The Fallen Merman

“Where are you right now?” Bai Chunian asked through the speaker, “I’ll go over and look for you.”

The drone’s signal was sometimes strong and sometimes weak. The noisy sound of the electric current covered Rimbaud’s voice. The image kept being unresponsive, then the screen finally just blacked out. Bai Chunian sat in front of the detection terminal, impatiently tapping his palm. 

Bai Chunian threw down the malfunctioning equipment and got a breath of fresh air on the deck.

The sky gradually darkened. The breeze was still, the waves were quiet on the sea surface, and a white fog slowly enveloped the cruise ship.

The IOA South American Branch had arranged this ship for Bai Chunian to ride as a passenger. Several IOA Branch special agents undertaking secret missions were on the boat, mixing with plainclothes people pretending to be businessmen. A lot of canned meat goods were carried in the ship hold as a cover. Bai Chunian was just taking a free ride.

A Havana fellow passenger was standing on the deck, holding up binoculars toward the west. Bai Chunian walked over and stood next to him, holding the railing and feeling the wind.

A pair of bright, dark eyes embedded the alpha’s bronze face. His English was very fluent, and he put down his binoculars and greeted Bai Chunian:

“Brother, we’re going to have trouble.”

Bai Chunian shrugged: “Why?”

“This area of sea is the merfolk’s territory,” the alpha said, “As told in Greek mythology, this kind of sea demon will entice the humans, trick the passing ships over, then kill sailors for food.” 

“Then why do we still need to take this route?” Although it was just what Bai Chunian wanted, he still wanted to know what the challenge of the unknown meant to them.

The alpha laughed, “I really want to see live merfolk. Many special agents are on board, and there are also enough weapons.”

The more capable a person was, the more likely they were to die on the road of curiosity, which made perfect sense to Bai Chunian.

“In all these years, no one has ever seen the merfolk’s lair. It is said that cruise ships and cargo ships often disappear strangely in this area of the sea. Merfolk Island is a more mysterious and terrifying place than the Bermuda Triangle, and all electronic equipment will go out of control there.” The alpha said, “My paternal grandfather had a lucky and narrow escape from death near Merfolk Island and told me his story. He said Merfolk Island indeed exists, but he also couldn’t enter.” 

Bai Chunian nodded.

From the scenes Rimbaud showed him, the place he lived was a huge area of shipwrecks. It wasn’t inferior to an island, but even the satellites could not detect its location, and its existence was still a mystery.

The alpha took out two pairs of earplugs from his pocket and handed one pair to Bai Chunian: “Just in case, want it?”

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

Bai Chunian took them. 

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Bai Chunian did not wear earplugs. He believed in the legend, but did not believe that the sea demons in the legend referred to Rimbaud. He knew Rimbaud too well. The cultivation stage Rimbaud was a simpleton who knew how to eat some plastic garbage.

A long, distant cry came from the depths of the thick fog. 

The people on the boat heard it too, and they ran towards the sound they heard one after another. But there was one running in every direction, and everyone thought only they themselves were correct.

Some said it was just a whale screaming, and others said it was a merfolk’s cry.

Bai Chunian knew who this familiar voice came from.

The alpha beside him shook him out of his fugue: “Hey brother, quick, put your earplugs in. You’re about to be hooked by a sea monster.” 

“I’m willing to be. Hook me over quickly.”

The alpha couldn’t persuade him no matter what and determined he was under the influence of the merfolk, so he took a few steps back from him.

Long psychedelic cries repeated continuously from every direction, gradually interweaving into a melody. A flexible and ungraspable voice chanted in the dense fog, long and gentle. However, it was impossible to tell if it was a man or a woman, or if it was a singing voice of a mixture of many different voices, singing a poem-like charming incantation that echoed in everyone’s head.

Some people on the deck were kneeling on the floor dazedly, some were howling with laughter, some were crying bitterly, some people’s eyes had lost focal distance and were pacing back and forth around the deck like walking corpses. 

