Chapter Summaries

Si Jinyan showed Chi Li his fish tail after Chi Li praised it, and they revisited their shared past and the Scale that had connected them. Chi Li asked Si Jinyan to approve a mission plan, and Si Jinyan agreed to review it and make sure it was safe.

• Si Jinyan transformed his legs into a fish tail and asked Chi Li to praise it, then kissed and held him.
• Chi Li told Si Jinyan about the Scale and how it had been with him since they were separated, and Si Jinyan said they had never truly been apart.
• Si Jinyan told Chi Li that he believed they had fallen in love and asked him to admit that he liked him, but Chi Li did not answer.
• Chi Li explained that the Scale had improved his recovery and could let Si Jinyan sense when he was in danger.
• Chi Li asked whether Si Jinyan agreed to the plan, and Si Jinyan said he would review it and make sure it was foolproof.

Si Jinyan sent Chi Li to negotiate with Yao Di’s forces while secretly arranging reinforcements and planning a rescue. Chi Li was captured at the underground base, where he provoked Liasuo into revealing that he was an Aberrant Form, leaving Liasuo aware that Chi Li had been fishing for information.

• Si Jinyan identified the ruined building as the likely base, warned that the negotiation would be an ambush, and explained that reinforcements would arrive the next morning.
• Si Jinyan kissed Chi Li goodbye, and Chi Li departed with Geng Ji while Si Jinyan took a covert route with soldiers.
• Liasuo’s team blindfolded Chi Li and brought him underground, where they locked him in a metal cell.
• Liasuo threatened to use Chi Li to draw Si Jinyan out, and Chi Li offered to help make Si Jinyan serve Yao Di again.
• Liasuo insulted Chi Li by referring to himself as a beast, inadvertently confirming that he had been turned into an Aberrant Form, then realized Chi Li had been probing him for information.

Chi Li was taken to a laboratory and injected with an unknown substance, then dreamed of Si Jinyan and their child being chained and hurt. Si Jinyan rescued him, and Chi Li rejoined the evacuation effort while Si Jinyan went after Yao Di.

• Bai Qi visited Chi Li, warned that Yao Di wanted to experiment on him, and secretly told him in Mermaid Language how to summon an ancient Mermaid in an emergency.
• Chi Li was injected with a tracker, then taken to a laboratory and given another substance that made him lose consciousness.
• Chi Li dreamed of a silver-black-tailed Mermaid and an Eggy being pierced by chains, then woke to find Si Jinyan had rescued him.
• Si Jinyan told Chi Li there had been no rejection response to the injection and sent him to help Geng Ji evacuate people while he went to find Yao Di.
• Chi Li dropped Si Jinyan's tear, and Si Jinyan returned the pearl to him after teasing him for secretly keeping it.

Si Jinyan rescued Bai Qi from Yao Di’s underground base, but Yao Di triggered its self-destruct system and escaped toward the mountain. Si Jinyan stopped Yao Di from injecting himself with purified medicine, left him with Bai Qi, and went to find Chi Li as Aberrant Forms swarmed the mountain.

• Si Jinyan broke into Yao Di’s office and rescued Bai Qi, while Yao Di released the Aberrant Forms from the hidden chamber.
• Bai Qi led Si Jinyan through a hidden passage and warned him that Yao Di could discover Chi Li’s secret and put him in danger.
• Yao Di triggered the base’s self-destruct system, and Si Jinyan and Bai Qi escaped before contacting Chi Li.
• Si Jinyan found Yao Di on the hillside and kicked away the syringe containing ninety-percent purified medicine before Yao Di could inject it.
• As Aberrant Forms crawled up the mountain, Si Jinyan tied up Yao Di, handed him to Bai Qi, and went to find Chi Li.

Si Jinyan left the spaceship to find Chi Li while Chi Li escaped the self-destructing base with the surviving mercenaries. As Yao Di’s body rejected the black liquid, he taunted Bai Qi and threatened the people Si Jinyan cared about.

