Chapter 292 Who cares? Ifas is dead
The wheel of history rolls forward under the light of the stars, but occasionally there are some dark episodes.
About two or three years later, a brutal murder occurred among the upper echelons of the empire. The executioner was not the enemy, but the adopted son of the mermaid who had been exploited and tortured for a long time.
It is said that he is cruel and extremely good at forbearance. When everyone let down their guard against his submissiveness, he pulled out his own shinbone and sharpened it into a long knife, and harvested the heads of his brothers and sisters one by one.
It was a dark night with heavy rain, and at three o'clock in the morning, the lights in the Abidat Palace were turned on. The prince, covered in blood, walked calmly into the emperor's bedroom carrying Boyi's head.
He raised his pale hand and gently threw the head of the most favored prince onto the bed of his father who loved him the most.
Under the majestic and heavy velvet bed curtains, there were trembling cries of grief. Ifas looked at the mentally broken old emperor and smiled unconsciously.
The law of survival, the strong prey on the weak, the excuses they used to eat his flesh and blood, all came back to haunt them.
"Zizi!" The long knife pierced through the emperor's silk nightgown and pierced through his heart. The crying stopped abruptly, and the blood of the old mermaid spread out from under her body like ink. An era of indifference ended.
The palace servants who came behind him knelt on the ground in fear. Ifas turned around, and the tall, gloomy shadow of the young crown prince loomed darkly over the people.
His ascension to the throne was not glorious. He had no right of inheritance, so he killed everyone and became the only one. He seems to have no moral sense at all.
The original palace servants were replaced with bionic people. Only a few old people were left, and they were discussing in panic privately, "Today, the crown prince slaughtered another family of mixed-blood mermaids. The waterway is full of minced meat, and it can't be flushed clean..."
He was addicted to killing and was blood-thirsty. Half of the crimson sky of the capital star was soaked with blood.
The Abidat Palace was empty late at night and no one was allowed to move around without permission.
In the middle of the night, the palace servants could always hear the rustling sound of things crawling in the corridor. It was as if there was a huge tail, crawling in an S shape on the ground.
"…eat it all…"
"...water...I'm so thirsty..."
"……Meat……"
With a teeth-aching wet dragging sound, the wriggling object crawled towards the waterway.
It was huge, its body bloated and terribly heavy, twice the size of a normal merman. The skin on his body was covered with dark blue scales, and his spine was abnormally bent backwards. When he paused, three snow-white arms like corpses stretched out from his armpits, supported on the ground with bulging muscles, and hissed out bloody and foul air.
In fact, it is almost out of the category of mermaid.
If someone was at the scene, they would be horrified to see that the monster in front of them had two strong fish tails and six hands on both sides of its body.
It moved quickly across the ground in a spider-like posture, its twisted and hyperextensible joints making creaking sounds. The black nails scratched the edge of the waterway, and the two abnormally thick tails were raised, and the ugly body was thrown into the pitch-black water.
He is going crazy.
No, he's gone crazy.
Its stomach was filled with undigested brothers and sisters, and their resentment seemed to scream in its veins.
It has to eat them to gain enough strength to undergo its final transformation before adulthood.
But it ate too much and grew limbs that it shouldn't have - the extra tail weighed heavily on its spine, and its six hands pushed open the door of the waterway, and it crawled into the cave under the palace like a multi-legged snake.
There was a sea of blood and corpses before my eyes.
Mermaids are very difficult to kill. Even if a pure-blooded adult mermaid has only one piece of flesh left, it can still struggle to revive.
It must eat them all - from fingers to heart, without leaving any. Eat, eat, eat! ...With its teeth as sharp as daggers, it fiercely bit a skull to pieces. It then lay down, sucking the sticky liquid from the mermaid's corpse in big gulps, eating voraciously.
No one noticed that something was constantly wriggling under its thin skin, as if countless small insects were twisting rapidly.
Those were newly active cells stimulated by the blood, excitedly differentiating into organs... one eye, two eyes, three eyes... The forest green eyes opened one after another from the raised back, like mushrooms popping out from under rotten pine needles after a rainstorm, densely packed and extremely terrifying.
"……vomit……"
A large pool of blood, flesh and internal organs gushed out from between its teeth and sprayed all over the ground.
In the pool of blood, an ugly and terrifying face was reflected in the turbid water.
Its eyeballs were bulging with bloodshot and froze.
The scarlet hairs on his neck opened and closed slightly. It seemed as if it had no idea who this monster was.
For a moment, a surge of self-loathing nearly drove him crazy.
...But I have to eat. I hate these mermaids, and they hate me a hundred times more. If I don't eat them now, they will definitely take revenge on me crazily in the future.
