Chapter 50: Friend

Chapter 50: Friends

Wang Yiliu sighed. "Don't bother, Doctor. I certainly won't let them go like this."

"Don't worry!" Liu Hai thumped his chest. "We'll save you! I even learned special persuasive techniques!"

He cleared his throat and said earnestly, "Surrender now! If you end up in prison, your mother will cry!"

Wang Yiliu: "I'm an orphan."

Liu Hai awkwardly deflated. "Oh, my bad."

Kong Tela closed his eyes. "This is too much."

"Quite the lively scene, isn't it?" Wang Yiliu actually managed a smile. "Honestly, I don't really dislike you, Liu Hai."

"Huh? Really?" Liu Hai brightened, then suggested, "So you like me? Can you let Kong Tela go then? I'll let you touch my tail!"

"Ah, not *that* much," Wang Yiliu said calmly. "I won't let him go until I achieve my goal."

Jiang Xun heard Jian Yu's voice through his earpiece: "The key should be under that black cloth. Try to get him to reveal it, Jiang Xun."

Jiang Xun glanced sideways. "Then tell us your goal. Otherwise, Kong Tela and Liu Hai might keep this up for a long time."

Kong Tela protested, "Don't put me on the same level as Liu Hai!"

"What's wrong with that?!" Liu Hai joined the protest. "What's so bad about being with me?"

"I can see it," Wang Yiliu said, closing his eyes briefly. "They certainly have a lot to say to each other."

"Alright, let's get down to business."

Wang Yiliu finally walked up to the black cloth. "Jiang Xun, I'm giving you a chance to correct your mistake."

"Tell everyone: you never discovered a mermaid. *I* am... I am the true discoverer of mermaids!"

With fervent excitement, he yanked off the black cloth, revealing a girl with a human torso and a fish tail.

"See?!" He spread his arms ecstatically, as if standing on a grand awards stage. "This is my world-changing discovery!"

"Ah!" Only Liu Hai let out a gasp.

After his exclamation, he looked around in confusion, then couldn't help but ask, "Why isn't anyone else making a sound?"

Wasn't it a real mermaid?

Jiang Xun was silent for a moment, then suddenly brought up something else: "That previous incident, when you claimed to have found mermaid remains—was that your doing too?"

"Did you prepare a fake?"

"Ah, that." Wang Yiliu admitted frankly. "Yes."

"That was just a model I made to get you all out of the lab temporarily."

"Originally, I wanted that counterfeit mermaid to disappear from the world, but then I had a change of heart."

"The problem wasn't with it."

He looked directly at Jiang Xun, his malice unconcealed. "It was with *you*, Dr. Jiang Xun."

"Even without it, as long as you had the intention, you could still call a deer a horse."

"You—you were the one who first demonstrated how to betray the truth, how to pander for attention."

Jiang Xun's expression remained unchanged: "I don't care how you judge me..."

Kong Tela interrupted him, turning back in disbelief. "What kind of nonsense are you spouting?! That fake mermaid model involved real human bones! That's a homicide! Did you kill someone, Wang Yiliu?"

Wang Yiliu sounded a little helpless: "Am I not currently committing a kidnapping, Doctor?"

"Clearly, I'm a ruthless desperado."

Jiang Xun rubbed his temples wearily: "No wonder you're still talking nonsense, Kong Tela. You didn't really think he wouldn't kill, did you?"

Kong Tela spun around, shocked.

"Actually, you can't really call it homicide," Wang Yiliu said, not intending to hide anything. "More like... an accident."

"Doctors have many deaths on their operating tables. You can't call them all executioners, can you?"

He gazed admiringly at the mermaid in the tank. "That was a failed experiment."

"You know? There are many madmen in the world who are willing to take extreme risks, to do things many consider insane."

"That person voluntarily allowed us to transform him into a mermaid, but unfortunately, current gene-editing surgery still has its limits. At most, we can only give people minor animalistic features; anything more becomes uncontrollable."

"So the surgery failed. He didn't become what he imagined, but at least that wish was fulfilled after his death."

Kong Tela's mouth opened slightly. "You created that stitched-together skeleton..."

"Exactly." Wang Yiliu smiled. "So you can't call it a fake. It was simply to fulfill his wish."

Jiang Xun gazed at the girl in the tank. "And her?"

Her appearance clearly exceeded what normal gene-editing surgery could achieve. Wang Yiliu must have done something.

Jian Yu's voice came through the earpiece: "Stall him a bit longer. We're cross-referencing facial features in the database. Results will be ready soon."

"She's different." Wang Yiliu smiled. "She's the real deal."

"Dr. Jiang Xun, you know this too, don't you? Current gene editing simply cannot transform a person like this. Otherwise, given human foolishness and the mermaid craze, there would be many fools in this world willing to sacrifice their legs."

"I'm giving you this opportunity, Dr. Jiang Xun. Authenticate her for me."

"You can come closer and examine her freely. No stitches, no trickery. She is a true mermaid!"

Liu Hai looked a little worried. "Why... isn't she speaking?"

"Isn't that just like the legend?" Wang Yiliu's smile deepened. "The voiceless little mermaid."

