Shu Tang shivered from the sea breeze.
She saw in the storm, “he” turned around, his gaze becoming terrifyingly fierce, with the fins behind his ears flaring out sharply.
Despite his long hair hanging down, dripping with water.
Yet at that moment, “he” showed no signs of vulnerability.
Instead, he was like a deity of the sea, a true warrior.
“He” entered the water and swiftly swam towards the ocean like a blue streak of light!
She heard the shrill screams of numerous pollutants.
She also heard a roar that echoed through the marine area, far more staggering than the call of any whale.
Beneath the power station, it was no longer a world of human civilization but a brutal and bloody primeval jungle where a merciless slaughter was taking place.
Everything happened too quickly.
Shu Tang sat on the ground for a while; the sticky sea water dried on her face as the wind blew her hair sticky against her face.
It wasn’t until the rain started falling, wetting her shoulders, that she came back to her senses from the huge shock, clutching her waterproof bag tightly, trembling hands grabbing the communicator, and she rushed towards the main gate.
The power station was built on the sea.
Besides various complex instruments and cables, there were several rooms on each floor for the use of the original staff. But ten years had passed, and it had become rust-stained by the sea.
She found the stairs and climbed to the highest point, each step echoing loudly.
Shu Tang knew that signals were very poor in the middle of the ocean, but nearby was the South Island Base, one of the Federation’s eight major bases, which often patrolled this sea area by plane—perhaps standing higher could get a signal out!
She didn’t dial Chen Sheng’s communicator but directly dialed the emergency helpline; however, the call dropped after connecting for a moment.
Shu Tang repeatedly dialed, her fingers beginning to tremble.
She switched to Chen Sheng’s, Old Wu’s, Director Qiu’s, even Su Yin’s.
But none went through.
However, Shu Tang suddenly realized a horrifying fact.
She suddenly remembered: being parasitized by pollutants, a terrible sign.
—Blackened eyes.
Humans parasitized by pollutants would quickly go mad, and within a month or two, be hollowed out and die by the pollutants.
But there were exceptions, if one’s willpower and mental strength were strong enough, overcoming the pollutants was not impossible.
Shu Tang had heard from her teacher that such phenomena were only possible in ideal conditions.
But Shu Tang was very sure, the mermaid she knew was definitely not a puppet controlled by pollutants.
She did not know that mermaids used to be an identity, but she vaguely guessed part of the truth:
Perhaps many years ago, Little Rose had been parasitized by pollutants, but he overcame them with strong willpower.
Following that, some mutations appeared on her body, and after a psychic outbreak, “his” condition became extremely critical.
Her fingers trembled, and suddenly at this moment, she understood all the fears and precautions.
If she asked for help now, would the South Island Base, the South Island Sanatorium really send someone to save lives?
She stood still for a while.
Then she continued to call without giving up.
Anxiously seeking help, she leaned over the railing by the window, desperately trying to see what was happening below.
Her worries, if seen by some informed people, would undoubtedly be laughable.
It was like a little ant worried about the sky falling down—it was the commander of the Federal First Legion, a weapon as potent as a “nuclear” large-scale lethal weapon.
Just as Shu Tang could understand what ten million meant, and a billion as well, but when the amount of money reached hundreds of billions, or trillions, she could hardly imagine what that concept was like.
So her understanding of the mermaid’s combat power was merely vague.
When she could no longer see the figure on the sea, she suddenly felt a strong palpitation, she leaned against the window looking around, until the cold sea breeze came, and she felt her face unknowingly covered with tears.
She did not know that to others, mermaids were monsters impervious to swords and invulnerable to fire and water.
She only knew it was the little fish in her own glass fishbowl.
Every morning, she listened to the weather forecast on the radio in the kitchen with it, said goodnight to each other, and then they cuddled together to sleep, maybe it was a bit incredible, but how incredible could it be?
When the blue luminescence on the sea disappeared, endless darkness brought her great panic.
She tried to release her own spirit.
Actually, it was very dangerous to go out now, and her spirit was not meant for combat, but she really wanted to confirm “his” safety.
But when her spirit went out, lightly leaping onto the top of the power station, she saw more pollutants than she could have imagined. They came one after another like vultures that had smelled blood.
She had always liked her orange cat spirit.
Beautifully patterned, agile, and incredibly fast at escaping.
But for the first time, she thought:
Why was she a cat, not a real Amur tiger?
…
Just half an hour ago, a forecast was inserted into the noon news of South Island City.
The broadcaster’s voice was fast and calm:
“Pollutants of Class A high-risk type have been detected in the central sea area of the South Island. All survey and fishing vessels in Zones 16 and 15 are urgently required to evacuate!”
“Please enter zone…”
“Tsunami warning, tsunami warning…”
Pedestrians on the street all looked up at the news displayed on the big screen; people on the buses listened to the radio, chatting and marveling that such high-level pollutants had not appeared in South Island City for a long time.
People hurriedly disappeared and left in the torrential rain.
The situation at sea was far from optimistic.
When the tsunami hit, the power station displayed the indestructibility of human civilization. Ten years of neglect had not allowed this iron sentinel to corrode and become unstable; it stood tall amidst the towering waves.
The entire world was pitch dark, as if only this massive tsunami remained.
As the storm gradually subsided, a pale, tall figure appeared below the substation.
His body was covered in black rainwater, with a huge gash across his waist and abdomen, continuously leaking blue blood.
But the mermaid frowned, his pale face expressionless, completely ignoring the wound as he grabbed the huge iron column of the well and quickly climbed up.
Blue blood dripped onto the ground.
Making a “drip, drip, drop” sound.
Suddenly, a very chaotic memory appeared in his mind.
