The Love-Hate and Grudges Between Me and the Mermaid - Chapter 29

Chapter 29

The meal was a bit strange.

At least from Ian’s perspective.

But Bu Yan didn’t seem any different.

As usual, she urged Ian to eat more meat.

“I don’t like it,” Ian put down her chopsticks and looked Bu Yan in the eye, speaking with absolute seriousness.

“Artificial meat doesn’t count as real meat; it’s a soy product. You can eat it.” Bu Yan placed a piece in Ian’s bowl. Her tone was gentle as always, but it carried a layer of undeniable assertiveness.

Ian poked at the piece of so-called human-made fake meat.

But Yan continued to urge, “You can eat it, Ian.”

Ian ate it reluctantly, and then her eyes lit up.

Wait! It’s actually delicious!

Much better than real meat!

It wasn’t bitter at all.

“Is it good?” But Yan was observing Ian every second. Seeing her reaction, she added another piece to her bowl.

“It’s good, it’s good,” Ian said, her mouth stuffed full, her voice muffled.

Bu Yan smiled a very relieved smile, as if she had accomplished a great task, influenced a person’s life, and changed a dull existence.

After the meal, Bu Yan was supposed to do the dishes, but her head ached severely, and many mysterious scars had appeared on her body. Ian felt pained for her and wouldn’t let her go, beating her to the sink.

Unable to win the struggle, Bu Yan gave up and flopped onto the sofa to play with her phone.

Life has been like this lately flat and simple, without a single ripple. It would be perfect if her head didn’t hurt.

In reality, however, the hot-topic pushes on her phone and the societal oddities on TV were all talking about deaths. Many people were dying outside.

Such news would undoubtedly cause social panic and trigger riots. The government absolutely forbade them from staying in the public eye; once discovered, videos quickly became unplayable and were promptly submerged by official news.

For example:

【The Church has now domesticated 40,000 Heterodox Followers; why the Empress repeatedly emphasizes faith in the Alien God.】

【The Prime Minister and various Council members visited the Alien God Shrine together to perform the great ritual of kneeling and serving.】

【The Coastal Trash Mountain is nearing completion; ecology will finally be restored under the Prime Minister’s leadership of “Governing by Non-Interference.”】

【Fervent recruitment for “New Human” experiment volunteers; nearly 80,000 have signed up so far.】

【The new principal of West City High School takes office, promising to strictly crack down on violations of discipline.】

【…】

Just window dressing.

Despite the pain, her brain managed to recall some of the original owner’s memories.

But none of them were pleasant. But Yan didn’t want to dwell on them.

Home is a sanctuary; it’s still most comfortable here. But Yan put down her phone, filled with emotion, feeling incredibly lucky to be a “transmigrator” who knew what was going to happen in advance and could prepare supplies and defense equipment.

She knew clearly that the world here was even worse than described in the original book—one could even call it anti-human, anti-social, and anti-nature.

Yet, in her heart, she couldn’t wait for it to get even worse.

As a human, a person living in nature who could predict the future, her thoughts were dangerous. She should be like “certain people,” hoping the world would get better and striving for it.

But… she didn’t want to.

These people didn’t deserve her effort.

Life and death are fated; they got what they deserved.

“Bu Yan,” suddenly, a hesitant voice pulled Bu Yan back from her thoughts.

She looked up; it was Ian.

Ian’s face was solemn, her slender fingers twisting together.

“What’s wrong?” Bu Yan stood up, taking Ian’s arm and pulling her to her side. “Do you have a fever?”

“No.” Ian shook her head and sat close to Bu Yan. “I want to tell you something.”

She looked into Bu Yan’s eyes and spoke weakly, “Something bad happened. Your state wasn’t very good at the time; I called you several times but you didn’t react, so I had to take matters into my own hands…”

As she spoke, tears fell down her cheeks like pearls from a broken string.

Wait, what?

What happened?

How did she start crying before saying anything?

With the end of the world approaching, Bu Yan usually had an indifferent attitude toward everything. But seeing Ian’s aggrieved, piteous look especially after hearing the words “state wasn’t very good” her heart couldn’t help but tighten.

“Can you tell me what it is first?” Her tone softened involuntarily as she spoke slowly to Ian. “I won’t blame you, just tell me…”

“It’s just…”

Ian bit her lip and spilled everything about how Lin Ling, Kara, and Yoshitani Kaede had come to the house, how they pressured her, and how she fought back.

Of course, it was all “decorated” half-truths and half-lies. She put herself first, painting herself as a helpless underdog. Ian was not so foolish as to tell the whole truth.

“They forced me… Sister, they took advantage of your discomfort to force me!”

Ian covered her face, burying herself in Bu Yan’s embrace. “I hate them!”

“There, there…” But Yan’s brain was a bit dazed. First, she didn’t expect the Legion people to be so unreasonable as to threaten Ian while she was unwell. Second, she was confused about when she had fallen unconscious or lost her clarity.

“It was when they entered the door!” Ian was filled with righteous indignation, throwing all the blame onto Lin Ling and the other two.

“You were standing at the door, about to open it to welcome them.” As if to prove her words were true, Ian stood up, threw on a pair of shoes, and jogged over to the front door, performing a multi-role reenactment of the scene.

“One of them put something on your face, and you fainted in less than a second.”

