Chapter 74: The Center of the Fish Pond (9)
In the cold depths of the ocean, within the red coral structure, a human unleashed a storm of passion.
The silver-blue tailed mermaid had initially tried to resist Su Mingxiu’s strength. But after realizing that she couldn’t break free with her tail, her tail emitted a white glow, and she attempted to transform her tail into human legs, hoping to use the flexibility of her limbs to escape.
Just then, Su Mingxiu grabbed the tip of her tail, her grip tight as she warned: “Don’t transform.”
Suhui’s long, silver hair fell messily around her face, and she desperately tried to hold back her tears.
Because the terrifying human chef before her had just thoroughly examined a mermaid’s physiological structure, the scales near that area still bore faint traces, glistening with moisture.
A mermaid’s transformed legs weren’t as powerful as their tail. Without the protection of scales, her skin was incredibly delicate. Now, caught in the midst of her transformation, the grip on her tail sent a sharp pain through her.
Even the translucent fins behind her ears drooped slightly.
Before coming ashore, none of her kind had told her that human chefs could be so terrifying. If she had known, she would never have provoked this one.
Thinking of this, she even started resenting the lessons her manager at Neptune Entertainment had given her, thinking, Why didn’t they give her a specific warning about such a terrifying profession?
Making her fall into such a trap.
Suhui leaned against the edge of the bed, sniffling. She was indeed looking for a strong partner, male or female, but the kind that could lay eggs, the kind that could produce strong offspring.
Now, Su Mingxiu wouldn’t let her differentiate, and she was a female herself. Even if she was strong, Suhui knew that two females couldn’t produce offspring.
This won’t do.
Thinking of this, Suhui desperately held back her tears, afraid of dropping more mermaid pearls for this ill-intentioned human to collect.
If Su Mingxiu collected all her pearls, and her scent was still on them, she wouldn’t be able to find another mate.
Their merfolk clan also valued monogamy and amicable separations.
Suhui didn’t want to be a scumbag fish.
At least not like Su Mingxiu, who had accepted her gift and was still flirting with other contestants, even making delicious food for them.
Her lips, swollen from the kisses, parted slightly. Her usually ethereal voice, like the melting ice of a snowy plain, was now hoarse, yet even more alluring: “Give… give me back my pearl…”
Hmm?
Su Mingxiu raised a single eyebrow, surprised by her request. Her palm was still resting on that special scale, which had become soft and slightly warm from the moisture.
“You want back a gift you already gave away?”
Although she didn’t know the significance of a mermaid pearl to this little fish, she sensed something from Suhui’s request.
Suhui’s voice was hoarse and breathy as she explained: “I gave it to you because I liked you and wanted to have eggs with you. But now, you won’t let me differentiate, and you’re a female like me, we can’t have eggs, we can’t be together.”
Wow. Su Mingxiu hadn’t expected the merfolk’s obsession with reproduction to be so strong.
She narrowed her eyes slightly, looking at this bad fish who had tried to seduce her with her own self-serving rules, and now, with her plan foiled, wanted to break up.
Tsk.
She wondered who had taught her this.
“When you wanted to be together, you forcefully claimed me, dragging me, an ordinary human, into the deep sea, bringing me to this godforsaken place;” her fingertip traced a scale, moving downwards casually, “now that you’ve changed your mind, I have to obey as well, little fish?”
Suhui’s tail involuntarily curled upwards, her fingers crumpling and tearing the fabric beneath her, her eyes welling up with tears. But she stubbornly kept her eyes wide open, refusing to let them fall.
Her long, thick eyelashes trembled from her efforts: “What… what do you want?”
“I want to help you.”
Su Mingxiu smiled at her, a dazzlingly beautiful smile. The mole at the corner of her eye became blurry in Suhui’s tear-filled vision, the emotions in her eyes unreadable.
Suhui suspected she had misheard. This hateful chef, who had trapped her on this small bed and tormented her so mercilessly, was saying she wanted to help her?
“Help…” with what?
Understanding her question, Su Mingxiu’s eyes crinkled with a smile. Her gaze lowered, looking at the area covered by Suhui’s beautiful scales.
“Look, you’re such a foolish fish, even if you hadn’t met me, you would still be the one laying eggs in someone else’s hands, but you’re so narrow here…”
She leaned closer, her warm breath carrying the rest of her words into Suhui’s ear. Then, she saw the beautiful fins layered behind Suhui’s ears, imagining the black lotus pattern they usually formed. She couldn’t help but kiss them.
To her surprise, Suhui, despite being a mermaid, didn’t have the fishy smell of a creature that lived in the sea. Instead, she had a faint, sweet fragrance.
After hearing her words, Suhui didn’t understand at first. Then, seeing Su Mingxiu take off the mermaid pearl from her neck and press the glistening white pearl against her soft, warm scales, her eyes widened in shock and fear. She propped herself up on her elbows, trying to crawl away from this dangerous bed.
