, his muscle lines clearly visible.

Honestly, Xia Xiaoxiao felt that, in that moment, Mo An was truly himself. Even though he had only recently learned to swim, that didn’t stop him from moving freely around the water. Just standing there made people subconsciously believe that he was the best swimmer.

“Is there something on his neck?” Xia Yu chose his words carefully. He couldn’t just ask his sister directly if she could see fish gills on Mo An’s neck.

“No, nothing. It’s pretty clean.” Xia Xiaoxiao looked at Mo An again. “But…”

“But what?” Xia Yu was startled. Did she see it too?

“But he doesn’t look like an ordinary high school student. I almost suspect he’s a professional swimmer.” Xia Xiaoxiao patted her brother on the back. “Bro, relax. You’re just too nervous.”

At that moment, Du Meng handed Xia Yu the drinks he had just bought. “Exactly, you’re just too nervous. Don’t worry; the boss definitely won’t win.”

“Tsk, don’t talk nonsense!” Xia Xiaoxiao immediately raised her hand to hit him. “Cheer properly for Mo An!”

“I’m telling the truth. He hasn’t trained; how could he possibly win? As long as Boss finishes swimming smoothly, that’s a victory and an honor for our high school.” Du Meng was carefree and took everything lightly. “What are we eating after the competition? Do you want to go to my place and play games?”

“Let’s not play games. I’ll go to your place and tutor you instead.” Chen Minghao said with a smile. He and Du Meng didn’t know each other before, but after Du Meng carried him to the infirmary last time, they became good friends. “First, let’s cheer properly for Mo An. If we see that he can’t keep swimming, we must tell the lifeguards immediately.”

“Do we really have to call them?” Xia Yu asked uneasily.

Chen Minghao nodded. “Absolutely. Even the best swimmers have the possibility of drowning. Shh! Let’s keep our voices down. He’s about to jump!”

At Chen Minghao’s cue, the entire swimming hall quieted down. Clearly, the competition was about to begin. Zhang Mingqiao and Xia Li took out their phones at the same time, preparing to record Mo An’s big moment. Ranking was completely unimportant to them—Mo An’s mere participation was already the best progress.

Chen Ailu stared at the stage, thinking of other ways Mo An could raise his score and gain an advantage in next year’s college entrance exam.

Xia Yu gripped his sister’s hand tightly and held his breath.

Everyone was nervous. The only person who wasn’t nervous was Mo An, the swimmer himself. He had taken his position early not to get familiar with the stage ahead of time but to be closer to the water’s surface. The water’s allure was too great. If the venue weren’t full of people, he would already be swimming freely in the pool, not caring which lane he was in.

The first whistle blew. The people on the starting blocks held their breath.

The second whistle blew. Jump!

“Ah!” Du Meng cried out involuntarily. “Why was he slow?”

During the start of swimming competitions, absolute silence must be maintained. Once the competition begins, however, the entire swimming hall turns into a boiling pot. Everyone becomes joyful seasoning, stir-fried into a delicious pot. Du Meng’s cry was drowned out, but everyone in the stands felt sorry for the athlete in lane 8.

“He was still slow. It’s okay, Mo An. Keep going.” Xia Xiaoxiao muttered to herself. Mo An struggled with the start—he could never quite grasp the timing of the dive. He either jumped too early or too late. What happened just now was even more regrettable. Mo An seemed to space out on the block. He was two or three seconds slower than the others—everyone else had already entered the water by the time he pushed off.

Luckily, it was a 1,500-meter race, a long-distance event. If it were a 50-meter sprint, others would have reached the finish line immediately, and the competition would have ended quickly.

“It’s okay. Safety first.” Xia Yu patted his pounding chest. Why was he so scared just watching Mo An swim?

Under the water, Mo An was about to die from exhaustion.

Even though he had only swum a few dozen meters, the human style of swimming was far too complicated. His whole body felt uncomfortable. According to Xia Xiaoxiao’s explanation, this style is called freestyle. But to Mo An, no swimming style was free. Any of them could trap his soul. True swimming involved swishing the tail and coordinating the tail fin, pelvic fins, dorsal fin, and back fin to maintain balance.

Now, however, his whole body was bare, without a single fish fin or scales. All he had were swim trunks, goggles, and a swim cap. He also had to adopt an awkward posture, extending both arms alternately and turning his head to breathe.

This is the hardest joke in the world to explain: A mermaid actually has to learn to breathe through its mouth and nose while swimming in the water. Every time Mo An tried, he wanted to mock himself. Luckily, there were no other mermaids in this world—otherwise, he would have been laughed to death. This was his dark history.

His swimming speed was very slow. Without even looking at the other swimmers, he knew he was definitely in last place. He might even be last among all the 1500-meter groups today, not just this group. But Mo An wasn’t worried. He continued swimming slowly and awkwardly, kicking the water with his legs.

He was too tired. After just one lap, he was exhausted. Using a fish tail, he could swim 100,000 meters a day without ever feeling sore, but now he actually was. He was curious about how mixed-blood mermaids swam. Were their two fish tails ever tired?

As he thought about it, Mo An began to use the strength in his thighs to propel his calves, which flailed freely in the water.

