After everyone digested Gu Lin’s words, they quickly understood.

Song Ran yawned and said, “Let me summarize the key information the xiaogui provided.”

“One, there are real mermaids in Mermaid Town. According to that Doctor Yu, there’s likely only one real mermaid, but this mermaid is too cunning, so it’s hidden away.

“Two, the mermaid town mayor wants to use Zhuang Mu’s serum to transform the xiaogui into a little mermaid, which means Zhuang Mu’s serum can also transform mermaids. The possibility of him being a real mermaid is very high. The most dangerous place is the safest place. Hiding in plain sight makes it even less likely for people to be suspicious. Moreover, his fishtail is very complete, which adds another piece of evidence that he is a real mermaid.

“Three, there’s another mermaid in Doctor Yu’s secret room, but it’s not open to the public. What’s so special about that mermaid? Could it be the real mermaid?”

After summarizing, Song Ran stroked his chin thoughtfully: “I think there’s only one truth. The real mermaid is either that young man Zhuang Mu, or the mermaid in the secret room.”

Song Ran’s summary was very thorough. Lin Xingchi, Su Qiao, and Xia Xue all nodded in agreement.

The Double-Cap Big Shot, in a lazy tone, said: “‘He’s too cunning by nature, so…he’s hidden away.'”

He slowly repeated this sentence.

Hearing the Big Shot speak, everyone perked up, quietly pricking up their ears, their gazes shifting, focusing on listening to the Big Shot speak.

This time, the Double-Cap Big Shot didn’t disappoint everyone. He didn’t just stop after a few words like the previous times: “This sentence can be understood in different ways. One is that the mermaid is too cunning, so it actively hid itself.”

He paused, then continued, “Two is that someone is too cunning, so they hid the mermaid.”

Others: “…”

That’s right, exactly.

The Big Shot’s reading comprehension was perfect.

Because this sentence lacked a subject, it could have two completely different interpretations.

If that mermaid was actively hiding, then the possibility of it being Zhuang Mu was very high. If it was passively hidden, who could possibly hide a real mermaid?

Probably only someone with status in the town, like the mermaid town mayor or Doctor Yu, could do it, and Doctor Yu had a mermaid hidden in his secret room that wasn’t open to the public.

Song Ran: “If the mermaid in that secret room is the real mermaid, Doctor Yu is calling a thief to catch a thief.”

Su Qiao also added: “There’s another point. The mermaid town mayor said that those mermaids soaking in the blue water are all exhibits for this year’s Mermaid Festival. By tomorrow night, the last batch of mermaids will be completed.”

This statement made the air stagnate for a second.

They seemed to have three days, but at the latest, by tomorrow night, they would be turned into artificial fish.

Then they remembered that mermaids were all very beautiful, but the townspeople had dark skin and ordinary appearances.

Specifically choosing high-value people to transform into mermaids meant that their mermaid transformation had a selection process, a purpose, not just randomly grabbing people and turning them into mermaids.

Only “goods” that needed to be sold would specifically require “good looks.” Perhaps, artificial fish were not only exhibits for the Mermaid Festival, but would also eventually be sold.

And those that couldn’t be sold would be forced to stay in Mermaid Town forever, slowly having their tails split, turning into Split-Tail Mermaids.

No wonder they were called [Split-Tail] Mermaids, and not [Split-Fin] Mermaids.

Because those two halves of deformed fishtails were originally human legs, not fishtails.

–

After this analysis, everyone understood.

The Mermaid Festival was the biggest festival of the year in Mermaid Town. To hold such a festival, how could there be no mermaids?

But at first, there might have been only one mermaid. Without enough mermaids, the town came up with the idea of artificial fish.

Without enough mermaids, they would artificially create enough mermaids, and sell them for profit.

Driven by profit, a mermaid industry chain developed.

The town used the name of holding a Mermaid Festival to attract many guests. Then they selected high-value people from the guests, transformed them into mermaids, and then sold them at the Mermaid Festival, thus repeating the cycle, allowing this mermaid industry chain to continue to develop.

–

Gu Lin’s clues were crucial, bringing everyone a glimmer of hope.

As long as they found the real mermaid before being turned into mermaids and obtained tears, they could clear the instance.

Su Qiao said, “Linlin provided so many clues, everyone should at least show their appreciation, right? If I clear the instance, I’ll give 50% of my points to Linlin. If I can’t clear it, I’ll give him all of them.”

Others: “…”

Generous.

Lin Xingchi immediately followed: “Me too.”

The Double-Cap Big Shot seemed to not care about points. He chuckled lightly and also said, “Me too.”

