The Fallen Merman

“Only two hundred, that’s not enough to spend.” Bai Chunian deliberately raised his chin and teased Rimbaud.

Rimbaud coaxed him in a low voice: “Pity, first. Put up with it.” 

“Okay, then I’ll take pity on you and put up with it for now.” Bai Chunian laughed, grabbed Rimbaud’s wrist, and pressed it to his lips, kissing the thin webs between the fingers.

The webs between his fingers were full of capillaries and tiny nerves, so they were very sensitive to touch. When the alpha’s warm lips touched them, the small part of the webs reddened.

Rimbaud’s body suddenly froze as if he had been touched by a switch. He unconsciously let out an “ah” noise, and unknowingly released some soft pheromones from the glands.

This little pheromone that the omega leaked inadvertently was just like igniting a fire on the alpha and Bai Chunian reacted almost instantly when the pheromone reached his glands.

The pantry door was suddenly pushed open and the omega who had brought the documents came in rashly: “The police officers from the International Felony Prison have come to hand over the files. Have you sorted them out?”

Rimbaud looked back at the single sofa. The alpha he was with was gone and he was the only one left in the pantry; only the window next to the sofa was left open.

“En.” Rimbaud poured himself a new glass of water and followed the omega out of the pantry.

Bai Chunian was hanging on one hand under the balcony outside the pantry window. When he heard the sound of the door closing, he jumped back lightly and the fabric in the middle of his shorts rode up with him. 

He crouched down and scrolled through his phone to calm himself and his second child down. Just now, he took a candid photo while Rimbaud was picking up the glass of water. It was a little blurry, but he could clearly see the omega’s side profile, which was covered by a few strands of blond hair. From the side, the tip of his nose was small and upturned. His neck and collarbone were also ridiculously thin, although not as delicate and slender as other omegas, but he should still eat a little more.

He sent the photo to his fellow agents in the Alliance Technical Department.

Duan Yang quickly replied: “Received. What aspect should I investigate?”

Bai Chunian: “Photoshop to make the picture a little clearer. Don’t thin the face. He’s already very thin.” 

Duan Yang: “? Hackers never photoshop pictures.”

Bai Chunian: “Don’t add filters either.”

Rimbaud left the pantry and returned to his seat. He heard that the International Prison sent someone to let them hand over the files. Rimbaud happened to be in charge of this batch of files. As the person in charge, he had to come forward and give his signature, so he got up and went to the archive room.

He pushed open the door of the archive library meeting room sitting inside was a crow omega wearing a police uniform and epaulets with a pair of charming phoenix eyes and a tear mole embellished at the corner of his eye. 

Ge Zb uba eq ab ugffa tlw jcv kjr raeccfv rfflcu atf qfgrbc atja mjwf ab tjcv bnfg atf olifr. Ktf tjcv tf gfjmtfv bea ab qbilafis rtjxf tjcvr ogbhf lc atf jlg: “Elwyjev?”

Elwyjev gjlrfv tlr fsfygbkr, megifv tlr ajli, jcv rja vbkc bc atf jgwgfra bo atf rboj. Llr fsfr rxlqqfv qjra atf bearagfamtfv tjcv, jcv tf ifjcfv bc atf rboj klat bcf tjcv bc tlr mtlc.

Obviously, Du Mo’s police rank was several grades higher than Rimbaud, but under the pressure of this merman’s natural aura, Du Mo unconsciously sat upright.

Rimbaud slightly tilted the tip of his tail, indicating that Du Mo could start talking. 

“Okay.” Du Mo took out the approval document issued by his superior and showed it to Rimbaud, “I know that the Omega Alliance Police Dept. has captured several terrorists in the past five years. They all have flying bird tattoos on their bodies, and they’re members of the terrorist organization Red-Throated Bird. I need to investigate their files.”

Rimbaud tilted his head slightly and listened. He needed to think for a while to understand what the other party meant. But from Du Mo’s point of view, the merman with the noble sitting posture was staring at him with deep eyes, as if he wanted to tear his whole body apart, take out every piece of his internal organs, and caress them in his hands.

The merman suddenly straightened and sat up. Du Mo couldn’t help but back up instinctively and walked slowly to the farthest corner of the sofa.