"She exchanged her voice for something far more precious."

Jiang Xun walked step by step to the tank, gazing at the mermaid within.

Wang Yiliu was telling the truth; there were no signs of stitching on her. This at least proved that the fish tail wasn't fake.

But that didn't necessarily mean it was real.

Jiang Xun seemed to sense something, but Wang Yiliu was still urging him.

"Speak," Wang Yiliu gestured for him to look at the camera. "Prove it for me in front of the world."

"Even if I say it now," Jiang Xun said calmly, "later..."

"I know," Wang Yiliu chuckled. "The company has the power to alter everything."

"After my death, they can once again twist black into white, but this time I've prepared. I won't let them succeed."

"So now, all you have to do is tell the truth."

Jiang Xun confirmed, "The truth?"

"Yes, the truth." Wang Yiliu smiled. "Because there's no evidence to prove mermaids truly exist, you've always maintained that mermaids are fictional creatures."

"But now, there's no evidence to prove she's a fake mermaid. So, you should also prove for me, and assert that she is a true mermaid."

Jiang Xun looked into his eyes.

He seemed coherent, but he appeared to have lost his grip on reality.

He glanced at Kong Tela, who was held at gunpoint, sighed, and began, "I testify..."

"Enough!" Kong Tela cut him off. "I won't accept this!"

"Please be quiet, Dr. Kong Tela," Wang Yiliu said, sounding somewhat exasperated. "Finding a true mermaid—that was your wish too, wasn't it?"

"We've come so far..."

"Don't joke around!" Kong Tela gritted his teeth. "Who do you take me for?"

"You want him to acknowledge your mermaid, but why are you rushing him to a conclusion based only on visual judgment? What's the difference between getting such a self-deceiving answer and what you did before—stitching a fish tail onto a corpse?"

Wang Yiliu's emotions also flared. "But not even he can tell the difference! Doesn't that prove I've succeeded? I found a mermaid! I heard the voice I've longed for!"

"Voice?" Kong Tela angrily raised his head. "Then I have to ask you, why can't she make a sound?"

"Is it because if she spoke, her voice would be completely different from the mermaid's song you imagined you once heard?"

"Is it because if she spoke, she would beg you to let her go, to stop doing such insane things?"

Kong Tela seemed about to stand from his chair. Jiang Xun frowned, watching the agitated Wang Yiliu warily: "Kong Tela, don't provoke him!"

"I can't hold back now!" Kong Tela glared at Wang Yiliu. "Listen, finding a mermaid was my lifelong dream. I never cared if others called it a fool's errand, and I was prepared to spend my entire life without achieving it!"

"I trusted you deeply because I believed we were kindred spirits! That's why I was angry when I thought Jiang Xun was going to use a mermaid to deceive the public, and why I forgave him after understanding his true intentions."

"So, you should also understand that even if Jiang Xun can't spot the flaws at first glance, she is not a true mermaid!"

"Such a fake is meaningless to us!"

"And you should know that even if you can fool the whole world, you can't fool yourself!"

He faced Wang Yiliu's gun. "Wake up. Look at her—really look! She's just a patient!"

"What you should be doing isn't giving her false fame, but finding her a doctor!"

"Turn back now..."

"No." Wang Yiliu slowly tightened his finger on the trigger. "It's too late now."

"So you don't understand me either, Doctor. I thought at least you would..."

Jiang Xun was about to lunge, but Liu Hai was faster.

With a *thud*, he was knocked aside, but the trigger was still pulled. The wild shot shattered the glass tank, startling the sleeping "mermaid" inside.

"Cough, cough, cough!" The mermaid coughed violently, struggling desperately like a fish on a chopping block.

"Hey! Hold on!" Kong Tela shouted anxiously. "Liu Hai! Are you okay? Jiang Xun! Call a doctor!"

"I'm fine!" Liu Hai pinned down the struggling Wang Yiliu, wresting the gun from his grip and tossing it far away. "I've got him under control!"

With a righteous expression, he declared, "I don't know what bad things you've done, but confess! There's no saving you now!"

His fluffy tail thumped the floor demonstratively. Seeing Wang Yiliu completely immobilized, Jiang Xun finally let out a sigh of relief.

"This is ridiculous..." Jiang Xun irritably tugged at his tie, then crouched down to free Kong Tela first.

Kong Tela sighed. "I can't believe... I was actually saved by you two lunatics."

"Don't lose consciousness yet. Wait for the rescue team." Jiang Xun glanced at him. "Stay awake. Say something cutting, like you usually do."

"Hah?" Kong Tela scoffed. "I'm no match for your sharp tongue. Who was it that could still say such things while their friend was at gunpoint? Were you trying to speed up my death?"

"Friend?" Jiang Xun raised an eyebrow.

Liu Hai perked up, turning back to gesture at Jiang Xun with exaggerated winks and a pat on his chest—"I meant it."

Jiang Xun: "..."

He sighed, coughing lightly. "Alright, fine. Friends."

For once, he offered a genuine smile. "I'm very glad you're safe, friend."

Author's Note:

Kong Tela: Did Jiang Xun get possessed?

Oops, two minutes late, just pretend I made it [tosses confetti].