Chapter 98 Part 1

Jun Qingyu blinked and he looked up to see his own reflection in Fu Yuanchuan’s eyes.

Fu Yuanchuan brushed aside the hair on the little fish’s cheek, paying little heed to his surroundings, “Are you coming out?”

Jun Qingyu shook his head. He reached out to hook Fu Yuanchuan’s finger, wiggled his finger and said, “Are you coming down?”

Upon hearing that, Fu Yuanchuan chose not to enter the spring, rather he sat down at its edge.

Jun Qingyu approached the shore in response and rested on his lap, he couldn’t help but think about how Fu Yuanchuan had gotten in.

No one else had ever entered this space apart from him.

Previously, he tried to let Fu Yuanchuan in when he was allocating fruits and vegetables, but it ended in failure and he didn’t try after that.

It was just a random thought today, with no substantial progress, but Fu Yuanchuan entered.

“What are you thinking about?” Fu Yuanchuan gathered his long hair behind his ear and tied it with the hair tie he had brought with him.

Jun Qingyu’s eyes arched and he simply ignored how Fu Yuanchuan had come in. In any case, the important thing was that Fu Yuanchuan had genuinely entered his space.

Seeing Fu Yuanchuan’s confusion, Jun Qingyu played with the buttons on his clothes and said with a smile, “I captured a free labourer.”

“To plant cherries?”

Jun Qingyu pondered over it and said, “We can plant something else, this space has no restrictions.”

There was no need to separate tropical fruits or anything like that.

As universal life energy could nurture the environment, the surroundings in the space could be divided, and they could be planted directly.

Jun Qingyu found the mere act of planting on his own troublesome, and if he had to sort the seeds into those suitable for the tropics and drylands, he might just abandon this entire space at this point.

While Fu Yuanchuan touched the little fish, he looked at the fruits and vegetables planted by the little fish not far away.

There were not many of them, but there was a lot of variety.

Ultimately, it was just for the little fish’s own consumption in the past. Growing too much would lead to an inability to finish them and it would be a waste.

A wider variety would also improve the taste.

The planting was done orderly. Although there was no obvious division, they were planted in designated areas.

He didn’t spot any planting tools in here; the little fish likely threw those out once planting was done.

Fu Yuanchuan said, “Let’s plant them in a few days.”

The interstellar had mechanical tools specially used for planting, so it would be more convenient to send those in after they were prepared.

“Okay.” Jun Qingyu wasn’t in a hurry. Growing crops could not be rushed, it would take some time for the seeds to germinate after they were planted, and there was no use in rushing.

Jun Qingyu rested the side of his face on Fu Yuanchuan’s palm and asked thoughtfully, “Do you have any other work later?”

“No.”

Generally speaking, the pressing issues were the war between the Federation and the Empire, and the war between the Zergs and the Empire. Yet, at the present moment, the Federation had signed an agreement, and there was no sign of activity on the end with the Zergs.

Most of the remaining issues were not urgent.

Jun Qingyu nodded, then reached out to loop his arm around his neck, but the distance was significant. His hand was able to touch him, but his arm was unable to embrace him.

Fu Yuanchuan took the initiative and lowered his head, “What’s wrong?”

Jun Qingyu flicked his tail and leapt up with the assistance of the water’s buoyancy and pecked him on the lips, “Soaking in spring water is beneficial for your mental energy, come in and soak for a while.”

“The water here is separate from the spring over there, I soaked in this pool here whenever I came in.”

“Ok.”

The difference between spring water and ordinary water was pretty distinct.

The temperature was slightly lower, but the concentration of universal life energy was high, and it could even conserve mental energy. Previously, he couldn’t take out a great volume of spring water, and there was no way to soak in it.

Now that Fu Yuanchuan was here, he would undoubtedly have him soak for a long time.

