Chapter 10: “It’s Back!”

“It’s back!”

Lance didn’t have time to mourn the jellyfish that had been dragged away by the tentacle. As soon as he saw a tentacle coming toward him, he immediately grabbed Wensir and swam toward the Coral Bone.

Wensir, on the other hand, was calm and collected, or rather, it seemed like he didn’t even notice the tentacle approaching. His whole body was stiff, as rigid as a piece of wood, lying on the Coral Bone with a vacant expression.

When Lance pulled Wensir, he hardly exerted any effort to get him away. Lance was too busy trying to escape to notice that something was off with Wensir.

He pulled Wensir all the way to hide among the sea anemones.

Once they reached the sea anemones, Wensir seemed to come back to life. He blinked, his expression becoming lively as he looked at Lance, locking eyes with him.

Lance and Wensir stared at each other for a moment before Lance asked:
“Do you think that jellyfish will get eaten?”

Wensir: “……”

Lance took Wensir’s silence as a confirmation, and his face immediately changed:
“Do sea monsters eat other sea monsters too? Oh my god, the jellyfish is mostly water, just a layer of skin. Can that tentacle even eat it?!”

Wensir sighed:
“Why do you always think of such strange things?”

Lance rolled his eyes at Wensir. The reason was simple; he was a human, and humans naturally think differently from fish.

The two mermaids stayed in the sea anemones for a while, with Lance keeping his ears perked up to listen for any sounds outside. After not hearing anything, Lance quietly swam out, looking around but not finding any tentacles entering the Coral Bone.

Maybe the tentacle was busy dealing with the jellyfish?

With a bit of luck, Lance slowly swam upward. He decided not to hesitate this time; if he didn’t see any tentacles, he would immediately take Wensir and run away. He wouldn’t even bother with the pearls.

So, Lance swam slowly and quietly upward. When he reached the edge of the Coral Bone, he lay on it, curiously peeking outside—

He came face to face with a tentacle.

Lance: “……”

The tentacle mercilessly pushed him back. Then, the tentacle seemed to summon a group of small blue flame fish from somewhere, tossing them into the Coral Bone as if that would cover the gap above the Coral Bone.

Lance turned back to see the fish group using their blue glow to seal the top, and he could only swim back dejectedly, only to find Wensir waiting for him below.

When Wensir saw Lance return, a glimmer of smugness flashed in his eyes. He crossed his arms and asked Lance:
“Do you still want to go out?”

Lance was heartbroken, summarizing the lessons learned from this failure:
“I was wrong; I shouldn’t have thought about breaking through head-on. I should have found another way! The more difficult the task, the greater the cost to accomplish it!”

Hearing Lance’s inner monologue, Wensir looked a bit confused. These insights… why do they sound so strange?

After enduring several setbacks, Lance remained resilient and even became more determined, telling Wensir:
“I should just dig out my escape route!”

Wensir was momentarily speechless and had to emphasize again:
“You can’t dig through the outer layer of the Coral Bone.”

Lance blinked and said to Wensir:
“Then let’s think of another way.”

Wensir: ???

Lance swam over to Wensir, putting on a pleading face, and asked:
“Wensir, can you teach me how to communicate with the sea monsters, okay?”

He recalled the interaction with the jellyfish earlier, curiously touching his throat and saying:
“Can mermaids emit sound waves? I did emit sound waves before and even hit the jellyfish.”

Wensir sighed. Since being with Lance, the number of times he sighed and felt a headache had skyrocketed.

He pulled Lance closer and gently pinched his Adam’s apple with his finger, speaking with a mix of affection and helplessness:
“I’ll teach you how to use this part.”

Feeling the gentle touch on his throat, Lance instinctively swallowed. Wensir’s action made Lance a bit scared, after all, he was touching a vital area.

But amidst the fear, Lance felt quite excited, flicking his tail as his curious gaze involuntarily traced over Wensir’s beautiful lips.

Wensir chuckled softly, then turned to the fish above them, slightly opening his mouth:
“zi——!!”

A deep sound emanated from Wensir’s mouth.

Lance was astonished to find that compared to his screech, Wensir’s sound waves were much more powerful.

As the sound continued, the surrounding seawater underwent an astonishing change; the originally calm water seemed to resonate with the sound, producing bubbling noises, and a concentrated wave suddenly burst forth, piercing through the fish group, scattering small fish and their flesh everywhere.

Lance: “……”

Wow, that power is insane!

If Wensir had shouted like that at the jellyfish, it would probably have shattered instantly.

Wensir turned back and saw Lance’s little fish looking shocked, which made him find it amusing. He raised his hand, lifted Lance’s chin, and with a little force, closed Lance’s slightly open mouth.

Wensir asked, “Did you understand?”

