CH 32

TL: Hua

No, I think if it’s only to the extent you mentioned, then the mermaid ancestors of this interstellar world should not be able to beat the mermaid ancestors of the underwater world, nor me.

Ji Mingjiang silently retorted in his heart before formally thinking about the information revealed in Clarice’s words.

So, the truth of the matter may not be far from what he guessed at first? But the only discrepancy is the position of the royal family?

Although Clarice didn’t seem to know much about these histories either, Ji Mingjiang still asked this question.

“Then do you know how the mermaids became what they are now?”

Sure enough, Clarice shook his head. He has never been very concerned about things other than the safety of mermaids.

After taking office, he was busy dealing with the traitors in the Empire and taking back the planets belonging to the Empire from that group of bandits, the Federation. After the situation stabilized, the disputes between the old and new nobles in the country, as well as his own spiritual sea, became another big problem. How can he have the energy to care about whether there is any abnormality in the mermaid’s behavior?

“But if you want to know…” Ji Mingjiang saw Clarice being silent for a moment before saying, “There may be something written down in my parents’ diary; I can show you.”

Ji Mingjiang: “?”

“Diary?”

He didn’t understand. Did the imperial family write diaries instead of archives to record these things in the Empire? Isn’t your royal family too casual?

“…… What kind of things are you thinking all day long?” Clarice’s helpless voice came from above his head, and only then did Ji Mingjiang realize he was thinking out loud.

Seeing that it was almost dinner time, Clarice said, “I’m going to get the diary and bring back the dinner, by the way.”

After Clarice went out, Ji Mingjiang slowly slid down the pool wall, burying half of his face in the cold water. His mind calmed down from the series of information, and some details that he had overlooked earlier were also replayed in his mind.

The tulle-like blue tail fin swayed in the water, and Ji Mingjiang exhaled a string of bubbles.

When Clarice mentioned the diary of the first emperor and empress, he seemed to have some negative emotions?

—Although he usually has a helpless and indifferent expression on his face, and there was no change just now, Ji Mingjiang’s unique emotional perception buff still told him the news.

Why? Could it be that, apart from the hobby of keeping a diary, the couple also likes to record the stupid things their kid has done since childhood?

It wasn’t until he got the diary that Ji Mingjiang vaguely understood the origin of Clarice’s emotions.

It was a very thick diary, and the paper was a little yellowed. With just one glance, it was obvious that this diary was completed by two people together. One of the strokes is delicate and restrained; the other is written in a very wild and uninhibited manner, regardless of whether the person who reads this diary can understand it or not.

The number of pages is marked on the lower right corner of each sheet of paper, one page per day. Ji Mingjiang directly turned to the end, and the sheet marked page 3650 was still full of records.

He roughly flipped through the diary, and basically every few weeks, a vivid little mermaid would be drawn in the diary that day, from the first year to the tenth year, without interruption.

The appearance of the little mermaid has also changed from occupying only two or three horizontal grids at the beginning to occupying a quarter of the paper.

Ji Mingjiang can even see the character growth of this little mermaid from the vivid sketch.

From the evasive eyes at the beginning to the cheerful and bright smile at the end, rather than a couple’s diary, it’s more like a mermaid’s growth record book.

As for why Clarice has such emotions…

Ji Mingjiang glanced at His Majesty the Emperor, who took out the food from the space button.

He made bold guesses but did not seek confirmation at all.

He dared to bet his meal that what made Clarice upset is because there are mostly contents about the mermaid in this diary, and the mention of Clarice is less than one-tenth of the space!

“cough.”

If you live in someone else’s house, you still need to give the house owner some respect. Ji Mingjiang gently closed the mermaid record booklet, pretending that he didn’t find anything wrong, and said to Clarice, “What’s for dinner today? I’ll eat and then go see if I can find any information from the diary.”

Leiden glanced at him. It’s unknown whether he noticed the sudden change of subject. He just put the dinner plate that he had just divided in front of him.

Probably because many people in the interstellar age have significantly improved their physical fitness and food intake after having the beast gene, dinner does not emphasize light and small meals like Ji Mingjiang did in his previous life. It contains a bowl of rice filled to the brim and four dishes with meat and vegetables.