...I have to eat them in order to evolve and become stronger.
…I feel like vomiting when I smell it. This won’t do. I’m too weak. Quickly open your mouth, vomit, and continue eating… Even if I turn into a monster, it doesn’t matter—
"Who cares?"
A voice in my heart suddenly spoke softly.
——If you don’t want to eat, stop and eat later. It’s okay if you forget to eat later. There is nothing to be afraid of in failure. The most important thing is to follow your heart. Nothing is more valuable than your feelings and health.
So don't force it. Never mind, just take a break.
It suddenly stood up shakily.
Then he staggered forward again.
The deformed and ugly body cast a dark silhouette on the wall of the cave.
It kept muttering "Who cares" while twisting and turning on the ground like a cricket pupa. Active cells in the body are reorganizing, dividing, and undergoing a painful transformation.
Suddenly, the huge, swollen body stopped wriggling in pain. A bright red blood line appeared in the middle of its chest, and a pale hand tore through the flesh membrane and crawled out from the sternum that was spread out like a butterfly's wing.
Like taking off clothes, slowly peeling off a complete, wet human figure.
The "whatever" skin remains where it is.
The human figure walked aside naked.
His skin was pale and tender, like a venomous snake that had been reborn. Walking to the blood pool with a strong stench, he lowered his head indifferently, and his long golden hair hung down like poisonous vines.
His face, with its sharp outlines like a sculpture, was reflected in the pool of blood.
He smiled at himself in the pool of blood.
Ifas is dead.
And it will live on in place of the mermaid.
…
Excessive self-segmentation allowed Isupalaiso to break free from his redundant body and gain a new life. But at the same time, due to the division of nerve cells, he gradually forgot the pain of the past.
The memory of Ifas, like a yellowed and damp film, gradually became blurred. Sometimes he had to work hard to vaguely remember that he once knew a mechanical bird.
He also forgot that a large mass of incompletely digested active cells remained there.
Without his knowledge, "Who Cares" quietly crawled to the mermaid's grave and crawled into the small space hidden under the coffin.
There was a tattered android's body.
"Who cares?" He used his tentacles to lift the lid of its belly and rushed in, filling the broken iron shell from head to toe.
This is its home. It was like a dead baby returning to its mother's reproductive cavity, feeling a rare peace.
"Who cares?" I slept there for a long time.
After a decade or two, Isu Paraiso came once. This crazy mermaid cut his own spiritual thread into pieces, wanting to make it into the mother machine of the Empire System - he even forgot that he still had another active cell, which was much larger than the one he cut.
"Who cares" turns into a chaotic mosaic, watching everything indifferently.
Isuparaiso asked it to help guard the spiritual thread, and it agreed.
Who cares. It's none of his business anyway.
The tides rise and fall, the world changes, and the moss on the tombstone dies and grows again, and is born and dies again. "Who cares?" He occasionally looked out of the cave entrance.
A dam was built on the coast, and the city extended beside the dam. In the evening, the little poet holding a music light box set up a stall and played the accordion with a clear and childish voice:
My flowers are overflowing.
But I only miss your embrace,
Today, don't send me flowers,
Please come back to me,
Love me as I love you...
The same song was sung over and over again, and in a blink of an eye, the young poet became an old poet, and the old poet accepted a young apprentice.
The white paint on the dam was weathered and mottled. A young man holding a newspaper passed by, excitedly shouting the news that General Schroeder was visiting Earth. The army's boots stepped over the breakwater, and another twenty years passed.
This time it is a new era.
The azure blue seaside path has been re-paved with tram tracks. A milk truck about the same age as the grandfather slowly came rumbling down from the distant hillside. It scared away the resting pigeons and attracted children with backpacks coming home from school.
The brand new sneakers got dirty from running. However, spring is here.
The young wandering poet appeared on time, set up his stall and unfolded his small stool. He played the accordion, cleared his throat and sang two songs of victory for the revolutionary army, and then sang the classic old songs movingly:
"Today, don't send me flowers,
Please come back to me,
Love me as I love you..."
jingle. Someone threw money into his empty jar.
who? Are you an old customer? The poet was full of gratitude.
When I looked up, it was a young man.
The poet was stunned for a moment, "You look..."
He put down the accordion, somewhat solemnly. Then he cautiously asked, "Has anyone ever told you that you look like someone?"
"Commander Bai?" the other party answered calmly.
"You know wow."
"My friend once told me about it and showed me photos," White smiled, "but I'm not that kind of person."
The entire empire knew that Commander Bai, who led the empire to overthrow the Kaide government, encountered an accident during a subsequent local bandit suppression operation and unfortunately disappeared. Even today, 369 days later, CCTV is still following the search progress tirelessly every day.
