MASG chapter 158

 

Two or three days later, Mo An still felt dizzy.

“Dou Dou, Dou Dou!” The moment he entered the research institute today, he shouted, “Where is Mi Dou?”

Yan Xia stepped forward and blocked him. “Why are you looking for him?”

“Yan Xia? Why are you here?” Mo An stopped and protested in a low voice. “I’m looking for Mi Dou.”

Yan Xia’s left chest, shoulder, and arm had been replaced with mechanical parts. She had been too severely injured in that incident and could only be saved this way. Now, she supported herself with her gleaming, rose-gold arm and asked, “Why are you looking for him? I’ve already received complaints. The researchers here say you come over and shout whenever you’re bored!”

“I wasn’t shouting.” Mo An shifted a step to the side, trying to slip past Yan Xia. But there was no way. One of Yan Xia’s eyes had long ago been replaced with a mechanical pupil equipped with the most advanced automatic tracking system.

“Even so, you’re still affecting their work.” Yan Xia only needed to grab him lightly; no matter how powerful a male mermaid was, he could still be controlled on land. She lifted Mo An by the back of his uniform collar and persuaded him, “Be good. Go back and rest first. Xia Yu and Xia Xiaoxiao won’t disappear!”

“Don’t say those two names. I can’t bear to hear them,” Mo An said immediately.

Yan Xia grew even more helpless. “They’ve already come back. They won’t leave again.”

“I can’t bear to hear that sentence, either.” Mo An covered his ears.

Yan Xia wanted to throw him out. “That’s still not a reason for you to enter the research room at three a.m.!”

The clock on the wall showed 3:12 a.m. Aside from the robots, there were no other humans in the research room. Only then did Mo An lower his head slightly. “All right, I admit it. I’m a little early.”

“Not a little bit. It’s extremely early.” Yan Xia put him down. “Jingwei told me that you haven’t slept in forty-eight hours.”

Mo An was reluctant to admit it, but his dark circles were no joke. The skin tone of the mermaid branch naturally leaned toward cool, pale white, and sometimes had a faint hint of blue. Originally, his face could be considered extraordinarily handsome and flawless. Now, the dark circles under his eyes made it look like someone had punched him twice, giving off a strangely comical and eerie feeling.

Luckily, Meng Qingqing had not seen his face; otherwise, she would definitely think that human society was abusing mermaids!

“Listen to me. Go back and sleep. Get a good, full sleep, and then come back to see Xia Yu and Xia Xiaoxiao.” Yan Xia softened her voice, using this tone toward Mo An for the first time. “Be good.”

Mo An did not move, as if he had taken in every word. However, just when Yan Xia thought her persuasion had succeeded, Mo An spun around, slipped behind her, broke free of her control, and ran toward the door with movements comparable to hunting underwater.

“Sigh, this idiot.” Yan Xia could only shake her head and let him go.

The research room was extremely quiet, reminding Mo An of the deep sea. When he burst in, the first things he saw were two defensive night-shift robots.

“Do not move! Do not move!”

The robots approached him, laser weapons drawn. After scanning his face, however, they immediately changed their tone. “Officer Mo An, hello. May we ask why you came so early?”

“I’m just taking a look. Go back to work.” Mo An waved his hand.

“Understood. Please feel free.” The robots lifted the alarm and returned to their designated positions, entering silent mode. Mo An looked toward the ecological uterus with the devotion of a pilgrim. Inside the transparent, giant glass sphere, Xia Yu and Xia Xiaoxiao slept with their heads touching.

As expected of dual-body gene composites, the two of them had been inseparable since birth. Mo An walked to the outside of the glass sphere, pressed both hands against it, and gently asked, “Xia Yu, Xiaoxiao, can you hear me?”

The two fetuses naturally did not respond.

“Why are you here again?” Wang Qin quietly appeared behind him.

Startled at first, Mo An asked, “Why haven’t you slept yet?”

