Best singing voice
In the vast expanse of stars, which could never be fully explored, there existed some amazing coincidences.
“Ma” and “Pa”, for example, were two syllables that, in the majority of all languages among the many races in the interstellar, meant mother and father once combined with a second part.
This included the interstellar Lingua Franca.[1] As a result, even the few races that did not use these two syllables could still understand the meaning behind the foreign words.
However, as an inhabitant of the 21st-century earth, Xie Luan obviously could not understand interstellar Lingua Franca or any of the other languages. But despite this, he still had not encountered any communication barriers in this world.
Both his hearing and his speech were somehow automatically translated. Like a cheat. And Xie Luan was very fortunate to have received this golden finger.
It would be very hard if he could not understand the language. Luckily he did not have to face such a terrible situation.
Cubs instinctively want to be close to their parents. As long as their parents didn’t act harshly or treat them badly, the cubs would always want their parents to pay more attention to them.
This was also the case for the little mermaid cub who saw the youth as his parent. So even after he received Xie Luan’s response, the cub did not release the finger in his grasp.
He wanted to be closer to the youth. But as he had already swum to the edge of the pool, he could only press himself as close as possible to the poolside in order to shorten the distance between them, be it even just a little.
Seeing this action, Xie Luan suddenly felt a sour and soft feeling in his chest.
Knowing that the cub was trying to get close to him, it naturally warmed his heart.
The sour feeling mixed within was because Xie Luan had noticed from the mermaid’s movements just now that the cub was still subconsciously afraid of leaving the water.
As cubs, mermaids could not turn their tail into legs and they couldn’t leave the water for too long.
However, this “too long” referred to approximately more than half a day. After that, the cub would start to feel a little unwell, but as long as they returned to water within 12 hours there would be no problem.
For a cub to be in a life-threatening condition due to dehydration, the cub would have to have been out of the water for at least one day.
On the planet inhabited by the mermaid race, water covered the majority of the surface and many cities were built directly in the water.
Although there were also cities built on land and on the water surface, these cities were designed with the cubs in mind and had various facilities for the cubs. One of these was the small pools you would find every hundred meters that were specifically meant for rehydration of the cubs.
Moreover, there were also canals everywhere in the cities which were used for transportation. There was really no need to worry about finding water.
Therefore mermaid cubs were in general not afraid of being brought to land by their parents. They knew they were safe and at most they were a little nervous when they left the water for the first time. But the nervousness usually disappeared once they saw the land scenery and their curiosity took over.
But because of the trauma he had experienced, the mermaid cub before Xie Luan’s eyes was subconsciously afraid of leaving the water. The pain from the dehydration at that time had left a psychological scar.
It was because he understood this, that Xie Luan’s heart felt both soft and sour at the same time.
One hand was grasping the youth’s finger, the other was holding onto the pool’s edge. The mermaid cub raised his head and gazed up at the youth’s face with his azure eyes, lightly shaking the finger side to side.
When cubs wanted to attract their parents’ attention, they would usually either instinctively make a sound or go and pull on their parents’ clothes or hands. This way of grasping and shaking the finger was the mermaid cub’s way of doing this.
Like the mermaid cub, Xie Luan responded by moving his captured index finger and met the cub’s eyes to show that he was paying attention to him.
“Pa… Ah~ “
He could still not pronounce it correctly, but the mermaid cub was still very happy. He now knew who his parent was, the youth in front of him now responds to him.
“Try speaking a little slower.” Xie Luan nodded to show that he knew that the cub was calling out to him, and then said in a warm voice, “If you slow down you should be able to say it. But either way, I can understand you.”
Xie Luan reached out to stroke the mermaid cub’s head. The cub’s tail swayed lightly under the surface and he made a low monotone sound. On the small delicate face which was usually without expression, a trace of joy could suddenly be seen.
“Pa… Pa.” Two syllables with a very long gap between them were issued. The mermaid cub, who had tried his hardest to make the syllables clearer, blinked and looked up at the black-haired youth sitting in front of him.
As he was waiting for his response, the cub suddenly felt the hand on his head gently touch his head again and then heard the youth make a sound that resembled some kind of praise.
Regardless, he had gotten a good response. Looking up at the youth in front of him, the cub then turned his head to glance at his surroundings. Finally, he lifted his other hand and reached out towards the youth.
Doing this took a lot of courage for the mermaid cub, because it was this gesture that cubs made when they wanted to be lifted by their parents.
The mermaid cub was still subconsciously afraid of leaving the water. The fact that he had taken the initiative to do it was based on the dependence and full trust he had towards the youth.
Knowing that the little mermaid was scared to leave the water, Xie Luan had seldom tried to pick the cub up. So, now that the cub had reached out and wanted him to pick him up, Xie Luan was very surprised and could only stare blankly for a second.
“Baby, wait for a moment.” Once he came back to himself, Xie Luan said this in a soft voice and then stood up to go get a towel.
When he returned, he saw that the mermaid cub had maintained his previous position and he quickly bent down to pick him up. He then wrapped the cub in the soft towel and held him in his arms.
The little mermaid cub had clothes on. They were made of a special fabric produced by the mermaid race. It easily let water through, reducing resistance while swimming, and once out of the water, it quickly dried.
It was not just the mermaid race that used it, the fabric was also very popular among many other races as it was very suitable for making swimsuits.
Using the towel to dry the mermaid cub’s wet hair, Xie Luan then held him in his arms as he squatted down to pick up the moye cub who had climbed ashore by himself. He then carried them over to the living room.
If Xie Luan had only brought over the moye cub, the others in the room would not have been surprised. But now that he also brought the mermaid cub, they could not help but look over.
