Who said that beautiful, friendly, and enthusiastic mermaids couldn’t do bad things?
—Li Leyou thought bitterly as she was led straight into a school of sharks.
Surely they aren’t planning to feed me to the sharks, right?
The moment this thought crossed her mind, Li Leyou desperately tried to swim backward. If she still had toes, she would have been digging them firmly into the ground right now.
The beautiful mermaid sisters were incredibly strong. Li Leyou could not break free at all, and they dragged her straight into the middle of the sharks.
They cheered excitedly, making sounds that were somewhat like whale calls, but clearer and more melodious. The sounds seemed to disorient the sharks, causing them to swim around aimlessly in confusion.
This was the first time Li Leyou had ever gotten such a clear look at sharks.
They were different from the videos and pictures she had seen online, and even different from the brief glimpse she had gotten of one before.
Because she was swimming around in the middle of the school of sharks, her tail occasionally brushed against their fins, and her hands accidentally touched several of them as she waved her arms.
Sharks looked as though they had smooth, leathery skin, but they actually felt surprisingly rough to the touch.
There was no doubt that this was a mermaid hunt.
However, the mermaids did not look nervous at all. They seemed to be having fun, relaxed and cheerful, almost like cats playing with mice.
One of the mermaids was holding Li Leyou’s hand and dragging her up, down, left, and right. She was responsible for driving the sharks into position, so she would frequently speed up and then come to an abrupt stop.
Li Leyou never expected swimming to make her feel seasick.
Only now did she realize just how steady Lao Mu had been when he took her swimming before.
She looked to the left and saw a mermaid sister smack a shark away with her tail.
She looked to the right and saw another mermaid sister literally tear open a shark’s skin with her bare hands. Murky, bloody seawater immediately spread through the surrounding area.
The mermaids laughed happily in the bloody, fishy-smelling water as they attacked the injured shark one after another.
Under these circumstances, Li Leyou found it difficult to think of sharks as frightening anymore.
She only felt sorry for them.
But there was someone even more unfortunate.
Her.
After hunting several sharks, the mermaids stopped surrounding the school and allowed the remaining sharks to swim away.
Li Leyou thought the hunt was finally over.
Who would have thought that Anla, who had been driving the sharks from the outside, suddenly herded the smallest shark in the group toward her.
The mermaid sister holding Li Leyou’s hand released her and gave her an encouraging, expectant look. She pointed at the small shark and said something.
Li Leyou understood.
She wanted Li Leyou to participate in the hunt and catch one herself.
But even though that shark was the smallest in the group, it was still about one and a half meters to one point six meters long by Li Leyou’s estimate.
I’m a fragile college student! And you want me to fight a shark with my bare hands?!
When Li Leyou remained motionless for too long, the impatient mermaid sisters came over and pushed her forward.
Nearby, Anla was also making mocking, giggling noises.
Li Leyou: “…”
Whatever. Let’s just do it!
Round One: Li Leyou vs. Baby Shark — Chase Battle
Li Leyou first swam toward the shark.
The shark instinctively swam toward her as well.
When they were about to collide, Li Leyou screamed, “Aaaah!” and immediately turned around and swam away.
The shark also turned around and fled.
Both sides were terrified of each other.
Round Two: Li Leyou vs. Baby Shark — Standoff
The two opponents circled each other in the water.
Neither knew how strong the other was, so they cautiously launched probing attacks.
Li Leyou reached out.
The little shark dodged.
The little shark opened its mouth.
Li Leyou dodged.
The battle entered a turn-based stalemate.
The mermaids watching from the sidelines were practically dying to rush over and knock the prey unconscious for her. They were even more excited than when they had been hunting the sharks themselves.
Round Three: Li Leyou vs. Baby Shark — Hand-to-Hand Combat
The battle had gone on for too long, and both contestants were losing patience.
The scene quickly descended into chaos.
Li Leyou tried learning how to fight like a mermaid, using her tail, claws, and teeth together, but none of her attacks caused any significant damage.
So she returned to the human way of fighting.
In other words—
Poke the eyes! Grab the nose!
The spindle-shaped shark struggled desperately.