Lance snapped back to reality, excitedly circling around Wensir:
“So amazing! Really amazing!”

Lance wanted to shower Wensir with compliments, but unfortunately, his vocabulary was limited, and he couldn’t find the right words to describe it, so he could only blow bubbles underwater.

Wensir clearly enjoyed the praise from Lance, his eyes filled with joy.

“How did you do that?” Lance asked.

Wensir patted Lance’s head and said:
“You can do this too. Didn’t you do it before? Do you remember that feeling?”

Lance nodded.

“Recall that vibrating bone and make it vibrate even more,” Wensir instructed.

Lance looked confused. What bone?

Wensir narrowed his eyes slightly, reached out, and tapped Lance’s lips, enticing him:
“Open your mouth.”

Lance thought for a moment and opened his mouth. Watching the little white fish in front of him completely defenseless, that kind of reliance that even he was unaware of made Wensir’s heart soften.

He suddenly leaned down and kissed him.

Lance was stunned by the soft sensation on his lips, leaving him dazed, like a clam that had its shell pried open, offering no resistance to Wensir’s invasion.

Wensir’s soft tongue swept through Lance’s mouth, teasing the tip of his tongue while gently kneading Lance’s Adam’s apple.

This is outrageous!

This… this completely crossed the line for Lance as a straight guy. He initially wanted to bite Wensir, but suddenly realized that the tongue he thought was just stirring around was actually moving in a certain rhythm.

Alright.

Lance frowned, having to give up resistance and follow Wensir’s tongue.

In this situation, it really felt like two deeply in love couples sharing a French kiss.

Under Wensir’s “guidance,” Lance quickly got the hang of the rhythm. He hurriedly raised his head, wanting to tell Wensir that he had moved—

“Then I’ll teach you how to emit infrasound.”

Taking advantage of the moment, Wensir explained, and before Lance could object, he kissed him again.

“Mm-mm-mm.”

Lance could only hypnotize himself, telling himself that Wensir wasn’t trying to take advantage of him but was “seriously” teaching him…

But what if he still wanted to bite down?

Seeing Lance cooperating, Wensir wrapped his arms around Lance’s slim waist, deepening the kiss.

Lance blinked, feeling that something was off.

He didn’t know how long it lasted, but eventually, Lance couldn’t take it anymore. He had been holding his breath for so long that his vision was starting to sparkle. He pushed Wensir away and covered his mouth, gasping for air, only to end up choking himself:
“Cough cough cough.”

Wensir showed an innocent expression:
“Are you okay?”

Lance flicked his tail, stopping Wensir from coming closer.

He recalled for a while, still feeling that something was off, but when he looked up and saw Wensir’s expression was very “serious”…
“You can’t just kiss like that.”

Lance’s face turned red. The entire white mermaid turned a shade of pink due to shyness, which made Wensir feel an itch in his heart. But he was afraid that if he pushed further, this little fish, who always had wild thoughts, would do something beyond his imagination, so he had to let it go and casually replied:
“Okay.”

Lance flicked his tail and swam back to the pile of pearls:
“Then let’s separate today… I need to calm down.”

Wensir felt his eyelid twitching again:
“Are you still going to dig your tunnel? Didn’t you say it can’t be dug through?”

Lance waved his hand casually:
“No, my nails haven’t grown out yet… I’ll try practicing to see if I can use infrasound to gather the sea monsters, so I won’t dig for now.”

Wensir secretly breathed a sigh of relief. His little fish finally shifted his focus.

……

Meanwhile, a research ship arrived above the Nat Trench. Researchers in the ship’s lab were collecting information using various instruments.

At that moment, the lab door opened, and a young man in black clothes and with black hair walked in, asking:
“Did you hear that?”

The researchers analyzing data were taken aback and collectively stopped their work. The person in charge walked over and asked:
“Colonel Wen Yu, what did you hear?”

“I don’t know.”

The young man called “Wen Yu” was slender, with overly pale skin that even hinted at an unhealthy bluish tint. He coldly looked at the person in charge, his dark pupils filled with a gloomy shade,
“Can’t your equipment collect anything? What a bunch of useless people.”

The person in charge felt a bit awkward and could only explain with a stiff face:
“According to our checks, there are slightly more infrasound waves in the ocean than before… but that doesn’t indicate anything.”

Upon hearing this, Wen Yu rubbed his temples and said:
“Focus on the infrasound and see if you can decipher it.”

“This…”

Wen Yu opened his eyes again, and there were faint blood vessels appearing in his pupils:
“Don’t think I don’t know what experiments your lab has conducted… do as much as you can.”

The person in charge’s expression changed slightly, and in the end, he could only grit his teeth and agree:
“Alright, I’ll give it a try. But at most, we can only extract the frequency and see which sea monsters it comes from.”

Wen Yu nodded:
“Quickly.”