Lan Bo carried the baby away. Bai Chunian sat cross-legged in his bubble, staring at the ghost-face scar across Lan Bo’s back. Though he had prepared himself mentally, seeing it in person was still shocking.
Since Bai Chunian had met him, Lan Bo had kept his upper body tightly wrapped in medical bandages. Every part of him was perfect; surely he felt self-conscious about the mottled scars across his back.
After returning the merfolk baby to its mother, Lan Bo noticed Bai Chunian staring at his back. Busy with palace duties, he had forgotten the scar for days. A sudden jolt of concern made him pluck a wide piece of seaweed from the coral and drape it over his shoulders, silently swimming back to guide Bai Chunian deeper.
Bai Chunian turned, pressing his hand against Lan Bo’s long finned hand through the bubble, and gently grabbed it, drawing him inside.
Lan Bo, wet and dripping, hair plastered to his cheeks, collapsed into Bai Chunian’s arms.
Bai Chunian lifted the sticky seaweed from his back. Lan Bo pressed his hand down to stop him, raising his other hand to cover his eyes. “Lan Bo is ugly… scary.”
“Nonsense, Lan Bo is beautiful… and cute.” Bai Chunian removed Lan Bo’s hand, cupped his face, and plucked the seaweed from the golden hair. “How did you live so rough these days while I was away? When I’m around, you’re a little princess; when I’m gone, you’re a tough guy.”
He plucked the tiny purple-gold conchs and rainbow starfish clinging to Lan Bo’s tail and tossed them into the water, murmuring, “Go, don’t try to take advantage of someone else’s wife.”
Lan Bo watched his carefully chosen deep-sea brooch, painstakingly crafted after exploring several deep-sea trenches, being tossed aside. Regretfully, he retrieved it and stuffed it into Bai Chunian’s pocket to roast and eat later onshore.
The real underwater world was tens of thousands of times more spectacular than any land-based ocean park. Bai Chunian was surrounded by schools of fish he had never seen before.
Unlike the harsh artificial lights humans created, Lan Bo’s body emitted a soft glow, illuminating the surrounding darkness for dozens of meters.
This was a world entirely different from land. Inside the bubble, Bai Chunian could hear the sounds of the water—the distant, prolonged calls of whales—and a massive shadow slowly approached. A colossal body, nearly thirty meters long, passed right beside them.
It was Bai Chunian’s first time seeing a blue whale in person. He stared with his mouth open for a long while; to be honest, it was terrifying. As it swam directly toward him, there was a suffocating thrill.
The whale was so enormous it resembled a moving island, seemingly unaware of them as it drifted by.
Lan Bo, displeased, quickly pushed Bai Chunian’s bubble in front of the whale’s eye, releasing a few jellyfish to illuminate him completely.
“Hey, erbo! (Grandpa)” Lan Bo said, holding onto the blue whale’s enormous eyeball and pointing at Bai Chunian. “quaun! (The Queen!)”
This blue whale had lived for nine hundred years—a true elder. Hearing that Lan Bo was bringing back the Queen, he had traveled all the way from the southernmost Atlantic just to catch a glimpse of his granddaughter-in-law.
The whale emitted a long, joyous tone, opened its enormous mouth, and disgorged a chest from its narrow throat.
The chest resembled a treasure chest from a video game, though aged, its origins from some unknown century. Carved with pirate insignia, the heavy box slowly sank, the lid flipping open during its descent.
Chunks of gold, translucent imperial green jade, complete porcelain from unknown dynasties, vivid pigeon-blood rubies, and large rough emeralds filled the chest tightly, with strings of tourmaline and scattered three-carat diamonds filling the gaps.
The elder whale had presented this meeting gift and slowly swam away.
“Woah… w-what… wha—” Bai Chunian steadied himself against the bubble, stunned. “You didn’t mean this for me, right?”
Lan Bo nodded, then commanded a group of crabs to carry the chest ashore.
Bai Chunian thought this was already the grandest welcome imaginable—but it was only the beginning.
Lan Bo pushed him to the mouth of a pitch-dark deep-sea trench, tapping twice on the rock outside: “Hey, quaun kaming. (The Queen has arrived.)”
Bai Chunian peeked inside and suddenly saw a huge golden eye in the darkness, the pupil a thin slit.
He quickly stepped back—this wasn’t a cave, but the closed eye of a giant underwater creature.
The golden eye stared at him for a moment, then slowly extruded a radiant, spherical luminous pearl from its tear gland. After a while, another one appeared, about five centimeters in diameter—a truly self-illuminating pearl.
Bai Chunian hurriedly scooped them up, cradling them in his clothes, saying, “No, no, no… Grandma, you’re too generous. That’s already far too valuable—one alone could buy an entire apartment in the capital.”
Lan Bo returned from the claw-shaped rocks in the distance, carrying treasures that had been in his grandmother’s grasp for hundreds of years. Seeing Bai Chunian picking up luminous pearls from the seabed, he exclaimed, “randi? Ermo glarbo yineya ye. (Grandma was just too excited and cried.)”
