Zu An’s face heated up. He'd actually forgotten about that! He quickly turned around.
“You'd better not use your divine senses to peek at me,” Shang Hongyu said teasingly from behind him.
“Alright, alright. Are you going to wash up or not?” Zu An replied in annoyance.
“I was kidding. I don’t need to take off my clothes. Sigh, sometimes, you really are like a pure little boy. I really wonder how you ended up getting the reputation of being a playboy.” Shang Hongyu’s pretty laugh filled the air. Her mood had clearly improved after she got the opportunity to move through the sea freely.
Zu An turned around when he heard that. Sure enough, Shang Hongyu was still fully dressed, but she jumped straight into the water and fully submerged herself with a twist of her waist. Zu An was stunned. He quickly expanded the range of his screening barrier by more than a mile to give her more room to move around in.
Just then, there was a splash, and a mermaid leaped out from the water like a dolphin.
Shang Hongyu was quite different from before. Her upper body was incredibly beautiful. She was no longer dressed in the plain clothing she'd worn at the restaurant, but rather a piece of garment that resembled both a suit of armor and a swimsuit made of red scales. However, it only covered her chest and exposed a large amount of milky white skin. She had delicate collarbones and a slender waist, which made her look just like a young lady. Only her deep cleavage exposed that she was already an extremely mature woman.
Even so, Zu An’s eyes were fixated on her lower body. Her legs had already disappeared without a trace, now replaced by a large, beautiful fish tail. Under the sunlight’s radiance, every scale shone like rubies. Unlike Shang Liuyu’s sky blue color, Shang Hongyu was mainly red. She was fiery and gorgeous.
“Do you like what you’re seeing?” Shang Hongyu asked as she wandered unhurriedly through the water. After swimming back and forth a few times, she returned to thesurface. She propped her chin up on her arms, and her beautiful tail swayed leisurely in the water. The droplets on her cheeks were like pearls under the sunlight.
“I do,” Zu An said with sincere praise. She really was beautiful, and her current mermaid form gave him an even greater visual shock.
“Is this the first time you’ve seen a mermaid? Has little sis never shown you before?” When she saw the shock in his eyes, Shang Hongyu felt quite proud of herself. Which beautiful person didn’t want others to acknowledge their beauty, let alone the fact that this was no ordinary man at all?
“I already said that Liuyu and I were only friends,” Zu An said in annoyance. He had actually encountered an ancient mermaid queen in a secret dungeon, but after all, that one had already died. How could she compare to the lively living one in front of him?
“Haha, then I’ll try to find a chance to show you again in the future.” Shang Hongyu did a turn. She swam leisurely on the water surface while looking at the man in the sky, calling out, “Do you want to come down for a swim too? It feels really good.”
Zu An shook his head. Even though a sea this beautiful was a bit tempting, the other person's status was special. It wasn’t appropriate for them to bathe together.
“Tsk, what is a grown man like you getting all embarrassed for? Just what are you thinking about? The sea is so big, and it’s just swimming together,” Shang Hongyu said with an ambiguous smile.
Zu An said impatiently, “You’re acting way too different from when we first met.”
“How so?” Shang Hongyu asked curiously. She didn't bother inviting him in anymore.
“At first, you were really reserved and dignified, giving off a virtuous and warm feeling. That was how the other customers described their queen too. Now, you seem a bit...” Zu An immediately stopped. He didn’t know how to describe it.
“A bit flirtatious?” Shang Hongyu harrumphed with a frown.
“Not necessarily.” Zu An chuckled. “A bit daring, much more fiery and passionate than I had imagined.”
“That mouth of yours is pretty sweet indeed. No wonder so many women like you.” Shang Hongyu’s ice-cold face finally seemed to melt. “Who says that a virtuous and warm queen can’t be fiery and passionate too?”
“Uh...” Zu An was now left at a loss for words.
“That’s just what you men think. You all probably wish for every woman to be sweet-tempered and reserved, to the point that they won’t even take a single step outside of the rules, and yet you yourselves love to go skirt-chasing and tease all kinds of pretty women.”
Zu An’s expression became strange. It seemed that the Dragon King’s constant playboy behaviors had left the queen with a lot of resentment.
Shang Hongyu looked at Zu An and said, “I didn’t know who you were, so of course I’d treat you like everyone else. But now that I know who you are and we’re all our own people, of course you get to see my real nature.”
Zu An suddenly seemed to understand a bit when he looked at the queen's beautiful red figure. It seemed that Shang Hongyu had also been a young lady full of liveliness, someone who dared to love and dared to hate. But eventually, once she joined the Dragon Palace and became the queen of the Ocean races, she had been forced to follow the palace’s rules, and had no choice but to face everyone with that mask. After all these years, she had been really successful, and everyone in the Ocean races praised her for being a virtuous queen. But who knew what she was really feeling inside? It was only now that something happened to the Dragon King, pushing her to flee for her life, that she was able to drop her usual act and completely return to her true self.
When he thought of that, he couldn't help but feel a bit of pity. He said, “Your highness really must have felt wronged all these years.”
“You’re calling me 'your highness' like a stranger again.” Even though that was what Shang Hongyu said, she was actually really happy, because she could feel the admiration in his expression. She immediately felt as if she was chatting with an intimate friend. Her tail suddenly patted the water surface to draw the attention of the man in the sky as she asked, “Do you and Liuyu really not share any romantic feelings?”
“What are you suddenly asking this for?” Zu An asked curiously.
“It’s nothing much...” Shang Hongyu smiled and entered the water again. She swam around happily.
Zu An was telling himself not to look at her disrespectfully, but in the end, he still couldn't help but give that faintly discernible figure in the ocean another look.
Beautiful things should be admired in the first place. Yeah, that’s right.
“Are you really not coming down?”
“Nah.”
“I won’t tell Liuyu.”
Zu An was speechless.
“The Dragon King won’t find out either.”
“Are you really talking about swimming at this point?”
“Heheh~”
Soft and gentle laughter continued to fill the air. It sounded like an elegant instrument, a sound that was difficult to forget.
...
After who knew how much time had passed, Shang Hongyu swayed her tail in the water, and then rushed out. A sparkling curtain of water appeared around her to block Zu An’s sight. Then, she began to rapidly spin. The beautiful tail turned into long and slender legs, and the red scales gradually faded, turning into a red dress that wrapped around her. A ribbon was tied around her waist, making her figure look even more graceful and elegant.
Zu An continued to nod inwardly. This was an outfit that matched her more. Now, she no longer had the crude air of a working-class woman from the restaurant, nor did she have the delicate appearance of the legendary queen. Instead, she had a valiant and formidable air, with no lack of tender beauty within.
“It’s been so long since I’ve felt so comfortable.” Shang Hongyu gradually sorted out her clammy hair. Since she was being pursued, she had always tried to rush herself when she entered the water; it was nothing like her current condition, in which she had been able to completely relax and enjoy the feeling of the sea on every inch of her skin.
“Are we returning to the cave now?” Zu An asked.
“I’m not going back. Why would we go to that shoddy place?”
“Makes sense. Then how about we go straight to the Dragon Palace? I can carry you while flying, so you just need to show me the way,” Zu An proposed. “Which way?”
However, Shang Hongyu said, “We're going to the port to ride the ship.”
Zu An was confused, asking, “Didn’t you say that we didn’t need that ship anymore?”
After all, at first, he'd been planning to take it because he didn’t know the way. He could only follow the way everyone else took. But now that he had Shang Hongyu with him, why would he still choose such a slow method?