Some people say he is dead. Some experts also analyzed that the place where he disappeared was close to a small black hole and he might have been sucked away. It will be spit out by the universe and time only when the chance comes.
But no matter what the outside world speculated, the late emperor and king's husband Isuparezo insisted on not giving up the search.
"Old man... Oh no, our queen is trying her best to find Commander Bai. Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk, I don't know if it's true or false, but the last time he met with the president of the Federation, he was still a widow with a black veil on his face."
The poet was gossiping and chatting. "So you wanted to get a bounty, so you had plastic surgery like this, right? These days, there are people pretending to be Commander Bai all the time, trying to claim the bounty for clues - of course, they were all killed by our queen."
"I see." White sighed, "Then he must be very tired."
"Your angle is quite strange." The poet looked at him strangely.
"where?"
"Isupalaiso doesn't look like a tired person. He is a machine that will never break down, old monster. Didn't you read the news last year? He turned into a rotting mermaid in the street. It was terrifying."
"I have seen it." White looked towards the square with a dazed look on his face. "That's why I came here."
Mr. White did not say specifically why he came. The poet just watched this familiar yet unfamiliar young man finish listening to a song and then walk towards the square.
White's pace is not fast. It’s more like exploration than touring the capital planet.
Two months ago, he woke up in a life support cabin, and all the data around him that could prove his identity was destroyed in the accident. The place where the crash occurred was a vast, desolate, uninhabited area. Except for the local hunters, no one would pass by there.
Fortunately, he wasn't completely out of luck, as a couple of Harris's hawks rescued him.
They took him to see a doctor. According to the preliminary diagnosis of the village doctor, it was the lack of oxygen and shock during the fall that caused him to suffer traumatic amnesia.
Since they didn't know his first name or last name, the Harris Eagles called him White based on his white hair.
White lived on the small planet for more than a month. During this period he slowly learned that he was located at the border between the two countries.
Further north on the map, there is a vast interstellar empire.
"You either came from the Federation or you are from the Empire," Harris Eagle said, "but I think you look more like an Empire. Look at your claws. You must have Eagle blood."
White decided to go to the Empire. Maybe you can find relatives or friends who know you.
Buying a ferry ticket is not an easy task. The local infrastructure is very poor, and the quantum signal was cut off for half a year. Moreover, the Harris Eagle couple was self-sufficient and led a hunting life like in the 18th century. They hardly even used the terminal.
White helped them hunt and exchanged the red fox skin for a car. He drove for three days and three nights to reach a slightly larger city, from where he contacted the interstellar passenger ships traveling to and from the empire.
However, as soon as White got on the boat, he felt as if someone was staring at him. No matter where he went, even if he covered his face, that feeling always followed him like a shadow.
It makes your spine go electric and your scalp tingle.
But surprisingly not disgusted.
It was as if an acquaintance recognized him and was silently escorting him all the way.
Interstellar passenger ships are not like warships and usually move very slowly. Especially for this long-distance ship, it takes a full half month to travel from the border across the empire to the capital.
White simply found a maintenance job on the ship - magically, he was surprised to find that he knew the structure of the engine room like the back of his hand. Even the old boatman with black dust on his hands curled his lips and had to give up his seat in submission.
The old boatman worked with White in the dim after-cabin for a week. One day when I was having dinner, I took advantage of the light and looked at White's appearance for the first time.
"...You, you, you look like that guy!" He jumped up suddenly.
"Who is it?"
"Bai, our great Commander Bai!"
The old boatman took out the dirty terminal with a cracked screen and showed it to him. First there was a photo of Commander Bai, then the victory parade of the revolutionary army, and finally the late emperor, who was talked about by the people of the empire so much, turned into a monster in the street.
White's heart was pounding. He couldn't sleep all night because he wanted to see the big monster... the square where the accident happened.
For no apparent reason, the square seemed familiar to him. And subconsciously I thought that there shouldn't be a giant octopus sculpture standing there, but something bigger and more beautiful.
So White got off the ship at the airport of the capital star and wanted to see the famous sculpture square.
Walking on the winding streets, the evening breeze gradually picked up, and he tightened his torn jacket. During the month of hunting, he unfortunately suffered from rheumatism due to lack of warmth. My broken leg still hurts.
What a coincidence.
That Commander Bai is also disabled.
However, there were many disabled citizens in the post-war period, which does not mean anything.
"...Today our city is experiencing a late spring cold snap, with a drop in temperature and a high probability of snowfall. In addition, there is a 90% chance of a pheromone storm surge occurring after dusk, so please plan your travel time carefully..."
Snowflakes swirled and slowly fell from the sky, and a golden wind carried the broken snow around White's thin waist.
