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Chapter 37: So Embarrassed that Even the Tail Fins Exploded
An Jin looked at the comments and thought that the Siao people were open-minded. Mermaids were like a pet in their eyes, and they even made jokes like “marry a mermaid”.
He continued to look down and saw a long row of copy and paste @TangRin asking if it was for sale, and thought of the scene not long ago when the little boy asked Norman for him. He lowered his eyes, his crimson lips unconsciously pursed.
After becoming a mermaid and knowing that mermaids were pets, his subconscious thought was only: live well.
After the apocalypse, he realized that to be alive was a very big deal, and he instinctively wanted to live, even if only as a pet. He did a good job, and became a delightful pet, but did not dare to be fully at ease. It wasn’t until he learned how important mermaids were to humans that he finally felt at ease, no longer worried about being abandoned and staying safe.
Recently, Norman had been treating him better and better. He was treating him more and more like a human and less like a pet, and he felt very happy and satisfied with his life. Now, however, seeing the reactions and attitudes of outsiders, he realized that he was blinded. He was still a pet, not a human being with an independent personality.
“Tired?” Norman saw the little mermaid looking down and was a little worried. “I’ll take you back to the pool.”
An Jin returned to his senses and met brown eyes with concern. The corners of his mouth rose slightly. “I’m not tired.”
He found that he seemed to be getting greedy, initially thinking that he just wanted to not be abandoned and to be able to live in this world. Now that he had Norman’s love and care, he still felt that it was not enough. Probably since he was essentially human, and people were social animals, feeling the need for the approval of others, not just a single person’s approval.
Even so, he was not sure if this person’s approval was the same as what he thought.
Hornád moved his eyes away from the terminal and looked at Norman. “Your Majesty, many people are mentioning Tang Rin, wanting An An to start a live stream.”
His Majesty’s sense of territory was very strong; the villa area had always been forbidden for people to step in. As a personal doctor, he was the one who entered the villa most often, but only when something happened. This also meant that he had very few chances to see the little mermaid.
He couldn’t help the anticipation showing in his eyes. “Why don’t we let An An livestream?”
Norman had long seen the countless messages under Tang Rin’s “open talk” and had the intention of ignoring them. “No.”
Hornád did not want to give up easily. He pointed down to the small mermaid. “Maybe An An will like it?”
“He doesn’t like the attention,” Norman finished, and still looking at the little mermaid, he asked, “Do you want to start a live stream?”
An Jin subconsciously wanted to shake his head. He didn’t like being watched, especially now that he wasn’t sure if something was wrong with his body, much less consider it. However, he thought of something and stopped shaking his head. If he wanted people to identify with him, to understand that he had independent abilities, to see him not as a pet, but as an intelligent creature like a human being, then he couldn’t keep his abilities hidden.
Norman said he would find a way to get everyone to accept that he could talk, but he couldn’t rely on Norman. He could also try to make others accept it!
If it was suddenly announced that he could understand and speak interstellar, the Siao people may be surprised, shocked, and some will even want to study him.
However, gradually, little by little, once he fully demonstrated his ability, it was very likely that the Siao people would naturally accept the fact.
At least they would not be as shocked as if they suddenly learned it. Moreover, by the time he fully revealed it, his ability level would not be low, and even if someone moved against him, he would be fully capable of resisting. In fact, with his ability to remove impurities, even if he was directly targeted, to the Siao, this was very important, and he would not be in danger.
But then, the Siao may not really see him as an intelligent being, but out of interest, would agree to whatever he wanted.
Just like the Siao may not all like the mermaids, because of the mermaid’s ability, they would be extra good to the mermaids.
An Jin thought about it and had a preliminary plan in mind to figure out how to get the Siao to gradually accept that he could understand and speak interstellar. This would be the first step to make the Siao realize that he was an intelligent being.
He looked at Norman with a firm look in his eyes. “If my body is okay, I want to go live.”
Norman was surprised. “I thought you didn’t like the attention?”
An Jin didn’t explicitly state his intentions, saying only, “I’m interested in live streaming.”
Norman met the little mermaid’s bright eyes, thought for a moment, and nodded. “Okay.”
—
At four-thirty p.m., Norman put on a capsule mask, and topped with Tang Rin’s plain face and dressed in a dark pencil suit, he arrived at the mermaid hospital with An Jin. He greeted Yuna in advance and arrived directly at the testing room on the third floor through the VIP lane.
