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Chapter 46: Fish Fan
At noon, An Jin took out the prepared food from the terminal space: crab, shrimp, and fish with impurities removed. The rest of the mermaids were fighting again to get a place beside him, and they wanted to fight without two words. He counted that there were twelve mermaids together with him.
After thinking about it, he proposed that the twelve mermaids be placed in a horizontal row of six, with two rows floating opposite each other in the water, and he in the middle of the row.
The result was that no one wanted to be on the outside, and An Jin, amused and helpless, asked them to hold out their hands at the same time, using the method of the back of the hand to determine their position.
He prepared a lot of food, but today the number of mermaids had become larger, so each mermaid did not get a lot. He tried to divide it into twelve equal portions. “Okay, one for each, don’t grab.”
“Yummy!” Ling Ling’s white gold eyes, which had been dulled by worry, brightened up.
“It smells good!” Gu Gu took a deep breath.
“Why does it smell so good? Damn it, the food my two-legged beast gives me doesn’t smell good at all!”
The rest of the mermaids also looked gluttonous and nodded angrily in response.
An Jin smiled, not hiding anything. “If you sing to your food and think about how much you want to eat it, they will become delicious.”
Gu Gu looked at the shore. “My two-legged beast is not here. There is no food, I want to try it!”
An Jin said, “That’s okay, you can try it when you go home for dinner.”
When the mermaid owners in the glass house saw An An share the food, someone exclaimed, “That’s really smart!”
“I don’t think you’re abusing the mermaid, are you? Why do they look like they haven’t eaten shrimp?”
“Your family is not much better, right? I hate to eat even the crab shells.”
“I just found out today, the original mermaid will also coax the beauty ah, because the food is given by the pure color mermaid, it’s so fragrant!”
“Don’t look, they have issued a warning.”
Gu Gu bared his teeth and glared menacingly at the glass house. “Greedy two-legged beasts, staring at us, surely they want to take advantage of the opportunity to rob An An’s food.”
“…” An An looked at the mermaids who were showing their fierce looks to the glass house.
He found that the mermaid was very alert to the human gaze, and seemed to think it was threatened after being gazed at, like a beast’s instinct.
An Jin did not know the people on the shore, and therefore did not persuade mermaids to be gentle with them. After all, mermaids were precious and there must be many people who have their hearts set on mermaids. It was not a bad thing for a mermaid to be alert.
After they finished eating, the mermaids looked like they couldn’t get enough. “An An, you’re so good.”
“An An, you’re so smart, you even know how to make the food taste good!”
An Jin was a little embarrassed to hear a lot of praise.
Gu Gu suggested going to play on the slide, and An Jin said, “Don’t do strenuous activities after dinner, let’s talk first and play later.”
The mermaids immediately chatted, first about their own two-legged beasts, then about hair accessories, and finally about mates.
So the inevitable chat came to Rui Rui.
Ling Ling’s platinum eyes swept the entrance. “Next time, I’ll teach Rui Rui’s two-legged beast a lesson!”
“Yes, the two-legged beast is too much, actually not allowing you to meet with Rui Rui.”
Ling Ling’s golden tail waved anxiously. “Our movements are restricted by the two-legged beasts, so it’s too inconvenient.”
Gu Gu also wrinkled his eyebrows. “Yes, but I can’t think of a good way, and after a few days, I may forget.”
An Jin’s heart moved. “Do you all only have seven days of memory?”
“Up to seven days, some mermaid’s memories are worse.” Ling Ling blinked, asking, “An An can remember how many days?”
“I remember all the time, I can remember for a long time.”
Ling Ling envied, “That’s good.”
Gu Gu said, “It’s okay, it’s not important to forget.”
—
In the afternoon, Norman came to pick up An Jin, and instead of going straight back to the palace, he took him to the care department for his hair.
An Jin lay on the bed, feeling much more natural than before because he was wearing a blouse and fishtail skirt, as if he was back in modern times, when he had his hair washed at the barber shop. He closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of his scalp being gently massaged.
Norman kept his eyes on the little mermaid, and seeing his expression relaxed and enjoying himself, secretly observed the caregiver’s technique. Suddenly, An Jin felt a sharp wave of manic and painful emotions, a feeling so profound that he had a feeling of breathlessness in his heart for a moment.
