The merman’s “maintenance log”

For the sake of caution, as Bai Ling descended the stairs, his footsteps were so light they made virtually no sound.

The basement corridor was dimly lit, save for a faint green light glowing at the base of the far wall. It was a safety indicator, signifying that the facilities here were operating normally. But Bai Ling knew that within this seemingly calm corridor lay a dense web of infrared lasers; a single reckless step, and a human body would be brutally sliced into pieces.

Using such a mechanism to imprison one’s own grandfather was truly excessive. Using it against a “seasoned fox” like himself, however, made more sense.

Bai Ling focused his mind, concentrating into his visual perception. Raptors are highly sensitive to spectra like ultraviolet and infrared in the air; they can rapidly change the shape of their lenses to see light invisible to the ordinary human eye. In his sight, the interlaced lasers became perfectly clear.

His mouth’s corner curved upward. He calculated the angles and suddenly crouched low, his back tensed in the starting stance of a hurdler. Then, with a small sonic boom-like sound, nimble and agile, a gust of wind swept through. When the view cleared at the end of the hallway, Bai Ling was standing steadily by the door.

He extended his arms, performing a quick muscle stretch.

Today’s warm-up: complete.

Though the steel door before him was precisely engineered and bulletproof, Bai Ling removed a small feather-clipped hairpin from his head, bit it open with his teeth, bent it into a wire, and picked the digital lock in record time.

The moment he pushed the door open, the man by the bed bolted upright, a fist whistling through the air in a vicious strike. Bai Ling twisted his waist to dodge; the fist slammed into the doorframe with a heavy thud, accompanied by a sharp curse: “You unfilial brat, you actually dare to hide!”

“Take a good look at who I am.”

Zhuo Liangmu was startled by that clear, cold voice. He turned his head and met by a shock of inorganic white hair. It certainly wasn’t the red hair traditional to his family. Having practiced medicine for many years, he judged instantly: “An albino type?”

Bai Ling gave a lukewarm “mm,” unsurprised by the recognition. In this country, there were indeed many birds born with white feathers, but pure, flawless white was rare. Most carried the colors of their original species on other parts of their plumage. For instance, a crane’s body is white but its crown is red and black; a Crane-species’ hair would look like a Neapolitan ice cream.

Zhuo Liangmu remained wary, moving toward a chair as if to pick it up and smash it. Bai Ling glanced at him and found that this “grandfather” was exceptionally well-preserved, looking only like a middle-aged man in his forties. His arm muscles were visible, and he even seemed to have a bit of… a violent streak.

“Did Zhuo Dong send you? You tell him to crawl all the way here on his knees to see me, otherwise, I’ll die before I ever pass the family estate to him!”

Zhuo Dong… Pecking a hole.

The naming conventions of this family were certainly vivid.

Bai Ling pulled out the X-ray. Zhuo Liangmu glanced at it suspiciously, then turned pale with shock, nearly dropping to his knees on the spot.

“So it was… it was that person who sent you. Please sit, please, sit down.”

Having served The One for over thirty years, how could he not recognize that unique skeletal structure? The anatomy of a merman differs significantly from ordinary Sub-species; in human form, the sharp dorsal fins retract into the inner side of the spine, forming a row of tiny hooks like scimitars growing backward on the vertebrae.

Zhuo Liangmu roared in fury: “While I’ve been gone, has Zhuo Dong done something monstrous? If you’ve been alerted, it must mean there’s a problem with the medication!”

“To produce such a brat… the Woodpecker family is truly unfortunate. Once I’m out, I’ll kick him out of the house and tell him to get as far away as possible with that penniless girl!”

Bai Ling’s eyes flickered. “Penniless girl?”

Zhuo Liangmu huffed and puffed as he explained the situation. It turned out the Woodpecker family was down to just the two of them, grandfather and grandson. They had relied on each other, lived a lavish life, and spent their days in simple stability.

But one day, the Little Woodpecker went to the plaza to set up a stall as usual, providing free consultations and medicine to the poor, and brought back a pregnant homeless woman. Bai Ling recalled his past life wandering the plaza; he had indeed seen a young doctor who frequently handed out free cold and fever medicine. In that case, the Little Woodpecker should be a kind-hearted person.

“Sigh, that brat occasionally brought people back for free treatment, and I didn’t think much of it. But I didn’t expect that pregnant woman to stay in the clinic for two months. Even after her injuries healed, she wouldn’t leave, wanting to stay as a nursing assistant.”

Zhuo Liangmu grew angry just thinking about it. “Fine, be an assistant then. But then I caught her and my grandson hooking up, and suddenly they’re talking about a shotgun wedding!”

He slammed the table in rage. “Tell me, isn’t that biting the hand that fed her? A total ungrateful wolf! That woman came from the slums, she’s even a bit mentally deficient, she stutters when she speaks. How could she be the Missus of this clinic?”

Bai Ling understood. “So you played the part of the family elder breaking up the lovers.”

Zhuo Liangmu snorted. “Of course. I’m his grandfather. I’ve lived a long time; I’ve seen more people than he’s pecked trees. I suspected that woman had ill intentions, that she was faking her misery to scam him. That brat stood before me, meekly begging for my blessing, and then the very next day he had someone lock me in here.”

He let out a long sigh, eyes wide with enough fury to wish he could squeeze his grandson back into an egg.

Bai Ling said coldly: “I came to verify something. Regarding the medicine for The One, I suspect someone has tampered with it.”

Zhuo Liangmu rolled up his sleeves. “The medicine is all stored in the lab. I’ll take you to see it immediately.”

