Mermaid Feeding Rules

"...My hands are covered in blood, and I will go to **** when I die."

"I'm guilty, but I think..."

The last sentence of the letter was crossed out by the author with a pen. Boyce looked at the unfinished half sentence on the paper. What did Blake want to say?

"I think... she's alive?" Boyce tried to complete this sentence, but the content added was a bit strange, he always felt that this sentence should have nothing to do with s-5.

Boyce folded the letter again, hesitated, and put the letter in Zooey's notebook and put it under the pillow.

Boyce did not open it, but found Black's notebook from the previous data.

Before Black, the breeder of s-5 was Kane Cotter, who was friendly to mermaids and was called "broodstock" at the time. He and s-5 got along peacefully for half a year, but in the data description s- 5 During that time, he just had no aggressive intentions and ignored Kane who tried to get close to him.

It was not until half a year later that Kane was dragged into the water by the s-5 several times. The last time Kane said: "She was very anxious, and I even felt her killing intent."

Kane had been at the heart of the institute at the time, and the director stopped his work as a breeder and handed it over to Blake, who was a junior at the time.

In Black's records, this senior was occasionally mentioned in the early stage, and in the few words that were leaked occasionally, it can be speculated that he participated in several major experiments in the institute.

But Boyce knew very little about him, and the last information stayed in the sentence "Kane Cotter intends to steal important experimental subjects and give him a punishment" from decades ago.

Important subject...what is it?

There is also a slight mention in Blake's record, after Kane's incident, he described it as "meaningless and incomprehensible behavior", but was vague about the specific event.

Boyce also found that Black, who was favored by s-5, was not a "broodstock", in contrast, his attitude toward mermen was even disgusting at the beginning of the recording.

"…Today I pulled out a scale to test the difference in efficacy between fresh scales and naturally shed scales. The fish tail was collected and placed in the refrigerator in the xc room because the scales were pulled out and bleed. …”

"...I checked the oral cavity today, and the s-5 is somewhat uncooperative. The total number of teeth is 32...the vocal cords are similar to humans..."

"...s-5 attacked other researchers, I shouldn't think it has been domesticated, but, just like humans have domesticated livestock in the past, I believe humans will one day tame it..."

"...The reason why s-5 is friendly to me? Probably the same as the stray cat that touches people on the road, right?"

"...The first time I heard it make a sound, it kept repeating the word Sofia. No one in the research institute mentioned this word, excluding the possibility of learning tongues, maybe it's a cry within their race?"

"…"

Boyce turned many pages, and in the first few years of his job as a breeder, his attitude towards the s-5 improved slightly because of its appearance - which he described many times in the records, and lamented This face is on the body of a half-man, half-fish monster.

"...Senior Kane said that it has its own thoughts and feelings. Maybe it's an unrealistic guess that came from staying with it for a long time? However, the researchers who are busy extracting drugs from it have no time to pay attention to these..."

It was Kane who first suggested that mermaids had their own minds and feelings, but Black dismissed such speculation.

So, what happened later that changed his perception?

Boyce was curious about the reason. Black’s records in his youth were long and interspersed with what happened in many research institutes. Boyce didn’t see the part of Kane leaving the laboratory until the early hours of the morning.

Considering the next day's work, Boyce put a bookmark, closed the record, and lay down to rest.

"Sofia—" Boyce thought of the word, puzzled.

Is this word their cry?

But Boyce also thinks it is unlikely that the s-5, which is hostile to humans, and the reason why it treats Black, who hates itself, will have something to do with this word?

In a sense, Boyce felt that the s-37 could barely treat him as a special treat.

During this time, Boyce had heard a lot of rumors about s-37 intimidating or attacking breeders. Every s-37 breeder had experienced it, except Boyce.

However, Boyce has only been with it for a week, and more often sees it across the fish tank. It is unclear whether it is acting for the same reason as the s-5 decades ago, or is just acting and waiting for him to relax. alert.

In any case, it's always right to take protective measures... Boyce took the protective suit from Group C that was said to be able to handle the bite force of sharks, and walked towards the warehouse.

s-37 didn't touch the fish that Boyce threw in the tank yesterday.

The fish that was not caught before had begun to rot, Boyce hesitated, and threw the fish back into the bucket.

Other subjects ate a lot after being injured, but it was different.

Boyce didn't know whether s-37 stopped eating because the wound affected his appetite or did not eat carrion, but if it was the former, the seawater in the fish tank was changed every seven days, and more and more meat in it would only pollute the water and make the wound worse. .

Caring about the health of the experimental animals is also one of the responsibilities of the breeder... Boyce convinced himself that it has a human face...

