The pitiful mermaid
"Class S Special Biological Observation Room".
Like all other research institutes, the GI Institute likes to use euphemisms and polite terms to "decorate its image." For example, the super-metal alloy cage that is currently in place, which is less than 10 square meters in size and surrounded by a circle of insulating glass.
Sellencia. The moment he uttered that word, an unnatural and confused expression appeared on the female researcher's face. Under her somewhat strange gaze, Shen Huai'an shifted slightly, a few crisp metallic scraping sounds breaking the silence of the room.
Yunhe's expression immediately turned awkward—an awkwardness that she couldn't hide no matter how hard she tried these past few days.
"I wasn't feeling well just now, let's change positions."
Shen Huai'an smiled. He felt that compared to the humans in front of him, his skin was as thick as a city wall: "Not used to it?"
"What?" Yunhe asked instinctively.
"Aren't you used to me looking like this?" Shen Huai'an asked casually, with a smile on his face.
Yunhe opened her mouth. For a moment, she was speechless.
Through the glass partition and alloy bars, her gaze involuntarily fell on the specially made transparent cage in front of her.
— Shen Huai'an was locked up there.
A black metal ring around his neck was connected to a short chain less than half a meter long, fixed to the upper back wall of the cage. This forced him to tilt his head slightly, preventing him from even doing something as simple as lowering his head to try and cover his face with his long hair. The specially made handcuffs on his slender wrists gleamed coldly, and the short chain connecting them prevented him from spreading his hands more than twenty centimeters apart. Extendable alloy chains extended from the left and right sides of the cage walls, securing them to his wrists. Even more cruel was the wide metal ring around his waist, with chains extending from it that firmly fastened his upper body to the bottom of the shallow pool below the cage. His more than three-meter-long silver fish tail was tightly bound by three chains, every inch from the base to the tail fin locked into a groove in the ground.
The only "humane" aspect was that his long, beautiful fish tail remained submerged in the pool, maintaining the necessary humidity for the mermaid to survive for a long time.
—Level α biological protection measures.
Yunhe's fingers tightened unconsciously.
Even though more than a month has passed, she still feels suffocated from the bottom of her soul whenever she sees such a scene.
"I'm not used to it, and I never will be."
Such a startling statement, coupled with her blank expression, created an eerie feeling of dissonance. Under his slightly surprised gaze, she maintained a straight face and resumed her usual authoritative "cloud researcher" demeanor: "Routine inspection, please cooperate."
The research institute has always had an extremely standardized and rigorous operating procedure for managing experimental subjects; especially for special organisms of S-level or higher, in addition to regularly monitoring their physiological indicators three times a day, another indispensable "task" is—
Gear inspection.
Shen Huai'an blinked, his long, pure white eyelashes trembling like a bird flapping its wings. A nonchalant smile bloomed on his breathtakingly beautiful face: "How should I cooperate?"
Yunhe: "..."
He never uttered a word during her routine check-ups before; what's wrong with him today, why is he suddenly so talkative?
"...Please extend your esteemed head so I can check your neck ring first." He was being frivolous, so she didn't need to be polite with him.
Unexpectedly, Shen Huai'an went too far, laughing maliciously and saying, "Fine. But I want your cheap fake wine."
Yunhe was utterly speechless. She couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"Cooperating with the inspection is your duty, S1." She addressed him in a businesslike manner, using the experimental subject's code name that was most likely to hurt his pride. "Don't try to bargain."
“Positive Reinforcement.” (Note 1)
The mermaid smiled and blurted out in an elegant London accent: "This is the most basic requirement for researchers, Miss Researcher."
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Shen Huai'an finally got to drink his first sip of wine in over a month.
"Positive reinforcement, how did you even come up with such an excuse?" Yun He muttered reluctantly as she held the test tube of red wine to his lips. Shen Huai'an originally wanted to take it, but his hands were locked. After trying to lift them a few times, he had to give up his attempt to "solve it himself" and instead obediently brought his head close to the test tube and drank it all in one gulp.
"Tsk...it's all saccharin." He clicked his tongue critically. "Truly inferior quality."
Yunhe ignored him. She simply took the opportunity to gently brush aside his somewhat dry but still thick long hair at the back of his neck, revealing a matte black choker on his snow-white skin, beneath which the skin was already slightly red. The choker appeared to fit perfectly, but upon closer inspection, one could see a barely perceptible seam in the center. Above this seam, a similarly black metal chain was attached to the ring, a short chain fastened to a mechanism in the wall behind him.
Yunhe's current task is to check whether the connection between the metal chain and the collar is secure. She extends her right hand, which is wearing a rubber glove, and gently tugs at the chain, then helps him put his long hair back in place: "The collar is secure," she says, glancing at the unchanging green indicator light on the front: "It's functioning well, no abnormalities."
The two were so close that the mermaid's breath occasionally brushed against her cheek, feeling cool and slightly itchy. Yunhe's ear tips flushed slightly, but her face remained as stiff as a block of wood: "Give me your hand."
