Ch 165: The World’s Number One Resort

“Half an hour earlier than expected… Begin.” Vance noticed Yu You’s condition and instructed the researchers.

The researchers adjusted the instruments before them, and the thin tubes connected. Scarlet blood flowed through the fine tubes, which were attached to Yu You’s body, creating a rather gruesome scene.

Perhaps Yu You was already used to it, as he merely frowned slightly without showing much reaction.

“Mr. Tang, have you made up your mind?” This was just a minor experiment. Now that it had begun, Vance paid it no further attention. To him, cooperation with the Great Tang was far more critical.

Tang Huai didn’t respond; he kept his gaze fixed on Yu You. His eyes were calm, with an unusual stillness, like a deep, undisturbed well. Something felt off to Tang Huai.

While Vance waited for an answer from Tang Huai, Yu You seemed to be waiting as well.

Several guards raised their guns and aimed at Tang Huai.

“Mr. Vance, what does this mean?” Tang Huai glanced around.

“Mr. Tang, you’re a smart man,” Vance shrugged. At this moment, he only thought Tang Huai was too naive, too simple. Bringing him here was never without a method to control him.

As Vance finished speaking, the atmosphere in the lab became increasingly tense.

“Sorry, I have no interest in cooperation,” Tang Huai stated bluntly in the midst of the high-pressure atmosphere. His goal was to find Yu You. Now that he had, he saw no reason to continue the charade.

Tang Huai’s calmness stunned Vance. After his moment of shock, an endless fury filled him.

“Mr. Tang, that’s not a wise decision,” Vance warned. It was laughable that Tang Huai, arriving here alone, would now refuse cooperation.

“Bang—”

As Vance was about to persuade him, a loud noise echoed from outside. The sound was so loud that it was clearly heard, even through the thick laboratory walls.

“What’s going on?” Vance frowned.

“It’s helicopters, at least twenty,” the real-time monitor technician reported, opening the ground camera feed. There were twenty helicopters circling above the island. Just like in an action movie, dozens of armed guards jumped down from the helicopters.

Some of Vance’s guards opened fire. However, the security of these guards was top-notch; bullets were ineffective. The guards quickly subdued Vance’s men.

The island’s surface descended into chaos.

“What happened to the surveillance?”

Vance was furious. This was his stronghold, an island with complex terrain. Numerous surveillance devices surrounded it, monitoring any boat or aircraft entering within a three-hundred-nautical-mile radius.

Now… this was impossible.

The laboratory door swung open, and more than ten guards stormed in. The researchers huddled together in fear, the lab even more chaotic than the outside.

“Tang Huai!” Vance turned to Tang Huai in rage. These guards must have been brought by him.

The guards surrounded Tang Huai. Vance raised his gun, not caring to think about the arrival of the helicopters, focusing instead on punishing Tang Huai.

Vance’s eyes were fierce as he slowly squeezed the trigger.

There was no longer any need for cooperation.

“Bang!” As Vance was about to pull the trigger, the floor of the laboratory trembled. Before he could react, a thick tentacle wrapped around his right hand.

“Bang!”

“Bang! Bang! Bang—”

Vance was lifted into the air, and the sound of gunshots echoed. The shots were fired by the guards, but not at Tang Huai; they were aimed at the figure hovering in midair. The containment chamber had been shattered, and Yu You now stood five meters away from Tang Huai, supported by eight enormous tentacles.

The bullets struck Yu You’s tentacles and back, but just like in a heated anime battle, they had no effect on him.

“Let go, cough, let go…”

A black tentacle coiled tightly around Vance’s waist, leaving him gasping for breath.

Yu You exerted more force and glanced toward the guards.

“Put the guns down, stop for now…” Vance understood Yu You’s intent and quickly signaled. He had spent a year with Yu You and knew his unique constitution. The guards exchanged glances and obeyed, lowering their guns.

The fighting outside grew increasingly intense. Tang Huai felt a hint of regret that the system couldn’t provide any help, although the store was still functional. Before leaving, he had purchased several self-defense tools.

At this point, he was practically like a biochemical human in a movie, but there hadn’t been any chance to act.

As Tang Huai mulled over these thoughts, Yu You had already reverted to his human form. He was still the Yu You he knew, but now there was an undeniable difference. If Yu You had been like a warm, polished jade before, he was now a sharp, cutting blade.

“Put down the gun…” Vance seemed to be pleading. Yu You’s demeanor was so steady that Vance felt he couldn’t predict his next move.

“Where is the giant clam?” Yu You’s gun moved forward by one centimeter.

“It disintegrated…” Vance was sweating. At fifty-three, he had been in the drug business for over thirty years, constantly navigating the edge of life and death. But the older he got, the more he cherished life.

He didn’t want to die so easily.

“Where is the giant clam?” Yu You ignored Vance’s previous response, intensifying the pressure in the lab.

“On the workbench…” Unable to withstand the pressure, Vance pointed to a spot on the south side of the lab.

Yu You glanced over. A female researcher, sensing the situation, opened the safe under the table and took out a transparent glass jar containing a substance resembling powdered milk.

The giant clam had indeed disintegrated. However, instead of scattering into the wind, it had been collected and stored by Vance in a glass jar. Over the past three years, Vance had been using the clam powder as a rare tonic. After three years of continuous consumption, five jars of clam powder had dwindled to just this half jar.

“This is all that’s left of the giant clam. Please, don’t kill me.” The female researcher carefully handed over the glass jar, while Vance pleaded. Even as he spoke, he was surreptitiously reaching for his waist. Having spent a year with Yu You, he knew both his strengths and weaknesses.

