The Fallen Merman

As lunchtime approached, the scent of food wafted out from the kitchens of every apartment building. Bai Chunian was whistling. Wearing a black vest and pants, he walked up to the elevator in flip-flops carrying vegetables in his left hand and meat in his right hand. At the same time, he freed two fingers on his left hand to hold the green onions, and his right hand also held the cell phone key.

He kicked open the door as he hummed a song, closed it with his foot, then strolled straight into the kitchen. He washed the vegetables, chopped them up, poured in the minced meat, and added starch and seasoning before stirring them into a mix. When the water came to a boil, he put on disposable plastic gloves to grab the meatballs and loaded them into the pot before finally sprinkling in some spinach leaves. 

The meatballs floated up and down inside the pot. Bai Chunian stood by the pot in a blue polka dot apron, holding a spoon in his hand to stir from time to time. The aroma drifted out of the window.

The cell phone on the dish rack rang, and the name “Boss” displayed on the screen.

Bai Chunian casually dried his hands by rubbing them on his apron and picked the phone up humming a song.

Yan Yi: “How’s your self-reflection at home?”

“Not bad, not bad at all.” Bai Chunian scooped up a spoonful of soup and lowered his head to taste it, “It’s especially great. I signed up for a class in New West and discovered the meaning of life.”

Yan Yi: “…Last month you assisted the Alliance Police Department in the pyramid cabin rescue mission. It could be counted as a meritorious deed. You can come back.”

Bai Chunian: “? The class I signed up for isn’t finished yet. I’ve learned till the part of carving winter melons. I carved a rabbit and a falcon in class, half a meter tall, very beautiful. I’ll send them home to you and Uncle Jin in the afternoon.”

Yan Yi rubbed his temples: “No need. In the afternoon, go to the new agent training camp. Someone will be waiting for you.” 

“Yt.”

Ktf mjii fcvfv, jr vlv atf kbcvfgoei njmjalbc.

C qjlg bo tjcvr klat ibcu kfyyfv olcufgr gfrafv ufcais bc tlr kjlra.

Djl Jtecljc’r ybvs ogbhf obg j wbwfca. C mbiv ybvs mjwf eq ogbw yftlcv, ralmxlcu ab tlr yjmx. Ktfc, jr lo j qlfmf bo rcbkoijxf aglmxifv bc atf rlvf bo tlr cfmx, j xlrr ogbw atf atlc mbiv ilqr vgbqqfv bc tlw. 

A strand of blond hair fell on his cheeks. Bai Chunian turned around and was met with a pair of psychedelic water-colored blue eyes.

Rimbaud could control his height depending on which section of fishbone he used to support his body to stand; like right now, he could be as tall as Bai Chunian.

He ripped his tie loose and opened the collar of his police uniform, slightly releasing love pheromones and wrapping his arms around the alpha’s waist from behind. His bandaged hand burrowed into the alpha’s undershirt from the hem and stroked it, the rough surface of the bandage rubbing against the firm abdominal muscles.

“randi kiblan defuyo nibogi obe,” The merman whispered softly in the alpha’s ear, his voice bearing a heavy lust and sensuality that brought drowsiness to those who hear it. 

After a month of soaking in soothing pheromones, the merman had entered the end of the cultivation stage and could fully understand language and express emotions. But since the language system he used since childhood was different from that of humans, his spoken language still had major flaws.

That old professor from the Alliance Medical Department had studied the merfolk language, but the languages of merfolks from different seas and different kinds of fish were entirely unalike. So far humans haven’t been able to completely decipher the merfolk language—only some common words.

For example, “randi” referred to cats, but specifically those with pink paw pads, while other cats were “rando”.

“kadin” meant to wait, later. 

“obe” meant sexual intercourse.

Bai Chunian’s Adam’s apple moved up and down. He lowered his head and poured the meatball soup into the white porcelain soup pot and closed the lid, saying in a hoarse voice, “Don’t provoke me. The Alliance Medical Department has classified experimental subjects in the cultivation stage as lacking complete self-awareness and sense of responsibility. If I go to bed with you now, I’ll go to jail.”

Rimbaud wrinkled his thin light-colored eyebrows, and his tail vaguely showed a tell-tale sign of changing color from blue to red.