After Ji Mingjiang took his share, he was eating a piece of fish when he heard Clarice suddenly talk to him about the diary.

His voice was a little low, but there wasn’t much sadness in it. When Clarice talked about his parents, there was more nostalgia and relief.

“About when I was four years old, my mother brought back a little mermaid from the Mermaid Conservation Center, which is now the Mermaid Foster Center.”

If other people use the word little mermaid to express cuteness and love, then the little mermaid mentioned by Clarice is just acting as an adjective.

After all, according to his memory, the mermaid was not even as long as his forearm when he was first brought back.

Although Clarice said he could listen to it while eating and just treat it as a story, whether it was to show respect for the deceased or not to miss key information, Ji Mingjiang decided to finish the meal quickly.

While denouncing him with his eyes for why Clarice had to talk about business during dinner, he hurriedly swallowed the food in his mouth with a sip of fish soup.

“Okay, keep talking.” With a breath, Ji Mingjiang signaled.

“…” After a moment of silence, Leiden continued.

“Actually, I’m not sure what they wanted to do; I just remember that after picking up that mermaid, most of my parents’ energy was focused on him. Not too long after that, they sent him to class with me.”

Speaking of this, Leiden’s face was obviously a little hard to explain. God knows what those two geniuses were thinking.

At that time, the mermaid would show some stress when entering an unfamiliar environment, unlike Ji Mingjiang, who was as natural as returning home wherever he was.

So his queen mother, who always liked cute cubs, hastily moved his study location from the study room to the little mermaid’s small room with a wave of her hand.

“Wait.” Hearing this, Ji Mingjiang couldn’t help interrupting him: “So my little villa is where the little mermaid lived?”

He was a little surprised. After all, it sounded like this mermaid’s physique was weaker than those he had seen at the mermaid center. So how could Clarice’s parents feel confident enough to let him live in a pool connected to the lake outside?

“Of course not.” Hearing this question, not knowing if he misunderstood something, Leiden’s gaze flickered for a moment before explaining, “I’m not so poor that I can’t even clean up a new place for you.”

“And this pool is too deep; that mermaid will really drown.”

“!”

Ji Mingjiang was greatly shocked. Can fish really drown in water? !

“This possibility is very high. When that mermaid first arrived in the new environment, he was so frightened that he choked on water.” Leiden answered his question lightly before picking up where he left off and continuing.

“My parents probably want that mermaid to understand the common language. It would be even better if he could learn it. In addition, they are also very concerned about correcting his personality. Besides handling government affairs, they basically spent most of their time with the mermaid.”

However, human energy and time are limited, and if most of the time is divided out, the time and energy left for the still young Clarice will naturally be much less.

Ji Mingjiang understood what he hadn’t finished.

“That’s why you hate mermaids so much?” Thinking of the indifference and annoyance surrounding Clarice when they first met, Ji Mingjiang suddenly realized.

Is it because of anger caused by childhood experiences?

But to his surprise, Clarice quickly denied his guess.

“”I’m just sick and tired of all the weak and gullible creatures who have to cling to others to survive.”

Ji Mingjiang subconsciously looked up because of his overly indifferent tone, and with one glance, he crashed into the depths of Clarice’s overly deep golden pupils.

The posture of lowering his head with his back to the light made Clarice’s original bright golden pupils darken a lot at this time, and he heard the young and promising emperor say calmly: “Myself included at that time.”

With a splatter, Ji Mingjiang’s tail flapped uncontrollably in an overly surprised mood, and the water splash shattered the overly depressing atmosphere at this time.

Ji Mingjiang looked at Clarice, and his tail fin gently swept over the back of his hand, leaving a clear watermark.

Leiden glanced at him and didn’t speak, but his tense emotions from recalling that period of time eased a lot.

He changed to a more relaxed position, his fingers rubbing the thin, cicada-like tail fin that Ji Mingjiang had hitched up, and he spoke briefly about his experiences before he turned 14.

