Chapter 23

The surveillance of s-37’s appearance in the pool of s-24 was noticed by the rest of the institute.

Fortunately, there were only the movements of the two mermaids in the monitoring, and no sound was recorded.

After the two merman separated and s-37 returned to his own pool, Boyce, who was present, was called in for questioning.

“I don’t know why the s-37 appeared.”

Boyce’s eyelashes twitched slightly under their gaze, and he continued: “I was feeding s-24 when it suddenly appeared.”

“I think…”

He paused and analyzed: “It may be because of the existence of the channel connecting the two pools before, so I felt that the s-37 of another mermaid took the initiative to appear, trying to expel the s-24.”

“You seem nervous?”

“Yes… After all, no matter which mermaid, it can easily kill me…”

Boyce raised his eyes and looked at the questioner, his tone calmer.

“You should also know that merfolk are solitary creatures, and they will expel all their kin in the same area.”

In the experimental records of the institute, there have been records of placing two mermaids in the same pool, but without exception, the two mermaids will always fight in order to divide their respective territories.

As for why it happened when Boyce was feeding the s-24.

“Perhaps a coincidence?”

“You know, we don’t know enough about merman behavior.”

“Do you have any other questions?”

Seeing the person on the other side quiet down, Boyce asked.

“No more.” The pen slid on the paper stopped, and the questioner took down Boyce’s reply, “You can go back.”

The moment he returned to his room, Boyce relaxed his back, and his back, soaked in cold sweat, felt clammy and cold.

The moment he saw the two merman fighting in the pool of s-24, Boyce began to subconsciously find a reason for s-37 to appear there.

An experimenter at an institute shouldn’t be the reason it’s there.

Most of the people in the institute are trying to study the merman race thoroughly and extract every drop of available value from it.

Boyce wasn’t sure what the institute would do with it using this.

Boyce didn’t know if he would become like this someday.

But at least for now, the s-37 is different.

it didn’t hurt you…

Always appear harmless in front of you…

Even, it defends you in front of its own clan, for some reason you can’t guess…

so…

Boyce closed his eyes, and where I can, I hope it’s a little better…

—

At dinner Boyce received a lot of curious stares.

“I heard that s-24 and s-37 fought in front of you?”

“is that true?”

Someone asked curiously.

“I didn’t know there was a passage between the pools of s-24 and s-37…”

After Boyce replied one by one, the people who satisfied their curiosity from the client dispersed.

“By the way, I heard that it just said that the abandoned passage should be completely blocked?”

“I can’t let the two mermaids fight again…”

By the time Boyce left the restaurant, he heard that they had changed the subject.

“I saw Beard’s things unpacked today?”

“Speaking of which, he is also unlucky, s-19 would rather not run away and come back with him to die together…”

—

During the day, s-24 noticed that Boyce’s body was contaminated with s-37’s breath, but the two mermen quickly fought each other, so it didn’t have time to think about it.

At night, when the merman was alone in the pool, it remembered this detail again.

That merman next door and that human breeder during the day?

A flash of shock flashed in s-24’s eyes, and he subconsciously dived to the bottom of the water, trying to ask what it was thinking through the passage between the two pools.

However, after s-24 dived underwater, it was found that the channel had been completely blocked by the research institute.

Meanwhile, s-37 waited in the pool for Boyce to appear.

It hasn’t induced Boyce’s emotions to come over since the last time, but, for some reason it can’t even tell, it thinks its Sofia will be here this night.

So it came to the surface, with five fingers attached to the glass, looking at the closed door.

Boyce turned off surveillance in the s-37 breeding room.

He had been to the breeding room of s-37 many times in the middle of the night, and stopped at the door familiarly.

Boyce opened the door, just in time to meet the golden pupils who stopped in front of the glass and looked over from a distance.

Boyce’s footsteps paused, giving birth to an illusion, as if this mermaid used to lie on the glass and look at the door every late night, waiting for someone to push the door open.

—

During the day, the two mermaids fought fiercely, and the marks on s-37 were even more serious than after the last fight with s-24.

Boyce’s eyes swept around the mermaid, and the wound on its body has begun to heal. Thanks to the mermaid’s strong self-healing ability, the wound left last time has completely healed, not even a scar is left…

Boyce’s gaze fell on the back of the mermaid’s neck.

s-37 stretched his neck over before Boyce could speak. Boyce stretched out a hand and picked up the hair on the back of the mermaid’s neck, exposing his neck completely.

There is also a light-colored scar.

The scar is not very deep, but it seems to have existed for a long time. I don’t know why, it stayed on the neck of the mermaid.

“This is”

“The wounds left in the past.” The merman looked at Boyce and said another sentence, but Boyce didn’t understand much.

“But it’s okay,” said the merman. “I’ve found you now.”

“Sofia…” The merman looked at Boyce hesitantly. It felt that it probably still didn’t understand the question Boyce asked last time, so it tentatively tried to get some hints from Boyce.

“Why are you angry?”

Boyce looked at the merman in front of him.

It is an emotional and thinking object that can be talked to on an equal footing.

He has tried to communicate with it in the past, in a human way of thinking.

But it is not human.

The way of thinking and the code of conduct it has learned from its own race is different from that of human beings.

Boyce sat down on the elevator platform, lowered his head and looked at the mermaid who was approaching him again.

“Do you want to know why?”

The mermaid nodded.

“From the day I was here, you’ve tried to get close to me.”

“So you induced my emotions, let me come to the breeding room at night, and have more interaction with you than the breeder and the experiment.”

What Boyce really resists is: “The feelings that are deliberately induced are real, but not necessarily my original intentions.”

“If you’re a human, and you want an affection from a person, you should first exchange it with the same genuine affection.”

Mermaids have a natural advantage in this regard, and their ability to manipulate the emotions of others makes it easy for them to achieve this goal.

But the feelings that arise in this way are false at the source.

The mermaid looked at Boyce, and there was a flash of enlightenment in his eyes.

Boyce suddenly had a cold paw on his wrist. He turned his head and looked at the mermaid beside him.

The mermaid who was in the pool lightly jumped onto the lift platform and sat down beside Boyce. It said, “The mermaid never breaks its promise.”

“Huh?” Boyce looked at it suspiciously.

“I promise not to deceive you again.”

“So, is there anything you want to ask me?”

The mermaid looked at Boyce, a little nervous.

What will he ask?

The mermaid thought, why did I appear? How to induce human emotions? still…

A human voice interrupted its thoughts: “I want to know your name.”

It’s not the cold number that the institute named it, but the name that really belongs to this mermaid…

“Can I know your name?” he asked again.