After I Found a Mermaid on the Street

★ V starts October 4 ★ Updates sometime between 9 p.m. and midnight. If there's a second update, I'll mention it in the author's note, so keep an eye out. ★ Pre-release: A story about an A and a B, titled Just a Beta. Come take a look~ Blurb Some people find money on the road, and some find bottles. But Qiao Mingxing was different: he found a mermaid and brought him home. They say mermaids are vicious by nature. They bite down hard on the necks of prey that fight back, pierce their skin with sharp fangs, and tear into their flesh. The mermaid Qiao Mingxing brought home... had a bad temper, but had done nothing else wrong. He was also ridiculously strong, and whenever Qiao Mingxing was in danger, he rushed over to protect him at once. The mermaid had saved his life, so when Qiao Lan pinned his fangs to Qiao Mingxing's Adam's apple, Qiao Mingxing didn't struggle. Instead, he closed his eyes and asked in a trembling voice, "Are you going to eat me?" "Mm." Then Qiao Lan gently nipped the tender flesh on Qiao Mingxing's neck, as if tasting it, while his beautiful blue-black tail wound around Qiao Mingxing's thigh without him noticing. Qiao Mingxing: "???" This didn't seem to be going the way it was supposed to. But by the time he remembered to resist, it was already too late. Back when Qiao Mingxing wanted to touch the mermaid's beautiful tail, the mermaid would hiss a warning, his eyes full of disdain. "Who are you? You think you're worthy of touching it?" Later, the mermaid would show off his tail without a fuss, his eyes making one thing perfectly clear: You like this beautiful tail, don't you? I'm the only one in the world with a blue-black one. You can touch it if you want. Later still, the proud mermaid leaned against Qiao Mingxing's shoulder, wearing an unusually helpless, vulnerable expression. "Qiao Mingxing, I'm so scared all alone..." # ① A beautiful, haughty, tsundere mermaid seme x a warmhearted, sensible, ordinary human uke ② The author has made up some of the worldbuilding, so follow along and have fun! ③ Mwah, mwah, mwah~ Pre-release: Just a Beta Li Zheng was an unremarkable male beta. His family fell into ruin when he was young, and his parents, unable to face the consequences, took their own lives. Kindhearted Grandpa Cheng took him into the Cheng household, where he became a study companion to the young master, Cheng Pin. Cheng Pin was arrogant. Before he presented, he looked down on Li Zheng and would say, "You're just a study companion. How dare you meddle in my affairs?" After presenting as an alpha, Cheng Pin said, "You're just a beta. How dare you meddle in an alpha's business?" During Cheng Pin's rut, as he gripped the neck of Li Zheng, who struggled beneath him, he kept speaking with disdain in every word: "You're a beta. What are you being so fussy about?" For over twenty years, Li Zheng truly believed that was all he was: a beta who could die without anyone caring, whose ashes would scatter with the wind at a toss of the hand. So when the Federation needed volunteers, he signed the waiver accepting the risk of death without a word. He didn't tell anyone. He simply lay down on the research institute's bed and let them fill his body with tubes, pierce his skin until it was bruised, and waste him away to nothing, without ever asking them to stop. And Cheng Pin, who had always said, "He's just a beta. I don't care about him at all," Cheng Pin, who had always seemed so full of himself in front of Li Zheng, broke down in tears for the first time when he saw him on the verge of death. He cried so hard he didn't care how disheveled or undignified he looked. "Cheng Pin, I'm just a beta. Once I'm dead, you'll have some peace and quiet." "Stop crying. I want to get some proper sleep." Cheng Pin had always been annoyed by Li Zheng following him around, supposedly as his study companion, but in reality because he'd been assigned to keep tabs on him. Young and reckless, Cheng Pin never cared whether his words hurt. He picked the ordinary beta apart from head to toe, finding nothing good about him. But Li Zheng still stuck close to him, treating him with care and putting him at the center of his world. But what good was a beta's affection? Especially when he was just an ordinary beta with an ordinary family background and appearance. Then one day, Cheng Pin caught a faint trace of another alpha's pheromones on Li Zheng... His eyes reddened, and a sudden surge of anger triggered his rut. He took Li Zheng right then and there. Betas couldn't be marked? That was fine. He would mark Li Zheng every time they did it. A little skit: Back when they were students. Cheng Pin: "You're just a beta." Li Zheng: "Mm." After Cheng Pin started pursuing him. Li Zheng stated a fact: "I'm just a beta." Cheng Pin got terribly angry at that, and Li Zheng had to kiss him this way and that to soothe him. Cheng Pin bent his head and kissed him. "Li Zheng, I'm just an alpha, an alpha who would suffer so much he couldn't go on living without you." "..." That alpha who stood at the very top of the pyramid willingly became the captive of a mere beta. Theme: When someone is in trouble, offer a helping hand instead of looking on indifferently. Saving someone else may also bring change to your own life!