• Bai Qi warned Si Jinyan that Aberrant Forms were closing in, but Si Jinyan left to search for Chi Li after telling Bai Qi he had not stayed for his sake.
• Chi Li kept Si Jinyan updated as he led the survivors toward safety, and Bo Lang shot the imprisoned, mutated companions at their request.
• Only seven of the eighteen mercenaries who had joined the mission returned, leaving Bo Lang and Chi Li grieving their losses.
• Yao Di woke aboard the spaceship and accused Bai Qi of using Si Jinyan to get revenge for Yao He’s death.
• As dark patterns and tumor-like scales spread across Yao Di’s body, he warned Bai Qi that Si Jinyan would hate him and threatened Chi Li.

Si Jinyan fought an overwhelming swarm of Aberrant Forms while speaking with Chi Li, who was helping evacuate the injured. Worried by Si Jinyan’s condition, Chi Li ran toward the mountain to find him.

• Si Jinyan asked Chi Li where he was and whether he was tired or hurt as he fought the Aberrant Forms.
• Si Jinyan told Chi Li to return to the base and find Lu Jiu, but Chi Li offered to contact Lu Jiu and send supplies instead.
• Chi Li asked Si Jinyan for his location, but Si Jinyan went silent before answering that he was there.
• Chi Li heard Si Jinyan’s strained laugh and decided something was wrong, so he ran toward the nearest mountain.

Chi Li fought his way toward Si Jinyan but was trapped by Liasuo and a swarm of Aberrant Forms, leaving him gravely wounded. Si Jinyan reached him in his transformed state, and Chi Li used the ancient Mermaid Language as his consciousness faded into a familiar vision.

• Si Jinyan told Chi Li that over a hundred Aberrant Forms surrounded him and warned Chi Li not to approach, while Chi Li waited at the mountain's foot and helped the rescue team.
• Chi Li headed up the mountain with new equipment, where Liasuo ambushed him and repeatedly cut open his wounds before Chi Li shot him.
• More than a dozen Aberrant Forms surrounded Chi Li, and Si Jinyan sensed his danger and transformed to reach him.
• Si Jinyan shielded Chi Li with his fin-wings and fought off the Aberrant Forms while promising to take him away.
• Chi Li remembered the ancient Mermaid Language, touched the scale near his heart, and recited the words as his consciousness sank into a familiar, watery haze.

Chi Li traded away his remaining life to save the owner of Si Jinyan’s scale, then awoke a month later on the island. Si Jinyan confirmed they were both safe and stayed by Chi Li as he recovered, leaving Chi Li about to take a bath.

• Chi Li asked a mysterious figure to save the owner of a scale and agreed to pay the price, then heard Si Jinyan calling his name as warmth returned to his chest.
• One month later, Chi Li awoke in Si Jinyan’s island home, where Si Jinyan embraced him and assured him that they were both safe.
• Si Jinyan told Chi Li to rest before hearing what had happened and checked whether he felt unwell.
• Butler Yuan Ru brought food, and Si Jinyan explained that he had transferred him to the Empire to work with Qiu Rui.
• Si Jinyan fed Chi Li and stayed beside him until Chi Li said he wanted to take a bath.

After waking from a month-long coma, Chi Li reunited with Si Jinyan and learned that the Empire was being governed by Bai Qi. When Chi Li asked about Eggy, Si Jinyan fell silent, leaving Chi Li afraid that something had happened.

• Chi Li got out of bed and washed himself while Si Jinyan stayed close by.
• Si Jinyan blamed himself for failing to protect Chi Li, and Chi Li comforted him as they reconciled.
• A few days later, Chi Li learned that the Aberrant Forms around them had turned to ash and that Geng Ji and the others had survived.
• Chi Li learned that Bai Qi was temporarily governing the Empire and went with Si Jinyan to the base for an examination.
• Chi Li asked Si Jinyan where Eggy was, and Si Jinyan stiffened and remained silent.