The testing room was very large, with all kinds of equipment and a twenty by twenty swimming pool. Yuna greeted the little blue mermaid and An Jin smiled subconsciously.
Yuna handed Norman a blood test needle and said to Norman, “Do the blood test first, the results will be slow.”
An Jin’s smile immediately disappeared and he pursed his lips nervously.
Norman took it and saw the little mermaid’s face slackened with a nervous look. He said soothingly, “Don’t be afraid, it doesn’t hurt, it will be fine soon.”
An Jin was a little hesitant. Norman’s hand reached to the edge of the mermaid car to demonstrate. “Hand here, close your eyes, then open your eyes and it’s over.”
An Jin took a deep breath and slowly extended his hand to the edge and then closed his eyes.
Norman quickly stabbed his finger with the tip of a needle and took a drop of blood. “There you go.”
An Jin didn’t even feel the pain. He opened his eyes and looked at his fingertip, and there was only a tiny red spot.
Yuna looked at the little mermaid excitedly. “An An is too good, isn’t he? And he’s so smart, like he can understand you.”
Norman handed the blood to Yuna. “He’s really smart.”
Yuna lamented, “If all mermaids were so cooperative, it wouldn’t be like a fight between enemies at every medical exam.” He handed the blood to Professor Jin and pointed to the testing chamber against the wall. “Mr. Tang, you carry An An there.”
An Jin looked into the testing chamber. It was capsule-shaped, with the lower half filled with water and the upper half with a transparent automatic hatch. He was carried to the testing pod and lay on his back inside, meeting Norman’s reassuring gaze, his eyes slightly bent.
Norman took a step back and the transparent hatch closed automatically.
There was a tick— and the testing equipment started to work.
An Jin only felt a slight increase in temperature inside the cabin, but otherwise did not feel anything else.
Five minutes later, he was carried out by Norman.
Yuna sighed again. “I thought it would take at least half an hour to finish the test, but I didn’t expect An An to be so cooperative.”
Yuna’s terminal rang lightly as he received the results of the blood test, and the results of the test chamber were sent to his terminal at the same time. He opened both reports and looked at them carefully. After reading, he asked Norman, “How was he emotionally when he dropped the scale? Did he show any signs of pain?”
Norman shook his head. “He didn’t feel anything.”
Norman’s serious expression eased a little when he thought of the scene of the little mermaid examining his scales. The little mermaid did not even know he had lost them until he took them out to show him.
“It’s incredible, but the test results show that he is healthy, just his body is still growing,” said Yuna, his eyes glowing slightly. “This is an important finding; the pure-colored mermaid’s adulthood is different from the normal mermaid’s.”
Hearing the test results, both Norman and An Jin’s expressions relaxed considerably.
Yuna suggested, “Mr. Tang, for the sake of caution, I think we should give An An a physical examination every day.”
Norman agreed to the proposal, not wanting anything to go wrong with the little mermaid’s health at all, saying, “An An shouldn’t leave home too often. I will ask Dr. Hornád to give An An a physical examination.”
Yuna originally wanted to do the examination himself and was a little disappointed to hear that, but Hornád was indeed a more suitable person. “Yes, I will contact Mr. Hornád later, and I would like to receive An An’s physical report every day.”
Norman nodded his head. Yuna was the most authoritative mermaid expert, and he was relieved to have Yuna keep an eye on the little mermaid’s health status.
After the test, Norman pushed the mermaid cart out of the testing room. He did not leave directly, but came to the automatic transmission link between the two buildings of the hospital and mermaid center, and they passed through to the mermaid center in a short time.
The mermaid center was very large, as only people with mermaids were allowed to enter. It seemed empty, though every so often there was an intelligent robot standing guard to help the guests.
An Jin looked around curiously.
Norman saw that the little mermaid was curious and explained, “The mermaid center is divided into an entertainment department and a care department, and I’m taking you to the care department to take care of your hair.”
Forty minutes later, An Jin’s hair was once again smooth and lightly shiny. He sat up with his hand propped up on the bed board, lowered his head and let his hair slide down in front of his shoulders, and ran his fingers through it, very satisfied.
The caregiver looked at An Jin with glowing eyes and looked at Norman with an expectant look. “Mr. Tang, I am a member of the pure color mermaid backing group, can I take a picture with him?”
