Chapter 61: The Merman
The breakfast was really bland.
It seems that it was food specially prepared for people after a hangover. It was basically liquid food and vegetarian food. Ge Xiu had not much appetite in nature, so he put down his knife and fork after eating a little.
Rowett also fulfilled his promise, giving a strawberry candy as a reward after he finished his meal.
Rowett seemed to have a full schedule today, he quickly said goodbye and left after the meal.
Ge Xiu, on the other hand, was idly wandering through corridors with candy in his mouth.
He paced slowly and leisurely, observing the building that embodies the highest architectural art of the Empire.
The outside looked more like a castle, but inside was a strange mix of modern simplicity and Gothic style. The long corridors led in all directions, and the huge and luxurious stairs connected the inside of the castle layer by layer, like a labyrinth.
After an hour of touring, Ge Xiu felt exhausted.
Although his physical strength couldn’t be said to be bad this time, he was indeed not very suitable for walking on land.
After just half a day, he already started to miss the feeling of being in the water.
—and the candy was gone.
Ge Xiu smacked his lips in nostalgia, yawned lazily, and walked back along the path he had just taken.
His console and tablet should have been delivered to his room by now.
He felt that he had seen enough, and it was time to get down to business.
For example… Hack into that research room and see how far the decoding of his own gene sequence had progressed.
Ge Xiu walked towards his room according to his memory.
In fact, the room he had been assigned to was on the same floor as Rowett’s bedroom, almost as close as possible.
However, when he came to the room where he had only slept for one night, he suddenly fell into silence—the door was tightly closed, and there was a note on it with the words “Emergency Repair” written on it, which looked extremely perfunctory.
…what the hell?
Ge Xiu frowned, grabbed a passing waiter, pointed at the sign above and asked rudely, “What’s going on here?”
The waiter lowered his eyes and didn’t dare to look at Ge Xiu, but his speech was extraordinarily smooth and clear, as if it had been practising thousands of times: “Yesterday, I found that the building frame in this room was damaged, which is likely to cause a safety hazard, so it was temporarily closed for repair…”
Ge Xiu raised his brows higher: “Where do I live?”
The waiter’s forehead was sweating, he paused for a few seconds, and then stammered: “This, for this, you have to ask Your Majesty…”
Ge Xiu: “…”
Under the guidance of the waiter, they walked along the winding stairs and corridors for more than ten minutes, and finally came to the door of a conference hall.
Ge Xiu pushed open the door.
The conference hall was majestic and large, but only Rowett was sitting at the end of the long table.
He appeared to be in a military teleconference.
Ge Xiu captured the keywords of “war” and “casualties”.
Rowett propped his cheek with one hand and listened to the reports of his subordinates on the screen with interest.
When he saw Ge Xiu appearing at the door, he didn’t seem too surprised, and a smile appeared on his lips.
Rowett cut off the connection directly.
He didn’t seem to feel that he had neglected the country for the beauty, on the contrary, it seemed as it was right and justified, as if compared to Ge Xiu, the military conference should have been placed in a secondary position.
He leaned back a little, watched Ge Xiu walk in, and asked cheerfully, “Is there anything I can help you with?”
Ge Xiu narrowed his eyes and asked bluntly, “What’s wrong with my room?”
Rowett replied, “Emergency repair. Didn’t you see the sign?”
… Crap, of course I saw the sign.
Ge Xiu gritted his teeth: “…Then where do I live?”
The smile on Rowett’s lips deepened, and his dark eyes glimmered with delight: “Live with me.”
Ge Xiu raised his brows in disbelief: “Don’t you have any other empty rooms here?”
Rowett replied without changing his face: “There is a problem with the architectural structure of the castle, most of the rooms had to be renovated, and the remaining rooms have not been maintained and tidied up for long, and none are suitable for living except for my room.”
…
Ge Xiu’s mouth twitched: “…As the Emperor of the empire, is your living environment so difficult?”
Rowett nodded solemnly: “It can’t be helped, the treasury is in an emergency, my people and I will naturally share weal and woe.”
Ge Xiu: “…”
…….such a shameless man
Although he also felt that it would be better to be close to the Rowett who was in the center of the mystery, but living together would be too close, right?
He gritted his teeth: “Your bathtub is too small.”
Rowett replied without hesitation: “The expansion of the bathroom was completed this morning.”
Ge Xiu raised his eyebrows high: “But isn’t the treasury desperate for money?”
The man had a very real expression on his face: “No matter how desperate I am, I can’t make you suffer.”
If you ignore the smile that flickered in his eyes, it was quite believable.
… Anyway, this was too blatant! !
Ge Xiu pursed his lips, raised his brows in doubt, and looked at the man in front of him carefully, for a while unsure what the other party was thinking.
Rowett stared at the tangled appearance of the young man in front of him, the curvature of his lips gradually deepened, and his already profound facial features became more and more handsome and bewitching like an evil spirit.
Ge Xiu ran out of patience.
He tilted his head and asked in confusion, “What do you want to do?”
Rowett stood up and walked towards him. He was tall with long legs and big strides, and he stood in front of Ge Xiu in just a few seconds.