“How it is?” Jun Qingyu hugged him, his tail fin moved lightly, and he took him to a relatively deeper part in the middle. Then, he leaned on his shoulder, and asked after tilting his head, “Do you feel much better?”

“Mhm.” Fu Yuanchuan was holding onto the little fish, and his hand on his waist could touch the light golden scales of the little fish. In comparison to his scales at the end of his tail, the scales here were, so as to speak, smaller.

The scales of a little mermaid were extremely hard and the hardness only increased when they grew bigger.

The scaly texture couldn’t be sighted clearly underwater, and his finger pads trailed along those scales.

Fu Yuanchuan suddenly remembered from the past that a little mermaid didn’t seem to have lost much of its scales, “A little mermaid will shed its scales frequently during its normal growth period. Where did all the scales you’ve shed go?”

Jun Qingyu said, “I hid them in the fish tank.”

They weren’t of any importance anyway. Additionally, placing them around in the fish tank was too obvious, and it would be rather messy placing them with all the decorative items, so he buried them all beneath the bed. It looked neat and tidy as well.

Later on, the fish tank broke and he never hid them there again and put them all in his space after his space was available.

“By the way, later, we…” While speaking, Jun Qingyu paused. He leaned on his arms and looked up at Fu Yuanchuan in astonishment.

Fu Yuanchuan’s fingers picked at the edge of his scales and he spoke with a straight face, “Hmm?”

Jun Qingyu blinked, “You…uh, I can’t condense my spiritual energy, and I can’t transform them into legs.”

“You’re beautiful this way.”

Jun Qingyu was stunned for a second there. He grasped Fu Yuanchuan’s wrist tightly, but he didn’t use his strength, and without any fuss, he turned his head and pressed it onto his shoulder.

Fu Yuanchuan wrapped his arm around the little fish, and the end of the little fish’s motionless tail in the water tautly wrapped around Fu Yuanchuan’s calf, and Fu Yuanchuan’s ears were graced by the sound of soft rapid breaths.

The surface of the water was tranquil.

Jun Qingyu closed his eyes and his slender eyelashes trembled lightly. Fu Yuanchuan hugged the little fish up, “Hang on tight.”

The next moment, Jun Qingyu’s finger subconsciously curled up, and Fu Yuanchuan’s back was covered with a few more marks.

—

After being intimate in his space for several days, Jun Qingyu curled up on the bed in an exhausted manner when they came out. His skin still had a flush and the pillow was damp from his wet hair that hadn’t dried yet.

Fu Yuanchuan helped him to organise his scattered hair, “How are you?”

Jun Qingyu snorted softly and took advantage of the situation to bite Fu Yuanchuan’s hand and grind his teeth. He wasn’t angry, but act spoiled. Fu Yuanchuan took out a bag of snacks to replenish the little fish’s strength, “Do you feel unwell?”

Jun Qingyu bit into a dried fish and felt around, he didn’t feel discomfort anywhere, and so he shook his head.

In response, Fu Yuanchuan didn’t get the ointment, he fed a few dried fish to the little fish and turned to get some juice.

Mermaids were said to have a remarkable ability for recovery. Jun Qingyu had never experienced it firsthand because he rarely suffered any injuries that would allow him to compare and detect that, but he had a firsthand experience now.

After eating some snacks, he was almost recovered.

Jun Qingyu sat on the edge of the bed eating ice cream and watched Fu Yuanchuan put the pearls he had collected into a box.

There seemed to be fewer pearls in the box than before and Jun Qingyu asked, “Have those pearls been made into jewellery?”

“No, this is a new box.” Fu Yuanchuan opened the cabinet and inside was a great number of boxes that were similar appearance-wise.

Jun Qingyu’s fingers paused, “What’s the point of buying so many of them? They won’t be used.”

“They will be used.”

“……?”

Fu Yuanchuan closed the cabinet as if nothing had happened, “There’s no rush.”