Which hand?
Shen Huai'an narrowed his eyes like a cat, his mouth still uttering smirks, but his body obediently did as he was told. In fact, there was no need to ask this question: because no matter what, he could only offer both hands at the same time.
Yunhe's gaze then fell on his hands.
His hands, strictly speaking, could no longer be considered "hands"; to be precise, they were a pair of claws with five human fingers, yet far "longer" than human claws. His palms were roughly the average human size, but his fingers were incredibly thin and long, a full 1.5 times the length of an average person's! The pale, almost transparent knuckles tinged with a beautiful pink, and his long, sharp, hook-shaped nails were even sharper than those of a large predator, their surfaces displaying a deep bluish-purple hue, making them look utterly terrifying. Yunhe held his wrists, carefully examining the bioelectric sensors lining the handcuffs:
These small, papillary bumps are specifically designed to limit the "supernatural abilities" of high-risk experimental subjects—especially mermaids.
Are you feeling unwell?
Shen Huai'an was almost asleep when he heard her ask that, so he half-opened one eye and asked, "Hmm?"
Then I realized what she was asking: "Oh, I'm used to it."
It was indeed very itchy at first, and I couldn't take it off because I had to wear it all the time, and my whole shoulder was sore and painful; but after more than a month, I've become numb to it.
Yunhe glanced at the bruises on his wrist and unconsciously frowned.
“The hand restraints are secure,” she said. “Now, turn your tail over.”
The waist and tail braces were connected, so they were inspected together. Yunhe bent down slightly, first using his gloved right hand to thoroughly examine the scales, then checking the sturdiness of the waist rings. His gaze then followed the metal chain connecting his waist and tail downwards, all the way to the end of his long, slender fishtail—
Its dazzling, iridescent tail fin is broad and long, befitting its over three-meter-long tail. Even under the cool white light of an indoor room, its flowing, galaxy-like shimmer is visible. Its scales are completely different from the round scales of ordinary fish; instead, they are sharp, narrow, and extremely fine. Unless you run your fingers against the grain, the feel of them is indistinguishable from skin. However, mermaids have very low body temperatures, so without gloves… well, the feel is like fine silk that has been chilled in a refrigerator all day.
Yunhe's fingers fiddled with the silver metal ring above his tail fin. For a moment, she even suspected that the guy who designed this whole set of "restraints" for Shen Huai'an might have some strange fetish—because his waist and above were made of black material, but his tail was all silver.
If she hadn't been so close, she wouldn't have even noticed the chain on his tail that was almost an integral part of his tail.
However, today was somewhat different from usual. Yunhe noticed that the exposed edge of the part of his tail fin that was tightly locked was already seeping blue blood. "What happened!"
Hearing her exaggerated cry, Shen Huai'an subconsciously retracted his tail and said calmly, "Maybe it's too tight?"
"..."
Yunhe gritted her teeth. She seemed to be making a huge decision.
"I'll loosen my grip a bit," she mouthed to him.
"No need." He shook his head and mouthed the same words. Yunhe thought he was being reversed, so she defiantly accessed the settings and pressed the button to adjust the restraint parameters. But to her surprise, the next second, a line of cold, small text appeared on the bracelet's miniature screen:
"Warning: No authorization. Please apply for approval from the Supreme Council through the Security Department."
Yunhe was shocked. She pressed the buttons a few more times, but then she heard Shen Huai'an say leisurely, "No need to trouble yourself."
Before she could object, he added casually, "If Researcher Yun has a lot of free time, why don't you help me apply some medicine? My wound hurts a lot~"
I'll give you a piece of my mind! If you can't speak human language, then shut up!
Yunhe cursed inwardly. Actually, she wasn't angry at all.
And even if he hadn't mentioned it, she would have done it anyway—after all, several scales on his waist and tail fin had inexplicably turned outwards, some even revealing the scab-covered dermis underneath. The tail fin itself was also somewhat curled and "withered," swaying weakly with the restrained tail, looking as listless as a withered leaf in the wind.
Currently, his condition can be considered "sub-healthy".
If it were other, less advanced experimental subjects that couldn't understand human speech, they would either be handed over to doctors for treatment, or disposed of harmlessly after being assessed as having lost their experimental value...
“It wasn’t this serious when I checked last week. What happened?” She frowned, reaching for the first-aid kit, sounding a little angry. “Why didn’t you tell me before?”
"What's wrong?" Shen Huai'an leaned back against the cage wall, his tone languid with extreme drowsiness: "Researcher Yun is feeling sorry for me?"
"I feel sorry for your ancestors."
With her back to him, Yunhe rummaged through drawers and tumbled a curse. In that instant, she felt as if she were transported back to the days and nights she had spent working with him over the past three years: "I'm heartbroken about my bonus this month!"
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Note 1: Positive reinforcement refers to the practice in scientific research of immediately rewarding animals (such as with food) after they perform a desired behavior in order to increase the frequency of that behavior in the future.
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