Norman’s eyes moved slightly, and he looked at the little mermaid who was carefully putting his hair together. A photo? He refused without hesitation, “No.”
The caregiver was very disappointed, but the next moment she was happy again. “Mr. Tang, he seems to want to tie his hair, can I help him?”
Many mermaid breeders hate the idea of others paying court to their mermaid, fearing that the mermaid would become more intimate with others and affect the effect of the song on them. So they must never do anything other than work with their little mermaid without permission.
Norman again refused, “No.”
He stepped in front of the little mermaid, and An Jin felt a slight darkness before his eyes and looked up.
Norman raised his hand and brushed his hand across the little mermaid’s cheek, over the little mermaid’s earlobe, to the back of his neck, finding hair on his skin, which he rubbed lightly with his fingers. His fingers were calloused, and as he rubbed the skin of his neck, An Jin shuddered uncontrollably, and subconsciously shrank.
Norman looked down, and the little mermaid looked up at him, his long, curled eyelashes fluttering, his blue eyes round with shock. He said warmly, “Don’t be afraid, I won’t attack you.”
As he said that, he picked up the hair that was on the skin of the little mermaid’s neck and gathered it into a ponytail. His two hands met at the back of the little mermaid’s head, and all the hair was gathered together.
The tips of An Jin’s ears were slightly red, but he didn’t shrink his neck to hide. He understood that Norman was helping him to tie his hair, and in consideration of the caregiver, he did not say he was not afraid, nor did he say thank you.
He just obediently bowed his head to make it easier for Norman’s movements.
His heartbeat accelerated uncontrollably, and the hand propped up on the bed curled up slightly. Norman’s eyes flashed with a smile; the little mermaid was willing to show his vulnerable neck to him, and was obviously already very trusting of him.
The caregiver marveled, “You and your mermaid have such a good relationship, I’ve never seen a mermaid so trusting of a human.”
A smile emerged from the corners of Norman’s mouth, which quickly narrowed again. He took out a blue hair tie from the terminal space, and An Jin at this time also slightly inclined his head, his left hand raised, index and ring fingers together, the blue hair tie over two fingers.
“I also have a blue hair band, you keep yours for later.” Norman said, moving gently to tie the little mermaid’s beautiful long blue hair. After tying it up, he gently pressed the ringlet. “Is it tight? Is there any pulling on the scalp?”
An Jin shook his head, in fact, Norman tied it a bit loosely. He could see the hair in the afterglow, a bit like the hair style of some costume TV series.
Norman took a step back to see how it turned out. “An An, look up.”
The little mermaid looked up. His hair was bound, but because it was tied too loosely, it set his temperament as looking more and more gentle, Norman’s heart moved, and his eyes flashed in amazement.
“He’s so beautiful!” The caregiver whispered in awe.
An Jin blinked, a little embarrassed.
Norman picked up the little mermaid, turned sideways to block the caregiver’s view, and put the little mermaid back in the mermaid cart as he asked the little mermaid, “Want to go to the rec center and play?”
An Jin folded his hands on his stomach and shook his head.
Norman immediately understood what he meant and quickly returned to the hover car. The hover car started up and Norman asked the little mermaid to order. “Go back and rest for a while and then you can eat.”
An Jin opened the terminal and chose a steamed fish and a spicy crab. He looked at Norman.
Norman showed his order to the little mermaid. “I’ve already ordered it.”
The two went back to their place and had a nice dinner together. An Jin sang a song to Norman before he left the mermaid’s room. Norman’s spiritual sea was in very good condition; there was no more black spiritual silk, only a little gray spiritual silk. An Jin thought that Norman’s spiritual sea should reach its full state tomorrow.
Norman felt a sense of energy he hadn’t had in a long time and thanked the little mermaid earnestly, “Thank you An An.”
An Jin’s eyes curled. “You’re welcome.”
Norman looked at the little mermaid’s smile, and his heart moved. He was silent for a moment and asked, “An An, can we take a picture together?”
An Jin was slightly stunned and quickly thought of the caregiver’s words, his head tilted slightly and he looked at Norman suspiciously. “You’re not joining the fan group, are you?”
Norman said seriously, “No.”
An Jin thought, No, it’s not Norman’s style to join a support group. He turned around and put his back against the wall of the pool, the same direction as Norman, and turned his head to look at Norman. “How do you want to shoot?”
Norman estimated the height difference between them. “Is it okay if you sit on the shore?”
