The little mermaid, who was less than the size of a palm, worked hard to break apart the fragments of the shell, pushing himself out. Soon he’d pulled out the upper half of his body, blinking up at Ark with large, round eyes. After a few seconds, he let out a soft cry before revealing a little smile.
There was still more than half of the eggshell left, filled with a warm, transparent liquid. The blue fishtail of the mermaid flicked inside the liquid, shining prettily under the light. His dark hair was dripping water down his face, while his milky eyes reflected the light of the room. His tiny fingers were connected by a webbed membrane, displaying a different physiological structure to humans.
The next moment he lost his balance, rolling out of his eggshell and landing in Ark’s palm with a thud.
Facing the newborn mermaid, Ark felt a little overwhelmed. Just like when he’d met Ji Ning for the first time, he didn’t know how to deal with such a weak creature.
The little mermaid suddenly hugged his arms around Ark’s thumb and took a bite. Even a newborn mermaid had teeth sharp enough to pierce through flesh and blood, but the little mermaid didn’t bite down hard, and Ark only felt a slight prick.
“Are you hungry?”
The little mermaid bit him again, then looked up at him with longing in his eyes. Ark, who had read ‘The Guide to Raising Young Mermaids’ several times, immediately thought about the information he’d read. According to the book, newborn mermaids had to eat immediately, so he needed to go and get the little mermaid something to eat.
He carefully put the little mermaid and the eggshell back into the incubator, but the little mermaid immediately pushed against the glass wall. His soft cheeks pressed against the glass, creating a fleshy shadow. Seeing that Ark was about to leave, tears rolled from its eyes and he wailed for him.
Ark couldn’t stand to see the little mermaid crying, so he took him back out, holding him carefully in his hands and called down the corridor, “Fu Ji.”
“What’s wrong?”
Fu Ji called back, walking into the room. When he saw the mermaid in Ark’s hand he yelled without thinking, “Ah, you gave birth!”
The next second, he realised he’d chosen the wrong words as Ark’s expression changed. He coughed to cover up his embarrassment and said, “You want something to eat, right? Just wait a second!”
The red haired man quickly brought a small plate of fresh shellfish. He picked up a small piece and held it out in front of the little mermaid.
Although the temping food was right in front of him, the little mermaid still refused to eat it. Instead, he looked up at Ark eagerly, eyes wide with trust. It was only when Ark fed him the food with his own hands that he flicked his tail happily and sat back inside his eggshell to eat the shellfish.
Afterwards, Ark and Fu Ji strictly followed the recommendations in the guide book and filled the incubator with better quality water. They gathered up the eggshell fragments and piled them inside the incubator. For the first few days, mermaids were very dependent on the comforting scent of their eggshell, so it was important to keep the fragments in the incubator for the little mermaid’s comfort.
In short, there were a lot of troublesome things to take care of. The two of them didn’t have a girlfriend between them, nevermind experience raising children, and it was such a delicate little thing. The little mermaid couldn’t stand Ark leaving him, so the two adults were left extremely flustered.
When the little mermaid eventually fell asleep, the two of them could finally relax. It seemed that even the most careful plans couldn’t compete with the speed of change. The little mermaid was very dependent on Ark and refused to stay away from him even when it was sleeping, so Ark had no choice but to continue holding the eggshell to coax him to sleep.
The little mermaid curled up in the eggshell filled with water and hugged its tail, spitting small bubbles into the water. It slept very sweetly.
Looking at its peaceful sleeping face, Ark’s initially nervous mood slowly calmed down, replaced with joy at the birth of a new life. His eyes softened unconsciously and a faint smile appeared on his lips.
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.
“Must be nice…”
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“Rbk P olcjiis ecvfgrajcv kts atbrf cbyifr yes wfgwjlv fuur fnfc ja rxs tlut qglmfr. Ktfs gfjiis bcis ilxf atf olgra qfgrbc atfs rff.”
Although he felt a little regretful, he continued honestly “But I still prefer money. I don’t understand, why did you want to keep this mermaid? He’s the companion egg of the mermaid prince ‘Ji Ning’, right? You’re so obsessed with this egg, is it because you knew that prince?”