“I can’t sleep. The moment I close my eyes, I see them.” Wang Qin was usually calm and collected, but on this matter, she was like an erupting volcano—nothing could withstand her. “I want to watch them grow up.”

“I feel the same way.” Mo An responded softly.

“Last time, I didn’t have this opportunity. This time, I must cherish it.” Wang Qin understood Mo An, and Mo An understood her. “Do you want to sleep here?”

Mo An nodded honestly.

“Then go get a quilt first. You can’t lie on the floor like that—you’ll catch a chill.” Wang Qin reached out and touched his ear. “You grew up in the blink of an eye. I still feel like you’re inside a fish egg.”

Mo An lowered his head, allowing Wang Qin to stroke him. After a while, he asked, “Have they grown?”

“They have. Their growth rate is very fast. Their cell division is exactly the same as the blue jellyfish’s. A few days ago, their spines had not fully developed yet. Now, look…” Her gaze passed through the glass as she looked at them affectionately. “Their spines are fully developed now.”

A few days ago, their tiny bodies were still semi-transparent. Now, they were no longer transparent. Their curved spines had fully formed, marking their identity as humans.

“In another half-month, they will be as large as full-term fetuses.” Wang Qin could hardly wait.

“Once they’re full term, can they leave here?” Mo An wanted them to come out sooner.

“That’s hard to say.” Wang Qin maintained a scientific attitude. “They can only leave the amniotic fluid after their lungs are fully developed.”

“All right. It’s fine. I can wait.” Mo An stopped urging. He would rather have them develop properly inside than have them be born prematurely and be ill. He went back to the bedroom once, dizzy with exhaustion, and then returned. After spreading out a quilt, he collapsed onto it and slept in the spot closest to Xia Yu.

This became the scene that Mi Dou saw every morning when he came to work. Mo An slept on the floor facing Xia Yu and Xia Xiaoxiao as if he could only sleep peacefully this way.

At the very least, he no longer needed to inject himself. Mi Dou comforted himself this way.

The fetuses were indeed developing very quickly. Just as Professor Wang Qin had predicted, they began to grow at a visible rate. 3 months later, Silver Fang returned from the edge of the Black Sea, travel-worn and exhausted. The moment he entered the research room, he froze. “Where’s Xiaoxiao?”

“Over there.” Mo An pointed.

Silver Fang looked over and felt instantly a little helpless and annoyed. “Why didn’t you cover her?”

Inside the glass sphere, the two fetuses had developed into normal infants. Visually, they were about the size of one-year-olds. Xia Yu was fine—he was a baby boy. But Xiaoxiao, a baby girl, was just floating there naked.

“How are we supposed to cover her?” Mo An pulled him closer. “Professor Wang Qin said most of their organs have already developed.”

Silver Fang rubbed his metallic temple and averted his gaze. “Even so, you should cover her up. Xiaoxiao is a girl!”

“We can’t exactly cover half of the glass sphere with paper, can we?” Mo An offered a not-so-great suggestion. “How would the researchers observe them later?”

“Just tear the paper off when you need to observe,” Silver Fang insisted. In the end, Mi Dou helped him cover the other half with paper. At first glance, you could only see Xia Yu’s body. After that was done, Silver Fang turned back and asked, “Mo An, continue. You said their organs are developed?”

Mo An replied dejectedly, “Still missing the lung lobes.”

“Lung lobes?” Silver Fang had rarely heard such technical organ terminology before.

“Yes, their lung lobes are developing slowly, and they still cannot breathe independently. Currently, they extract nutrients from seawater through the umbilical cord. However, once they leave the water, they will suffocate. Their lung lobes cannot expand. If they don’t expand, they can’t inhale air or transport oxygen,” Mi Dou explained.

Just as he finished speaking, Xia Yu inside the glass sphere burped, and a round, transparent bubble floated out from the corner of his mouth.

“It’s okay. I can wait.” Mo An was very patient. “Xia Yu once waited for me for a very long time.”

