The Fallen Merman

Rimbaud was swimming away with the baby in his arms while Bai Chunian was sitting with his legs crossed inside the bubble as he stared at the scars on Rimbaud’s back.
Even though he prepared mentally before he came, seeing it was still shocking.

Ever since Bai Chunian saw him, Rimbaud’s upper body had always been tightly wrapped with medical bandages.
Every part of Rimbaud’s body was flawless, therefore he would mind the mottled marks on his back, right? 

Rimbaud returned the baby merman to his mother’s arms.
When he turned around, he found that Bai Chunian was staring at his back in a trance.

 

Rimbaud had been busy cleaning up the palace the past few days and had forgotten about the scar.
In his shock, he pulled up a piece of a seaweed from the coral edge and draped it over his own shoulders to cover his back.
After that, he quietly swam back and pushed Bai Chunian deeper.

Bai Chunian turned around and pressed his palm against Rimbaud’s webbed hand through the air bubble.
He swiftly grabbed Rimbaud’s slender hands and pulled him inside gently.

Rimbaud’s body was wet and his hair dripping with water was sticking to his cheeks.
He embarrassedly threw himself into Bai Chunian’s arms.

 

Bai Chunian lifted the sticky seaweed off Rimbaud’s back.
Rimbaud pressed Bai Chunian’s hand to stop him from lifting it.
He raised his hand and covered Bai Chunian’s eyes.
“Rimbaud ugly…terrible.”

“Nonsense, Rimbaud is beautiful and cute.” Bai Chunian took off Rimbaud’s hand, cupped his face, and carefully picked off the aquatic plants that were in his blond hair.
“How could you live this roughly while I was only away for a few days? You’re such a little princess when I’m here but you’re such a rough guy when I’m not here.” After that, he pulled off the little purple-gold conch and the colorful starfish that were sucking on his tail, threw them into the water, and said, “Go, don’t take advantage of someone else’s wife.”

Rimbaud watched as the beautiful brooch he took after swimming through a few deep ocean trenches was thrown away.
It would be such a waste, so he picked it up and stuffed it in Bai Chunian’s pocket.
He’d roast it once they were ashore.

 

The real seafloor was tens of thousands of times more spectacular than the marine parks on land.
Bai Chunian saw a lot of fish he hadn’t seen before. 

Unlike the strong lighting created by humans, the soft shimmering light emanating from Rimbaud’s body illuminated the darkness around them for tens of meters.

This world was very different from land.
Inside the bubble, Bai Chunian could hear the sound of waves and the sound of the whale from afar.
A huge shadow also slowly approached them, with a huge body measuring about 30 meters in length passing by them.

It was his first time to see such a giant sea beast like a blue whale.
For a long time, Bai Chunian was agape as he looked around.
In all honesty, it was really scary and even gave a sense of breathtaking terror when the blue whale swam head-on.

The body of the blue whale was too huge and was like a moving island.
It just passed by and paid no attention to them. 

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.

Rimbaud wasn’t happy, so he quickly pushed the bubble Bai Chunian was in front of the blue whale’s eyes.
He released a few jellyfish to illuminate Bai Chunian’s whole body.

“Lfs, fgyb! (biv wjc)” Elwyjev abemtfv atf yief ktjif’r ylu fsfr, qblcafv ja Djl Jtecljc ab rtbk tlw jcv rtbeafv, “Hejec! (Heffc)”

Ktlr yief ktjif tjv ilnfv obg wbgf atjc 9,000 sfjgr jcv kjr mbcrlvfgfv jr j gfji biv wjc jcv cba pera lc cjwf.
Ktlr biv wjc tfjgv atja Elwyjev kjr ublcu ab yglcu atf deffc yjmx, rb tf gertfv bnfg ogbw atf rbeatfgcwbra qjga bo atf Caijcalm pera ab ibbx ja tlr vjeutafg-lc-ijk.

The blue whale let out a long and pleased sound.
It opened its huge mouth and vomited a box from its narrow throat. 