Chi Li learned that Eggy had given up its scale to save him and had foreseen that choice long before. Si Jinyan revealed that young Merfolk could glimpse the future and that he, too, had once foreseen a future in which he and Chi Li parted.

• Chi Li sensed Si Jinyan’s sorrow and asked what had happened, then followed him to a laboratory.
• Chi Li found Eggy’s cracked, motionless egg floating in nutrient solution, and Si Jinyan said Chi Li had stopped breathing when he brought him back.
• Si Jinyan recounted how Eggy had followed them to the base, begun hatching, and given Chi Li a scale before it died.
• Si Jinyan explained that Eggy had foreseen the moment and chosen to give Chi Li its scale.
• Si Jinyan revealed that young Merfolk could foresee brief fragments of the future and that he had once planned to give Chi Li his own scale so they might meet again.

Three months after Eggy was placed in an incubator, Chi Li rushed home to help Si Jinyan through a ten-day susceptible period. When it ended, Lu Jiu called with news that Eggy seemed to have moved.

• Chi Li visited Eggy daily as its heartbeat returned and it slowly appeared to recover.
• Chi Li hurried from the base to the villa after Butler Yuan reported that Si Jinyan had been in his susceptible period for about two days.
• Si Jinyan pulled Chi Li into a nest made from his clothes, complained that Chi Li did not want him, and claimed Chi Li and the pearl necklace were his.
• Chi Li and Si Jinyan spent ten days together while Si Jinyan's susceptible period ran its course.
• After Si Jinyan woke, Lu Jiu called to say Eggy seemed to have moved and sent them a live video.

Chi Li and Si Jinyan watched Eggy stir in the culture fluid, then witnessed him hatch as a tiny mermaid. Eggy leaped from the incubator into the nursery nest Chi Li had prepared, beginning his new life with his fathers.

• Chi Li and Si Jinyan visited Eggy after noticing his increased movement and heartbeat activity.
• Si Jinyan told Chi Li that accepting their new life together was something he had hoped for a long time, and Chi Li agreed that he accepted everything about Si Jinyan and their child.
• Eggy woke from a long dream, recognized Chi Li and Si Jinyan by their voices and scents, and began breaking through his eggshell.
• Eggy emerged as a tiny mermaid and called out to Chi Li and Si Jinyan in Mermaid Language.
• As Si Jinyan prepared to scoop him from the culture fluid, Eggy leaped over the glass and landed in the nursery nest Chi Li had prepared.

The newly hatched mermaid met Chi Li and Si Jinyan in his nursery and quickly grew comfortable with both of them. Chi Li and Si Jinyan named him Si Chi, while Eggy remained his nickname.

• The silver-white hatchling swam to Chi Li and nervously checked that he was healthy before calling him father.
• Si Jinyan told the hatchling that he had another dad, and the hatchling happily called him Dad.
• Lu Jiu confirmed the lively hatchling could come out and said he would document his growth.
• The hatchling hugged Si Jinyan’s finger, and Si Jinyan lifted him from the water.
• Chi Li held the hatchling, and he said he wanted Eggy to remain his name.
• Chi Li, Si Jinyan, and Lu Jiu settled on Si Chi as the hatchling’s other name, and he said he liked it.

After Si Chi offered Chi Li his nutritious eggshell, Si Jinyan and Chi Li took the newborn Fishy home and watched a movie with him. Si Jinyan revealed that he had regained memories reaching back to before Fishy was born, including the bond he had felt with Chi Li as an unborn child.