An Jin nodded his head.
Norman leaned down and carried the little mermaid to the shore to sit, naturally letting the little mermaid lean against him. An Jin was almost half-held by Norman, his head resting on Norman’s chest. The tips of his ears were slightly red, and he tried to move away a little when Norman said, “There.”
He propped his hand on the ground and slid gently into the water, turning to look at the photo, feeling a bit intimate. His eyes swept over his scaly cheeks, thinking of the various photos of his main pet that he had seen before, and thought it seemed okay again.
Norman was very satisfied with the photo and left the mermaid room in a happy mood.
An Jin was floating on his back in the water, wagging his tail leisurely after eating a meal.
About a quarter of an hour later, he turned over and was ready to swim in a different position, when a blue light flashed in his eyes. He hurriedly looked over to see two scales sinking to the bottom of the pool. His heart tightened, and he swam to the bottom of the pool to pick it up. He then cocked his tail, carefully checking, and soon, he found the location of the fallen scales.
A piece in the middle of the front, a piece in the back of the lower position.
He touched it with his fingertips. The new scales were soft and didn’t feel anything other than a little itchy when he touched them. He put the scales into the terminal space and looked at the tail and suddenly had a bad feeling.
With such irregular scale loss, wouldn’t his future tail be a mix of shades and very ugly?
As it turns out, his thoughts were not wrong.
When he got up the next morning, he looked at the bottom of the pool first thing and saw three more scales, two more light-colored scallops in front of his tail and one more at the back. He picked the scales up and put them away and went to the bathroom to wash up. He looked at his face in the mirror, the cheek scales were neatly arranged, evenly aqua-blue and faintly glowing, very nice.
Luckily it was only the tail scales that fell off, if the scales fell off his face and a piece was missing here and there, it would not be ugly, but scary. He ordered his breakfast and drove his mobility scooter to the kitchen. Not long after the robot brought the ingredients over, he cleared the impurities and sent the scooter back to the mermaid room.
Although there was no pain and the doctor said he was healthy, he was still a little uneasy about dropping scales at such a high frequency. It felt better to stay in the water more often.
When he left the kitchen, he met Norman who was about to go to the mermaid room.
Norman immediately noticed that scales had fallen off the mermaid’s tail again and asked, with a slight frown of concern, “Are you uncomfortable?”
An Jin shook his head and sighed, “It’s ugly.”
Norman’s eyes swept over the small mermaid’s slightly puffed cheeks, and a smile flashed in his eyes. “An An is beautiful.”
An Jin looked at him with a serious face and was a little embarrassed, adding, “I don’t really care about my appearance either, it’s just that I look a little weird like this.”
“It’s not weird.”
An Jin jumped into the water, tail wagging, and tried to float up, when he suddenly thought of something and looked down to see two fish scales slowly sinking.
“
” An Jin hurriedly swam over and caught the scales in his hands. He turned to float, tail swinging slower than usual, and he swam to the shore, put both hands on the shore edge, and took a deep breath to turn back.
Luckily, no more scales had fallen off. He felt the panic of people with hair loss.
Norman, although also worried about the little mermaid, looked at the little mermaid’s cute look, and could not help but flash a smile in his eyes. He accompanied the little mermaid to have breakfast, and after he finished eating, the housekeeper reported that Hornád had arrived.
Hornád also froze when he saw An Jin. “How much did you drop again?”
An Jin remembered very well. “Seven pieces.”
HornĂĄd hurriedly checked him.
Norman asked, “How is it?”
“The numbers show he’s healthy.” Hornád looked at the little mermaid. “Are you uncomfortable?”
An Jin shook his head.
“That’s good, if there are symptoms of discomfort, make sure you tell His Majesty immediately.”
An Jin nodded dutifully; he would not joke about his health.
HornĂĄd passed the test results to Yuna, told him again about the continuous scale drop, and left the mermaid room.
Norman didn’t stay much longer either. He had a day off yesterday because of the live broadcast, and today he had to go to the military headquarters to visit a military base. Before he left, he told the robot not to stay away from the little mermaid and to report immediately if he detected that the little mermaid’s physical condition was not right.
An Jin went to the garden to check the ground where the seeds were planted, saw no impurities, and swam back indoors. He put on the helmet, removed the impurities from the skewers and condiments, then returned to the setup room and changed to another system face, along with the most common medium body type, and the common youth voice.
