Becoming the Keeper of an Alluring Merfolk - Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Shui Se Teaches Song Xiu to Dive

◎Underwater Mouth-to-Mouth Ventilation: Song Xiu Confesses She Only Stays for Shui Se◎

Xiao Hen thought one kiss from Jian Xu would be enough. After breaking apart, Jian Xu only gave her a momentary chance to breathe before initiating another steady kiss, her hands already reaching to undo the knot of her bathrobe.

Xiao Hen, who had never known how to resist Jian Xu, did not cooperate this time. She forcefully pushed Jian Xu’s shoulder, abruptly breaking the intimate atmosphere.

“What’s wrong?” Jian Xu looked at Xiao Hen, confused. “Did I hurt you?”

“I… I promised Little Coco I would go spend time with her now. I can’t… can’t continue, sorry, Jian Xu.”

Watching Xiao Hen retie her bathrobe, walking out the door barefoot, it took Jian Xu a long time to recover, repeatedly confirming that she hadn’t been abandoned.

If the door hadn’t been left ajar, she would have truly thought she was hallucinating. Was this still her Xi Hen? Jian Xu was momentarily flustered. She had already chased out the door when she remembered Xiao Hen was barefoot, so she quickly turned back to grab slippers.

On the other side, Song Xiu and Shui Se were eating dinner. Shui Se was a little distracted because of Xiao Hen. Song Xiu reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear.

“Not happy? Is it because of Xiao Hen?”

“Mhm. Little Coco gave Xiao Hen a lot of advice, and I passed it all on. I wonder if she managed to follow it.”

“Like what?”

“To stop trying to please Jian Xu, and to refuse if she gets too close.”

Song Xiu raised an eyebrow: “Little Coco is trying to get revenge for the suffering she endured, just in a different way.”

Shui Se suddenly put down her spoon, tilted her head, and looked at her: “Song Xiu, how about I teach you to dive?”

“That’s… so sudden?”

“I want to go into the sea. Before the sun sets below the horizon, before winter comes, I want to dive with you just once.”

Song Xiu pursed her lips and smiled, nodding. She threw all thoughts of danger and fear out the window. She had never seen Shui Se swimming freely in the sea.

She must be incredibly beautiful.

Under the dim, setting sun, Shui Se and Song Xiu sat on the dock deck. Shui Se’s long hair seemed to be plated with a soft golden glow by the sun. The distant sea surface shimmered, and seagulls occasionally swooped past. Song Xiu raised her hand and tossed a piece of bread upward, feeding one precisely.

Shui Se wanted to feed one too, but Song Xiu hid the remaining bread behind her back, deliberately not giving it.

“Song Xiu, you’re doing that again! I’m ignoring you!” Shui Se angrily gripped Song Xiu’s shirt hem to vent.

Song Xiu wasn’t wearing a diving suit, only a T-shirt and shorts, since her wife said this would better improve her water skills.

As for the bread, how could she not give it to her? She just wanted a kiss.

“Kiss me, and I’ll give you the rest.”

Shui Se immediately smiled triumphantly: “So you want me to kiss you?”

“What? Reluctant?” Song Xiu loved using provocation to tease her wife.

“Not just one, ten kisses!”

Shui Se proactively kissed Song Xiu, pecking her more than ten times like a little chick. The two lingered for a long time, so long that the seagull waiting for bread on the pillar was almost dozing off before it got a piece of bread fed by Shui Se’s hand.

“Shui Se, why were they attacking humans before?”

“They were hypnotized by the fog. Only Jiao-people or merfolk numbering ten or more can control the fog.”

“Then if we don’t inhale it, will we avoid getting lost if we wear an oxygen mask?”

“I’m not sure. When we get back, we can ask Little Coco to ask her clan to test it.”

“Good, I’ll listen to you. If it succeeds, my Shui Se will have helped the entire institute.”

Shui Se was flattered. Seeing that the sun was about to set, she quickly pulled Song Xiu, wanting to enter the sea. The visibility of the sea at night was too low. Even as a Jiao-person, she would be scared, let alone Song Xiu.

Since Song Xiu was still a bit afraid, Shui Se had to go down first. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you the whole time. Take a deep breath, and then dive down.”

Song Xiu nodded hard, then jumped off the dock deck as Shui Se had taught her, successfully submerging into the water.

Slowly sinking, she dared not open her eyes until Shui Se circled her waist, bringing her up to the surface with a spin.

“Song Xiu, don’t be afraid. You can open your eyes underwater. It might sting a little at first, but you’ll get used to it. Trust me.”

Shui Se took Song Xiu back underwater. After several tries, Song Xiu was finally able to open her eyes.

The first person Song Xiu saw when she opened her eyes was Shui Se. She was holding her hand, her pink hair drifting in the water, swaying gently with the current, and her teal fish tail flicking gracefully. Her beauty was breathtaking.