• Si Chi offered Chi Li eggshell to help nourish him, and Chi Li accepted the gift.
• Lu Jiu questioned whether losing a scale would harm Fishy, while Si Jinyan insisted Fishy would not suffer the same loss-of-control disorder he had.
• Chi Li and Si Jinyan took Fishy home, where Fishy watched a spy movie and practiced its movements as he learned.
• Chi Li noticed how well Si Jinyan understood Fishy, and Si Jinyan said he had remembered many things from before.
• Si Jinyan recalled Jin sensing the unborn Chi Li inside the Omega director and feeling an extraordinary bond with him.

Si Jinyan awakened the mermaids’ inherited knowledge and met the powerful being who wanted him to become its successor. He refused the offer and returned to the base, where he silently watched Eggy through the night.

• Si Jinyan’s wounds healed as his inherited genes awakened, revealing the mermaid civilization’s knowledge and his strange bond with the man who had once made a deal with Chi Li.
• The man urged Si Jinyan to become stronger and offered him power over civilizations and fate, but Si Jinyan refused because he already had what he wanted with Chi Li.
• The man showed Si Jinyan that Eggy would remain asleep unless someone inherited his power, and Si Jinyan said Eggy could choose an inheritor if he wished to die.
• A week later, Si Jinyan returned to the base and spent the night watching Eggy in the incubation room.

Si Jinyan confronted Bai Qi at a mountain estate and learned how Bai Qi had manipulated his memories to preserve Yao He's influence over him. Si Jinyan revealed his royal bloodline and left Bai Qi to protect the Empire, while Bai Qi remained alone with the voice of the dead Yao He.

• Si Jinyan found Bai Qi playing chess beside a mechanical voice modeled on Yao He and challenged him over his sacrifices and pursuit of revenge.
• Bai Qi explained that Yao He had rescued Si Jinyan from Yao Di and cared for him, while Si Jinyan said Bai Qi had deliberately kept his memories confused.
• Si Jinyan used the pressure of his royal bloodline to force Bai Qi to the ground and damage the chessboard.
• Si Jinyan told Bai Qi to protect the Empire Yao He had defended and walked away.
• Bai Qi gathered the scattered chess pieces, clutched the damaged board, and wept.

Chi Li and Si Jinyan read the observation records Chi Li’s father left behind, learning more about Si Jinyan’s early life and their fathers’ hopes for the two of them. The chapter ended with Si Jinyan apologizing for the tragedy that had affected Chi Li’s fathers, while Chi Li reassured him that he had never blamed him.

• Si Jinyan tried to persuade Chi Li to be intimate, and Chi Li realized Si Jinyan’s heat had begun.
• Bo Lang’s package arrived, and Chi Li and Si Jinyan found his father’s notebooks, Jin's Observation Records.
• They read the records about Si Jinyan’s hatching and childhood, including a note that he already liked Luo Chi before Chi Li was born.
• Bo Lang explained that Chi Li’s uncle had left a message asking for the notebooks to be delivered once things had settled down.
• Si Jinyan apologized for Chi Li’s fathers being implicated in the scandal surrounding his abduction, and Chi Li told him he had never blamed him.

Si Jinyan grew jealous of Si Chi’s closeness to Chi Li, and the family decided to send Si Chi to school while making an effort to visit Luo Yu more often. Years later, Si Chi attended a military academy and grew close to Geng Xing, while Si Jinyan and Chi Li enjoyed their honeymoon at sea.

• Si Jinyan pulled the sleeping Si Chi away from Chi Li and dropped him into his own pool, prompting Si Chi to accuse his father of being just as clingy.
• Chi Li agreed that Si Chi should attend school, and Luo Yu sent him a selection of prestigious academies and institutions.
• Si Chi told Chi Li that Luo Yu seemed lonely and wanted to make amends, so Chi Li promised they would visit him more often.
• Si Chi enrolled in a top military academy, where he encountered Geng Xing and later learned about Geng Xing’s deliberately arranged kidnapping and hidden motives.
• Si Jinyan and Chi Li swam together on their honeymoon, exchanged affection, and wondered whether Si Chi missed them.