Chapter 88: The Center of the Fish Pond (23)
“No!”
Suhui instinctively placed her hand on her flat stomach, her refusal even more forceful than before, making the already suspicious CEO Li smile even wider.
Su Mingxiu, however, was a bit confused. Although her intuition told her that Suhui’s reaction was strange, she had no experience with pregnant women, so she simply attributed it to mood swings.
So she asked patiently, “Why?”
“Wait… wait until it’s born, then it won’t be too late to tell her.” Suhui unilaterally set a deadline. After all, no matter how hard she tried now,
Once the egg was laid, Su Mingxiu would realize that it wouldn’t hatch into a merbaby, and then, naturally, she wouldn’t mention telling her mother.
Seeing her insistence, Su Mingxiu didn’t press the issue and agreed good-naturedly: “Okay, we’ll talk about it then.”
CEO Li, who had already guessed the truth, looked back and forth between them but didn’t expose Suhui’s clumsy lie.
He asked if they wanted to have lunch with him, which was naturally refused by Suhui. He didn’t insist and simply asked his secretary to see them out.
As they left the building, the sun outside was dazzling. Autumn in this coastal city wasn’t very cold, but rather quite warm. Considering Suhui’s physiology, Su Mingxiu bought an umbrella from a nearby convenience store and held it over Suhui’s head as they walked.
Suhui, shielded from the sunlight, curiously extended her hand, letting the warm golden light bathe her fingertips, then quickly withdrew it.
It wasn’t that she hadn’t been outdoors during the filming of Produce 101. But she had never used sunscreen, relying on her natural resilience. The program team’s staff was limited and couldn’t attend to every detail. Compared to the other members’ diligent sunscreen application, she had always basked in the sunlight directly.
Suhui always thought humans were fragile, even afraid of the sun.
Thinking of this, she extended her arm again and said to Su Mingxiu: “I won’t get sunburned, you don’t have to shield me.”
“I know you won’t get sunburned—”
They walked along the sidewalk, Su Mingxiu keeping Suhui on the inner side. She held the umbrella in one hand and used her phone to call a taxi with the other. Hearing Suhui’s words, she replied calmly: “I’m just afraid the sunlight is too strong and you might feel uncomfortable. If you don’t like it, we can put the umbrella away.”
Their beauty was so striking that passersby couldn’t help but stare. As more and more people noticed them, two students stopped, approached them cautiously with their phones, and asked: “Are you Suhui and Su Mingxiu? Are you really not participating in Produce 101 anymore? Why?”
Suhui was about to answer when Su Mingxiu put away her phone and replied without blinking: “Do we look like them?”
As the students nodded, Su Mingxiu suddenly turned to Suhui’s hair. “But we’re just cosplaying. Isn’t Suhui’s hair silver? Look, she’s even wearing the wrong wig today.”
The students were stunned by her words. One of them asked: “Then… is your tear mole also fake?”
“Yes, I drew it on with eyeliner this morning.”
Su Mingxiu saw a car slowing down and approaching them. She closed the umbrella, pulled Suhui towards the car, and, with a smile, left them with this sentence. She got into the car with Suhui, successfully escaping the attention of the passersby.
Sitting in the cool car, Suhui still hadn’t processed what had just happened.
But after thinking about it, she found Su Mingxiu’s explanation amusing. She blinked and looked at Su Mingxiu. “Did you just lie?”
“Yes,” Su Mingxiu readily admitted.
She glanced at Suhui’s abdomen. There had been quite a few pedestrians on the street, and Produce 101 was very popular recently. If the passersby gathered around, it would be troublesome if something happened in the crowd.
But the fish, who usually insisted on getting to the bottom of everything, was unusually quiet this time. Not only did she not ask about the reason for the lie, but she even seemed a bit pleased, a smile curving her usually cold and aloof face, as if she had gained an advantage.
