CFCS Chapter 118

Chapter 118
True or False Mermaid (Arc 9.5)

Reibar walked into the room but didn’t see Jing Yang. He vaguely heard the sound of water coming from the bathroom, and he quickly walked over.

Standing at the door, he was still hesitant about whether or not he should go in. Even though in his heart he knew that the current relationship between the two had not yet developed to the point where he could see the other person bathing, he still couldn’t control his desire to go in.

As soon as Reibar pushed open the bathroom door, he froze. Because he didn’t see Jing Yang’s person—in his eyes was a blue fishtail that was beating at the water. The upper body of the owner of the fishtail was completely submerged in the water, and only one part of the fishtail was constantly swinging, slapping the water in the bath everywhere.

It was really a beautiful fishtail, with a light blue glow. The beauty was as if it had been carved by the best sculptor from extremely rare sapphires, every scale was perfect. Reibar couldn’t help but fall into a daze, his eyes full of obsession.

When a mermaid enters the water, its feet becomes a fishtail, and when it is on land, the tail changes back into legs. After being reborn in this world, Jing Yang constantly felt an eagerness to bathe, wanting to be surrounded by water. Every time he entered the water, he had the feeling of not wanting to leave. Every time, he couldn’t get enough of playing with the water, and that feeling of breathing freely in the water was too enjoyable.

Even though the bathtub in Reibar’s room was already quite large, Jing Yang still felt that he couldn’t let loose enough. He wanted to go to an even larger space to swim. If he could go to the sea that would be even better, in the future he had to let Reibar bring him there.

Every time Reibar was away, Jing Yang would play with the water in the bathroom. Because he had been poisoned, not only was his face not as beautiful as the original, but even his fishtail had become ugly. Now the toxins in his body had been mostly removed, so his appearance had largely recovered and his fishtail was almost as beautiful as originally. But Reibar still had not made any attempt to move forward, and even though they had been living in the same room all this time, he was the one sleeping on the bed, while Reibar slept on the couch.

Jing Yang had been extremely surprised that the only king of this kingdom was actually willing to take the initiative to sleep on the sofa. And from his experience with his lover from so many worlds, his lover was definitely one who loved taking advantage of him. Now he was just lying in front of him, it was really too strange that Reibar actually didn’t jump on him.

But Jing Yang simply did not know how hard Reibar was enduring. He would sleep on the sofa because every few days Jing Yang would spit out poisonous blood, looking extremely weak. He didn’t want to sleep in another room, but also didn’t want to sleep in the same bed as him, because now he still couldn’t do anything to him and he was afraid that he would lose control.

Jing Yang finally grew tired of playing and raised his head out of the water. Seeing Reibar standing at the door, he froze. He really didn’t think that Reibar would come back at this time, and also didn’t know how long he had been standing at the door.

“You, you’re back?” Jing Yang said.

Reibar walked to the edge of the bathtub and crouched down. Looking at Jing Yang’s pearly white and beautiful face, he couldn’t help but sigh in his heart. A pure blooded mermaid was indeed a very magical existence. He had watched this face change day by day—hearing that after Jing Yang takes back his bead he could return completely to his original appearance, Reibar could not even imagine how beautiful he would be.

“Can you…ah!” Jing Yang was just about to ask if he could go out for a bit, but before he could even finish, Reibar had already reached out and carried him out of the water.

Reibar placed Jing Yang on a chaise on one side of the bathroom and wiped the water from his fishtail with a towel.

“I, I’ll do it myself.” Jing Yang tried to grab the towel from him and wipe himself off. When the water on his tail was dried off, they would turn into legs, but he wasn’t wearing any pants.

Reibar pushed his hand away, silently and seriously wiping his tail, as if he was doing something that needed extreme concentration.

Jing Yang’s face slowly flushed. He clutched the edge of the chaise with both hands, biting his lips. The fishtail of a mermaid was particularly sensitive, especially right after leaving the water. Reibar wiped his tail with his hands and the towel as if he was stroking it, so Jing Yang’s body couldn’t help but tremble.

Jing Yang’s tail slowly changed back into legs. Completely naked, he squeezed his legs together, turning so that his back faced Reibar. But even though he blocked his front, he couldn’t block the back, and this position was only more attractive.

Looking at those long white and thin legs, Reibar stood up with the last strand of his sanity, saying in a low voice, “I’ll wait for you outside.”

Jing Yang rubbed his face, cooling down with great difficulty before putting on a dressing gown and leaving the bathroom.

“Why did you come back so early today?” Jing Yang sat down on the couch.

“There’s a banquet in the evening, you’ll go with me.” Reibar said.

“A palace banquet?” Jing Yang thought a bit. “Why do you want to bring me?”

“There’s going to be a drought soon. This banquet is most likely especially set up for Abby.” Reibar explained. “So I will bring you over and first show our prestige in front of them. You’re going to meet him in the future anyway, so it would be best for you to take advantage of this banquet as an opportunity to appear.”

Jing Yang thought about it and also felt like this was reasonable. After the drought began, Abby would start summoning the rain. He would definitely bring the bead on his person, and that would be the best time for him to get his bead back.

~

That evening, before setting off for the palace, Reibar changed his clothes and waited in the room for Jing Yang.

When Jing Yang came out of the dressing room, Reibar couldn’t tear his eyes away. This set of formal clothes was one that Reibar had especially had people help him make a long time ago, because sooner or later he would have to bring Jing Yang out in public. But now he looked like an elf prince standing in front of himself, and Reibar suddenly felt some regret, not wanting to let anyone else see him like this.