“Probably because that mermaid was taken away by my parents at a young age, his personality developed quite smoothly. I usually talk to him when I go to his room to find my parents.”

When Clarice spoke, his fingers unconsciously stroked the caudal fin in his hand, and a trace of itchiness spread from the tail all the way to Ji Mingjiang’s brain, causing him to freeze.

Fortunately, he didn’t eat too much just now.

Seeing that the tail could not be pulled back in a short period of time, Ji Mingjiang silently rejoiced after spurning Clarice’s inappropriate demeanor in his heart.

“…everything after that was normal. After the mermaid’s condition improved, they also made up for their lack of attention to me over the years. Until then, I never resented the three of them, except for the initial discomfort.”

…… What do you mean until then?

Ji Mingjiang’s ear fins fluttered, and he felt that the next thing might be the focus of what Clarice said.

After glancing at Clarice’s expression, Ji Mingjiang silently added: It may also be a turning point in Clarice’s life.

Sure enough, in the next second, he heard Clarice continue to say, “When I was 14 years old, they took some guards to inspect other galaxies. They wanted to find an energy star for me as a birthday present. Then, on the way, they encountered an ambush by the Federation. Neither the 20-member bodyguard nor the emperor and empress survived.”

Ji Mingjiang’s pupils suddenly shrank, but Clarice continued.

“Shortly after the news of the death of the emperor and empress came, the capital planet fell into chaos. The old nobles, headed by the Cod family, wanted me to let go of my power. There were also people they had planted in the palace long ago, taking advantage of the opportunity to create rumors and stir up trouble.”

“It took half a month for me to clean up the internal affairs of the palace, suppress the ambitions of those nobles, and execute all the Cod family who took the lead in attempting to usurp the throne.”

“…”

Leiden was silent for a moment before speaking.

“Then I found out that the mermaid was missing.”

Hearing this, Ji Mingjiang asked in a daze, “Was he kidnapped by those nobles during the chaos?”

After all, a healthy mermaid is a very precious existence, even now.

But Clarice shook his head when he heard this: “After I found out, I went to search all the homes of the nobles at that time. I also used the most advanced detectors to find their basements and searched them, but I found nothing.”

At that time, before Clarice could emerge from the grief of losing his parents, he immediately discovered that the mermaid who had grown up with him and could serve as his emotional support for the loss of his parents had also disappeared mysteriously.

And he attributed it all to his weakness at that time?

Ji Mingjiang looked at him in disbelief. Did Clarice still remember that he was only 14 years old at the time? This guy needs some counseling!

After Leiden finished these words that had been accumulating in his heart for more than ten years, he came back to realize that Ji Mingjiang’s tail was still in his hands.

Looking at the mermaid, whose thoughts were unknown, he gently put the tail fin in his hand back into the water and put the dinner plate that had been pushed aside into the space button before standing up.

Suddenly a shadow was cast in front of him, and Ji Mingjiang, who was still trying to equate spiritual counseling and psychotherapy in his heart, looked up blankly with a diary stuffed into his hand.

“After that, besides ensuring that there were no safety issues at the mermaid foster center, I didn’t care anymore. I think my parents raised that mermaid not just for spiritual counseling or raising a child, but for other purposes.”

Clarice leaned down and pointed his finger at the outer cover of the diary. “There may be records inside; you can look for them yourself. If it’s really as you guessed that the change of the mermaid was maliciously guided by humans, I will find the opportunity to take you to the royal archives to look through those sealed files.”

After Clarice left, Ji Mingjiang put the diary aside with a swollen mind. He turned on his light brain and began to search for information about the mermaid mentioned by Clarice.

Finally, after exhausting all kinds of key words, he found a screenshot from the corner of the starnet.

It was a picture of a man and a woman walking off the starship with a little mermaid in their arms at the gate of the palace.

The content of the text is: “His Majesty Berek and Queen Shanas seem to have adopted a juvenile mermaid? I heard they called him Kiro Clarice. Is this true?”

Ji Mingjiang was taken aback when he saw it.

Surname Clarice? You gave him the royal family’s surname as soon as you brought him to the palace?