The fish was thinking—
Su Mingxiu lied too, so she can’t hold this fake pregnancy against her, they’re even now.
Suhui, with her unique fish logic, felt completely at ease. Her blue eyes turned, remembering the unanswered question from earlier. She raised her chin slightly and said slowly: “I like it when you hold the umbrella for me.”
Although she wouldn’t get sunburned, she liked seeing Su Mingxiu fussing over her.
The woman sitting beside her paused, then smiled. “Okay, I’ll hold the umbrella for you every time we go out.”
They didn’t encounter anything else on their way back to the apartment complex. To avoid being recognized in the future, Su Mingxiu even bought a pack of masks downstairs.
She and Suhui walked inside. As the cool air of the hallway washed over them, the coral necklace, hidden beneath Su Mingxiu’s collar, extended its thorns playfully, one by one. By the time they reached their door, it had returned to its usual necklace form.
Suhui, behind her, poked the red coral on Su Mingxiu’s neck. “You found it?”
“Yes,” reminded by her touch, Su Mingxiu touched the necklace and asked: “But it seems a bit… wilted recently. Most of the time, it’s like a piece of paper, either clinging to my skin or curled up in my collar. What’s going on?”
“It’s afraid of the heat,” Suhui said, following Su Mingxiu inside after she opened the door. “Just soak it in seawater for a while, and it’ll be fine.”
Quite easy to take care of.
The woman walking in front bent down and took out their slippers, then naturally half-squatted before Suhui, one knee on the floor, her hand reaching for Suhui’s ankle. Her gentle voice came from below: “It wasn’t very convenient back at the program, I might have done some things that upset you unconsciously, it won’t happen again.”
“But next time you’re unhappy, you can tell me. If you’re unsure about something, you can also ask me directly—just one thing, don’t throw away the things I give you again, okay?”
Suhui replied with an “Oh,” but her ankle, held by Su Mingxiu’s hand, didn’t lift. She only looked down at Su Mingxiu. “What should I do now?”
“Lift your foot, I’ll help you change your shoes.”
The fish, who had been forced to adapt to countless human customs since coming ashore, had never experienced such treatment. She felt a sense of comfort, as if a new world had opened up to her.
After sitting down on the sofa, she saw that Su Mingxiu wasn’t going to her room. Instead, Su Mingxiu opened the door again. She couldn’t help but ask: “Where are you going?”
“To buy groceries, and some fruits. Is there anything you want to eat?”
“Aren’t you taking me with you?”
“The market here is quite far, and it’s a bit dirty and crowded. I’m afraid you might feel uncomfortable. Just tell me what you want, and I’ll buy it for you.”
Suhui leaned back comfortably on the sofa, thought for a moment, and then started listing the dishes she wanted without hesitation.
She was already enjoying the freedom of quitting the show, which meant that no one would steal her food during mealtimes, and Su Mingxiu wouldn’t have to cater to anyone else’s tastes.
This was… amazing!
“Knock, knock, knock—”
Noon.
The sound of a knife rhythmically hitting fish fillets on the kitchen cutting board echoed through the apartment. Suhui sat at the dining table, her head in her hands, watching the busy figure in the kitchen. She thought for a moment, trying to find a way to subtly reveal her lie.
“Su… Su.”
She had wanted to call Su Mingxiu’s name, but it felt like something others had called her, which displeased her.
But “Mingxiu” and “Xiuxiu” had also been used by others. In the end, she simply repeated Su Mingxiu’s surname.
The rhythmic chopping in the kitchen stopped. Suhui looked at Su Mingxiu intently. “You don’t like me calling you that?”
That’s not it.
Su Mingxiu thought, it’s just that when she was called that, some blurry images would flash through her mind, but she couldn’t see them clearly.
After a moment, she suppressed this vague sense of familiarity and smiled at Suhui. “I like it very much. Call me that from now on, no need to change it.”
So Suhui called her again: “Susu.”
“Yes.”
