Chapter 101 Father and Son Meet
Yu Li had white gauze wrapped around her neck, and she lay quietly on the pillow of the hospital bed like a fragile porcelain doll.
His eyes slowly scanned the people in the room.
Swift, the former king of Xisana, stood at the front with a complicated expression.
Next to him was the patriarch with a kind face and a hint of apology, and behind the patriarch stood a young boy with short, slightly curly hair.
At this moment, he was timidly sticking out half of his head, and his clear big eyes were looking at him curiously and dependently.
The atmosphere in the room was subtle and solemn.
Yu Li's throat moved. After a few days of rest, although he could speak now, his voice was still hoarse.
He slowly opened his mouth and asked the question in his heart: "Do you... know each other?"
After he finished speaking, he turned his gaze to Swift with inquiry.
Swift was silent for a moment, and a trace of imperceptible pain flashed in his eyes that had experienced the precipitation of time.
He took a half step forward and explained, "Your parents met in Xisana. Your mother is human, and your father is a merman from our tribe."
He paused and continued, “However, at the time when they fell in love, the union of mermaids and humans was strictly prohibited.
To protect you, your father sent you to a distant new sea shortly after your birth, entrusting you to the care of a trusted mermaid."
As he spoke, he extended his hand and pointed politely at the patriarch.
"In a sense, I can be considered an informed middleman."
Yu Li's eyelashes trembled slightly, and many details that seemed strange before seemed to have answers at this moment.
No wonder Swift abdicated the throne to this "stranger" so easily. It turned out that it was not only to repay him for saving his daughter's life, but also because of this relationship.
"Yes." The patriarch has practiced human language for a long time and can now communicate fluently.
He gently patted the little boy's shoulder and said, "We received the meeting message you sent to the other mermaids, and we set off immediately."
"We came here and found that we couldn't contact you. We felt your breath getting weaker, but we didn't know your exact location... Thanks to this child."
He turned sideways and brought the little boy forward slightly. "He has a particularly keen sense of your aura. He led us to the medical clinic hidden underground."
The patriarch recalled the scene and his tone darkened. "When we found you, those people were planning to transplant your glands into a comatose human."
"We were about to stop them when we saw a sudden fierce conflict among them, seemingly fighting over something... We took advantage of the chaos to rescue you."
Yu Li has pieced together what happened next from what the doctor told him.
Half of his second gland was removed and transplanted to the human named Qi Feng.
However, because his second gland had not yet fully matured, the differentiation process was forcibly interrupted. In order to save his life, doctors had to implant an artificial gland as a guide to help the remaining second gland continue to develop.
Swift explained softly, “During the development of mermaids, two glands coexist, and this does not conflict.
After the second gland is fully differentiated and mature, it will naturally absorb and fuse the energy of the first gland. This is a natural process that does not require external intervention.
"They...weaved a huge lie in order to save that human."
The claim that gland removal can cause amnesia is pure nonsense.
The memory peptide chains carried by an immature gland are extremely limited and cannot cause a person to completely lose their memory.
However, at this moment, Yu Li would rather this lie was true.
How he wished he could forget all this, forget the things that should not be forgiven.
He lowered his eyes, his voice so weak that it was almost inaudible, but he still asked the question that made him terrified and eager to know the answer: "Qi Sheng...does he know about this?"
He held on to the last glimmer of hope, hoping that the man who had given him infinite warmth and promises was not involved in this conspiracy against him.
A trace of anger flashed across Swift's face. He snorted coldly, "How could he not know? They are actually in the same group. The core list of that plan includes the names of his brother and those Antia dignitaries!
That Qi Sheng approached you, I'm afraid from the very beginning..."
"Swift, please stop talking."
The clan leader interrupted his overly straightforward speculation and shook his head with a warning, indicating that he should not provoke Yu Li anymore.
At this moment, a guard respectfully announced outside the door: "Your Majesty, a visitor from Antia arrived this morning and requested an audience, saying that there was an urgent matter."
Swift took a deep breath, suppressed his emotions, turned to Yu Li and said gently: "You should have a good rest first. During this time, I will take care of all the outside visitors."
There was a hint of protectiveness in his tone.
Yu Li struggled to sit up, but the movement pulled the wound on his neck, causing him to gasp in pain.
At this moment, the little boy who had been hiding behind the patriarch suddenly jumped to the edge of the bed like a nimble little fish.
He raised his round little face, and with his big eyes that looked exactly like Yu Li's, he looked at Yu Li with expectation and attachment, and asked in a baby voice, "Are you...are you my dad?"
Yu Li was stunned by this sudden question. He looked at the little boy blankly, then looked up at the patriarch as if asking for help.
The patriarch smiled, "Hug him, my king."
