Chapter 37#
The Innocent and Naive Fool#
Since the Queen had been out of favor for a long time, and had no powerful maternal family to rely on, and her son recently showed signs of falling out with his father, even though the attendant was audacious enough to sneak into the palace late at night to poison someone, the matter was ultimately downplayed and left unresolved.
Another point was that when the attendant was dragged away, he couldn’t even speak clearly.
Not only was he incontinent, but he also kept giggling like an idiot. He couldn’t even be interrogated, so he was simply thrown out of the palace and locked up in a mental hospital, left to fend for himself.
But since the failed attack that night, Lin Xiaodong had been feeling increasingly uneasy these past two days.
He felt that no matter where he went, every moment, a pair of eyes was staring at him intently.
Although he didn’t detect any malice in the gaze, this constant feeling of being followed made Lin Xiaodong uncomfortable all over.
He couldn’t stand it anymore and asked the system: “What exactly is going on? Did you really not notice anything?”
“I already said, the people watching you are all palace attendants,” the system also felt wronged, it really hadn’t noticed anything, “You’re a merman now, isn’t it normal for them to be curious?”
“I’m not talking about that kind!”
Lin Xiaodong scratched his head, a little annoyed. If it were really that simple, why would he be so restless?
He was too lazy to guess anymore. When he felt someone staring at him again, the little merman instantly turned around, activated the cloud-flying device, rushed to the person, removed the shield, and grabbed the attendant by the collar: “Tell me, who exactly are you!?”
The attendant seemed to be frightened by him, opened his mouth, but didn’t speak for a long time.
But Lin Xiaodong noticed that the color of his eyes was different from ordinary people.
The little merman frowned, glared at him fiercely, and then subconsciously asked, “Are you Gu Xi’s… person?”
“I am.”
Unexpectedly, he actually admitted it!
Lin Xiaodong’s eyes widened, and he fumbled around his face for a long time, but found no traces of a mask or disguise. Gu Xi helplessly grabbed his hand: “I’m not physically here, do you understand?”
The little merman shook his head and honestly replied, “No.”
The man sighed, and seeing that there was no one around, he briefly explained the whole story. But Lin Xiaodong’s reaction after hearing that he was parasitized by a mother worm was different from what Gu Xi had imagined. The little merman was instead very excited and asked him:
“Can you lay eggs now?”
Gu Xi: “…………”
He answered expressionlessly: “No.”
“Oh,” hearing this, Lin Xiaodong immediately wilted, “Then let’s quickly get rid of it, it’s really boring.”
Gu Xi felt that this little fool’s brain was probably filled with yellow waste, which was why he became so foolish, being deceived over and over again without learning his lesson. He straightened his face and questioned: “Didn’t I tell you to stay at home? Why did you come here!”
But as soon as his tone became a little heavier, the little merman looked at him with a hurt expression, tears falling down: “You still have the nerve to say that? They all said you were dead, how could I stay at home peacefully? Huh?”
Although mermaids don’t cry pearls like in fairy tales, Lin Xiaodong had specially practiced in front of a mirror to play the role of a little fool. His slender eyelashes trembled slightly, and a crystal tear slid down his cheek. His pitiful gaze, coupled with his small expression of trying to hold back his grievances, was perfect!
Seeing him like this, Gu Xi’s guilt instantly overwhelmed his desire to make the little merman remember his lesson. He quickly apologized, but the little merman didn’t want to listen to him at all, simply flicked his tail and turned his back to him.
“I’ve always been very good,” he sniffled, and whispered aggrievedly, “eating on time, sleeping on time, counting the stars every night, wondering when you’d come back.”
“Liar.” The little merman lowered his head and said softly.
Gu Xi believed him.
In his eyes, it was not at all surprising that the little merman would do such a foolish thing.
He pursed his lips, reached out to hug Lin Xiaodong, but for some reason, his body was already losing strength.
The man stumbled, kneeling on the ground. He was not yet skilled at using the mother worm’s abilities to control the host, and his mental power was not enough to sustain activity outside for too long. Although very unwilling, in order to avoid mutual damage to the host and his own mental power, Gu Xi forcibly cut off the mental link at the last moment.
Why did it suddenly go silent?
Lin Xiaodong looked back and saw the attendant lying on the ground with his eyes closed, snoring. He probably wouldn’t wake up anytime soon.
System: “Don’t look, Gu Xi is gone. This person is just temporarily exhausted and will be fine after a sleep.”
Lin Xiaodong stared at the person lying on the ground for a moment, then said to the system: “I think Gu Xi must have never read dirty novels.”
System: ?
What do you mean by that?