Hanging the fish on the hook he had borrowed earlier, Boyce stepped back to the edge of the lift.

s-37 is just the number given to it by the research institute. Boyce didn't know what to call it. After a moment of hesitation, he tentatively changed to "Sofia", no matter what meaning it contained, it should come out after hearing it.

Boyce stared at the surface of the water intently, and when the blue tint appeared, the other hand clenched the anesthesia needle, aiming at the trajectory of its movement.

It wasn't interested in the fish, and it swirled around the piece of fish without moving it. Boyce looked at it, the wound on its tail had been covered with a layer of transparent mucus, and the wound looked better than yesterday. A lot of them have not been infected and have begun to heal, but the scales on the tail have begun to fall off. A small piece has been bald at the tip of the tail, and the scales on other parts are dull and there are signs of falling off.

The injury shouldn't cause the scales to fall off, and since it's into adulthood, there shouldn't be widespread scaling.

Boyce flashed back and found the suspected culprit—the antibiotics it had been injected that night.

No one has ever injected antibiotics into human fish, and the physique of different mermaids is different. Boyce didn't consider the problem of allergies before injecting it.

Although Boyce was also surprised, except for allergies, Boyce could not find other reasons for the time being.

Boyce took his eyes off his tail and landed on the top of his head. If the tail was bald, would the hair be affected?

It didn't know what Boyce was thinking, and it swam up and swam inward.

Boyce thought it was gone, and was about to withdraw the hook when he saw it swimming over with a few pieces of fish, pushed them beside the hook and turned to swim back.

Boyce waited for it to turn around to retrieve the fish on the hook and continue to salvage the fish that it pushed over.

Boyce brought back a piece of fish, and the hook stretched out and was about to salvage the next piece, and it pushed some fish over. Boyce was worried about it's sudden attack, and was going to wait for a while. It went away and continued, but it stopped beside the hook unexpectedly.

Boyce stared at it, poking it with the hook in his hand whenever it came.

But it obediently kept its distance, paused for a while beside the hook, and then picked out the biggest and best piece of fish from the pile of fish beside it and hung it on the hook.

It sees it! When I was salvaging fish yesterday, it quietly watched underwater...

Boyce's pupils widened, and there was a chill in his heart.

The s-37 in the water could vaguely feel the fear surrounding Boyce, flicking its tail irritably, and a few scales fell into the water with its movements.

Its eyes lit up, and it took a few slightly better-looking scales from its tail, dived to a position that Boyce couldn't see, and swam quietly towards the elevator.

Boyce stared at the surface of the water. It was gone. He was still a little uneasy, and the anesthesia was aimed at the fish tank.

A blue head suddenly appeared in front of him, Boyce's hand shook in fright, and the anesthetic needle was fired towards it.

It turned to one side subconsciously, and the anesthesia needle fell into the water.

Boyce lifted his heart, grabbed the iron bar beside him and smashed it towards the two hands on the lift.

“#&*!”

Its right arm was immediately blue and slightly swollen.

Boyce threw the hook aside and held the stick in both hands, hitting it whenever it came.

The right hand held by s-37 opened, and a few dark blue scales fell on the elevator platform. Everyone in the institute wanted its scales, and it thought that Boyce would like it too. After it put down the scales, it glanced at Boyce, turned and jumped down, Boyce actually felt a bit pitiful in its eyes.

Boyce waited a little longer, and seeing that it hadn't appeared, retracted the hook and hesitated before picking up the scale and putting it in his pocket.

As for the fish on the water, wait until you bring an anesthesia needle next time.

—

It was almost ten o'clock when Boyce walked into Group D's laboratory.

Matthew leaned over: "Boyce, you're a little late."

"Because of it?"

"Yes," Boyce thought of the wasted needle, "do you still have any anesthetics?"

"I remember that Ivey applied for two for you?" Matthew was a little surprised, "Have you all used up?"

Boyce shook his head: "I was taken aback by the feeding this morning, and one of the anesthesia needles was wasted." Anyway, no one watched the surveillance in the breeding room, and Boyce quietly changed it, and no one knew.

"Didn't get it?"

"No."

"Then you have to practice hard."

The two were talking together when they saw Cyril approaching.

Matthew immediately put away the smile on his face and stood up straight: "Teacher, I just chatted with Boyce for a while!"

Cyril knew what kind of virtue his student was, and after glaring at him, he let him go to the experiment.

"Professor Cyril." Boyce called out respectfully, curious as to why he called himself here.

Cyril looked at him carefully, with a satisfied smile on his face.

Cyril and Chris' doctoral advisors are the same person, and the two have a good relationship. He has also heard Chris mention his students before. This group D experiment was originally just to let Boyce know about it, but he gave it to him. Surprise yourself.

Cyril said bluntly: "I am very interested in the ideas you mentioned in the experimental results. I don't know if you are willing to join my laboratory."