SMA Chapter 54 – Awkward, isn’t it?

Chapter 54

More than ten years ago, Xia Yi’s father once gave him a pair of tropical fish, housed in a beautiful glass tank with brown algae and fine pebbles inside. There was also a five-clawed shellfish perched on top.

There were oxygen pumps and water thermometers, and changing the water was quite complicated. Perhaps because of this, without someone knowledgeable to take care of it, the tropical fish soon died, and the fate of the five-clawed shellfish inside was also unknown…

Gradually, that beautiful fish tank was forgotten in the deepest recesses of memory.

Xia Yi just suddenly thought of what the octopus Abiseth had said about collectibles.

The sea monsters mistook him for a merman, but Sirens knew he wasn’t one!

So, um… it was Abiseth’s misunderstanding.

But if, for merfolk, humans weren’t meant to be eaten, then were they just meant to be played with?

People who keep fish aren’t afraid of trouble, don’t mind not being able to touch their pets, and similarly, pets don’t cause any trouble in life. As long as given a corner, fish will naturally swim quietly in the tank, not even caring whether the owner was nearby, as long as there was food—Xia Yi’s face suddenly changed, and without saying anything, he directly separated himself from the siren’s arm with seawater and swam away in the opposite direction.

He could live alone.

As the faint silver fishtail swept past, Xia Yi knew that the siren had caught up. He didn’t look back; seawater was a natural barrier, and he could easily increase the thickness and density of the water layer around him, making the small fish swimming around bump into a wall, flipping over dizzily.

Siren followed not too far behind, secretly noting down the octopus’s behavior in his heart.

Of course, he couldn’t blame Abiseth for talking nonsense because Xia Yi could hear it too! For many years, Siren, who had never found anything wrong with remote sonar communication, was conflicted.

The ocean was vast; if the direction went wrong, one may not see land for ten days or half a month.

Siren followed Xia Yi like this for four or five days.

As sea monsters understood, humans were very weak creatures- even a mantis shrimp or lobster could harm them. Even though Xia Yi has extraordinary abilities, Siren still didn’t think that Xia Yi could handle a shark.

And for these ocean predators, even a little bit of blood in the seawater can excite them and lure them over.

The mermaid glanced at the small fish rolled up by the water flow, then condensed ice blades and ice picks, laboriously cut the fish into chunks before stuffing them into a water ball for Xia Yi to clean… that was freshwater, different from seawater, apparently, humans only drank that.

Everything was done on the sea surface, but once the fish were cut open and the fish gills and innards were discarded, the bright red color dispersed in the seawater and disappeared in the blink of an eye. However, carnivorous fish adept at sniffing had already started swimming over. For them, this scent was a call for a feast.

Xia Yi had no idea about all this. He froze the fish instantly with ice and withdrew. It was easy to separate the bones from the flesh this way, and it also prevented parasites. However, his ability to identify fish was limited.

The small fish he had been eating in recent days were either too fishy or too rough to eat. While picking up oysters at the bottom of the sea, he almost got stung by a cluster of sea anemones. Luckily, he swam away in time, avoiding another encounter because those sea anemones were perched on empty sea snail shells, with a hermit crab inside. Those pincers were no joke.

Of course, when he was having that poor little meal, struggling to get the oyster, he suddenly saw the Siren swimming not far away. Its pale silver fishtail gently flipped in the water. Its buoyancy allowed it to easily maintain various postures, like this time it was lying sideways, slowly lifting its fin, which had already regrown, with its right hand holding the sea snail shell.

Then, in a very “brutal” manner, it directly tore apart the poisonous sea anemone and threw it away, then grabbed the pincers of the hermit crab, which were waving wildly, and pulled it out. Uh, hermit crabs usually take a long time to burrow into their shells, fitting snugly together, so the Siren didn’t even manage to pull the poor thing out by breaking off one of its pincers. Instead, it simply smashed the hard sea snail shell.

