Chapter 60: The Merman

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   Ge Xiu woke up in bed.

    Above his head was a thick curtain.
Although the light was dim, he could still clearly recognize that this was not his temporary residence.

    He pressed his own aching forehead, and let out a low painful  moan—the after-effects of a hangover began to slowly appear, his limbs seemed stiff and heavy as if they had rusted, and his ears were full of chaotic buzzing.

    The sunlight from outside the window spilled through the heavy curtains, imprinting a brilliant golden strip on the carpet and the foot of the bed, tiny dust specks floated in the air.

    Ge Xiu slowly got up from the bed, lifted the quilt and glanced at himself, his head hurt again.

    Very well.
Naked again.

    He really shouldn’t be switching between merman and human form too often—this feeling of being naked was really uncomfortable.

    Ge Xiu covered himself with the quilt and he fell back on the bed once again, bouncing off the thick mattress.
The soft quilt and mattress tightly wrapped around him.
The memory of last night seemed to be recovering, like water trickling out of a leaking faucet..

    Some parts he really couldn’t remember.

    How he separated from Christine, and how he came to this room, this memory seems to be broken, and he couldn’t remember a slightest picture from it at all.

    As for what happened after that…

    As he pondered, intermittent fragments flooded his mind.

    Gorgeous and dream-like light and shadows, the bitter aroma of citrus permeating the cold pool water, the chaotic snow-white foam—

    and…

    Ge Xiu’s eyes widened—no way?

    He raised his hand and touched his lips.

    Soft and cold.

    However, the scorching hot feeling from before seemed remain on it.
Once again, as the memory became faintly hot, the temperature spread rapidly, extending from the lips to the cheeks.

    Ge Xiu closed his eyes sharply.

    He buried his head in the soft pillow, and then yanked the quilt on him over his head, as if he could drive the other things that happened yesterday out of his mind.

    fuck…were they really…

    kissing?

    Ge Xiu habitually curled up under the quilt, frowned, and stared intently at the dark and narrow space in front of him, as if he was pondering about some important matters of life and death.

    Mostly… how was this possible?

    At this time, what he said when he was chatting with Christine before flashed in his mind—”fascinated”?

    Rowett… was infatuated with him?

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    impossible.

    This was a virtual world, which was specially created to make him suffer and eliminate evil value.
Why would a virtual character have feelings for him? Especially feelings other than malice?

    Moreover, every world seems to have such a figure.

    He remembered Lulai’s hug.

    The kiss Elinor branded on his hand.

    And this time…

    Ge Xiu raised his hand and touched his lips again, this time he quickly retracted his hand as if he had been scalded.

    For some reason, he still had a hard time believing the truth of this matter.

    He forced himself to turn his attention away from it, to think about a deeper reasoning, trying to establish a logical relationship in it that would make sense.

    The image of the data disintegrating from last world flashed through my mind again.

    And when everything around him was disappearing, the strength and the temperature of the other party’s lips on his hand was gradually increasing.

    Ge Xiu narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.

   —Was this person real?

    If so, then a new question would emerge—

    Why do those who want him to be punished in the virtual world allowed such a character who was not composed of data to exist in the punishment world?

    Did they know he existed?

    Or… was it all just a trap? This seemingly non-virtual existence may just be an illusion, and the manipulator behind the scenes influenced him to believe in his existence in order to achieve a deeper purpose.

    Ge Xiu sat up, lifted the quilt, jumped down, and the cold and white soles of his feet sank into the soft and thick carpet.

    No matter which possibility, the only thing that was certain now was that behind the loss of his memory, the arrest on the desolate star, the subsequent prison trial and the final punishment decision in the virtual world, must’ve been controlled by an invisible hand.

    The most important thing now was to understand the motives of these people.

    Only by knowing what they want could he use it in turn and even counterattack.

    Before he clearly understood the other party’s motives, Ge Xiu couldn’t act rashly.

    Ge Xiu looked around the room.

    Only then did he see that a few pieces of clothes were neatly folded on the chair beside him, which should have been prepared for him.

    It fit perfectly no matter the size.

    Ge Xiu put on his clothes, and simply adjusted his collar and cuffs.
He learned from Rowett’s previous technique, picked up the hair band, and unskilfully tied a crooked knot in the back of his head, gathering his excessively long hair.

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    He walked out of the room.

    As soon as he walked to the door, he heard a low voice from outside, it seemed that Rowett was talking to someone else.

    Ge Xiu paused, and opened the door by a gap, allowing the sound to come through more clearly.

    “…So?”

    The man’s deep voice was unpredictable, and it gave a strange sense of oppression.

    “This… this… We are still discussing it now, and we haven’t reached a consistent conclusion…” The other party’s voice stammered, not answering Rowett’s question directly, but explaining in some unsatisfactorily words: “But, but… the data from the blood sample analysis… is indeed like this…”
    “Then continue to study.” Rowett’s voice was indifferent and calm, faintly forecasting a brewing a storm to come.

    On the opposite side a voice hurriedly replied: “Yes, yes.
We are conducting further analysis of the gene, the laboratory, the laboratory will take some more time…”

    When Ge Xiu opened the door, Rowett turned off the communicator in front of him.

    He turned his head to look at Ge Xiu, who was standing at the door, his expression softened, and the coldness and gloom in the depths of his dark eyes suddenly dissipated.
He slightly raised the corners of his lips: “Awake?”

    Ge Xiu nodded calmly.

    Rowett’s gaze fell, stopping at the soles of his feet on the carpet —slender bones, fair skin, thin blue blood vessels winding on the insteps, toes hidden in the furry carpet, giving an inexplicable sense of fragility.

    He frowned: “Why didn’t you wear shoes?”

