Chapter 27: I’m Pregnant

“You’re pregnant?” The Right Elder stared at Chi Mei’s belly with wide eyes, asking in a trembling voice.

Chi Mei nodded: “Of course, I’ve been with A Yang for so long, naturally I’m carrying her child.”

“You, you you you-” The Right Elder pointed at Chi Mei’s belly, shaking like she had Parkinson’s: “Absurd! Absurd! How could you have an illicit relationship with a human woman, and even get pregnant! You’re our prince, how can you be so shameless, you’ve disgraced our entire mermaid race!”

The Right Elder had always been polite and courteous in her speech, never using such harsh words, let alone scolding the prince who was once cherished by everyone, pointing at his nose. Though her words were light, they felt like a resounding slap across Chi Mei’s face.

His face suddenly turned pale and unsightly, biting his lower lip tightly, he said: “Yes, I am shameless. Anyway, I’ve done what I should and shouldn’t have done. I’m already A Yang’s person. If you want to kill her, then kill me and the child in my belly too.”

“You-” The Right Elder’s veins were pulsing, both angry and helpless. Looking at the Left Elder surrounded by a group of juniors, she shouted: “Has Old Shi woken up yet?”

“Not yet, the Left Elder is very angry,” said the juniors taking care of her.

The Right Elder shouted in frustration: “As long as she’s not dead, wake her up for me quickly!”

The Left Elder had fainted and vomited blood due to anger. The juniors were all used to it; with such a hot temper, she had fainted several times before. But they had never seen the usually calm Right Elder lose her temper. They tensed up, pinching acupoints and letting blood from the tiger’s mouth, finally waking the Left Elder up.

As the Left Elder slowly regained consciousness, she looked at the Right Elder, then saw the pale-faced Chi Mei behind her, and almost fainted again. The Right Elder slapped her forehead, preventing her from passing out again.

“Prince, we’ve gone through countless hardships to finally find you, but what about you?” The Right Elder’s words contained undisguised reproach.

Chi Mei lowered his head, his pale lips mumbling.

“I say since that woman has already spit out the pearl, we should just kill her now and eliminate future troubles,” the Left Elder was still fixated on killing Jiang Yang.

“You can’t!”

“You can’t!”

Chi Mei and the Right Elder spoke simultaneously.

The Left Elder frowned: “Old White, what are you doing? Have you also been bought off by that freeloader?”

The Right Elder sighed and whispered a few words in the Left Elder’s ear. The Left Elder clutched her chest, belly up, and fainted completely like a dead fish.

The Right Elder shook her head and said to Chi Mei: “Since you’re carrying that woman’s child, we can temporarily refrain from killing her. But she’s still a cunning human after all. Who knows if she might secretly plot to bring humans here, causing catastrophe for our mermaid race. To be safe, she can live, but she must come with us to the deep sea.”

—

“So I’ve become a hostage?” Jiang Yang smiled bitterly after hearing Chi Mei’s retelling.

“Not a hostage.”

“Oh right, your elder even forced us to marry, so I can’t be considered a hostage. I should be considered the Dragon King’s son-in-law living with his wife’s family.” Jiang Yang laughed at her own words.

“The Right Elder and others are too afraid of humans. They fear those humans will come again to harm us, so they had no choice but to…” Chi Mei’s eyelids drooped slightly, his expression inexplicably aggrieved.

Jiang Yang lifted his chin, making him look up at her.

Chi Mei’s eyelashes trembled lightly, his eyes flickering unsteadily, not daring to look at her directly.

“You went out for a while and your face has turned a shade paler. Were you scolded?” Jiang Yang stroked his face, smiling.

“No.” Thinking of the Right Elder’s calm and cold words, Chi Mei’s heart ached unbearably.

Jiang Yang let go of her hand and said: “You say they’re forcing me to go to the seabed out of necessity, so you lying to them about being pregnant with my child is also out of necessity?”

Chi Mei, no longer dwelling on his melancholy, immediately covered her mouth and looked around vigilantly: “Keep your voice down. We merpeople have very keen hearing. If they find out I lied, they definitely won’t let you go.”

“Besides, this was the only way I could stabilize the situation,” Chi Mei said, covering his flat abdomen.

Jiang Yang retorted: “Your belly clearly shows you’re not pregnant. You can fool them now because it’s early and there’s no visible sign, but after a few months when your belly still doesn’t show, the lie will be exposed immediately. Then I’ll still end up dead.”

Chi Mei frowned: “I had no choice, it was the only thing I could think of in the heat of the moment. Unless-”

Chi Mei bit his lip, carefully observing Jiang Yang’s expression, and tentatively said: “Unless- we actually do it, then they won’t find out.”

Jiang Yang hit him hard on the forehead: “You-”

A clear red mark appeared on Chi Mei’s fair and smooth forehead. His eyes revealed an expected disappointment, struggling to maintain his tone: “It’s okay if you don’t want to. I’ll- I’ll think of another way when the time comes.”

Jiang Yang lowered her head, realizing there was no hope of returning to land. Rather than being trapped on a lonely island with the temperamental Chun Jian, it wouldn’t be bad to follow Chi Mei and experience 20,000 leagues under the sea. At least she felt comfortable being with Chi Mei.