It flung Li Leyou away, causing her to lose her grip, but she reacted quickly and grabbed hold of its dorsal fin.
There was already an injury there.
Under the combined force of the two sides, Li Leyou ended up tearing the shark’s dorsal fin right off.
After being injured, the little shark’s movements slowed.
Li Leyou took advantage of the opportunity.
In the chaos, she thrust both hands into its gill slits to stabilize herself…
And somehow, after who knew how long, she won.
Li Leyou stared blankly at the little shark floating belly-up in the water.
She was completely stunned.
You really didn’t know how much strength you could unleash until you actually tried.
The mermaid sisters swam around her, cheering excitedly. They came over and hugged her to celebrate her successful hunt.
Two mermaids hugged her from the front and behind, trapping Li Leyou between them.
She felt herself being pressed against something soft and—
She nearly let out a scream even more intense than the one she’d made while being chased by the shark.
Fortunately, they released her soon afterward.
But then they each came over, held her face in their hands, and kissed her cheeks.
Among the mermaid community, the females were extremely close to one another, like sisters and mothers and daughters. They grew up together, hunted for food together, and raised their children together. As a result, they were accustomed to expressing affection through physical contact.
Li Leyou had no idea about any of this.
She was so embarrassed that her cheeks turned bright red.
She wasn’t sure whether it was because of the intense fight or the mermaid sisters’ enthusiasm. Her head was still spinning.
When the hunting and playing were finally over, everyone dragged the sharks home.
As a wandering mermaid, Li Leyou obviously could not go with them to the Coral Sea.
When she saw that the mermaids seemed ready to leave her alone here, Li Leyou thought desperately:
Don’t assume that just because I got lucky and beat a shark, I suddenly know how to navigate the ocean!
Fortunately, Lao Mu had taught her a few phrases earlier.
Before the mermaids disappeared, Li Leyou hurriedly shouted:
“Wu su… ana?”
These two words meant “shore” and “direction,” respectively. They might not normally be used together in mermaid language, but as long as she could roughly convey her meaning, that was enough.
The mermaids stopped and discussed something among themselves.
Finally, two of the mermaid sisters volunteered and directly escorted her to the nearest shore.
They moved incredibly fast.
Before long, Li Leyou could already see the rocks along the shore.
To her surprise, this was the exact rocky area where she had first caught spotted fish.
The wooden planks she had found earlier and the fish spear she had made were still there.
Li Leyou felt strangely touched at getting her belongings back.
The mermaid sisters who had brought her back called out something melodious from the surface of the water.
Li Leyou guessed it might mean “goodbye,” so she stumbled through an imitation of their words.
“Kai mer da?”
The two mermaid sisters looked at each other.
Then they both burst into cheerful laughter and disappeared beneath the sea, their bodies sinking into the golden, shimmering waves of the setting sun.
Once again, Li Leyou was alone.
She turned around and saw the little shark that had been brought back with her.
Li Leyou: “…”
She didn’t even like eating shark.
She had simply forgotten to tell the mermaids not to bring it back.
After surviving in the wild sea for several days, Li Leyou already knew how difficult it was to find food. She couldn’t bring herself to waste so much of it.
Besides, she was a little hungry now.
She hesitated before cutting a small piece of meat from the injured area near the shark’s dorsal fin and cautiously took a bite.
“Ugh…”
The moment she swallowed the meat, she realized she wasn’t that hungry.
Her tongue and throat were both protesting.
She couldn’t stand eating shark that tasted like urine.
Even a faint urine-like smell was too much.
Forget it.
The most important thing about being human was knowing when to let yourself off the hook.
Maybe she should just leave it here and give it to Lao Mu when he came back.
Real mermaids seemed to eat this stuff anyway.
It would be a fair exchange.
After all, she had worked hard to catch it herself. Giving it to Lao Mu would be a sincere way of thanking him for teaching her mermaid language.
Unfortunately, the shark eventually began to stink.
Li Leyou ended up using it as bait to catch fish, and eventually the big and small fish around the rocky area worked together to eat the entire thing.
Lao Mu never appeared.
The mermaid sisters from before did come looking for her once.