He pushed the alpha hard to the side of the cupboard, curling his fishtail in a spiral from the alpha’s waist to his thighs. He wrapped his hands around Bai Chunian’s neck and hung his entire weight on the alpha’s body, lips pressing light kisses to the side of Bai Chunian’s neck. This spot still had the imprints of two blue fish-shaped marks, which apparently, already looked too faded in Rimbaud’s opinion. 

When the merman’s sharp teeth bit through the skin on the side of Bai Chunian’s neck, he sent the fragrant musk rose pheromones to burrow under his skin. The severe pain mixed with lust made the blue veins on Bai Chunian’s shoulders pop out. He leaned back against the cupboard and inhaled with a hiss, “It hurts, you injected too much pheromones.”

A dark blue fish-shaped mark emerged from under the bleeding teeth marks. Bai Chunian lowered his head and held the merman’s body with one hand. He pushed the omega’s chin away with his left hand and lightly lifted it, lowering his eyebrows to gaze at him: “It’s okay, just bully me, I’ll wait for you to cry and beg me not to get you to death during your maturity.”

Rimbaud’s palm moved downward against the alpha’s lower abdomen and at the same time the fins on his lower abdomen were pushed up.

“boliea mitub jideio meqiu,” He whispered bewitchingly into the alpha’s ear. 

The word “meqiu” meant spawning, and “jideio” meant brood pouch.

Due to the scarcity of merfolks, the natural balance made them reproduce in a variety of ways to achieve the most suitable rate of population growth. One of these methods in the case of harsh environments involved merfolk omegas scattering their eggs into different merfolk alphas so that the more powerful and physically tougher alphas would get the roles of hatching and protecting the offspring instead.

However, apart from merfolks, most alphas didn’t have this brood pouch function, so it could be understood that Rimbaud meant he wanted to be the one who did the entering when he “obe”-d with Bai Chunian.

“Fuck, you’re too thoughtful. Sure thing, come on husband, hug me.” Bai Chunian held Rimbaud’s slender waist with both hands, their bodies squeezed closer, and his cheek pressed into the nook of Rimbaud’s neck. 

Soon, Bai Chulian’s body heat passed onto Rimbaud’s skin through the wet bandage. Rimbaud started to feel hot, so he wriggled his body trying to dissipate the heat.

But Bai Chunian didn’t let go. His hands held him tighter instead. “What’re you doing? Don’t run.”

The temperature was rising higher and higher. The alpha’s body heat made Rimbaud so uncomfortable, he struggled in Bai Chunian’s arms.

“Hot.” 

“You can’t even stand this. It’s even hotter inside, don’t you want to try it?”

“Can.”

“Still so stubborn.” Bai Chunian put his palms on Rimbaud’s buttocks. The merman felt so hot that he trembled all over. He couldn’t help but push the alpha’s shoulders. “Let go of me… so hot…”

Bai Chunian intended to teach this omega who wanted to rebel a lesson, so he didn’t let go. What he didn’t expect was that a layer of water would float up Rimbaud’s eyes on the verge of overflowing, trapped on the sapphire pupils. 

“Ai.” Bai Chunian loosened his arms that were holding the omega tightly and lowered his head to kiss his eyes, “Even cried.”

“Okay, okay, don’t cry.” Bai Chunian hurried back to the bedroom carrying Rimbaud and put the fish burned from body heat back into the fish tank.

Rimbaud dived deep into the bottom of the water. His tail swayed and brought out a string of jellyfish emitting blue lights. It took a long time before he floated up again, hands holding the edge of the fish tank, and with a blank face he looked up at Bai Chunian. Black pearls polarized with blue lights popped out of his eyelashes.

Bai Chunian squatted by the fish tank and stroked Rimbaud’s hair to comfort him. “Just kidding, don’t cry ah.” 

“Aiya, they can even be made into a necklace. I can’t get rich by bullying my wife.”

“Be good, I’ll show you something fun, come here.”

Rimbaud spat a few bubbles of contempt at him, swam to a corner away from Bai Chunian, rolled into a ball, and stopped moving.

Bai Chunian pressed his palm on the outer wall of the fish tank and tapped on the glass lightly, “Look at this.” 

Rimbaud opened his eyes halfway to glance at him, then his eyes suddenly lit up. He swam underwater to observe Bai Chunian’s palm on the outer wall of the fish tank.

“Randi,” Rimbaud joyfully stretched out his fingertips to touch the alpha’s palm through the glass, tail cocked out of the water gesturing a heart to Bai Chunian.