Chapter 32

“Morpheus, what did your old man's steward, the merman, come to you about just now, looking so furious? He didn’t look too pleased when he left either...” Lin Yu lazily teased the little fantail fish darting in his palm, shooting a sidelong glance at Morpheus, whose face was equally dark.

The man sitting on the soft sea-silk couch took a few deep, muted breaths, suppressing the nameless anger in his chest, before finally speaking in a vague tone, “This afternoon... I might have to head out near the Nebuchadnezzar...”

“Hm? Oh!!! That haunted cruise ship Nebuchadnezzar, abandoned in the eerie undersea forest?” Lin Yu asked, utterly bewildered.

“Yeah...” Morpheus nodded without hesitation.

“What happened?”

“...Apparently, some merfolk saw my friend Wayne, and... my damned pre-selected mate Slancer, both appearing in that sea area. Then, the two of them vanished without a trace at the same time... Besides, Wayne’s family seems to have found his soul-thread in the ancestral shrine quivering violently. Their kin have come looking for him, because Wayne had definitely visited me before he disappeared...” Morpheus lowered his ocean-blue eyes, pondering with suspicion.

“...So, who are you planning to take with you this afternoon?” Lin Yu continued to toy with the little fish as he asked offhandedly.

“You, of course...” Morpheus replied without the slightest pause—

Lin Yu: “...........................”

“Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!” The little fish in his hand nearly burst its guts in protest.

Lin Yu instantly stood up and started swimming shakily toward the door.

“...Well, don’t come, unless you’re confident you can escape my old man’s deadly pursuit...” Morpheus added coolly, fanning the flames.

“Pursue me for what?! Why would your old man want to hunt me down?” Lin Yu put on the indifferent face of a bystander, unaffected and detached.

“Well, maybe... because you’re my... best friend? Or perhaps—my shameless new lover... or something.” Morpheus scratched his nose with one hand, a wicked, roguish grin playing at the corner of his lips.

Lin Yu’s tail fin stopped swaying, and he quickly spun around and jabbed Morpheus hard with his elbow. “Serves you right for running your mouth!”

While Morpheus put on an exaggerated show of pain, Lin Yu’s mouth twitched, shooting him a fierce glare.

A dismissive snort. Lin Yu: “Coward!”

“That’s all I’ve got...” Morpheus replied, utterly shameless and making no attempt to defend his lack of dignity.

The two exchanged another silent battle of glances—

“Fine... I’ll go with you...” Lin Yu finally conceded, rolling his eyes, then after a moment’s thought, fixed Morpheus with a playful look. “But, you have to agree to one condition for me...”

“Hm?” Morpheus, feeling uncomfortable under Lin Yu’s gaze, asked, ears tinged red, “You... you don’t mean?!!”

“What? You know what I want?” Lin Yu asked curiously.

“...To ravish me!!!”

Lin Yu: “............”

You’d better wash up and go to sleep, kid!

That daydream is utterly out of touch with reality...

Seeing Lin Yu’s reaction, Morpheus awkwardly dropped the joke and asked in a more serious tone, “Ahem, just say it. What’s your condition?”

“Actually, I just want... a snow pearl, the rare kind produced only by double-tailed merfolk!” Lin Yu replied casually, watching Morpheus’s expression closely.

“...I think I told you not long ago, they only produce a kind of bare pearl, gold-dusted and perfectly round. As for the kind of snow pearl you mean, it’s very rare in these waters, since it requires a special type of shell... Besides, double-tailed merfolk are extremely delicate and usually live reclusively along the warm currents at the edges of the ocean. Unless it’s for something critical, like the ‘Mirage’, or for that special shell, they rarely come here. Most of the time, you won’t see any double-tailed merfolk in these waters...” Morpheus raised an eyebrow at Lin Yu.

“...Hey, wait. Didn’t you tell me not long ago that you had a backup runaway merfolk? Though he’s also missing now...” Lin Yu shot him a skeptical look.

“I only said it’s rare to see them, not that you can’t see them at all.” Morpheus touched his nose again out of habit, pausing before continuing, “But... as for bare pearls, I do have some, but...”

Lin Yu’s eyes brightened. “Yeah?”

Morpheus leaned back, exhaling a long breath before saying, “...You’ll find it hard to take one away intact...”

“What do you mean?” Lin Yu asked, perplexed.

Morpheus explained readily, “Bare pearls are extremely pure, but once removed from the protection of those special thick shells, they dissolve easily into seawater. And... all I have are a few giant thick shells, where I keep the pure pearls I’ve collected. That’s also why it takes so long for them to form into proper snow pearls—the space is too cramped.” His tone was helpless.

“There’s no substitute for those thick shells?” Lin Yu stared in disbelief.

Morpheus, flicking his tail, seemed amused. “It’s not that there isn’t... It’s just, by tradition, we use thick shells, and most of those are huge—big enough to fit several male merfolk. But, as for substitutes, there is something...”

