Chapter 48: Matching

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Soon after An Jin and Norman returned to the palace, Mu Chen arrived with Little Silver.
Little Silver was very happy to see An Jin and swam to his side, calling, “An An!”

An Jin smiled at him, then collected his smile and told him about Rui Rui.
Little Silver was furious; his canine teeth were showing and he waved his long sharp nails.
“Damned two-legged beast!”

An Jin calmed him down.
“The most important thing now is to find a way to catch them! My current plan is this: if you agree, I’ll talk to them.”

Little Silver heard An Jin’s arrangement and immediately agreed, his face full of enthusiasm,  his silver eyes bright.
After discussing it with Little Silver, An Jin looked at Norman and Mu Chen.
“All the mermaids who went to the entertainment area today, I’ve already informed them that they will pretend not to know even if they find the surveillance.
But other mermaids will also go to the mermaid hospital or center; although I asked the mermaids to pass on the message to each other, I can’t make sure all the mermaids know.”

Norman remembered that the young mermaid had said that he would try to make sure that all the mermaids behaved as usual, so he waited patiently for the young mermaid’s next words.

An Jin asked Norman, “I’ve been to the mermaid hospital, and like the mermaid center; there’s always soft music playing, so there are radio stations in both locations.”

Norman immediately understood what the little mermaid meant.
“You want to get the mermaids to cooperate through the radio?”

An Jin nodded.
“It’s the quickest and has the widest coverage.”

Mu Chen thought his idea was good, but had other concerns.
“The mermaids are bad-tempered, so even if you get them to cooperate, they may not listen to you.”

An Jin was confident.
“They will listen: this is a matter of mermaid safety, and mermaids will cooperate against the same enemy.”

Both the mermaid’s attitude toward him and his own instincts told him that the mermaids would listen to and believe him.

That’s why he suggested to Norman that he install surveillance to collect evidence.

Mu Chen asked again, “If you use the radio, it may cause suspicion.”

An Jin had already thought about this and looked to Little Silver.
“It’s true that suspicion might arise, but those people don’t know that mermaids can communicate, so it’s hard to think of the truth.
My plan is to play around with Little Silver at the mermaid center, accidentally break into the broadcast room, and then have Little Silver stay inside to play and convey the message for the mermaids to cooperate.
Also need you to cooperate; the mermaid center people will certainly tell us to leave, and you have to refuse and let us play.
Just send a normal mermaid voice through the radio.
Humans will not be hard to hear, mermaids will not be cranky, will not cause bad effects, and the dean will take into account your identity and will not say anything.”

“Little Silver will stay in the central radio room; I will go to the mermaid hospital, first play in the hospital lobby, see the mermaids and convey the message.
If,” An Jin said, “the dean insists that we leave, then leave, and Little Silver and I will play at the entrance to the hospital and the center, respectively, and alert the mermaids when we meet them, and then have them relay the message to each other.
With the radio room thing, this way it’s not so abrupt that people think we’re playing weird at the door.”

Mu Chen was surprised.
“You’ve been thinking about it for a long time?”

An Jin hmmed.

Mu Chen looked at him, then at Norman, and suddenly understood why His Majesty was moved.
Putting aside his appearance, An An was completely a mature teenager. 

Although An Jin tried his best to be thoughtful, he didn’t know much about the world after all, so he asked, “Do you think it’s feasible?”

Norman nodded.
“I’ll show you the map of the mermaid center later, and you take note of the location of the radio room.”

An Jin nodded and looked at Mu Chen.
“We’ll leave together tomorrow morning, why don’t you guys come here for breakfast in the morning?” He looked at Norman.
“Is that okay?”

“Of course, you are also the owner here, you can invite anyone,” Norman said.

An Jin averted his gaze and whispered, “I’m not.”

Mu Chen surveyed the two, his gaze full of gossip and curiosity.

A human and a mermaid falling in love, he was eating melon seeds as the first on the scene!

Soon, he had no energy to eat melon seeds and was forced to be a crutch.

An Jin taught Little Silver how to stand with his tail, and Mu Chen had to hold Little Silver all the time, and if Little Silver was not satisfied, Little Silver scared him with his canine teeth from time to time.

An Jin thought of what Little Silver had done to Mu Chen and silently sighed that Little Silver was scum and didn’t know it, so he spoke out in favor of Mu Chen.

Little Silver said, “Hm, it’s just a casual scare, he looks so funny when he’s scared.”