He jerked his eyes open and tilted his head to the left, which was the direction of the mermaid hospital.
Norman was silently planning to build a nursing room at home when he saw the little mermaid’s eyes open abruptly, his beautiful eyebrows frowning slightly.
“What’s wrong?” Norman asked.
An Jin could not open his mouth to explain, and smiled at Norman, indicating that it was nothing. He collected his mind and closed his eyes again, releasing his full perception. He wanted to know what had happened.
All of a sudden, much information around him, which he could not normally perceive, flooded into his mind. The nursing room, the empty walkway, the distant conveyor belt connecting the mermaid center and the mermaid hospital, the mermaid hospital further away.
There was the chaotic cacophony of people, and the roaring mermaid grunts.
An Jin knew immediately that the uncomfortable feeling he felt was conveyed to him by that mermaid. He could feel the emotion from such a distance, so he could imagine how hard it was for the mermaid. Suddenly, the mermaid’s roar stopped abruptly, everything returned to calm, and the uncomfortable feeling disappeared without a trace.
An Jin’s brow involuntarily frowned, about to withdraw his perception when the sound of anxious talking came from a room apart from the nursing room.
“I have long said, intermediate upper mermaid resistance is greater than a low mermaid. That red mermaid I have observed for two weeks, he is grumpy. Simply not the right choice!”
“Of course I know that the intermediate upper mermaid is worth a lot of money, but how can it be that easy to breed it successfully? With all the fuss now, we’ll have to stop for a while.”
“What? Are you kidding me? Pure color mermaid is His Majesty’s identified mate. You also dare to move your heart? Don’t be so greedy! Didn’t you sell a low grade mermaid just last week?”
The man breathed heavily and said in a deep voice, “Absolutely not, we must stop for a while, the red mermaid has been in trouble for two days. The head of the five armies is not a good-tempered person and may have become suspicious.”
“For the last time, only the lower mermaid can be chosen, or I quit!”
The sound of talking ended abruptly, leaving only the sound of heavy breathing and anxious footsteps.
An Jin’s heart beat wildly and he withdrew his perception. He quickly analyzed in his head that the nursing room next door was also a nursing room with only one person, and that person was most likely the caregiver.
An Jin remembered the word “mating” firmly and had a guess in his mind.
Someone was breeding mermaids privately! And also talking about selling mermaids, and a sold mermaid was likely to be mated after the birth of a mermaid.
Listening to that person’s words, it seemed that they recently tried to breed a red mermaid of intermediate upper class, but failed. Intermediate top grade means that the two colors in the hair, eyes and tail were the same, and the other part was off-color.
An Jin’s heart could not help but rise up in anger; he was now a mermaid and also had made a lot of mermaid friends. He knew very well that although mermaids have bad memories and simple personalities, they did not have low intelligence.
He could imagine how difficult it would be for those who are forced to be mermaids.
Norman kept an eye on the little mermaid, and seeing that he did not look right, asked, “An An, not feeling well?”
An Jin opened his eyes and looked at him, but considering the caregivers around him, he slowly shook his head.
When he got into the hover car, An Jin looked at Norman expectantly. “I just heard a mermaid make a very sad sound. Can’t you help me ask, what happened to him?”
Norman was surprised. “When?”
An Jin hesitated, but didn’t hide it. “When I was taking care of my hair.”
His shapely eyebrows wrinkled as he said in a hushed voice, “I also heard a man communicating with someone next door to the nursing room, talking about mermaid ‘breeding’ and selling mermaids, and about a red mermaid.”
Norman immediately realized that this was likely to involve the black market mermaid trade, and his face sank slightly. “I will immediately arrange for someone to investigate.”
An Jin hurriedly said, “They have even sold mermaids, and must have done this kind of thing many times; there may even be many mermaid victims—even caregivers are involved. The person behind is not simple, so quietly investigate. If people are aware of it, it will not be possible to catch all of them.”
Norman looked at the little mermaid with a serious look, his heart slightly moved. He, to the little mermaid, seemed to understand too one-sidedly. When the little mermaid was like this, it was clear that his mind was mature. He couldn’t help but ponder that perhaps what the little mermaid said was true; that he had matured instead of having the childish mentality of wanting to be an adult.