A knowing smirk crept onto his lips, his eyes playful as he looked at Lin Yu.

“What is it? Don’t keep me guessing! And stop grinning at me so creepily, will you?!” Lin Yu grimaced.

“It’s a type of pitch-black skull shell... Inside, it’s pure white and smooth, but it only grows in places where filth and corpses accumulate. Oh... now that I think about it, there’s one place that fits all its requirements perfectly. What do you think?”

Lin Yu’s mouth twitched. “...You really aren’t tricking me into accompanying you to that haunted forest, are you?”

“Hey... is that what you think of me? Just think about it—where else but the corpse-laden undersea forest would you find such filth and bones? Hm?” Morpheus looked at Lin Yu with sincere blue eyes.

“...Fine, you win.” Lin Yu replied, deadpan. With a flick of his tail, he sent a few nearby fantail and peacock fish scattering, then glared fiercely at Morpheus.

“...”

Morpheus swallowed and, with another exaggerated performance, muttered, “...Alright, alright, don’t get so violent. We can talk about anything. Once I’ve got everything ready, I’ll have Saifer come tell you... Oh, and besides the two of us, your nemesis is coming too—Saifer~~ Be sure to get along!”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Morpheus swam off from the sea-silk couch in a flash, tail flickering behind him, not looking back once.

*******************************************************************************

“...You mean, I have to eat all this?” Lin Yu stared in shock at Saifer, who looked cold and aloof.

“...Hmph, it’s not that much. Can’t you finish it?” Saifer glared hatefully at the clever viper Morpheus had just brought back.

“Well, thank you so much for delivering it yourself...” Realizing that this vengeful and unpredictable merman was not someone he could afford to provoke right now, Lin Yu obediently took the small bowl-sized shell and rolled away to a corner to eat.

It was a bowl brimming with strange fish soup, yellowish-brown and unappetizing, sticky and slimy... like mucus (…). Was it really safe to eat this stuff?!!!

Lin Yu kept stirring and mixing, until Morpheus returned, having quickly prepared something else...

He threw a desperate look at Morpheus for help.

“Why aren’t you eating? This is Saifer’s specialty. I can only make frog-eye stew myself...” Morpheus struggled to keep from laughing.

“You can actually eat this weird stuff?!” Annoyed by Morpheus’s teasing tone, Lin Yu retorted.

“...Yeah, I’ve eaten two big bowls of it myself...” Morpheus replied, looking proud.

“...Why bother? Why torture your own stomach?” Lin Yu asked, shocked.

“Oh... right, I almost forgot you’re not used to life underwater. This is a kind of lipid fish, but unlike other fish, its layers of fat are almost fused with the tender, delicious flesh...” Seeing Lin Yu’s disgusted expression, Morpheus got back to the point. “Usually, one bowl is enough to keep you from needing to hunt for days... Actually, it tastes alright, just looks... unappetizing.”

“Alright then, I’ll eat this... fish soup.” Lin Yu scooped up a spoonful, forced it down, and then another...

It really tasted weird!!!

Morpheus’s strikingly handsome face broke into a bright, cheerful smile. He tossed Lin Yu a sash made of rubies from his arm—a band with rough yet ancient beauty, wrapped in thin silk, studded with blood-red agates on one side, and here and there some odd little fruits.

Those fruits looked familiar, Lin Yu thought.

Meanwhile, Morpheus explained, “The undersea forest is full of highly toxic, sometimes deadly, swimming fish. Be careful—not to startle them needlessly... If you do get poisoned, just break off one of these fruits from the sash and eat it on the spot...”

“They’re antidotes? Are these little fruits really that amazing?”

Lin Yu picked one up, examined it for a while, then suddenly remembered—wasn’t this just like the scarlet fruit Morpheus had fed him this morning!!!

“Actually... not really. You can’t eat too many of these. They’re toxic too... But for poisons weaker than theirs, they can suppress the effect.” Morpheus explained patiently.

Lin Yu’s face turned deadpan again, his tone heavy. “...So you’re really taking me there to die, aren’t you...”

Morpheus: “............”

Author’s Note: qaq... Please bear with my rambling, it’s all necessary setup for the story... Before the adventure, I have to get the tools, food, and everything settled.

Alright~~~~ Next is the silly author’s recommendation time!!

New work: “[Quick Transmigration] How to Escape the Yandere World”!! So spicy!!

Here’s the summary:

Welcome, uploader, to the horror cube escape interface—this is a timed survival game of role reversal!!

Brave uploader!!

Are you ready to face the blackened enemies/scumbags/ghosts/masters/lunatics/yanderes in the cube? Are you prepared?

Lu Le, on the verge of a breakdown: “All I did was turn down my roommate, and now I’m trapped in this horror world? They’re all complete lunatics!”

Oh!! Sexy boy, let’s go!!

Lu Le: no!!!!!!!!!!!