If you made a list of things Yu Bai disliked, the first would be dryness, the second heat, and the third would definitely be studying.

To be precise, studying the pronunciation of human language.

Human pronunciation had so many tones.

Merfolk language was very simple—no complicated sounds, you just had to open your mouth.

But human language had so many different pronunciations.

Each character had its own distinct sound and independent meaning. For a little mermaid who was used to using a single syllable to express many meanings, this was very uncomfortable.

“One, two, three… sī?”

Looking at the large characters on the screen, Yu Bai felt like his tongue was going to tie itself in knots from the different pronunciations.

“Wū… liú…”

Forcing out two more, Yu Bai felt his tongue starting to go numb.

His pink tongue tip lightly pressed against his cheek, and the little mermaid quickly pressed his lips together, a lightbulb going off in his head.

When the character on the screen changed to “seven,” he pretended to struggle as he stared at it for a while, then shook his head at Fu Linyuan to indicate he didn’t know it.

Heh—if I don’t know it, I don’t have to say it.

The Imperial Marshal really hadn’t expected that one day someone would dare slack off right under his nose.

Not suspecting anything, Fu Linyuan tapped “confirm,” and the screen changed to a new set of characters.

Yu Bai repeated his trick—said three or four, then shook his head and claimed he didn’t know the rest.

Just like that, a certain little mermaid muddled through for a full twenty minutes, while Fu Linyuan stared at the test results, deep in thought.

Language proficiency: Toddler babbling stage (three to four years old)

…Who had been teaching him Aonian before?

How did they let him go off on his own after learning only this much?

After the character recognition test, Fu Linyuan tested Yu Bai on arithmetic.

But since the little mermaid said he couldn’t understand the questions, the man finally had to unwrap a chocolate bar nearby and confirm, by counting candies, that Yu Bai at least knew basic addition and subtraction.

No need to bother with a foreign language test.

Looking at the results, Fu Linyuan paused, silently opened the educational software he had ordered, and downgraded the preset primary school curriculum to preschool level.

After roughly drafting a learning plan, the Imperial Marshal closed his smart device, then began opening the packages beside him one by one.

By the time he opened the third, Yu Bai belatedly realized that all the packages seemed to be filled with clothes.

All the clothes were neatly packed in beautiful boxes, and some even had sparkly-looking cards placed on top.

The little mermaid was very fond of shiny little things, so his attention was instantly captured.

After selecting a few suitable colors, Fu Linyuan took the card from Yu Bai’s hand and handed him the clothes: “Try the size.”

But the little mermaid was clearly more interested in the thank-you note the brand had written to the Marshal. Without even glancing at the clothes, he reached out to get the card back.

I picked it up first.

Those blue eyes silently protested.

Give it back to me.

Fu Linyuan: …

Fu Linyuan had no choice but to hold the card high, out of Yu Bai’s reach, finally shifting the little mermaid’s attention to the clothes.

“…Try on the clothes first. I’ll give this to you later.”

Yu Bai tried to reach twice and couldn’t, so he pouted and finally looked at the clothes being handed over.

It was a set of milk-tea-colored casual wear. The tag indicated that it came from that high-end fashion house on Capital Star which only accepted private orders—usually tailoring formal wear for royal events.

But the little mermaid didn’t understand any of this. He looked at the clothes in his hands, then at Fu Linyuan’s expression. It seemed… he wanted him to change?

Yu Bai was still wearing a bathrobe, so before the man could react, he had already pulled open the sash at his waist, exposing his slender shoulders to the air.

His shoulder and neck lines were beautiful, even his collarbones were proportioned just right—clear and defined without being too sharp.

Sunlight streamed in through the window, falling on his fair shoulders, casting a brilliant halo.

The loose fabric pooled at his waist, barely covering his thighs.

The enchanting siren sat there on the chair, holding a human object in one hand, his gaze full of curiosity.

His features carried an innate allure, but his expression was filled with pure and clueless innocence.

As if proving that ancient fairytales were true—both sides blended perfectly together, making him dangerously captivating.

…Yu Bai wasn’t human.

Fu Linyuan’s expression didn’t change, but after a pause, he looked away.

The little mermaid didn’t notice the man’s inner thoughts. The snow-like charm was quickly covered by the creamy-white shirt as he lowered his head, fiddling with the buttons on his chest.

…Humans are so troublesome.

He thought while buttoning up.

It’s better in the water—no need to wear clothes at all.

Do humans not like their own bodies? 

Why do they have to hide them?

With such thoughts, he finished putting on the shirt, stood up, and was about to put on the pants.

Then Yu Bai stopped.

Huh? Did Fu Linyuan forget to give him a piece?

In the previous life in the lab, every time Fu Linyuan gave him pants, there was always a triangular piece of clothing to wear inside.

Without thinking much, the little mermaid looked around but didn’t find any small triangular clothes, so he reached out and poked Fu Linyuan.

The latter didn’t look at him, his gaze still drifting aimlessly: “…Hm?”

Yu Bai didn’t understand why the man suddenly wouldn’t look at him. After poking him twice with no response, he thought for a moment, then said, “Look.”

The soft voice rang out, pure and melodic.