The hermit crab, missing a pincer and naturally having no shell, fled miserably, without even glancing at the debris of its “cohabitation” with the sea anemone. The likelihood of it surviving to find another empty shell to live in and a new companion was very slim!

Without a shell and without the camouflage provided by the sea anemone, it was difficult to catch prey and easy to be eaten by octopuses or sea turtles!

At that moment, Xia Yi stared blankly as the Siren separated the hermit crab and the sea anemone, silently turning away.

Mermaids, it turned out, were also emotional creatures.

Xia Yi found them much easier to understand than humans.

So when Xia Yi saw the Siren swimming around, he didn’t react. After all, this tail of pale silver mermaid would soon swim back to him. Xia Yi didn’t say anything or explain; he simply indicated his unwillingness to continue staying together.

Strangely, the Siren didn’t ask, didn’t try to approach Xia Yi, didn’t speak. It just followed, neither near nor far, just at the edge of Xia Yi’s patience.

After all, the ocean was so vast, there was no reason to stop the Siren from swimming this way.

The Siren’s lack of approach allowed Xia Yi to breathe a little easier.

From the beginning, he felt very passive, not expecting too much from others, not putting his mind on other people; these were Xia Yi’s principles of dealing with things. But the result was confusion; he mistook the Siren for a good companion, never considering how the Siren viewed him.

This time, Xia Yi realized that if he retreated, he would guard his boundaries closely and not give the Siren a chance to get close again.

——He himself was the world, and the world was himself; he didn’t want to change himself.

Xia Yi had lived a lonely life for over twenty years, with few possessions. He felt that he absolutely couldn’t afford to lose anymore!

The transparency of this area of the sea was good, with few traces of garbage left by humans. Suddenly, huge splashes appeared on the surface of the water, and the almost pitch-black back of the baleen whale seemed to obscure all the light. Several sharks fled in panic, and the pale silver sheen flashed past them, barely visible in the snow-white spray.

That agile and strangely charismatic body, directly leveraged on the back of the baleen whale. Unlike on land, its pale silver long hair was floating, and its upper body was completely naked, even more dazzling than a high-resolution fantasy wallpaper.

The gentle whale wasn’t angry, after spouting a few jets of water, it slowly submerged back into the sea, continuing its swim.

On the side of the baleen whale, a row of shells was densely attached, with many large oysters.

Xia Yi just glanced at them and changed direction, heading opposite to the whale’s.

Then, while searching for sea snails around the reef, he was suddenly sprayed with ink by a startled juvenile octopus, dispersing the seawater and pushing away the black mass. Dizzy and disoriented, Xia Yi looked around, only to see the juvenile octopus, which had sprayed ink, suddenly grabbed by a hand and then—

The Siren simply had it for dinner.

Even when gutting fish and shrimp or even tearing apart that octopus, the mermaid’s movements were precise and powerful, calm and unhurried. For the Siren, this was as simple as it got, and that deceptive, or you could say, human-like appearance, combined with the wild beauty of the mermaid’s nature.

Xiao Yi didn’t want to look, but couldn’t help it.

The Siren, silent, unobtrusive, persistent yet elusive, annoyed others to no end. Unfortunately, Xiao Yi could remain silent, unmoved.

But on the sixth day, he woke up suddenly and didn’t see the familiar pale silver figure, which puzzled Xiao Yi a bit.

He continued on his way as usual, carefully controlling the water around him.

By noon, still not seeing the Siren’s figure, Xiao Yi breathed a sigh of relief, but also quietly reconsidered the appearance of the mermaid. The impression was deep, and in his memory, it was beautiful enough.

After living for decades, how many things were worth recalling in detail at the end of one’s life?

His life trajectory was simple, living alone and dying alone. It was the same now. He had stopped looking for islands to the north long ago; there were countless islands in the South Pacific, especially near tropical areas, where there was plenty to eat and the scenery was beautiful.

As for the Maldives, underwater pyramids, or active volcanoes, they were all just beautiful dreams.