Jing Yang felt a little out of sorts from his focused gaze, and said with some embarrassment, “What are you looking at me for? Is it really strange for me to dress like this?”

“I regret it. Why don’t we not go to the banquet, and I’ll think of another way to help you get your bead back.” Reibar said very seriously.

“Don’t make a fuss.” Jing Yang pushed him a bit. “Let’s go.”

No matter how unwilling Reibar was in his heart, as planned, he took Jing Yang to the palace to attend the banquet.

As Reibar had said, this banquet was especially organized to Abby, basically as a celebration party for him before he summoned the rain. The king made this so high profile because he wanted everyone to recognize Abby’s importance and give Cory more support.

After getting out of the car, Reibar stood outside and reached out a hand to Jing Yang, helping him off the car. Holding Jing Yang’s hand, he led him into the banquet hall.

Reibar had always been a focus of everyone’s attention, and now there was Jing Yang next to him, which made them even more attractive to other people. As they walked in, everyone in the ballroom watched them.

Reibar had wanted to bring Jing Yang to see the king, but the king had been very weak ever since he made a deal with the mermaid king. Before Reibar had arrived, the king only appeared briefly before going back to rest, letting Cory and Abby preside over the banquet.

As the hosts of the party, Cory and Abby naturally had to go greet Reibar. After all, Reibar was not an ordinary official. He was only a few years older than Cory, but was Cory’s legal elder.

“Royal Uncle.” After Cory greeted Reibar, he looked at Jing Yang with stunned eyes, asking, “This is?”

“He is your future aunt, my future companion.” Reibar said solemnly.

“Oh?” Cory asked with surprise. “And which official family’s young master is this, why have I never seen him before?”

Jing Yang looked much different from his previous haggard and downtrodden appearance, so of course Cory couldn’t recognize that he was the man who had appeared before him previously.

Reibar just smiled and didn’t offer any explanation as to Jing Yang’s identity.

After Abby saw Jing Yang, he had always been in a state of panic. He had seen Leann’s original appearance on the ship before, and right now with a man who looked 50 to 60% similar standing right in front of him, how could he not be shocked.

“Your Highness Abby, we meet again.” Jing Yang gave a slight smile to Abby.

“You two knew each other before?” Cory asked doubtfully.

“No!” Abby loudly denied, the blood on his face gradually disappearing and his hand holding the glass trembling slightly. “We don’t know each other, we’ve never seen each other before!”

“We obviously saw each other while at sea before, and then met again once after that, did Your Highness Abby forget?” Jing Yang just wanted to deliberately scare him, and seeing his panicked expression, he felt a sense of satisfaction in his heart. “I even have something of mine with Your Highness Abby, when is Your Highness ready to give it back to me?”

“Don’t speak nonsense! When did I take your things?!” Abby used a roar to cover up the chaos in his heart, but because his voice was too loud, it caught the attention of those around him.

“This, what’s going on?” Cory looked at the pale Abby and was even more puzzled.

“Cory!” Abby grabbed Cory’s hand. “This man appeared from who knows where and dared to talk nonsense in the palace. Hurry up and let the guards throw him out.”

“Who did you say you were going to throw out?!” Reibar shot a look full of fury toward Abby like a knife.

Abby trembled from the fury in Reibar’s gaze and couldn’t help but take a step back.

“King, I said that His Highness Abby wouldn’t be happy to see me.” Jing Yang said with a face of grievance. “I don’t want to be thrown out by the guards again.”

Reibar showed an expression of heartache, hugging Jing Yang and appeasing him. “Don’t be afraid, I’m here. No one will dare to do anything to you.”

Of the four, only Cory was clueless, and completely could not make sense of what the other three were doing.

“Cory, is this how your princess treats elders?” Reibar looked at Cory, very upset. “He actually dared to want to throw my person out?! Does he have the qualification or right to do so?”

“Royal Uncle, there must be some kind of misunderstanding, Abby is usually not like this.” Even though Cory was a prince, he wasn’t the legitimate heir to the throne. According to the king’s last words, Reibar was. What’s more, Reibar’s reputation for decisiveness in killing was renowned, and most of the soldiers supported him, so even the current king was afraid to do anything to him. And Cory had always been afraid of this royal uncle who was only a few years older than him. Even if the two were rivals to the throne, he had never dared to show off the prestige of a prince in front of Reibar.

Abby was now in a state of panic and completely could not calm down. Reibar was here, so he would definitely not be able to be like before, letting the guards take away Jing Yang. Just now he had momentarily forgotten that Jing Yang was someone who Reibar had brought and said something like that, so now he was even more overwhelmed.

Abby’s body went limp and he fell onto Cory. Cory quickly held him up, asking, “Abby, what happened to you?”

“I, I’m a little uncomfortable, can you bring me back to rest?” Abby had already gone pale from fear, and now he looked weak and did look unwell.

In two days Abby would need to summon the rain, so nothing could happen to him now. Cory immediately became nervous, saying to Reibar, “Royal Uncle, Abby isn’t well. I’m going to take him back to the palace hall to rest, my apologies.”

Watching the two men leave, Jing Yang and Reibar looked at each other.

The king wasn’t there, the prince and princess weren’t there, and even Reibar soon left with Jing Yang. This left a large number of dazed officials and nobles who didn’t know whether to stay or also leave. After all, the banquet had just begun but the main characters were already nowhere to be seen.

So the king had failed to show off Abby’s importance at the banquet, since they themselves had withdrawn early. It was just that the king, who was lying in bed, knew nothing about this matter.

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Random Notes:

A little less than an hour: 12:20 pm – 1:10 pm, for 3.7k characters to 2.3k words.

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