He stood at the edge of the deck, looking down at the deep blue sea, excited to the point of dizziness.
Before him stretched an endless sea of fog, milky white, like clouds falling from the sky.
In the sea fog, faint laughter could be heard, as if mermaids were singing.
Originally, two A-level Awakeners self-destructed, releasing the pollution sources within them, forming this fog that sealed Changjia.
Decades passed, and the sea fog became denser, isolating the sun.
Xie Haiqing stood behind Ye Liangshan, somewhat worried. "Xiao Ye, are you sure you can do this? Won't it be too much of a strain..."
Ye Liangshan turned his head slightly and suddenly smiled.
For the first time, there was a hint of his former vigor on his face.
"The ocean is my domain," Ye Liangshan's hand rested on the railing's edge. "And besides, I'm eighty-seven years older than you." With that, he turned around and jumped off the ship.
Xie Haiqing reached out instinctively, trying to grab him, but only touched a piece of his clothing.
The deck was about thirty meters above sea level, but when Ye Liangshan jumped into the sea, there was only a low splash.
In the next moment, a long whale song echoed by Xie Haiqing's ear.
Lu Yan naturally heard the sound too. Sensing something, he turned to look at the sea.
The sea fog remained dense, but at the edge, the mist condensed into a line, disappearing into the seabed as if someone had sucked it up with a straw.
The system's tone was unusually serious: "The long whale sucking the river, how romantic."
The storm on the sea had ceased, and at dusk, the sunlight pierced through the clouds, casting a shimmering golden hue over the sea.
The patrol ship followed behind Ye Liangshan, heading towards Changjia.
Lu Yan asked, "Can he finish eating all that?"
After a moment's thought, the system replied, "He may not be able to eat your cooking in the short term. Eating it all would make him very full and sleepy. Luckily, the sea fog does taste like vanilla ice cream."
Several aerial drones flew overhead. Recently, the headquarters had been producing a documentary for the general public to better understand the Awakeners and their contributions. This would likely become an important segment in it.
Most of the time, it was difficult to capture footage of Awakeners on missions.
Without Zhou Qiming's game, many people probably wouldn't even realize how close they had come to danger several times.
Generation after generation of Awakeners maintained the fragile balance between the two factions, allowing everyone to live their mundane but peaceful lives as before.
Lu Yan and Tang Xunan's room was arranged in the same dormitory.
The captain spent most of his time at sea, with poor signal reception, and was unaware of Lu Yan and Tang Xunan's relationship. He expressed regret, "Sorry. There are fewer empty rooms on the ship, so we can only arrange for two people to share a bunk bed."
The dormitory was clean and tidy, with soft bedding carrying a hint of fragrance. Pulling back the curtains revealed a view of the sea, which was not bad at all.
Tang Xunan tested the weight capacity of the bed and chose to sleep on the floor.
Lu Yan leaned against the bed, reading a book while writing a paper on the desk.
Although the system said that summarizing the removal plan for pollutants was difficult, Lu Yan still planned to record the process of several surgeries and write a paper for others to learn from. He had now reached the last case.
After all, besides him, no one else could perform these surgeries.
In this day and age, the only enjoyable aspect of writing papers was not having to translate them into Western languages.
The first district had long become the center of the world, with pollution prevention and control levels far exceeding those abroad.
He wrote the paper earnestly, while Tang Xunan refrained from disturbing him, waiting while counting Lu Yan's eyelashes.
On the thirteenth count, Lu Yan finally stopped typing on the keyboard.
Lu Yan changed into his pajamas in the bathroom, wearing fluffy slippers, preparing to go to bed, when his ankle was quietly hooked.
"Yanyan..." Tang Xunan's tail tip rubbed against him, feeling a little itchy.
Inappropriately, Lu Yan thought of a term: seeking pleasure.
Under normal circumstances, he probably wouldn't refuse. After all, Lu Yan was not incapable.
However, since he suddenly spat blood a while ago, the golden scales on his body hadn't receded.
Just like when Tang Xunan's degeneration level was too high, he couldn't control his dragonification state.
Because the degeneration level was too high, Lu Yan also couldn't control the deformities in his body. Recently, the area around his coccyx had been itching, as if something was about to grow out.
Lu Yan hadn't told anyone about his condition.
He pursed his lips and let Tang Xunan's actions go unchecked. However, when the dragon tail swept across his unusually sensitive skin, Tang Xunan's expression froze.
Suddenly standing up from the ground, Tang Xunan unbuttoned Lu Yan's shirt, clearly seeing the golden scales covering his body.
Underneath the scales, there were crescent-shaped blood marks, caused by subcutaneous bleeding.
Tang Xunan became very silent, and there was a panic in his tone that he hadn't noticed before: "Do you have medicine with you? Let's go back to the Third Research Institute."
"No need." Tang Xunan held his hand. "Don't be afraid, no one will harm you. Trust me."
Lu Yan didn't reply, just looked at him calmly. His eyes reflected a crimson moon, with a slight change in expression.
Tang Xunan couldn't pinpoint exactly what had changed, but he felt that Lu Yan's expression was somewhat unfamiliar.
It was like the first time he had seen him.
Not the first time this year, but eighty-four years ago.
With Yu Zhizhi's life pod, in a snowy field, he saw Lu Yan.
Although Lu Yan's expression was as cold as the blizzard, Tang Xunan felt a palpitation.
Lu Yan lowered his gaze and said, "No need to go to the Third Research Institute. Come home with me."
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