LSDWTWHA chapter 33

Chapter 32

Su Su stayed in the room for a while and suddenly heard Qi Hanyi’s breathing quicken. He turned over, sat up, and leaned his head to check, only to find Qi Hanyi’s face pale, his expression pained, and his lips a dark purple.

Su Su reached out to touch him; although he was covered with a blanket, his body temperature was frighteningly low.

What happened?

Su Su felt a little flustered. He didn’t dare to make a noise; that grandfather outside was too fierce, like he would kill a fish if something went wrong.

After thinking for a while, Su Su sent a message to that mermaid called “Xiao He,” briefly explaining the situation and asking if she knew what was happening.

This time, after a few minutes, he finally received a reply from “Xiao He,” and her tone seemed a bit more serious than before: symptoms of mental force collapse. Right now, his mental state was chaotic, making him easily disturbed by nightmares. Once his consciousness got deep into them, he wouldn’t be able to distinguish dreams from reality, and under the influence of his mental force, his body would reflect the injuries he incurred in the dream, possibly leading to death.

Death! Could Qi Hanyi die?

As a shark, Su Su witnessed the death of his kind almost every day; he wasn’t as sensitive to life and death as an ordinary human. But if the death object was swapped for Qi Hanyi…

Su Su felt it was somewhat unreal.

Qi Hanyi had clearly just been able to take down yellowfin tuna alone, and he could pilot the best starship in the world. He looked very healthy and powerful, yet now he was weakly lying on the hospital bed, about to die at any moment?

“I don’t want him to die; is there anything I can do now?” Su Su messaged.

He didn’t want Qi Hanyi to collapse here. Even without Qi Xingli’s threats, even if they had had some conflicts before, Su Su still hoped that this human could live.

[Xiao He]: Mental force can affect reality; likewise, sensations in reality can reflect back into the mental state, influencing the other person’s dreams.

[Xiao He]: You cannot use mental force to soothe him; you can only try to wake him up first.

So waking him up is all it takes? It turns out it’s that simple?

Su Su grew delighted and thanked “Xiao He” who helped him understand: “You’re amazing; you know so much. Thank you for being willing to tell me; otherwise, I wouldn’t know what to do.”

[Xiao He] still replied in a plain tone: “No need to thank me. It’s not easy to wake a person in mental turmoil, and as the episodes increase, waking them becomes more challenging. To cure it, you must find a mermaid who is willing to differentiate for him, and it has to be fast.”

In the disinfectant-scented laboratory, a female mermaid was half-submerged in the water, half her body coming out.

The mermaid looked to be in her twenties. She wore a white tight-fitting garment on her upper body that outlined the elegant arc of her form, while her lower half was a silver-white tail that extended into the fish tank.

This fish tank looked somewhat special; its top was sealed to prevent water spillage, and it secured the tail in the center. The bottom had wheels, allowing the mermaid to move around the room easily, almost like a specially designed wheelchair.

This was designed for mermaids who hadn’t differentiated, so they could still move on land without legs.

Around the mermaid, several precision instruments of various sizes were performing complex calculations, while the mermaid leaned on the edge of her tank, staring blankly at the dialogue box on her communicator, tugging at her lips and showing a trace of self-loathing.

She had been forced to leave the Mermaid Kingdom to cure the sick, only to later witness someone die before her eyes because she couldn’t differentiate successfully. She never expected to offer such advice to someone else now.

If she had been a little more useful, if she could have developed a medication to treat mental force collapse, wouldn’t there be fewer tragedies for both humans and mermaids?

The door was pushed open from the outside, and two people entered—the lead was a girl whose appearance matched the profile picture of “Xiao He,” sweet and youthful, a already differentiated mermaid.

Behind her was Qi Hanyi’s friend, the owner of this laboratory, Xiang Chen.

The differentiated mermaid next to Xiang Chen was called Yun He, the owner of the account, who had discovered Su Su’s plea for help while watching streams. The mermaid sitting in the tank, who had not differentiated, was her sister, Yun Lu.

The two sisters were both unfortunate souls.

The second princess had an unmarried fiancé named Yang Yuanshan, the eldest son of the Yang family. As one of the three major families, the Yang family held a status equal to that of the Qi family; the head of the Qi family was the Minister of Defense overseeing interstellar warfare, while the Yang family head was in charge of domestic stability, controlling matters from handling cases to security deployment.

As the heir of the Yang family, Yang Yuanshan attended the Royal Academy and was exceptionally talented, possessing remarkable mental force and top-notch genes. During their school years, he and Qi Hanyi were both top of their respective fields; one was top of the Royal Academy, and the other led at the Imperial Military Academy. They balanced each other well.

