Chapter 168: Back To That Key Moment ④

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Chapter 168: Back To That Key Moment ④

Five months later, Shang Ke began taking the little merfolk into the sea to play. Like dolphins, merfolk could not remain submerged indefinitely and had to surface to breathe. For a baby who loved water but had not yet learned to swim, however, being left unsupervised could easily end with him drowning himself.

The little merfolk grew more slowly than a human child and was smaller than an ordinary infant, but his arms and legs were strong and his adaptability excellent. His main limitation was that he could not remain out of water for too long; otherwise his soft skin would dry out and begin to crack.

“Playtime’s over, Little Dummy. Time to go back and rest.” Shang Ke caught the little merfolk by the tail before he could keep rampaging through the water.

The little merfolk twisted his tail, trying to escape. When he realized resistance was useless, he went limp in defeat and let himself bob gently with the waves.

The little fellow had not learned much else yet, but he had mastered pretending to be dead. Amused, Shang Ke picked him up and tucked a conch shell into his arms. “Sleep with this. You can hear the sound of the waves.”

Wave, swimming in the distance, thought his name had been called and eagerly hurried over. Unfortunately, the tide pulled back at the wrong moment and nearly left him stranded on the beach.

Shang Ke reminded him, “How many times have I told you not to swim so close to the beach?”

Wave rolled onto his back and floated there miserably with his white belly in the air, playing dead.

“An Song will come keep you company later. Remember to be nice to him,” Shang Ke added. Ever since Shang Ke had taken over responsibility for Qin Yuan’s meals and daily routine, An Song had gained plenty of free time to spend around Wave and improve their relationship. Wave loved teasing him and always left him in some embarrassing state, but An Song was good-tempered and never minded.

Wave continued blowing bubbles, giving no indication that he had listened at all.

Shang Ke carried the little merfolk back to the house and placed him in the miniature playroom he had designed. A large circular waterbed occupied the center, surrounded by seawater. A winding slide curled through the space above, while a small boat, rocking chair, and assorted toys made from special materials filled the room. The entire space could automatically regulate temperature and lighting and play holographic videos or music.

After settling the baby, Shang Ke turned and found Qin Yuan standing behind him with an unusually deep expression. Lately Qin Yuan often looked like this—melancholy, as though he wanted to say something but kept swallowing the words.

Shang Ke had already tried asking An Song and learned nothing. It seemed he would have to question Qin Yuan directly. Otherwise, watching the man gain weight while looking miserable, recover his stamina while brooding himself sick, was becoming a uniquely painful experience.

“Qin Yuan, I’ve been dreaming a lot lately.” Shang Ke sat on the bed hugging a dolphin-shaped pillow and looked at him seriously.

The moment Qin Yuan heard the word “dream,” his expression turned serious. “What kind of dreams?”

Shang Ke smiled. “Tell me yours first. Then I’ll decide whether to tell you mine.”

Qin Yuan fell silent.

“You don’t want to tell me?” Shang Ke looked disappointed.

“My dreams… aren’t very pleasant.” Qin Yuan’s eyes dimmed.

“Mine are wonderful.” Shang Ke leaned closer, deliberately tempting him. “You really don’t want to hear them? Maybe my dream can make yours better too.”

Qin Yuan hesitated for a long moment before finally speaking. “I… dreamed that after you died, I put you in a coffin and sank it to the bottom of the sea. But one day you came back to life inside that sealed coffin. You suffered there, dying again and again and reviving again and again until your life was finally exhausted. I destroyed your chance to live with my own hands. While you were trapped there helpless and desperate, I was above the surface drowning in my own grief.”

Shang Ke was speechless. So the thing tormenting Qin Yuan all this time had come entirely from his imagination filling in the blanks. But it did confirm something for Shang Ke: Qin Yuan in this world had also been reborn. Otherwise, after discovering that Flame could “come back from the dead,” he never would have reached the conclusion that in his previous life he had personally trapped Flame in that coffin until he died.

“I’m sorry, Flame.” For the first time while fully awake, Qin Yuan voiced the guilt buried deep inside him.

“Why are you apologizing?” Shang Ke took his hand and smiled. “Actually, I had a dream a lot like yours. The middle was just a little different.”

Qin Yuan looked up at him.

“I dreamed that after I died, you buried me in the sea. I watched you suffer from insomnia and grow old alone. So I prayed to the Sea God and asked for time to turn backward so I could return to your side.” Shang Ke’s voice remained calm. “The Sea God answered me. I was reborn inside the coffin. Then you found me, and from then on we lived happily ever after.”

“That sounds a little like a fairy tale.” Even as Qin Yuan said it, light gradually returned to his eyes. Shang Ke’s mention of time turning backward fit his own experience perfectly.

“Who cares whether it’s a fairy tale? What matters is that we’re together again.” Shang Ke hugged him and grinned. “Cheer up, Qin Yuan. Look at me—I smile all day. Isn’t that much better?”

Qin Yuan: That’s because you were born like that…

“Flame, what if I had never discovered that you came back to life…”

“That wouldn’t happen. As long as I was alive, I would have found some way to reach you. Don’t forget how many creatures in the ocean could carry a message for me. Finding a turtle or even a whale wouldn’t be difficult, and there’s always Wave. If you never received any message from me, then that would mean I had definitely left this world already.”

Qin Yuan froze, then his expression slowly relaxed. It was as though an enormous burden had finally been lifted from his shoulders. Of course. Flame could communicate with marine life. If he had still been alive, there was no way he would have left Qin Yuan without a single message.

“Hah…” Qin Yuan covered his face, laughing at his own stupidity. Fear had completely clouded his judgment.

