Xia Yi awakened with a start, his eyes suddenly flying open. A blurry haze greeted him, and for a moment, Xia Yi had no clue where he was. He even began to wonder when his bedroom lamp had changed to a flashing neon light that induced a blinding and dizzying sensation.
It took him a while to realise that what flowed above him was dark ocean water.
He was about 800 metres away from the surface.
Though laying on the algae-covered deck of a sunken cruiser was very comfortable, he was still positioned oddly. Xia Yi had never tried sleeping at a 45° angle, and even worse, the incredible buoyancy of the seawater was a huge problem, too. If it wasnât for the light silver tail on his waist, Xia Yi was sure that he wouldnât have woken up in the same place heâd fallen asleep.
âEspecially if he managed to get himself washed away by the currents just because he was sleeping!
Xia Yi was strangely reminded of the âlife is a journey of travelâ statement by Thaumas, the sea turtle. Does that have anything to do with this reality? No goal, no direction, just eat until youâre full and then float⌠The ocean would walk it through its journey. Sleeping and travelling simultaneously, waking up to a new place everyday⌠Sounds like something funâŚ
Frankly, Xia Yi didnât really dare sleep. Still, as all who attempted to stay awake knew, the longer one tried remaining conscious, the more their imagination would run wild until they slipped into la-la land. The next thing they knew, theyâd be startled awake with no idea how much time had passed by.
The layers of water remained as heâd created them, and the sudden increase in pressure had resulted from Siren rolling onto him while it slept. In all honesty, the merman wasnât too heavy due to its bone structure being completely different from that of a humanâs; being too heavy would hinder their agility.
Xia Yi had carried Siren before, so he knew that the merman weighed around 80 or 90 pounds, and with the help of the oceanâs buoyancy and the deep seaâs water pressure, a mere tail on his waist wouldnât have been enough to startle him awake. The real culprit behind this was a certain snoring squid. Technically, no one could hear it snoring, but its body was puffing up and down in a rhythmic tempo. Some of the squidâs tentacles had just landed right by Xia Yiâs feet.
Squids only had barbs on their eight shorter arms, not the two long tentacles that extended further than the rest. Despite that, the weight of those two tentacles was nothing to be carefree about. Although Xia Yi had his water layers to act as a blockade, there was no way he wouldnât have woken up after being âattackedâ by Eurybia, whose sleeping habits and posture were awful.
After a conflicted debate, Xia Yi churned up some seawater to roll the tentacles to the side. Believe it or not, Eurybia didnât stir at all from this series of movements. Rather, it followed the waterâs pull and rolled to the opposite end of the deck. Its head still laid on the âfloorâ while its tentacles spread over the sunken cruiser. It continued sleeping in a strange upside-down position.
Above, the oarfish had also fallen asleep where it was, curled around the mast. However, like a loose ribbon, its body was drifting around the piece of metal while its head drooped over the very top of the mast. As a sea monster, Cetoâs head was definitely one of the smaller ones, so Xia Yi could only hope that it wouldnât collapse the precarious mast altogether.
The Lionâs Mane Jellyfish was resting in a much more practical wayâ its tentacles were tangled in algae. The currents of the deep sea werenât that big, but there was still some movement that made the jellyfishâs body gently sway, resembling a kite in the air.
The octopus, Abyss, had already squeezed into the hull, so it was nowhere to be seen.
The crabâs sleeping posture mightâve been the most standard; it rested on its stomach in the sand near the cruiser and just stayed there. Except this could easily remind people of a stupid riddle: what animal laid on their stomach when positioned in prone, when they walked, when they slept⌠what? A frog? Frogs technically satâŚ
Siren laid beside him, its long silver hair flowing amongst the algae. Since they were underwater, Xia Yiâs small movements had no chance of waking it up. Lit by Nereusâ bioluminescent body, the mermanâs eyes remained closed while its eyelashes cast faint shadows on its face. Mother Nature was truly a wondrous existence; who wouldâve imagined that there existed a bewitching creature that so closely resembled the myths and legends?
But why is it that humans have never discovered traces of merpeople?
Is it because sea monsters dwell in places that are too deep?
OrâŚ
Xia Yi recalled Siren saying that it had never seen another of its species in heat. In such vast oceans, was it extremely difficult for Siren to meet another merperson? Then could there be a reason as to why these sea monsters had gathered together? For instance, none of them had companions, were too large in size, or couldnât find others of their kind to communicate with. They could only wander the seas, all alone.
They reminded Xia Yi of himselfâ someone who didnât want to walk into the crowd but couldnât help gazing at the bustle. He was satisfied and entertained simply by watching.
Donât know how Li Shao and An Li are doingâŚ
Xia Yiâs mind raced off. Subconsciously, he reached out to feel and press at the silver tail on his waist.
The scales were beautiful, smooth, and tough, opening and closing slightly in the water.
Xia Yi didnât believe in the âlikeâ that Siren proclaimed. Even if another person said that to him, he wouldnât believe their words, much less what a non-human was professingâ the reason being that he didnât need the âlikeâ or âloveâ of another person. He was happy on his own. The only difference now was that if a person had said such things to him, Xia Yi wouldâve started avoiding them at all costs. However, Sirenâs words only made him a little frustrated.
In Xia Yiâs eyes, Siren had no clue what the word meant.
Thus, the feelings and pressure that the merman evoked all had a limited effect on him.
Take the present, for example, where Xia Yi couldnât help but start asking questions: Should he stay lying down and unmoving like this? What time is it? What should he do? He was someone who lived with a regular schedule, but unfortunately, he no longer had the one-man hobbies heâd once possessed. Was he now supposed to embark on a deep-sea exploration or something? Xia Yi didnât possess the urge or drive for such adventures. Heâd rather quietly stay in one place and listen to himself breathe.