Jun Qingyu fed him a spoon of ice cream, “I think…”

“What is it?” Fu Yuanchuan kissed the ice cream off his lips, waiting for the next sentence but no sound was heard.

The tingling sensation that flitted by earlier made Jun Qingyu frown, “Do you feel any discomfort anywhere?”

Fu Yuanchuan was startled.

Without waiting for his answer, Jun Qingyu set aside his ice cream, held Fu Yuanchuan’s hand and started to inject his spiritual energy into him.

Ever since Fu Yuanchuan had recovered from his illness, Jun Qingyu’s general use of his spiritual energy had been to consolidate his mental energy, not to inspect. He could not detect anything by purely releasing it without waiting for any feedback.

However, a little while ago, he had a faint sense that something might be amiss. He wasn’t sure if he was being paranoid, but it would be best to investigate just to be safe.

Fu Yuanchuan waited quietly for the little fish. In view of the little fish’s opening his closed eyes, he asked, “Is there any problem?”

Jun Qingyu shook his head. There wasn’t any problem per se, but it became more abnormal the more he reasoned it out, “…You really don’t feel any discomfort anywhere?”

 After a pause, Jun Qingyu added, “Earlier, your mental energy showed signs of dissipation.”

Fu Yuanchuan froze, “Is that so?”

Although it sounded grave, Fu Yuanchuan didn’t worry much about it. He simply grabbed the ice cream nearby and offered a spoonful to the little fish while reassuringly saying, “It shouldn’t be a big deal, I’ll lie down in the medical pod for a while.”

Jun Qingyu knitted his brows, “How can it not be a big deal if your spiritual power is dissipating?”

Still, he couldn’t understand why this was happening.

After taking the ice cream from Fu Yuanchuan and putting it aside, Jun Qingyu got up and pulled him out, “Let’s go to the med bay.”

There was a specialised medical pod placed in that place upstairs, but the medical pod was generally used in situations when someone was seriously ill or injured.

Minor injuries were simply bandaged or left to heal on their own.

The medical pod was left idle.

Upon noticing that the little fish was feeling anxious, Fu Yuanchuan offered words of comfort, “You’re scaring yourself. I feel fine.”

Jun Qingyu nodded, it was best that he was fine, “Lie down in it first.”

“Alright.” So as to not worry the little fish, Fu Yuanchuan lay down and pressed the start button inside.

It was an examination rather than a treatment and electronic reports would be generated during the examination.

Jun Qingyu stood by and looked at the data on the report.

He wasn’t a medical practitioner and did not understand many of the terms used in the data.

However, when the data was generated, the average value would be written, and whether it was high or low would be marked.

Except for that column with higher mental energy, everything else was normal.

After thinking about it, Jun Qingyu curled his finger and tapped the medical pod, “Release your mental energy.”

At the moment he released his mental energy, there was a brief stagnation in the medical pod, and then the data in the mental energy column spiked up, from a high value to a direct breakthrough in the measurement.

At the same time, a small light-coloured question mark also appeared next to his mental energy.

In the medical cabin, Fu Yuanchuan frowned slightly.

Seeing this, Jun Qingyu hurriedly opened the medical pod, held Fu Yuanchuan’s hand and injected his spiritual energy, “Close your eyes and leave it to me.”

Fu Yuanchuan patted the little fish on the back of his hand, seemingly to comfort him.

After a while, after the mental energy in the room gradually dissipated, Jun Qingyu thought about the question mark on the report and said, “There was an unknown substance present.”

Normally, a situation like this would only occur after exposure to the substance in question.

Lately, Fu Yuanchuan had been in his company and therefore, he ought to be aware of what he had been in contact with.

Jun Qingyu sat by the medical pod and asked, “Have you been to Planet M recently?”

Fu Yuanchuan shook his head, “Tordis is in charge of that place for the time being.”

“In that case, when would that be…” Jun Qingyu’s lips stretched taut as he abruptly remembered encountering that squad during their return trip.