Wen Yu was stingy.
Lansi had long since realized that.
The moment Lansi said he wanted to return to the sea, Wen Yu fell silent.
After staring deeply at Lansi for a long while, he turned around and left without saying a word.
Was he angry?
Lansi thought that if Wen Yu was angry, it was understandable.
But he still had to make things clear now. Otherwise, if he wanted to leave in the future and Wen Yu refused, the two of them would only end up tangled in some dramatic mess. That would do neither of them any good.
"Wen Yu?"
Lansi ran after him and watched as Wen Yu silently picked up the cleaning tools nearby and began tidying up. Lansi tried to reason with him.
"Wen Yu, don't ignore me. I'm doing this for your own good. If I stay here, sooner or later those people from this morning will come after you again… I don't want anything to happen to you."
Wen Yu merely snorted, clearly having no intention of responding.
"You're really naive."
Lansi followed after him persistently like a little tail. It was hard to imagine that the usually quiet Lansi could become this talkative.
"Whether you're unhappy or against it, at least say something."
Wen Yu still didn't spare him a single glance, though this time he scrubbed the pool much harder with the brush.
Lansi glared at the back of Wen Yu's head in dissatisfaction before muttering softly,
"Why are you acting just like that black-tailed mermaid? Giving me the cold shoulder for no reason… You both even have the surname Wen."
Wen Yu's body stiffened slightly.
Since Wen Yu refused to talk about it, Lansi had no choice but to give up for now. He climbed out of the pool, stood at the edge, and said to Wen Yu,
"Forget it. Since you're upset right now, we can talk about this later."
After speaking, Lansi returned to the villa. He planned to get some sleep.
Wen Yu, who had been cleaning silently, stopped what he was doing. He looked at Lansi's retreating figure with a complicated expression.
Although he had already decided to send Lansi back to the sea someday, hearing Lansi bring it up first still left an uncomfortable feeling in his chest.
Was Lansi really that eager to leave him?
However, when Lansi returned to the villa and naturally went straight to sleep there, Wen Yu suddenly found himself thinking seriously about another question—
Why had Lansi become so used to sleeping in his bed?
Half an hour later, while Lansi was still asleep, he suddenly felt his blanket being lifted before someone slipped into bed beside him.
Lansi opened his eyes sleepily and saw Wen Yu lying down next to him.
There was still moisture clinging to Wen Yu's body, as though he had just taken a shower before coming over.
"Have you thought it through?"
Lansi yawned. Half-awake, he forced himself to look at Wen Yu and asked in a drowsy voice.
As he spoke, Lansi instinctively shifted to the side to make room for him, allowing Wen Yu to settle in beside him while the two whispered together in the darkness.
There had originally been two pillows on the bed—one for Wen Yu and one for Lansi.
But Wen Yu insisted on squeezing closer. Resting against Lansi's pillow, he gazed at him through the darkness with his black eyes and gave a soft hum.
"You should go back."
Lansi froze at Wen Yu's decisive answer. Then, instantly, he became wide awake.
Wen Yu had actually agreed to let him return to the sea.
A smile spread across Lansi's face, revealing a small dimple. He had thought it would take a lot of effort to convince Wen Yu, but unexpectedly, Wen Yu had accepted it so quickly.
After that, silence stretched between them for a long time.
In the darkness, Lansi relied on his excellent eyesight to openly study Wen Yu's gentle features.
A mermaid's vision was very good. Humans probably wouldn't notice they were being watched, right?
Lansi thought to himself.
And the more he looked at Wen Yu, the more he felt that Wen Yu resembled Winsor.
It wasn't just their facial features—it was something deeper, something internal.
As though Winsor's soul now lived inside the body before him.
The thought startled Lansi. Subconsciously, he curled inward slightly, but in doing so, his foot accidentally brushed against Wen Yu's leg. The moment it touched the hard bone beneath, Lansi inhaled sharply.
"Hiss—"
"What's wrong? Does your foot hurt?"