The combined cost was three hundred. He froze, why had it become expensive!
He checked the details: the first choice of system face was ten star coins, the second one hundred, the third one thousand, and so on; and the body type and voice, the starting price was one hundred.
An Jin thought of Norman’s holographic world body type and guessed that it cost a lot of money. He came to the holographic world again with a new roadie image. It was just unfortunate that when he came online, he met Duran.
Duran froze, thinking he was an employee of the holographic company, and greeted him with a smile. “Hello.”
An Jin blinked and saw that he looked natural, so he said hello too and walked out. He went to buy a smart car first, drove to the only forest entrance of the newcomer area town, and got off.
Instead of taking the road that had been shaped by the hunters, he followed the edge and went all the way to a deserted location before stopping. His perception was fully turned on, and he made sure no one was around before using his water ability.
Two high-speed rotations of the water arrows appeared in front of him. With his intention, the water arrows whooshed out, respectively, into the front of two trees with trunks about an arm thick.
Almost at the same time, two trees were cut off, the upper end of the crooked hit the next tree, and the tree swayed, and the leaves rustled.
An Jin’s eyes lit up and he walked over to observe the trunk break, which had burn marks from the heat generated by the rotation, as well as water marks from the dissipation of water arrows. He thought about it, and as his thoughts turned, in the bushes in front of him suddenly appeared a water tornado. The water tornado sped faster and faster, fine grass shrubs were swept up, and soon, the ground there was empty.
At the same time, An Jin sensitively felt that because he was running the water ability, the air nearby had soon become dry. He controlled the water tornado into water vapor and released it back into the air.
If there was no water source nearby when in danger, the water in the air was limited, and the power of the water ability would be limited.
But An Jin was not worried; the higher the level of ability, the more water he could mobilize. Level higher, he simply would not have to worry about not having enough water, after all, in the same location, not only was there the water in the air, but there was also underground water.
The most important thing? Upgrade!
He practiced until eleven-thirty and went offline to order lunch. When ordering, thinking that Norman could only drink nutrients, he thought that he could not enjoy the meal alone.
This world had fast express, so when the chef made lunch, he could use the express delivery to send food to the military headquarters, and it would not be very troublesome. Only, the dish was too fragrant and may be found out.
He thought about it and sent a message to Norman. [Is it convenient for you to eat during your lunch break? If it’s convenient, you order a meal for the chef to make and have the robot courier it to you.]
Norman’s serious expression softened when he received the little mermaid’s message. [You can eat by yourself, I’ll drink the nutrients.]
He liked, but did not indulge in, food, and nutritional supplements were, in many cases, more convenient. The little mermaid’s thoughtful gesture made him feel better than if he had eaten the food.
—
After two more days, An Jin dropped his scales more and more frequently, and as a result, his plan to broadcast live could only continue to be postponed. He was slightly relieved that he did not feel sick and the test results showed that he was healthy.
At five p.m., he finished practicing his ability and got offline from the holographic world. He removed his helmet and subconsciously looked to the bottom of the pool, pausing when he saw a large amount of scales.
He swam to the bottom of the pool, picked the scales up carefully, and then measured the tail to see where the scales had fallen off. Then, he froze, his face reddened.
The scales on the front of his tail, the critical area directly below his abdomen, were gone!
There were new scales, light blue-white, very fresh, very nice. However, very embarrassingly, very transparent! He previously thought the scales all were replaced by almost nothing, just a lighter color. However he now realized that he was too naive.
He looked at the spot and the red on his face quickly spread to his ears. As it turned out, without the scales to cover it, his penis looked like this. He looked at it and did not dare to look at it again, but after a while could not help but be curious. After observing it with shame, he concluded that it was very similar to his previous one. Perhaps because it was a fish tail instead of legs, the abdomen was connected to the underside, forming a protective area, and the scales were the door that acted as protection.
He suddenly realized that if it was here then

He hurriedly turned his head and cocked his tail to look behind him.
“
” An Jin
He was so embarrassed that even his tail fin exploded. He could no longer say things like, fish scales are clothes. How could he meet people with such a look? He hurriedly opened the terminal, trying to buy costumes suitable for mermaid tails, however, there was nothing suitable except girls’ dresses.
He took a look, saw the time and knew Norman would be coming home from work soon and scared, he directly bought a black half-length dress.
Only when he placed the order, his face stiffened. Norman was back!