“Do you mind if I hurt someone?” Vance moved cautiously. Yu You looked at the glass jar, then turned to Tang Huai. He wanted to kill, but in Tang Huai’s presence, he didn’t want to be too bloody.

Tang Huai was bewildered. From the moment Yu You broke out of the containment chamber, he had been in a daze.

After Yu You asked his question, Tang Huai reflexively shook his head.

“Bang—”

“Boom—”

As Tang Huai registered what was happening, Yu You calmly pulled the trigger, just as the guards outside stormed in.

Vance’s right hand was shot, and a small test tube, as thick as a finger, fell out of his pocket.

Vance lay on the ground, writhing in pain, while the guards in the lab fired back. However, they were no match for the elite security forces.

Within five minutes, the entire island was firmly under Great Tang’s control.

Tang Huai exhaled a long breath.

Three minutes later, following Tang Huai’s instructions, Vance and the captives were taken outside the laboratory, leaving only Yu You and Tang Huai inside.

“What exactly is going on?” Tang Huai finally snapped back to reality.

In his initial plan, he intended to locate Yu You, protect himself, and then rely on the AI bodyguards to rescue Yu You. Everything had been going according to plan, until the moment Yu You suddenly burst out of the containment chamber, throwing everything off course.

Tang Huai’s eyes were filled with confusion.

“Half a month ago, I remembered everything, just as Vance appeared…” Yu You paused, his eyes curving into a gentle smile, as warm and kind as he had been back at the villa.

The mutated merfolk were considered a disgrace among the merfolk clan, but they held a natural dominance over sea creatures and were the absolute rulers of the ocean. From birth, they were a miracle of nature. As Yu You’s individual strength grew, dissent within the merfolk clan increased. Eventually, they chose the sturdiest giant clam to try to seal him away.

Yu You didn’t perish completely. The clam, possessing a natural spirit, took him to the depths of the ocean and nurtured him back to life. Over the course of three thousand years of oceanic evolution, the clam eventually resurfaced on land…

Three thousand years ago, Yu You had survived countless brutal battles. His nature was to adapt and overcome. However, after sleeping for so long, his memories became fragmented, causing him to forget and become naive.

Now, all his memories had returned.

As Yu You explained, he found a white coat in the laboratory and put it on.

“What are you planning to do next?” Tang Huai, looking at the familiar yet unfamiliar Yu You before him, hesitated before finally speaking.

Earlier, he had only thought about rescuing Yu You as soon as possible. Now that he had accomplished that, he wasn’t sure how to proceed.

“Listen.”

Yu You put on the white coat and motioned for Tang Huai to listen. Yu You was quite tall, so the coat was a bit ill-fitting, but he managed to wear it. With the totems on his face now gone, Tang Huai got his first clear look at Yu You’s appearance.

Yu You had deep-set features and sharp contours, resembling the Apollo from mythological stories—more handsome than Tang Huai had imagined.

“Ahem.” Tang Huai was stunned for a moment before awkwardly snapping back to reality.

“Crash, crash—”

“Chirp—”

Tang Huai listened carefully; from outside came wave after wave of the ocean’s roar, interspersed with the calls of fish.

The sounds drew closer and closer.

Yu You circled the lab and pressed a red switch.

A silver wall on the southern side opened, revealing a staircase leading upward. This was part of Vance’s previously planned escape route. Yu You began to ascend, with Tang Huai following behind. The staircase had thirty-two steps, and half a minute later, they emerged one after the other.

The scene before them opened up to a concealed coastline, where a small speedboat was anchored on the eastern shore.

Tang Huai froze, not because of the boat, but because of the view of the ocean.

The coastline faced the Pacific Ocean directly. Waves surged forward, accompanied by nearly a hundred whale sharks. Leading them was a whale shark almost ten meters long—the shortest among the group. Tang Huai had a hunch that this was Da Zhuang.

In addition to the whale sharks, countless fish surrounded the waves. Tang Huai recognized these as deep-sea fish, with nearly a thousand different colorful species. The sight was so grand it felt more fantastical than a fantasy film.

Recovering from his astonishment, Tang Huai turned to Yu You.

“This is the second time. Thank you.” Yu You gazed steadily at Tang Huai, his eyes now devoid of shyness and filled with assertiveness.

“Ahem, no need to thank me.” Tang Huai felt a bit awkward. It was clear this time that Yu You had let himself be caught on purpose.

“It’s a bit small. Next time, I’ll find a bigger one.” As Tang Huai was lost in thought, a clear voice rang in his ear.

Tang Huai looked down to see the black pearl Yu You had given him last time—a small, cat’s-eye-sized gem—dangling from his hand.

“No…” Tang Huai was about to politely decline when Yu You suddenly leaned in, their noses touching. Time seemed to freeze.

The atmosphere between them turned somewhat ambiguous.

Ten seconds later, they separated.

“Wait for me.” Yu You retrieved the black pearl from Tang Huai’s hand and spoke seriously. Then, his legs transformed into a fishtail, and he leaped into the sea. The whale shark group swam over, and Yu You perched on Da Zhuang’s back, giving Tang Huai a deep, lingering look before they all departed.

In a moment, the sea returned to calm.

As the sun set, Tang Huai looked at his now-empty right hand, feeling a wave of frustration. It might have been small, but he had grown fond of wearing it.

Who gives a gift and then takes it back?

Tang Huai felt incredibly annoyed, and then another headache followed.

There was still a whole mess on the island to clean up.

Author’s Note:

Tang Tang: “You gave it to me, and now you’re taking it back? Hmph!” ╭(╯^╰)╮

Yu You: “I was inexperienced before. A gift must be grand and classy. The rose can’t be taken back, but the black pearl can be redone.” (:з」∠)

Yu You, the master of the sea, definitely has an assertive vibe! Crying~

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️