MASG chapter 178: Extra 18

◎ Compared to a savage and untamable ferocious mermaid, he was more like an ornamental fish. ◎

A’Manqi was blowing bubbles in the water, clearly not taking Mo An’s warning seriously. The first person who had held him and patted him was Xia Yu, and Xia Yu was a very good adult. Also, Xia Yu’s eye color was very beautiful, like seawater. A’Manqi kept staring at Xia Yu, but he was worried that Xia Yu might not like him, so he lay at the bottom of the pool picking at his fingers.

Mo An had already rolled up the sleeves of his combat uniform. “I’m going down!”

“A’Ni, what are you going down there for?” Xia Yu grabbed him at once.

“I’m going down… to see what’s going on with his legs,” Mo An replied.

But Xia Yu would not let him. “Stop fooling around. A’Manqi has never seen another mermaid form before. You’re so big, you’ll scare him if you go down.”

“Why wasn’t I scared by Meng Qingqing when I was little? In the end, he’s just too weak.” Mo An had no choice but to come back. He did not want to argue with Xia Yu in front of others. Still, A’Manqi learned things way too fast. How had he happened to learn that one sentence?

Everyone was observing A’Manqi, including Nuwa and Jingwei.

Nuwa: [His vital signs are currently stable. Blood pressure and heart rate have returned to normal.]

Jingwei: [The transformation between legs and tail is relatively slow. Back then, Mo An was much faster than him. The nutrient injection has already been prepared. He can eat at any time.]

“He’s smaller than I was back then.” Mo An folded his arms across his chest while observing and commenting. “Let’s give him a little more time.”

Although the fact that the fry could also call someone “xla” made Mo An unhappy, this was still his own kind. If he could not swim, he would only become a crippled mermaid, which was no different from a death sentence. Once he was placed in the sea, he would become a stone sinking to the bottom, falling thousands or tens of thousands of meters down. Now Mo An stared fixedly at A’Manqi’s legs, hoping to spot even the slightest change in his skin.

The mischievous A’Manqi deliberately refused to let him look and began crawling around randomly along the bottom of the pool.

“He…” 107 carefully chose his words. “He’s really very special. I’ve never seen a mermaid move forward in this kind of… crawling posture.”

“Like some crawling creature from the seafloor… I heard that ancient Eastern records mention a strange animal called a water monkey…” Xiang Xing was much more direct.

“Let’s wait a little longer. Nobody panic yet.” Xia Yu held the opposite view because he had already seen the little fry’s tail. He could transform.

Perhaps Xia Yu’s words encouraged A’Manqi. Nearly a quarter of an hour later, his legs finally began to change. The process was exactly the same as Mo An’s tail transformation. Connected blood vessels grew between his legs, and the pearly scales hidden beneath the shallow layers of skin gradually emerged. When A’Manqi’s tail fully unfolded, everyone present—even Mo An—could not help taking a deep breath.

Compared to a savage and untamable ferocious mermaid, he was more like an ornamental fish.

“A very beautiful mermaid. I’ve never seen tail fins this color before,” 107 was the first to speak.

Xiang Xing had already raised his wristband and taken photos of A’Manqi’s tail as precious research material.

This was the first time 107 and Xiang Xing had seen A’Manqi in his mermaid form. With Mo An’s help, his fish body had been completely peeled away from the inner wall of the egg. His scales were smooth, and his tail fin was complete and symmetrical. The gradient pearly color gradually deepened, becoming darkest near the tail fin, as if a layer of honey-colored glaze had been painted over pearl white. When the lower tail fin spread open, a faint lavender hue could be seen, dreamlike and beautiful.

“To be honest, I’ve never seen it either,” Mo An admitted truthfully. “What exactly was he mixed from?”

What Xia Yu cared about more was how well A’Manqi adapted to life as a mermaid. Unfortunately, even after transforming into a mermaid, he still had not learned how to flick his tail. He was merely a pretty little fish lying at the bottom. Sometimes he lay flat underwater; sometimes he rolled over and continued crawling with his hands and arms. He crawled to the glass wall to greet Xia Yu, then happily crawled away again.