“Song Xiu, hold my hand. Follow me.”

Although Song Xiu couldn’t speak underwater, she could hear very clearly. She nodded forcefully, clutching her wife’s hand tightly.

One was in front, the other behind.

Shui Se’s sparkling tail swished flexibly by her side. Song Xiu, who was being completely guided, was somewhat entranced. In her eyes, this was more enchanting than the underwater coral reefs.

Just as Song Xiu was about to signal Shui Se to surface to exchange air, Shui Se abruptly stopped, turned to face her, and hugged her.

A soft sensation came from her lips.

Breathing through a kiss was a wonderful feeling. She completely entrusted her life to the other person.

However, Shui Se didn’t fully understand human lung capacity. Since this was her first time doing this, she thought Song Xiu, who was closing her eyes in concentration, had passed out, and she hastily brought her up to the surface for air.

“Are you okay, Song Xiu!” Shui Se trembled, her hands and ear fins anxiously wiping the water droplets from Song Xiu’s face, afraid something had happened to her.

Song Xiu opened her eyes, blinked, and answered with a smile: “Of course I’m fine.”

“That’s good. You scared me. Let’s go back. It’s getting dark.”

“Okay.”

Because Shui Se was genuinely frightened, Song Xiu spent the whole journey home comforting her, promising never to worry her like that again, which finally made Shui Se feel slightly better.

Shui Se had been warned by the Clan Leader sister since she was little that humans become exceptionally fragile once submerged in water. Even with an oxygen tank, their life would end if they were entangled by seaweed or stuck somewhere.

She had truly believed she had done something wrong and caused harm to Song Xiu. Her heart was pounding, but thankfully, it was just a false alarm.

After entering the institute, they specifically went to the Jiao-person section to discuss when to conduct the fog experiment.

As soon as they entered, they saw Little Coco baring her teeth at Jian Xu, then turning to dive into Sister Xiao Hen’s arms, begging her to tell her a story.

Jian Xu was nearly spitting blood with anger, but she was powerless at the moment and could only turn and leave discontentedly.

Song Xiu and Shui Se exchanged glances. All one could say was that people had to pay the price for their past mistakes. As Song Xiu put her arm around Shui Se’s waist and walked further in, they saw that the adult merfolk were already resting, and Little Coco was dozing off in Xiao Hen’s arms. Only the non-conformist Zheng Zheng was staring boredly at the skylight.

“Is there anything you want? I can bring it for you next time the cargo plane comes.” Regardless of Zheng Zheng’s character, as a feeder, Song Xiu had to try to meet their needs.

“I want my own room.”

“I can help you apply for the underground laboratory. It has a bathtub, a sofa, and a television. Apart from Jian Xu’s instruments, everything else can be used normally.”

“But I want the kind that Shui Se and Xiao Hen live in. The one next to yours is empty, right? Can’t you just apply for that one for me?”

“Here’s the thing, Zheng Zheng. The Director explained this to me specifically. You can view me and Jian Xu as guardians who can supervise and restrain them at all times. You can’t live alone without a guardian, because the dormitories belong to the guardians. They aren’t assigned because a Jiao-person is there.”

Zheng Zheng nodded slightly, lost in thought: “Then buy me some dresses and jewelry. They have to be flashy. And I also want… music headphones. I saw them in a TV commercial, the waterproof type with a memory card. Also, I don’t want to always watch a big screen with the merfolk. The films they show are too childish. I need a separate TV installed just for me.”

Song Xiu agreed to all of it. Shui Se on the side sincerely felt that Zheng Zheng was being excessive; she herself wouldn’t dare ask for so much, yet Zheng Zheng demanded everything at once.

“The cost must be more than your subsidy, right?” Shui Se asked Song Xiu worriedly after they returned to the dormitory.

“It’s fine. The most expensive item, the TV, is actually the easiest to solve. We can just take the one from Jian Xu’s underground lab and give it to her. It’s the headphones she wants that might be a bit costly.”

“Is she deliberately making things difficult for you because of me? I’m sorry, Song Xiu. I’m causing you trouble.”

“Please don’t blame yourself. If I were her, I might also feel uncomfortable and would make a lot of demands of my feeder. A little empathy makes her behavior understandable.”

This was the first time Shui Se had understood the concept of ’empathy.’ After thinking it through, she wasn’t so angry anymore. After all, Zheng Zheng had no friends here. If she couldn’t find a way to vent her emotions, something was bound to go wrong.

“I understand, Song Xiu. You truly are a great and wonderful feeder. I’ve learned so much from you during this time.”

Song Xiu, basking in her wife’s praise, pulled Shui Se close: “I do all of this for you. If I hadn’t met you, I probably would have been scared back to the desert by the merfolk’s fierceness at the very beginning.”

This answer was unexpected for Shui Se: “R-really?”

“Of course. Let’s take a bath together, wife. I want to touch your mating scale.”