LSDWTWHA chapter 77

Chapter 76

The 20-minute time window was perfectly timed; including the time spent in the elevator and the exchange with Mo Lin, there would be at most three to five minutes of buffer time, or it might just be enough.

03 wasn’t sure if he would truly survive the return, but he didn’t want to die, so he got up in a hurry, rolling and scrambling to his feet, not even bothering to smooth out the creases in his clothes, as he hurriedly pushed Su Su towards the hall.

Less than a minute after Su Su left, Lin Dian’s equipment began to receive data continuously.

Lin Dian perked up, his fingers quickly flying over the instruments: “There’s a signal now, we’re starting the intrusion program, it will take about thirty minutes.”

Then they had to wait. They left one person to guard the captive while the others sat down to recover their strength. They still had a lot to do later on; even if the robots could handle the fighting, rescuing the mermaids and successfully retreating still required some effort.

Yan Bai found some free time to recall the words Su Su had spoken to him in the warehouse. He had been too rushed earlier, focused on making decisions and had no time to think. In fact, he was more uncertain than anyone else, this time, had he really made the right choice?

One of Yan Bai’s subordinates approached him, speaking softly: “Young Master, I just kept an eye on Su Su. When everyone was busy fighting, he secretly took his personal terminal from the wall.”

“That was his to begin with; he can take it.” Yan Bai closed his eyes in annoyance. He wasn’t surprised; in fact, he had anticipated that Su Su would retrieve his terminal when he proposed to come back.

But Su Su had taken it without telling him, which meant Su Su still did not trust him. In the past, he might have been angry—Yan San always told him, look, Su Su is hiding things from you, he must be planning to betray you, his heart is with the humans.

But now, he didn’t care as much. He suddenly realized that he had always confined himself to a binary view of mermaids or humans, thinking of everyone as either allies or enemies. But Su Su was breaking out of that perspective; he was neither siding with humans nor mermaids. What he said came from a future-oriented standpoint.

What Su Su said might have his own thoughts or be for his own interests, but he stated it in a way that was hard to refute. It also made Yan Bai realize his previous naïveté and one-sidedness.

This time, he wouldn’t stop Su Su, even if the other party kept things from him; it was fine. Even if they became antagonistic in the future, it wouldn’t matter.

Yan Bai thought that he no longer knew which path was correct, so why not let Su Su choose? At least he appeared to be living much more clearly than himself.

His subordinate displayed a confused expression: “How can we let him take it? What if Su Su alerts Qi Hanyi later?”

Yan Bai impatiently interrupted, “I’m just here to rescue Su Su and destroy this hellhole. As for where Su Su wants to go after, what he wants to do, that’s his choice.”

The subordinate reluctantly said, “But what if the boss finds out…”

“I will explain it to my father. I know he will be very unhappy with what I’ve done, but I—” Yan Bai seemed to want to say something, but then stopped, lightly sighing: “Forget it, why am I explaining so much to you? Just consider it my delayed rebellious phase.”

Su Su was pushed by 03 to the art studio on the third floor.

Mo Lin glanced at the fish tail hidden beneath Su Su’s clothes, and his eyes lit up, breathing a bit faster as he waved 03 off: “You don’t need to stay; you can go.”

“……” 03’s restless eyes darted around, as if wanting to suggest something.

“Didn’t you hear? I told you to go.” Su Su slightly turned his head and warned 03 with a glance.

03 jumped in fright and quickly ran away.

This reaction made Mo Lin unable to suppress his curiosity: “03 has been here for a long time; this is the first time I’ve seen him scared by a mermaid.”

“Probably because I kicked three of his ribs yesterday,” Su Su sat in the wheelchair like a proper young lady, speaking in a very reserved tone.

As soon as Su Su mentioned this, Mo Lin immediately recalled the battle that had taken place yesterday, and he couldn’t help but lean closer to Su Su, wanting to lift the covering from his legs to see his beautiful silver tail better: “This look of yours is truly captivating.”

Su Su boldly pulled back the robe, exposing his tail to the air: “I actually think this tail is too weak, not as strong as it was when I was a shark.”

“This is beauty,” Mo Lin’s eyes seemed glued to Su Su’s tail: “That sheen, those lines—this is the most beautiful tail I’ve ever seen.”