The mermaid stopped.
In the memory, it was also a stormy day.
Someone was calling a strange name, “Zhu Yan.”
He was in a dark corner, his pale fingers covering a bleeding wound, tearing off the lining of his snow-white military uniform when he heard voices outside.
“Doctor! Our commander has strong regenerative abilities; he can heal in three hours.”
“We’re short on supplies in the polluted area, we have too many injured. If we don’t have medicine, they won’t last until everyone evacuates. Send the urgently needed wound medicine and gauze to other injured first!”
Then, the tall man in the corner paused.
He continued quickly wrapping the torn cloth around his abdominal wound, seeming to struggle to stop the bleeding, then frowned, raised his hand, and saw a big roll of duct tape next to him. With a ripping sound, the tape wrapped around the gauze a few times, finally stopping the bleeding.
The man, exhausted, closed his eyes.
Several scenes like this appeared, strange and abrupt.
So the mermaid’s footsteps stopped.
“He” tilted his head.
From a puddle, he saw a terrifying monster, looking very fierce especially because of a tear wound on its waist and abdomen, adding a strong aggressiveness to the monster.
Originally planning to go find Shu Tang, the mermaid hesitated in their movement.
The mermaid did not want to frighten her.
“He” looked down at his waist and abdomen.
It turns out that it would heal in just three hours.
Before meeting Shu Tang, the mermaid’s self-awareness was muddled, so he did not remember being injured because of the sharp neural pain, and had never observed the healing of wounds. Thus, he hadn’t noticed this.
Therefore, the mermaid found a corner on the first floor. He had planned to bandage himself according to that suddenly emerged strange memory, but the cloth strips around were covered with dust. Remembering what Shu Tang had said about “infection,” he obediently sat still, quietly waiting for the ferocious wound to stop bleeding and heal.
Until the mermaid heard faint sobbing.
It was very light, very soft.
But in an instant, it jolted the cold heart of this bloodthirsty creature.
“His” fins immediately flared.
The mermaid thought that some pollutants had crawled up, and his expression instantly turned very gloomy.
However, when the mermaid followed the sound to the corner, he found no trace of pollutants around.
She had no wounds on her, yet for some reason, she was facing away from “him,” quietly crying in the corner.
In the dark, the mermaid paused.
Hesitated for a moment.
This fierce creature felt clueless for the first time.
“He” couldn’t even imagine that she was crying because of “him.”
He couldn’t understand the emotion of “worry.”
Maybe he could vaguely recognize it, but he never associated the word with himself. It seemed to be a deeply ingrained perception that had long existed in the subconscious of this mermaid.
After all, how could anyone worry about such a powerful creature?
Just like bandages and medicine are unnecessary for a monster with terrifying self-healing abilities, worry is superfluous for a formidable humanoid weapon.
The creature pursed his pale lips.
Cluelessly watching her back.
*
When a tsunami occurred outside, Shu Tang found a sealed room and hid for an afternoon.
She was an ordinary person, always well-protected, not used to seeing so many pollutants, and she had only experienced typhoons before; even tsunamis she had only seen on TV.
In her world, a single tsunami could claim countless lives; a common pollutant could devastate an entire block. Combined, they were like the apocalypse.
She couldn’t even imagine what might happen below the surface—were the mermaids being mobbed by numerous pollutants, or being dragged deep into the ocean to crash into the dark reefs?
She hid here until the violent storms outside had subsided, only then daring to crack open a seal in her exceptionally secure room.
By then, the surrounding sea had calmed, and it seemed as if nothing had remained below.
She didn’t understand whether this meant it was all over, or if it signified some dire news.
She worried that the tsunami had made it impossible for the mermaids to find their way back.
So, with trembling hands, she opened her waterproof bag, pulled out a flashlight, and stood out in the fierce wind to turn it on, shining it over the sea.
But the beam, bright as it was, seemed to be swallowed by the abyss as soon as it hit the dark sea, disappearing instantly.
In places like offshore oil rigs, surrounded by nothing but sea, one feels like they’re about to vanish into the ocean, completely consumed by darkness.
Yet, she just stared at the bit of drizzle illuminated by the light for a while and stubbornly decided to make a temporary beacon out at sea.
She found some wire in the corner, wrapped it around the flashlight, and hung it under the window where it was sheltered from the wind.
The wind immediately made the flashlight wobble precariously.
Yet she stubbornly believed that this little light could help the mermaid find his way during the storm.
After everything was done.
She sat in the corner, clutching the communicator, hidden behind a large wooden box, watching the rainwater drift in through the iron windows outside. She sat for a long time, unaware of when tears had fallen on her face, only feeling a sting as the sea breeze dried them.
In the days spent huddled together listening to weather forecasts, a dull person might hardly notice their own feelings. She just instinctively liked being by the mermaid’s side, day after day, sunbathing and watching the rain together. If such a life remained unchanged, it might take her a very long time to realize that she actually cared deeply for that fish.
That vague affection was like a box of candies that had been forgotten and left out too long, only to taste the bitterness once it had already spoiled.
In the dark, she desperately fantasized about listening to weather forecasts alone, sitting in a forbidden place watching the Sea of Tears.
Desperately fantasizing about burning paper in the Bastille—where the strong sea breeze wouldn’t let it catch fire, a stack of billion-value paper money burned all night without finishing; wanting to fish for offerings, but failing to catch the last one, only a few pitiful scallops that weren’t enough to even get stuck in your teeth.
She felt very sad.
Sad like a little cat that had lost all its cans of food.
Suddenly.
A pale hand appeared.
Clumsily and hesitantly, it offered a bright, shiny, glowing scale.