Bai Chunian felt as if two hands were petting his hair very gently and tenderly. He touched his face, and his eyelids inexplicably filled up with moist water.

The ship’s automatic navigation device died out and could not be restarted no matter what. The outdated compass was also spinning recklessly. Their ship completely lost its direction, floating and shaking around on the endless sea surface.

It was like their ship was being manipulated by a strange force, sailing automatically in the direction of the enticing singing voice.

In the thick fog, the shadows of flying birds hovered in the air. 

A huge bird fell on their mast. People’s lines of sight were drawn to him one after another-but they saw a humanoid creature sitting leisurely on their mast with a pair of wings full of scales on his back. His build was curvaceous, both his legs were wrapped in scales and a tail, and the enticing eyes swept over the deck. The natural tips of his claws with transparent webbing traced his red lips and blew a kiss at the people.

The sky was hovering with countless similarly gorgeous birds of different colors, their scales reflecting the dark light.

Bai Chunian stood in a daze on the deck. The direction he was facing in the fog first appeared a huge sharp-cornered silhouette. Someone seemed to be sitting on top of the faintly discernible silhouette.

The ship drew closer to the island uncontrollably, and the outline of the island became clearer and clearer. The sharp corner that Bai Chunian saw was a shipwreck stuck in the sea with half of its ship’s hold arching out of the sea surface. 

The shipwreck emitted blue light in the mist, and it wasn’t the only one. The reef island where the ship struck the reefs also emitted flickering blue light akin to dancing ghosts.

Hundreds of merfolks with various colored tails sat on the deck, chanting. They gracefully leapt into the sea, swam toward their ship, leapt high above the surrounding sea surface, then quickly dove into the water.

A blonde merman sitting on the ghost ship waved at him, his translucent blue fishtail twinkling with starlight.

Bai Chunian stood on the deck of the ship as if separated from Rimbaud by a different world. 

Their ship suddenly brushed a reef and produced an ear-splitting sound. The deck shook wildly, and just as their ship was about to become a showpiece in the shipwreck area, the ship slowed down.

Bai Chunian held onto the railing and looked out into the water surface. The underwater merfolks pushed the ship’s course away from the island, and the winged merfolks forced their propellers to a halt by clutching the kelp with their claws.

The merfolks spewed up a jet of water, setting up a staircase supported by water between the two ships.

Rimbaud raised his slender tail and rolled it into a heart shape in the air. In the middle of the heart shape, the thin tail wound up into a few letters, “I LV U,” as if it were an electric blue light-up sign at the airport.. 

Bai Chunian sobered up. The ship’s people had all fainted, lying on the deck’s floor disorderly. Now, in this situation, it looked like the brethren still standing on the deck with earplugs were very out of place. The Havana lad looked at Bai Chunian blankly: “Are they welcoming us?”

Bai Chunian took advantage of his daze and punched him in the back of the neck. The lad, unlucky and unaware of the true facts, fell down.

“It’s got nothing to do with you. They’re welcoming me.”

The water jet stairs connected the two ships, and Bai Chunian’s ship was about ten meters lower than the half-sunken luxury cruise ship where Rimbaud was. The transparent water stairs led from his feet directly to Rimbaud’s side. 

Rimbaud leapt lightly into the water-supported steps, swam towards Bai Chunian, pounced into his arms, and asked beside his ear in a low voice: “Randi mebolu jeo? (Did little kitty miss me?)

“I can’t do this, I have to recuperate for a moment.” Bai Chunian held Rimbaud with one hand. The other hand covered his heart, “I can’t accept this in a moment. I thought you were a village chief. I didn’t expect you to be president.”

“En?”

“Nothing, I…this commoner doesn’t know where to stay.” 

Rimbaud patted his head, “Be good.”

“What should I call you?” Bai Chunian was a little nervous, walking around the deck while carrying him, “Siren. That’s your original name, right?”

“Rimbaud. I like Rimbaud.”

He looked at Bai Chunian, his eyes full of blunt indulgence. 