    Ge Xiu glanced down at his feet, looked away indifferently, and shrugged: “I didn’t find them.
Besides, isn’t your room carpeted?”

He walked to the sofa beside him, Rowett’s eyes followed him, and he said helplessly: “They were right next to the bed.”

    Ge Xiu raised his eyebrows, rather unreasonably and wilful: “I’m too lazy to wear it.”

    He curled his body on the soft cushion, yawned, and narrowed his eyes slightly: “Also I’m a merman, I’m not afraid of the cold.”

    Rowett hooked his lips with amusement, sighed and compromised “Okay, don’t wear it if you don’t want to wear it.”

    He stood up from the chair, strode with his long legs, and walked over to Ge Xiu’s in a few steps.

    Ge Xiu looked up at him, raised his brows, in a questioning gesture.

    Rowett bent down, his slender fingers with well-defined knuckles slipped behind his head along the strands of hair emanating from his temples, and with a light pull, the messy knots fell apart.

    Soft blue-purple long hair flowed down.

    He gathered Ge Xiu’s long hair nimbly and skilfully, and the headband slid on and fastened docilely, forming a strong and beautiful knot, which tied his hair firmly.

    Rowett’s black eyes were deep, and the smile on his lips deepened: “Okay.”

    Ge Xiu gave him a deep look, and the words Christine said last night reappeared in his mind, his eyes flashed slightly, and then he looked away casually.

    Rowett asked, “Are you hungry?”

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    Ge Xiu nodded.

    “What do you want to eat?”

    “Anything’s fine.” Ge Xiu half-squinted his eyes, as if he still hadn’t slept enough, and huddled into a ball lazily: “As long as there is candy after dinner, I don’t care.”

    Rowett brushed his hair, his eyes softened a little, he felt that he had a tendency to evolve into an old mother: “Then eat something light.
After all, you have a hangover from yesterday.”

    The youth nodded.

    “Right—”

    Rowett turned and walked out, but before he could take a few steps, Ge Xiu’s lazy voice came from behind and stopped him:

    “…I can go back to my pool after dinner, right? Your Majesty?”

    His pace stopped, and he turned to look at Ge Xiu.

    The boy’s blue-purple eyes were half-closed, and there was a strange scrutiny in them, like an outsider watching calmly and rationally, with an inexplicable sense of alienation.

    Rowett raised the corners of his lips: “Valen.”

    …What?

    Ge Xiu was slightly taken aback.

    Rowett said patiently: “My full name is Valen Rowett, you can call me Valen.”

    … For an Emperor, wasn’t this a bit too intimate…?

    Before Ge Xiu could figure out how to answer, he heard Rowett slowly continuing: “Your previous pool was a little too small, I asked someone to expand it for you.
During the construction period, you can live here.”

    His tone was still soft, but there was an unmistakable assertiveness.

    Ge Xiu was not very surprised.

    “Okay then.” He nodded nonchalantly, yawned lazily, and then nestled back where he was laying just now: “Remember to have my game console and tablet delivered to my room.
“

    “Okay.”

    The man’s footsteps gradually moved away.

    Ge Xiu laid motionless on the sofa, his chin rested on his knees, his eyes drooped slightly, and his long eyelashes covered the look in the depths of his eyes.

    If the other party was a bait to confuse him, he would definitely be inseparable from him.

    And he was happy to see it happen.

    After all, if he wanted to find out the real purpose of the ones behind the scenes, he had to start with the only unique existence in this virtual world—

    This was a game hidden under the false appearance, and the one who can win the last chess move is unknown.

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    And there were no surveillance cameras here, which was actually more beneficial to him.

    Ge Xiu jumped off the sofa, went around the table, and turned on the communicator.
His fingers that were clumsy while tying his hair were now incredibly dexterous, as if he already knew the machinery in front of him.
He hacked in in just a few seconds.

    All records were automatically deleted after the communication ended.

    But that doesn’t mean that no electronic traces would be left on the hard drive—

    Ge Xiu skilfully disassembled, recorded and decoded.
A few minutes later, the video of the communication from before played on the screen, and a familiar voice came from it.

    The person who contacted Rowett was that mermaid expert who had been temporarily summoned in the glass room.
Obviously, it was his blood sample’s analysis results.

    The expert on the opposite side was pale, with a deep cyan colour under his eyes.
He looked extremely tired.
His expression was hesitant and confused, as if he was entangled in some mystery.

    He stammered and explained to Rowett the terminology in the report and what it meant, and although every word he said was carefully thought out, Ge Xiu could still hear the hesitation and uncertainty in his tone.

    After a brief summary—

    judging from the blood sample, Ge Xiu was healthy and has no disease at all.
He was an ordinary mermaid.

    Ge Xiu frowned, a little unbelieving.

    Ordinary? A mermaid whose skin was too hard to be pierced by ordinary sharp tools, and whose teeth were sharp enough to bite off metal? Are you kidding me?

    Did the blood sample fail to detect anything?

    Apparently, Rowett also couldn’t believe that the source of the merman’s physical abnormalities was so simple, and the video was hung up after the mermaid expert hurriedly explained that the laboratory was conducting further analysis of the genetic information in the cells.

    Looking at the black screen in front of him, Ge Xiu frowned and fell into deep thought.

——————————————————————-

    The author has something to say:

Gong: Finally a kiss!

Ge Xiu: (thinks hard*) (comes to a conclusion): This is a conspiracy!

Gong: ……………………

 

*Also an idiom, meaning to conclude carefully and many times

kiss in bold because it was in english originally

 

Bamboo has something to say:

Ge Xiu uses his otherworldly intellect to conclude it’s impossible to have romance, no way (no)