The Fallen Merman

After the two-day holiday, Bai Chunian resumed work. He walked through the Alliance building’s corridor and went in the direction of the Medical Association. Occasionally, he would pass by several doctors or agents who came for a follow-up check up and greeted them along the way.

An alpha colleague, with his arm in a cast, approached him and intimately stuck to him side by side to pat him on the shoulder, “Chu-ge, everyone knows now that you came to see the doctor with your wife in your arms two days ago. Last night, your fanboys had a lovelorn party at a bar. Everyone cried in each other’s arms for a long time. We were all overjoyed about it.” 

“It seems you attended too.” Bai Chunian smiled but didn’t take it to heart.

“I definitely went ah. It was Duan Yang’s treat, Yang-ge paid for everyone there.”

The corner of Bai Chunian’s mouth twitched: “He’s an alpha, what is he doing there? The eldest young master has nowhere to spend his money? It’s only been two days since he came back from Kingston, it seems like he wasn’t tired enough. I have to find some work for him. There is a vacant seat in the special training base, have him find a good training position.”

The alpha colleague covered his mouth: “I’m not going, you tell him yourself. Don’t tell him that I told you the secret. Yang-ge is going to kill me.”

“He’s lucky if I don’t kill him. Everyday, he only knows how to look for trouble.”

When he arrived at Dr. Han’s clinic, his colleague went upstairs, and Bai Chunian pushed the door and entered.

Han Xingqian leaned back in his chair and was browsing through a laboratory report.

“You’re just in time,” Han Xingqian looked towards the door and nudged his glasses up, “With Rimbaud, did you often compromise, give in, and then condone his tyrannical behavior when he crossed the line?” 

Bai Chunian pursed his lips, “I love it, you don’t get it.”

“Ah, this is the crux of the matter.” Han Xingqian pointed out the abnormal changes in several enzymes on the test sheet, “The alpha hormone in his body has recently increased rapidly, and the external manifestations are intensifying his desire for control, irritability, and so on.”

“Based on my years of research, I have found that fish and the corresponding fish humanoids share only some of the same basic characteristics, but ultimately, they are two different species. In Rimbaud’s case, the manta ray humanoid’s habits are completely independent from a real manta ray’s habits.”

Bai Chunian: “?” 

“Cr ojg jr P xcbk, ktfc atf olrt tewjcblv qbqeijalbc gfjmtfr j mfgajlc qblca, bcf bo atf wbra qbkfgoei bwfujr klii yfmbwf jc jiqtj jcv ajxf bc atf yegvfc bo gfqgbvemalbc.”

“Yo mbegrf, ibbxlcu ja Elwyjev’r rajaf, sbe mjc jcjishf atja atfgf kjr cb rtbgajuf bo jiqtjr lc tlr bglulcji mijc. Pa’r pera atja tf’r yffc bea bo atf mijc obg abb ibcu, jcv sbe’nf pera mbvvifv tlw abb wemt.”

“If you continue to play a harmless kitten in front of him in the future, he’ll turn completely alpha and fuck you over,” Han Xingqian laughed, “I love it. You can also make an appointment with me through the Anorectal Department.”

Bai Chunian’s face turned green visibly. 

“Oh, I read the wrong one. This is the lab report of the Asian sheepshead wrasse.” Han Xingqian suddenly curved his eyes, “Haha, wasn’t it funny?”

“I didn’t come to listen to you cross-talk,” Bai Chunian stood up from across the consultation table and grabbed Han Xingqian’s collar to yank the alpha in front of him, “Why don’t you take a CT scan of your own head to see if there are stones growing inside.”

Han Xingqian let him hold his collar. He slowly raised his hand confidently, curled his fingers, revealing an extra syringe between his fingers. The pink liquid in the transparent tube looked familiar.

“Ac enhancer,” Bai Chunian’s attention was attracted by the syringe. He released his hand and took it from Han Xingqian’s hand. “Is it an Ac enhancer? The one that can make experimental subjects upgrade from cultivation to maturity instantly?” 

