Chapter 44: Eternal Day (VIII) Obedience

Wen Yin's words were like a stone thrown into calm water.

Cangli stood in the bathtub in a daze, staring at her from afar with his deep blue eyes.

After a long while, he suddenly turned his head and looked towards the floor-to-ceiling window.

The cruise ship has sailed into the deep sea. The sunlight penetrates the clouds, casting ever-changing beams of light on the unfathomable dark sea, like a stairway leading to another world.

Freedom is within reach.

Cangli's lips moved, and he made two strange sounds that Wen Yin couldn't understand.

The next second, the blood color on his face instantly faded, and even the tiny blue scales behind his ears seemed to have lost their luster, revealing a desperate paleness.

He withdrew his gaze from the window and shook his head vigorously at Wen Yin.

Wen Yin stood up and stopped at the edge of the bathtub. She lowered her eyes and looked at the mermaid who was crawling on the edge of the bathtub and looking up at her.

The tail of the eye, which seemed to be carefully carved by a god, was elegant and charming, and still had traces of moisture.

Just staring at her without blinking.

"Cangli," Wen Yin's voice was exceptionally gentle, "Returning to the sea means freedom. Don't you want to go?"

Her eyes fell on his scaly tail, where the gel secreted from the wound reflected slightly in the light.

"You can leave now if you want."

However, as soon as he finished speaking, Cangli's reaction suddenly became intense.

He swung his tail fin violently, creating huge waves on the water surface.

He no longer looked at the alluring blue outside the window, and seemed eager to grab something to prove his obedience.

His pale fingers had a cold and clammy touch, and he timidly and tentatively grabbed the corner of Wen Yin's clothes.

Seeing that Wen Yin didn't immediately shake it off or scold her, the hand climbed up carefully along the corner of her clothes like a frightened anemone seeking shelter.

Finally, the cold and smooth fingertips gently touched the back of Wen Yin's hand hanging by her side.

Wen Yin paused slightly.

The touch was extremely special, the skin was delicate yet had an inhuman coolness, and the translucent webbing between the fingers was as thin as a cicada's wing and had an aquatic smoothness.

The fingertips seem softer than humans, yet they also contain a certain toughness that belongs to deep-sea creatures.

It's a strange and special touch.

Cangli's fingers were placed loosely at first, and when he felt that Wen Yin did not pull away, he slowly closed them little by little, and finally completely held her fingers.

His movements were filled with a kind of sacrificial piety and great uneasiness, as if he was grabbing not a hand but a life-saving piece of driftwood.

He looked up at her, her wet sea-blue hair stuck to her pale cheeks and neck, her long eyelashes were covered with tiny water droplets, as fragile as crystal that would shatter at the slightest touch.

Wen Yin looked down at her hand that was being held and said nothing.

In this almost stagnant silence, Cangli seemed to interpret some signal from this silent acquiescence.

Crash!

There was a huge sound of flowing water, and water droplets splashed on Wen Yin's skirt and the smooth floor tiles of the bathroom.

Wen Yin looked up in surprise.

It was Cangli who stood up directly from the bathtub.

The tall figure instantly enveloped Wen Yin, bringing with it the damp and cold breath of sea water and a strong inhuman feeling.

Fine drops of water rolled down his pale yet well-defined body like pearls from a broken string.

When she was in the water, she only thought that the mermaid was elegant. Now that Cangli was supporting her body with her tail and standing in front of Wen Yin like a human, she realized that the other person's figure was really too tall.

Wen Yin's gaze could only fall on Cangli's tight waist and abdomen. Further up, there were smooth muscles with clear contours under the wet skin, with a wild beauty.

However, this powerful body is covered with shocking scars.

In addition to the deepest wound on the shoulder blade, there were also various crisscrossing whip marks and branding, which looked particularly glaring on the pale skin.

From the waist down, on the huge dark blue fish tail, there are scattered missing scales, revealing the dark red skin and flesh underneath.

He was standing so tall that Wen Yin even had to look up to see his face clearly.

This huge size difference should have brought a strong sense of oppression, but at this moment, Cangli's posture was full of absolute obedience and humble pleading.

Wen Yin's gaze just fell on the other person's water-stained chin, and out of the corner of her eye she saw the pair of slender arms suddenly wrapping around her with an incredibly fast yet cautious gesture.

Wen Yin didn't even have time to react. She felt a salty, cold, and moist breath of sea water instantly enveloping her.

The next moment, she was pulled into that wet, cold, and wide embrace by an irresistible yet extremely gentle force!

Cangli's upper body leaned forward slightly, and his tall body bent into an arc of submission to accommodate her.

His slender arms were tightly wrapped around her waist and back, and his other hand, with slight trembling, carefully protected the back of her head and gently pressed her cheek against his cold chest.

The cold water vapor quickly penetrated Wen Yin's clothes, bringing a biting chill.

The skin that was pressed against her face and body was as delicate as jade, yet had an inhumanly low temperature, and... the countless raised and sunken scars gave her a heart-pounding feel.

He lowered his head, his wet and cold hair falling down, and he slowly and affectionately rubbed Wen Yin's forehead with his chin.

It's a strange posture of obedience and dependence.

Wen Yin froze in place.

When 028 appeared, he saw the host being imprisoned and surrounded by this huge body.

There are also things that cannot be seen from the host's perspective, the slightly raised corners of Cangli's mouth, and the vortex of desire surging in his dark blue eyes.