The box looked similar to a treasure chest in a computer game.
However, it was already old and it was unknown from which century this cultural relic was from but there was an engraving of the logo of pirates.
As the heavy box slowly sank, the lip was lifted open.

Blocks of gold, crystal clear top ice imperial green jade, complete porcelain from an unknown dynasty, bright pigeon blood rubies, and chunks of Muzo emeralds were packed inside the box.
There were also several tourmalines and three-carat diamonds scattered along which filled the gaps.

 

The old man put down his welcome gift, slowly turned, and swam away.

“F-f-fu, fuck…” Bai Chunian held onto the bubble to stand firm and dazedly asked Rimbaud, “This isn’t for me, right?” 

Rimbaud nodded and ordered a group of crabs to send the treasure chest ashore.

Bai Chunian thought that this was the grandest welcome gift, but he didn’t expect that this was just the beginning.

Rimbaud pushed Bai Chunian to a dark cave in the deep ocean trench and knocked a few times on the reef outside the cave.
“Hey, Quaun kaming.
(The Queen has arrived.)”

Bai Chunian followed and looked inside.
Suddenly, a huge golden eye with a vertical pupil appeared in the pitch-black cave. 

Bai Chunian quickly took a few steps back.
It turned out that this wasn’t a cave, but the closed eyes of a giant deep sea animal.

The golden eye stared at Bai Chunian for a short moment and then a lustrous, round, luminous night-shining pearl slowly came out from its tear duct.
After a while, another one came out.
It was about five centimeters in diameter and the kind of night-shining pearl that would truly emit light by itself.

Bai Chunian hurriedly picked them up one by one and put them in his pockets as he said, “No need, no need.
Grandma, you’re too polite.
There is no need to give too many precious things.
This is enough, one is enough for a suite in the capital.”

Rimbaud just came back from the far side of the claw-shaped reef.
He was struggling to carry the treasure that had been in grandma’s hands for hundreds of years.
He saw Bai Chunian pick up the night-shining pearl on the ground and said in surprise, “Randi? Ermo glarbo yineya ye.
(Grandma just cried with excitement.)” 

After meeting all the relatives of Rimbaud, the gifts received by Bai Chunian could almost fill a boat.
A group of crabs and sea turtles were huffing and panting carrying the boxes ashore.

Time passed quickly and they had stayed underwater for more than six hours.
Rimbaud thought that Randi must be hungry so he pushed him to swim to the sea.
At the same time, he carried two oversized scallops under his arms and brought Bai Chunian to the surface.

The ship that Bai Chunian came on stopped at a place around 10 meters away from the island.
The people on deck were still muddle-headed.
There would always be merfolks singing on merfolk island.
Once people hear their singing voice, they would not be in their conscious mind.
However, the singing of only one merman didn’t have this kind of ability.

Bai Chunian flipped into the cabin, then brought down the stuff he had prepared: 20 cases of canned cooked meat, seasoning, various styles of jackets, trunks of stainless steel woks, lighters, power cords, light bulbs, a portable stove, a small gas canister, and an assault shotgun rifle and bullets. 

The merfolks gathered together to look at the strange things they had never seen.
They cautiously stretched out their long webbed hands to touch them and quickly retracted them.

“This is how it works.” Bai Chunian sat on the ground, attached the small gas canister to the portable stove, unscrewed it, and used a lighter to ignite it.

The moment the flames were ignited, the merfolks screamed in panic and retreated.

Rimbaud crawled on the ground, raised his reddened tail to scold them for making a fuss, and told them to come back quickly. 

Bai Chunian put the wok on top of the fire and poured in water to boil.
He cut the oversized scallops that Rimbaud brought ashore into pieces, blanched them in water, drained them out, and put them back in the scallop shells to use later.

He poured out the water, wiped the bottom of the pot, poured the oil, cut onion, ginger, and garlic and sauteed them until fragrant.
He put in the seasonings and cooked it into a thick sauce.

 

Bai Chunian sat on the floor with his legs crossed.
His right hand was resting on his knee while his left hand was holding a spoon, slowly stirring the sauce in the wok.