“An An is so smart,” he subconsciously praised. Then he gave orders to his subordinates to investigate the mermaid mating.
An Jin saw him close the terminal and waited for a while, but didn’t see him ask any questions, so he asked, “Aren’t you curious why I could hear? Don’t you suspect that I’m talking nonsense?”
“I told you, An An doesn’t have to tell me everything. I’ll listen when you’re willing to tell me.” He rubbed the top of the little mermaid’s head. “An An won’t talk nonsense.”
An Jin inclined his head. “Don’t you forget that I even lied to you.”
A smile flashed in Norman’s eyes, but it soon dissipated as he leaned down and met An Jin’s clear blue eyes, and they looked at each other through the glass.
Norman said seriously, “An An, I don’t care about your deception, you’re just doing it for your own safety. I appreciate your discretion, and you should not take it to heart.”
An Jin blinked and gave a relaxed smile. “Thank you.”
Soon Norman received a debriefing and told the young mermaid, “It was just Big Red, the mermaid of the fifth army chief’s family, nearing estrus and very moody for the past two days, just injected with a sedative.”
“Big Red?” An Jin wrinkled his eyebrows. “Just these two days? Oh! That guy just now also mentioned the head of the fifth army; he must be the ‘red mermaid’ that the bad guy was talking about?”
“The same time, it is very likely to be the same article. I will have someone continue to investigate. Do not worry, he will be fine.”
While eating, Norman received a report that Big Red was in good health and was only cranky because he was nearing the rut. An Jin blinked, so Big Red was not the red mermaid the caretaker mentioned. Maybe there were a lot of red mermaids in this world, right?
—
In the evening, after the two had dinner, An Jin turned on the live ball.
The live broadcast had become more popular. An Jin was still watching the cartoon, and halfway through watching, he took out the fruit he’d prepared in advance from the terminal space and ate it while watching. The pop-ups were again a series of 'smart” and many speculated what His Majesty would teach the little mermaid tomorrow.
Many people wrote on the pop-ups what they wanted to teach the little mermaid through His Majesty.
When An Jin went to bed, he found out that the netizens had made two polls: “What should An An learn tomorrow” and “What do you want An An to learn tomorrow”.
Perhaps because An Jin ate during the live broadcast, the former poll had the most votes for “learn to use chopsticks”.
And the one with the second most votes was actually “compare hearts”.
So, when An Jin was having breakfast in the morning, he discussed it with Norman. “The cartoon doesn’t have the heart-comparison scene, will you teach me tonight? Then I’ll make it?”
Norman said seriously, “No.”
An Jin was puzzled. “Why?”
Norman said squarely, “I don’t follow the polls and shouldn’t know what the netizens think, and neither should you.”
He wouldn’t want the little mermaid to compare his heart to others!
An Jin thought about it, thought it made sense, and crossed the heart comparison out of the live content.
Norman took the hover car to the military headquarters, and on the way, he opened the recent webpage, exactly to the poll results, he forked it, cleared the browsing history, and closed the terminal.
—
In the military department, because of the recent calm in Siao, all the army chiefs rarely stayed at the military headquarters. Near the lunch break, the second army chief asked the fifth army chief to go to the training room. He was glowing and looked like he couldn’t wait. “Let’s go to the training ground and play a game with mecha?”
The sixth army’s commander laughed. “You guys are so full of spiritual power that you actually use mecha directly?”
The fifth army’s chief pinched the bridge of his nose and said gruffly, “I caught up on my sleep. My family’s mermaid haunted me for two days. Today is finally good; in the morning I sent it to the mermaid center, so I can also rest.”
The fourth army chief said, “I’ll practice with you. I haven’t practiced mecha properly for a long time.”
The sixth army commander was surprised. “You all have such good spiritual power today? Did you buy Agent A? I thought the research institute didn’t agree to sell it?”
The second army chief laughed. “My family’s mermaid sang last night and this morning.”
The fourth army chief was surprised. “My family’s mermaid also sang last night and this morning!”
The second, fourth and sixth army chiefs looked at each other in amazement.
Mu Chen, who listened to the whole thing in silence, asked, “Did you guys send the mermaids to the mermaid center in the past two days?”
The second and fourth army chiefs answered, “Yes.”
Mu Chen smiled. “They must have seen An An?”