The intensifying pheromone storm has made people on the street's eyes red.
The sky gradually darkened and snow was falling behind him. White looked up and saw the current sculpture plaza.
The old octopus sculpture has been removed, replaced by a pile of scaffolding that has sprouted like bamboo shoots. According to the announcement next to it, a new sculpture will be erected here soon - a sculpture dedicated to the people to commemorate the first anniversary of the victory of the War of Restoration.
A gleam of light gathered in White's pupils. He felt that this was a rare good thing.
The pigeons on the scaffolding flapped their wings and cooed softly. The lights were on in the small bakery next door, and the aroma of freshly baked goods wafted through the crack in the door. White stopped and smelled for a while. The aunt in the store saw him and waved her hand to let him in with surprise and joy.
White smiled and declined. He has had a serious stomach problem recently and can't eat any cakes.
As he walked on, people talking in the corner café turned and stared at him.
White smelled the spices in the air. It was a newly opened Sperm Whale perfume store. A big red bow decorated the store front, exuding the scent of economic recovery.
This country is very suitable for living a long-term life - its rulers must have planned it this way.
The wind was cold and biting, and White rubbed his stiff fingers. His rheumatism had completely kicked in, and he was in excruciating pain between his bones. He didn't know whether it was a new injury or an old one.
He decided to get something hot to drink.
White looked up and saw car lights on in the distance. He was stunned for a moment before he could identify from the snow that it was a milk truck, a people-friendly project that had recently been restored on the capital planet.
In the dim night, the milk truck was emitting wisps of white hot steam. Its body was earth red and had been newly painted, making it sparkle from head to toe. The neon headlights were big and round and simply beautiful.
White felt inexplicably jealous.
Damn it, he also wanted to own a car that could pump milk and sing.
There was new snow falling from the sky, leaving wet footprints on the ground. White couldn't help but exhale a breath of white air, stopped in front of the milk truck, knocked on the window with his frozen red knuckles, and shouted:
"Hello, I want a cup of hot milk to warm my hands."
In his field of vision, which was brightly illuminated by the car lights, the renovated car windows swung open. At this moment, a cold wind whistled past, blowing the gorgeous golden curls towards the man's right shoulder. The snow flakes fell lightly on his head, as if he too had grown old.
This milkman, who has a young face but a timeless temperament, has deep eyebrows and eyes. In the air of minus three degrees, he generously and crazily opened his black sweater to show his abdominal muscles:
"The milk is gone. Warm your hands with this."
White's heart trembled, and he looked up into his deep green eyes.
In an instant, all the thousands of emotions contained in it poured into White's eyes.
He was stunned for a long time, looking again and again. All the past events flashed through my mind like a flood. I couldn't help wanting to laugh, but my eyes felt so sore that tears fell every time I blinked my eyelashes.
He turned his face away, his lips trembling as he cursed silently, "I really am... - I heard that you are going to be a widow for me?"
"Um."
"Still guarding for another year?"
“Every day feels like a year.”
He no longer wanted Bai Ling's milk and forgot about his rheumatism. He climbed up from the window nimbly, knocked the distinguished milkman to the ground, and started to bite him:
"Robbery! You and this milk truck belong to me."
"These abdominal muscles belong to me too!"
Put your hands inside his clothes.
"Since it's Commander Bai, then you have no choice but to surrender."
The mermaid hugged him and held him under her body, and the two of them rolled around happily in the car.
Bai Ling collapsed on the ground with his arms outstretched, gasping for breath, and stared blankly at the ceiling for a while. Suddenly, she remembered her depressed body, sat up, turned over, and sat on the mermaid's waist and began to -
"Take off your clothes, I want to check!"
The mermaid smiled softly and lay there, letting him touch her all over.
Amid the flying snow powder, the tram ding-donged away into the distance.
It puffed its way up the hill, passing by pigeons on the scaffolding and skimming past the nimble kitten. While people were patting their pillows and getting ready to get into bed, it quietly turned a corner and headed towards the harbor of your and my dreams.
From the car window lit by the yellow light of the moon, a low and warm conversation could be heard:
"Wait... why is your hair shorter than before?"
"I cut it."
"Short hair has no soul at all!" A choked voice.
"What do I need my soul for without you?"
Bai Ling: "......? Who taught you to talk like that? No straight talk!"
The mermaid held him tightly in her arms, her palms completely wrapped around his frozen finger bones, and rubbed them lovingly. His tone was nonchalant: "If you hadn't come back, I would have planned to blow up the empire and restart it."
Bai Ling: “…”
No, that’s right, Jing.
The fish's body has healed, but how come its spirit is still so beautiful? There must be something wrong with his way of traveling through time and saving people!
END
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