“…” An Jin didn’t tell Little Silver that Mu Chen was just casually craning his neck and pretending to be scared.

One was willing to scare and one was willing to be afraid, so An Jin left them alone.

The mermaid’s tail was very powerful, and the mermaid’s control of power was very precise, and Little Silver soon learned to stand with the tail.
An Jin then began to teach Little Silver to drive a mobility scooter.
Little Silver was bold and not afraid to fall, so he learned quickly.

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He drove the scooter around the pool and was so happy.
“Hahahaha, that was fun! My two-legged beast is so bad, I can’t believe he didn’t buy this for me!”

An Jin laughed.
“He didn’t buy it because he didn’t know you would like it.
I’ll give you this mobility scooter.”

“Thanks, An An!”

Mu Chen looked at Little Silver in surprise and rubbed his chin.
“From today onwards, I’m going to redefine Little Silver’s IQ.” Little Silver was driving away directly in the mobility scooter.
Mu Chen saw that he liked it and thanked An Jin.
“If you think Little Silver would like anything in the future, just let me know and I’ll buy it.” He smiled.
“I just want to trouble you to teach him.”

An Jin didn’t push back and nodded in agreement.
“Okay.”

Mu Chen and Little Silver left before An Jin started the live broadcast.

The live broadcast was an hour later than before, yet the audience was still very large, and An Jin had faded when he saw the phantom scrolling pop-ups.
He still acted smart only at the end, clumsily copying the speech of the cartoon’s main character.

In the end, he only learned a mispronounced ah, a pronunciation in between the mermaid and interstellar languages.
Even so, the pop-ups kept praising him for his cleverness, and that night, someone on Star Online placed a bet on whether the pure-colored mermaid could learn to speak.

An Jin’s eyes curled when he saw that the audience had been brainwashed by “he’s smart” and was no longer surprised by the smart itself, but curious about the changes that smart brought.
He was happy with the result, so that when he spoke, these people would also think “he really learned to speak”!

He smiled and put up all the star coins in his account, all of them in the “will”.

—

The next morning, Hornád checked An Jin’s body, and especially examined the fingers carefully, and read the results.
“An An is in excellent health, and the changes in the fingers, although not preceded by any, are certainly a good evolution.” His eyes were extremely bright and his voice excited.
“Maybe in the future, all mermaids will be like this.”

An Jin thought to himself, it stands to reason that all mermaids should indeed be like this.

After Hornád left, Norman told the young mermaid, “The mermaid center and the mermaid hospital, all the rooms are equipped with surveillance.”

A short time later, Mu Chen and Little Silver arrived.
An Jin gave Little Silver a miniature earpiece intercom to put on.
“Don’t rush when you’re chasing me, and don’t fall.
If something happens, contact me in time.”

Little Silver touched his ears and looked at the studs in An Jin’s ears and was happy.
“Okay!”

An Jin reminded, “Remember to tell them to tell each other that if they feel uncomfortable with a dry tail, they should go to the recreation area and take a dip.”

With mermaids telling each other and Norman’s people watching, even if a few mermaids were missed, it wouldn’t matter—nothing would go wrong.

Little Silver nodded repeatedly.
“I’ll remember.”

Norman and Mu Chen dropped them off at the mermaid center, and as soon as they got off the hover car, they drove after each other in their mobility scooters.
An Jin had already visited the virtual map of the center last night, so his goal was clear: to drive to the broadcast room.

Little Silver was behind him.
Their mobility scooters were at the slowest speed, and Norman and Mu Chen were steadily following behind.

An Jin drove ahead in the mobility scooter and communicated with Little Silver over the intercom.
“Little Silver, can you hear me?”

Little Silver cocked his head, his eyes shining.
“Yes, I want to wear it all the time, so I can talk to An An all the time!”

An Jin’s heart moved; suddenly thought it was good to give mermaids a communication device, so that whoever encountered difficulties, they could help each other.

“You can wear it all the time if you want,” An Jin said.

Mu Chen watched Little Silver happily chase An An in his mobility scooter, completely uninterested in going to work.
He wanted to observe the whole investigation! Little Silver was a big help in it.
Thinking about the recent leisurely state of the military, he whispered to Norman, “Your Majesty, I’m taking the day off!”

Norman’s eyes twitched slightly; he too was not interested in going to work.

His eyes fell on the little mermaid, who was wearing a white T-shirt and a fishtail skirt of the same color.
The fishtail skirt was very flattering, and the curves of the little mermaid’s waist and crotch were visible.

