Crooked

Even though there was a short distance between him and the ice crystal being held up in front of him, Xie Tao could already faintly sense the cold emitted from it.

This colorless ice crystal that had solidified was very translucent and sparkly, when touched by the sunlight, it became even more shiny.

Beautiful. Being held in the mermaid cub’s hands with the blue ocean in the background, the ice crystal unexpectedly seemed exceptionally beautiful.

When the mermaid cub saw that he did not take it, he became a little anxious. Scooting forward, he pressed his body against the shore and tried to get closer to the youth.

“Ah…” With a somewhat weak voice, the cub called out to him and with great difficulty managed to reach out a little bit further, lifting his gift even closer to the youth.

It was only last night that he had suddenly developed this ability. He didn’t know anything about it and had only been able to follow his instincts to explore his new ability.

In order to make an ice crystal like this one, the water had to be manipulated into a form and at the same time also needed to be solidified.

This ability wasn’t easy to use. The mermaid cub had tried many times to control and shape the water into a certain shape yesterday and had always failed halfway.

The water in the cub’s hands would gradually start to take the form he wanted, however his control over it was fragile and every time it would easily fall apart halfway. The cub would then completely lose control of it and could only watch as it fell back down into the pool.

When he tried to solidify the water, on the other hand, he usually succeeded, but the ice crystals he created would always have different hardness and melting time.

These two situations were due to the fact that the mermaid cub was still very unfamiliar with this new ability and didn’t really know how to control it yet. It did not help that he had to fully depend on his instincts to try to figure out how to use it.

Since he was merely a cub, the little mermaid also had very limited strength at the moment.

The translucent ice crystal in his hands was the result of many attempts. The first thing he thought when he finally succeeded and held the crystal in his hands was that he wanted to show it to the human youth in front of him.

Seeing the mermaid cub’s bright and expectant eyes, Xie Tao reached out his hand to receive the crystal. But as soon as he touched it, his left eyebrow jumped.

With the mermaid cub’s expectant gaze on him, Xie Tao restrained himself. He refused to let it show on his face, only taking one small breath in, one breath out, slowly letting himself adapt to the cold transmitted by the ice crystal.

The ice crystal had been forced to solidify by an ability, and was not exactly the same as ordinary ice. For Xie Tao who came into contact with it just now, it had felt as if the cold from the crystal had entered his body and instantly spread throughout it, turning him into a popsicle.

Fortunately, the feeling only lasted for a second and he could resist changing his face.

It was something the mermaid cub wanted to give to him, clearly hoping he liked it.

If he didn’t react well, the cub would be sad and disappointed. Xie Tao naturally did not want that.

Gently rocking his tail, the mermaid cub raised his head to look at the ice crystal that had been picked up by the youth. He then tried hard to read out the word formed by it.

“Pa… Pa.”

After saying it, the mermaid cub realized that he could now pronounce the two syllables one after the other smoothly, without any problem. The cub raised his eyes to look at the youth’s face, his ice blue tail moving excitingly under the surface as he waited for the youth’s response.

“En, I’m here.” Xie Tao moved the crystal over to his other hand and then reached out to touch the mermaid cub’s soft golden hair. Glancing down at the shape of the ice crystal in his left hand, Xie Tao smiled and praised him. “Gale writes very well.”

The shape of this crystal was indeed a word in the mermaid race’s language.

There were many species in the interstellar that inherited their race’s knowledge and the mermaid race was one of them. Although the knowledge passed on was very limited, it was still a small advantage for the cubs of these races.

“Ah~”

The mermaid cub’s blue eyes immediately became brighter and the cub emitted a low sound as the youth touched his head and praised him.

After, the little cub could not help but once again reach out and lightly grab onto the youth’s trouser leg. His tail swaying even livelier beneath the surface.

The word written in ice was actually very crooked. If it was to be evaluated objectively, the words “well written” would certainly not be used.

But even though the writing was quite crooked, it had a childlike feeling to it, and in Xie Tao’s eyes, it was still very lovely.

After all, the word was written by a cub. If comparing with his former world, then it would be as if a small baby in kindergartner wrote it.

It was already very good to be able to write at that age. How could he possibly demand that it should be well written as well?

Considering that it was written using the mermaid cub’s powers, it was even more praiseworthy.

Most importantly, as a parent, if their cub who had worked hard learned how to write, specifically wrote the word “papa” or “mama” and then ran over to show them—

Was there any parent who would not praise their cub?

Of course not.

They would feel proud from the bottom of their hearts.

_______________

Translator’s note:

Sorry, it will be a half chapter this week.

This is a really stressful period at school for me and I think I will have to do half chapters for a while. If I get the opportunity, I will do a whole chapter, but I can’t guarantee anything… I’m really sorry, I’m actually also super excited and curious about what is to come but I have to focus on school for now…