Suhui was like a newborn merbaby, just learning how to make sounds, eagerly trying them out again and again. As long as she received a response from her family or mother, she would be overjoyed.
After finally getting tired of it, she rested her chin on her hand again, watching Su Mingxiu busy in the kitchen, and tried to voice the question that had been on her mind: “Susu, what if… I mean, if the eggs I lay—”
“Hmm?”
“If the eggs I lay… don’t hatch into baby merfolk, will you be angry?”
Perhaps from Su Mingxiu’s meticulous care over the past few days, Suhui had vaguely realized the price of her lie. She had even learned, without being taught, to use hypothetical situations to test Su Mingxiu’s reaction.
“Of course not,” Su Mingxiu looked at her in surprise, thinking that if the eggs didn’t hatch, Suhui would be the saddest one, how could she blame her?
Thinking of this, she added: “Don’t worry, we’ll ask the elders of your clan for advice, we’ll do our best, and they’ll definitely hatch.”
Of course, they wouldn’t hatch.
Suhui blinked, picked up a small plate of cold seaweed salad that had just been prepared, and ate it happily.
Su Mingxiu had repeatedly confirmed with her whether she could eat seafood after hearing her list of dishes, and Suhui had reassured her. So now, it was practically a seafood feast just for her.
“If they don’t…” she continued her probing, her words muffled by the food.
“Then don’t be too sad.”
“Okay, okay.”
Suhui, smelling the aroma of the fish soup simmering in the clay pot, thought that there was really nothing for her to be sad about.
The mermaid was thoroughly spoiled at Su Mingxiu’s place, living a carefree life, never lifting a finger. Her figure, which had always been perfect no matter how much she ate in the sea, remained unchanged after half a month with Su Mingxiu, although her complexion became even more radiant.
Half a month wasn’t a long time for them, but for the Produce 101 program and the viewers, it was a dramatic change.
The program’s official website first announced Suhui and Su Mingxiu’s withdrawal, causing an uproar among fans. They questioned what had happened, if there was some inside story, if the program team had forced them to quit because they didn’t want them to debut.
But then, Suhui’s official social media account was taken over by her manager, who posted two messages. One was a repost of the program’s announcement, expressing her regret for withdrawing from Produce 101.
The other announced a surprise for her fans, creating suspense and paving the way for her upcoming album release.
Su Mingxiu’s Weibo account, however, was managed by herself. Her explanation was simple and straightforward: she didn’t want to be an idol, she just wanted to go home and run her restaurant. She had originally only planned to stay for three episodes, and she had made it this far thanks to her fans’ support. Thank you everyone, please continue to support the other contestants on Produce 101.
Fans asked about her restaurant in the comments, wanting to support her cooking.
But after her explanation, Su Mingxiu disappeared from social media, as if she had vanished into thin air.
Then, various rumors about Produce 101 started circulating on online forums.
[Gossip] Inside information, I heard that S-MX and SH quit because they’re really together…
They wanted to come out publicly, but as everyone knows, idols and trainees can’t have their relationships exposed, so they both withdrew.
[PBC Talent Show] I find that you guys are really good at spreading rumors. Earlier, someone claimed with absolute certainty that one contestant played with another contestant’s feelings, even driving them to attempt suicide, and now, everyone’s saying they quit for love. Are you just making things up?
[Tree Hole (anonymous confessions)] I really do have inside information, a pair of trainees is really together! Not only did I see it with my own eyes, but the other trainees should have also seen how they interact. Sharing a bunk bed in the same dorm is just the basics, they even shared a bathroom when filming…
It’s so blatant. And they’re willing to give up their careers just to be together. I just don’t know how long this relationship will last.
[Gossip] I’m so tired of this “everything can be shipped” culture in the entertainment industry. Seriously, based on S-MX’s behavior on the show, there’s nothing special about her relationship with SH!