The little mermaid’s hair was tied behind his head, his white ears and transparent ear fins were uncovered, and his white and slender neck was exposed, which was very solid.
The little mermaid seemed like a luminous body, easily attracting his attention.
He even wanted to let the little mermaid go back, hoping that the little mermaid would only stay where he could see him.
However, he knew very well that he couldn’t do that.
The little mermaid was an adult and had a mind of his own.

An Jin, as planned, rushed straight into the broadcasting room recklessly.
Norman had purposely turned on the door opening in his terminal, however he didn’t use it, the door was just casually closed and someone was inside.

It was already time to go to work.
The announcer was playing music, heard the movement at the door and was startled.
Looking at the two mermaids that came in back and forth, he froze.

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A mermaid in a mobility scooter!

Two of them!

When he saw Norman and Mu Chen, he snapped back to attention and hurriedly saluted, his eyes falling uncontrollably on An Jin.
Pure-colored mermaid! An An!

“This, Your Majesty, is a broadcasting room, and mermaids cannot play here,” The broadcaster said.

An Jin and Little Silver seemed very curious about the place, driving the tokens around in circles and twirling their heads around the console again, craning their heads to investigate.

Norman said, “As they like.”

The broadcaster said darkly that His Majesty really liked An An and let the mermaid play with it.
And just as he was torn about contacting his boss, he saw His Majesty walking over to the little mermaid.
An Jin grabbed Norman’s arm and poked at the console with the other hand at random, inadvertently turning on the microphone button.

“This can’t…be done,” the announcer said, and immediately the word spread through the center, and he hastily shut his mouth.

The next second, his comms went off and he rushed out of the broadcast room, whispering a quick explanation of the situation.

Little Silver was already alerting mermaids to the fact of the surveillance and to pretend not to know.
An Jin saw the situation, then drove the mobility scooter out, leaving Mu Chen to deal with it.
He drove the scooter and Norman followed him, acting very tolerant, as if he could do anything as long as the little mermaid was happy.

An Jin came into the hospital lobby and waited for Norman to walk up to him, his back to the door, his head closed for fear of being overheard, and said very quietly, “Well, how many mermaids have come in this morning?”

Norman received a briefing from Joseph.
“Only one.
They put your recording at the location where the mermaid passed; the mermaid went into the medical examination room and did not behave abnormally.”

An Jin breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the main entrance.
“Go to work, I’ll be fine here by myself.
You’ll raise suspicion if you’re here.”

Norman looked down at the small mermaid who looked even more petite because of the folded tail.
“I’ll ask the guards to stay here to protect you, you have to be careful.”

He and Mu Chen were staying here at the same time.
It was indeed a very solid idea.
He also had to grasp the whole investigation, so staying in the hall is really inconvenient.

An Jin nodded his little head evenly.

The guard’s eyes were extremely bright when he came to the hall; he could finally see the little mermaid up close! An Jin smiled at him in a friendly manner, and the guard’s eyes lit up even more.

No wonder His Majesty’s heart was fluttering! So good and so soft!

Norman looked at him with deep eyes, and the guard hurriedly withdrew his eyes and chose an inconspicuous position in the corner of the hall to watch His Majesty’s little mermaid.

An Jin whispered to Little Silver, who was very proud of himself, “The two-legged beasts are quite useful, they don’t allow the rest of the two-legged beasts to come in and bother me.”

At that moment, someone pushed the mermaid cart into the mermaid hospital, and once inside, An Jin heard the mermaid’s grumpy voice.
“Bastard two-legged beast, let me out!”

An Jin drove the mobility scooter closer, and the mermaid felt something and turned his head to look at him.

The mermaid’s manic appearance became docile, his palms rested against the glass wall, and his eyes looked straight at An Jin.
“Who are you?”

“My name is An An.” Then he told them about the surveillance.

“The recording you just heard at the door was from you!” The mermaid drifted off and then immediately nodded.
“I’ll definitely pretend I didn’t know!”

The mermaid’s fondness for him was so obvious that An Jin’s eyes curled and he asked with concern, “Are you not feeling well?”

The mermaid said with a huff, “No, the two-legged beast had to bring me to the hospital.
So stupid!” 

An Jin thought for a moment.
“Maybe it’s a medical checkup to make sure you’re healthy, and he’ll take you back.”