Wen Yu immediately became tense. He sat up at once, switched on the light, then lifted the blanket. Under the dim glow, he grabbed Lansi's foot and carefully kneaded it in his hands.
Even when Lansi had still been human, his feet had been considered small for a man. He often struggled to find shoes in the right size. Now that he had become a mermaid and transformed again, his feet seemed even smaller than before.
At present, Wen Yu could wrap one of Lansi's feet completely with a single hand.
The warmth of Wen Yu's palms enveloped his cold skin, and the sensation was strangely comforting—like someone stroking along a mermaid's tail from beginning to end.
Lansi propped himself halfway up against the headboard, watching the man at the foot of the bed hold and massage his foot. Oddly enough, he didn't feel embarrassed by the intimate gesture at all.
"Wen Yu."
Lansi shifted a little closer. His foot was still trapped in Wen Yu's hands, but he curled himself up instinctively, almost like a ball, as he leaned nearer and asked curiously,
"Why are you so good to me?"
If it was only because of the life-saving grace back then at sea… honestly, if their roles had been reversed, Lansi didn't think he could have done as much as Wen Yu had.
At that moment, Wen Yu only needed to lift his eyes to see Lansi clearly, while his hands continued gently kneading Lansi's foot.
"Because I like you."
Wen Yu's tone sounded casual.
"And also for my own sake."
Lansi blinked in confusion.
If Wen Yu intended to send him away, then what did he mean by "for my own sake"?
"Why do you always want to return to the sea?" Wen Yu asked instead.
"Aren't you human? Logically speaking, shouldn't you prefer living in human society?"
Lansi opened his mouth, suddenly remembering that in the beginning, he really had told Wen Yu that he was human. Wen Yu had even promised to help him investigate his identity.
"From what I've found," Wen Yu said slowly, still absentmindedly squeezing Lansi's foot as though playing with it, "I only know that you were once one of the victims of the Queen Mary."
"Your parents received compensation afterward. They could have comfortably lived out the rest of their lives, but later, a disease spread across Earth…"
Wen Yu paused slightly.
"Your parents didn't survive it."
The moment he heard that, Lansi's mood sank instantly.
Although Lansi had long known that the disease had drastically reduced Earth's population, hearing the truth so suddenly still left him feeling depressed.
"This isn't your fault."
Wen Yu reached out and gently patted Lansi's head.
Lansi: "…Wen Yu, earlier you touched my feet, and now you're touching my head."
Wen Yu calmly withdrew his hand, continuing to toy with Lansi's soft feet resting in his lap.
"You haven't walked on the ground for even a full day yet."
Lansi: "…"
"Besides, I don't mind it, so why are you bothered by it?" Wen Yu asked, sounding genuinely confused.
Lansi fell silent.
Damn it. Was Wen Yu secretly a foot fetishist or something?
"Don't worry, it's only for today."
Seeing the disgusted expression on Lansi's face, Wen Yu felt both amused and annoyed.
"If you asked me to massage your feet tomorrow, I wouldn't do it."
"Tomorrow?"
Lansi blinked in confusion.
After kneading Lansi's feet for a while and confirming that the little fish's toes weren't injured or crooked, Wen Yu suddenly stood up and pushed Lansi down onto the bed.
Startled, Lansi instinctively wrapped both legs around Wen Yu's waist, trying to keep some distance between them.
…But the move seemed to have the opposite effect.
Lansi had forgotten that he was wearing a nightgown.
Because he was still used to being a mermaid, he preferred loose and comfortable clothing. Pajamas with pants felt too restrictive to him, so even though the oversized nightgown was a little too big, he still chose to wear it.
The problem was that the moment he wrapped his legs around Wen Yu's waist, the soft skin of his inner thighs was immediately exposed before Wen Yu's eyes.
And with that position…
The nightgown had practically fallen open completely.
Wen Yu let out a low laugh at Lansi's reaction before lowering his head and explaining calmly,
"I need to give you a human identity."