He wouldn’t just reveal An An’s ability, but it didn’t matter if An An had already taught it to other mermaids.
The second army chief suddenly realized something. “Admiral Mu Chen, your spiritual state is getting better and better these days, is it possible that your family’s Little Silver had met An An long ago?”
“Yes! Such a good thing, and you actually hid it!” The fourth army chief pointed at Mu Chen.
Mu Chen laughed dryly. “I thought it was a coincidence.”
The Sixth Army Chief got up. “I will go home at noon and send my family’s mermaid to the mermaid center,” he suddenly paused as he walked to the door, “An An will go to the mermaid center today, right?”
Not only the military personnel, but also the rest of the wealthy nobles who had sent their mermaids to the mermaid center the day before, noticed that their mermaid had become fond of singing.
They chatted in the glass house and finally analyzed the comparisons to find out why this was happening.
Eventually, several people said in unison, “Pure color mermaid!”
Someone couldn’t help but exclaim, “So mermaids are visual creatures too. Seeing a pretty mermaid puts them in a good mood!”
“Solid-colored mermaids are so popular!”
“I will remind my friend to send the mermaid to the mermaid center as soon as possible.”
The news that the pure-color mermaid was a fan of all fishes, and that mermaids would be in a very good mood as soon as they saw him and would sing when they went home, was spreading.
Hearing that His Majesty would send the pure color mermaid to the entertainment area at noon, people who had mermaids at home and were not available, took time off work and vacated their noon time schedule to send their own people to the entertainment area as well.
So when An Jin arrived at the recreation area, he found that there were many more mermaids than before.
At a glance, mermaids of various colors were playing in the water, and when he appeared, all eyes fell on him.
Norman looked down and asked the little mermaid, “Did they bully you?” An Jin shook his head and Norman put the little mermaid in the water and swept his terminal. “Contact me if you need anything.”
The case of mermaid’s private breeding had been investigated, but the other party was very careful, and they were not able to find all the related people for a while. He originally wanted to let the little mermaid stay at home and come out when the case was over, but the little mermaid insisted, so he had to compromise. He scanned the mermaids and suddenly saw a red mermaid. “An An, that’s Big Red, he’s fine.”
An Jin looked over and found that Norman was talking about a red-tailed mermaid that was fighting with Ling Ling.
Norman rubbed the little mermaid’s hair and left the entertainment area.
Once he left, many mermaids approached An Jin, so the two mermaids fighting in the shade of the tree stood out even more.
The red mermaid, with red eyes and tail, orange hair, and very flashy looks, was very agile and quickly dodged Ling Ling’s attack.
An Jin hurriedly swam over to see Gu Gu and the rest of the mermaids were beside each other and put his mind down a little.
“Hey, I just touched your hair, don’t be so angry. Amazing, let you touch it back!”
Ling Ling’s platinum eyes were cold, and his golden tail was unceremoniously drawn towards him. “Idiot.”
“Rui Rui, you’re really too much, two days without coming, actually forgetting Ling Ling!” Gu Gu floated in the water and bared his teeth at the red mermaid.
An Jin smiled and froze, this was Ling Ling’s boyfriend? Forgetting Ling Ling?
His heart fluttered, Big Red was Rui Rui? He immediately understood that since the mermaid and human language were not the same, their names were most likely different.
So, the “red mermaid” he heard last night, could it be Rui Rui?
Rui Rui swung his red tail, dodged Ling Ling’s attack, grabbed Ling Ling’s wrist, and looked at Gu Gu with a tilted head. “Who is Rui Rui?”
Ling Ling’s white gold eyes looked at him intently, a layer of watery mist floated in his eyes, and he tilted his head. “Let go of me, I won’t hit you anymore.”
Rui Rui hurriedly let go of him, his face appearing helpless. “Sorry, did I hurt you, don’t cry.” He swam in front of Ling Ling, who tilted his head again, and he swam again.
Ling Ling ignored him and swam in front of An Jin, his golden eyelashes dropping. “An An.”
An Jin clearly felt Ling Ling’s difficult emotions, and he touched Ling Ling’s hair.
“Hey, don’t you touch him!” Rui Rui swam over, raised his hand to slap An Jin’s hand away, but because of his instinctive closeness, did not lay hands on it, but only looked at An Jin warily.