“…Yes.”
After a moment of silence, Ark said softly, “Recently my memory has recovered a little.”
“Oh?” Fu Ji suddenly became very interested, “What do you remember?”
“…” Ark lowered his head, not wanting to share the whole story. He simply said, “I knew Ji Ning and had a good relationship with him.”
He held the eggshell in one hand, while the other gently touched the little mermaid’s soft cheek. Under the dim light, his expression seemed a little gloomy, as if he was trapped in a dark memory.
“I don’t know what kind of relationship you had in the past.”
Fu Ji looked at him intensely, putting away his usual teasing expression to speak with a serious voice, “Even if this little mermaid is Ji Ning’s companion egg, he isn’t the Ji Ning you knew. If-”
“I know.”
Ark gently interrupted him.
Of course he knew.
No matter how similar they were, whether it was the same genes or appearance, this little thing was not his mermaid.
The mermaid who had given him countless precious memories, who taught him love, tears, and heartache, the mermaid who belonged to him alone. He was no longer in this world.
But even so, he couldn’t hand over this newborn little mermaid to others, let alone allow him to be kept by nobles as a beautiful and pitiful plaything.
He had to protect him well.
The little mermaid grew very quickly. After only two months, he had the appearance of a child that was a few years old, with bright eyes and milky soft skin. He liked to jump out of his water tank and hug Ark’s neck, happily calling him Gege.
“You’re like a young single dad.”
Fu Ji laughed at Ark when he first saw this, but the next second he was slapped by the little mermaid’s tail, causing him to scream. His distress wasn’t because he was in any pain, but because the water that was more expensive than gold, was being wasted,
“Be good. Don’t make trouble.”
Ark stroked the little mermaid’s hair. The young mermaid blinked and shrunk back into the water tank obediently. Fu Ji changed his clothes and came back, no longer upset, “I’m going back to the home planet to get some equipment for the mission. I’ll see you in a few days.”
“Thank you Fu Ji.”
The angel thanked the man very solemnly. During this period of time, because the mermaid was still very young Ark couldn’t leave the base much, nor could he come with Fu Ji on missions, so Fu Ji had been going alone.
In order to take care of the little mermaid more conveniently, they had even built a temporary base on Titan, so that the little mermaid could swim in the ocean from time to time. If he was always trapped inside a cramped tank, he would get depressed.
“You don’t have to be so polite. Just make lots of money in the future to repay me.”
Fu Ji said indifferently. Before he left, he waved to the little mermaid. “I’m going out kid.”
“Bye bye uncle.” The little mermaid waved back at him.
“Why do you always call me uncle? You should call me gege!”
The man glared at him, but when he saw the soft and sweet smile on the little mermaid’s young face, he sighed helplessly.
“Ah, by the way.” He stopped at the door, suddenly remembering something. He turned to Ark, “Have you thought of a name for him yet?”
“…”
Ark shook his head hesitantly. He wasn’t good at giving names, but he didn’t want to call the little mermaid ‘Ji Ning’. Although it was taking him a long time to decide, there had never been a time when he’d had to call out a name, since the little mermaid never left his sight.
“Okay, then try and pick one as soon as possible.” Fu Ji shrugged, “It’s a little pitiful that he doesn’t have one.”
“Yes.” Ark nodded.
Fu Ji waved his hands and left in a flamboyant manner. Ark was also preparing to go out. He took a shape shifting potion that changed his facial features and hid his wings, and put Ji Ning into a transportation tank that was covered in a layer of black cloth, before leaving the base.
The temporary base was very close to the sea, so it was easy for Ark to take the little mermaid to the beach to play.
He drove their boat out to a secluded reef, avoiding the attention of bounty hunters, while steering clear of the deep ocean to avoid coming across any fighter mermaids. Although Ark had no reason to fear those mermaids, he didn’t want to have to kill the little mermaid’s kin.
The little mermaid cheered at the sight of the blue ocean, jumping out of the box and plunging into the sea. He swam around happily, and even caught a few fish, throwing them onto the boat for their evening meal.
