Mermaid (Second Update)

Si Jinyan reassuringly rubbed Chi Li's head. "It's just an ordinary dinner. Don't worry. Just stay with me when the time comes."

Friday evening, Chi Li put on the formalwear Qiu Rui had sent over. White was the main color, accented with pale gold embroidery. The fitted suit was understated yet luxurious, perfectly highlighting Chi Li's tall, slender frame.

Si Jinyan wore a black suit. With Chi Li close at his side, the two immediately drew everyone's attention the moment they appeared at the banquet.

At the banquet, every gaze was sizing Chi Li up, and Chi Li edged a little closer to Si Jinyan.

Si Jinyan took a glass of wine, while his other hand rested openly on Chi Li's shoulder, allowing him to lean closer. "Scared?"

Chi Li's eyes remained fixed on Si Jinyan. He did not say he was afraid, but his gaze revealed his dependence on Si Jinyan. Si Jinyan tightened his hand on Chi Li's shoulder and bent down to whisper something in his ear.

The nobles and influential figures secretly observing them took in this scene. This banquet had been summoned by the emperor, supposedly so Si Jinyan could select someone from a prominent family for a political marriage.

Some were there for the spectacle, some hoped to make a bid for the position, and some wanted to find out whether the rumors were true... all of them harbored their own motives.

But when they saw that Si Jinyan had truly brought that young man along and was even so intimate with him, they were all startled.

Yet Chi Li sighed inwardly. He had known before the banquet that there was no avoiding this. To him, this banquet was more like a trap.

A moment later, a waiter in a tailcoat leaned close to Si Jinyan's ear and said something. Si Jinyan nodded. "Understood."

After the man left, Si Jinyan said to Chi Li, "The emperor wants to see you."

Chi Li froze.

Si Jinyan squeezed Chi Li's hand.

Chi Li followed Si Jinyan toward a room upstairs from the banquet hall. However, he was stopped at the door.

The guard at the door said, "The emperor asks that you go in first, Marshal."

The room's decor exuded luxury and nobility from every corner. It was spacious, and farther inside stood an old European-style wooden door separating the inner and outer rooms.

Si Jinyan's expression darkened slightly as he settled Chi Li in place. "Wait here for me."

Chi Li sat in the outer room and nodded.

Only then did Si Jinyan push open the door and walk inside.

The doctor, Lu Jiu, was there as well.

Emperor Yao Di sat behind a mahogany desk, dressed in extravagant red formalwear as flamboyant as he was. "Si Jinyan, where is that little pet you keep?"

Before Si Jinyan could answer, Yao Di sneered, "Something that cannot be presented in public. You should know that not every occasion is suitable for bringing it along."

Yao Di enunciated every word clearly, and Chi Li outside the door heard every single one.

Chi Li understood now. Yao Di had specifically ordered him to attend this banquet. This little performance was not only meant for Si Jinyan to hear, but also for him, sitting outside the door.

Inside, Yao Di immediately continued his questioning. "Si Jinyan, you've made too big a fuss of this matter. Where do you expect the royal family to put its dignity?"

Si Jinyan's expression remained calm. "I failed to consider it thoroughly."

Yao Di's anger flared at once. He knew perfectly well that Si Jinyan was doing this deliberately. "Si Jinyan!"

Si Jinyan had been uncooperative before, but never had he made Yao Di lose face so completely.

Yao Di slowly let out a breath and said loudly, "Get rid of your little pet. Do not let him appear anywhere again."

Before Si Jinyan could speak, Lu Jiu, who had been standing silently to the side for a long while, spoke first. "The marshal's pheromones are unstable right now. Only that omega can help him. You know what will happen if the rampaging pheromones cannot be suppressed."

Yao Di gave a cold laugh. "Then extract all of his pheromones. Draw dozens, even hundreds of tubes. He only needs to serve as a container. Lu Jiu, you should understand this method better than I do."

Yao Di wanted to extract all of Chi Li's pheromones in one go.

Forcibly extracting pheromones from the glands would cause glandular atrophy. The method was cruel and the process agonizing, a double torment of both mind and body—no different from torture. Because it was so inhumane, it had long been eliminated from medical practice.

A troubled expression appeared on Lu Jiu's face, and he did not dare speak again.

"What do you think, Si Jinyan?"

"Better yet, squeeze him entirely into pheromones and store them. That would preserve them better. He is only a little pet... dispose of it. You have brought shame upon the entire royal family over this matter, Si Jinyan. You should pay the price for your mistake."

The calm expression on Si Jinyan's face gradually darkened.

A faint, eerie pale gold glimmer surfaced in his eyes, dark as deep pools. Looking closely, one could see that within Si Jinyan's black pupils seemed to grow a strange golden vertical slit.

When Yao Di looked at Si Jinyan again, Si Jinyan's gloomy, beastlike eyes gave him a fright.

Deep down, Yao Di was afraid of Si Jinyan. No one could fail to fear such an overwhelmingly powerful, bloodthirsty beast.

It was precisely because he feared Si Jinyan, yet greedily wanted a weapon like this to submit completely to him and serve his purposes, that Yao Di wished to use every possible means to control him. He could not bear to destroy him, yet would not allow Si Jinyan to defy any of his wishes.

Si Jinyan walked around the mahogany desk in front of Yao Di and approached him step by step. As Si Jinyan drew closer, Yao Di's body imperceptibly shrank back.

When only one step separated them, Yao Di seemed to hallucinate. He saw that scene from several years ago again.

Inside an enormous glass vessel was Si Jinyan, with the body of a man and the tail of a fish. Sharp fish fins protruded beside Si Jinyan's ears, his human pupils replaced by eerie, beastlike golden vertical slits. His altered body was far more powerful than that of any human man.

A massive silver-black fishtail several meters long lashed the glass walls with immense force. Accompanied by the deep, ancient, chaotic tones issuing from the merman's mouthparts, more and more cracks gradually spread across the specialized glass that even thermal weapons struggled to break...

"Si Jinyan..." Yao Di's voice trembled, though even he did not realize it.