Doesn’t she treat everyone the same way? She doesn’t only have one roommate, right? How can you ship them so hard?
From the first episode, she said that her passion and specialty were cooking, and she wanted to go home and inherit her family’s restaurant. And SH is clearly capable of debuting. It’s obvious that Neptune Entertainment didn’t reach an agreement with Produce 101 and has other plans for her…
Even saying that SH offended the management or the program team is more believable than saying she’s with S-MX, right?
…
“What are you looking at?”
As Suhui was reading the forum posts, wanting to see how her manager had handled her statement, Su Mingxiu, who was preparing a fruit platter, asked.
Suhui showed her the phone screen in confusion. “I don’t know? These people are arguing so fiercely. Not only are they using Chinese, but also many letters, I don’t understand.”
Su Mingxiu leaned closer and, guessing the meaning of the abbreviations, took Suhui’s phone and put it aside: “Don’t look at it, using your phone too much isn’t good for the baby.”
“Uh…” Suhui felt that the human world was truly too dangerous. If she were really pregnant, she would definitely return to the sea.
Sharks, orcas, they were much better than these poisonous, dangerous things in the human world.
She nodded obediently and continued her carefree life.
Until, half a month later, Su Mingxiu started discussing how to raise baby merfolk with her, even considering buying a house by the sea so that the little merfolk could return to the ocean and learn survival skills from their mother.
Suhui: “No need.”
“Then do we need an incubator or something? Do the eggs need to be incubated?”
“No need.”
“Then is there anything I can help with?”
“Prepare a pot.”
“Huh?”
Su Mingxiu stared at her, shocked for a second, then burst out laughing. “When did you learn to tell such cold jokes? You almost scared me.”
The silver-haired mermaid blinked, not understanding why Su Mingxiu thought she was joking.
In her opinion, the eggs were meaningless anyway. And she had tasted almost all the seafood available on land in the past half month. Su Mingxiu had served her all the rare species available in the market, and those that weren’t available, Su Mingxiu had procured through CEO Li and her connections with the merfolk clan.
If Suhui was asked what she hadn’t eaten yet, the only answer that came to mind was mermaid eggs.
The merfolk clan didn’t have a strong sense of respecting the elderly or cherishing the young. Especially those living in remote areas with limited resources, they would even fight amongst themselves for food.
And the competition for mates was even more brutal.
Suhui was now addicted to Su Mingxiu’s cooking. So she was quite curious about how these eggs would taste under Su Mingxiu’s magical culinary skills.
“It’s not a joke,” she said. “I want to eat them.”
Su Mingxiu: “…?”
She remembered watching a nature documentary where some species, after giving birth and exhausted from the ordeal, would eat their mate to replenish their energy.
But…
Did the merfolk eat their offspring?
Terrifying thoughts filled her mind. Could this be the reason why merfolk were so fertile, yet their birth rate was so low? Because they were too gluttonous?
Su Mingxiu tried to persuade her. “No, if you’re really curious, we can ask CEO Li to see if anyone in your clan has any unhatched eggs, there’s no need to…” eat your own, right?
“Those are rare.”
Suhui said without hesitation: “They’re different from me. Most merfolk quickly choose a mate of the opposite sex. But it’s very difficult for them to get pregnant. The chances of me getting pregnant, in human terms, are like winning the lottery—”
Perhaps because her bloodline was special, her body more sensitive, that she experienced this false pregnancy.
Even for other merfolk, even with strong and healthy partners, it was difficult to conceive, and false pregnancies were even rarer.
“Hmm?”
Su Mingxiu asked, pretending to understand. “You mean… other merfolk can only have offspring with the opposite sex, but you can also have them with the same sex?”
Perhaps because she had been pampered recently, Suhui’s nerves had also relaxed. With the knowledge from her clan still fresh in her mind, she lay on Su Mingxiu’s lap, eating fruit, and replied slowly: “Of course not, I can’t give birth either.”