She tried to refuse, her voice panicked, but the person who heard her protest only looked at her with feigned confusion:
“Didn’t you want me to return it to you? Why are you running?”
After a while, Su Mingxiu’s gaze swept over the scattered gold and silver jewelry on the floor, some of them seemingly ancient. She suddenly realized something. “Ah, do you like… crawling?”
She smiled, pressing down on Suhui’s shoulders, pinning her to the bed. “Not now. The floor is too rough. If there was a carpet, you could do as you please.”
“Ah!” Suhui wanted to curse at her, but she hadn’t learned any curse words in Chinese. After all, she was going to debut as a star, and Neptune Entertainment wouldn’t tolerate an artist who used foul language.
She cowered and tried to dodge, but there was no escape. She had no choice but to take back the gift she had given earlier, using her own body.
But…
Perhaps as a price for her change of heart, the tears that had welled up in her eyes finally overflowed, rolling down her cheeks.
Almost as soon as they left her eyes, they transformed into glistening white, teardrop-shaped pearls, unique and beautiful, just like the gift she had given away.
Su Mingxiu also saw the mermaid pearls falling from her eyes. Before Suhui could make a sound, she chuckled and said: “I know, these are definitely not gifts for me, don’t worry, I’ll collect them for you—”
Hearing her gentle, amused voice, Suhui trembled, a shiver running down her spine. She felt like she had encountered a demon from legends.
Only a demon could inflict pain with a smile.
Those fallen mermaid pearls ultimately met the same fate as the original gift, nestled closely together in that narrow, hidden place.
Knowing that the more she cried, the worse her fate would be, Suhui still couldn’t control herself. After all, she was just a young mermaid who had just come of age, with no experience in these matters, as innocent as a blank sheet of paper. How could she possibly resist Su Mingxiu’s teasing?
She shook her head repeatedly, pleading in her beautiful voice, but the cold-hearted human remained unmoved, only putting the last mermaid pearl back in its original place before saying slowly: “Alright.”
“I’ve returned your gift.”
Looking at Suhui now, where was the smugness of the one who had lured her here? Her cheeks and eyes were red, her long silver hair tangled around her neck and shoulders, her lips bitten raw. She looked so pitiful… as if she was the one who had been deceived.
She lay limply on the messy, collapsed bed, like a discarded doll. She heard the person behind her, their voice still calm and composed, just like when they first arrived: “It should be dawn by the time we get back.”
“I’ll be going now.”
Su Mingxiu didn’t seem worried about finding her way out of this beautiful, winding maze built of red coral, with no passages for humans.
Sensing her intention to leave without hesitation, Suhui reached out and grabbed her, her elbows and fingertips now slightly red. “No… don’t go…”
She commanded, her voice choked with sobs.
If she let this person leave, how could she retrieve those mermaid pearls?
Su Mingxiu leaned closer, following Suhui’s pull. “Something else?”
Suhui, her face flushed, voiced her request.
“What?”
Su Mingxiu pretended not to hear.
So the mermaid repeated her request, her voice trembling.
Su Mingxiu responded with a soft “Okay,” then pried Suhui’s fingers off her wrist one by one. “You don’t need my help with this.”
She asked casually: “Didn’t you really want to lay eggs? Then you should know what to do.”
Merfolk were also intelligent creatures. They possessed inherited memories from birth. Now, Suhui, having learned about human etiquette and shame, understood the implication in Su Mingxiu’s words. Her face burned with shame, and she shook her head repeatedly.
“Too embarrassed now?”
The alluring woman leaned closer, carefully examining her tomato-red face. “When you were forcing someone else to bear your eggs, why weren’t you shy?”
Vaguely…
Suhui felt that Su Mingxiu was angry.
But her muddled mind couldn’t decipher human emotions clearly. Her current defeated state triggered her primal instincts—
If a loser wanted to survive, they could only beg for mercy from the victor in the most humble way possible.
She knew Su Mingxiu didn’t understand the merfolk’s customs, so using their ways wouldn’t work. Helpless, her eyes welled up with tears of fear and desperation.
But she didn’t dare to cry anymore.
She couldn’t “eat” anymore.
So she could only look up at the person by the bed with teary eyes, the only one who could help her, and also the culprit who caused her misery:
“Please… please…”
Her voice trembled as she struggled to speak clearly: “I… I won’t make you bear my eggs anymore…”
“If you did something wrong, you have to apologize,” Su Mingxiu said, one hand resting on the edge of the bed, her aura still pressing down on Suhui.
Suhui struggled to recall the knowledge she had learned. After a while, she replied with a whimper: “I’m sorry…”
The beautiful person sat down on the edge of the bed, her legs dangling. This relaxed posture made Suhui breathe a sigh of relief, thinking that she had been forgiven.
Until Su Mingxiu looked down at her and said calmly: “Okay, I accept your apology.”
“But there has to be a punishment for wrongdoing—”
“Try your best first. When you’re too tired, I’ll help you.”
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