Ling Ling’s white gold eyes faintly looked at him, directly grabbed An Jin’s hand, and lightly hummed. An Jin hesitated for a moment, but did not avoid it. It was obvious that Ling Ling was grabbing his hand for Rui Rui. He asked, “Ling Ling, does Rui Rui have a good memory?”
Ling Ling said, “Like me, he has a seven-day memory; as long as he doesn’t forget every day, he can always remember,” his voice lowered, “it’s only been two days and he’s forgotten me.”
Thinking about what Gu Gu said before, that forgetting was not important, he felt a little hard.
An Jin felt something was wrong and asked Rui Rui, “Do you really not know Ling Ling or Gu Gu?”
Rui Rui shook his head. “No,” he raised his smile, “but it’s the same now.”
“Then what do you remember? You remember your name?”
Rui Rui held his chin in thought and suddenly shook his head. “I don’t seem to remember anything.”
An Jin looked at the rest of the mermaids and asked seriously, “Have you ever seen a mermaid in the same situation as Rui Rui, whose memory suddenly disappeared? It’s not time to forget, it’s forgotten?”
“Yes, Xiao Yuan was like that one day, and then became very silent!”
“Stars too, but he just forgot everything and would only giggle.”
“Mimi too. Yeah, one day we were playing together and two days later he didn’t remember us and was so cranky.”
An Jin frowned and looked at Rui Rui. “I want to check you out, is it okay to touch your hand?”
Rui Rui put his hands behind his back and looked at Ling Ling. “I have a mermaid I like, even if it’s comfortable to stay by your side, I won’t be your mate.”
“Bah, shame on you, An An won’t look at you.”
“You’re so stupid, An An said it’s for you to check, don’t think nonsense.”
Ling Ling grabbed Rui Rui’s arm and handed it to An Jin.
An Jin put his hand on Rui Rui’s wrist and ran the ability. The water ability walked in Rui Rui’s body, and soon, An Jin found that there was residual potion in his brain.
Any substance that appeared black under the water ability was bad for the human body, let alone the bad stuff in the brain. His face got serious and he used his water ability to purify the residual unfavorable substances.
Norman got a report that Big Red was just cranky and in heat and did not have any problems. But Rui Rui’s body still had potion residue, and he already knew that Rui Rui was Big Red.
There was no way that the medical level of this world couldn’t check this kind of residue. Then, there was only one possibility: the nursing department and the hospital, both have people involved in this matter of breeding.
Rui Rui’s calm expression gradually became irritable. Red and white eyes, red, the white part of the eyes tinged with red blood, and a low, suppressed roar came from his throat. The roar was low and sad, with a strong anger.
The mermaid next to him was affected and unconsciously alerted, and they were in a fighting state.
An Jin hurriedly calmed down. “Rui Rui, calm down first, can you remember what happened the other day?”
Rui Rui turned around and hugged Ling Ling. Ling Ling reached out and pushed, but he held on tightly, his head rubbed against Ling Ling’s neck, his voice was hoarse with a choked sob, “Ling Ling.” Ling Ling’s body slightly stiffened, but did not struggle. Rui Rui said, “I’m sorry, I actually forgot about you!”
He hugged him for a while and when he let go of Ling Ling, his tone was full of anger. “I almost got unclean!”
Ling Ling’s cool expression cracked to reveal sharp canines. “Did you mate with another fish?”
“No,” Rui Rui said in a rush, “I beat him up, no mating.” He said, roaring in anger, “Damned two-legged beast, actually drugged me to mate with a mermaid I don’t know! I forgot that memory before, and they must have had something to do with it!”
The mermaids listened and got angry, roaring loudly.
The humans in the glass house tensed up, saw that they were not fighting, and put their hearts down again.
“Is this a fight?”
“It’s good that there’s no fight.”
An Jin’s expression got serious as he realized that this was not a simple matter.
During the apocalypse, zombies were the biggest threat to human beings; however, zombie crystal cores could upgrade ability, and because of this great temptation, many people were even desperate, actively looking for zombies. In this world, mermaids represented a huge profit, this moved by the people, certainly not many.
If they were always able to do it seamlessly, surely many people were involved in it!
He looked at the angry mermaids and had an idea in his mind.
He must catch those bad guys in a net!