CH 85.1

Translate by Hua

When Oddo was walking alone with Kiro under the cold wind, the worry and nervousness when he heard the news of an injured mermaid gradually faded away, and the guilt and embarrassment that made him want to crawl into the cracks spread again.

Upon noticing the widening gap between the two, Kiro glanced at Oddo, who had become somewhat restless and unhappy after hearing the truth. After noticing the guilt on his face, Kiro sighed.

He also knew that the current situation could not be entirely blamed on the old director, but the mermaids’ rotten physiques had already become an established fact. If he didn’t say something harsh to attract other people’s attention, then it’s just adding insult to injury.

“Don’t blame yourself too much. Now that you are aware of the problem, there is still a chance to remedy it.” He said some comforting words: “And Mingjiang is also aware of this situation. He will also come to help.”

“Really?”

Kiro nodded, and when seeing Oddo’s expectant eyes, he changed the topic: “He did have this plan before, but…”

“But what?”

“But he feels that simply being a keeper won’t make a big difference, and he wants to wait until you retire to take over your position as the director.”

Kiro shrugged as he looked at the cracked expression on Oddo’s face and said, “I became a keeper because I just want to teach those little mermaids what I learned before. I don’t care about the larger impact. After all, I haven’t been in contact with this society for ten years. But Mingjiang is different from me. According to what you said, he was found in the outer sea and hasn’t been influenced much by the Mermaid Center. I think he has clear plans and can help Leiden make decisions on some matters. So it makes sense that he’d want to go straight to the head of the Mermaid Center, both in terms of his abilities and his personality.”

After listening to Kiro’s words, Oddo touched his wind-blown beard and fell into silence.

It wasn’t until he was about to reach the door of the study room that he said abruptly, “You’re right; even if it’s just about identity, the mermaid himself is more suitable as the director of the mermaid center than me, a human who can’t communicate across species. If he’s willing, I will take the initiative to give up my position to him when I’m sure that he has the ability to fully take over my job.”

Hearing this, Kiro chuckled lightly. Looking at the study door that was just around the corner, he said with a smile, “You can tell him in person. I’m sure he won’t let everyone down.”

When the door opened, Kiro saw Leiden, who was sitting on the sofa and holding the armrest of the sofa next to Ji Mingjiang’s head, looking at something. Kiro raised an eyebrow and knocked on the doorframe. “We’re here; what’s the matter?”

Two pairs of eyes looked up in response, one golden and one black, peering directly at Kiro. As they raised their heads, Ji Mingjiang’s scattered silver hair mixed with Leiden’s half-length black hair, making Kiro click his tongue.

It’s related to some accounts we encountered during our live broadcast this morning and the mermaid we found.”

Seeing Oddo close the door after him, Leiden straightened up from beside Jimingjiang and returned to his chair behind his desk.

“Long time no see, Mr. Oddo.”

After coming out of the Mermaid Center, Ji Mingjiang only occasionally contacted Carrie. In addition, all kinds of things have happened almost one after another recently. When he saw Oddo again, he actually felt like he was in another world.

After all, Oddo can be said to be the first person he saw who showed kindness to him after he came to this world.

But the other party’s behavior was beyond his expectations.

Ji Mingjiang looked at Oddo, who was sitting 800 meters away from him, and didn’t dare look at him at all. He still had an awkward look on his face, as if he was not mentally prepared.

Did he have any interactions with Oddo or the Mermaid Center recently? Or was it the kind of interaction that caused a negative impact? Why does the director have such an expression?

After briefly searching his memory, Ji Mingjiang, who really couldn’t come up with anything, shook his head in confusion, gave up thinking about this issue, and turned to talk about business.

“I don’t know if you guys watched the live broadcast between Leiden and me this morning, so I’ll just summarize it…”

After talking about the abnormal accounts in today’s live broadcast room, Ji Mingjiang mentioned the mermaid outside.

He first looked at Oddo and said, “Director Oddo and Lin Feng should be aware already because the first news sent to you is that a mermaid is seriously injured and needs treatment.”

After Oddo, who had been avoiding Ji Mingjiang’s eyes, heard his name being mentioned, he finally met his eyes evasively and nodded.

However, as Ji Mingjiang seriously talked about what he had just discovered on Starnet and his speculations with Leiden, Oddo’s passive expression gradually faded away, and his face became solemn.

“The mermaid was discovered by Vincent on the edge of the Empire near the Federation… After I came back, just when I was searching some keywords on Starnet, I saw someone from the Federation mentioning their sudden blockade of the entire territory. So, Leiden and I both agree that there must be a connection between the two things and that the Federation must be planning something, but if the mermaid doesn’t wake up, we won’t know what happened to him.”