Yu Li moved a little closer to the bed to avoid danger and asked weakly, "Excuse me, where did this child come from?"
——
In the reception room of the palace.
When Qi Sheng saw Swift, he got straight to the point: "I came here because there was a problem with a batch of weapons raw materials that your country exported to us."
"We suspect an excessive amount of unknown elements were added during the production process, resulting in a large number of our soldiers suffering fatal ulcers and infections. Many have already lost their lives. Please cooperate with our investigation."
Swift sat in the main seat, his expression calm, even with a hint of alienation and indifference: "Major General Qi Sheng, don't say anything careless."
"We, Xisana, have always strictly adhered to international standards and contract terms when exporting raw materials. Every batch of goods is released only after passing your inspection."
"Now that there's a problem, instead of investigating your own production processes, you're directly blaming our suppliers. Isn't that too reckless?"
Qi Sheng: "Therefore, in order to find out the truth and prevent more innocent casualties, I request to visit your country's production equipment and mining areas for an on-site inspection."
"Feel sorry."
Swift refused without hesitation, his voice cold and hard, "This involves our country's core industrial secrets. I cannot comment."
"Also, I heard that Antia, where Major General Qi used to be, didn't treat mermaids very kindly, and there were even rumors of abuse. But in Xisana, mermaids enjoy supreme status."
"Our two countries have different national conditions and contradictory philosophies. To avoid unnecessary friction, it's better to meet as little as possible in the future!"
These words were both a rejection of the raw material incident and a hint that Xisana intended to draw a clear line with Antia.
Qi Sheng forced himself to maintain a polite smile on his face.
The old man is so stubborn, it seems he is doing it on purpose.
He no longer dwelled on the issue of raw materials, but changed the subject and asked about the most important purpose of his trip.
"I have one more thing I need to ask you."
"Speaking."
Swift didn't seem very patient.
Qi Sheng's voice trembled slightly. "Excuse me... Yu Li... Your Majesty, has he returned to Xisana?"
"I was just about to ask you, Major General, when will my king be sent back?"
Swift's tone was threatening. "Or, are you imprisoning him and planning to use him to do something bad, preventing him from returning home?"
Qi Sheng suddenly panicked, "If he comes back, please let me know and we won't bother him anymore."
——
Qi Sheng did not board the plane back to the Saar Federation in the end, but went to Antia.
Many medical staff and scientific researchers rushed to the front line.
Bai Chuan, Zhai Mo and others are taking care of the national reconstruction, and he has more important things to do now.
In the past three months, Qi Sheng has almost turned Antia upside down.
He followed the road where Yu Li disappeared, asking in every shop and checking every surveillance camera.
When it rains, I spend the night in the car and continue looking at dawn.
He went to all the places Yu Li could possibly go: the seaside in another country, the training ground where they first met, the hospital where he had surgery...
His uniform was torn and his wound was inflamed, but he didn't care.
As long as he heard that there might be a clue somewhere, he would rush there no matter how far away it was.
But I am disappointed every time.
Sometimes it’s the wrong person, sometimes it’s fake news.
As autumn passed and winter came, Yu Li seemed to have disappeared from the face of the earth, leaving no trace behind.
It rained again that night. Qi Sheng sat tiredly in the car, watching the wipers swing back and forth.
He took out his cell phone and the screen saver was a photo of Yu Li lying on the sofa waiting for him to fall asleep.
His fingers gently touched the screen, he leaned his head against the car window, and said in a hoarse voice: "Yu Li...where are you..."
The rain was getting heavier and heavier, and the neon lights on the street became a blur.
He won the battle and took back his home, but he lost the person who was supposed to stand by him and share it all.
The glory of victory has lost its warmth, and the recovered home has lost its owner.
The belief that once supported him in fighting bloody battles suddenly lost its weight at this moment.
…
Time flies, and two years later.
As usual, Qi Sheng was in plain clothes, patrolling the security around the government building.
He stood on a high place and looked down, and saw a child surrounded by several students who were much taller than him. He put out the cigarette in his hand and was about to go down the stairs.
But he saw a huge cloud of fog erupting from the child's head, and instantly he felt the oppressive pheromones from the alpha.
The concentration of the released pheromones is extremely high, the attack power is extremely strong, and the dispersion is also extremely strong.
Even though Qi Sheng was an SSS-level alpha, his heartbeat quickened due to the stimulation.
"How can a child use pheromones to suppress others? And such a powerful pheromone?"
Children of a certain age cannot control and use pheromones until they are fully differentiated. If this phenomenon occurs, it is definitely an anti-human behavior.
Qi Sheng recently heard that a secret organization is researching genetic modification, and the murders that occurred in recent days are related to this matter.
Qi Sheng stopped and planned to observe for a while.
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