Huo Ting stared at the glass of juice in his hand, silently recalling what exactly had happened the last time he drank beer that made Yu Mian look like he was facing a formidable enemy.
“Oh, oh, okay.”
Lina glanced at the two of them curiously, stifled a laugh, and then left.
The atmosphere seemed a little different from when they last met at the Food Research Institute.
But regardless, to an elf, just seeing these two sitting together was an absolute feast for the eyes.
Come to think of it, hadn’t Yin always wanted to meet Teacher Fish Soup Noodles? Why hadn’t he shown up much this time?
Lina scanned the room and finally spotted Yin in the corner, staring in this direction with a slightly resentful look.
Yin still vividly remembered that night when he had been sleeping in the lake, only to be startled awake by the sound of water. The sight that greeted him had been like something out of a dream.
A golden mermaid tail shimmered in the water, like moonlight itself.
But that scary guy was there again!
Just recalling how he had barely poked his head out that night and was immediately discovered made Yin want to shake his head in frustration.
Yin’s gaze remained fixed on the string of blue stones on Yu Mian’s wrist. If he wasn’t mistaken, that looked like the legendary deep-sea marrow crystal, something that could only be found in the depths of the deep sea.
It looked so beautiful on the wrist, much prettier than the shells in his own collection.
Recently, as Yin gradually developed a sense of land-based prices, he suddenly realized that he, a member of the Moonlight Clan, was actually kind of poor.
“What are you hesitating for? Teacher Fish Soup Noodles even said he wanted to see you.”
Yin never expected that in the next second, he would be caught on the spot by Supervisor Lina.
After all, “I Picked Up a Traveling Light Brain” had been surging in popularity.
The book’s unique and emotionally striking black-and-white illustrations had sparked widespread discussion, to the point that some companies were even offering high salaries to recruit the illustrator.
But this mysterious artist had never shown himself, as if completely indifferent to the outside world’s attention.
At first, Lina had worried that Yin might be poached by another company, but she soon realized this silly kid had almost no material desires. Apart from buying blind box cards, his only wish was to meet Fish Soup Noodles.
So why was he acting all nervous now?
“Teacher Fish Soup Noodles, this is Yin! He’s wanted to meet you for so long. I remember he even prepared a huge box of gifts for you.”
Feeling especially charitable, Lina dragged Yin over and enthusiastically waved her arms.
Yin: !?
“Huh… it’s you?”
Yu Mian recognized him at first glance.
This was clearly the mysterious young man who had helped rescue people when the boat sank last time.
Later, Principal Charles had felt very conflicted about the whole incident, saying that the school’s water security measures probably needed an upgrade.
After all, it was lucky that this person had no ill intentions. But what if someone deliberately lurked in the water in the future to cause a serious incident? Then what?
“Oh? So you two already knew each other?”
Lina’s curiosity only grew.
And Yin had even specially applied for this job, couldn’t he have just gotten an internal referral?
“I guess you could say that. So it was you who did those illustrations? Why didn’t you ever tell me when we were communicating online?”
Yu Mian looked at Yin in surprise. He hadn’t expected this great illustrator to be so young. His long silver-gray hair was casually tied back, giving him an even stronger artistic vibe.
“And Yin, you should hand over that big gift box yourself.”
The ever helpful Lina even brought over the large box.
This poor kid was just too shy. The entire office knew he had been preparing a gift box for Teacher Fish Soup Noodles for ages.
“No! I’m not done preparing it yet!”
Now that he was actually face-to-face with Yu Mian, Yin became uncharacteristically flustered, his face instantly flushing as he tried to stop her, only to nearly drop the box.
Just as Yu Mian was about to reach out to steady it, Huo Ting had already stood up and grabbed the box. In the end, all Yin managed to clutch onto was the lid.
And so, a box full of colorful shells, beautifully shaped conches, and even dried five-pointed starfish, all sorts of little trinkets spilled out for everyone to see.
“Wow, Yin, what exactly is all this?”
Everyone gathered around in amazement, staring at the dazzling assortment of items. They were surprised yet felt it was completely in line with Yin’s personality.
After all, the whole person was out of sync with everyone else and often seemed to lack basic common sense.
Yin felt the despair of being publicly executed.
For some reason, when Yu Mian looked at these strangely familiar shells, he suddenly had a realization about who had been stuffing things at his door all this time.
[This guy is an aquatic race… did his favorability get boosted? But this seems a bit excessive, it shouldn’t be this high theoretically.]
The little system quietly reminded him.
[And he even knows you live by Starry Sky Lake.]
To be honest, this behavior was a bit eerie. If Yin’s appearance weren’t so non-threatening…
“I-I’m not trying to court you!”
But the next second, Yin clutched the lid tightly over the box and blurted out a hasty denial, causing the entire room to fall into stunned silence.
