The very proactive Yin Chen had half his body sticking out of the hole when he heard this, so he poked his head back in and chuckled, "Hey? Don't you know? We're going to the city to register your identity."
Register your identity?
Seeing Long Xun's bewildered expression, Yin Chen swam over again, took his little hand, and said as they swam, "I'll explain it to you on the way. If we don't leave now, it will be too late, and it will be troublesome if the registration staff goes off duty."
Long Xun kicked the water repeatedly with his tail and legs, following Yin Chen out of the conch cave. Above was a larger space. After passing through two cave entrances, Long Xun felt a sudden darkness before his eyes. After a moment, his vision returned.
Then, an unimaginably magnificent scene appeared before Long Xun's eyes.
What lies in the unfathomable depths of the ocean?
In Long Xun's memory, the seabed was always black because light couldn't penetrate it; it was utter darkness. The sudden darkness that greeted him as he swam out of the conch house further confirmed this.
When you leave the bright interior of the conch shell, it is indeed very dark outside.
But it's definitely not the kind of situation where it's so dark you can't see anything, as Long Xun imagined.
Outside, countless shimmering lights dotted the seawater, stretching as far as the eye could see and reaching any height.
The sources of those lights included conch shells like the one Yin Chen lived in, giant jellyfish, and large whales that uttered melodious calls as they swam overhead. Countless pale-colored, translucent bubbles of various shapes floated in the water, but the dark seaweed tethering them ensured they wouldn't be washed away by the seawater.
The light blue stripes crisscrossing the seabed resemble the Milky Way in the starry sky, spreading across the entire ocean floor. They intertwine upwards in layers, with countless bustling mermaids swimming in the light bands. There are also some devices that look like small rays or whales, swallowing seawater while powerfully ejecting it from their tails, thus bursting into great speed and flashing across the light bands towards the endless distance.
A mirage pearl the size of a building lay inside a giant seashell. Above it was an enormous display screen, on which a male mermaid with a light blue tail, light blue eyes, and flaxen hair was quietly singing a song. In the lower right corner of the screen, a female mermaid dressed in formal business attire was broadcasting something in standard mermaid language.
"...Renowned singer Ye Ling has recently returned to the music scene with his latest song, 'Vastness.' It is understood that Mr. Ye Ling was one of the five crew members of the Pingyao ship. Perhaps this song, 'Vastness,' was inspired by his observation of the cosmos? Let's enjoy this song together..."
The male mermaid quietly closed his eyes and sang a magnificent and moving song. Such a shy mermaid produced such a powerful voice that many mermaids stopped and watched the screen, quietly humming along.
Long Xun widened his eyes slightly, looking at the bustling scene. Apart from the fact that this place was underwater and the intelligent creatures coming and going were all mermaids, this magical scene made him feel as if he had returned to the 23rd century.
"What are you daydreaming about? Little guy, the next wave of the current is coming, we have to hurry!" Yin Chen woke up Long Xun and grabbed him as they swam quickly toward a coral reef not far away. The rocks here were polished into a depression, and there were already several small fish-sized holes where mermaids were staying.
Yin Chen led Long Xun through four floors from the bottom up. After finding a hole on this floor, he immediately led him inside, instructing him, "If we're going to the city, remember we need to take flow number four. If we go the wrong way, remember not to exit the flow at the platform. Stay there for another fifteen minutes, and then there will be a return flow. It's easy to tell; count from the bottom up, and the flow number corresponds to the floor."
Long Xun didn't understand what it meant, but he still remembered it well.
Yin Chen then said, "Oh right, I haven't told you about the registration yet. You're an orphan without parents, right? Mermaid babies are very fragile, and to protect them, any mermaid who finds an orphan has an obligation to raise them to adulthood. After we register, we'll be a family!"
No way! Could it be that Yin Chen is going to be his father in this life?!
Long Xun suddenly turned his head and stared... uh, what he saw was a golden fish tail. He quickly looked up and continued to stare at Yin Chen: "You want to adopt me?"
"Huh?!" Yin Chen quickly shook his head: "No, no, I'm just raising you. I'm not married. Legally, I can only adopt you on behalf of my parents to be my younger brother, not my son... Actually, I've only been an adult for less than two years, hehe..."
Milk Tea chimed in softly, "Why can't we adopt?"
It was asking its own owner, and Yin Chen thought it was asking him, so he answered, "Because the fish population is expanding, experts say that if mermaids don't practice family planning, this planet probably won't be able to support the increasing number of mermaids. So if you go through the adoption process, the adopted fish can't have a second child for at least a thousand years... In other words, if I adopt you, I'll have to be a bachelor for at least a thousand years! That's terrifying!"
Long Xun narrowed his eyes slightly, his golden pupils suddenly becoming deep: "You... are very eager to get married?"
"Huh? It's not like that..." Yin Chen's fair face turned red for a moment, and he chuckled foolishly as he said, "But who knows when I'll meet the one I'm attracted to? A thousand years is too long. If I can't pursue my sweetheart because of this restriction, it would be such a pity. So it's better not to adopt one."
snort.
Long Xun calmly withdrew his gaze without saying anything more.
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