After meeting all of Lan Bo’s extended family, the gifts Bai Chunian had received nearly filled a whole ship. Crabs and sea turtles toiled, hauling the chests ashore.
Unaware of the passing time, they had spent over six hours underwater. Thinking that Randi must be hungry, Lan Bo pushed him toward the surface, carrying two giant scallops tucked under his arms, bringing Bai Chunian up with him.
The ship Bai Chunian had arrived on was anchored about ten meters from the island. The people on deck were still dazed. On Mermaid Island, merfolk were always singing—any human who heard their song would lose consciousness—but a single merfolk’s voice didn’t seem to have this effect.
Bai Chunian climbed back into the cabin, unloading supplies: twenty boxes of canned meat, seasonings, various shirts, crates of stainless-steel pots, lighters, wires, bulbs, a single-burner stove, small gas canisters, assault rifles, shotguns, and ammunition.
The merfolk gathered curiously, stretching out their long webbed hands to touch these unfamiliar human objects, then quickly pulling back.
“This is how it works.” Bai Chunian sat on the ground, connecting the small gas canister to the single-burner stove, twisting it open, then igniting it with a lighter.
At the instant the flame sparked, the merfolk screamed and scattered in panic.
Lan Bo crawled along the ground, tail flashing red, scolding them for overreacting, and urged them to come back quickly.
Bai Chunian set a pot on the flame, poured water to boil, then cut the huge scallops Lan Bo had brought onto the shore into chunks, blanching them in the water before returning them to the shells for later use.
He drained the water, dried the pot, added oil, sautéed chopped green onions, ginger, and garlic, then poured in the seasonings to cook a rich, thick sauce.
Sitting cross-legged, right hand resting on his knee, left hand stirring the sauce, Bai Chunian worked patiently.
Lan Bo lay beside him, resting his chin on his hands, tail lazily curling in the air, eyes fully fixed on Bai Chunian.
Once the sauce was ready, Bai Chunian poured it over the scallop meat, let it cool, then fed a piece to Lan Bo.
Lan Bo opened his mouth, tasted it, and stars seemed to sparkle in his eyes; the tip of his tail curled contentedly.
Other merfolk crept forward, salivating, but without the king’s permission, they only dared to watch from a distance.
Lan Bo didn’t want to share Randi’s cooking, but Bai Chunian nudged the big shell toward them, gesturing for them to partake: “Don’t be shy.”
Each merfolk took a piece and scuttled away, the island echoing with the sounds of munching.
Having never eaten cooked food before, Bai Chunian’s carefully honed culinary skills were sheer heavenly delight to the merfolk tasting human dishes for the first time.
“Hen.” Lan Bo looked at the emptied shells, crossed his arms, and turned aside.
“You eat what I make every day and still haven’t had enough?” Bai Chunian turned off the gas stove, casually tidied up the scattered items on the floor, clearing a small space.
“Nope,” Lan Bo said, turning his head. “Eat for a thousand years.”
Bai Chunian scooped him onto his lap from behind, taking a roll of medical bandages from the kit he had brought. Carefully, he wrapped them around Lan Bo’s body. His waist was so slim that Bai Chunian could easily encircle him with one arm. Layer by layer, the gauze covered Lan Bo’s back, concealing the scars.
Occasionally, Bai Chunian’s fingers brushed over Lan Bo’s slender spine, the warmth of his touch pressing through the bandages. Lan Bo’s tail tip twitched subtly.
“I wasn’t planning on coming back… I was disappointed,” Lan Bo murmured, lowering his lashes. “You made me change my mind.”
“Tribal people have their flaws… they were deceived.”
“But I still love them… foolish as they are.”
Bai Chunian rested his chin on Lan Bo’s shoulder, holding him from behind, their ten fingers interlaced. He didn’t squeeze too tightly, careful not to tear the webbing.
Because of Lan Bo, the nearby detection instruments were still operational. A hundred underwater drones sent streaming images, all displayed on the monitor. In the lower-left corner, a strange-shaped object flickered past. Bai Chunian caught the subtle movement from the corner of his eye.
“Experimental Subject 809—the Kraken—has been roaming the western Atlantic. Have you seen it? It looks like a massive squid, and its size and weight keep growing,” Bai Chunian whispered into Lan Bo’s ear. “Its target is unknown; we need to be careful.”
Lan Bo raised an eyebrow. “Nothing can challenge me in the Caribbean.”
As they whispered, a sharp finger lightly tugged at Bai Chunian’s clothing. He turned to see merfolk crawling over with six- or seven-pound abalones, lobsters, scallops, and conches. Another group carried sea stars and sea cucumbers toward the shore.
The merfolk gazed at Bai Chunian as if he were a deity, kneeling, hands raised high with the seafood, pressing their lips to his shoes, beseeching the Queen to grant them this alluring bounty.
“Ah—?” Bai Chunian exclaimed.