With Bai Ling’s guidance, Zhuo Liangmu crossed the laser array unscathed. Inside the elevator, he was still loudly cursing his grandson, insulting eighteen generations of his ancestors, seemingly unbothered by the fact that he was one of those generations.

This Old Woodpecker seems to be quite a character.

Zhuo Liangmu didn’t hide his explosive temper; instead, he said proudly: “Ever heard of Gatling? That was my great-great-great-great grandfather.”

Bai Ling was silent for a moment. He had heard of the “prestige” of “Life-Saving Gatling.” Gatling was the inventor who developed the machine gun but was also a military doctor. Legend has it he couldn’t bear to see his own soldiers suffering casualties, so he invented a weapon with greater lethality so one soldier could fight ten, reducing the number of wounded at the source.

A true master of both medicine and war.

Zhuo Liangmu laughed heartily: “I emulated my ancestor in my youth, following the fleet to the front lines as a combat medic. I handled guns sometimes too. I miss those days, especially when it was hot and the soldiers’ wounds would get infested with maggots. I’d take tweezers and pull them out one by one. That feeling… pure bliss!”

Bai Ling: “……”

Luckily, I didn’t eat before coming here.

Zhuo Liangmu looked him up and down again. “Little friend, seeing how straight you walk, you’re a soldier too, aren’t you? How’s the medic in your unit? Can they fight?”

Bai Ling didn’t correct him; the standard for a combat medic shouldn’t be their fighting prowess. He thought back to a female doctor named Hai Mian, a top student who had joined the revolutionary army. She had many resources and was quite generous with his prescriptions. “Not exactly a fighter, but she was very… enthusiastic about giving out drugs.”

A three-day supply of painkillers, she’d give him in one. It sounded unreliable, but on a battlefield where every second counted, it was a desperate necessity.

Zhuo Liangmu frowned and immediately stated: “I do not approve of such crude methods.”

Bai Ling shrugged noncommittally, knowing a medical dinasty would be more traditional.

The laboratory had a specialized inner vault for storing medicine bottles. Its security was as tight as a bank’s, especially the rows of safes against the walls; it felt very much like walking into a treasury. In this clinic, the medication formulated for each major client had to be stored separately.

Zhuo Liangmu opened The One’s safe and pulled out a thick stack of medical records. The early pages were yellowed and curled at the edges, while the later parts were clipped with various test reports; it looked like a well-used scrapbook.

Bai Ling stared blankly at that yellowing notebook.

Inside it were the details of Izu Paraiso’s life and pains. It was, quite literally, the merman’s “maintenance log”.

The medicine bottles were kept further back. Zhuo Liangmu pulled out a large brown glass bottle and unscrewed the cap to look inside. It was filled with plain white capsules; no abnormalities were visible to the naked eye.

He said, “Let’s just pick ten capsules at random for testing.”

Before the words could even settle, a flurry of urgent footsteps echoed from outside. Before they could turn around, a cold, black muzzle appeared at the door, pointing directly at them—

“Don’t move! Put that down and get away from my grandfather, or I’ll fire!” Zhuo Dong shouted, his voice cracking with desperation.

The moment he heard from the receptionist that someone had come looking for the Old Master, he had grown suspicious. He had floored the throttle of his aircraft to rush back, and sure enough, he had walked right into this scene.

Zhuo Dong held the gun unsteadily, his expression contorted with rage, pointing the muzzle straight at the forehead of the only stranger in the room.

Bai Ling shot a brief glance at the man’s trembling wrist. “Should I not move, or should I get away? Make up your mind.”

Zhuo Dong: “Hands above your head, walk over here slowly.”

Bai Ling felt like laughing. This young master of a medical dynasty clearly had zero training; he hadn’t even told his “enemy” to lace their fingers behind their head or face the wall. He walked over calmly, then with a swift, neutralizing strike, he used a clever bit of leverage to snatch the gun. With a crisp clack, he yanked the magazine release, and the bullets clattered across the floor.

Zhuo Dong was stunned. He looked at Bai Ling, then at his empty hand, unable to comprehend how that moment had just happened.

Zhuo Liangmu burst out cursing: “You little brat! I’m the one who wants to shoot you dead!”

Zhuo Dong said in shock, “Grandfather, weren’t you being held hostage?”

“Hostage my ass! This is my savior.”

“Then who’s the kidnapper?”

“You, you little brat!”

“……”

Zhuo Dong was visibly confused. “…But someone sent a threatening letter saying they were going to hurt you. I had no choice but to lock you up.” He had even set up traps outside to prevent anyone from entering.

Zhuo Liangmu asked incredulously, “What threatening letter? You kept something this big from me?”

A flash of embarrassment crossed Zhuo Dong’s scholarly face. “Grandfather, with your temper, if you saw that foul, insulting letter, you’d be camping out at the door with a gun every day… I didn’t dare take that risk.”

So, this was all just a… misunderstanding born of a grandson trying to protect his grandfather’s safety?

Bai Ling still felt something was off.

Zhuo Dong saw the glass bottle and realized, “Grandfather, are you going to make the medicine? Don’t worry, I’m already formulating next month’s batch.”

Bai Ling, possessing extraordinary vision, took another look at the bottle and suddenly said, “This medicine is wrong.”

Zhuo Liangmu froze. “What do you mean, wrong?”

Bai Ling pinched a capsule, feeling it carefully in his hand. “The texture of the capsules is different. Even though they’re both white, one is matte and the other is glossy. Look for yourselves.”

Zhuo Dong’s expression froze instantly.