MASG chapter 157

 

The elusive and unpredictable Blue Jellyfish.

Mo An couldn’t help but fall into memory. They never revealed their whereabouts to humans—not even the mermaids knew. Once you had seen one, there were countless others all around you. When they chose to leave, even the most advanced scientific equipment could not monitor or track them.

They seemed to melt into the seawater in the blink of an eye and drift away.

Was this his hallucination now? Mo An thought so. As if he had taken too much of a drug, he smiled at Xia Yu beside him. “Look! Suddenly, there are so many jellyfish.”

“What are they here for?” Xia Yu asked.

“I don’t know.” Mo An shook his head because they weren’t real—only hallucinations. He turned to leave, only to see Mi Dou and Meng Qingqing running toward the sea, not caring about the red umbrella anymore.

The umbrella was flung onto the reef path, bright and beautiful.

“What are you doing? What happened? Why are you running?” Mo An stood there, watching them blankly.

Mi Dou and Meng Qingqing rushed past like a gust of wind, nearly knocking Mo An several meters away. When they reached the shoreline, Mi Dou stopped; he still hadn’t learned how to swim quickly. Meng Qingqing leapt down and briefly restored her mermaid form. Yet, she could not easily approach her natural enemy.

At that moment, Mo An grabbed Xia Yu’s hand. “Don’t be afraid. They’re probably just nervous. I’ll go take a look.”

“Mo An!” Mi Dou turned back. “Wake up!”

He had to wake Mo An up. He couldn’t keep injecting himself! The trace toxin might not kill him, but it would leave him without the courage to face reality forever.

Mo An froze, frowning. “What’s wrong with me?”

“The sea! The sea!” Mi Dou pointed toward Meng Qingqing. “There are so many jellyfish gathering! Can’t you see them? Do you see them?”

The light shone directly into Mo An’s pupils, yet he seemed blind. “That’s fake.”

“It’s not fake!” Mi Dou waved his hands anxiously. “Look carefully!”

“I know it’s fake. Maybe I injected it too quickly.” Mo An glanced at the needle mark on his arm. “I’m going to take Xia Yu for a walk.”

“There’s no Xia Yu! There’s no one here named Xia Yu! Look clearly!” Mi Dou ran around him, grabbing at the air. “Where is Xia Yu? He isn’t here at all! He’s not by your side!”

Mo An immediately grabbed Mi Dou. “Be careful. Don’t bump into Xia Yu.”

“You… wake up!” Mi Dou jumped and smacked his head. “There are lots of jellyfish gathering in the bay right now. Meng Qingqing can’t get through! Jellyfish won’t sting you—go take a look!”

“What? There are jellyfish?” Mo An slowly released Xia Yu’s hand, turning toward the sea with confusion and dullness. “Is this real?”

Mi Dou kicked him in the butt. “Go!”

This was real? Mo An was both shocked and delighted. After the last incident, they had never found any more wild Blue Jellyfish—only Little Blue remained. It was true that jellyfish possessed their own wisdom. They were just like mermaids.

“All right, I’ll go take a look.” Even now he could not fully let go of that Xia Yu, turning to instruct him, “Stand here and don’t move. I’ll be right back.”

The shadow-like Xia Yu smiled and nodded, staying where he was. Only then did Mo An run to the shore, leap down, and witness the gathering of jellyfish underwater with his own eyes. He met up with Meng Qingqing there.

She swung her tail and smacked Mo An directly, sending him tumbling several times. “Stop injecting yourself!”

Mo An stayed silent, unwilling to respond.

“Go see what’s going on. Hurry.” After hitting him, Meng Qingqing began to regret it. He was just a little fish, not yet twenty—why had she hit him? “Go look. I’ll wait here.”

“Oh.” Mo An rubbed his shoulder. His long hair drifted like soft silk in the water. “Then I’ll go.”

He clearly understood why Mi Dou was angry and why Meng Qingqing had hit him. But he simply could not force himself to face reality—not yet, at least. For now, he had to see what was happening with the jellyfish…

The closer he swam to the center of the swarm, the more grief and unease filled his heart. The repressed emotions surged up again, making each movement difficult. The seawater was exceptionally quiet, perfectly isolating the gentle rain above the surface. Mo An could only hear the sound of the water as he swam forward and grabbed a jellyfish tentacle.

The tentacle slipped from his palm—harmless.

Why had they suddenly appeared? Mo An felt dizzy, a side effect of the toxin. He kept swimming until he reached a jellyfish nearly 50 meters long.

It floated calmly in the sea, as if its life would never change and it harbored the ocean’s secrets. Blue light coursed through its gelatinous bell and tentacles like neon lights on land. Mo An hovered before it, unable to tell for a moment whether he was gazing at a jellyfish or an underwater skyscraper.

Compared to it, he was far too small.

His gaze followed the tentacles’ flickering upward until it finally fixed on the enormous bell. When all the light dimmed, Mo An seemed to see something inside the bell—like a transparent… bubble.

Was this real or fake? Or another side effect?

Dazed, Mo An swam closer.

At the edge of the shore, Meng Qingqing and Mi Dou were still waiting. The seawater reached Mi Dou’s waist, and he carefully shifted his feet. “How can there be so many?”

“Honestly, I don’t know how Mo An is doing.” Meng Qingqing felt regretful for striking her tail too hard just now. She knew Mo An was extremely heartbroken, yet she blamed him like that. “I really want to go over and take a look.”