Rimbaud relied on electricity to levitate to the front of the file rack. Du Mo didn’t know what method he was using to search for the serial number. After a while, Rimbaud found the file folders from several different areas. After unlocking them with his iris, he slowly took the documents one by one into his hands and put them before Du Mo. 

“So fast.” Du Mo picked up the file in surprise and flipped through the homepage, “Don’t you need a computer to search?”

Rimbaud shook his head. He didn’t know how to use a computer.

Du Mo put the files in his bag. He originally wanted to get up and leave, but after thinking of something, he sat back patiently: “Don’t you have anything you want to ask me? About… the previous exam?”

Du Mo pondered in retrospect. The fact that he died in the eyes of Medusa’s Eyes was one of Bai Chunian’s plans. He also knew that his own behavior was suspicious, so it wasn’t surprising that the other teams suspected him. 

Rimbaud was noncommittal. He quietly rested his elbows on the armrest of the sofa, occasionally cocking the tip of his tail in boredom, waiting for Du Mo to finish his words. In fact, he didn’t care. He looked at the wall clock several times during the few minutes he spent searching for the files for Du Mo, calculating in his mind how long it would be until he got off work.

“I’m a police officer at the International Penitentiary. On the eve of the ATWL exam, our computer was attacked by a super hacker. The hacker sent an email saying that he had cracked the database of the 109 Institute and will throw all the useful information and data into the ATWL examination system and expose all the crimes committed by the 109 Institute to the public. Most of the seniors who had the qualifications and experience to investigate this matter are not young. I’m the only one who hadn’t exceeded the age limit for the examination yet, so I mixed in here just to collect evidence of what the hacker said was the 109 Research Institute’s crime.”

“But now it seems that the hacker didn’t do it very successfully either.” Du Mo sighed regretfully, “The 109 Research Institute was located on a border under no jurisdiction, and they were clearly doing cruel experiments that go against humanity to make huge profits, but no one could sanction them. The things disclosed today are only the tip of the iceberg, and they aren’t enough to shake them down.”

“But the hacker said in the email that they won’t give up, that this was just the beginning. Well… I’ll wait for it tentatively.” 

“Right, I heard that there was a serial disappearance case here recently. I also paid attention to the case. Compared to boring matters like terrorist attacks, kidnapping, and assassination, this case is very interesting… If you need help you can ask us for help… Well, I’m not saying you guys don’t have the skills to handle this case. I mean I’m interested in the pyramid-shaped cabin. Although this is in your jurisdiction, if I could, I’d like to go and have a look.”

Rimbaud nodded.

Actually, he didn’t understand at all.

The clock on the wall showed that it was time to get off work. Rimbaud quickly picked up the pen and signed Du Mo’s document: Lanbo, then got up and left. 

Du Mo looked at the few lightly written letters at the bottom of the document, raised his head to look at Rimbaud’s back leaving the archive room, and pinched his eyebrows helplessly: “With this attitude, how come nobody’s complained about him.”

Rimbaud carried a backpack and stood in front of the card machine, using his fishtail to support his body. The clock on the wall changed from the last second of 5:29 pm to 5:30 pm, and he clocked out successfully.

Other colleagues in the department were frightened. No one could get off work on time here, and they would be considered lazy if they didn’t work overtime until midnight.

Rimbaud glanced back at his colleagues, raised the tip of his tail, and touched the card scanning machine. A strong current was injected into the machine, helping colleagues in the entire building get off work by scanning their cards, and Rimbaud left with the backpack. 

A few seconds later, cheers burst in the building, and the police officers got off work one after another, rushing to leave the police station for fear of being caught and dragged back to work.

Bai Chunian sat on a swing at the park near the police station, waiting for Rimbaud. He swayed leisurely on the children’s swing, having nowhere to place his two long legs. Sitting on a low swing was no different from squatting on the ground.

Several children gathered around Bai Chunian and wanted to swing.

“Ay, hey, not giving.” Bai Chunian held a lollipop in his mouth, lazily hugged the two swing ropes, and made three children cry immediately out of anger. 

Rimbaud passed by the park on the way to the subway station, and Bai Chunian waved to him: “Come here.”

Rimbaud climbed over the railing and wrapped his tail around the swing frame to look at him:

“En?”

Bai Chunian got off the swing and squatted on the side. “Come and sit here.” 