C-Courtship?
No matter how you looked at it, that word choice was just too strange. [Scratching head.jpg]
Would a normal human even use a word like “courtship”?
And wasn’t this essentially a public confession to Teacher Fish Soup Noodles? What kind of true warrior was this?!
Although everyone had secretly considered doing something like this, no one had expected the one to actually go through with it would be the most timid-looking Yin.
And so, what was supposed to be a casual tea break turned into an impromptu interrogation in the conference room. Lina and the others surrounded Yin. No matter how you look at it, this kid’s behavior was just too bizarre.
As the one responsible for recruiting him, Lina was particularly anxious.
Realizing he had once again said something completely out of place, Yin fell silent for a moment. Then, as if offering an explanation, he slowly extended his hand.
Sure enough, under his control, soft silver-gray fur appeared on the back of his hand.
“Um… I’m actually a descendant of the sea otters.”
A rare special race!
Everyone thought that only Lina and her kind were elves, who would have guessed there was an otter hidden in the company?
Revealing his true form made Yin a little uneasy, but seeing Yu Mian, he still explained in a small voice.
“Actually, we met once before at Starry Sky Lake. Do you remember?”
In fact, Yu Mian did recall a lot of things.
So that shadow that suddenly disappeared in the water that day, the shells that appeared at the door the next morning, the strange young man who helped with the rescue…they were all Yin, who had been looking for him all along?
Yu Mian didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
“So you’re a sea otter. Do you usually live at Starry Sky Lake?”
To Yin’s surprise, Yu Mian didn’t immediately ask Supervisor Lina to fire him. Yin had already been a little regretful, thinking he might never have money to buy blind boxes again.
After all, scraping by at the aquarium barely covered living expenses.
“I used to, but recently, I came ashore and found that life on land is quite interesting too.”
Now that his biggest secret had been discovered, Yin simply answered every question earnestly and openly.
Lina, who had been listening for a while, couldn’t help but feel like this was a huge misunderstanding.
“There’s really nothing to worry about when it comes to special races. I’m an elf too.”
Taoyuan Studios never cared about things like this, okay? This kid Yin was really something.
But in a way, he was kind of a warrior, right?
So even aquatic races read Teacher Fish Soup Noodles’ novels and became fans?
Yin’s dramatic move had already caused an uproar throughout Taoyuan Studios.
Even the cleaning lady had heard that the silver-haired, cute clueless young man had rushed in with a whole box of shells to confess to Teacher Fish Soup Noodles.
“Wow, who would’ve thought Yin was so bold? I like Teacher Fish Soup Noodles too, but I could never say it out loud. Damn, someone beat me to it?”
“But why did Yin bring a whole box of shells? It’s cute but also kinda weird, hahaha.”
“You guys just don’t get it. We aquatic races have always done this!”
Just as Yin stepped out of the conference room, he overheard the discussion. He blushed and emphasized seriously, “It’s a proper shell-giving tradition, okay?”
These were the beautiful shells he had carefully collected and treasured. Aquatic races collect them from childhood.
[Wait a minute, I suspect this guy knows you’re a mermaid.]
The little system was sensitive to anything related to Yu Mian’s mermaid identity, and it immediately realized something was wrong from Yin’s words.
The others definitely wouldn’t understand what he meant by “we”, they probably thought Yin was saying that this was the custom of aquatic races.
But Yin had actually meant that he and Yu Mian were both aquatic races, so giving shells was only natural.
“I see. So that day when I was playing in the water, I probably woke Yin up, and he saw me?”
“After all, Ernis did mention that Starry Sky Lake is full of aquatic races.”
Yu Mian understood completely now.
“So, you saw my fish tail?”
Before leaving, Yu Mian noticed that Lina and the others weren’t around and decided to confirm it quietly.
“…I’m sorry.”
Yin subconsciously apologized again.
“Alright, don’t be so nervous. You told me your secret too, right? But I really can’t accept the shells, even though they’re beautiful.”
Yu Mian looked at the silver-haired young man before him and finally smiled as he turned him down.
Yin’s expression immediately fell. It was indeed heartbreaking to be rejected so clearly.
“But he doesn’t even have a fish tail, how can he respond to a courtship?”
Just as Yu Mian was about to leave with Huo Ting, who had been silent for a long time, Yin suddenly gathered his courage and pointed out this issue seriously.
“…Uh, when did I start courting?”
Yu Mian never expected the conversation to circle back to this.
“Flicking your tail to show it off…isn’t that a sign of being in the courtship phase?”
Yin was rather insistent on this.
“?”
Yu Mian, who had been pulling at Huo Ting behind him, was momentarily frozen on the spot.
That “Mermaid Encyclopedia (Incomplete Version)” that the system had sent him back then and was missing the second half…it hadn’t mentioned anything about this being a courtship behavior!