Fu Linyuan couldn’t help but look in that direction at the sound of the word—but he quickly looked away again.

There was a subtle fluster in the motion.

Thankfully the shirt was a loose fit and covered down to the tops of his legs.

But just barely.

And the little mermaid, who had no concept of “being naked is shameful,” didn’t notice the man’s awkward attempts to avert his gaze, nor did he understand how easily his actions could trigger someone’s imagination. After thinking for a bit, he said another word.

“Miss… Miss…”

That didn’t sound right.

He cleared his throat forcefully, opened his mouth, and this time pronounced clearly: “Missing.”

Missing a piece of clothing.

…He’s not human. He doesn’t understand what he’s doing.

Fu Linyuan repeated this to himself in his mind, tongue pressing lightly against the roof of his mouth as he stared at the white wall opposite, as if trying to find a flower blooming on it.

Seeing no response, Yu Bai thought he hadn’t understood, so he patted his own leg and repeated, “Shǎo!”

The crisp voice rang out, and that fair, eye-catching skin swayed slightly with the motion.

Fu Linyuan: “…”

Fu Linyuan pinched his brow and called out toward the living room: “…Huo Si.”

A few seconds later, a robot entered—one that looked completely different from the one Yu Bai had seen the night before.

If Yu Bai had gotten up just a bit earlier that morning, he would have seen Fu Linyuan inserting Huo Si’s memory card into this new robot.

New Huo Si: “Lunch is not ready yet. Is there anything else, sir?”

Pinching the bridge of his nose, Fu Linyuan’s expression was unreadable to Yu Bai, and his voice was cold and emotionless: “Order him some…”

Huo Si rolled forward on its little wheels: “Sorry, sir, I didn’t catch that. Could you say it a bit louder?”

Fu Linyuan: “…”

…He really doesn’t understand.

“I said…” A vein on his temple twitched. The Imperial Marshal took a deep breath. “Order him some underwear from the mall.”

Huo Si: “Understood, sir. What size should I get?”

Fu Linyuan: “…”

The living room was silent for a full ten seconds before Huo Si got a reply.

“…Waist approximately seventy to seventy-five centimeters.”

A smiley face appeared on Huo Si’s screen: “Understood, sir. I’ll take care of it right away.”

＾v＾

In the study.

When Duke arrived with the custom disguise device, he couldn’t help but feel that the Marshal’s mood seemed… less than pleasant today.

After quickly running through a mental checklist to make sure his recent slacking at work hadn’t been caught, Duke nervously placed the little box on the desk: “Boss, I brought the item.”

Fu Linyuan gave a soft “mm” and asked, “Did you destroy the data that was sent over?”

Duke patted his chest. “You can rest assured when I handle things—it’s already been destroyed.”

Military disguise devices were different from civilian ones. Because of confidentiality concerns, both the facial data before and after disguise were considered classified during the creation of military disguise devices. Only a few top-level officials in the military had access to this data.

Duke was one of them.

And Fu Linyuan had instructed him that once he obtained the disguise device customized for Xiao Bai, he was to enter the database and erase Xiao Bai’s data.

Although Duke knew his superior was doing this to protect Xiao Bai, it was precisely for that reason that he couldn’t quite understand: “…Boss, do we really need to be this cautious? I mean, even the owner of Tarl didn’t know…”

Fu Linyuan glanced at him. “Duke.”

Duke rubbed his nose. “Caution should be second nature for a soldier—my bad… Oh right, Boss, I actually came here today for two things.”

Fu Linyuan: “Speak.”

“One is that I’d like to take a half-day leave this afternoon. Shen Zhichu has a follow-up at the hospital today—you know his situation…” Scratching his head, Duke’s voice softened, “…If I don’t go with him and something happens, there’ll be no one there to sign anything.”

Fu Linyuan’s typing on the terminal paused almost imperceptibly. Then he replied, “Approved.”

“The other thing is…” Scratching his head again, Duke mentioned a clothing brand, “Do you know this brand?”

How could Fu Linyuan not know? He had just bought a whole wardrobe of clothes from that brand for Yu Bai.

“It seems like a pretty big brand…” Duke’s tone held a hint of confusion. “Did you buy clothes from them? I got a message from their marketing department this morning, asking if the military would be interested in endorsing their clothing.”

There had been fashion brands before that, despite the Marshal’s fearsome reputation, had dared to approach him with collaboration offers simply based on his looks.

But their Marshal had never accepted any of them.

So Duke brought it up now only to get a direct refusal, so he could get back to the brand before taking his leave in the afternoon.

However, for some reason, his superior didn’t immediately refuse this time. Instead, he paused and asked, “…What clothing?”

Duke actually hadn’t looked closely at the cooperation proposal, and when asked out of the blue, he froze for a moment before quickly lowering his head to open his terminal. “Let me see…”

Crap, was he about to get caught slacking at work?

Thankfully, since it was the most recent email, he found it immediately after opening.

“Ah…” Seeing that one line of small text, Duke’s expression became a bit odd—like he wanted to laugh but didn’t dare, so he could only hold it in.

Fu Linyuan: “…Mm?”

Duke’s voice grew quieter: “Ahem… It’s… it’s underwear.”

The study fell into a deathly silence.

Fu Linyuan: “……”