“I’m not going back! I want to play with you!” The mermaid slapped the container wall and turned his head to yell at his breeder to let him out.

An Jin rushed to calm him down and the mermaid calmed down.

His keeper looked at An Jin in surprise.
“His Majesty’s mate?”

An Jin blinked and pretended not to understand.

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The mermaid slapped the wall of the container and yelled in anger, “No looking at him, what are you looking at him for?” The breeder hurriedly turned his attention to his mermaid and sent the mermaid to the medical examination center.

An Jin and Little Silver each went about their business, reminding the mermaids to cooperate.

Soon, Little Silver and An Jin were on fire on Starnet.

“Admiral Mu Chen’s family’s mermaid is playing in the mermaid center in a mobility scooter!”

“His Majesty’s family’s mermaid is playing in a mobility scooter at the mermaid center!”

“…mobility scooter company, how much did they pay them for advertising?”

—

In the parking lot, two large ordinary hover cars were parked separately in the mermaid hospital parking lot and the mermaid center parking lot.
The royal escort team members were divided into two groups, each staying in a hover car.

The hover car was in front of a huge holographic screen; the screen was divided into many small images, connected to the surveillance of the mermaid hospital room.
Joseph sat in the forefront, staring at the total screen.
The deputy captain beside him looked at his terminal, his terminal connected to all the public areas of surveillance.

In the back, the other eight members of the group were each responsible for their own surveillance.

The monitors came with listening devices, but because there were too many channels, it was difficult to listen to them and set up an intelligent mode that would send out alerts whenever the words mermaid, mating, etc.
were involved.

All the group members watched the monitor carefully.

In the parking lot of the mermaid center, the members of the second team, like them, all watched the surveillance carefully.
The right monitor showed the breeder pushing the mermaid cart into the room, and two seconds later, the team member in charge of that monitor saw the mermaid’s beautiful eyes looking over.

The team member who knew the mermaid’s habits very well was startled in his heart and moved his hand, just waiting for the mermaid to yell and scream and immediately contact the accident prevention action team.

But he saw that mermaid just looked, then withdrew his gaze; the response was flat, as if it was not sensed.
However, the team member was very sure that the mermaid definitely knew that he was being watched, just looked over at a glance, he could see it clearly.

He couldn’t help but say, “Aren’t mermaids usually very cranky when they sense surveillance? How come he didn’t make any noise or fuss when he looked at it?”

“Maybe he didn’t notice.”

“Impossible, that glance exactly to the monitor, it was clearly found.”

The lieutenant looked at the blue mermaid playing near the gate and couldn’t help but say, “Could there be a connection with An An?”

“I also feel a connection, His Majesty had someone play An An’s recording in the parking lot…”

“Captain, we have a situation in area three,” the team member in charge of surveillance in area three suddenly said, interrupting the small talk.

Joseph immediately noticed the small screen flashing red around the edge, and he zoomed in on it alone; it was a nursing room with a low-level mermaid lying on a bed, and a caretaker behind him giving him a tube of potion.

Another caregiver was communicating with someone.
“It’s ready, hurry up…I told you, only a low level mermaid, the last mid level mermaid failed to breed and made a big mess in the care room, if something happens again, it will be noticed.”

Not long after, a man pushed a mermaid cart into the nursing room and said, not too happily, “If I don’t get a pregnant one this time, I must be assigned an intermediate upper mermaid next time.”

A grumpy member of the team cursed, “Nasty shit.”

Joseph stared at the man walking into the nursing room.
“This man, there’s a ninety percent chance he used a capsule mask, turned on detection mode, and locked in his true identity.”

Capsule masks were hot on Starnet, making it possible for celebrities to go out on the street at will without being disturbed, however the purchase procedure was very strict and they must be purchased with a real identity, which would be bound to an ID card.

Of course, the reason for the prevalence was to not have to worry about people buying masks privately and wearing masks to do bad things, and today’s monitors were related.

Now the monitor, in ordinary mode, saw the person the same as the human eye, but in detection mode, the lens would analyze all of the person’s information: height, weight, bone age, etc., and then compare it with the military terminal database, and soon find the person’s true identity.

In less than a minute, the technician gave the answer.
“S, Senator August.”

Joseph ordered, “All three present are being closely tracked.
Action team, stand by.”

Two minutes later, the door to the nursing room was pushed open and the ops team pushed the mermaid station outside the door and froze when they saw the person inside.
“Isn’t this 021?”