Though he couldnât hear his own breathing now because the action no longer existedâŚ
Xia Yi wasnât confident about finding some sense of direction if he were to float to the surface at this very moment.
He turned to face Siren. It was no surprise that, unlike him, the merman wasnât clothed. Other than its scales, its hair acted as the only covering for its body. But being underwater meant Sirenâs hair couldnât cascade down its shoulders even if it wanted to. Under the glowing light, its naked skin seemed extraordinarily smooth, and when Siren closed its eyes, it looked like the most exquisite sculpture or oil painting. One couldnât help but be mesmerised by the sight.
As long as a person had a ânormalâ standard for beauty, itâd be very difficult for them to refuse Sirenâs proposal of âlikeâ. It was even worse for someone like Xia Yi who wasnât good with his words to begin with.
The âlikeâ of a sea monster probably means the same thing as them liking to eat oysters. Meanwhile, something like âheatâ is probably because Siren canât find another of its kind⌠Xia Yi didnât think too deeply or too much about that. Straightening himself, he easily swam from the deck to the edge of the cruiser.
Before him stood a giant and terrifying chasmâ a gloomy and mysterious trench.
Xia Yi always thought that the deep sea was around 2000 to 3000 metres below sea level, but there were still plenty of organisms around this sunken cruiser. Albeit, they all appeared quite strange⌠but it was a sad sight seeing a sea cucumber crawling along the cruiser! Itâd probably sensed the sea monstersâ arrival and wanted to flee in fear. Yet by the time Xia Yi had woken up, itâd only made it from the deck to the other side of the hull, incredibly slow⌠Well, in a sense, it wasnât easy squirming beneath layers of algae and shells.
A shadow fell over him and Xia Yi quickly swam out. Seconds later, the cruiser sunk a few feet into the sand.
ăEurybia⌠just sleep, why are you rolling around?ăAwakened, Siren propped its head up in a daze. It looked over at the squid whose body had half-smashed onto the deck.
For sea monsters, the weight and movement was the same as humans tossing in their sleepâ a completely unconscious action. The squid continued snoring in its twisted position. Siren, on the other hand, felt like something was missing from beneath its tail. Its amethyst eyes blankly stared forward for a while before it glided over. Hugging Xia Yi tight, the merman laid back down and rested its head on Xia Yiâs stomach. It probably hadnât fully awakened and fell back asleep almost immediately.
This time, Xia Yi clearly felt a faint and rhythmic rise and fall.
The merman was breathing.
Water flowed past its slightly parted lips and escaped from the small cracks behind its fan-shaped, translucent fin-ears. Those slits were likely to be the mermanâs gills. If Siren wasnât so close to him, itâd be difficult for Xia Yi to realise where its gills were located because its ears were usually hidden behind its long hair.
Frankly speaking though, Siren didnât have any greater intent behind its actions. Even Abyss slept while hugging its large bottlesâŚ
What was bizarre this time was that it had a dream.
A dream, for the merfolk, was a memory of the distant past; sometimes, it was a nonexistent event. Their dreams werenât about the ocean, but instead were about the bright sunshine, the shoal rocks, and ships. To merfolk, ships meant humans! Humans were their food and their⌠Hmm⌠how odd, they couldnât remember what âthatâ was no matter how hard they tried⌠but it was definitely important.
Siren frowned in its sleep.
Only young merfolk or those in their special period would dream.
For Siren, dreaming had occurred so long ago that it was no longer familiar with the concept.
There was the sea, the blue sky, nice sunshine, and a ship was sailing closer from the distance. While it looked to be strong and sturdy, it would soon â by nightfall, at least â be swallowed up by the raging storm, and everyone would be buried at the bottom of the sea. Of course, the vessel wouldnât sink that quickly since the hopelessness of the sailors as they headed towards the inevitable was the delicacy that the merman longed for.
The dream was akin to every other one in existence. There was nothing special about it. However, Siren had a feeling that something was missing this time.
Siren waited and patiently searched as the ship in its dream sank to the ocean floor. It wasnât until the ship became another habitat for underwater creatures and a playground for the sea monsters that Siren finally realised what it was waiting for.
Where is Shayi? Where is the human?!
Did I not find him in the ocean, before the ship even sank?
Dreams were often disorderly, melting together memories from the past and the present. If this were Xia Yi, heâd take a sip of water after being startled awake and forget about it the next morning. And yet fear grasped the still-dreaming merman. An unknown emotion toppled over Siren because the dreams of the merfolk were supposed to remain the same forever.
UnlessâŚ
ăShayi?ă
When Siren abruptly grabbed his arm, Xia Yi could only be grateful for the layers of water between them. If they werenât there, several deep gashes wouldâve definitely scarred his flesh.
ăItâs Xia Yi,ăhe murmured after growing drowsy again due to him having laid there for a while now.
The ocean was too quiet, almost devoid of any sound since no fish dared to come and disturb a group of sea monsters.
Xia Yi barely registered Siren releasing his arm. The thought âit probably slept enoughâ flashed through his mind before he was lulled back into a semi-conscious state. Therefore, he didnât notice the strange change Sirenâs silver tail underwent the moment the merman jolted awake.
The reconstruction of oneâs bone structure was a very complicated process. In its shock, Siren started to swim out, before seeing its tail that was beginning to change soon revert back to its original state.
As pale fingers caressed the scales, Siren gazed at Xia Yi and a realisation suddenly dawned upon the merman.
A young merfolkâs dreams told it how to find food, while during the special period⌠only that person. They were the only one the dreams focused on⌠and dreams were a sign that would reveal all in the end.
Xia Yi was a human.
And what merfolk desired were humans, never another of their own kind.