“Hahahahaha, hahaha, Mom, look at him!”

In the stands, a child burst out laughing. The laughter triggered a chain reaction, and more and more people started laughing. Even though Xia Yu knew some of the laughter wasn’t mocking him, it still sounded uncomfortable. He really wanted to stand up and shout.

“Don’t laugh! Don’t laugh at my little brother!” Xia Yu did exactly that the next second.

“But he’s really funny.” The child beside him spoke without restraint. “He can’t even move through the water properly. Other people have already swum seven laps, but he’s only swum 100 meters. He looks like he’s flailing in the water.”

“Even so, don’t laugh.” Xia Yu was stern with the child. “Don’t laugh at him, did you hear me?”

But the reality was right there. Xia Yu could argue with a child over this little brother. He could stand up to everyone in the swimming hall and order them to applaud. But he couldn’t change reality. He looked at Mo An, who was still swimming, and couldn’t help but sigh. His posture was unbearable to look at; it was as if his hands and feet had just grown and couldn’t be controlled. Rather than freestyle, it looked more like he was struggling in the water.

“It’s okay. Participation matters most.” Zhang Mingqiao tried to cheer everyone up. “I’ll treat you all to a meal later. Let’s celebrate properly.”

Du Meng immediately said, “Come to my place! After eating, we can play games together!”

“Hahaha, all you know is playing games!” Chen Minghao hit him with a cheering stick. “Mo An is already very good. Let’s not ruin the mood. As long as he finishes in eighth place, that’s a win. Look, isn’t he already speeding up? He… he… he sped up?”

Before Chen Minghao could finish speaking, applause and cheers exploded in everyone’s ears. This time, the applause and cheers were even bigger and more shocking than at the start. Countless eyes stared at the pool in shock as they witnessed the eighth-place swimmer accelerate—and he wasn’t just a little fast. It was as if all the struggling had only been because the swimmer hadn’t woken up yet, and now that he was awake, he had started to swim seriously.

“This is… way too fast!” Du Meng shouted first. “Too fast, too fast! Boss, go!”

The athlete in lane 8 wasn’t just fast; he began to merge with the water, moving through it with an intensity beyond ordinary imagination. Water flowed past his body, slipping by as the surface tension was pushed open. He had already completed four laps.

For no other reason than that Mo An realized he had opened a gill slit.

Right on his collarbone, the gill slit was only half open. The gill slit rested against his skin in a curved shape and slowly opened. Fresh pool water entered his gills, filtering out oxygen and injecting it into his skin. As the oxygen was injected, Mo An’s body felt as if it had been filled with fuel, and he entered the mermaid stage.

His body was still human, but in the water, he had the physical abilities of a mermaid.

The water that had just been providing resistance now became fuel. The freestyle posture no longer tired him; it just felt a bit unfamiliar. After all, he was a fish. He only needed to recover some stamina to swim distances that ordinary people couldn’t. Every time he turned his head to breathe, it was just for show.

He opened his mouth, pretending to breathe, while he had already completed the act underwater.

“This…this is…Mo An is a chosen swimmer!” Chen Minghao was the first to stand up. In front of him was an incomparably brilliant competition. “If I weren’t right here, I wouldn’t believe it… It’s too unbelievable! Too unbelievable!”

More and more people stood up. This time, no one shouted, “Sit down,” because everyone wanted to watch. The person in lane 8 was as if he had turned on an acceleration pump, charging forward bravely. He was clearly just a rookie, yet he suddenly turned into a great white shark. The lanes churned. No one understood how he did it—only astonishment remained.

Mo An still didn’t know how fast he was swimming. He only knew that it was a competition. Originally, the competition belonged to Chen Minghao. He couldn’t embarrass himself; he also had to fight for the honor of the school and his family. He felt that he overtook one person, then another. As he swam past them, the splashing waves on the surface hit his face and he swallowed water.

But mermaids didn’t understand this concept. They only knew how to move forward against the current, riding the wind and breaking the waves.

Mo An continued forward. He was anxious because once he exceeded fifteen minutes, his legs would grow fish scales and turn into a fishtail. He couldn’t turn into a mermaid here, so he had to finish the competition quickly.

Faster, faster, even faster. Mo An lowered his head and swam as fast as he could. The cheers grew louder and louder. It seemed as if the crowd had fallen into the pool right beside his ears. Before long, he heard the sound of a bell. Right—you could hear the bell when swimming the final lap. Was his race about to end?

Then he had to go even faster! Mo An used his last burst of strength and started to sprint. When he finally pressed down on the timer and lifted his head out of the water, the cheers stopped and only the other swimmers remained. No one was cheering for him.

Mo An stood there blankly in the water, not understanding what had happened.

Xia Yu stood blankly in the stands. This time, he really saw—there was an inconspicuous opening on his brother’s collarbone. But it was just a fleeting glimpse. The slit disappeared the instant his brother surfaced, vanishing without a trace.

The swimming hall remained silent. No one could believe what had just happened. The athlete in lane 8 had just finished the men’s 1500-meter freestyle in ten minutes?

More than four minutes faster than the world record?