Chapter 5

What’s pain to Lance? He thought to himself, he still had five fingernails left, so why not keep digging the escape tunnel?

With that thought, Lance felt like he was truly a tragic hero, resilient in spirit.

What’s it matter to turn into a mermaid? What’s it matter to be imprisoned as a pet by an octopus? What’s it matter if his fingernails were split?

None of it was a big deal!

But in reality, no matter how resilient his spirit was, his body was honestly reacting with discomfort.

Lance’s webbed claws were inflamed.

And because of the inflammation, Lance was too lazy to eat, and he was moving around less and less.

So, one day, when the tentacle was ready to feed him again, it discovered that the piece of arm it had previously fed him hadn’t moved at all, and its little fish was actually gone.

At that moment, the tentacle’s first reaction was that it was over; the little fish had escaped.

It anxiously swirled around inside the coral bone, and only then did it remember that Lance had previously dug an escape tunnel.

The tentacle hurriedly crawled over to the piece of arm, moved it aside, and unexpectedly saw a bit of white, gauzy tail fin drifting out from the hole.

If it could humanize its feelings, the tentacle would probably let out a long sigh.

After finding Lance, the tentacle tried to touch Lance’s tail fin, hoping to coax him out.

But this little fish, which usually jumped around at the slightest touch, didn’t respond at all this time.

The drifting tail fin just hung there, swaying with the current, as if it were dead.

The tentacle naturally thought of the worst possible outcome.

After hesitating for a few seconds, the tentacle extended a few thin tendrils into the hole.

Once it grabbed Lance’s body, the tentacle carefully dragged the little fish out from the narrow opening.

Lance was sick.

That was the conclusion the tentacle reached.

The little white mermaid was usually full of energy and curiosity; even when scared, he would stubbornly find a way to do what he thought he should do.

For the tentacle, which had been decaying in the flow of time, the lively white mermaid was immensely attractive.

But now, this vibrant life was slowly withering away.

The white mermaid lay on the white seabed, a faint pink hue rising on his body.

Under normal circumstances, the white mermaid should have been pure white and flawless, with each scale radiating a shimmering glow, but now, not only was his little fish running a fever, but several scales on his waist had also fallen off, exposing the flesh beneath.

The tentacle tentatively touched Lance’s back, but even so, Lance still hadn’t woken up.

After checking around, the tentacle finally discovered that the culprit was indeed Lance’s split fingernails.

This stubborn little fish, even when hurting himself, was still thinking about his grand escape.

Now, his fingernails were already a bloody mess, but he didn’t care at all.

Until today, Lance finally couldn’t hold on any longer.

Perhaps it was for a sense of security, but before losing consciousness, Lance secretly hid himself in the narrow hole.

The tentacle once again felt the smallness and fragility of other lives.

“ai——ya——”

In his unconscious state, Lance unconsciously mumbled a few words. The tentacle heard it and wrapped around, gently touching Lance’s face.

The cold, sticky sensation made Lance furrow his brows even in his sleep.

The tentacle “looked” for a moment and then gently left.

……

Time passed, though Lance didn’t know how long it had been, he finally woke up.

During his unconsciousness, Lance felt very uncomfortable, as if someone had put him on a fire to roast, tragically becoming a roasted fish.

The person roasting him didn’t quite grasp the heat, making Lance feel one side was particularly hot while the other was freezing cold.

Lance was in a daze, his mind wandering to how to roast fish best.

He felt himself being moved; was it time to flip the roasted fish?

What should he add at this moment, cumin or something else?

Then, he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his hand, but because of the fever, all his senses were dulled, so Lance just vaguely thought it was time to cut the fish fins.

Finally, a cool sensation covered his fingertips, and that coolness instantly flowed through his veins, extinguishing the heat.

At last, Lance let out a long sigh of relief.

Was the roasted fish finished? Drinking a glass of ice-cold cola at this moment would indeed be the most enjoyable thing.

After that, Lance’s consciousness finally relaxed; he transformed into a little fish, disappearing into the darkness.

Now, waking up, Lance found himself inside a sea anemone.

He instinctively raised his hand and discovered that his swollen, red fingertips were wrapped in a layer of brown seaweed.

Lance sniffed; a refreshing scent wafted from his fingertips.

Under the brown seaweed was a layer of seaweed mud.

Did the tentacle do all this?

Lance was quite surprised; he didn’t think the tentacle could do such delicate work.

Besides being wrapped in seaweed, his fingertips were also tied in a small knot.

With more and more questions in his heart, Lance stealthily swam out from the sea anemone.

He first took a glance at the piece of arm, and after confirming it was still in place, Lance finally felt relieved. Then he turned his gaze upward—

That glance made Lance hold his breath.

Above the coral bone, a blue flame had appeared at some unknown time.

To be precise, it was a transparent little fish glowing with blue fluorescence.