“You can say that if you want.” Su Su casually swished his tail a couple of times; after all, he was here to buy time, unsure of what might come next.

The atmosphere became a bit tense, and Su Su didn’t want to discuss his tail anymore, so he took the initiative to change the subject and asked: “Why don’t you seem at all bothered by my escape? You’re not even asking how I coordinated with 06?”

“It’s not hard to guess. I’ve heard that you have some connections with an organization called the Dark Tide; did they rescue you? No need to deny it—06’s family was taken away, and the ship was headed towards Freedom Island, so it was definitely them who made the move.”

“I’ve heard of that organization too; they did something significant more than a decade ago related to Qi Hanyi. I wonder if they’ve told you about it?”

Su Su knew that what Mo Lin was referring to was related to the death of Qi Hanyi’s father, which made him expose some emotion: “What are you trying to say?”

“It seems you actually know about it. So, knowing full well they killed Qi Hanyi’s father and harmed Qi Hanyi, you still accepted their help? Looks like the relationship between you and Qi Hanyi isn’t as good as your brother said.” Mo Lin arrived at a conclusion he hoped for.

After all, based on the facts known, it was mostly Qi Hanyi doing things for Su Su; as for what Su Su had done for Qi Hanyi? He truly wasn’t sure. So to Mo Lin, perhaps Su Su didn’t love Qi Hanyi; maybe this beautiful and cunning mermaid loved no one—he simply enchanted Qi Hanyi much like Qi Hanyi’s mother had captivated his father.

Such a relationship was destined to be unstable; a little risk, a little temptation, and it would be easily shattered.

Mo Lin asked, “If Qi Hanyi finds out you’re cooperating with the Dark Tide, can he still trust you? Would he still be willing to hand over the Bai Zao to you?”

“……” Su Su only then realized that Mo Lin was calculating this. Did he truly not know that 06 had issues? Why had his escape been so smooth? Perhaps he had designed everything from the start; he must have hoped Su Su would leverage the Dark Tide’s influence to escape, only to be caught again later, that way he could threaten and control him.

He was too confident. Su Su mused that this flamboyant young noble might not be stupid, but his smooth life had made him overly trusting of his control over the unknown. He never worried about the risk that once released, he might not be able to return; he also didn’t think Su Su posed any threat to him now.

Everything was unfolding as Mo Lin envisioned, making him feel even more secure.

At this moment, Mo Lin, feeling secure in his victory, began the farewell he had long prepared: “Su Su, I genuinely like you. Before I met you, I admit I had always seen mermaids merely as beautiful creatures, my feelings for them were like those I had for pretty foxes or cats, just with a slight preference.”

“But whether you believe it or not, the moment I saw you, I felt as if I had been struck by lightning—a sense of destiny. I heard a voice say, ah, it’s him.”

“As long as you are willing to obey me, I can use this missing persons incident to take you out of this conflict. From now on, you will no longer be Yi Qing or Su Su, you can have a new name, a new identity. All you have to do is stay by my side.”

“I will offer you a better life than you had with Qi Hanyi. The world is vast; there are many beautiful scenes on land, mountains, rivers, plains, and lakes. I will take you to see all the beautiful sights. I will use my art to praise you and make your beauty immortal in this world.”

“Hmm, that sounds pretty good.” Su Su found it amusing to be confessed to for the first time.

He thought it was funny, but not because of Mo Lin’s confession—rather, he laughed at the twists of fate and his own capriciousness.

In just these two short days, first Yan Bai and now Mo Lin had come forward, willing to offer him a life without worries that required no effort.

Had this been six months earlier, he would have gladly accepted promises from either of them.

But now he was unwilling.

Before, he didn’t want to strive because he hadn’t found something he wanted to do or someone he wanted to love. Now that he had found it, he would do everything in his power for his affections.

The little shark was instinctively fighting for survival but had never feared death. He didn’t in the past, and even less so now.

The signal device made a subtle vibration, and Su Su realized it was a prompt from Lin Dian; the robots had been controlled, and they would soon return to assist him.

As this moment approached, Su Su felt the need to keep Mo Lin’s attention occupied so he wouldn’t discover the anomalies downstairs. Fortunately, the soundproofing on the seventh floor was excellent; even if the screams from the fifth floor echoed through the air, there would be no noise heard here.