“That’s right.” Dr. Han straightened his wrinkled neckline, reclined back in his seat, and placed his hands on the armrests, “But this one is imitated by me. We have not yet mastered the core of 109 Research Institute’s Ac pharmaceutical technology.”

“Does the imitation work?”

“Yes, but it can only last 24 hours.”

Bai Chunian familiarly shoved the syringe into his pocket: ”You didn’t just want to show it off to me. I don’t care, I’ll take it.” 

Han Xingqian took the syringe back when he was about to take it away: “Only after you finish one thing for me, this tube of agent will be given to you. You can use it legally and there are no side effects.”

Bai Chunian sneered: “Conditions?”

Han Xingqian opened the drawer with his fingerprint and pulled out a small silver lockbox, placing it on the table.

“Oh.” Bai Chunian picked up the lockbox and looked it up and down, “Is this the one you brought out of Enxi Hospital?” 

“Yeah, there was an original 109 Institute’s Ac agent from the cold storage in Enxi Hospital. At that time, the cold storage was powered off, and the infected person destroyed all the medicine. No one knew I took something from it.”

Bai Chunian: “You had the box from beginning to end and no one suspected you?”

“It was dark under the lights, and the most dangerous place is the safest place.” Han Xingqian put his fingertips on his lower abdomen. “I used some small techniques and added some active tracking cells to the agent. As long as an experimental subject utilizes this tube of agent, our instruments can identify and examine it.”

Scientific terms like tracking markers, telomeres, and such were foreign to Bai Chunian; medicine was not his field of expertise. 

“It seems that I’ll have a new mission.” Bai Chunian sat lazily on the consultation table, took a pen from the pen holder and quickly twirled it between his fingers, “You apply for a solo mission list with the president, and then give me the original stamped document.”

“I applied for a two-person mission, it’s safer,” Han Xingqian took out a stamped document from the drawer and handed it to Bai Chunian, “This weekend, Researcher Chen Yuan of the 109 Institute will trade a tube of Ac agent with a member of the Red-Throated Bird on the pretext of taking his daughter to the Ocean Park, you will help me swap this Ac agent, containing the tracking cells, with the one he has.”

“For the two-person mission, is my partner still Passenger Pigeon?” Bai Chunian glanced at the mission documents, then directly slid them into a shredder and shredded them.

“You don’t need someone from the Lab Department this time, your partner is Rimbaud.” Han Xingqian said thoughtfully, “You can still go on a date while you guys are at it. The Ocean Park is a romantic spot.” 

“Good idea.” Bai Chunian patted the scraps of paper off his hands, “You’re having me take a fish to Ocean Park, do you think he hasn’t seen them before?”

Han Xingqian pushed his glasses, and the thin chain swayed lightly: “At least you guys would be alone together. How can there be any time for dating in the secret service?”

Bai Chunian pointed to the fish-shaped mark on his neck: “At least I have an omega, you don’t.”

Han Xingqian: “… You don’t have to say it out loud.” 

Bai Chunian leisurely sat cross legged on the clinic table, with his index finger outstretched and pointing at Han Xingqian’s head: “It's easy to go bald in your kind of work so while you’re not yet 25 years old, quickly find an upstanding omega who doesn’t mind you hanging in the lab every day, has no family values, doesn’t know how to cook nor do housework, and likes to be picky. ”

Han Xingqian: “… You settle the consultation fee from last time. A total of one hundred thirty-two yuan and fifty-six cents. ”

As he strolled out the door, Bai Chunian turned back and leaned halfway through the door frame: “Ah, Rimbaud really won’t become an alpha, right?”

“… Don’t worry, all the humanoid races of fish are matrilineal hierarchies, like hyenas.” Before Han Xingqian finished speaking, Bai Chunian had already left. 

