Chapter 167: Back To That Key Moment ④

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Chapter 167: Back To That Key Moment ④

Qin Yuan stood aboard the boat frying fish, glancing toward the sea from time to time. Two dolphins chased and played beneath the blue sky, as carefree as innocent children.

The aroma of fried fish drifted through the fresh sea breeze. Shang Ke poked his head above the water, sniffed toward Qin Yuan, and immediately curved his eyes in delight.

Then he dove beneath the surface again. A white wave rolled past, and when he reappeared, he had transformed into a handsome young man.

Shang Ke climbed onto the deck in one smooth motion and casually wrapped a towel around his waist. Droplets fell continuously from his wet hair onto pale skin, glittering like tiny diamonds in the sunlight. The red Crimson Skyfire on his chest burned like a living flame, adding a touch of provocative beauty to his otherwise clear, ethereal appearance.

Qin Yuan slipped an arm around his waist and kissed him, immediately tasting the salty bitterness of seawater on his lips. His fingers slid along Shang Ke’s firm thigh and slowly slipped beneath the towel.

Shang Ke pushed him away, plucked a small fruit from the nearby plate, and stuffed it into his mouth. “Eat.”

With that, he turned into the cabin and returned with a thermos filled with the nourishing soup he had prepared for Qin Yuan.

Years of insomnia and poor appetite had left Qin Yuan in suboptimal health. He often suffered stomach pain, had lost a great deal of weight, and wore a sallow, exhausted face every day—successfully awakening the full force of Shang Ke’s “paternal love.”

From then on, Shang Ke took complete control of Qin Yuan’s meals and daily schedule. Even on a pleasure trip out to sea, he remembered to bring a thermos of nourishing soup, determined to feed a certain man back into a robust, glowing specimen of health.

Qin Yuan drank his soup while watching Shang Ke eat the fried fish, his expression plainly saying, That looks delicious. Can’t I have just one?

Anything fried was banned from Shang Ke’s health-conscious menu, so Qin Yuan could look and smell, but he was not allowed to eat.

Shang Ke remained unmoved. He finished the fish in a few bites, wiped his hands, picked up a glass of red wine, put on sunglasses, and stretched out on a lounge chair to sunbathe in perfect comfort.

The sight of him enjoying himself so thoroughly made Qin Yuan itch to do something about it.

Once Qin Yuan had finished eating, he set down his utensils and, while Shang Ke was not paying attention, reached out and pulled him onto his lap.

Red wine splashed from the glass. Shang Ke did not even have time to cry out before Qin Yuan sealed his mouth with a kiss.

Qin Yuan hooked an arm beneath his leg and shifted him from sitting sideways to straddling his lap. Shang Ke immediately felt a hard erection pressing between his thighs, rubbing insistently against his sensitive skin through the fabric.

The towel slipped from Shang Ke’s waist, exposing the graceful line of his back and his firm, rounded ass. Qin Yuan pulled down his trousers, freed the hard cock between his legs, lifted Shang Ke by the hips, aligned himself with his entrance, and slowly pushed inside…

With a splash, Wave burst from the water and looked up at the two men entwined on the deck. A dolphin’s hearing was extraordinarily sensitive, so every muffled moan and rhythmic impact reached him with almost surround-sound clarity.

Wave sank lower until only his smooth head remained above water, his bright little eyes full of frustration.

At five years old, Wave had reached sexual maturity for a dolphin. Dolphins paid little attention to species differences, and once they entered a mating period, they were easily stimulated.

Unlike Shang Ke, who possessed a human soul, Wave considered a dolphin’s body perfectly satisfactory. As far as he was concerned, mating in that form was convenient enough, and there was no need to transform.

Dolphins were not especially demanding about a partner’s appearance; as long as both sides were willing, pairing up was easy. Under Shang Ke’s influence, however, the innocent Wave had not yet developed the habit of chasing partners everywhere. If he kept failing to find someone suitable, though, there was no telling whether he might eventually start living up to the “wild” pun in his name.