After the words fell, Oddo could no longer sit still. He stood up suddenly, and the chair legs wrapped in protective covers instantly slid a long distance, then hit the wall behind with a soft sound. He paced in circles in the study and murmured, “Your guess is definitely correct. This is definitely something the Federation is plotting again, but what do they want to do?”

Just as the four of them were standing and sitting, looking at each other in silence, the door of the study room was knocked again, and then Lin Feng opened the door and walked in with a face that was no less serious and anxious than theirs.

Lin Feng was obviously confused when he saw Oddo walking around the room for some reason. However, after seeing the questioning look from Clarice, he quickly calmed down his expression and walked quickly to the desk.

After lowering his head to discuss with Clarice, Lin Feng passed a copy of the data sheet that his assistant had just passed to him to everyone present and then explained: “This was analyzed from the blood of that mermaid. I believe that the unknown ingredient is the culprit that turned his tail into what you previously described—a puddle of mud.”

“Because we don’t have records of such ingredients in our current database, special equipment will be needed for specific analysis, so I asked someone to leave a tube of blood sample to prepare for the institute, but the problem now is…”

Speaking of this, several people thought of Wang Weiming, who was executed not long ago. Sure enough, Lin Feng asked in the next second, “Is the current research institute trustworthy?”

Although it wasn’t announced to the public at the time, as one of the witnesses and Clarice’s trusted aide, he’s still somewhat aware of the unclear relationship between Bisnar Orfield, Wang Weiming, and the Federation.

Then the current credibility of the institute has become the most important issue before them.

Since this mermaid escaped after being injected with an unknown drug, there is a high possibility that he will attract the Federation’s attention and even be hunted down. However, there’s also a great possibility that the secrets in his body could help them figure out the Federation’s recent movement and conspiracy in advance.

In this case, what is the difference between analyzing this tube of blood at the sketchy research institute and directly telling the Federation, “Your plan has been exposed, and if you still want to remedy the situation, you should come to exterminate it”.

“This is not a big problem.” Leiden gave a positive reply after thinking for a moment. “There are non-networked devices in the institute, and the single lab that Wang Weiming had on his own before is still empty now. The new director hasn’t been appointed yet, so if you want to analyze the data, you can go there.”

“If any reason is needed to cover up…”

“To the outside world, we can say that we’re going to analyze the blood samples of the group of children who had a collective physical examination at the Mermaid Center two days ago. After all, their physical data visually looks very poor. It’s reasonable to conduct a more detailed examination.”

Although Oddo didn’t know much about the inside story and didn’t want to know anything that he shouldn’t know, he could still see the very simple and understandable entanglements of the few people and put forward his own suggestions.

“This is okay.” Lin Feng pushed his glass frame and agreed.

Seeing that they all thought it was feasible, Leiden nodded. “Then when you go there, I will give you a pass.”

Lin Feng looked at the time and immediately decided, “Let’s do it now. It’s almost nighttime, and there will be fewer people in the institute.”

Waiting for tomorrow, another ten hours or so, there would be more variables, and this kind of thing was certainly the sooner it was resolved, the better.

After obtaining the pass and lab access, Lin Feng’s knee-length white coat swept the warm air in the study room, opened the door, and walked out.

A gust of cold wind slipped in from the corridor and was cut off by the door that quickly closed.

Only then did Ji Mingjiang pay attention to the collective physical examination mentioned by Oddo just now. He looked curiously at Oddo, who sat back on his chair and looked at the sky and the earth outside the window without looking at him. He twitched the corner of his mouth and asked, “What’s that physical examination you’re talking about? Do you mean that the mermaids at the center are not in good health?”

Before he finished speaking, Ji Mingjiang noticed with sharp eyes that Oddo’s hanging snow-white beard trembled.

“…”

“It was Lin Feng’s idea. We compared His Highness Kiro’s body data with the mermaids in the center. Not very good naturally means very bad.” Sighing, Oddo lowered his head and sent the documents that he had read almost an hour ago to Ji Mingjiang.

Taking advantage of the time when the other party lowered his head to check, he said in a bitter tone, “I feel sorry for them…”

“No, you don’t have to take all the blame on yourself.”

Ji Mingjiang did not read the hundreds of pages of documents from beginning to end. He simply went in and read a few pages before he had an idea.

It was similar to what he had guessed before, but it was more intuitive after the physical condition was digitized.

“Even if you don’t exist, there will be others. The thinking of the entire society is like this, and the practices passed down are like this. This is inevitable. Just make changes in the future.”