“But you may have many competitors.” Han Xingqian tilted his lips at the door where there was no figure to be seen.

After returning home, Bai Chunian checked all the information concerning Ocean Park, memorized everything in his mind, and quickly came up with a set of action plans in his heart.

But now there was an obstacle, that was, there was a non-enclosed viewing area in this Ocean Park. It was clearly required that large bags were not permitted, so as to prevent behaviors such as theft.

If you couldn’t bring suitcases, then how to get Rimbaud inside becomes a big problem—his fish tail was too conspicuous. 

Rimbaud lay on the edge of the fish tank, holding a small basin to eat jellyfish. He watched​ Bai Chunian paste photos, draw action routes, and mark some positions on the white board in the bedroom’s secret chamber.

The alpha was wearing only a black undershirt and shorts at home as he walked around with sandals. Rimbaud’s eyes were unabashedly hooked onto Bai Chunian’s beautiful and slender legs. His eyes move upward and stay at the alpha’s tight waist and hips. The outline of his abdominal and chest muscles was faintly revealed under the black undershirt fabric.

Bai Chunian thought for a while with the marker in his mouth and felt a fiery gaze on him, so he looked back.

Still clutching the small jellyfish basin, Rimbaud sat on the tank’s edge, his fish tail stirring the current, rubbing his neck, and raised his long webbed thumb in praise, “Naiba mouth food.” 

Bai Chunian came over, lifted Rimbaud’s face, and kissed the pink mouth still chewing the crisp jellyfish: “Beautiful and delicious.”

Rimbaud threw the remaining jellyfish into the fish tank, put his cold fingers under Bai Chunian’s undershirt, and stroked his tight abdominal muscles: “I want to lay eggs inside you.”

“But you only get to be fucked.” Bai Chunian squeezed his chin with some force, “Little fishy.”

He was only 200 years old, so he was still a baby at the stage of human growth. 

“Hmm…” Bai Chunian came up with a good idea. He left Rimbaud and went to Passenger Pigeon’s house for a visit, and he brought back a small and cute stroller.

He took a baby hat out and tied it on Rimbaud’s head, plopped a pacifier in Rimbaud’s mouth, fastened a bib around him, then took the whole fish out and stuffed it in the stroller with a little quilt.

Perhaps Rimbaud could be transported into the Ocean Park like this, and then Bai Chunian himself would play the role of a father who was taking his baby to visit the park.

Rimbaud lay dutifully holding up the dainty quilt, his blond hair and blue eyes making him look like a little angel of a famous European painting. 

Just from looking, the upper body was still concealed enough, but Rimbaud raised the tip of the three-meter-long thin tail that was dragging on the ground, and blinked to ask what should be done if the tail couldn’t fit in.

Bai Chunian squatted down, tied a Chinese knot to the thin tail and hung it on the stroller as decoration.

The stroller collapsed and lost two wheels. Rimbaud ate the pacifier, the three miniscule shaking toys hanging in front of him, and the two abandoned wheels.

Bai Chunian later found a wheelchair, and Rimbaud had a thin blanket on his lower body, playing the role of a pitiful disabled omega in a welfare home, while Bai Chunian wore an inconspicuous coat of a volunteer nurse. 

In the green lane at Ocean Park, the security officer asked for proof of disability. Bai Chunian fished out the Tech Department’s forged disability certificate from his pocket and handed it over, pushing the black-rimmed round glasses on his face. He was dressed like the kind of high school student who studied well, was pure, warm-hearted, and nerdy.

After checking, the security personnel reached out and handed it back to Rimbaud.

Rimbaud raised his chin slightly, glanced contemptuously at the documents handed back by the security guard, and said in a low voice: “Noliya bigi, tuo hanes (Rude humans, use both hands (to pass it over)).”

Security guard: “Sorry? Can you speak English?” 

Bai Chunian quickly took the documents back and put them in his pocket, then pushed Rimbaud in his wheelchair, entering Ocean Park.