After one climax, Qin Yuan’s still-hard cock remained buried deep inside Shang Ke. He wrapped both arms around his waist and turned his head to nibble lightly at his ear.

At that moment, Shang Ke pushed him back and pointed toward the water. “Look. Is that a lifeboat?”

Qin Yuan turned and saw a white lifeboat drifting on the surface not far away.

“I’ll go check.” Shang Ke lifted himself off Qin Yuan’s lap. Their tightly joined bodies separated at once, and thick fluid slowly began leaking from him.

Shang Ke’s legs went weak, and Qin Yuan caught him by the waist. “Get dressed. I’ll take the boat over.”

Shang Ke nodded and headed into the cabin.

Qin Yuan steered toward the lifeboat. When they drew close, they saw a woman lying inside, her condition unknown.

Qin Yuan secured the lifeboat with a rope, then he and Shang Ke moved the woman onto their boat.

The woman appeared to be around thirty, with attractive features and a white hospital gown. Her lower abdomen protruded noticeably; she looked pregnant.

Without drawing attention to it, Shang Ke checked her pulse and confirmed his suspicion. She was roughly seven or eight months pregnant, though her thin frame made the pregnancy less obvious than usual.

“Judging by that gown, she may have been a test subject at some research facility,” Qin Yuan said with a frown.

“She’s in bad shape. Let’s take her back first.” Shang Ke did not want unnecessary trouble, but neither could he leave someone to die.

Qin Yuan had no objection and turned the boat back toward the island.

Flame’s Home was isolated from the outside world. If the woman caused any problems, Qin Yuan could deal with them at any time.

They brought the woman back to the island, but even after two days of treatment she never regained consciousness. The fetus, however, appeared to be developing well, though it was somewhat undersized.

Qin Yuan remembered the genetically mutated infants from his previous life. They had all appeared normal before birth, only to mutate the instant they were delivered.

He told Shang Ke about the possibility. After thinking for a moment, Shang Ke said, “I participated in the dolphin-gene research from beginning to end. If the fetus really is going to mutate, I may be able to do something about it.”

The mutations were primarily caused by the absence of the dolphins’ progenitor genes. Repeated screening and recombination had made the altered genes extremely unstable, producing many mutated life-forms that represented failed evolutionary branches.

Dolphin genes allowed only one successful assimilation choice. Once an individual selected a transformed form, its genes could maintain a stable balance only between that form and the original one. Attempting multiple transformations would cause the genetic structure to collapse.

Dolphins themselves could evolve through species assimilation, but they were aquatic mammals. Other organisms altered by dolphin genes therefore tended toward a semi-humanoid aquatic form—in other words, merfolk, specifically mammalian merfolk. This was the most normal and stable evolutionary direction produced by the progenitor genes. Other mutant forms all possessed defects to varying degrees.

Seeing Shang Ke’s interest in the research, Qin Yuan set up a private laboratory for him with all the necessary equipment. The earlier dolphin-gene project had actually achieved a breakthrough before Dipson destroyed it. After losing both living dolphins, humanity had been forced to rely on preserved experimental samples for cultivation and replication, producing numerous mutated genes with disastrous consequences.

Shang Ke carried out detailed examinations of both the pregnant woman and the fetus. The fetus did indeed carry mutated genes, but they had not yet activated. If he could force them into complete dormancy, the baby should not mutate after birth.

Every organism carried latent genes. Whichever genetic expression became dominant would determine the form the organism displayed.

Using laboratory techniques, Shang Ke introduced his own genes into the fetus and rebalanced its genetic structure. As long as his genes could completely suppress the unstable mutated genes, the child should be able to escape their harmful effects and be born safely.

The mother, however, might never awaken. Machines could keep her body alive, but whatever tragedy had happened to her would probably remain a mystery forever.

