Yin Lian looked around. When the mermaids saw her appearing, they swam nearby and said hello. After Yin Lian agreed, he still couldn't tell who the algae student was and suddenly felt very embarrassed.
Mermaids look natural, but in fact their IQs are not low. Although due to different cultural backgrounds and ways of thinking, they sometimes appear to be very naive to humans, but sometimes they are miraculously able to connect to the brain waves of alien races.
This time, the brain waves mysteriously connected very quickly. The mermaids looked at her and quickly guessed her embarrassment. However, they were also very naughty. Instead of taking the initiative to tell her where the algae was, they actually Start teasing her. The mermaids surrounded her through the glass. If it weren't for one layer of separation, it would even be quite oppressive, because mermaids are generally tall.
They teased: "Are you here to see me?" "Are you here to see me?" "I am an algae!" "Don't pretend to be me!"
They were talking like they were singing, but now they were surrounding Yin Lian, and it was like a real-life opera.
Yin Lian said: "Don't tease me. I'm just here to collect materials, and I don't have to find algae. Or you can also talk to me."
Just as he was talking, he saw a mermaid emerging from behind the crowd that was more in line with the researcher's previous description, but with an obviously unhappy expression.
Yin Lian was excited at that time, and immediately felt blessed. He raised his hand and waved to the other party, shouting: "Algae!"
Zaosheng raised his head and looked at her, but his expression turned into one of complete astonishment.
She looked at Yin Lian with some confusion and said, "Can you recognize me?"
Yin Lian said: "It's actually a bit difficult. But it feels like it's you."
The other mermaids immediately made a sound and dispersed. Zaosheng became happy for no reason, and immediately ran into the passage next to him, asking Yin Lian to wait for her at the end of the entrance.
Waiting to meet next to the steps into the water, Zaosheng buried himself in the water, with only a pair of eyes and half of his head exposed. He leaned on the steps and said to Yin Lian very politely: "Li An, what do you want to know? I can continue to give you You tell stories from the sea.”
Yin Lian said: "I want to know the social system there. In return, I will also tell you about our place."
Zaosheng's eyes sparkled under the reflection of the channel lights and water waves. He looked at Yin Lian and talked about the situation on the bottom of the sea. So Yin Lian knew that their society was still in a relatively primitive state and was ruled by the queen. Basically, they have no marriage system. Generally speaking, before the breeding season, a group of the weakest mermaids will be selected for transformation. However, if there are relatively strong mermaids who have a good impression of each other, the weaker one will choose to transform into a male mermaid. This kind of transformation is different from the normal transformation. In a normal transformation, the male mermaid must have multiple arranged partners. Mate, but if it is a relatively powerful male mermaid, you can choose to mate only with the person you want to mate.
...It sounds very chaotic, but Yin Lian also knows that this is their social structure, and the mermaid herself doesn't think there is any problem. If she expresses her opinion, it is purely troublesome.
Yin Lian asked again: "Uncle from the institute is very curious. If I have a chance, I'd like to ask you. Can you choose your own transformation? Will the changes be irreversible?"
After hearing this, Zaosheng seemed to be confused and hesitated for a moment before replying: "Generally speaking, you can choose on your own. However, there will be a few stubborn ones every year who, even though they are weak, refuse to change their form to the ethnic group even if they live or die. Make a contribution. When you encounter this situation, you need to forcefully inject androgen to transform."
Yin Lian was stunned for a moment, and then analyzed the surface information to analyze the hidden information that made her feel very barbaric and even a little unbelievable.
Another meaning of Zaosheng's words is that if it is a weak mermaid, not only will it be forced to transform into a male during the breeding season, but it will not even have the right to choose a mate, and it will directly suffer from multiple people. Compulsive mating. This is a very serious crime in the eyes of humans no matter which world they are from, but the algae takes it as a matter of course, but it is like the weak mermaid acting unreasonably.
After Yin Lian thought carefully, she slowly realized the horror in this.
But she didn't even try to argue with Zaosheng about human rights.
The so-called human rights are the rights that most contemporary people with influence on society recognize as the rights that humans should have. In other words, human rights depend on two factors: "people" and "concepts of the times." Without these two foundations, talking about human rights in vain is of no value.
However, she was still a little curious whether what Zaosheng said was her personal concept, or whether it was a concept generally recognized by their entire society. However, Zaosheng's own point of view was already very clear, so Yin Lian did not continue to ask further, but asked about another matter that she was very concerned about.
"So, what do you use to determine the strength of a citizen?"
Zaosheng said: "This is more complicated. But generally speaking, it depends on personal ability or social status."
“Who decides the list of transitions each year?”
Zaosheng said: "After determining the population that has reached the breeding age each year, we will gather those who have created the least social value among the local working-age people that year, usually about five times the number of transfer quotas, and then compete, and the bottom five will be ranked. One of those is converting the roster.”