Bu Yan rested her head on her hand, deep in thought.

Ian was anxious. After a few seconds, she continued to brainwash her with lies. “They originally wanted to drag you into the truck. I wouldn’t let them and beat them up before they stopped. Then I carried you back to the room and stood off with them for a long time before they finally left…”

The Legion people are so wicked; it’s right not to save the people of this world!

Only my wife is good in this world.

Bu Yan was moved by Ian, her heart feeling sweet. “You weren’t wrong. You did the right thing.”

As the ancients said: If the enemy doesn’t move, I don’t move; if the enemy moves, I move first.

Since the enemy had already danced on her head, it would be impolite not to act.

But Yan was very satisfied with Ian’s actions, believing she had changed—no longer the weak Ian who only knew how to depend on her.

She had grown up.

“Did I… do the right thing?” Ian played the role to the end, her azure eyes sparkling as she looked at Bu Yan in disbelief.

“Yes,” Bu Yan nodded heavily. “You did exactly the right thing.”

Later, Bu Yan lectured Ian a lot more, mostly along the lines of “what to do when you’re bullied.”

“We don’t go looking for trouble, but we aren’t afraid of it either.” Ian was held in Bu Yan’s arms. When she heard this, she looked up to peck Bu Yan’s chin, laughed, and added, “If someone bullies us, we must strike back!”

“Exactly.”

At this moment, the trio who had been painted as villains stared at this video clip in deep silence. Finally, it was Kara who broke the quiet.

She pointed at the surveillance video and laughed maniacally: “Ha! As expected of a high-high-high-level anomaly. She doesn’t even blink when she lies.”

“Are we just going to be slandered like this?”

Lin Ling’s fingers tapped rapidly on the keyboard, recording everything. She checked it meticulously before answering Kara’s question, “Yes. What else would we do?”

“Go and clear things up, obviously!” Kara said, grabbing her keys to leave.

Yoshitani Kaede hurriedly followed.

Lin Ling put down her laptop and asked coldly: “Are you sure Bu Yan would believe us?”

“She has lived with that monster for so long; her mind has been controlled for ages, hasn’t it?”

Lin Ling pressed the pause button. The video froze on Bu Yan and Ian curled up on the sofa watching TV. She tapped a key and continued, “Besides, this is just an experiment. It’s not worth it.”

Because it was an experiment, they didn’t care what that monster said about them.

And it was precisely because of the experiment that she could obtain so many secrets.

Bu Yan: The first batch of anomaly scientists and breeders trained by the Empire.

Ian: The Empire’s highest-level anomaly. Excluded from C, B, A, and S ranks—unpredictable and uncontrollable.

She possesses human emotions, perception, and thought; she has her own ideas and an extremely strong desire to control “Bu Yan.”

They were the perfect subjects for this experiment.

Of course, they didn’t know the truth; they simply thought they were ordinary people.

“Come back.” The video resumed. The two people on the screen stood up and went to the bedroom. The image gradually blurred; the content following was not for people of their rank to see.

Lin Ling typed the final word in her observation notes. “I’m letting you know this for no other reason than to tell you they are not suspects. We looked in the wrong direction. Don’t waste any more time on meaningless things.”

If we looked in the wrong direction, we looked in the wrong direction. Why tell them the secrets?

Lin Ling didn’t know. This was an order from the Empress; she just executed it.

Just like how she was inexplicably transferred from the Blue Boat Base, and how the Blue Boat Base was suddenly discovered by the world and forced to be destroyed.

All of this was decided by those in high positions; they had no way to interfere.

Hearing this, Kara’s momentum instantly deflated. She sat back in her seat, gloomily, “Then what do we do? Our reputation is ruined…”

“It’s not important. Everything is for the experiment,” Lin Ling comforted her warmly.

Yoshitani Kaede said nothing, merely patting Kara’s shoulder.

Everything for the Empire, everything for humanity. Kara focused her mind and chanted silently.

Just then, a frantic knocking sounded outside. “Professor Lin, someone is here for you.”

The visitor’s voice trembled. No matter how well they tried to hide it, the terror within was impossible to ignore.

Lin Ling placed her laptop on the table. She was about to turn the handle to open the door when she suddenly saw a pair of long, drooping ears on the window’s protective bars.

It was a rare good day sunny with plenty of light. Additionally, the aluminum protective bars had a certain reflectivity.

In the dim room, Lin Ling could clearly see a petite girl reflected there. Even though she wore a heavy hat, her white, fluffy ears couldn’t be hidden, drooping from both sides to her chest.

If Lin Ling hadn’t been engaged in related work for a long time and observed carefully, she might not have recognized it.

This was an anomaly. No human dressed like that.

As if unable to wait any longer, the girl knocked on the door again, her voice soft and sweet, just like the previous person’s: “Professor Lin… are you in there?”

Lin Ling let go of the door handle, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on the window.

In her field of vision, the girl scratched her head and suddenly turned around, revealing a rabbit’s head.

Before she could react, in the next second, the rabbit’s face lunged before her eyes, only a finger’s width away.

She had actually gotten in! Without the door being opened.

“Professor Lin, long time no see.”

The rabbit-head extended flexible human fingers and playfully tapped the tip of Lin Ling’s nose, giggling mischievously: “Did you miss me?”

“Because I missed you very much.”