He lowered his head and stared fixedly at Ge Xiu with a pair of dark and deep eyes, as if he was carefully tracing the lines of the other’s face, and engraving deeply his features the bottom of his eyes. In the depths of his eyes, there were traces of burning heat, like magma tumbling under the ice cap, with an aggression and possessiveness that couldn’t be hidden.
Suddenly, the smile on his lips subsided.
Rowett stared at his mermaid and said seriously: “Develop feelings.”
Ge Xiu was stunned for two seconds, then asked suspiciously: “…What?”
Rowett repeated patiently: “Develop feelings.”
“… Why?” Ge Xiu frowned blankly, as if he couldn’t wrap his mind around this concept for a while.
Rowett smiled, and seemed to think that the other looked very cute now: “How can the Emperor and his partner get married without feelings?”
Ge Xiu: “…”
Huh?
This was the first time he felt this kind of confusing and dizzying feeling.
The previous conversation with Christine and the vague kiss in his memory made him determine that Rowett’s existence may be related to the core of his trial and punishment, but… who would have thought that he was so direct!
And also… was he being proposed to?
Ge Xiu’s mind went blank, staring at the man who was just a short distance away, as if he was still slowly digesting this huge amount of information.
Rowett stared at the frozen youth, looking at the other’s expression as if he was struck by lightning with interest, his eyes were as dark as night, and there was a faint smile on his lips.
He never bothered to hide his desires.
Painful and sweet taboo crushes, secret emotions one wants to speak but cannot say*, did not exist in his dictionary at all.
Whether it was the throne or territory, if he wanted it, he’d take it.
Just like now.
Now that he had made up his mind, there was no need for him to shrink back and avoid it. As for whether he could marry a mermaid, what will the Congress and the public think, these were completely out of Rowett’s consideration.
The only thing he wasn’t sure about was whether Ge Xiu would like to.
If the law doesn’t allow it, change it.
If anyone opposed it, kill them.
But if Ge Xiu was unwilling, Rowett couldn’t do anything about it, not to mention that the other’s current strength was completely beyond his imagination, even if he used the army and high technology to force the merman to stay, he can’t force the other party to like him.
And according to Rowett’s understanding of Ge Xiu, such coercion and forcing would inevitably lead to doubly fierce counterattacks,
furthermore… he was reluctant to do it as well.
He was reluctant to see those blue-purple eyes occupied by hatred and hostility, and he was even more reluctant to watch his merman withering in the cage and in melancholy.
Rowett never thought that he was such a sentimental person in emotions.
But he really did not want to see this scene happen.
Therefore, after bringing back to bed the merman who had fallen asleep due to intoxication last night, he stayed awake and stared at the sleeping profile of the other all night.
After much deliberation, he made a decision.
Rowett stared deeply into the other’s eyes, and the shadow cast by his tall figure shrouded the other’s slender body.
He said slowly:
“What about, making a bet?”
Rowett raised his hand and rubbed side of Ge Xiu’s face, his warm fingers slid across the cold and soft skin, caressing gently along the curved line of his lower jaw.
His voice was low and deep, with slight hoarseness:
“Three months. You can stay with me for three months. If you still don’t have any feelings for me, I will admit defeat and let you go back to the sea.”
The merman’s pupils slightly shrank.
Rowett’s gaze was calm and deep, the dark eyes in the deep eye sockets were like abyss, bringing attracting magnetic force:
“But if I win, you marry me.”
Become his only recognized partner, and the second ruler of the Empire.
Rowett asked in a low voice, “Do you bet?”
He stretched out his right hand to Ge Xiu, his knuckles slender and strong.
—The first one to be tempted was the loser. In this gamble, he has already fallen behind.
In this case, then simply bet on everything, bet on love and the rest of your life, and freedom in the sea.
Make a big gamble with no way out, in order to earn even the slightest affection and a look from the other party.
Rowett’s palm stayed in the air, as if waiting for something.
Ge Xiu narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at the man in front of him in confusion.
He realized that he couldn’t figure out what the other person was thinking.
Why does he want his emotions for him?
It is the iron law and general rule of the world that one should obtain the greatest benefit at a smallest price.
So…why did Rowett propose a bet that he was almost guaranteed to lose?
—interesting.
Ge Xiu’s eyes slowly lit up, like a child who discovered a new toy, full of pure excitement and curiosity, a bit of wild madness flickering in his eyes, like a fire ignited by feeling of hunt.
He raised his lips and put his hand into Rowett’s palm suspended in the air.
The man’s palm was warm and hot, his powerful fingers wrapped around his, and the icy skin pressed against him, like melting snow falling into boiling magma, and the opponent’s strength could clearly be felt from the touched skin.
The two solemnly shook hands.
——”Deal.”
The author has something to say:
Proposal on the second day after kissing
Rowett: didn’t expect it.jpg
*欲説還休 – which means wanting to speak but stop before speaking, mostly used to indicate that emotions are complicated and difficult to express; or to indicate that you want to speak but dare not speak, afraid of the consequences etc. Like in forbidden love or ”what if” situation.
Rowett: If you can’t have ‘there was only one bed’. Just make it so there would be only one bed.
Bamboo has something to say:
Rowett knows what’s the most likely to keep Ge Xiu! Fascination.
So, who do you bet money on? Will Ge Xiu or Rowett win? by the way this arc ends in next 6 chapters
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