Chapter 48#
The Innocent and Naive Fool#
Although the cucumber-durian flavored lollipop made Lu Xing feel for a moment what it meant to “see stars even if you’re blind,” because Lin Xiaodong’s usual acting was too realistic, he still firmly believed that this was just the little mermaid’s unusual taste, rather than Lin Xiaodong intentionally messing with him.
Lu Xing quietly took the lollipop out of his mouth and asked Lin Xiaodong, “Gu Xi agreed to let you see me, how much time did he give you?”
Lin Xiaodong: “Twenty minutes.”
“Then,” the young man said slowly, “do you know why he let you come find me?”
Lin Xiaodong shook his head.
However, the reason was actually easy to guess. Just looking at how Gu Xi left early and returned late every day to look up information, he definitely wanted to dig out some methods for alleviating his lethargy symptoms from Lu Xing, who was an expert on mermaids.
But Lin Xiaodong didn’t think Lu Xing would tell him so easily.
“Although slow, the mother bug in Gu Xi’s body is still constantly growing,” Lu Xing said. “He looks normal to you now only because he’s been with you for a long time and has fallen into a temporary incubation period under the influence of the mermaid’s song.”
“What would happen if it broke out?”
“What would happen?” The corners of Lu Xing’s lips curled into a playful arc. “It wouldn’t matter much.”
Before the little mermaid could breathe a sigh of relief, he said unhurriedly, “It would just throw the world into chaos.”
Lin Xiaodong: “……”
“If it weren’t for the fact that I can’t bully a disabled person,” he sat in front of Lu Xing with a wooden face and slapped his tail irritably, “I’d want to slap him with my big tail right now.”
System: “Slap him. Anyway, the ‘Good Person Card’ is in hand, I support it.”
After the 10,008th attempt to contact headquarters failed, the system finally became zen.
Anyway, there was no supervision and no salary. He was just a weak, helpless labor system who only wanted to marry a wife. Why should he be so diligent in demanding the host be perfect?
Lu Xing didn’t know he was almost subjected to the torture of a tail-slap and continued to chatter, “I heard my eldest sister has become the Speaker. I guess Gu Xi also put in a lot of effort behind the scenes? He should feel it himself, some things cannot be controlled by human power, just like the Mermaid Star that was destroyed in the first place…”
“Wait a minute,” the little mermaid suddenly interrupted him, “what did you just say?”
Lu Xing froze for a moment, but reacted almost instantly.
He frowned and asked, “Did Gu Xi not tell you…?”
“Tell me what?” A cold hand grabbed his wrist, and the little mermaid’s voice sounded like it was trembling, “You’re lying to me again, aren’t you?”
What answered him was the young man’s silence.
This was the first time Lu Xing wished he were lying to Lin Xiaodong.
But in the end, he just sighed softly: “I’m sorry, but what I said is the truth.”
“You’re lying!”
Lin Xiaodong suddenly stood up from his seat and ran out without looking back.
Gu Xi had never regretted agreeing to Lu Xing’s request so much.
Although Lu Xing did keep his promise in the end and told him a method that could potentially, and was probably the only way, to solve Lin Xiaodong’s lethargy problem, the consequences… were something Gu Xi was unwilling to see no matter what.
Under his repeated instructions, no one had mentioned the topic of the Mermaid Star in front of Lin Xiaodong during this time.
And after they returned from the Rose Nebula, since Lin Xiaodong didn’t mention it, the original plan to return to the Mermaid Star was indefinitely shelved.
Although he knew in his heart it was impossible, Gu Xi still sincerely hoped that if possible, he would let the little mermaid live happily like this for a lifetime.
Even if he was kept in the dark, it was better than being in agony after knowing the truth.
But for all his calculations, he still missed the variable that was Lu Xing.
“Xiaodong, I…”
Gu Xi stood in front of the closed bedroom door, the hand that intended to knock was raised and lowered several times.
Since returning from Lu Xing’s place that day, Lin Xiaodong had locked himself in the room for a day and a night.
System: “Guess how much longer Gu Xi can hold out?”
Lin Xiaodong perked up his ears, heard the movement at the door, and silently hid the potato chip bag he had eaten most of under the bed.
He said with certainty: “Three minutes at most.”
But in fact, not long after Lin Xiaodong finished saying this, Gu Xi had already opened the bedroom door with a spare key.
As soon as he pushed the door open, he saw the picture of the pale little mermaid quietly curled up in a corner, weeping silently.
Gu Xi’s heart twitched instantly.
He walked to Lin Xiaodong’s side in silence, and as soon as he put his hand on the other’s shoulder, he heard the little mermaid holding his knees saying in a crying voice, “You, you go away…”
“I’m not going,” Gu Xi said in a low voice.
He reached out and forcibly pulled the little mermaid into his arms, ignoring the punches and kicks from the person in his arms—though this bit of strength was basically equivalent to scratching an itch for Gu Xi—and roughly wiped the tears from Lin Xiaodong’s face, bowing his head and kissing his lips fiercely.
Lin Xiaodong stiffened for a moment.
Oh no, he thought, could the taste of potato chips be tasted?