Turning off the light brain, Ji Mingjiang was about to comfort the listless old man again when he heard Oddo say unexpectedly, “Mingjiang, when are you going to come to the Mermaid Center? I can help you familiarize yourself with the work process first. If there are no problems in the subsequent assessment, I plan to retire directly and give up my position to you.”

“???”

“Ah???”

Several question marks quickly appeared above his head, and Ji Mingjiang exclaimed in shock.

Although he did have this idea before,…

Isn’t this too sudden? !

“Why are you talking about this all of a sudden?” Ji Mingjiang’s ear fins poked out of his hair in shock. He looked at Oddo with wide eyes and confusion.

Leiden, who thought the matter had been finished and planned to continue working, was also a little shocked, and he closed the file he had just opened.

“Because His Highness Kiro’s work in the past few days has also inspired me a lot. The communication between mermaids is definitely more convenient and accurate than that of humans.

We didn’t have this condition before because we were all waiting for the institute’s full version of the translator to be developed. Now we don’t know when the institute will recover after the chaos, and there is already a better option in front of us, so I need to look no further, right?”

After telling him this plan, Oddo felt relieved when he saw Ji Mingjiang’s surprised and puzzled look. He touched his unkempt beard, narrowed his eyes, and smiled: “And didn’t His Highness have this plan in the first place? I just moved the time forward a little.”

Hearing this, Ji Mingjiang turned his head and glanced at Kiro. After getting a look of affirmation from the other party, he vaguely understood what was going on, so he waved his hands and said in a dumbfounded way, “I do have such an idea, but I don’t want to ask you to resign from the position of director as soon as I come back.”

“Okay, okay, don’t be polite to me here.” If they continued to push and pull, he didn’t know when he could return to the Mermaid Center to pack his things and get off work. Oddo immediately interrupted Ji Mingjiang’s unfinished words and simply said, “I also have my own considerations, and the results of the collective physical examination at the Mermaid Center reminded me that we must make changes.”

“It’s not an easy job for you to take over my position at this juncture. Don’t look like you’re taking advantage.”

“And I have watched your live broadcasts these last few times. I know that you are trying to change the stereotype of most people in society towards mermaids. Isn’t this great? It’s just the right time to give you a bigger platform for you to practice your ideas.”

A long string of words came crashing down, knocking back Ji Mingjiang, who had just stood up from the sofa. Looking at Oddo, who seemed to have made up his mind, Ji Mingjiang nodded helplessly, accepting this statement.

“But…” Oddo’s last words reminded him of something, and he asked hesitantly, “Aren’t internet-connected devices off-limits in the Mermaid Center? So how can I live broadcast inside?”

“It doesn’t matter.” After just thinking for a moment, Oddo waved his hands indifferently and said, “Rules are dead; people are alive; just change the rules later.”

Previously, this rule was in place to prevent information such as the defense situation in the facility from being leaked intentionally or unintentionally; on the other hand, it was also to protect these mermaids so that they would not be too exposed to the public and be affected by various public opinions. But now that they want to make changes, there is nothing wrong with changing the regulations appropriately.

“Just ask the little guys for their opinions before the live broadcast, and then turn off the live broadcast equipment outside the center. Don’t let arrangements such as security patrols enter the camera. There’s nothing else to worry about.”

“Okay, Your Highness, just send me the start time later. It’s getting late now, so I should pack up and go home.” With these words, Oddo stood up, smoothed the wrinkles on his clothes, and nodded to Clarice, then turned around and walked out of the study.

“This little old man…” Looking at Oddo’s back quickly leaving, Ji Mingjiang shook his head.

However, the words have been said to this point, and continuing to refuse seems to just stall things. Ji Mingjiang had no choice but to accept the fact that he had to go to work just after returning from travel.

But if they were to change the Mermaid Center’s mode of operation and current approach to mermaids, where would be a good place to start? ….

Opening another page of documents, Leiden glanced at the time displayed on the light brain, then looked up at Ji Mingjiang and urged: “It’s already dinner time, and I haven’t finished processing the documents here. You two go to dinner quickly; don’t waste time here.”

“I know, I know.” Ji Mingjiang, who had come back to his senses, saw that Clarice was still sitting peacefully behind the desk and knew that he would definitely not have time to eat tonight. Although he knew that a bottle of nutritional supplements in the interstellar era was equal to or even greater than a meal, Ji Mingjiang, who has been an earthling for more than 20 years, still can’t stand this kind of behavior that neglects the body. He softly tutted before joining Kiro and walking in the direction of the restaurant.