Rimbaud was lying beside him.
His cheeks were propped up and his raised tail was lazily swinging in the air.
His eyes curved into smiles as he looked at Bai Chunian. 

Bai Chunian poured the cooked sauce over the scallop meat.
After it had cooled, he picked up a piece and fed it into Rimbaud’s mouth.

Rimbaud opened his mouth to eat it and chewed it.
Little stars filled his eyes and the tip of his tail curled up in satisfaction.

The other merfolks drooled as they crawled over.
However, without the king’s permission, they could only watch on the sidelines and didn’t dare to approach.

Rimbaud didn’t want to share the meal made by Randi with others, but Bai Chunian pushed the big shell towards them and gestured to them to eat together.
“Feel free.” 

Each of the merfolks went over to take a piece and crawled away.
After that, the sound of smacking lips rang out on the island.

They had never eaten cooked food.
The cooking skills that Bai Chunian had purposely improved were simply heavenly delicacies for merfolks who had never eaten human food.

“Hen.” Rimbaud looked at the shells that were emptied to the bottom, turned to the side with his arms crossed.

“You eat the food I cook every day, haven’t you had enough?” Bai Chunian turned off the stove, casually placed the clutter on the floor, and cleared out an open space. 

“Not enough.” Rimbaud turned his head, “Eat… a thousand years.”

Bai Chunian hugged Rimbaud from behind and brought him into his lap.
He took out a roll of medical bandages from the first-aid box he brought and meticulously wrapped it around Rimbaud’s body.
Rimbaud’s waist was so slender that Bai Chunian could easily wrap him in the crook of his arm.
The bandages wrapped around Rimbaud’s body again and again, covering the scars on his back.

There was a shallow mark that had already healed on top of these deep scars, but it looked like it was a recent wound.

Bai Chunian asked, “Did you get into a fight with someone?” 

Rimbaud recalled the white shark omega that he had torn apart.
He hesitated for a moment before replying softly, “He hurt me first.”

“You vented?”

“En.”

“That’s good then.
If you haven’t vented, I’ll go and beat him up for you.” 

Rimbaud looked down and his lips couldn’t help curling into a smile.

The alpha’s fingers occasionally rubbed against the omega’s spine and the temperature on his fingertips passed through the bandage.
Rimbaud quietly scratched the ground with the tip of his tail.

 

“At first… didn’t plan to return… I’m very disappointed.” With downcast eyes, Rimbaud said, “You asked me to change my mind.”

“The clan has flaws… got cheated.” 

“But I still love…the silly them.”

Bai Chunian rested his chin on Rimbaud’s shoulder, wrapped his arms around Rimbaud from behind, and interlocked fingers with him, but he couldn’t hold it too tight or the webs would be torn.

Due to Rimbaud, the detection device beside him could still work properly.
The detection images transmitted from 100 underwater drones were displayed on the device.
On the lower left corner of the screen, a strangely-shaped foreign object passed by.
Bai Chunian caught this miniscule movement from the corner of his eye.

“Experimental Subject No.
809 Kraken has been roaming around the west parts of the Atlantic, have you seen him? Seems like it is an enormous octopus.
Moreover, its weight and volume keeps increasing.” Bai Chunian whispered in Rimbaud’s ear, “His motives are still unknown, so we must be careful.” 

Rimbaud raised his brows.
“There’s nothing that can challenge me in the Caribbean Sea.”

They were whispering to each other when a sharp finger suddenly pulled the hem of Bai Chunian’s clothes.

Bai Chunian looked back and saw those merfolks crawling ashore with six or seven kilograms of abalone, lobster, scallops, sea snails, starfish, and sea cucumbers on their backs.

The merfolks looked at Bai Chunian with pious eyes as if they were looking at a god.
They all knelt down, raised the seafood with their two hands, kissed the tip of Bai Chunian’s shoes, and begged the queen to give them fascinating food. 

Bai Chunian said, “Ah—?”

All this while, it was actually me they were calling Queen???