He was too young to understand how important swimming was for a mermaid. At this moment, all A’Manqi felt was kindness and the cleansing flow of clean seawater. In the fresh, oxygen-rich water, his gills felt wonderfully comfortable, not painful at all.

It would be great if he could live here forever, A’Manqi secretly fantasized.

“All right, bring him up. Prepare the nutrient injection.” Mo An rubbed his temples. “He needs to see a doctor. Should we find a few neurologists to examine him?”

“I’m worried he’s paraplegic,” Xia Yu only dared to share his true thoughts with Mo An.

Mo An was worried too, so he pinched Xia Yu’s wrist and said, “At least medicine exists now. He’s already very lucky.”

Half an hour later, A’Manqi lost interest in the seawater and voluntarily asked to come out. Since he could not swim to the surface on his own, the laboratory had to use a mechanical arm to grab him. Like a claw machine, it hooked around his tail and lifted him out. The moment he returned to the oxygen-filled world, his gills instantly closed, leaving only his delicate ear fins slowly retracting.

“Xia Yu, Xia Yu! Come hug me!” A’Manqi stretched out his thin little arms, waiting for xla to hold him.

“You have to dry the water off your body before I can hug you.” Xia Yu wrapped him in a bath towel and rewarded him with a hug. “Remember, you’re a mermaid, and I’m… half human. Humans can’t be soaking wet all over. If you want to hug someone, make sure you’re dry first.”

“A’Manqi is dry now!” A’Manqi immediately rolled around in the dry towel.

Xia Yu could not help laughing. He wanted to laugh, but he also wanted to maintain a mature image in front of him. At that moment, his wristband flashed. He personally handed the wrapped-up little fry to Mo An before going to a corner to contact Jingwei.

“I’m here.”

Jingwei: [Someone went to the dock to collect the goods.]

“Right now?” Xia Yu immediately followed up.

Jingwei: [I’ve already detained them. They’re being interrogated.]

“Good. Send me the interrogation results tonight… forget it, I’ll go there myself.” Xia Yu said.

Meanwhile, A’Manqi had returned to Mo An’s arms once again. His little hands kept tugging at Mo An’s ear.

“Big fish, where are your ear fins?”

“Mermaids don’t have ear fins when they’re not in the sea.” Mo An watched as A’Manqi’s ear fins slowly retracted and gradually turned into ordinary human ears.

“Oh… Then what kind of big fish are you?” A’Manqi was full of curiosity. During their conversation earlier, he had heard words like “Siren,” “White Siren,” and “Double Tail.”

Patiently, Mo An explained, “I’m a Siren, but I don’t know what you are. However, there’s one very important thing. Xia Yu is my xla, not yours.”

“Hiss—” The moment A’Manqi heard that, he bared his teeth!

Mo An covered his little mouth and deliberately said, “Trying to scare me won’t work. If he isn’t, then he isn’t. You don’t have an xla.”

“I do!” A’Manqi stretched his neck and argued.

Mo An smiled slightly. “No, you don’t.”

“I… I…” A’Manqi’s mouth immediately drooped. Mo An really was not very nice. Xia Yu was much better.

Now things had become troublesome. The little fry was a major issue. In the end, everyone unanimously decided to keep him by their side for the time being and wait until Meng Qingqing returned before making further decisions.

This was naturally good news for A’Manqi. He swished the tail that was about to transform back while sitting in Mo An’s arms. The moment Xia Yu returned, he immediately abandoned Mo An and tried to climb onto Xia Yu.

“Hug me, hug me, don’t let me fall.” His voice was tiny, yet his intentions were obvious. His face had turned red from straining so hard.

Mo An fished him back and held him firmly in his arms. “A mermaid should be raised by a mermaid. Xia Yu has jellyfish genes. He can’t raise you. So from now on, you’ll follow me.”

“I don’t want to. I want Xia Yu. Xia Yu smells nice.” A’Manqi nervously picked at his fingers.

