Ouyang Xiaoli got up and walked towards the room, pausing halfway, noticing Xia Yi hiding behind the door.
Xia Yi slowly walked out.
He looked sadly at Ouyang Xiaoli, then silently lowered his head to stare at his toes, saying nothing, quietly standing there.
He had heard Ouyang’s conversation with Koda; Ouyang admitted he didn’t like him and didn’t want him to be the sister-in-law of the Underground City.
Xia Yi’s eyes were red-rimmed.
He wouldn’t give up that easily!
“All done?” Ouyang Xiaoli’s gaze lowered, noticing the little merman was already wearing clean pants.
Xia Yi nodded sullenly.
He was still holding the soiled pants, crumpled in his hand, unsure where to put them. Ouyang Xiaoli walked over and took them.
“Just give them to me.”
He walked in another direction.
Xia Yi turned his head to look, seeing Ouyang put his pants into a milky white cylinder and press a button; the machine began to operate.
Ouyang Xiaoli turned his head, seeing the little merman using his small hands to hold the doorframe, peeking out his head, curiously staring at the cylindrical machine.
The corner of his lips involuntarily curled upward.
After finishing his task, Ouyang Xiaoli turned and walked out; the little merman quickly retracted his head, not wanting Ouyang Xiaoli to notice.
When Ouyang Xiaoli arrived in the living room, the little merman was already sitting upright on the sofa, looking straight ahead, his expression very serious.
Ouyang Xiaoli raised an eyebrow.
He was quite good at pretending.
Tang Si and Xiao Mo downstairs had waited for a long time without seeing Big Brother. After receiving a notification from Koda, they came up together in the elevator.
This wasn’t their first time at Big Brother’s place, but it was the first time they felt so constrained.
Because the little merman was glaring at them.
Ouyang Xiaoli chuckled softly, walking to the storage box and taking out several bags of nutrient solution: “What, do you need me to personally serve you?”
These two standing at the door like door gods, the scene was indeed a bit strange.
Tang Si touched the edge of the sofa and sat down on the furthest one from the little merman: “Big Brother, I remember the little merman wasn’t this fierce a few days ago. Why, after staying here for two days, he’s become…”
Fiercely cute.
The appearance was rather cute.
But fierce-cute was still fierce. Tang Si was baffled, not knowing where he had offended the little merman to cause such hostility.
Except for the day they returned, he hadn’t visited Big Brother’s place in the last two days.
Tang Si thought gloomily.
Xiao Mo sat down next to Tang Si: “A few days ago, you were still encouraging Big Brother to sell him. Natural mermen have high intelligence; they hold grudges.”
His tone was amused.
Tang Si suddenly understood.
“Is that so?”
He felt extremely wronged: “But I didn’t ask Big Brother to sell him! I was against it! Against it, you know, I disagreed!”
Xiao Mo said, “That’s because you’re ugly. It’s said that mermen have an innate hostility towards ugly things; you might just fit the bill.”
Tang Si: “…”
A clear personal attack.
Mermen did like beautiful things, but those were things like shells, pearls, and pendants; whether humans fell into that category was unknown.
Tang Si felt that Xiao Mo was insulting him.
Besides, he wasn’t ugly. He was six feet three, with a brawny physique and a strong masculine aura. Over the years in the Underground City, Tang Si had received many advances from black mermen, all of which he had rejected.
Ouyang Xiaoli distributed nutrient solutions to Tang Si and Xiao Mo, gave one to Koda, and finally handed one to the well-behaved little merman on the sofa.
The little merman frowned.
But he still accepted the nutrient solution.
He slowly drank it down.
Ouyang Xiaoli remembered his appointment with Tang Si and Xiao Mo, so he said, “At this time, the good stuff at the Starstone Market will be picked over. Let’s look first; I’ll go later in the afternoon.”
Tang Si quickly finished his nutrient solution: “Zuo Yinwan has already gone.”
He casually threw the nutrient solution bag into the trash can, startling the little merman who was quietly drinking his nutrient solution on the sofa.
“Hey, so timid?”
Tang Si curiously leaned forward.
Xia Yi glared at the man, nimbly spinning 180 degrees, turning his back to Tang Si. The action was incredibly cute, though he was unaware.
Tang Si chuckled.
“It makes me want to raise a merman,” He felt a little itchy, glancing at him several times.
Ouyang Xiaoli got up, picking up the napkins from the coffee table. Intentionally or not, he perfectly blocked Tang Si’s view: “I remember some mermen in North City quite like you.”
Tang Si scoffed: “What kind of trash are they?” Thinking of those black mermen, the interest he had just felt instantly vanished.
The black mermen of the Underground City.
Were the lowest class of mermen.
It wasn’t that Tang Si had a prejudice against black mermen; the mermen’s rankings were based on intelligence. Currently, whether in the Silver Sea Empire or the Underground City, mermen were basically artificially bred.
Therefore, their intelligence was very low; black mermen had the lowest intelligence, roughly equivalent to a two-year-old human child.
Those black mermen chasing Tang Si had long been used and abused by the North City leader; Tang Si would have to be crazy to accept those mermen’s pursuit.
