Arriving at the location, a group of people readily waited for their arrival at the entrance and two employees tentatively opened their door for them. Shen Yuan stepped out of the car and read the banners by the sides of the automatic door.
'Atlantia Grand Opening.'
"An aquarium…?" Shen Yuan said with some doubt.
"What do you think?" Mu Chen went to his side. "It's my father's newest project. Its grand opening is in a week, but he told me to take a look and do some final checking."
"Right… And what exactly is the thing only I can do here?"
"I want Shen Yuan to accompany me to the aquarium. Only you can do it, right?" Mu Chen smiled.
Shen Yuan blinked and opened his mouth a couple of times, but no reply was made. It had been a long time since he felt so speechless.
He thought Mu Chen made it look like a date only to joke around or make him put his guard down and had been preparing himself for anything Mu Chen could possibly ask of him, but not…this.
He covered his lips, instinctively wanting to hide his slight bewilderment, as he looked away. "I guess so."
Mu Chen noticed the faint pink on the tip of Shen Yuan's ears and felt sweetness bubbling in his chest. For some reason, he felt a little embarrassed and couldn't help but shift his gaze away as well. He didn't expect to receive such a cute reaction.
He quickly regained himself and cleared his throat. "It's hot out here. Let's go inside."
"Yeah."
The director had been waiting for them to finish their conversation and approached them on cue. He was their tour guide for the day.
Shen Yuan went inside with Mu Chen, following the director's lead. As they entered the exhibition, he didn't bother listening to the director's rambling and let Mu Chen do his work while he took in the things around him.
After the invasion, most of the animals on Earth went extinct. As someone from a mid-apocalyptic generation, he had never seen a butterfly or a pigeon. The only land animals that survived were felines and scavenger birds.
Same with aquatic animals. Only the carnivores survived. Even if they wanted to preserve the animals, the world didn't have the luxury to build a conservatory for them. The national funds were already exhausted for military funds and endless reparations and fortifications across the country. The aftermath of each wave was guaranteed to double or triple from the previous one.
However they tried to fix things, the burden only accumulated. Like fixing a building one floor at a time, only for an earthquake to destroy it all over again. Not only they had to fix the damaged floors, they also had to clean the rubbles.
But right now, countless fishes surrounded him, more than his eyes could keep up. They had different colors, sizes, and shapes, so much so that it made him wonder whether they truly existed in the past earth or were they merely abstracts of Zhou Yi's imagination.
He knew 70%—85% after the apocalypse—of the earth consisted of water, so logically speaking, there should be more fish in the sea than people on land. Unlike humans who had a default build, fish had a wider range of variations as well.
It could be that these species truly existed though it would raise another question as to how Zhou Yi could recreate them in his neural space. Maybe he read it somewhere and was stored in his subconscious memory.
But if they weren't carnivores, then what did they eat? More like, what did fish generally eat? Carnivores were the minority ones, right?
While his eyes wandered and his mind questioned, they proceeded the tour at a steady pace until they entered a darker area with only dim lighting on the floor for safety. Colorful lights up front pulled him out of his thoughts and his sight was fixed on the row of floor to ceiling glass tubes, pausing him on his tracks.
What the hell were those?
What seemed like sheets of translucent membranes floated in the water and the colors that he thought came from some kind of lighting actually came from their luminescent body, hence why the area was made particularly darker.
Could that even be called a skin? It was thinner than a plastic sheet.
Most of them had a fist-sized body with strings scattering down from their membrane though some were almost as big as a baby's head or as small as a baby's fist. He thought every living being had a brain, but this one definitely didn't. Every part of them is translucent, and not a single thing on their body looked remotely like a brain. Or even eyes. And nose.
If vultures weren't galactic aliens and, in fact, were monsters from Earth itself, he would believe it if someone told him this was their initial form.
Mu Chen took a step forward to continue when he noticed Shen Yuan was unmoving. He turned to check on him only to find the other completely entranced by the jellyfish. Colorful lights danced in his eyes, reflecting a child-like wonder that bore witness to their first rainbow.
Before the director could ask what was wrong, Mu Chen lifted his hand in silence and dismissed everyone with a wave. They looked at each other hesitantly, but with another look from Mu Chen, they shuddered and tacitly left.
By the time Shen Yuan came out of his thoughts, the people around him were long gone. He thought he got left behind and tracked Mu Chen's pulse only to find it coming from right behind him.
For some reason, the pulse felt quicker than usual.
He didn't think too much about it and turned around. "Where's everyone?"
"It was too distracting with all those people and the director talked too much. I dismissed them." Mu Chen went to stand next to Shen Yuan. "Do you like jellyfish?"
"Jelly…fish?" Shen Yuan looked down at the introduction plate by each tube and confirmed they really were called jellyfish.
Though it was an appropriate name, nothing about them resembled a fish except that they were aquatic animals. Why would this get to be called a fish but sharks and dolphins had no 'fish' in their name?
Mu Chen studied Shen Yuan's reaction for a moment. "Is this your first time seeing jellyfish?"
"Yeah." Shen Yuan watched the jellyfish swimming about mindlessly, like wisps of floating dreams. "Do they actually exist?"
"They're right in front of you, aren't they?"
"They seem…alien."
"That's the first time I heard someone say that about jellyfish." Mu Chen chuckled. "Well, it's not the strangest animal in the sea, but compared to regular fishes, I guess they do seem more alien-like."
"What can be stranger than having a layer of membrane as a body with your nerves dangling about?" Shen Yuan couldn't even begin to imagine.
"When you say it like that, it does sound hard to beat. Though rather than nerves, they're more like tentacles," Mu Chen corrected. "Then, you've never tried jellyfish before?"
"Tried?" Shen Yuan looked at Mu Chen like he was an alien himself—which, in fact, he was. But that was beside the point. "What part of it can be tried?"
Mu Chen couldn't resist laughing and patted Shen Yuan's hair. "How about we have seafood after this and you can try it yourself?"
"You're not messing with me, are you?"
"If you don't get to eat jellyfish until the end of the day, I'll let you be the student council president for a week."
"…"
Knowing Mu Chen so far, Shen Yuan was certain he wasn't the type of person who would compromise his status and position for anything, especially a joke. It could only be true.
He didn't know what to expect, but he couldn't help but anticipate it a little.
Mu Chen let out a faint sigh, but before Shen Yuan could ask what was wrong, Mu Chen locked him into his arms and rested his head on his. "As I thought, you have to see someone outside their uniform at least once."
"Are you mocking me?" Shen Yuan narrowed his eyes in accusation.
"Do you not trust me that much?" Mu Chen felt helpless. He grabbed Shen Yuan's hand and placed it on his chest. "Does this sound like mocking to you?"
Even without pressing his hand firmly, Shen Yuan could already feel the strong, rapid heartbeat. It was the same frequency as the pulse.
He had thought it indicated the vulture's brainwave. Perhaps it was, but it was converted into its personification's heartbeat.
They had always assumed the vultures were like a singular hive with no individual feelings and moved from pure instincts, following the order of their queen. Did they actually have higher intelligence? Or was it because this vulture entered a human body and learned from it?
Mu Chen gently turned Shen Yuan's face to him. "Shen Yuan, would you go out with me?"
Shen Yuan stared at Mu Chen for a long while, filling the dim room with silence.
It wasn't the first time someone fell for him. It wasn't the first time someone expressed their feelings for him, some more sincere than others. It was his job to make people want him, one way or another. This time shouldn't have been different.
He never once forgot what Mu Chen truly was. Yet, even with all that, the reverberation in his palm streamed into his vessels and rippled his heart. Faint, but undeniable.
What if…