By then, Lansi had already hurriedly lowered his legs from Wen Yu's waist. He awkwardly tried to close them together again, though the position made it difficult.
Wen Yu reached toward Lansi's waist, slowly loosening the belt while absentmindedly brushing over the delicate scales there as he continued speaking.
"This identity will be my orderly."
"Orderly?"
Lansi looked at Wen Yu suspiciously, clearly not understanding what that meant.
Taking advantage of his distraction, Wen Yu's hand slowly slid lower as he explained,
"Someone specially assigned to take care of me."
Ordinarily, someone of Wen Yu's rank should have had an orderly long ago, but he had refused the arrangement every single time.
The reason was simple.
Wen Yu had no family and lived alone in the dormitory. He had never needed anyone to take care of him.
Rather than wanting someone to take care of Wen Yu, the laboratory was more interested in placing someone beside him to monitor him.
"I…"
Lansi felt that he probably wasn't capable of taking care of Wen Yu at all. Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly felt something pressing against him.
It was hot, resting against the delicate skin of his inner thigh.
With a soft gasp, Lansi's mind went blank.
Wen Yu shifted slightly. He pressed a kiss against Lansi's cheek and murmured,
"My little orderly? In that case, shouldn't your officer help you?"
The deep, magnetic voice sounded right beside Lansi's ear. He froze. Before he could react, Wen Yu held his knees and gently pressed his legs together. Then, like a large clingy cat, Wen Yu let out a low rumbling sound from his throat as he rubbed against him repeatedly.
So hot…
Lansi couldn't help struggling slightly, but when he tried to sit up, he accidentally knocked over the bedside lamp. The room immediately plunged into darkness, leaving behind only the rapid breathing of the two of them.
"Lansi? I helped you last time…"
Wen Yu softly called his name and asked in a low voice,
"This time… you'll help me rub it, alright?"
As he spoke, Wen Yu's fingers brushed lightly over the scales at Lansi's waist again.
Lansi couldn't stop himself from parting his lips, letting out a soft little mermaid whimper in the darkness.
"Then… then you… slow down."
At that moment, Lansi felt incredibly grateful that the room was dark. As long as Wen Yu was human, he wouldn't be able to see anything clearly.
He stretched out slightly and shyly covered his eyes.
His newly transformed legs were pale and beautiful, just like the white tail he once had as a mermaid.
Wen Yu lowered his head and looked at the little fish in his arms, dark light flowing through his pitch-black eyes.
The room was not completely dark. Faint moonlight spilled through the window, illuminating the white fish lying atop the black sheets.
At that moment, Lansi resembled a pearl—
A pearl forcibly pried from a hard clam shell, timidly offering itself beneath the moonlight to the god of the sea, radiating a soft and lustrous glow.
…
Early the next morning, Lansi hesitated as he held the pants Wen Yu had handed him.
Wen Yu had said that since Lansi was going to act as his orderly soldier, he would have to accompany him on patrols.
Because of that, Wen Yu had asked Carl to bring over a smaller military uniform that Lansi could wear.
"Your name is still Lansi," Wen Yu explained while handing over the uniform. "You'll be taking the identity of a missing soldier."
After putting on the shirt, Lansi stared worriedly at the pants in his hands.
In the apocalypse, emergencies happened constantly. For the military, ordinary soldiers were extremely useful, but their casualty rate was terrifyingly high.
Even so, countless people still threw themselves into the army's enormous meat grinder every year.
As a result, the standard soldier's uniform was made from extremely rough fabric.
Although a mermaid's strong physique had already toughened the skin on Lansi's legs compared to the first day, having such coarse material rub against his skin…
Lansi touched the faint redness still lingering on his thighs and shot Wen Yu a glare.
Wen Yu coughed awkwardly, deliberately avoiding Lansi's gaze as he said,
"Today we're only going to inspect the wealthy district. We won't be walking much."
"Heh."
Lansi gave him a fake smile filled with sarcasm.
Wen Yu: "…"