They wanted to take her hunting again, but Li Leyou was so touched that she firmly refused.
She really did not want to fight another shark.
After returning that day, she had discovered that one of her fingernails had split during the fight with the shark. It was still hurting.
She really did not want to go through that again.
Seeing that she refused, the mermaid sisters could only give up regretfully.
However, they stayed with her for a while to play.
They were curious about the bra she was wearing and kept tugging at it. One would pull while another leaned over to peek inside.
Li Leyou covered her chest with both hands.
“…”
Ahhh! Sisters, don’t do this!
Since the two sides could barely communicate because of the language barrier, the mermaid sisters soon left.
Another day passed.
Li Leyou tried exploring the waters farther away from the shore and unexpectedly encountered Anla.
She repeated the same words to him.
“Lao Mu, Lao Mu?”
“You’re asking about Lao Mu? He’s been staying in his cave lately and refuses to come out. He won’t even go hunting with us anymore,” Anla complained.
Lao Mu used to be willing to accompany him to catch larger fish, but these past few days, no matter what Anla asked him to hunt, Lao Mu simply ignored him.
Anla suspected that his brother had lost his appetite and didn’t want to eat anything.
Still, he had long been accustomed to his brother’s strange moods.
Based on his experience, Lao Mu would eventually get over it.
“Lao Mu is probably thinking about complicated things again. It’s all because of humans. He got sick after living on land, and even after returning to our group, he became different from everyone else.”
Li Leyou thought:
What are you talking about, you annoying little brother? I can’t understand a single word.
And the one person who can understand me is nowhere to be seen. What has he been so busy with lately?
The two of them ended up complaining about Lao Mu to each other despite not understanding a word the other was saying.
After encountering Li Leyou, Anla returned to the Coral Sea and went to see his older brother.
“Lao Mu, I saw Li Leyou near the rocky area today. She even asked about you, but I couldn’t understand what she was saying.”
Lao Mu, who had been watching a cluster of sea anemones, tilted his head slightly when Anla arrived before turning his attention back to them.
“She asked about me? Why?”
How was Anla supposed to know?
He guessed, “Maybe she needed something from you?”
“She doesn’t necessarily need to come to me. She could ask you instead,” Lao Mu said. “She called your name.”
“Exactly! She’s so annoying. Why does she keep calling random names? Lana and the others are already making fun of me because of it,” Anla complained.
Lao Mu expressionlessly waved away a clownfish that had swum up in front of him.
He hated those annoying little fish that darted through the coral and loved circling around mermaids’ tails.
“Luckily, she hasn’t called me these past few days. Otherwise, if I really got angry, I’d have taught her a lesson.”
Anla bared his teeth. Then he suddenly remembered something and suspiciously looked at his brother.
“If I teach her a lesson, you won’t stop me, right?”
Lao Mu answered coldly, “That’s between you and her. I won’t interfere.”
Anla said, “You don’t need to interfere in the first place. She’s not your real mate. Besides, she managed to go shark hunting with us last time. She’s not as weak as she looks. Hitting her once won’t kill her.”
Lao Mu: “…”
“You took her shark hunting?”
He couldn’t even imagine how Li Leyou—who had managed to get scratched by rocks and trapped by a lobster—could possibly catch a shark.
Besides, she didn’t even like eating shark.
The moment Anla started talking about shark hunting, he became excited.
“Yeah! Vivi and Lana insisted on taking her with us. Speaking of the shark school we hunted last time, the remaining sharks have all moved farther out to sea. They’re much harder to catch now, so we’re planning to go even farther out to hunt them. Lao Mu, do you want to come with us?”
“You’ve been staying in this cave for too long too. Haven’t you grown any coral on yourself yet? Hahahaha! Then you’ll be the only mermaid with coral growing all over your body!”
Lao Mu: “…”
He drove away his irritatingly noisy little brother.
One day passed.
Then another.
Li Leyou continued waiting for Lao Mu to appear.
But as more time passed without seeing him, she inexplicably became angry too.
He had promised to teach her mermaid language.
Now he had suddenly stopped coming.
Fine! Don’t come then!
I can live perfectly well on my own!