Surrounding it was a circular coral bone, and the shadows of fish schools floated by, the blue glow forming patches of cloud-like shadows, making this place as wondrous and dreamy as Alice in Wonderland.

What made Lance unable to help but glance over was a figure among the blue flames.

It was a mermaid.

A black-tailed mermaid.

Lance’s gaze fell on the other’s black fish tail.

Like him, the other’s gauzy tail fin was long, but compared to his, it was even more exaggerated, drifting in the water, looking like a stream of ink spreading out.

The black scales on the fish tail refracted a layer of purple light as they swayed, adding a hint of sinister meaning.

Lance’s gaze extended upward; he could see from the other’s gentle tail movements that whether it was the waist or the muscles on the fish tail, they stretched and extended, shaped like a bowstring ready to be released, filled with the unique sense of power of a beast.

Not long after Lance stared at him, the black-tailed mermaid seemed to sense it and immediately looked down at Lance.

Lance blinked his eyes below, his expression dazed, momentarily unsure if this was an illusion.

He didn’t know whether to call the other his kind.

Instead, the other seemed very interested in Lance; he remained silent, swaying his fish tail, turning his body, and slowly sinking.

As he sank, a cluster of blue flames was also brought down.

The black-tailed mermaid, holding a blue flame, came before Lance.

That poor little fish was caught in front of Lance; it kept shimmering with ghostly light in the water, and even when released by the black-tailed mermaid, it didn’t dare to escape, instead staying in front of Lance, not daring to move.

Lance: “……”

He tilted his head; compared to the little fish, he was more interested in the black-tailed mermaid.

With the help of the blue glow, Lance could finally take a close look at the appearance of the black-tailed mermaid.

It was a face that Lance couldn’t describe.

It wasn’t that the face was stunningly beautiful, but he had to admit that the black-tailed mermaid was more breathtaking than any human Lance had ever seen.

His contours and the proportions of his features were perfectly balanced, completely conforming to the golden ratio, perfectly merging sharpness with classical beauty. However, because it was too perfect, this face looked nothing like a human face.

After staring for a while, Lance couldn’t think of any suitable words to praise it, and a question inevitably floated in his mind—

Was this black-tailed mermaid really not a demon in a beautiful disguise, here to take him to hell?

Seeing that Lance was just staring blankly and not going for the little fish, the black-tailed mermaid tilted his head, thinking Lance was being picky, so he picked up the shimmering blue flame little fish, swiped his left hand, and the fish turned into several pieces of crystal-clear fish fillets.

Immediately, Lance felt something cool and soft touch his lips.

He instinctively opened his mouth and ate that thing.

The icy, slightly fishy taste filled his mouth, but after chewing for a while, it strangely carried a hint of fruity fragrance.

Fish fillet?

Lance was conquered by this strange taste and immediately took the piece of fish meat, eagerly biting into it like a hungry little bird.

The shadow in front of him let out a light laugh, and after feeding him a few times, he extended his finger, tentatively wanting to touch Lance’s face.

When his finger touched the coolness of Lance’s face, Lance remembered what he should do, so he quickly chewed a few times, swallowed the fish fillet in his mouth, and then eagerly asked:

“zi——”

Who are you?

The black-tailed mermaid slowly spoke, uttering a few syllables.

Strangely, even though Lance clearly heard the black-tailed mermaid uttering a few similar single-syllable sounds, in Lance’s ears, the black-tailed mermaid was speaking Mandarin.

The black-tailed mermaid said:

“You can call me ‘Wensir’.”

Lance was instantly shocked, and after a moment, his eyes sparkled:

“My name is Lance.”

He was so happy that he forgot everything else, and then he immediately swam around the black-tailed mermaid excitedly, asking:

“You’re also a mermaid… I’m also a mermaid… Brother, did you also turn into one? We…”

Lance was so excited he was rambling, circling around the black-tailed mermaid joyfully like a little dog.

Humans are like this; no matter how dangerous the situation is, as long as they find their kind, it’s as if they can share the danger and fear.

The black-tailed mermaid’s eyes revealed a smile, and he sighed:

“It seems your illness is cured.”

Lance was taken aback for a moment, then he realized:

“Did you give me medicine?”

The black-tailed mermaid, Wensir, nodded.

Lance looked down at his fingers.

After a moment, Lance lowered his head, his long white tail fin drooping on the sandy surface, his expression downcast:

“I’m sorry.”

Wensir tilted his head, gently touching Lance with his fish tail, and asked:

“What’s wrong?”

Lance suddenly raised his head, his face turning red:

“I’m sorry, you must have been caught by the ‘octopus’ to come treat me.”

In Lance’s logic, the “octopus” had captured Wensir to force him to treat him.

From this perspective, Lance believed he had definitely harmed Wensir!

Upon hearing this, Wensir blinked, his expression momentarily blank:

“……”

His little fish was indeed quite lively.