Chapter 11

Wensir originally thought that even without the company of the little fish, he would be fine. After all, he had been alone for so many years, and he had gotten used to loneliness and solitude.

However, “getting used to” is indeed a terrifying thing.

Just a few days spent with Lance, this chatty little fish, and Wensir had already realized that after losing the constant chatter in his ears, he began to miss the little fish.

The Coral Bone was quiet now, without the lively little fish, Wensir no longer had to worry all day about how to persuade the little fish not to “break out.” But…

What should he do when everything suddenly feels dull?

Wensir lay inside the sea anemone, eyes closed, his stagnant thoughts once again sinking into a state of gloom.

His little fish…

Wensir had once proudly thought that in this ocean, it should be the little fish relying on him, but in the end, he found that he was the one who relied more on the little fish.

He had to admit this point.

Opening his eyes, Wensir looked at the spot where Lance often lay, and there was only a lonely pearl left, lying there all by itself.

Pearl…

Just thinking about it made Wensir both amused and annoyed.

Unable to suppress his loneliness, Wensir had no choice but to swim out from the sea anemone. He awkwardly thought that it had been long enough, and he should have calmed down by now; he needed to go find Lance.

Although Wensir was confident that Lance couldn’t break through the Coral Bone, what if the little fish found another way?

As Wensir emerged, he immediately saw Lance with his back to him, pressed against a certain part of the Coral Bone.

Lance was hanging there, tightly pressed against the Coral Bone.

Wensir froze for a moment, his heart tightening, but after taking a closer look, he let out a sigh of relief.

If it weren’t for Lance’s tail still gently swaying, Wensir would have thought Lance was dead.

Wensir swam over to Lance’s side without making a sound and asked, “What are you doing?”

Lance was startled by Wensir’s sudden approach. He turned his head and saw it was Wensir, and couldn’t help but complain, “Why do you walk so quietly? You scared me to death.”

Walk?

Wensir didn’t say anything; he just gave a meaningful glance at his and Lance’s fish tails.

Lance: “…”

He forgot that he was no longer human.

“N-nothing.”

Lance shifted slightly to block Wensir’s probing gaze.

But now that he was closer to Wensir, Lance couldn’t help but recall yesterday’s “teaching process”—and then, Lance found himself less confident in blocking Wensir’s view. He hesitated for a moment and took a small step back.

Wensir’s eyes narrowed.

There was no need to think; he knew exactly what kind of little tricks Lance was up to.

Wensir leaned in closer and asked firmly, “What are you doing?”

“Nothing at all!”

Lance’s tone trembled, lacking any confidence.

“Mm?”

Wensir raised an eyebrow, “Do you remember what you said before? That you would always listen to me and not resist?”

Hearing this, Lance gloomily nodded and then looked away.

At this moment, Wensir finally saw what Lance had been blocking.

A hole.

The Coral Bone that had been used to enclose them wasn’t completely seamless, so there were various holes of different sizes throughout the Coral Bone wall.

But Wensir wasn’t worried at all that Lance could escape through these holes because they were too small; the largest one could only fit a mermaid’s head.

However, now, Wensir was starting to doubt his previous confidence.

The hole that Lance was blocking was relatively large, just barely big enough for a head to fit through.

Not long after Lance left, a transparent tentacle came in through the hole, trembling as it groped around. After a hard time, it finally hooked onto one of Lance’s hands, and that transparent tentacle immediately became lively, playfully “moving up and down” on Lance.

Lance, however, didn’t feel like he was being taken advantage of at all. It was only when the tentacle aimlessly bumped into his face that he helplessly grabbed the tentacle to stop its movements.

Wensir: “…”

Wensir’s gaze turned dangerous. He remembered that he had just taught Lance how to use infrasound to “chat” yesterday, so he opened the chat group he hadn’t visited in a long time—

【Ahhh! I touched the little fish!】

As soon as he entered, Wensir heard the jellyfish’s scream, which made his head spin.

Lance, holding onto the incoming tentacle, was completely unaware. He looked at Wensir and noticed Wensir frowning, so he hesitated for a moment and tugged at the transparent tentacle in his hand.

The jellyfish was overjoyed. After being tugged by Lance, it even broke its own tentacle:

【Here, here, all for you! If the little fish wants to eat, I have plenty more!】

【Thank you.】

Lance replied, then pulled the transparent tentacle in and asked Wensir, “Do you want to eat?”

Wensir looked at the tentacle in front of him, a vein popping on his forehead. He felt both amused and annoyed by this action:

“You… are you doing this for food?”

The way he said it was just like a husband questioning his wife who had been caught cheating, demanding to know the reason for her infidelity.

To be fair, Wensir had every reason to think this way.

So far, under his care, his little fish had only eaten three things—

Meat tentacles.

Blue flame little fish.

And seaweed.