It showed how rare natural mermen were.
Tang Si and Xiao Mo didn’t leave in a hurry. Ouyang Xiaoli went to the study; when he came out, he had several dark-black metallic stones in his hand.
The three gathered together to study them.
Koda sat on the sofa, glancing at Big Brother studying the energy stones, then at Xia Yi, who was sitting alone in a daze.
He quietly sat beside him.
“Xia Yi.”
Xia Yi ignored him.
“Don’t be discouraged; Big Brother is actually pretty good to you. He bought you clothes and a bun; he actually likes you in his heart.”
Xia Yi secretly pricked up his ears.
“He’s just sharp-tongued. Saying he doesn’t like you is a lie; he has unavoidable reasons. You won’t be angry with him, right?”
Xia Yi shook his head.
How could he be angry? After all, Ouyang was pretty good to him; he was just a little sad.
Koda breathed a sigh of relief: “That’s good.”
“Come, let’s look at some beautiful stones; these all have energy…” Koda turned on his brain-computer and began to introduce them to Xia Yi.
He pointed to Tang Si and the others: “Look, they’re studying energy stones; those black things aren’t ordinary stones.”
Koda’s mouth kept moving: “…So we go to the Starstone Market to buy stones three days a week; the accumulated energy is used to reinforce the starship.”
“Starship?”
Xia Yi curiously asked.
“The starship was built by Big Brother; it took a very, very long time. He started infiltrating the surface when he was ten years old, and learned many things. The starship can be said to be the hope of our Underground City. But it needs to accumulate energy; we can generally only jump to another planet once every three years.”
“But unfortunately, the planets we’ve been to before are all desolate and unsuitable for survival.”
“At first, the other three leaders of the Underground City also accumulated energy with us, but after failing seven or eight times, they gave up. They thought that invading the Silver Sea Empire would be faster than finding a planet, so they secretly sent people to infiltrate the surface as well.”
Xia Yi listened attentively.
As Koda scrolled through the pages, introducing things bit by bit, Xia Yi caught sight of several photos; one was of a handsome man with blond hair, blue eyes, and sharp features.
Xia Yi’s heart skipped a beat: “Wait!”
Koda had originally intended to skip over it, not bothering to introduce the other leaders of the Underground City. Hearing Xia Yi’s sudden exclamation, he was startled.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
Xia Yi pointed at the blond, blue-eyed man and cautiously asked, “Who is he?”
“The leader of West City in the Underground City.”
Koda recognized him at a glance.
After saying that, he felt something was wrong. Why would the little merman suddenly ask about this? “What’s wrong? Have you met him before?”
Xia Yi shook his head.
Koda didn’t think much of it and continued to explain the situation of the Underground City to the little merman: “Our Big Brother is the leader of East City; the leader of West City is also pretty good. But the two from North City and South City… don’t even mention them; they live in filth and are always messing around.”
His tone was full of disgust.
Xia Yi pondered.
He vaguely remembered that when his brother came back, he would often mention his lover, saying he was handsome, blond, blue-eyed, and very gentle, and would accompany him back to the sea every month.
In the book, the main protagonist’s love interest was Song Chengbing, a general of the Silver Sea Empire; his brother, Xia Ni, was the main protagonist, and they were a perfect match. But Xia Yi didn’t want to miss a single possibility. This Xiu Di, blond and blue-eyed, looked very much like the person his brother described.
When his brother mentioned that person, his eyes were filled with unconcealable happiness, perhaps he himself hadn’t even realized it.
To find his brother.
He had to find clues.
Koda casually said, “Xiu Di might be at the Starstone Market today. Oh, right, Xiu Di is the person you just asked about.”
Xia Yi nodded: “Thank you.”
This was the first time Xia Yi said “thank you” to Koda, and so earnestly; he felt inexplicably strange and couldn’t help but glance at the photo of Xiu Di a few more times.
Xiu Di was indeed very handsome and refined, and a good person; he was the one who had the best relationship with them among the several Underground City leaders, frequently visiting.
Koda whispered, “Do you like him?”
Big Brother had physiological problems; forcing Xia Yi to be the sister-in-law seemed a bit excessive, and Big Brother also said not to mislead Xia Yi.
He felt a little regretful.
Actually, being Xiu Di’s merman wasn’t bad either; it was a good home after all.
Ouyang Xiaoli, who had been fiddling with the energy stones, inadvertently opened his eyes and looked at the little merman, gently rubbing the energy stone in his hand.
Xia Yi rubbed his pants with his small hands and cautiously asked Koda, “Can I go see him?”
Not far away, a pile of energy stones shattered on the ground, making a harsh sound. Ouyang Xiaoli expressionlessly stood up and left the apartment.
The sound of the door slamming shut was deafening.
The entire building seemed to have experienced an earthquake.
Koda: ???
Xia Yi and Koda looked at each other, staring at the energy stones that had exploded into fragments, falling silent.
Koda mumbled, “What’s wrong with Big Brother?”
Besides Koda, Tang Si and the others were also in the room; several people simultaneously and bewilderedly shook their heads, clearly not knowing what had happened.