“You said you like me,” Su Su seemed to be pondering: “Can you prove it to me?”

“How do you want me to prove it?” Mo Lin’s gaze was fervent.

“I don’t like this place. I see many of my kind suffering here, and it makes me sad. If I were with you, imagining you as the master here, I would probably feel so guilty that I wouldn’t even be able to sleep soundly.” Su Su borrowed 06’s words.

“Sorry, that won’t do. My affection is only for you; it doesn’t include other mermaids.” Mo Lin replied: “Besides, even if the Mo family really wanted to shut down this training center, do you think those who send mermaids here would agree?”

Su Su revealed a somewhat disappointed expression: “Hmm, that won’t work. Then let’s choose something else; I don’t want to see mountains and plains. I want to see places beyond the planets. I want to pilot a real starship. It doesn’t have to be the Bai Zao; any starship will do. That should be possible, right?”

Mo Lin replied: “The starships are with Qi Hanyi. Furthermore, mermaids are not suited to pilot starships; mermaids belong to the goddess of beauty and shouldn’t be tainted by war and slaughter.”

“But you said yesterday that I looked great when fighting.” Su Su raised his chin, portraying a willful and pampered mermaid as he complained: “You’re just making excuses; this isn’t allowed, that isn’t allowed. Your love is nothing but that.”

“Su Su!” Mo Lin had never been so openly confronted by a mermaid and was gradually losing patience: “Face reality; I’m not the one begging you; you’re the one asking me. I believe I’ve already given you enough; don’t take my affection for granted.”

“Is this taking advantage? You’ve given me a lot? What have you given me—comfortable living conditions and plenty of food? What’s the difference between that and keeping a fish in a fish tank?” Without waiting for Mo Lin to get angry, Su Su followed up with his own answer: “Oh, of course, there’s a difference; you’re willing to take me around, draw me, aren’t you?”

Su Su calculated the time, knowing that the rescue team would arrive soon. He didn’t need to worry about provoking Mo Lin, making him angry enough to lash out; thus, his tone became increasingly rude: “Is this really what I want? Isn’t it you who want to own a mermaid that meets your desires and then find a background you like, making me your muse? Where in this is there anything for me? Mo Lin, your hypocrisy makes me laugh.”

Crash!

The door was broken open from the outside, and Yan Bai appeared with Lin Dian and a few robots at the door.

“You came pretty quickly.” Su Su let out a sigh of relief and gave both of them a thumbs up.

Yan Bai smiled: “Thanks for your hard work; everything outside is already taken care of. I’ve arranged a freight shuttle capable of holding all the rescued mermaids.”

“Yan Bai? What are you doing here… you all…” Mo Lin finally realized that things had gone awry. His mind raced, but he couldn’t make sense of it: “You’re one of the Dark Tide? Haha! The Yan family shipping? You’ve hidden it well. You guys staged this whole thing where Su Su was captured deliberately to rescue the mermaids here?”

“But your Dark Tide has always been cautious; your targets should have been Qi Hanyi. Why would you come at this time to rescue a bunch of irrelevant mermaids?”

“Perhaps it’s because I, too, have become infatuated by beauty,” Yan Bai glanced at Su Su, half-jokingly stated.

Although he had been hesitant before, when the moment to rescue those mermaids arrived, Yan Bai suddenly felt no confusion; he felt very relaxed—this was what he had wanted.

“Su Su! You were the one who led them here!” Mo Lin understood the implication behind Yan Bai’s words, angrily staring at Su Su, not expecting to be caught by the mermaid he liked: “I love you so much, and you treat me like this! You betrayed Qi Hanyi, and now you’re betraying me? You won’t end well like this.”

“I let down your affections?” Su Su scoffed at such accusations: “Who doesn’t love beautiful things? But your affections are solely based on yourself. You love mermaids just like you would love a beautiful object—to collect, to show off, and to wantonly paint over and transform, making them conform more to your ideals. It holds for other mermaids, and it holds true for me as well.”

“Mermaids are not objects; they have their own will. They don’t need your kind of love.”

“Moreover,” pausing for a moment, Su Su recalled what the other party had just said about Qi Hanyi and revealed a trace of contempt: “Don’t compare your affection to Qi Hanyi; you’re not worthy.”