Lance blinked. Seeing that Wensir wasn’t eating, he took the transparent tentacle and started eating it himself, explaining as he chewed, “Of course not… but it’s one of the reasons.”

Having been underwater for several days, although Lance’s body was very adapted to this raw food and he loved eating blue flame little fish, he missed the various cooked foods he had eaten on land for over twenty years as a human—

If only the jellyfish skin in his mouth had vinegar and soy sauce, he really liked it cold.

As he chewed on the tentacle, Lance noticed Wensir’s face growing darker, so he hurriedly explained, “Don’t scare the jellyfish; it’s our ally.”

“Ally?”

Wensir, who was about to drag the jellyfish away with a tentacle, froze for a moment. He stopped his actions, curious as he repeated, his voice confused.

“Yeah.”

Lance had no idea he shouldn’t reveal this secret. He explained to Wensir, “I turned it to my side; it helps me.”

Wensir fell silent.

After a moment, Wensir emphasized, “It’s a jellyfish, 95% of its body is water. What can it help you with?”

Lance silently looked away.

Since Wensir had always opposed his escape, Lance didn’t plan to tell Wensir what he really wanted to do.

However, he wasn’t a good person either; he was just sacrificing his “appearance” to trick the jellyfish.

The jellyfish could do many things, like chatting, extracting information, warning about tentacle movements, attracting attention, and even helping to dig outside.

Lance had even made a deal with the jellyfish, which had already called its friend—

It was said that a super large mutated sperm whale was coming.

In a few days, when the sperm whale arrived, it would crash through the Coral Bone, hiding Lance and Wensir in its mouth to escape to the shallow sea.

【Deep-sea creatures rarely go to shallow waters.】

The jellyfish told Lance during their chat, 【After you come out, just come live in the shallow sea with me. I have other friends there; I won’t imprison you.】

Lance readily agreed.

【But the sperm whale swims a bit slowly.】

The jellyfish somewhat shyly told Lance about this issue, 【It has to swim from another trench; you’ll have to wait a few days.】

Lance said it was no problem and planned to use these few days to do some digging.

Digging, or “nb,” as it was known.

As everyone knows, escaping from prison has been a tradition since ancient times.

Generally, people would choose one of two paths:

One is to eliminate obstacles, leading to wall-breaking, making keys, etc.

The other is to bypass obstacles, so some would dig the soil under the wall and advance around it.

Lance decided that “nb” meant digging a passage under the outer layer of the Coral Bone plates.

At this point in the escape, Lance felt that he was worthy of a heroic ballad, deserving to be made into a drama.

As for why Lance didn’t think about persuading Wensir to help him dig, the reason was that he couldn’t imagine Wensir, with that face, going to dig like him.

What would happen if Wensir got all muddy?

In the remaining time, Lance chatted with the jellyfish, and interestingly, he found that although the jellyfish seemed brainless, it was quite clever.

The jellyfish told Lance: 【Don’t say you’re a mermaid.】

Lance perked up: 【Can the chat group be anonymous?】

【What?】

The jellyfish didn’t understand; it couldn’t comprehend slightly more complex vocabulary.

Seeing this situation, Wensir helplessly explained to Lance, “The infrasound frequencies of different creatures in the ocean are different. The slightly smarter ones can remember the frequencies and know who is who. And since you’re new, they definitely don’t know who you are.”

Lance nodded and asked, “Wensir, say something in there; I want to remember your frequency.”

Wensir’s expression became a bit strange. He simply said one word: “No.”

Then, Wensir told Lance, “I’m going to sleep. If you want to eat, catch it yourself; you don’t need to call me.”

“Okay.”

Lance was particularly obedient, “I’ll just chat with the jellyfish.”

Wensir nodded, swished his tail, and prepared to leave. But just as he was about to leave, he suddenly turned back and reminded, “Don’t try to go out from above; the tentacles are still there.”

“Mm.”

Lance asked worriedly, “Wensir, you eat and sleep every day. Aren’t you afraid of getting fat?”

Although he was also curious about what it would be like for a mermaid to get fat.

Wensir looked so good; he would definitely look good even if he got fat.

Wensir: “…”

He swam back to the sea anemone with a dark face.

In fact, Wensir wasn’t really going to sleep.

He needed to deal with the mutated sperm whale.

Although Wensir was the lord of the ocean and the lord of the abyss, without a fixed form, he could become whatever he wanted, but that didn’t mean he could divide a lot of energy to shape another “self” while maintaining this body.

This little fish was indeed hard to raise.

To prevent the little fish from escaping, Wensir felt that the effort he had put in these past few days was far more than all the time he had spent before.

Wensir hadn’t expected Lance to seek outside help.

To prevent Lance from getting any ideas, he needed to change the current of the mutated sperm whale so it wouldn’t come here.

As for the jellyfish outside…

Forget it, if the jellyfish suddenly disappeared, it would make the little fish sad. He would deal with it in a few days.