Three months later, the baby was born. Just as Shang Ke had predicted, no horrifying mutation occurred; instead, the child transformed into a little merfolk.

Qin Yuan had never expected Shang Ke to successfully produce a little merfolk so easily. The solution humanity had desperately sought for its reproductive crisis had been in the hands of the very dolphin they had repeatedly harmed. The irony of humanity’s reckless impatience could hardly have been greater.

Seeing the adorable little merfolk naturally reminded Shang Ke of the ones he had raised before, so he asked Qin Yuan what had happened to them.

Qin Yuan’s expression shifted. After a long silence, he answered, “They all… died young.”

“They died?” Shang Ke looked shocked, then lowered his head, his expression dimming.

Qin Yuan pulled him into a gentle embrace. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t capable enough to keep them alive.”

It was worse than simply failing to save them. If Qin Yuan had not been reborn, he would have failed to save Wave as well—and, in his own mind, would have left Flame trapped alive inside that freezing coffin on the ocean floor.

The thought made Qin Yuan’s heart spasm with pain again.

Seeing how terrible Qin Yuan looked, Shang Ke ended up comforting him instead. “Don’t blame yourself so much. Wanting to do something doesn’t always mean you’ll be able to.”

He gently touched the little merfolk soaking in warm water and said seriously, “Since this little one chose to come to us, maybe raising him to adulthood is meant to be our responsibility.”

Shang Ke’s earnest expression touched the softest part of Qin Yuan’s heart, making his love for him almost impossible to contain.

“Qin Yuan.”

“Mm?”

“I’ll be his dad. How about you be his mom?”

“…”

Once they had decided to raise the little merfolk themselves, the child occupied most of Shang Ke’s day. Qin Yuan could only pour that time into work, earning more money so he could provide his lover with a more comfortable life and stronger protection.

Late one night, Shang Ke returned to the bedroom and found Qin Yuan still working. He walked over, wrapped his arms around Qin Yuan’s neck, and murmured, “Why don’t you come to bed?”

Qin Yuan could still smell the faint milky scent of the little merfolk on him and guessed Shang Ke had just finished feeding the baby. The child drank a formula previously developed by the laboratory that included components derived from human milk and was particularly suitable for merfolk.

Shang Ke pulled Qin Yuan into the bathroom. Somehow, it took them another hour or two before they finally came out.

Qin Yuan was unusually tired that night and, for once, did not keep pestering Shang Ke for intimacy. He soon fell asleep in his arms.

Since Shang Ke’s return, the quality of Qin Yuan’s sleep had improved steadily, and he was now able to fall asleep normally.

In the middle of the night, Shang Ke woke to the sound of harsh, rapid breathing. Qin Yuan’s face was twisted in pain, cold sweat drenched his body, and incoherent words escaped his lips as though he were trapped in a terrible nightmare.

“Qin Yuan. Qin Yuan.” Shang Ke called softly while wiping the cold sweat from his forehead.

“Flame… Flame…” Qin Yuan’s body suddenly convulsed violently, terror filling his face.

“I’m here, Qin Yuan. What’s wrong? Wake up!” Shang Ke held him tightly. He did not understand what Qin Yuan was so afraid of, but he comforted him as best he could.

Sensing Shang Ke’s familiar presence, Qin Yuan’s convulsions gradually weakened until he finally calmed. Curled against Shang Ke, he murmured, “I’m sorry, Flame. I’m sorry…”

A tear slipped from the corner of Qin Yuan’s eye. Years of fear had tormented his mind, and even recovering Flame could not make that terror disappear overnight. Worse, he still carried the crushing guilt of believing that he had trapped Flame alive inside a coffin until he died.

Shang Ke did not know the real reason, so he could only keep soothing him. “You never wronged me. Never…”

Listening to that familiar voice, Qin Yuan slowly fell back into deep sleep like a frightened child, the last traces of terror still lingering on his face…

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