[Host...host? ]

028's sudden voice startled Wen Yin and she trembled.

Cangli, who was surrounding her body, felt her trembling, and as if he suddenly realized something, he abruptly withdrew his hand from Wen Yin.

He stepped back stiffly, and when he found that Wen Yin's whole body was wet, he lowered his eyes and looked at her in panic.

Only then did Wen Yin realize that the delicate dark blue ear fins behind his ears were fully extended because they were out of the water.

As thin as a cicada's wing, it reflects a dreamy pearly luster under the light, so beautiful that it seems not to be a human creation.

Tall, broken, beautiful, fragile, and with a sacrificial and absolute obedience.

but……

Wen Yin withdrew her gaze and did not scold or blame Cangli for her actions. She just casually turned on the switch to fill the bathtub with water.

"The water turns off by itself when it's full."

After saying that, Wen Yin turned around and closed the frosted glass door while facing the gaze of the mermaid behind her.

[028, what's wrong?]

Wen Yin changed her clothes again. The sound of running water was still coming from the bathroom. She could vaguely see the tall figure diving into the water again.

[Host, why do I feel that the way Cangli looks at you...]

028 spoke hesitantly.

[It also looks like it wants to eat you in one bite...?]

Wen Yin hummed noncommittally, poured a glass of juice and sat on the windowsill to look at the sea view.

[Did you find anything over there? You came back earlier than I expected.]

[Because I saw some strange images about that servant.]

028 used Wen Yin's points to buy a recording tool and projected the recorded image in front of Wen Yin.

[Host, look.]

028 As soon as the words fell, a suspended projection appeared in Wen Yin's field of vision.

The camera seems to be shooting from above, right at the ceiling, clearly capturing a narrow, simply furnished crew cabin.

In the center of the picture was the servant who had checked her invitation letter when she boarded the ship and had accompanied her to select the mermaid last night.

He was wearing that neat white uniform and was standing in the middle of the room with his back to the "camera".

He slowly stretched his limbs, then with somewhat stiff movements he took off his coat, then his vest, and finally unbuttoned his shirt.

The attendant took off his shirt, and his skin looked a little pale in the dim light of the cabin.

Then he took off his trousers, revealing a male body with perfect proportions.

He hummed an unknown tune and stepped into the simple white bathtub in the corner of the room.

Lying gracefully in the water.

After more than ten seconds of still footage, the other person's body sinking underwater seemed to be twisted by some invisible force.

Starting from the legs, they swelled and deformed in an extremely unnatural way.

The muscles and bones beneath the skin squirmed and reorganized like boiling wax, and the smooth surface of the skin hardened at a speed visible to the naked eye, covered with a layer of dark gray, almost black substance.

The substance looked neither like pure shell nor like skin, but more like a strange mixture of some deep-sea mollusk and minerals.

The soles of his feet disappeared, or rather, they merged and extended into a flat, wide webbed structure with irregular flocs on the edges.

The skin on those slender and smooth fingers slowly peeled off from the fingertips, revealing an unknown grayish-white object with a suction cup underneath.

The bones of the fingers softened and stretched, eventually turning into several tentacles with suction cups at the ends, which kept wriggling and curling.

These tentacles unconsciously expand and contract in the water, slowly stirring the water surface.

The transformation was silent and rapid, filled with a sickening sense of biological blasphemy.

In just a dozen seconds, the person soaking in the bathtub was no longer a human, but an indescribable, distorted marine species.

It stretched out its grayish-white, smooth webbed feet covered with strange shells, as if it had finally taken off its heavy disguise.

028 glanced at Wen Yin and found that her expression did not change much, she just frowned slightly.

The scene continued, and the monster raised its head slightly, with its neck resting on the edge of the bathtub at a twisted angle.

Its lips opened and closed slightly.

028 synchronized the audio information, and Wen Yin clearly heard the distorted and strange whispers, with a sense of satisfaction and relaxation of returning to her original body.

"Being a human... I'm still not comfortable enough..."

The voice was hoarse and slippery, as if it contained a mouthful of thick sea water.

After a brief pause, the monster's head turned slightly, as if sniffing the air.

The pair of eyes hidden in the shadows seemed to flash a ray of extremely greedy and primitive light.

Its throat rolled and a sticky swallowing sound came out.

Then, with a chilling familiarity, he murmured a name in a low, distinct voice:

"Chen Ru..."

Then came even more rapid breathing, filled with an uncontrollable primitive impulse:

“It smells so good…”

"I can't bear it anymore..."

In the picture, the monster in the bathtub seems to be immersed in the fantasy of fragrance.

The grayish-white arms twisted and curled anxiously in the water, and the suction cups opened and closed, as if simulating the action of grabbing prey.

The greed and eager appetite were clearly conveyed through the images and those few whispers, making the entire air seem stained with sticky malice.

The video ended here, and the suspended projection image flickered and disappeared.

Wen Yin sat by the windowsill and shook the bright juice in her hand.

[It seems that the target of this task is a bit disgusting.]

The orange juice swayed in the smooth glass, and Wen Yin glanced towards the bathroom out of the corner of her eye.

[In comparison, the mermaid's form seems much more pleasing to the eye.]

028's eyes lit up: [Host, do you have any idea?]

Wen Yin shook her head and looked at the endless deep blue sea.

[I still need to see the legendary...]

[The owner of the ship.]