“As a human, I’ll drown if I go to the seabed.”

Chi Mei’s eyes lit up, and he excitedly grasped her hands tightly: “Don’t- don’t worry, I have a way. I’ll give you the pearl, then you’ll be able to avoid water!”

“Didn’t your elder say you’d die without the pearl?”

Chi Mei shook his head: “That’s because the pearl has been separated for too long. Actually, as long as it’s returned when the merperson is at their weakest, they can recover. It’s just that some humans are too greedy and never want to return the pearl once they’ve taken it.”

Jiang Yang nodded. After all, it was essentially a matter of trust. Those with ulterior motives who had gone to great lengths to trick the merpeople out of their pearls for wealth and status would never return them. Moreover, such selfish and deceitful people were naturally wary of everyone and feared that if they returned the pearl, the merpeople would return to the deep sea and never come back.

“Alright then.”

“You agree?!” Chi Mei looked at her with eyes full of joy, his wet arms encircling her waist.

“Mm.” Jiang Yang nodded lazily. Since the Mermaid King had no daughter, the eldest son had gone ashore to find his sister, and the younger son wasn’t very sophisticated either, why not go to sea and try out what it’s like to be the Dragon King’s son-in-law?

“That’s wonderful.” Chi Mei’s pale face flushed with a cherry blossom-like pink due to excitement, his lips even redder like rain-washed cherries, moist and glossy, making one want to take a bite and taste their flavor.

When she had just returned the pearl to Chi Mei earlier, she had only lightly touched his lips, feeling them soft and cool, like eating a very mild lychee-flavored jelly. She had withdrawn before savoring it carefully, feeling a bit regretful.

“Then, A Yang, I’ll transfer the pearl to you.” Chi Mei bit his lip shyly, the light pink on his cheeks turning into a vibrant red.

The opportunity had come.

Jiang Yang nodded.

Chi Mei tightly hugged her waist, leaning forward with his eyes tightly closed, his thick eyelashes trembling slightly due to extreme nervousness. Even his hand clutching her waistband seemed to be shaking.

He slowly approached, and a fresh scent of grass after rain wafted over.

Jiang Yang had experienced all kinds of men in the brothel – skilled lovers, experienced in the ways of romance. Naturally, they wouldn’t be like this pure merman, trembling nervously just for a kiss, face as red as if it had been set on fire before their lips even touched. But for some reason, smelling this faint and fresh grass scent on him was more alluring to her heart than the most expensive fragrances on the courtesans in the past. For a moment, she felt her mind wander.

A cool, soft touch gently pressed against her lips. That faint fragrance came even closer to her, and Jiang Yang’s breathing involuntarily quickened.

Chi Mei tremblingly hugged Jiang Yang tightly, his hands cold and shaking from extreme nervousness. His upper body pressed tightly against Jiang Yang, his heartbeat almost bursting out of his throat. In an instant, countless thoughts rushed into his mind – nervousness, fear, anticipation, excitement, and a hint of relief that Jiang Yang probably hadn’t noticed how clumsy he was.

Even though it wasn’t the first time he had kissed Jiang Yang, each time he was as clumsy as a silly fish, at a loss for what to do, awkward and stupid.

He still remembered that night when he saved Jiang Yang from the brink of death. That was the first time he had any intimate contact with Jiang Yang. Although it lasted only two seconds, he felt like a crab just taken out of a steamer, red from head to toe, falling into the water with no strength left. He touched his lips, dazedly soaking in the water for a whole night before coming to his senses.

But that was taking advantage of someone in distress; Jiang Yang knew nothing about it.

This time was his first real intimate contact with Jiang Yang, and she had agreed to it. Chi Mei trembled with excitement, his tail fin uncontrollably rising, tightly wrapping around her legs dangling in the water, intimately intertwined like mating.

As he touched Jiang Yang’s lips, he felt as if he had been electrocuted, his whole body tingling. It was as if he had just been fished out of a vinegar vat, his bones sour and swollen, then thrown into a honey pot before they could dry. The sweet taste poured into his heart, even the crevices of his bones filled with thick sweet syrup. His breath was sweet, so happy he could hardly breathe. A warm current flowed from his body into Jiang Yang’s. Chi Mei opened his moist eyes, his body still pressed tightly against Jiang Yang’s, not yet recovered from the previous sensation.

“Prince, the Right Elder asked me to-” A young merman who looked somewhat foolish swam in, saw the two tightly entwined figures, and couldn’t help but swallow. He swallowed the rest of his words.

Chi Mei, as if burned by fire, covered his face and buried it in Jiang Yang’s embrace.

The foolish merman also covered his eyes, retreating all the way, shouting: “I’m sorry, Prince, I didn’t see anything. Please continue, I’ll come back later.”

Author’s note:

A Yang is going to conquer the underwater world! Thanks to the little angels who cast Overlord tickets or watered with nutrient solution during the period from 2022-07-06 23:42:00 to 2022-07-07 17:58:13~

Thanks to the little angels who watered with nutrient solution: Dark Dark 9 bottles; Sisyphus, Summer Sky, That Time That Moment 1 bottle each;

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!