Chapter 1

The phone vibrated twice.

It was a message from the “Qingcheng City Stray Animal Rescue Group 1”.

Group leader: “Found a Labrador near the Tiansheng Seafood Processing Factory in Suhan District. Left hind leg is disabled, should have been abandoned by the owner, very clean. I’m taking the dogs from the shelter to the pet hospital for sterilization now, I can’t go. Anyone in the group have time?”

Suhan District is located in the westernmost part of Qingcheng City, with factories and villages hidden in winding alleys nearby. Most of the group members are young people who work in the city center, and they use their free time to rescue pets. Suhan District is obviously a bit far for them. Besides, it’s not even time to get off work.

Zhang Jingzhu replied in the group, “I’ll go,” then grabbed her car keys and left.

Her job has a lot of freedom, and her working hours are basically up to her. There are only four people in the office. In fact, everyone in their office is a relative, and they are nominally listed as clerks. The company’s affairs are rarely entrusted to them, they are simply here to hang around.

Zhang Jingzhu’s father arranged her job before she graduated, a clerk at a jewelry design company, very easy. Her father bought her a 100-square-meter apartment near the company. Her mother, not to be outdone, bought a very expensive car to prove that she had a better relationship with her ex-husband and daughter than he did. In the end, Zhang Jingzhu persuaded her to exchange it for a moderately priced compact SUV.

Zhang Jingzhu was very satisfied with the car. The rescue in the group relied heavily on the help of this car.

Soon she arrived at the location where the person who found the dog sent the message.

Although this is a seafood processing factory, it doesn’t seem to be doing very well economically. There are a few cars parked haphazardly at the entrance, and the walls are mottled and cracked. All around are half-meter-high weeds, revealing patches of green fields.

Zhang Jingzhu confirmed the location and drove the car into the small path next to it.

The path is winding, barely wide enough for one car, and she didn’t continue driving. She got out of the car with a sausage.

Because the rescue target this time is a Labrador, this kind of dog is very gentle, and besides, the person who found it often feeds it nearby, saying that its personality is very good, it doesn’t attack people, it’s just a bit timid. The weather is getting cold quickly, and in the wilderness, the person who found it is worried that it might freeze to death.

The phone beeped twice.

It was a message from the person who found the dog.

“I saw a car, white, license plate number is xxxx, right? I’ve been feeding it for two days, but it seems to be still very afraid of me. To be honest, although I like small animals very much, they don’t seem to like me, even the best-tempered Labrador avoids me, otherwise I wouldn’t bother the group leader…”

Zhang Jingzhu patiently read his long message, scrolling down the screen, and only saw the key point in the last few sentences.

“…Sorry, I have something urgent to do at home and can’t go with you. After observing for a few days, I found that this dog often appears in the abandoned pipe in the grass ahead, go forward two steps and you’ll see it.”

The person who found the dog stopped in front of her on an electric bicycle, pointed the way, and left in a hurry.

Zhang Jingzhu found a white pipe. She keeps a pair of sneakers in her car, changing into sneakers makes it much easier to walk on these winding muddy roads. Her feet were covered in wet mud, she didn’t mind, she stepped on the weeds and squatted down at the mouth of the pipe, looking inside. As she approached, a faint whimpering sound came from inside.

A white Labrador was curled up, its big black eyes like grapes looked at her in fear and confusion. To be precise, it was looking at the peeled sausage in her hand. The smell of the sausage was very strong, easily attracting this Labrador famous for its love of food.

Zhang Jingzhu raised the sausage and shook it a few times: “Do you want to eat?”

The Labrador whimpered.

Zhang Jingzhu put the sausage to the Labrador’s mouth.

Zhang Jingzhu’s childhood was inseparable from the company of cats and dogs. Perhaps it was because of her naturally gentle voice and face, or perhaps because of a special smell that attracted animals? She is very popular with animals, many cats and dogs that are hostile to humans in the group will become less aggressive in front of her. The Labrador in front of her is no exception.

Zhang Jingzhu thought that she had bought the Labrador with a sausage, and was about to lead it towards her car when a loud collision suddenly came from ahead. She was stunned for a moment, and the Labrador was obviously startled, looking at her outstretched hand and took off running.

Zhang Jingzhu quickly followed.

The Labrador’s hind leg was lame, and it wasn’t running very fast, but the problem was that there was no road ahead, only dense weeds, and she was struggling to walk. She was only thinking about catching up with the Labrador and not letting it run away, and for a while she forgot to observe the surroundings. When she finally reacted, she found that there was an abandoned warehouse ahead.

Zhang Jingzhu stopped.

The warehouse door was open, and a black van was parked by the door. The car windows were tinted, and it was impossible to see if anyone was inside. There was a large puddle next to it, filled with muddy water.

