As the dawn broke, the surroundings gradually brightened.
"...How did you end up here?"
Upon hearing this sentence, Yu Bai sensed that the other's mental state seemed to darken a bit.
This was a sign of a slightly deteriorating mood.
He didn't understand what Fu Linyuan meant by the question, but he clearly felt the emotional change in him.
So, Yu Bai subconsciously smiled at him.
However, this method, which used to work well, now seemed not as effective.
Fu Linyuan furrowed his brows even tighter.
Xiao Bai squatted on the ground, covered in bloodstains. His originally slender figure curled up into a small bundle. Although it was not clear where he was injured, it still evoked a particularly sympathetic feeling.
The two of them stared at each other for a few seconds, and Fu Linyuan spoke first.
"Where are you injured?"
Yu Bai guessed his meaning from his tone and quickly shook his head. Then, he pointed to the two punk aliens lying on the ground nearby, indicating that the blood on him was from them. Then, he couldn't help but gesture again, trying to tell Fu Linyuan how these two people had followed him, tried to grab his hair after he avoided them, and got angry when he fought back.
Fu Linyuan glanced over and judged from their clothes that they were space pirates.
The two lying on the ground were similarly battered, with bruised and swollen faces and unrecognizable features. Their exposed blue skin was covered in dark purple bruises from heavy blows, and they had almost no signs of life.
It's hard to imagine what kind of brute force could cause such extensive damage in such a short time.
Fu Linyuan's gaze paused, then turned back to the figure still crouching on the ground.
Silence fell over the surroundings for a few seconds, and then a slightly lowered voice, carrying some indistinct emotions, sounded.
"You did well."
Yu Bai understood this sentence.
He was being praised!
So, the little merperson's eyes lit up, and he smiled again.
The dawn broke through the horizon, and at that moment, the brilliant light illuminated those blue eyes.
Unintentionally, it evoked thoughts of a dazzling sunrise over an endless sea.
"...Alright," Fu Linyuan seemed uninterested in why he fought, "let's go."
Yu Bai understood this as well.
So, the little merperson stood up happily and tried to follow the man.
However, maybe he had crouched for too long, or maybe he had stood up too abruptly, Yu Bai felt his legs suddenly lose strength at the moment of standing straight. With a burst of stars appearing before his eyes, he lost his balance and stumbled forward.
Then, he collided with a firm embrace.
Yue Bai's nose tip hurt a bit from the impact. The acrid scent in his nostrils made him instinctively scrunch his nose, and a thin layer of mist gathered in his eyes.
The man who supported him also paused. About to let go, he heard the person in his arms take a slight gasp.
So, the intended words were interrupted, turning into a question:
"What's wrong?"
Yu Bai pointed to his legs.
His legs suddenly felt strange.
It seemed like something was crawling on them, and something thin was constantly pricking him.
Especially his right leg, it was itchy and painful. The flesh on his calf felt like it was being fiercely pulled together.
The little merperson started to panic.
He didn't use much mental power when he fought those two strange people just now. He could defeat ten more like them.
But now his two legs suddenly felt strange, as if they were about to turn back into a fish tail at any moment.
Fu Linyuan lowered his head and knew immediately what was going on.
Probably due to squatting for too long, Yu Bai got a cramp.
However, just now, he could easily knock down two burly punk guys with his bare hands. It seemed to be the first time Xiao Bai had encountered such a situation, and amazement, confusion, and a little bit of fear gathered in those watery eyes. It made him look like a pitiful little creature encountering difficulties by chance, making people soft-hearted without realizing it.
Lowering his eyes, the man's tone softened imperceptibly.
"Don't move."
He half-supported and half-lifted Yu Bai, making him sit on a nearby low broken wall. Then, he crouched down, rolled up Yu Bai's right trouser leg.
The exposed slender calf was fair and straight. The ankle was outlined by gauze, showing a delicate and exquisite shape. At this moment, the thin layer of muscle on the calf was tightly twisted together, occasionally twitching irregularly.
This was the first time Yu Bai had experienced something like this.
The strange and unfamiliar pain in his legs made him feel a bit panicked. He subconsciously tightened the fabric on Fu Linyuan's shoulder.
"Hold on..." Fu Linyuan paused before reaching out, then added in a low voice, "It might hurt a bit."
As soon as the words were spoken, the warm fingertips touched the slightly cool skin and began to press rhythmically.
It hurt so much!
The extremely sensitive nerves automatically intensified the sensation of pain. Yue Bai gasped several times in a row, and his fingers almost pulled Fu Linyuan's clothes out of shape.
It really hurts...
Unable to control himself, he bit his lower lip and closed his eyes. The thin back trembled slightly, feeling the pain that made him want to shed tears.
Why does it hurt so much...
Before the thin layer of mist that had gathered in his eyes fell, the almost unbearable pain finally diminished with the rhythmic pressure.
