Hey! Control Yourself! - Chapter 24

Chapter 24: Heard You Panting

Under the relentless glare of the high-intensity searchlights, even the red mist of the forest was pierced through.

The towering wild grass was pressed down upon them by the fierce wind from the rotors, bringing with it a thick scent of crushed greenery mingled with the metallic tang of blood.

Sheng Lu’s lips, neck, back, and that magnificent tail were all covered in the blood flowing from Shen Ji’s palm.

A small search vessel flew directly over the grass above them. Shen Ji pressed his body lower, shielding the mermaid completely within his downward embrace. His chest was held tight against the other’s cheek.

Finally, the intense light gradually shifted away from the sky above, and the surrounding forest plunged back into darkness.

Shen Ji sensed something was wrong; the breathing of the Sheng Lu in his arms was growing increasingly heavy. His heart skipped a beat, and he quickly sat up to check on him. Under the faint starlight, he saw a pathological flush spreading across the mermaid’s face…

Given his current understanding of Sheng Lu, this flush was almost certainly abnormal. “Are you in pain, or is it…”

Sheng Lu hooked a beautiful hand around his shoulder, burying his head against Shen Ji’s neck with an unnatural pant. “Are you asking what you already know… mnn… I’m in pain… but it also feels… so good…”

Shen Ji suddenly realized something. Those bastards in the lab didn’t inject him with some kind of permanent aphrodisiac, did they? Connecting this to Sheng Lu’s behavior in every other timeline, Shen Ji found this to be a plausible explanation.

Seen this way, even this deviant was a bit pitiable.

“Are you okay?” Shen Ji asked.

Sheng Lu shook his head, looking troubled. “Please… stop seducing me…”

Yes, those words actually came out of Sheng Lu’s mouth.

“?” He’s saying I’m the one seducing him?

Shen Ji let out a cold, utterly speechless laugh. It was official: this guy was a born deviant. How had he ever thought he needed to make excuses for him?

Despite his irritation, Shen Ji picked him up and continued toward the reservoir.

Ten steps, twenty steps, thirty steps…

Shen Ji stopped in his tracks, his patience finally snapping. “Do you have to touch me there?”

Whether it was subconscious or intentional, Sheng Lu’s face kept rubbing against his chest, and his hand was constantly wandering near Shen Ji’s gland.

“Mnn… I’m about to die, at least let me enjoy myself a little…” His tone was weak, yet he sounded perfectly entitled.

“Shut up. Don’t move,” Shen Ji looked at him coldly.

The scolded Sheng Lu widened his eyes—those eyes were so innocent, looking incredibly hurt and disbelieving, but then he leaned back against Shen Ji’s shoulder and let out a pathological smile. He didn’t look like someone with the self-awareness of a person on the brink of death at all.

Shen Ji: “……” Did I just reward him?

For the rest of the way, Shen Ji felt the mermaid’s breathing gradually weaken. He was uncharacteristically quiet, no longer spouting smutty remarks, and the blood smeared on his body had completely dried.

This actually made Shen Ji a bit worried. He increased his pace and reached the reservoir, stepping into the water and gently lowering the mermaid in.

The dying mermaid sank slowly before him. Shen Ji saw his eyes gradually open as he began to swim, circling around Shen Ji again and again. The tail, which had looked like a withered flower, gradually regained its original supple luster and magnificent brilliance.

The first light of dawn appeared on the horizon.

Shen Ji looked at the mermaid in the water. “If you can no longer survive away from water, then you must return to the sea.”

The mermaid race was nearing extinction. As one of the few survivors, Sheng Lu truly should go back to the ocean.

“I want to stay on the continent,” Sheng Lu grabbed his hand, kissing the jagged wounds on his palm.

Shen Ji felt a slight itching sensation where his palm was split open. He watched as the tissue grew back with full force; the wounds healed at a speed visible to the naked eye. His self-healing ability could actually work on others. It was miraculous.

However, without the ability to protect himself, a being like Sheng Lu would never find a peaceful end in the human world.

“I’ll send you back to the sea.”

“I don’t want to go back.”

“Why?”

The mermaid in the water leaned closer to his face, his pomegranate-red eyes deep and full. “The sea has no mermaids, and it doesn’t have you.”

Shen Ji automatically ignored the second half of the sentence; he was already used to this guy’s nonsense. “Then where can you go? You can’t leave the water.”

“Once the drug effects wear off completely, I’ll be able to change back to human legs. Then, I will go look for other surviving mermaids in the world.”

He was speaking with rare seriousness.

“How long until the drugs wear off?” Shen Ji asked.

Thinking about it, even if Sheng Lu returned to the sea, he still wouldn’t be able to escape the coming Gaya apocalypse. It would be better to live on the continent in human form; later, if possible, he could even board a human spacecraft.

Sheng Lu didn’t give him an answer.

This place was too close to the experimental city; they couldn’t stay for long. Shen Ji reached out his hand. “Come up.” They had to find a place to hide.

Sheng Lu looked at him for a long time, his gaze profound.

“Come up,” Shen Ji repeated, his hand extended.

Sheng Lu reached out, and feeling his hand gripped tightly, Shen Ji pulled with a bit of strength, scooping the entire “fish” up into his arms.

Since a mermaid was such an obvious creature, Shen Ji couldn’t take him to any populated areas. Especially now, with the influence of the Great God Cult spreading propaganda that mermaids were the creations of evil gods, Shen Ji couldn’t bring him into a town.

He had tried to contact Royce using his light-brain earlier, but there had been no response. Ultimately, he decided to stay in the Red Mist Forest. This forest’s unique magnetic field prevented tracking devices, and hunting dogs were likely too afraid of the monsters inside to enter. He guessed that the searchers would at most use small hovercrafts for low-altitude scouting.

Taking advantage of the clear weather, he picked a relatively clean cave. Not far from the entrance was a small pond where he could carry the mermaid whenever needed. For safety, he laid out a simple detection perimeter using mental threads outside the cave.

At night, when the red mist rolled in, he used a bonfire for warmth, hunting small game or catching a few fish from the pond to satisfy his hunger. Fearing poison, he didn’t dare pick wild fruits. He was essentially living the life of a savage.

“Mermaids eat fish, right?” Shen Ji propped two fish over the fire to roast.

“I do.”

When night fell, Sheng Lu sat beside him on a temporary bed made of a layer of bulrushes. Shen Ji took a bite of the roast fish—it tasted terrible, barely edible. He should have grabbed some survival supplies from the lab when he had the chance.

As they slept that night, Shen Ji felt as if two snakes were slithering directly into his collar, pressing against his throat and making his whole body uncomfortable.

He opened his eyes and pushed down the two hands tightening around his neck. The sleeping mermaid pressed his head against Shen Ji’s chest again, his long hair coiling around Shen Ji’s arms, and both hands wrapping around his waist. His tail was draped slickly over Shen Ji’s legs; the entire fish was putting nearly all of its weight on him.

Worst of all, Sheng Lu was unconsciously leaking his Omega pheromones. Having just exchanged pheromones, the Omega was not only dependent on the Enigma but also more or less emitted sweet mating pheromones.

Shen Ji pulled the sweet, sticky mermaid away and shifted to the side. The mermaid just shifted with him.

When he woke up the next morning, Sheng Lu was staring at the red marks on Shen Ji’s neck with an innocent face.

Shen Ji glanced at him with the dark circles of a man who hadn’t slept enough. “Stop acting.”

“…”

“I heard you panting last night.”

Sheng Lu turned his face away, a meaningful smile playing on his lips.