“Don’t you dare go!” Mi Dou grabbed her tail fin. “The jellyfish just don’t attack Mo An—they will sting you…”

Just as he finished speaking, a patch of white spray churned on the surface of the sea. Something was pushing upward. The gentle drizzle had not stopped yet. Mo An’s head broke the surface, and he seemed to be tightly gripping something in his hand. “Come here quickly!”

But his words were useless. Neither Mi Dou nor Meng Qingqing could get there. Mo An looked back several times, still unable to confirm whether it was real. He could only slap the water’s surface and swim toward the shore.

As a result, the thing behind him was smashed by his powerful fishtail with that slap, breaking off a piece.

“Come quickly!” Mo An swam to the shore. “Is this real or fake? Why am I…”

Mi Dou was so shocked that he did not dare move. As a researcher, his first reaction was to notify the research institute. He did so immediately, shouting to Mo An, “Don’t move anymore! It’s real! It’s real! Where’s my communicator? Where is it?”

Panicking, he fumbled around, suddenly remembering that the communicator was his wristband. “Xiang Xing! Send people over quickly! We’re at Port A! Bring the ecological uterus! Hurry!”

Meng Qingqing dove into the water. After opening her tear membrane, she finally saw what Mo An was dragging. It was a huge, transparent bubble. Inside the bubble were two extremely small… babies.

Human babies. The two of them pressed their foreheads together and curled up tightly. Their blood-red umbilical cords had already been torn off. Their bodies were semi-transparent; you could see their hearts beating, thump, thump. Only a short crack had appeared in the transparent bubble.

Half an hour later, Xiang Xing flew the research institute’s aircraft over. Lao Gui followed him. The moment they jumped off the aircraft, they ran toward the shore with a salvage robot close behind. The robot quickly dove into the sea and used suction to place the bubble into a massive glass tank.

“I need data! Data!” Mi Dou shouted from inside the aircraft.

“Heartbeats are at 160 and 174.” Xiang Xing’s voice trembled slightly.

“It’s fine. Human fetuses’ heartbeats are always fast. It’s them; it’s them.” Mi Dou immediately contacted his colleagues at the research institute. “Is everything ready?”

“Ready.” Xiang Xing started the aircraft and activated autopilot mode. His face was no longer Xia Yu’s, but a face blended with his own preferences. His eyebrows were thicker, his eyes were slightly smaller, and his nose was not as tall as Xia Yu’s, but his hairstyle remained the same.

His mycelium touched the glass tank. “What is the composition of the amniotic fluid?”

Mi Dou looked at the screen. “Seawater. Natural seawater.”

Lao Gui looked through the glass observation panel. “Take care of them first. I’ll notify Silver Fang and tell him to stop the search at sea.”

While they were discussing this, Mo An, who had just settled down, stood up again. “Is it them? Let me see.”

“Didn’t you already take a sedative?” Mi Dou pushed him back a little. “Don’t get excited.”

“Just let me look once. I’ll just take a quick look!” Mo An tried to step forward again.

Mi Dou could only say, “It’s not confirmed yet. We need to go back for genetic testing. Sit down first.”

“It must be them. I knew it.” Mo An wanted to rush over and see, but the sedative was taking effect. His legs gave out, and he collapsed into the aircraft seat and fell asleep. Mi Dou let out a sigh of relief. Luckily, he had injected Mo An earlier; otherwise, the trip back would have been impossible.

The aircraft landed on the 80th-floor extension platform. Waiting for them was none other than Professor Wang Qin.

Professor Wang Qin had once again pinned up her white hair, which stood neatly and efficiently on end on the inner side of the glass extension platform. In fact, the moment she saw the two babies, she recognized them. They were none other than Xia Yu and Xia Xiaoxiao. More than twenty years ago, they had grown up just like this. Everything had returned to the beginning.

“Quick, bring them into the research room! Everything is ready!” Professor Wang Qin directed everything.

Mo An slept restlessly, always with something on his mind. After an unknown amount of time, he suddenly kicked his legs as if rising from the seabed. However, the light entering his eyes was the laboratory’s incandescent lamp, which easily calmed a person down. He sat up, thought for a moment, and then leapt down from the bed, nearly falling to the floor.

“It’s them and Xiaoxiao! They’re back!”

Mo An sprinted through the corridor, not bothering to greet anyone along the way and knocking over a small robot in the process. The robot fell to the ground, unable to get up. It called out, “Help me! Help me!”

But Mo An had no time to save it. He ran all the way to the end of the corridor, swiping open one metal door after another. Finally, he saw Mi Dou. Following Mi Dou’s gaze, Mo An looked toward the center of the research room. Inside the enormous ecological uterus, two babies floated up and down with their fists clenched.

Mo An’s legs went weak once again.

“Is it them? Tell me, are they them?” He looked at Wang Qin.

Professor Wang Qin slowly turned around. Tears overflowed from her eyes and dripped onto her lenses. “The genetic test report is out. It’s them. They’re back.”

Mo An frowned slightly. His heart had just contracted violently, hurting a little.

But the pain disappeared immediately. He looked again at the two small babies, feeling a sudden sense that time overlapping.

“It’s okay. I will accompany him as he grows up.” Mo An walked to the glass and slowly sat down, just as Xia Yu had done at the beginning, when he sat outside the aquarium waiting for the day he hatched.