“Mind control is too… that,” the little merman wagged the tip of his tail, saying somewhat shyly, “NP is exciting, but I can’t do it in real life.”
System: …Goodbye.
The system was unwilling to talk to him, so Lin Xiaodong had no choice but to sit on the cloud and wander around the palace.
There was nothing to see near the cold palace, just withered flowers and fallen leaves, and Gu Xi didn’t seem to be coming back anytime soon, so it was very boring. Before long, Lin Xiaodong returned to the palace, preparing to see what the Queen was doing.
When he entered, the woman was kneeling before a statue, hands clasped together, praying devoutly.
The people here believed in a deity called “Mu,” whose appearance was said to be derived from a great human mother figure three thousand years ago, symbolizing equality, freedom, and happiness.
Lin Xiaodong saw this and didn’t disturb her, just silently stayed by her side.
When the Queen opened her eyes, she realized that the little merman had returned to the palace at some point and had been watching her for a long time.
“I won’t forbid you from going out,” she said, “but you’d better not go too far.”
The little merman nodded.
“Thank you,” he whispered, “I think you’re a good person.”
The Queen chuckled.
“A merman once told me that too,” she lowered her eyes, “Then he died.”
Lin Xiaodong was silent for a moment, then asked, “Was that merman named Noah?”
The Queen looked at him in surprise: “How do you know?”
Because his name is written in that fairy tale book your son cherishes, Lin Xiaodong thought.
Seeing that he didn’t speak, the Queen thought Lu Xing had told him. She looked at the little merman, her eyes somewhat complex: “I never thought he would even tell you this, but I don’t understand, why would he still actively send you to the palace?”
“How did he die?” Lin Xiaodong wasn’t interested in discussing Lu Xing’s way of thinking, and changed the subject, “I mean, the merman named Noah.”
The Queen closed her eyes and sighed deeply.
“This is a story with a fairy tale beginning,” she slowly said, “but the merman’s kindness led them to underestimate the ugliness of human nature, ultimately ending up like the farmer and the snake…”
Under the Queen’s narration, Lin Xiaodong finally understood the reason why Lu Xing had become the way he was now.
As everyone knew, he was the discoverer of the Merman Star. But in fact, Lu Xing, like Gu Xi, had accidentally fallen onto that planet after being injured.
And the merman who saved him at that time was Noah.
Noah was a young merman, unlike Lin Xiaodong, who was white-skinned with a dark core. He was truly kind and truly innocent. While taking care of Lu Xing, he quickly fell in love with this handsome and gentle Crown Prince. Despite the objections of the elder mermaids in his tribe, he brought Lu Xing to Lake Garan, carefully healed his wounds, and sang for him.
As the only and first human to visit the Merman Star, all the young mermaids were very curious about Lu Xing. Coincidentally, the imperial guards searching for the Crown Prince landed their starship there. The other nobles on the starship saw so many beautiful mermaids and immediately had evil thoughts, half-coaxing and half-forcing them back to the Central Star.
Only then did the mermaids realize they had been deceived; humans were not friendly to them at all. They did not regard mermaids as equal beings, but merely as novel playthings, a form of entertainment to relieve boredom.
Noah witnessed all of this. He begged Lu Xing to rescue his compatriots, but Lu Xing, while outwardly agreeing gently, privately had no good feelings for these mermaids who always advised Noah not to be with humans. He even intensified his efforts to help the nobles persecute other mermaids.
Eventually, to preserve their last dignity, and coupled with being away from Lake Garan for a long time, the mermaids began to die one after another.
Seeing that the situation in the palace could no longer be concealed, Lu Xing no longer allowed Noah to leave the Rose Manor.
But after a long time, even the most foolish person would notice something was wrong.
When he discovered that all his relatives and friends who had come to the Central Star had died, and it was due to his own reasons, Noah finally collapsed.
No matter how much Lu Xing apologized, or even threatened to blow up the Merman Star, the young merman no longer responded. He no longer asked Lu Xing to go out, but quietly stayed in the castle, lying on his bed in his room, gradually weakening day by day.
Until he followed in the footsteps of his companions, returning to the embrace of death.
The system couldn’t help but curse, “Scumbag!”
But Lin Xiaodong was very curious about one thing. He asked directly, “Do you know what Lu Xing is planning to do now?”
He had a strong intuition that the woman in front of him knew about Lu Xing being parasitized by a brainworm and then infecting the entire upper class of the empire through a banquet.
The Queen’s gaze was calm.
She looked at the fallen leaves covering the ground outside the bedchamber and said indifferently, “I know.”
“Three years after Noah’s death, he finally woke up.”
“He wants revenge, on all the nobles of the Empire, on his father, and… on himself.”