MASG chapter 131

 

The scales glittered under the sunlight.

Xia Yu couldn’t control his thoughts anymore. As the kiss deepened, his emotions felt like they were riding an elevator, going up and down and back and forth. This wasn’t just physical contact; to him, it was more like communicating thoughts. Perhaps this was the mermaid’s ability to bewitch people and seduce sailors. Now, this younger brother, with whom he had no blood relation, had bewitched him and was… seducing him?

Xia Yu didn’t dare admit it, but he had indeed been seduced.

Mo An had even brought him into the water, where they swam together. They kissed in the water, too. Mo An moved swiftly, guiding him through schools of fish as if he were the ruler of the ocean. The schools of fish parted around them, opening a path. Xia Yu held his breath, gripping the water as if it were a steering wheel, letting Mo An take him wherever he wanted.

He believed that as long as Mo An wanted and was willing, he could take him through all the seas on Earth.

He turned his head to look at Mo An. His hair floated in the seawater, and black had grown out at the roots. They surfaced again to breathe—though only Xia Yu needed to. Mo An’s muscles were tense all over; he was clearly holding back his strength just to gently hold Xia Yu. If he used any force, Xia Yu’s body would be torn apart.

Mermaids and humans were ultimately different. Xia Yu couldn’t help kissing Mo An’s ear fins again and feeling his excited trembling. In the seawater, Xia Yu felt that his relationship with Mo An ran deep.

Their relationship turned into glass candy—transparent and sweet. They talked about everything, transcending race and identity to become lovers who were afraid to face the truth. Xia Yu secretly kissed Mo An in the school restroom and called him out the moment class ended. The two of them snuck off to deserted places, feeling each other’s passion and body heat. Ten minutes was never enough for their entanglement.

Sometimes it was in the equipment room of the basketball court when two classes took turns having PE. After class, Mo An returned the basketball and let Du Meng leave first. Then, he turned back and waited for Xia Yu to come to class, waiting for him to step into that uninhabited zone. Behind the mats was a small corner that no one could see. Xia Yu didn’t dare use force; he only lightly gripped Mo An’s school uniform.

He liked touching Mo An’s scales and webbed hands. When that layer of flexible webbing was touched, Xia Yu couldn’t help but frown, feeling a pain connected through his ten fingers.

At home, they were even more unrestrained.

Mo An would dodge Zhang Mingqiao and Xia Li and skillfully avoid Xia Xiaoxiao. Xia Yu and he would sit on the desk, kissing with the sea and blue sky behind them and high school homework under their butts. Or, Xia Yu would secretly come up to his rooftop, hiding the love sprouting between them so that no one would know.

“What should we do?” Sometimes, Xia Yu would feel helpless, stuck between advancing and retreating.

“What do you mean, ‘What should we do?'” Mo An chased him for kisses, from the doorway to the bathroom and from there to in front of the cabinet. Their backpacks were kicked into a mess at their feet, blank test papers and bulging pencil cases becoming mere decorations for high school students.

Xia Yu lay muddle-headed on Mo An’s big bed. His eyes looked at the ceiling, but he was becoming increasingly confused. “It’s just…our situation.”

“Us?” Mo An didn’t care and kept sucking on Xia Yu’s lips. He wouldn’t dare kiss him in the real world, but here he could do whatever he wanted.

“Yeah, us.” Xia Yu thought further, his thoughts drifting even farther. “Where are we taking the college entrance exams? I don’t want to be separated from you, but I feel like you won’t get into the same university as me. Should we tell Dad and Mom about us? Should we tell Xiaoxiao? How do we tell them? We’ll have to make our relationship public sooner or later; we can’t sneak around forever.”

“Don’t worry about that.” Mo An pressed against Xia Yu’s neck and kissed it bit by bit without leaving any marks. The hems of their identical school uniforms curled up and rolled higher as their hot abdomens pressed together. A young body never knew fatigue.

“How can I not worry about it? You’re so stupid.” Xia Yu wrapped his arms around Mo An’s shoulders and pulled his head up from his chest. “In name… I’m your older brother. In name, we’re family.”

“So what if we are? Who says an older brother can’t be with his younger brother?” Mo An didn’t understand human concepts of propriety, shame, or law. If you like me and I like you—that’s enough.

But Xia Yu didn’t think that way. He covered his eyes with both hands. “You know… I’ve always thought of your dad as my real dad. I don’t dare let him know we’re together. I’m afraid he’ll be disappointed. I really… I really love this family.”

Mo An’s movements stopped instantly, one hand still gripping Xia Yu’s waist.

“I don’t even know who my biological father is. He’s closer to me than my biological father is. He loves my mom and us, so when they got married…” Xia Yu suddenly started to hesitate. Mo An tilted his head, waiting for him to continue. But Xia Yu only became more confused and uneasy. Xia Yu was still beneath him, his body covered by Mo An’s. It was as if he were lying deep inside an absolutely safe nest. Sweat formed on his skin from kisses. But his breathing became more and more unstable, rapid, and erratic, as if his heart were experiencing arrhythmia.

“What’s wrong?” Mo An asked immediately.

Xia Yu opened his mouth repeatedly. “I…I think I can’t remember.”

A strange sense of fear replaced Mo An’s body and enveloped him. Xia Yu began to hallucinate. The blue sky and clear seawater faded rapidly, and the sky over Penghu Island turned stormy. He looked into the distance. Countless skyscrapers rose in the coastal city. Suddenly, the top floor of one building exploded, triggering the alarm system.

Gunshots rang out and countless robots sprinted across the ground.