Qin Yuan kissed Shang Ke firmly on the forehead. “Flame, I love you.”

“What a coincidence. I love you too.”

Once that knot in his heart was untied, Qin Yuan’s mental state improved dramatically. The most obvious results were that he gained about five kilograms, his muscles became even more solid, and his endurance improved by several percentage points. Every day he looked energetic and high-spirited, radiating enough happiness to blind anyone nearby.

A year later, the home belonging to Qin Yuan and Shang Ke was finally complete.

The island had no rare mineral deposits, but its soil was fertile and its climate springlike throughout the year. Certain crops, fruits, and vegetables grew exceptionally well there, making the island fully capable of supporting itself.

The world beyond the island was becoming increasingly unstable. The consequences of the mutated genes grew more obvious, and visibly mutated people began appearing from time to time. Although governments across the world tried desperately to suppress the information, panic still spread among the public.

What no one knew was that on a remote island, someone had already developed a drug capable of preventing and treating the mutations.

Qin Yuan registered a new company specifically to handle the drug. Out of caution, however, he did not put it on the market immediately. Instead, he took in homeless mutated people and offered them treatment free of charge, on the condition that they first sign a confidentiality agreement and a five-year employment contract.

Another three years passed, and a second little merfolk was born. This one was female, perfectly healthy, and developed at a rate much closer to that of an ordinary human.

That same year, Wave chose to transform and became a handsome young man. It was worth noting that the transformation happened in the middle of an intimate encounter with An Song…

Because Shang Ke had returned, the chaos caused by mutation never spread as widely as it had in Qin Yuan’s previous life. As Qin Yuan’s company cured more and more mutated people, his influence around the world continued to grow. The outside world never discovered that the dolphins still existed, but it did discover the new merfolk.

At this point, humans simply regarded merfolk as a newly evolved species. They were astonished by the technology Qin Yuan possessed, but no one yet realized that merfolk were the key to solving humanity’s reproductive crisis.

Only decades later, when the first adult male merfolk successfully impregnated a human woman, did humanity begin to understand their reproductive potential.

A male merfolk had as much as an eighty-two percent chance of impregnating a human woman, while a female merfolk had a ninety percent chance of becoming pregnant. Naturally, this assumed the human partner did not carry severe genetic defects.

Children born to a merfolk-human pairing had an equal chance of being human or merfolk. Merfolk partners nevertheless became highly sought after because of their fertility; a human who could not find a merfolk partner might go an entire lifetime without descendants.

Before long, merfolk would be recognized worldwide as a new species, and numerous laws protecting them would follow.

The world would formally enter a flourishing Age of Merfolk, while Flame and Wave would become the progenitors of all merfolk—and, eventually, of humanity’s future generations as well.

But for the present, Shang Ke’s greatest happiness was simply living freely with Qin Yuan on their beautiful island.

“An Song~~” An Song was in the middle of reporting to Qin Yuan when a pair of arms suddenly wrapped around him from behind. A delicate young man peeked over his shoulder and called softly, “An Song, An Song~~”

An Song looked helplessly toward Qin Yuan and Shang Ke.

Shang Ke told the young man, “Wave, don’t interrupt An Song while he’s working.”

Wave pouted but continued repeating An Song’s name anyway.

A full year after transforming into a human, Wave still had not learned a complete human sentence beyond the names “Flame” and “An Song.”

“We’ll stop here for today. Take two days off and spend them with Wave,” Qin Yuan generously announced.

An Song was horrified. No! I don’t want a vacation at all!

Before he could voice any objection, Wave dragged him away.

Qin Yuan wrapped up the remaining work and called Shang Ke to head home. They had barely rounded the corner outside the office when they heard a muffled moan.

Peeking around the corner, they found Wave pinning An Song against the wall and enthusiastically having his way with him right there in the corridor. Wave was a head shorter and much slimmer than An Song, but he was surprisingly strong, possessed an intense sex drive, and had absolutely none of a human’s sense of embarrassment…

After listening for a moment, Qin Yuan suddenly said, “I don’t think we’ve ever done it in a corridor.”

Shang Ke immediately turned around and walked away.

Qin Yuan reached out with one long arm, trapped him against another corner of the corridor, and pressed a bent knee between his legs. In a hoarse voice he asked, “I wonder which of us has better stamina—me or a dolphin?”

Shang Ke did not have the heart to crush his confidence. Dolphin semen could supposedly punch through a wall; a certain someone was probably limited to squeezing out cream.

As though he had read the answer in Shang Ke’s eyes, Qin Yuan’s gaze darkened. He turned Shang Ke around, pulled down his trousers, spread his ass, and pushed inside.

“Ah!” A short cry escaped Shang Ke. Remembering that Wave and An Song were only a few meters away, he immediately clamped down on the sound.

Behind him, Qin Yuan began moving, his skilled hands teasing Shang Ke’s body until his resistance melted into arousal. Before long, Qin Yuan had broken through every defense and was driving straight to the deepest point.

Separated by only a wall, the two couples lost themselves in sex. Alternating moans and the rhythmic sounds of bodies colliding echoed through the corridor as though the two pairs were competing.

Several hours later, Qin Yuan and Wave somehow reached a tacit agreement to stop at almost exactly the same time. Each helped his lover straighten up, then carried him out of the corridor.

Their eyes met, competitive spirit crackling silently between them as they wordlessly agreed to another match someday.

The main reason for the ceasefire was that everyone was hungry. Shang Ke had promised an all-fish feast that night, and if they delayed much longer there would not be enough time to prepare it.

Clearly, Shang Ke and An Song had extremely “sex-filled” futures ahead of them…

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