Zhang Jingzhu felt a bad feeling in her heart, and squatted down behind the cover of the weeds.

Her vision was a little blurry, and the vibration in her chest seemed to be about to burst her eardrums. The mud in front of the warehouse was soaked by the water, forming potholes, and the fairly bright twilight clearly reflected the dark red color of the water in the pits.

…This is clearly blood.

Zhang Jingzhu covered her mouth tightly.

Two tall men came out of the warehouse, and their words came intermittently.

“You be gentle, don’t kill it…”

“Don’t worry, I got here before you, this thing inside isn’t so easy to die, you’ll see, its injuries will heal tomorrow!”

“Although that’s what you said, but…there are rules, you have to make sure it’s not in danger, you’ve been a bit too much these past few days, I saw it lying on the ground, not moving!”

“Nothing! You kid, why are you so timid? Come on, let’s go find a restaurant nearby and have a couple of drinks…”

The van left.

Zhang Jingzhu covered her mouth and waited there for a while, slowly retreating back the way she came.

She glanced at the warehouse out of curiosity.

Zhang Jingzhu froze in place.

Perhaps because it was in the wilderness and no one ever passed by, or perhaps because the two guards were careless, the warehouse door was not closed. The orange light shone into the warehouse, and in the slightly dark corner, a man was curled up.

Calling him a man is not accurate.

His lower body was a thick, shiny fish tail, and the scales shimmered with dazzling light in the twilight. He was hunched over, his huge fish tail curved, like a baby in its mother’s womb, hugging himself into a ball. Unlike the amniotic fluid full of life, he was enveloped in dirty, smelly blood.

His upper body was the chest and back of an adult male, his pale skin covered in dried blood and hideous scars. The fish tail looked huge and powerful, but the upper body was weak, revealing protruding bones, especially around the waist and abdomen, as if only a thin layer of skin was covering the bones and internal organs.

Zhang Jingzhu swallowed her scream.

How is this possible?

How could anyone have a fish tail for a lower body…

Zhang Jingzhu stared intently at the merman, trying to prove that what she saw was an illusion, but unfortunately, she was absolutely sure that the thing in the warehouse was real, not a human impersonation, because his fish tail looked smooth and natural, and there were a few scattered black scales that opened and closed around his waist and back.

Just as Zhang Jingzhu was staring intently, the merman in the corner of the warehouse slowly propped himself up and looked in her direction.

Long, thick, seaweed-like hair.

A beautiful, delicate face, with black eyes like whirlpools.

Zhang Jingzhu blinked, not sure if it was her imagination, but she seemed to see in his cold eyes the look of despair and pleading that abused animals give to humans before they are rescued.

Zhang Jingzhu found the Labrador that had run away by her car. She carried it into the car, it was already very late, and she took the Labrador to the group leader’s yard.

The group leader was at the hospital taking care of the animals.

Zhang Jingzhu settled the Labrador and drove home.

She told the group about the Labrador’s situation, and a girl in the group happened to be off work tomorrow, so she volunteered to take the new companion to the pet hospital for a checkup.

Zhang Jingzhu replied to the group’s questions absentmindedly. Then she opened the work group and checked the messages. Her colleagues in the group were discussing what TV series to watch tomorrow to kill time, Zhang Jingzhu glanced at it casually and closed her phone.

It’s hard to describe how she felt now. Human power is limited, and everyone can only do things within their limited energy and ability. But there are always those people who feel guilty and uneasy when they see bad things happening anywhere, because of their own powerlessness.

This is hard to change.

Zhang Jingzhu’s solution is to reduce her intake of information.

She had once been depressed for a long time because of a news report on the internet. A left-behind child in a mountain village, whose parents went out to work, lived with his sick grandmother, and finally, unable to bear the burden, committed suicide with his dead grandmother. The feelings of self-blame and guilt seriously affected her normal life.

Even the messages from the rescue group, Zhang Jingzhu had set it to Do Not Disturb, only checking it at certain times or when the group leader @ed all members.

Zhang Jingzhu looked at herself in the mirror, messing up her hair.

She lay in bed, and in order to ensure a good night’s sleep, she deliberately watched a survival-themed variety show to distract herself. It worked very well.

She had nightmares all night.

In her dream, there was a dark, gloomy warehouse. As she entered the warehouse, she heard the sound of iron chains rattling, and then her foot was grabbed by a hand.

She looked down.

The man’s delicate and beautiful face, with a tearful expression. It wasn’t the terrifying scene she imagined, it was unexpectedly beautiful. The man was covered in blood, looking at her in fear and panic.

His voice was low and choked with sobs, filled with a deep plea.

“…Save me.”