Glass shards fell at his feet. Severed limbs and blood lay on the ground. Flashing red lights flew overhead as drones formed a swirling vortex.

Bang! Another explosion went off somewhere. Xia Yu looked around. He had left the familiar Penghu Island and arrived in an unknown city. Glass buildings spewed flames, and white and black smoke rolled upward. The surrounding buildings were completely destroyed, and waves of a bloody stench rushed toward him.

The black sea surface formed a huge vortex. Raindrops hit the water and bounced back up instantly, as if in an inverted rainstorm. He looked toward the sea, where countless fish tails rose and fell as the fish swam. An ancient lighthouse turned on its high beam, and the alarm sounded again in a long wail.

What place is this? Aircraft roared past Xia Yu’s ears. He lowered his head again and saw that he was holding a gun with an unloaded magazine.

“Xia Yu? Xia Yu! Xia Yu, wake up!” Mo An sat up quickly, knelt beside Xia Yu, and began calling to him. He painfully patted Xia Yu’s face, trying to pull him out of the abyss. It wasn’t time for him to fully remember yet because the anchor point hadn’t appeared.

Anchor point! Anchor point! Where the hell is the anchor point? What is it?

Xia Yu trembled uncontrollably, his skin burning hot, his eyes filled with an uncontrollable daze. Mo An was about to lose control, too. He crawled over in fear and despair and stared straight into Xia Yu’s eyes. “Xia Yu! Wake up! Wake up first, come back! Come back!”

But his actions didn’t work right away. Xia Yu was still shaking as if he were a smoothly running machine that had suddenly encountered a massive program bug and was stuck in an unstoppable formatting process.

“Xia Yu, listen to me. Don’t think, don’t look, don’t dig into anything.” Mo An’s expression was almost ferocious. “Listen carefully. I’m Mo An. I’m here. Everything outside is fake.”

Xia Yu stared with wide-open eyes. A fire ignited in his chest and grew fiercer and fiercer.

“Come back to Penghu Island quickly. We’re here… only here is safe.” Mo An felt like his heart was being cut by knives. He had thought he was Xia Yu’s anchor, but everything showed that he wasn’t.

Xia Yu’s reactions had become sluggish. His head was splitting with pain. Mo An’s voice was in his ears, but it was also like entering an amusement park—every step forward made flowers bloom, forcing a colorful flower path into existence.

“Come back quickly.” Suddenly, Mo An slammed the pillow, lowered his upper body, and softly called out to Xia Yu. “Your mom is named Xia Li and your dad is named Zhang Mingqiao. You have an amazing younger sister named Xia Xiaoxiao. Xiaoxiao likes riding bicycles. You promised to buy a bike for her and accompany her to competitions.”

Xia Yu suddenly shuddered for a split second. A crisp electronic sound rang in his ears.

“You made an agreement with Chen Minghao—you’ll definitely be first in the grade on the next monthly exam. Du Meng keeps inviting us to eat at his place and play games.” The more Mo An spoke, the more urgent he became. It was as if a heart had grown in his head, thumping violently and pounding against his temples. His hand pressed on Xia Yu’s philtrum as a dangerous premonition rose—if Xia Yu didn’t wake up properly, his memories would be erased.

Xia Yu was still trembling. Without realizing it, his nose started bleeding.

“Wake up. We’ll take it slowly.” Mo An wiped away the nosebleed. Only then did he notice that his hands were shaking—even harder than Xia Yu’s. He kept calling to Xia Yu, waiting more than ten minutes before he finally settled down. His gaze emerged from its scattered, unfocused state and came into focus again.

In the end, his vision focused on Mo An’s face.

“I think… I had a dream.” Xia Yu was drenched in sweat. He frowned tightly; his joints ached and his stomach churned as if he had vomited hundreds of times. “I dreamed… a building was on fire. The whole world was robots. There was a huge vortex in the sea, and it was raining really hard.”

“It was all a dream. It was all just a dream.” Mo An felt awful, so he buried his face in Xia Yu’s collarbone. “None of that was real. Here… this is our home. Tomorrow, we’ll find Chen Minghao and do our homework together, okay? Afterwards, we’ll eat at Du Meng’s place.”

“Chen Minghao and Du Meng.” Xia Yu seemed unable to remember what they looked like. He couldn’t recall their faces, but he knew in his heart that such people existed. “They… what are they going to do?”

“Nothing at all. It’s enough that classmates are together.” Mo An squeezed his sweaty palm. “Dreams are fake, Xia Yu. This place is real.”

“Is that so?” After asking, Xia Yu stayed silent for a long while, as if reconnecting with his surroundings. He raised his hand, pinched the center of his brows, and then touched Mo An’s brow as well.

Mo An’s skin was damp, too, soaked with sweat. Xia Yu’s nose stung, and he suddenly felt like crying. “Why do I… miss you this much?”

“What?” Mo An sensed that something was wrong. Xia Yu had entered Awakening. “Why miss me? I’ve always been by your side.”

“It feels like we were separated.” Xia Yu said softly and desperately. “Mo An, sometimes I feel like life is fake. Do you understand how I feel? It’s like… I often find loopholes in life and places that feel wrong. Tell me, what is really going on?”

Because this place is fake—completely fake. There is nothing here, not even our bodies—they’re just signals. Mo An held back tears but couldn’t say anything.

“Was I… deceived?” Xia Yu blinked. “Who am I, really? Who are you, really? Why do I always see those scenes?”

“Maybe… the study pressure is too high. Don’t think too much.” Mo An lied to him without hesitation. No—tonight, he had to find Lao Gui. Xia Yu’s condition wouldn’t hold out for many days.