Even the Big Shot said this, so Song Ran and Xia Xue had nothing to say, and also followed suit.

Song Ran touched Gu Lin’s little head, saying earnestly: “Xiaogui, Uncle Song’s life is in your hands.”

Gu Lin blinked his big eyes. Hearing this, he spread out his white, tender, pink little hand, puzzled: “Cub’s hand doesn’t have Song Ran-shushu’s life.”

Song Ran: “…”

Others: “…”

Holy crap, you never disappoint!

The livestream chat was about to die of laughter. The cub was truly a cub, his train of thought was always so unique.

Now the goal was basically clear, locked on Zhuang Mu and the mermaid in the secret room.

Song Ran talked the most, and said: “We can use the process of elimination. Tomorrow, let’s go find that young man Zhuang Mu first, and see if his tears can turn into pearls.”

Xia Xue said, “Then how do we make him cry? Peel onions again?”

Thinking of peeling onions, everyone had psychological trauma.

Their tears had fallen no less than the front desk jiejie‘s.

Song Ran said: “No, the front desk jiejie was in the hotel, right under our noses. Of course, we could peel onions around her. But that young merman is at the hospital. If so many of us run to the hospital, not to mention whether we can see that young merman, even if we see him, peeling onions again would probably arouse suspicion. If Zhuang Mu isn’t the real mermaid, then arousing suspicion would result in the real mermaid definitely being transferred.”

Indeed, they couldn’t act rashly.

“It’s time to send out a little spy.” Song Ran touched Gu Lin’s little head again. The fluffy little head, it was very addictive to touch. “Let xiaogui go play games with that young man Zhuang Mu, see who cries first, what do you think?”

Others: “?”

So, after all that, they were ultimately relying on this cub to do it all alone!

[Damn, so many adults, all relying on a cub, tsk]

[There’s no other way, who told the cub to be the MVP? Oh, the Double-Cap Big Shot is the only one besides the cub who didn’t sleep, but he doesn’t sleep and doesn’t do the mission. What exactly does he want to do?]

[You don’t need to care about the world of a Big Shot. Don’t ask, if you ask, he’s just making up the numbers]

[Cub, fly bravely, the wastes will always follow behind [doge]]

[Hahahaha, damn. The system dragging the cub into the game, it’s hard not to suspect it was to humiliate the other players]

Gu Lin, hearing that he had to play a game with Zhuang Mu-gege, nodded his little head and said, “Mm-hmm, Zhuang Mu-gege is coming to pick up cub to play tomorrow!”

Others: !

Heh, now they didn’t even have to go to the trouble of figuring out how to find that young man Zhuang Mu.

They really hadn’t expected that in the end, they would all be relying on this cub who was less than two years old.

At first, they thought Gu Lin would only eat. But now, the little cub who only knew how to eat was clearly crushing them.

–

Except for Gu Lin, all the others had eaten the canteen food. Now they were starting to yawn one after another, sleepiness sweeping over them.

Lin Xingchi used points from the system store to exchange for a cup of coffee for everyone.

Gu Lin twitched his little nose, smelling the coffee. Gege also liked to drink it. He also wanted to drink it, but gege never let him.

He had long wanted to try it. He tugged on Lin Xingchi and said, “Dagege, cub also wants to drink.”

Before Lin Xingchi could say anything, Song Ran preemptively said: “Xiaogui can’t drink it. If you drink it, you won’t grow tall.”

Hearing that drinking it would prevent him from growing tall, Gu Lin gave up the idea of trying coffee.

Gu Lin nodded and said, “Mm-hmm, cub won’t drink it then. Cub wants to grow as tall as gege.”

The others, hearing him say gege, were all stunned.

Song Ran pointed at Lin Xingchi: “You mean your dagege?”

Lin Xingchi also looked at Gu Lin.

Gu Lin said, “Not dagege, it’s gege.”

Others: “…”

This little cub, it seemed, would add a prefix when calling other geges, like dagege, Zhuang Mu-gege.

But he wouldn’t when calling jiejies. For example, he called Su Qiao without specifically adding a prefix, calling her Qiaoqiao-jiejie.

This meant that this little cub didn’t have a jiejie, but he really had a gege at home.

And only when speaking of his gege at home, gege was just gege, without any prefix.

It was as if that was the only gege he acknowledged, different from all the other geges.

Such a small cub already knew how to make distinctions.

Immediately, everyone felt pity and affection for Gu Lin.

Such a small cub, although lucky enough not to be killed, they didn’t know if he could continue to be this lucky. And he had a gege at home, waiting for him to return.