Yang Yuanshan had thus won the favor of the princess Tang Xiruo. After graduation, he successfully established an engagement with Tang Xiruo.

Unfortunately, heaven is envious of gifted individuals; he was struck by mental force collapse three years ago and now needed a mermaid’s song to survive.

Yun Lu had been chosen to treat Yang Yuanshan’s mental force collapse. However, because Yang Yuanshan was engaged, her role was fated to be that of a mere treatment tool.

Mermaids are emotional beings, yet Yun Lu was an exception; she had always been more interested in research and had no interest in love. If it weren’t for being brought ashore that time, she would have planned to learn pharmacology from the high priest to become a mermaid doctor.

After staying at the Yang family for two weeks without successfully differentiating, Yang Yuanshan ultimately succumbed during his third episode of mental force collapse.

There were indeed those in the Yang family who wanted to lash out at Yun Lu, but the person who protected her was Yang Yuanshan’s fiancée, Princess Tang Xiruo.

She loved her fiancé greatly, but she lived with clarity; she knew that there were no rules mandating one must fall in love with another person; feelings were the hardest things to force.

Tang Xiruo asked Yun Lu where she wanted to go afterward. Yun Lu said she wanted to research mental disorders. Later, through her close relationship with Tang Xiruo, she came to Xiang Chen’s laboratory.

She indeed had a talent for this field and had become the project leader in three years.

Her sister Yun He’s story was much simpler; she had just reached marrying age last year and successfully differentiated shortly after marriage. However, her luck was bad, as the human she encountered liked to mistreat mermaids. Unable to endure, Yun He escaped and hid with her sister. Seeing Yun Lu’s face, Xiang Chen decided to keep her as an assistant, assisting her with many cover-ups. That family was just a lower noble; they couldn’t find her and assumed she had died outside.

However, this time, it was also thanks to her noticing Su Su’s plea for help online.

Xiang Chen said to the two sisters: “I just called the Qi family to confirm. Hanyi is indeed experiencing his first mental force episode. I’ve also checked with Qi Yue, and from the information she collected, Su Su is indeed the online name of that mermaid in Qi Hanyi’s family.”

Xiang Chen showed a puzzled expression: “However, it’s strange. The mermaid from his family has appeared in human form at a banquet, so she should already be a normally differentiated mermaid, not some mermaid hybrid.”

Yun He countered: “But his tone online doesn’t seem fake. If it were Princess Yi Qing, she couldn’t be unaware of the treatment for mental force collapse.”

“No, he might not be a differentiated mermaid yet.” Yun Lu interrupted their argument. “I know that the high priest once had a special mermaid medication that could temporarily turn mermaid hybrids into humans, but the side effects were severe, and it couldn’t be maintained long-term, so it has now been discontinued. If he relied on that medication to impersonate Yi Qing and pretended to have differentiated to attend the banquet, that would explain things.”

“It’s probably this kind of medication,” Xiang Chen enlightened. “I wondered why Qi Hanyi seemed so strange; he clearly has differentiated mermaids at home but insists on waiting for me to treat him. It turns out he knew all along that the one at his home was a mermaid hybrid; the two of them joined forces to deceive his family elder.”

Realizing the current situation, Xiang Chen couldn’t help but grit his teeth: “He really dares; he doesn’t care about his own life at all!”

“What are we going to do now, regarding General Qi…?” Yun Lu showed some worry—most of the research funding for their project was from Qi Hanyi, and the project involved multiple interests; without his support, maintaining it would be difficult.

“Panicking wouldn’t help; his body has already reacted. Life and death are matters of these few minutes. If he can survive this time, the next time…” Xiang Chen sighed deeply, “I said before that this is unreliable; you can’t accurately judge illnesses yourself.”

After thinking for a few minutes, he decided to leave: “In any case, I will go to the Qi family to see if I can help; Xiao He, keep an eye on Su Su’s account. If something happens to him, do your best to help him resolve it. For now, we can only hope he can wake Qi Hanyi up and help him through this first mental force collapse.”

Su Su couldn’t wake Qi Hanyi up.

He tried many methods.

Whether he shouted in Qi Hanyi’s ear, pushed and shook him hard, or bit him hard enough to leave a circle of teeth marks, it was as if Qi Hanyi felt nothing at all.

As Su Su watched Qi Hanyi’s face grow increasingly pale and his body grow colder, he became even more anxious inside. Biology courses taught him that humans are warm-blooded; once their body temperature reaches a high or low extreme, it could be fatal.

But the blanket covering Qi Hanyi seemed to have no warming effect whatsoever.