The tangerine Su Mingxiu was holding near her lips froze. She suspected she had misheard. “What?”
Suhui wanted to continue, her lips already parted, then she realized what she had just revealed. Her expression froze.
“I…”
She quickly snatched the tangerine slice from Su Mingxiu’s hand and deftly wriggled out of her embrace, sitting up and saying: “I mean… I can only… have eggs…”
Su Mingxiu had been mentally preparing to be a mother for half a month.
Stunned by Suhui’s words earlier, she hadn’t reacted in time. Now, her mind catching up, her black eyes stared at Suhui, her red lips curving into a dangerous smile. Her voice, however, became even softer: “Darling, what do you mean by ‘only have eggs’?”
She vaguely realized that mermaid eggs didn’t necessarily mean offspring.
The last time Suhui had seen this expression on her face was in the merfolk’s underwater palace. Back then, Su Mingxiu had asked her with a smile, Do you really have to do this? Do you really have to force me to lay eggs for you?
And the naive young Suhui had nodded firmly.
The price was…
She swallowed, her throat bobbing, trying to stay calm as she replied: “It means… the eggs I lay… they might not hatch into baby merfolk, do you understand?”
Su Mingxiu gave her a strained smile. “I understand.”
Suhui breathed a sigh of relief.
Thinking about Su Mingxiu’s gentleness during this time, she wanted to lean into her embrace. Su Mingxiu didn’t stop her, even stroking her soft hair.
As she held Suhui, gently running her fingers through her hair, she said unhurriedly: “But just the other day, when I was video calling Wang Zhi and the others, who was it that said their stomach hurt, as if being kicked, hinting for me to end the call?”
“How can ordinary eggs kick you?”
Suhui: “…”
She licked her lips, having forgotten how much she had studied about human pregnancies just so she could act convincingly, even coming up with new excuses to keep Su Mingxiu’s attention on her.
For this, she had even woken Su Mingxiu up at three in the morning, saying she was hungry and wanted fish soup, then watched as this woman, like a model partner, dutifully made her a late-night snack.
Another time, she had stumbled upon a forum post that said that during the first month of pregnancy,
No matter how one tried to seduce their partner, the partner would be too concerned about their safety to engage in sexual activity.
So, for several nights, Su Mingxiu had to endure Suhui’s whims, unable to do anything to her.
Now, Suhui, recalling these scenes, sensing the increasingly dangerous atmosphere, instinctively covered her belly and said defensively: “But… there really are eggs…”
She had even instinctively learned the skill of shifting the blame to protect herself: “And I never said there would be baby merfolk, you misunderstood…”
Su Mingxiu was so angry she laughed.
Her fingers were still slightly sticky from peeling the tangerine. She slowly wiped them with a tissue, her eyes looking at the fish who had been deceiving her for half a month with an amused smile: “But I believed you, what are you going to do?”
“Wh-what should I do?”
“Compensate me with a baby merfolk.”
“I-impossible… I can’t give birth—”
Suhui tried to back away, but she had already reached the edge of the sofa, there was nowhere to retreat. Perhaps Su Mingxiu’s gentle demeanor over the past half month had made her forget how intimidating this woman could be when she was assertive.
So now, suddenly remembering, she forgot to even run away, only staring blankly as Su Mingxiu approached.
Until she was trapped between Su Mingxiu and the sofa, smelling the lingering scent of tangerines on Su Mingxiu, seeing the red coral necklace retreat timidly into Su Mingxiu’s collar.
And the woman replied unhurriedly: “I don’t think that’s true.”
Suhui’s chin was lifted, forced to meet Su Mingxiu’s gaze. Under those dark, scrutinizing eyes, Su Mingxiu said slowly, each word distinct: “Since you’re so gifted, perhaps you’ll give me an even bigger miracle?”
“You didn’t get pregnant before because I wasn’t trying hard enough.”
“I’ll do better next time.”
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