Ark smiled at the sight of the mermaid’s playful figure, until the little mermaid emerged suddenly from the water and clung to the edge of the boat. He pointed to a distant part of the sea and said, “Ark-gege, look. What is that?!”
The angel looked in the direction the little mermaid pointed in. Although the figures were far away and nothing more than dark smudges in the ocean, Ark was once a powerful war machine and had excellent eyesight. As soon as he focused on them, he knew they were fighter mermaids, patrolling the sea.
“…Let’s go back.”
Ark wasn’t good at lying, so he avoided answering the question and picked up the little mermaid from the sea, “It might be dangerous.”
The little mermaid had never seen his fellow clan, but Ark didn’t know if the fighter mermaids would have a violent reaction when they saw him. Because the little mermaid looked exactly like their deceased prince, it was very likely they would want to take him back with them.
It wasn’t that Ark couldn’t beat them, he was just worried that the little mermaid would rather leave with them if he saw so many of his kin. He didn’t want to make the little mermaid sad, but he was also afraid that he would choose to leave his side.
Even if he eventually had to return to his family, he should at least grow up a little more…
With these heavy thoughts, Ark’s mood spiralled. Once they reached the shore, he anchored the boat and began pushing the transportation tank towards the temporary base, but he was stopped by a road closure that blocked off the whole street.
“Please may all residents clear away from this area, please may all residents…”
An overhead broadcast sounded loudly across the street. At the same time, spray cleaning foam was sprayed across both sides of the street, both to drive away pedestrians, and to clean the roads.
The streets were soon empty as the residents hid inside the shops on both sides of the street. Ark didn’t want to attract any unnecessary attention, so he entered a hotel and booked a room on the second floor. He carefully transported the tank to the second floor room, then moved to the window to look at the street below, trying to figure out the reason for the road closure.
As he was on Titan, which was under the rule of Noah star, he had to always be careful to pay attention to disturbances nearby. If he was inattentive at any time, it could lead to their deaths.
After a while, there was a loud rumbling sound on the street as a group of armoured vehicles drove by. Airships flew through the sky as brightly coloured flowers were tossed across the street. Behind the armoured vehicles were a line of tanks, followed by chariots and armed soldiers. After several rows of honour guards playing ceremonial music marched past the window, a large, luxurious float finally appeared on the street.
“It’s the Archangels!”
The crowds on both sides of the street suddenly rioted in excitement, spotting several angels sitting on the huge float.
These angels had beautiful and pure faces, as delicate as dolls, with pale golden hair and bright blue eyes that looked like jewels. They smiled and waved to the surrounding crowd.
Ark’s hand clenched on the window’s edge, his expression frozen.
A phantom pain spread across his body.
These were the second generation Archangels of Noah star.
They were also the ones who shot him down, destroyed his wings, crippled his body, and left him on the brink of death.
These chapters are so cute, honestly I needed this after Zhou Rin’s arc!!
Question for my readers – like every translator I’m struggling with what to do with translating brother/gege/didi – people never use brother like this in English and it feels awkward to write, so would you prefer if I used gege and didi (I’ll go back and change the previous chapters to match…eventually)
Yes! The saying “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry” is used, but it’s often shortened to “the best laid plans often go awry”. I think it’s a reference to the book “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck.
Ooh, how interesting – no wonder it sounded so random to me!!
I honestly prefer gege or didi since I see it more often but whatever flows best for you!
And maybe I can draw lil’ mermaid Ji Ning.. 👀
me too – I’m definitely changing it, it just sounds better!!
I would do anything for baby Ningning!! If you ever had time that would be amazing <3
Gege
Thank you – I prefer it too!
Yes I have also heard the phrase ‘the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry” but its not used much in contemporary literature so I get your confusion.
And I do prefer gege and didi to there English counterparts but do whatever you feel best.
Thank you very much – I was pretty lost but I got to look at a lot of mice pictures so it’s not all bad!
I’m definitely going to add some Geges, I just fits better with the language!
Gege / didi sounds better in my opinion.
Thank you, I think so too – so let’s go Geges!!