The room’s control was in Qi Hanyi’s hands, and Su Su couldn’t even adjust the room temperature. He also didn’t dare to go out and tell others he couldn’t sing to treat Qi Hanyi. He thought for a moment and figured he could at least serve as a heat source, so he took off his outer clothing and crawled under Qi Hanyi’s blanket, hugging him.

Qi Hanyi’s body felt like it had been soaked in the deep sea, cold enough to make Su Su shiver. He wasn’t normally this sensitive to cold, but human bodies seemed to differ greatly from sharks.

So, Su Su lay on Qi Hanyi, shivering as he attempted to transfer his body heat to him while also trying various awakening methods with his hands.

He found a method online that involved pinching the nose to wake someone up; it said making it hard for them to breathe would wake them up uncomfortably.

Su Su, thus, covered Qi Hanyi’s mouth with one hand and pinched his nose with the other.

Ten seconds passed, then twenty, then half a minute, but Qi Hanyi showed no signs of waking.

Su Su didn’t dare to pinch any longer; he feared really suffocating Qi Hanyi and hurriedly released his hands. But strangely, after letting go, he found Qi Hanyi’s breathing had stopped.

If not for still being able to hear the other’s heartbeat, Su Su almost thought he had died.

He’s not breathing!

In a panic, Su Su messaged “Xiao He”: “I tried many methods to wake him, but he shows no signs of waking. I found a method that said holding one’s breath could wake them up, so I tried it for a short while—less than a minute… but after I let go, it turned out he wasn’t breathing!”

“He won’t suffocate, right? It’s been almost two minutes now; how long can a person go without breathing? Is there any way to help him breathe first?”

Su Su typed a long string of messages quickly and finally waited for a response.

“Why not… try mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?” Yun He typed nervously. Without equipment, this was indeed the most basic method of assistance. But she had heard that this Qi General wasn’t fond of mermaids; would he come to retaliate against her once he woke up and found it was her suggestion?

Hmm, probably not; it’s for his own good.

Thinking this, Yun He found detailed steps for performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and sent them to Su Su.

Mouth to mouth? Su Su read through the entire process quickly, without hesitation, he opened Qi Hanyi’s mouth and got to work.

“Hah!” He took a deep breath, leaned down to seal Qi Hanyi’s mouth, and transferred the air from his mouth into his.

“Whew—”

One second, Qi Hanyi was sinking in the deep sea, feeling he couldn’t breathe and would drown, but the next, something soft pried open his jaws, fresh air flooding in, bringing with it a special sweetness.

Qi Hanyi greedily sought it, his consciousness gradually resurfacing.

After three successive breaths, he suddenly felt a weak response from the person beneath him and then moved slightly.

Su Su was about to lift his head to check on Qi Hanyi’s condition when a hand firmly gripped the back of his neck.

“Wuwu!” Su Su was startled, instinctively pushing and struggling to escape.

But this attempt to flee only resulted in a stronger hold on him; their lips and tongues tangled together, but the chaotic movement felt less like a kiss and more like a domineering conquest—seeking, plundering.

The root of his tongue, his teeth, his palate—Qi Hanyi aggressively ransacked every nook and cranny, unwilling to let go.

Su Su felt his jaws starting to ache, but… it somehow felt quite enjoyable. His body tingled and felt weak as a mischievous itch crept deep into his bones.

Sharks had an inherently combative nature, so he quickly learned to respond in kind, not wanting to show weakness as he tried to kiss back.

But Qi Hanyi suddenly stopped, releasing his hold and pushing Su Su a distance away, his voice hoarse yet already regaining its usual restraint: “Sorry.”

“Awake!” Su Su suddenly realized and lifted his gaze, meeting a pair of mist-colored eyes that seemed dipped in icy water.

Su Su felt his head spin; his emotions felt more like a blend of overwhelming anticipation that felt impossible to achieve. When his dream actually came true, his first reaction was shock and disbelief rather than joy.

He lunged to hug Qi Hanyi, wrapping his slender white arms around his neck, shouting, “You finally woke up! Wuwuwu! You scared me to death; you weren’t breathing! I thought you were going to die!”

“I…” Qi Hanyi strained to recall, and all he could remember was that before he fainted, he seemed to have been morning training at the military camp.

This was his bedroom; what happened to him? Who brought him back? Why was Su Su here? What had just happened…

Qi Hanyi tried to think, but a sharp pain throbbed in his head, as though an axe was cleaving through the middle of it.

The door was pushed open from outside, and Xiang Chen dashed in, carrying a large medical kit: “Qi Hanyi! You’re alive—”

His words halted abruptly upon seeing the two entangled in a kiss on the bed, and he swiftly turned around, shoving the old butler following in behind him out. When closing the door, he shouted, “I’ll give you ten minutes to resolve this. I’ll come in later to check your body!”