“He smells nice because I smell even better. That’s my scent. If you don’t believe me, take a good sniff.” Mo An felt like his fish brain was about to swell. Xia Yu seemed to have some kind of magical attraction to mermaids. Every fish liked him. But he was a jellyfish. Jellyfish were clearly the natural enemies of mermaids.

Soon night arrived. After accompanying A’Manqi through a complete series of examinations, Mo An carried him home and let him stay in their room.

A’Manqi was very quiet on the way. He was afraid of being moved to another place and worried that Mo An would hand him over to someone else, so one small hand carefully clutched the big fish’s silver hair.

“Now this is more like it.” Mo An expressed his satisfaction. “As long as you behave, I’ll consider letting you stay.”

“Can I live with Xia Yu?” A’Manqi asked softly, once again picking at his fingers.

Only after they entered the room did A’Manqi begin to relax, because the bedroom was filled with that pleasant scent. Xia Yu was there too, rummaging through cabinets looking for clothes.

“Mo An, put him on the bed first. I’ll find a few things he can wear. Later I’m going to the interrogation room.”

“You’re still going out this late?” Instead of putting A’Manqi on the bed, Mo An carried him into the bathroom and placed him in the bathtub, then started running water. By the time he returned to Xia Yu’s side, Xia Yu had already found several loose shirts to use as pajamas for A’Manqi.

“What happened in the interrogation room?” Mo An asked quietly, afraid the fry would get scared.

“Someone came to collect the goods. Jingwei already detained them,” Xia Yu answered just as quietly.

“That was fast.” Mo An nodded. He hated the smugglers who trafficked members of his own species. “I’ll go with you.”

But Xia Yu shook his head. “Stay with him. I’ll go myself. A’Manqi can’t be away from adults right now.”

That was indeed true. Mo An had only been gone for a few minutes when splashing sounds came from the bathtub. The little fry did not dare call out loudly, afraid of making the big fish angry, so he buried his face in the water and blew bubbles instead, occasionally making puff-puff-puff noises.

The bathtub was smaller than the aquarium, but it fit him just right. By the time his tail transformed back, Mo An had returned carrying an object in his hand.

“Where’s Xia Yu? I want Xia Yu…” A’Manqi had not hugged Xia Yu for quite a while.

“This is a scanner. Lie down.” Mo An made him lie flat at the bottom of the bathtub.

A’Manqi did not dare resist. Once again, he sank to the bottom, blowing bubbles as he watched Mo An scan him up and down. His ear fins fully spread open. Poking his head out, A’Manqi asked, “Where’s Xia Yu? Such a big Xia Yu…”

“That big Xia Yu is still only mine.” Mo An had no intention of sharing. “Strange. The scan didn’t detect any problems. Your fish bones are developing very well. Why can’t you swim?”

“I can’t use my strength…” A’Manqi propped himself up and looked outside pitifully.

“Stop looking. Xia Yu already went out.” Mo An picked him up again, feeling increasingly uneasy.

Could A’Manqi have some kind of… hybrid genetic disease?

Meanwhile, Xia Yu had already arrived at the interrogation room. Yan Xia was there as well.

“How’s it going?” Xia Yu asked first.

“They’ve already confessed. Guess how much A’Manqi is worth?” Yan Xia teased.

The moment Xia Yu thought of A’Manqi’s coloration, he knew he would not be cheap. “Over ten million?”

“Two hundred and eighty million,” Yan Xia said.

Xia Yu was instantly speechless.

“Moreover, he’s not a mermaid from the sea. He’s a cultivated fish from their laboratory. Xia Yu, A’Manqi was created in a test tube using cells from two different mermaids. He never stayed in a hatching ground at all.” Yan Xia’s tone grew heavier. “He has never entered the real ocean. He is a… completely artificial mermaid.”

The news was too terrifying. Xia Yu leaned against the interrogation room glass, unable to recover for a moment.

A’Manqi was an artificial mermaid?

Created solely for people to admire?

 

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[Author’s Note:]

Mo An: I sense a crisis!

Xia Yu: How old are you already…

Mo An: You don’t understand! This brat is bad news!