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The caretaker responded, “This is 012.”

The team member was puzzled.
“Sorry, I’m in the wrong room,” he looked at the caretaker and August suspiciously.
“I remember the first thirty are single rooms, right? Why are you all here?”

He looked over at the low mermaid with the reddened forehead and said in surprise, “I just saw him, he was fine before, why doesn’t he look well now?” He said suspiciously, “What have you done to him?”

The caregiver said, “Sorry, this gentleman also went to the wrong room.
This mermaid is approaching a rut and is rather irritable.
I have informed the hospital and the mermaid owner.”

August received the hint from the caregiver and pushed the mermaid cart out of the care room.
The ops guy asked the caregiver for directions to 021, said thank you, and headed in the direction of 021.

Joseph breathed a sigh of relief, complimented the ops guy over the intercom, and then said coldly, “August and the caregiver sound familiar, so it must not be the first time.”

On the monitor, the two caregivers looked at each other.
“Bummer.”

“Fuck me, that mermaid is unlucky, right?” The team member said angrily.

One of the caregivers opened the terminal next.
“Failed, deposit refunded.
No! His Majesty usually accompanies the pure-colored mermaid every time, there is no way to have a chance to do it.”

All the team members turned pale.
“He’s planning on getting An An!”

Several of the team members inside had heard An An’s song, spiritual power rose because of An An, and An An was the most well-behaved mermaid they had ever seen, not to mention the mate His Majesty had identified, and when they heard the caretaker’s words, they suddenly became violent.

Joseph said in a cold voice, “Calm down, they can’t succeed.
Trace the communication immediately.”

After a whole day, the other side was only out once, but for Joseph, the clues had been enough.
The tracking investigation involved a lot of information.

In the afternoon, An Jin and Little Silver both got into Norman’s hover car.
Mu Chen then turned on the intelligent following mode of his own hover car and also got into Norman’s hover car.

Joseph reported on his findings.
“All the staff were planted by the black market, which had been open for two years, and the person in charge was known as the boss.
At first, they helped mermaid breeders to breed privately, and the successfully conceived mermaids were not reported to the research institute and Mermaid Protection Association, and auctioned privately.
They now, in addition to helping customers breed privately, earn money and auction off the mermaids through their social status, which they see as a pot of gold, allowing them to breed mermaids and then sell the little mermaids.”

Except for Little Silver, who could not understand, everyone’s face was ugly.

An Jin was so angry that he clenched his fist, breathed more heavily, and wanted to beat those people up.

Little Silver sensed that he was angry.
“An An, what’s wrong with you?” His silver eyes rounded.
“Did the two-legged beast make you angry?!”

He said this and swung his paw at Joseph.

An Jin said, “I’m fine.” He looked into Little Silver’s pure eyes, not relaying Joseph’s words.

Mu Chen gritted his teeth.
“These beasts! Luckily Little Silver is too impatient to stay inside the small room, I only ever leave him alone in the entertainment area.”

Norman’s face was dark, and when he saw that Joseph wanted to say something, he said in a deep voice, “Speak.”

“He, they want to get An An and try to breed an advanced mermaid through An An.”

Bzzz—! came the harsh sound of An Jin’s nails scraping the walls of the container, leaving a visible scratch on the glass.

Norman’s eyes gathered a thick storm, and he held back the rising tyranny as he took hold of the young mermaid’s wrist and examined his nails carefully.

The little mermaid’s nails could shrink and there was no need for them to come out.
His nails were shrunken now, so he was clearly very angry.

The container of the mermaid car was special glass to prevent mermaid damage.
It was very hard, and he was worried about a little mermaid finger injury.

An Jin retracted his nails and shook his head with a small, stern face, signaling that he was fine.

Norman made sure he didn’t hurt himself and let go of his hand.
“An An, don’t be mad.
Those people—all of them—will be punished.”

“The mermaid hospital and mermaid center people have been closely tracked, but the identity of the black market leader is hidden, not yet found out.
The night after tomorrow, there is a mermaid auction.
Private people who have successfully bred mermaids will go,” explained Joseph.

“Those who participated in the auction have seen the mermaids sold by the Scientific Research Institute.
I will contact the Scientific Research Institute and borrow a mermaid that has just reached adulthood, and I will personally bring the mermaid to the black market.” Norman looked at Mu Chen and added, “You meet at the periphery, make sure to catch all of them.”

Mu Chen nodded solemnly.
“Not a fly will be spared.”