A child took the opportunity to sit his butt down. Bai Chunian smoothly held the back of the child’s neck with his hand and threw him to the side.

Rimbaud had never seen a human toy before, so he sat on it with novelty and shook it gently, but he was unable to maintain his center of gravity and nearly fell on his back. Bai Chunian used his knees to keep Rimbaud from falling and let him play with peace of mind.

“Got off work?” Bai Chunian asked behind his ear, holding on to the rope from behind.

“En.” 

“Let’s go home. I’ve been walking outside all day. I’m so hungry.”

“En, okay.”

“But I don’t have a car right now. Let’s take a taxi back.”

“Sub… subway.” 

“Ah, you’re so diligent and frugal. Aren’t you tired at all?”

“You’re tired… just sit, car.”

“I’m not tired.”

During the evening rush hour after work, the subway was densely packed. The carriage smelled of various pheromones mixed together; it was crowded and noisy. 

Now, no one noticed the omega standing on a fishtail in the carriage.

When the subway arrived at the station, another group of people crowded up. Someone accidentally stepped on Rimbaud’s tail, and he cried out.

Bai Chunian kept staring at Rimbaud’s face. As soon as he opened his mouth, Bai Chunian shoved the unfinished lollipop into Rimbaud’s mouth. Rimbaud dazedly held the lollipop in his mouth, a piece bulging up on his cheek.

“Why’re you so fun to tease?” Bai Chunian smiled with his head lowered. He stooped to pick up the tip of Rimbaud’s tail and put it in his trouser pocket to prevent it from getting stepped on by others. 

Back home, Bai Chunian put on a blue polka-dot apron and entered the kitchen.

He never liked to cook, and even if he occasionally had nothing to do at home, he would only order takeout because he found cooking troublesome. He had to wash and cut vegetables to cook, which was annoying.

But today was boring, and he really wanted to cook. He opened the browser to search for recipes he wanted to learn and cook now.

He tossed up a plate of hot and sour shredded potatoes and a plate of fried pork with cabbage according to the instructions on the Internet. He secretly tasted it himself, and it was surprisingly good, so he brought it to the table and pushed it towards Rimbaud. 

Seeing that Rimbaud was about to use plastic wrap to frame the two dishes and eat the plate, Bai Chunian held down the edge of the plate and allowed him to eat only what was on the plate.

Rimbaud looked up at him for a while, then took out his phone and spent a minute finding the camera function. He took 20 photos of the two dishes from multiple angles, put the phone away, and then used a spoon to take a small mouthful.

Bai Chunian’s eyes couldn’t help but follow him, and he swallowed: “How is it?”

Rimbaud’s eyes brightened with shining little blue stars. 

Bai Chunian finally straightened up and sat back in his seat, pretending to nonchalantly take a mouthful of rice into his mouth and said flatly, “Well, it’s alright.”

Before going to bed, Bai Chunian came out of the bathroom with only a bath towel wrapped around his lower body. He toweled his wet hair dry and returned to the bedroom. Rimbaud had fallen asleep on the edge of the fish tank, his eyelashes drooping quietly, and the light cast shadows of his eyelashes under his eyelids.

Bai Chunian squatted down and touched Rimbaud’s hair, which was drenched with drops of water, and then touched his face with the tip of his ring finger. Because of fighting and holding guns all year round, only his ring finger didn’t have as many calluses.

Rimbaud’s cell phone suddenly vibrated. It was a temporary work arrangement sent by the police station, saying that the task force had been established and that Rimbaud was responsible for going to Red Maple Mountain to investigate the pyramid-shaped cabin. 

Rimbaud sleepily opened his eyes halfway and impatiently rolled into a fishball and sank to the bottom of the fish tank: “Tired, sleepy, won’t go.”

“Yeah, don’t go. What kind of business trip bonus, only 3,000 yuan, are they dispatching a beggar?” Bai Chunian looked through the news of the Alliance Police Station and didn’t see any rewarding compensation. Go his ass, low-level police officers have it too damn hard, only paid such a small amount of money for night shift business trips.

“Bo… nus?”

Rimbaud crawled out of the fish tank dripping wet, picked up a towel to dry off, and began to put on the police uniform. 

Bonuses were necessary.