Jiang Yang bent her knees, burying her face in them out of boredom, and said, “Of course, staying in this room for so long is completely uninteresting.”

“Then, then I’ll take you out to play,” Chi Mei said.

Jiang Yang quickly raised her head, her eyes bright: “Okay, where shall we go?”

Chi Mei thought for a moment and said, “There’s nothing fun in the deep sea, the few fish there are all very ugly. The shallow sea has many fun things, but…” He lowered his head, his tightly pressed jawline showing his current nervous mood: “But the shallow sea elders won’t let you go, they’re afraid…”

“Afraid I’ll run away, I know,” Jiang Yang said lazily, resting her chin on her hand as she looked at him. “Forget it, if we can’t go, we can’t go.”

Chi Mei grabbed her hand, his tone a bit flustered: “No, Ayang, if you want to go to the shallow sea, I can secretly take you there. We just need to trick Little Rong and the others.”

Jiang Yang’s eyes were filled with mirth as her slender fingers lifted his chin, her clear eyes like hooks: “Aren’t you afraid the two elders will get angry?”

Chi Mei bit his lip, his ears red like crushed cherry blossoms: “I am afraid, but I’m also afraid of you being unhappy.”

Jiang Yang’s eyes widened in surprise, not expecting him to say this. She withdrew her hand, smiled and said, “It’s okay, actually staying in the palace isn’t bad. If I’m bored, I can find my own entertainment. By the way, do you know how to play chess?”

Chi Mei shook his head: “No.”

Jiang Yang had an ‘I knew it’ expression and said, “It’s okay, I’ll teach you. You can play with me.”

“Okay.” Chi Mei immediately smiled, his eyebrows lifting lightly like a bright ray of light: “Ayang, what do you want to play?”

Jiang Yang thought for a moment and said, “Let’s play Five in a Row. Go find some round, smooth black stones and white stones.”

“Okay.” Chi Mei agreed without thinking and went to search in the pile of stones outside the palace. In the deep sea, black pebbles were easy to find, but white ones were extremely rare.

The night pearl was placed in a giant clam, its soft light radiating upwards, but rarely reaching the ground, making the light even dimmer. Chi Mei, having lost his pearl, had poor vision in the sea. In slightly darker places, he needed to squint to barely see clearly.

By the time Jiang Yang had drawn the chessboard on the ground, he was almost like a blind man, crawling on the ground, picking up stones one by one and placing them in his palm to examine. If it wasn’t right, he would put it back and pick up another to examine, repeating this process over and over. His broad male shoulders were cramped in the narrow space between the giant clam and the shells, struggling to search and feel.

Jiang Yang opened her mouth, swallowed the words she was about to say, and directly went forward to pull him out of the narrow space. His fair face was covered in seabed mud, looking gray like a fallen young master.

“I forgot that Your Highness is now a little blind man,” Jiang Yang said, reaching out her hand and gently wiping the dirt off his face with her fingertips. “You go back and sit down, I’ll look for them.”

Under her fingertips, Jiang Yang clearly felt Chi Mei’s face instantly stiffen, his ears turning bright red and the blush spreading down to his neck. His gaze remained fixed on her hand, timidly wanting to look at her, but before he could move his gaze, it was as if he had been burned by fire, and he hurriedly looked away.

Jiang Yang couldn’t help but smile, her fingertips trailing from his face to stop at the tip of his chin, saying, “What’s wrong? Has the esteemed prince not only lost his sight but also forgotten how to speak?”

Chi Mei took a deep breath and said, “Ayang, don’t call me Your Highness.”

“Is that so? But your attendants all say that I should remember my place and call you Your Highness like they do,” Jiang Yang said.

“You are Ayang… you’re different from them. You, you don’t need to listen to them,” Chi Mei stammered, as if every word he spoke, every breath he exhaled was flowing with scalding heat.

Jiang Yang let go of her hand: “Alright, go sit down.”

Chi Mei sighed in relief and obediently swam to sit on the steps.

With the pearl, Jiang Yang’s eyesight had become very good, so after rummaging on the ground for a while, she knew there were no white pebbles. She turned her head and asked helplessly, “There are no pebbles, do you have any irregularly shaped baroque pearls here?”

After all, merfolk should have plenty of pearls.

Chi Mei said, “I don’t know what baroque pearls are, but we do have irregular pearls. However, our tribespeople find them ugly and discard them carelessly. I’ll ask Little Rong to find some.”

Chi Mei opened his mouth, and a peculiar sound came from his throat. Soon, Little Rong came, glaring at Jiang Yang.

Chi Mei warned Little Rong with his eyes, and he immediately behaved himself again, obediently going to find baroque pearls.

In no time, Little Rong returned, huffing and puffing with an armful of pearls.

“Your Highness, if you want pearls, there are plenty in the treasury. Why do you want such ugly pearls? Their shape isn’t smooth at all,” Little Rong grumbled.

Chi Mei placed his index finger on his lips, signaling him not to speak. He sat down excitedly opposite the chessboard and said, “Ayang is going to teach me to play chess.”

“Chess?” Little Rong curiously came closer and asked, “What is chess?”

“Chess is a game played by humans,” Chi Mei said. Seeing that he wasn’t leaving, he pushed him a little and said, “Little Rong, don’t you have other things to do? Hurry back.”

Ayang had finally invited him to play a game and spend time alone together. Such a precious moment, having an outsider around was simply annoying.

Unfortunately, Little Rong, being naturally oblivious, said, “I’m not busy. I just finished Your Highness’s breakfast, and it’s still a long time until lunch. I’m not busy at all. It’s a perfect opportunity to learn about a human game.”

Chi Mei immediately frowned, but due to Jiang Yang’s presence, he couldn’t speak his mind directly. A surge of anger was bottled up inside him with no release, making him very uncomfortable. Yet he had to pretend as if nothing was wrong… which made him even more angry.

Jiang Yang suppressed a smile. This stupid fish always thought his acting was flawless, but in reality, his thoughts were transparent. However, since he was deliberately putting on an act, she might as well be a good audience and play along.

“Today, I’ll teach you to play Five in a Row. The rules are simple. Whoever can first connect five pieces of the same color in a straight line on the board wins. Chi Mei, do you want black or white pieces?” she asked.

Chi Mei pointed at the baroque pearls in Jiang Yang’s hand and said, “I want those.”

“Alright.” Jiang Yang stuffed all the pearls in her hand into his. Because these pearls had been nestled in Jiang Yang’s palm, they naturally absorbed her body heat, warm and cozy like the mellow sunlight of an afternoon.

Chi Mei silently gripped them tighter.

“You go first,” Jiang Yang said.

It was Chi Mei’s first time playing this game, and he was still a bit unfamiliar. He held a pearl between his fingertips, hesitantly looking at Jiang Yang. Finally, he placed the pearl in the center of the board, then timidly asked, “Is this correct?”