Out of guilt, he struggled desperately, which made Gu Xi mistakenly think he wanted to resist, so the restraining force in his hands became heavier.
“If you want to hate,” the man didn’t let go of his hand until the person in his arms was kissed out of breath. He stared intently into the little mermaid’s eyes, which were filled with water, and said in a voice suppressed with intense emotion, “then hate me.”
“If it weren’t for being with me, you wouldn’t have experienced these things.”
He should have been a carefree little mermaid living by the shore of Lake Kalan.
But because of himself, he left his hometown and resolutely followed him when the situation was still unclear, selflessly helping his compatriots, without caring at all about the damage humans had once caused them.
And when peace finally came, the little mermaid lost his only home in this world forever.
On one hand, Gu Xi felt pain and guilt for the various harms he had brought to Lin Xiaodong, and on the other hand, he couldn’t control the dark and private desires in his heart—since the current Lin Xiaodong was homeless, he would keep him by his side forever.
He didn’t need to think about anything or worry about anything.
Just like before, just looking at himself was enough.
Gu Xi hadn’t noticed that his thoughts were trapped in a paranoid dead end. The terrifying part of the mother bug was that it could subtly influence a person’s emotions and thinking. If it weren’t for someone with very sensitive mental power, they wouldn’t even notice such subtle changes.
Except for mermaids.
Lin Xiaodong could clearly feel that the man in front of him was in the wrong state, but he couldn’t say exactly what was wrong.
He didn’t care about pretending to cry anymore, wiped away his tears with the back of his hand, looked up, and said to Gu Xi with red eyes, “I don’t hate you.”
“I was just thinking, why do people have to grow up?” the little mermaid whispered, as if asking, and as if talking to himself, “Growing up isn’t fun at all. When I was a child, I had companions, Lake Kalan, and a home. I wasn’t a lonely fish. But after growing up, I only have you.”
Gu Xi’s lips moved slightly.
He asked in an almost inaudible voice, “You don’t hate me?”
The little mermaid shook his head.
He sniffed hard and held out a pinky finger: “Let’s pinky swear, you’re not allowed to be angry like before.”
“You must be well, because,” he pursed his lips and repeated, “I only have you left.”
Gu Xi looked at him fixedly for a long time.
“…Not going to agree?”
The man lowered his eyes: “Okay, I promise you.”
“—Pinky swear, hang it up, don’t change for a hundred years.”
“Ding, Good Person Card +1.”
“Mission complete, initial… rating %&@…, reward points ￥@%…”
“Host 68711 application to leave this world, attempting to connect to headquarters… &￥d?%…”
“Why bother connecting,” Lin Xiaodong interrupted as he listened to the buzzing sound, “you can’t connect anyway, don’t bother.”
But just as the system was about to give up, there was a “beep,” as if a blockage had been cleared, and the originally blurred voice suddenly became clear again:
“Headquarters has received application from Host 68711.”
“Statistics in progress…”
“Mission complete, initial rating: A, reward points: 1500 points.”
“Total declared reward points: 2500 points. Issued, please check in system wallet.”
“Host 68711 application to leave this world…
“Application approved. Countdown begins, please be prepared, Host.”
Lin Xiaodong: “Uh, did your headquarters finally get internet access?”
The system also found it strange: “Yeah, but normally after being offline for so long, they should at least give an explanation.”
The person and the system were both confused, and finally decided to give up thinking.
Lin Xiaodong was very happy: “System, I think after partnering for so long, our brainwaves are becoming more and more synchronized.”
System: “……”
Although it didn’t know why, it wasn’t happy to hear that at all, thank you.
“If you want to save him, there’s only one way now.”
“Mermaids have lived by Lake Kalan for generations. Away from there, they will only grow weaker, and their mental power will gradually wither, without exception.”
“The research institute under the royal family has analyzed that the essence of the mother bug’s parasitism is to plunder mental power from other hosts. But this mental power doesn’t necessarily have to be used by it; it can also be redistributed to any host. However, once the brain bug in a certain host acquires more mental power than the mother bug, it will cause the mother bug to degenerate and the host to die—do you understand what I mean?”
Gu Xi stared intently at the pale young man in front of him who rarely showed a serious expression, as if judging whether he was lying.
But Lu Xing was frank from beginning to end.
In this matter, he had no need to lie to Gu Xi again.
The man looked as if he didn’t care at all about what would happen to him, and just said coldly, “The entire galaxy knows that mermaids are the nemesis of brain bugs. Even if you aren’t lying to me, this method isn’t feasible from the start.”
“Of course it’s feasible,” Lu Xing said softly.
He crossed his fingers and seemed to sigh: “Except, there’s a prerequisite.”
“…What?”
“From today on, don’t let him sing anymore,” Lu Xing said. “It’s impossible to completely eliminate the mother bug. Once the host it parasitizes dies, then a brain bug in the colony will immediately evolve into a new mother bug. If the mermaid race hadn’t gone extinct, there might still be hope for suppressing them, but now… it can only be said that this country is destined to perish. However, perhaps humans living in the remote star systems still have a glimmer of hope?”
He shook his head and gave a laugh.
But the sound was somewhat cold and self-deprecating: “This is probably the mermaids’ revenge on humanity.”