According to Professor Wang Qin’s estimation, Xia Yu and Xiaoxiao would finish developing their lung lobes by the time they were three years old. At that time, they could leave the ecological uterus and enter a specialized medical pod for nurturing. But no one knew what went wrong. The two inside the glass sphere kept growing bigger and bigger, and their hair kept growing longer. Judging by their height, they were approaching the size of 5- or 6-year-old children. Yet, there was still no good news.

This discouraged everyone. Reunion was right before their eyes, yet they could never quite reach it.

That evening, as usual, Mo An spread his bedding outside the glass sphere and waited for sleepiness to come. Silver Fang sat nearby, drinking tea. His metallic fingers held a small teacup while his other hand flipped through Xia Yu and Xiaoxiao’s reports.

“Stop reading. Go back and rest early,” Mo An said.

“It’s fine. I’m not as easily tired as you are. I can go days and nights without sleeping.” Silver Fang just wanted to find the cause. “What has Professor Wang said recently?”

Mo An shook his head. “She only says it’s incomplete development. We could try using medication to accelerate maturation, but it would have side effects.”

“Don’t use drugs under any circumstances. Let them grow properly,” said Silver Fang. He had just set down his teacup when his ear twitched at a faint sound. “You coughed, didn’t you? Did you catch a cold?”

“No.” Mo An had just lain down.

“You clearly coughed once.” Silver Fang smiled. “Still pretending to be tough.”

Mo An had no choice but to sit up. “I didn’t. What’s there to pretend about? Even if I—”

“Cough, cough… cough, cough… cough, cough…”

Coughing? Mo An followed the sound and turned his head. First, he saw countless bubbles.

They poured out of Xia Yu’s mouth like a drowning person expelling air. Still a child, he began to convulse as if he couldn’t accept the seawater entering his body. He tried to expel it with violent coughing. The lights brightened fully. Without Mo An or Silver Fang needing to fetch the researchers, the ecological uterus began draining water under Nuwa’s control. The side covered with paper showed nothing, but faint coughing could be heard from there.

Nuwa: [Draining seawater. Jingwei, prepare the medical pod.]

Jingwei: [Medical pod activated. Medical pod functioning normally.]

Nuwa: [Heart rate too fast. Blood pressure continuing to rise.]

Jingwei: [Oxygenation device activated.]

What was happening? Mo An sprang to his feet. Only half of the seawater remained around Xia Yu, and his upper body was completely exposed to the air. His chest was rising and falling. Though the movement was not obvious, it meant that he had shifted from breathing in seawater to true aerobic breathing.

Hoo… hoo… hoo… That was their breathing.

“Go! Hurry!” Mo An grabbed a robot. “Notify Wang Qin and Mi Dou! Notify everyone! They’ve woken up!”

Amid the chaos, Xia Yu had not opened his eyes yet, but he was already relishing the dream he had just had.

It had been a very good dream. In it, he and his sister returned to the deep sea and saw the largest jellyfish of their clan, which was hundreds of meters long.

Oxygen rushed continuously into his body, expanding his fully developed lung lobes to their maximum capacity. Like an amphibian coming ashore for the first time, Xia Yu coughed and expelled seawater, feeling full of discomfort. Suddenly, the ground beneath him disappeared. It felt as if he were sliding down a track, his body falling downward uncontrollably until finally stopping in a warm, dry place.

Before he had the strength to open his eyes, he heard singing.

“Pulu pulu, little jellyfish. I am in the depths of the ocean. First sink down, then float up…”

It was a very childish voice, the sound of when he was small. Nuwa had recorded every time Xia Yu sang, and now she played it back to him after his rebirth: “Pulu pulu, little jellyfish, I am in the depths of the ocean, first sink down and then float up…”

The Song of the Little Jellyfish. Xia Yu gathered his strength and finally opened his eyes. The person reflected in his vision was someone familiar.