Bai Chunian carried him with one hand and walked up the stairs held up by the water towards the magnificent and beautiful ghost island. He had not yet seen Rimbaud’s home.

They had just stepped onto the transparent stairs when the merfolk climbed onto the deck. They hungrily and greedily looked at the floor full of fainted humans, saliva dripping onto the deck.

Rimbaud quietly put on a cold, stern face toward them in a direction Bai Chunian couldn’t see and silently threatened, “Nowa gurayi. (Not allowed to eat)”

The merfolk, afraid of their King’s awe, retreated grumpily into the water and pushed the ship far away from the direction of Merfolk Island. 

The stairs held up by the water looked particularly regular in shape. Since it was made in this shape, Bai Chunian subconsciously thought he could walk on these stairs. He didn’t expect that his foot would step on air, slipping into the water.

But he did not sink. A one-person high bubble wrapped around him, and the water was separated outside the bubble. Bai Chunian stood up, tried to reach his hand outside the bubble, and the bubble did not break. He could touch the seawater outside the bubble.

Rimbaud was lying outside the bubble, looking at him and smiling.

He swam behind him and pushed Bai Chunian toward the deep sea. The merfolk they met along the way bowed and saluted them one by one, “Quaun.” 

Bai Chuanian turned around and asked, “Are they addressing you?”

Rimbaud blinked and didn’t confirm nor deny.

They entered the twilight zone two hundred meters underwater. Bai Chuanian didn’t feel any pressure or difficulty breathing. It was like on dry land, and even the oxygen was fresher.

Very many fishes were at this depth. Schools of fish very quickly swam past beside him, densely packed like an orderly swarm of bumblebees. Schools of herring swiftly lingered around beneath his feet. 

Bai Chunian squatted down and stared intently at the fish in the water. He suddenly reached out, grabbed one up, and stuck it under his nose to sniff it, clutching the struggling herring.

Rimbaud: “? Do you want to eat it?”

Bai Chunian: “No, I’m just smelling to see if the fish stinks before they are canned.”

On the road, they met two pregnant merfolk omegas taking a walk in the twilight zone. The two little omegas were supporting big bellies. Bai Chunian thought that as an alpha, he shouldn’t go near them. However, Rimbaud didn’t care at all and pushed Bai Chunian to swim over. 

The two pregnant merfolk laboriously bowed and saluted.

Rimbaud held them, gently placed both his hands on their bellies, and quietly said: “Quaun blasyi kimo. (Queen bless and protect/Blessings/Bestow favor on you guys)” The jellyfish glowing blue turned into sparkling star fragments, following Rimbaud’s hands, and fell onto the heads of the two merfolk omegas.

The two merfolk omegas saw the blue fish mark on Bai Chuanian’s shoulder and lowered their heads in surprise: “Quaun mit. (Thank you, Queen)”

“Ah, hello hello, hello.” Bai Chuanian didn’t know what they meant and squatted in the bubble, watching the liveliness. 

They often meet different merfolks along the way. There were many pregnant merfolks. There were omegas and also alphas. Every time they meet a merfolk pregnant with a baby, Rimbaud would always stop, release a jellyfish glowing blue for them, and say ‘Queen bless you guys.’

Meeting a merfolk carrying a little baby, Rimbaud took the baby in their embrace and gave it to Bai Chunian for a hug.

The little baby with the long fishtail was a very small and soft ball. Bai Chunian could cup it in the hollow of his palms with just two hands.

“Don’t give him to me. He’s so small. I’ll burn him badly. Quick quick quick, get him.” Bai Chunian had never touched a child. The hand that was used to holding guns was a little rough, and his strength was also very powerful. He was afraid to pinch the little baby badly, so he hurriedly returned it. 

Rimbaud’s brows wrinkled slightly. He gently asked, eyes worried: “Nowa? (Don’t like?)”

He swam back very slowly to return the little baby to his mother. His hand supported the little merman’s head, and he dejectedly gave him a jellyfish that was a bit smaller.