Fu Linyuan's palm was slightly higher. With rhythmic pressure, the spasming and twitching muscles gradually returned to normal.
In the morning sunlight, the tall man half-knelt beside the seemingly fragile youth, his gaze lowered, earnestly massaging the other's leg.
After Duke parked the spacecraft and stuck his head out to look for someone, he saw this scene.
The excellent vice admiral, with a military career of five years, once again fell into silence.
... He couldn't say the specific reason, but he suddenly felt very, very, very redundant at this moment.
Then he noticed something wrong.
Who is this silver-haired beautiful young man?
Didn't the marshal say to find Xiao Bai?
...Wait a minute...
After seeing the facial features of Xiao Bai clearly, Duke couldn't help but widen his eyes, then froze.
At first, when he saw the disguise device on Xiao Bai's ear, he thought it was because the other's appearance was too strange. The marshal used the disguise device to avoid drawing attention.
Now it seems...
Not wanting to draw attention was true.
Duke couldn't describe his feelings at that moment.
In that moment, he seemed to finally understand why in the ancient legends of the Sirens, just appearing was enough to bewilder the sailors of the entire fleet, willingly burying themselves in the vast sea.
Even with bloodstains on his face, it didn't affect the features that stunned people with a single glance.
When his long eyelashes drooped, a small, inconspicuous shadow cast in his eyes. The silver hair looked particularly smooth under the sunlight.
Sitting quietly there, he was as beautiful as a painting.
...Is this... really the rumoured appearance of an ugly sea creature?
Duke was stunned for a good while before coming to his senses.
He retracted his head, touched his nose, and wisely chose to lightly press the horn.
After the two boarded the spacecraft, Duke stole a glance at them through the rearview mirror and spoke.
"There's good news and bad news, Mar... marshal, which one do you want to hear first?"
Fu Linyuan glanced at him.
Duke felt a chill down his spine from that glance. He shrunk his neck, put away all his nonchalance, and honestly said, "The bad news is that we lost track of our people at the jump point. They used the magnetic storms near the jump point to conceal their whereabouts. Our tracking ship is too small to withstand such a strong impact, so I had to order them to withdraw."
As he spoke, he looked a bit dejected.
The people under his command were tracking the employer bidding on Medusa in the auction. They suspected that the other party belonged to a laboratory specializing in illicit substances.
They had been investigating this lead for a long time, but because the clues were intermittent and indirect, they only recently learned that the other party might appear at this auction.
If this laboratory really existed, it would undoubtedly pose a huge threat to the Orion Empire and the entire Interstellar Federation.
Just looking at the Medusa they brought out this time was enough evidence.
Unexpectedly, even after months of preparation... they still lost track.
Fu Linyuan responded with a hum, and there was no blame in his tone. "What's the good news?"
"The person who infiltrated the room has been captured and is already on the main ship waiting for interrogation." Duke started the spacecraft. "This person appears to be a bodyguard from the auction house on the surface, but we found... a mark on him just now."
Saying this, Duke couldn't help but feel fortunate in his heart.
This was the first time in such a long time that they had captured someone who was suspected to be directly related to the laboratory.
At the mention of the last two words, Fu Linyuan's gaze sharpened.
Duke continued, "It seems that their target is..."
He didn't finish his sentence, but his gaze shifted from the rearview mirror to Yu Bai, who was leaning against the window and looking down.
Yu Bai seemed to have rolled in some mud during his adventure, and the coat he was wearing was wrinkled and dirty, and even his face had some stains.
Fu Linyuan also looked at the person sitting beside him.
The latter seemed not to be on a spacecraft for the first time, showing no panic in the unfamiliar environment. Instead, he showed some obvious excitement and curiosity.
Yu Bai was indeed a bit curious.
This was the fourth time he had looked down from a flying box in his two fish lives.
Two of those times, he was taken out of the sea by the big liar in this lifetime.
The other time was when Fu Linyuan took him away from the laboratory in the previous lifetime.
Is this the feeling of a little bird?
Looking down from a high place, everything visible became much smaller than when on the ground. Yu Bai also saw the overall appearance of the auction house for the first time.
It was a conspicuous light-coloured building with many strange sculptures embedded on the outer walls. After looking for a long time, Yue Bai still couldn't figure out what species those sculptures represented. Anyway, it wasn't any species he recognized.
Then the spacecraft ascended higher and higher.
With the increase in altitude, the color of the sky gradually deepened, and the pristine clouds got closer to him.
The little merperson, who spent most of his time in the water, was watching very seriously.
He didn't notice the gaze falling on the back of his head.
The spacecraft approached the starship parked in midair like this.
.......................................................................................
.......................................................................................
next chapter not yet, check back in a while !
.......................................................................................
.......................................................................................
Thanks for the update!! 🤩🤩🤩
ReplyDelete