Yin Lian: "..."
From these words, Yin Lian sensed the mermaid's bellicosity and strength. There was some concern in her heart, so she asked: "Do you only look at combat effectiveness? Don't look at other qualities?"
Zaosheng said: "The competition list has been screened."
Yin Lian fell silent immediately.
After a while, she asked: "Are you strong in your race?"
Zaosheng said arrogantly: "It is impossible to be on the list in this life. I can talk to you humans on behalf of the Queen."
Yin Lian was surprised and said, "But you didn't even bring any entourage."
Zaosheng was very confused: "My fighting power is very strong and I can handle most situations. Why do I need to bring people with me?"
The two chatted like this for a while, and Yin Lian told Zaosheng some things about human society. Zaosheng obviously doesn't understand some things about human beings, and often makes confused inquiries, but this does not affect her curiosity and exploration at all.
Yin Lian thought about it, but still didn't explore why she chose to change before, and then reversed the change on her own.
Zaosheng asked: "Are all of you humans monogamous?"
Yin Lian replied: "Mostly. Maybe there are some who are independent. As long as they don't interfere with others and don't conflict with each other, the government won't care about them."
Zaosheng asked: "What about you? Are you following the rules, or are you unique?"
Yin Lian smiled and said, "I haven't reached the age of reproduction yet. In your language, I'm still a cub."
This time it was Zaosheng who was surprised. She observed Yin Lian for a while and said, "You don't look much smaller than them."
Yin Lian said: "I grow up quickly...but humans look at age. I'm still young."
Zaosheng didn't speak for a while.
Seeing her silence, Yin Lian took the initiative to find a topic and said, "I think your kingdom must be very interesting, but it's a pity that I can't visit it with my own eyes."
But Zaosheng suddenly said: "Okay. If you want to see it, I can help you do it."
Yin Lian: "...!?" She thought for a moment and emphasized, "I can't live in the water."
In fact, ordinary people may not be able to dive deep under the sea, but Yin Lian actually has some tricks up his sleeve. If she was being led by a mermaid, there would still be no problem for her to protect herself with the entire protective shield.
But even if she could, she had no intention of doing so. Although Zaosheng and her companions are still very friendly now, who knows what will happen if they really enter the kingdom of mermaids? Who can ensure that all merfolk are as friendly as the ones here at the base?
She wouldn't take the chance.
But I heard Zaosheng say: "Just use a camera. Do you want to use ours or your own?"
Yin Lian didn't expect that she was talking about this method. After thinking about it, she felt that it was a good idea - at least it was full of temptation for Yin Lian, making it difficult for her to refuse.
She agreed.
After that, Yin Lian built an underwater camera with the highest performance and strongest stability that was currently available. Zaosheng hung it on his body and took it into the sea.
Yin Lian knew that mermaids were very fast in the water, and also knew that Zaosheng himself was considered the best among mermaids, but he still underestimated her speed.
After a brief acceleration, she sprinted across the sea as fast as lightning. There was no sunlight in the deep sea. Fortunately, the lens Yin Lian bought was very effective. Zaosheng specially opened it for her under Yin Lian's guidance. Developed a deep-sea night vision effect, allowing her to see a blue-purple deep-sea world through a rather strange lens.
In this deep sea world, various light spots occasionally appear. If you look carefully, you will find that they are various fluorescent creatures. When Zaosheng passed by, she saw a small school of fish, which happened to be her favorite snack. However, she realized that human beings lived very elegant lives and Yin Lian might not like the way she looked when eating, so she held back and let the fish go. group.
Yin Lianguang estimated the speed of the algae from the moving speed of the scenery, and felt that her speed might exceed 100 kilometers per hour, but it was only a rough estimate - she was not a professional in this field. This kind of estimate There will definitely be quite a bit of error.
But even so, it's already amazing.
After about forty minutes of such a boring parade, Yin Lian finally saw more cold light sources gathered together, which looked like a city.
The moment she saw it, she couldn't help but open her eyes in shock.
She had imagined what a mermaid city would look like, and had various imaginations based on Zaosheng's descriptions, but what she saw in front of her was still far beyond her expectations.
The Dragon Palace has had a strong presence in stories since ancient times, but Yin Lian never took the legend seriously. In her opinion, the legendary Crystal Palace is very unreal.
But looking at it now, the mermaid city is even more shocking than the Crystal Palace - all the houses, large and small, are essentially giant pearl shells, or creations similar to pearl shells, but the surface is colorful. It complements the brightly colored corals next to it, and there are cold light sources of different sizes in the middle. Although it still doesn't look as bright as the Xiating base or the land during the day, it is completely different from the dimness on the road.
Not long after the algae approached the underwater town, it suddenly rushed into a long pedestrian passage, like a pedestrian passage in a human city.