That night, he found a reef island, but unfortunately it was too small, so he could only half-lie down and fall asleep—The advantage of staying in the sea for a long time was that you could sleep in any position!

As he was dozing off, Xiao Yi suddenly saw the water layer enveloping his body seemed to be pushed down by something. Thinking he was dreaming, he just moved slightly, but ended up having his face rubbed against the ground by the reef, waking up with a start!

Fortunately, as a precaution, his body exposed above the sea surface was also wrapped in a thin layer of water, otherwise there would surely be blood streaks on his face.

Panicked, Xia Yi looked down, only to see a dolphin.

Its long snout, round head, adorable big eyes darting around, and its belly still had a layer of light pink, it earnestly nudged him with its head, as if trying hard to push Xia Yi ashore.

But the reef island was just a protruding piece of rock on the sea surface. Xia Yi was barely sitting on it, let alone climbing up with his whole body; there simply wasn’t enough space.

Rescuing drowning individuals is the inherent nature of these small dolphins; they even happily swim over to divers to get close.

But there were no dolphins around here.

Where did this little guy come from?

Xia Yi looked around in confusion, then suddenly glimpsed a flash of silver fish tail in the snowy white waves stirred up by a smaller reef island not far away.

Xia Yi stiffened for a moment, and the dolphin continued nudging him with its head.

It looked as if it was smiling, popping its head out of the water and silly grinning at Xia Yi.

Seeing Xia Yi diving into the water, it immediately followed suit. The dolphin’s smooth, streamlined body easily bent into an arch, leaping out of the water to complete a difficult backflip dive. Xia Yi, who had never been to an ocean park to watch dolphin shows, was momentarily amazed.

At least from the outside, he absolutely couldn’t tell that this little guy was so lively and adept at high-tech diving moves. According to international diving standards, it would definitely score full marks. The splash it made upon entering the water was minimal and extremely crisp and decisive.

This wasn’t trained by humans; dolphins were born with this skill.

Bored and rigid, Xia Yi suddenly found the coral reefs and seaweed around him coming to life.

This dolphin didn’t rest for a moment; if it wasn’t bullying octopuses, it was nibbling on crabs, or it was jumping out of the water in various ways to breathe. Xia Yi couldn’t help but silently tally up the types of diving moves it performed.

Most marine creatures spend most of their energy on hunting and only rest quietly when they’re not active, at most being alert to the possibility of ambush. But not dolphins. They might spend most of their time playing—eating while playing, playing while swimming, and even playing while resting.

And they were completely gregarious, extremely affectionate with Xia Yi. Its head bumped all over the place, its tail fin even changed direction to slap Xia Yi’s shoulder, giving off an air of camaraderie. Alright, there was a certain mermaid glaring at it from a distance, wishing to knock it out and throw it far away, but she couldn’t. This dolphin was brought here through a lot of effort.

In the ocean, only this kind of creature naturally approaches humans and poses no danger.

Even Xia Yi couldn’t stand the clingy affection of this little guy.

But if you try to push it away, its innocent, round eyes will just look at you, and in the next moment, it will come closer again.

Trying to push it away with a wave, Xia Yi inadvertently created a wave that pushed the dolphin farther away. But it thought Xia Yi was playing with it in the waves, so it jumped up and down in the waves, trying to use its tail to slap its own forehead, looking very happy. After playing enough, it happily came over to nudge Xia Yi’s waist with its head, almost knocking him over.

Xia Yi was at a loss. Ignoring it didn’t help; the little guy couldn’t stay still for a moment.

The most bizarre thing was that it seemed like the dolphin hadn’t slept for several days.

How could its energy be so high—

Yes, humans, there’s a species in this world that has two brains that take turns working and never needs to sleep. That’s dolphins o(≧v≦)o

Sleepyblue’s Corner:

Please also check my other works!

What to Do When I Become a Koi and Fall into the Male God’s Bathtub [BL]

Incurable Pain

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