After leaving the water, the mermaid cub being held in the youth’s arms did not carelessly wave his tail in panic. This time, the tail covered in ice blue scales quietly let the youth hold it in his arms, the cub only occasionally moved his fin. In short, the cub seemed especially cute and obedient.
“Pa~”
The mermaid cub who had previously been unable to fully reach the youth while in the pool, was now carried in the youth’s embrace. The cub instantly used the same method as the other cubs to attract the youth’s attention— by hugging and calling out to him.
It was in a very low voice, but the others were close enough to catch it.
Pa.
Hearing this syllable and connecting it with how the mermaid cub gave the youth his scales, everyone, one after another, came to a realization.
The mermaid cub was actually calling out “Papa” to the youth. Although it was impossible for him to completely say the word, the cub put a lot of effort into making the sound.
As carrying the mermaid cub over to the other cubs was not something they did often, Xie Luan had to try his best to find something that the mermaid cub could lean his back against. After moving the object, he then gently lowered the two cubs down onto the carpet.
Since the mermaid cub could not transform his legs, he was not able to balance his upper body while in a sitting position. Therefore, if the cub did not have anything to support his back, the cub would fall down flat on the ground and wave his tail like the moye cub when he accidentally turned onto his shell while walking.
Seeing the mermaid cub that was brought over by the youth, many of the fluffy cubs who were playing with the cub toys stopped and curiously came closer. Two of the light red fluffballs squatting in the tree also flapped their wings and flew over to Xie Luan and the mermaid cub.
“Tiuh-tiuh?” One of them landed on Xie Luan’s shoulder and looked down at the mermaid cub sitting on the ground below, then doubtfully called out to Xie Luan.
“Little Gale can come over and play with you now, he didn’t come over before because he was afraid to leave the water.” Xie Luan smiled and used a finger to lightly stroke the little fluffballs head and explained it to the kuhti cub.
“Tiuh!”
The kuhti cub rubbed his beak against the youth’s finger and chirped in response.
The cub had actually always thought that the mermaid cub’s ice blue tail was very beautiful. But even when the kuhti cub grew up, he would be a master of the sky, not the water.
So, when it came to water, this little fluffball did not dare to touch, and at most could only watch from the edge.
The kuhti cub therefore now took the opportunity and flapped his wings, leaving Xie Luan’s shoulders and landing in front of the mermaid cub. Several other fluffy cubs who were curious about the mermaid cub, saw this scene and also walked over.
Before, when most of the cubs at Yunbao branch had been in contact with the mermaid cub, he had been in a small bucket. So this was the first that they could clearly see his shiny ice blue tail.
Shiny and bright beautiful things were always very interesting to cubs and soon, several fluffy cubs were nestled close by, watching the ice blue tail.
Perhaps because the mermaid cub was not used to being watched by so many cubs, the cub moved his ice blue tail and lightly slapped the ground.
But it was not that the mermaid cub was unhappy, you could see from the slight movement of the tail’s fin that the cub was in fact very excited.
Looking at the mermaid cub playing with the other cubs, out of the present adults Xia Qi was probably the one who was most deeply touched.
In the beginning, even though the mermaid cub had to leave the water for a short while as they changed it, the cub was too terrified. He was struggling so hard that it had been impossible for the cub to interact with the other cubs while in that state.
However, after recognizing the youth as his parent, the mermaid cub now seemed to have overcome his fear of leaving the water and could play with the other cubs. This made all the caretakers at Yunbao branch very happy.
If there was anything left worth pitying, it was probably the cub’s voice…..
Xia Qi knew that the mermaid cub had been abandoned on Gaia by his family because he couldn’t speak and hearing how the cub tried to call out to the youth, this feeling squeezing her heart deepened.
Although this assumption was somewhat unrealistic, Xia Qi believed that if one day, their club’s cub could regain his voice, then he would be able to sing with the best and most beautiful voice.
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Translator’s note:
Many thanks to Cristya for the coffees! ❤️❤️❤️
I’m a bit curious about the “ma” and “pa” thing, in Swedish mom is “mamma” and dad is “pappa”, what is it in your language?
Also, I forgot to say this in the note in chapter 33, but thanks to everyone who wished me good luck on the exams and for all the encouragements. It actually went unexpectedly well, I hope it will go just as well next week too. (Although one of the exams is on physics so I doubt it :/)
[1] – Lingua Franca is a language build from pieces of other languages and it acts as a universal language.
In Portuguese it is “mãe” (mother), “mamãe” (mommy) and “pai” (father), “papai” (daddy). So the “ma” and “pa” idea works 😉
Thanks for the chapter!!!!!!! 🙂
In hungarian, it’s the grandparents who are refered to as mama (grandma) and papa (grandpa). [But for grandpa i think ”tata” is more widely used.]
Also, if a mother calls her parents mama and papa in front of her child, she is refering to her parents (although with a different meaning). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Mother here is ”anya” while father is ”apa” (papa without a p ?)
In Filipino, we go with “Nanay” for mother and “Tatay” for father. But mama and papa are widely use as well.
Thank you for the update! Physics sure is pretty hard so hoping for a great luck on your exam.
In Latin Spanish (Mexico) mom is “Mamá” and dad is “Papá”…
Thanks for the chapter.
Mom is “maman” and dad is “papa” in french
In German it is Mama (Mom) and Papa (Dad), Mutter (Mother), Vater (Father) and Mutti (something like Mommy) and Vati (like Daddy)
In Vietnamese for me, it’s Ma, and Ba for mom and dad respectively.
The syllables and sounds are actually quite similar!