Chapter 78: The lion took action.
“Don’t hurt him!” Xie Weiran ran over from the seawall and said, “He means no harm! He is a sea child!”
Qin Ge retreated to the edge of the seawall, holding a stone in one hand, carefully examining the young boy in front of him.
The cracks on the boy’s cheeks, neck, and ribs were slowly opening and closing, as if breathing. He was drenched, sparkling in the late afternoon sunlight. Under Qin Ge’s gaze, the boy seemed embarrassed and turned around to prevent Qin Ge from staring at the cracks on his body. Then he propped himself up with one hand on the seawall and leapt up.
Standing on the seawall, his soaked black swim trunks clung to his body. The previously moving cracks had become still, as if his skin had been slashed by a sharp weapon, but without blood and without pain.
Qin Ge recalled the characteristics of sea children.
This special kind of human is generally born in coastal areas, invariably male. Most of them are short in stature, and even when grown, they appear to be fourteen or fifteen years old, markedly different from the Cha Lao. Sea children are naturally adept in water, possessing both lung and gill respiratory systems. They use the gills when submerged, allowing them to stay underwater for extended periods without breathing apparatus, even reaching deep sea areas that humans can scarcely access.
Stories about sea children were recorded in the Ming Dynasty’s “Collection of Strange People.” During the eleventh year of the Hongzhi era, over ten “strange children” were born in the South China Sea regions, “with cracks on their faces, necks, and bodies, resembling fish.” They loved swimming in the deep sea from a young age and often caught rare fish, sometimes bringing back valuable sea pearls. Greedy merchants offered high prices to buy these strange children, forcing them to dive for pearls. Pearl oysters typically grow in harsh environments, and despite their abilities, many of these strange children were injured, and several died one after another.
The merchants searched everywhere for similar children to replace the lost divers and bought poor families’ daughters, forcing them to mate with the strange children. However, nine out of ten of the offspring were normal, and only occasionally did one or two have gills, and their appearance was different from the previous “strange children.”
Qin Ge also stood up. He noticed that the sea child in front of him was not short, resembling an ordinary eighteen or nineteen-year-old boy.
He is the child of a human and a sea child, Qin Ge thought, so he only retained the gills while being otherwise entirely human.
“Why aren’t you wearing clothes again?” Xie Weiran finally caught up, ignoring Qin Ge and grabbing the sea child’s arm, “You’re injured again. Didn’t I give you a diving suit before? It’s as comfortable as not wearing anything.”
“I don’t like it,” the sea child replied, “When I’m in the sea, I don’t want to wear anything.”
Xie Weiran: “Just don’t take off your pants, or the village girls will go to the city to complain again, saying you’re being a hooligan.”
The sea child frowned and tugged at the edge of his swim trunks, “They were the ones who came to look at me first. If I wore nothing, I’d choose a deserted place to swim.”
Xie Weiran: “Anyway, you must wear clothes in the future.”
The sea child was stubborn: “I will only wear this.”
Xie Weiran was annoyed, but the sea child clearly didn’t want to continue the dispute over pants and clothes. Qin Ge noticed his hand had been clenched into a fist, seemingly holding something.
Noticing Qin Ge’s gaze, the sea child initially hid his fist behind his back. Xie Weiran chuckled and grabbed his arm, making him extend his hand in front of Qin Ge.
Qin Ge: “?”
The sea child hesitated, then slowly opened his fist. In his palm lay several sea glass pieces of various shapes and colors, which shone brilliantly in the sunset.
Qin Ge was surprised: “…For me?”
The sea child remained silent, so Xie Weiran spoke for him: “This child is afraid of strangers, but he saw me with you, so he knows you’re my friend. This is his gift to you.”
Discarded artificial glass, after a long journey and being polished by sand, waves, and fish kisses, lost its edges and became smooth and rounded, like gems from the deep sea. Qin Ge extended his hand, and the sea child carefully placed the sea glass in his palm. He was happy that Qin Ge liked this small gift and no longer avoided Qin Ge’s gaze, squinting with a smile.
Qin Ge thought, no wonder the girls would secretly watch him. Such a handsome, adorable young man.
The three walked back to land along the seawall, with the sea child walking in front, his back strong and graceful. He turned his head and said something to Xie Weiran, and Qin Ge vaguely heard him asking about someone.
The name that came from the sea child’s mouth was clearly a female name.
Xie Weiran replied, “There’s no progress yet. You shouldn’t go up the mountain again; it’s too dangerous.”
The sea child didn’t nod; his expression was somewhat bleak, and he continued walking in silence.
“He was asking about Cha Lao,” Xie Weiran explained to Qin Ge. “His family is one of the impoverished households our research team is paired with. I know him well because we’re both rare, special humans, so I took him to visit Cha Lao’s tea garden. He and Cha Lao are good friends, so he’s very sad about her situation. He often runs to the tea mountain and stays there all day.”
Qin Ge suddenly understood. That was Cha Lao’s name. Beyond the labels of “rare” and “special human,” the woman living in the tea mountains had a name of her own.
“What about him? Does he have a name?” Qin Ge asked, looking at the child’s back.
“He’s called Xiaohai,” Xie Weiran said with a smile. “You should get along well with him.”
“Why?”
“Aren’t you here to find a witness for a subsidy embezzlement case?” Xie Weiran thought for a moment. “Jiang…Jiang something?”
“Jiang Yong.” Qin Ge’s heart sank heavily. “Xie Weiran, is it you who’s responsible for connecting me with the witness in this case?”
Xie Weiran looked sincere: “I’ll help you.”
Qin Ge felt dejected: “Thanks in advance… But what’s this got to do with Xiaohai?”
They finally reached land. The sea child turned and waved at them, indicating they should follow him.
“Xiaohai knows where Jiang Yong is,” Xie Weiran said.
Xiaohai lived with his mother and had only a primary school education. He wasn’t stupid, just unable to continue studying after primary school. The fishing village was in a small town, which had a primary school. When he was little, he was just darker-skinned, with fine cracks on his face that looked like scars. Many of the children in the village who grew up with him went to the same primary school, and because he was so good at swimming, they all saw him as their leader. If anyone at school mocked the sea child’s “scars,” a dozen or so dark-skinned kids, both boys and girls, would grab their pencil cases and brooms to fight back.
After primary school, Xiaohai was assigned to a junior high school in the city. Only two friends went to the same junior high, and they weren’t in the same class. At twelve, he finally started to grow taller, and as his body developed, the gills on his face fully matured.
“Although we’re also special humans, we look exactly like ordinary people,” Xie Weiran said. “So we can’t really understand their experiences and feelings.”
The children knew there was a special human in their class, a sea child who was silent and withdrawn, who didn’t like wearing shirts, and who was always uncomfortable in the summer school uniform. What made the others understand what a “sea child” truly meant was a typhoon that brought a heavy rainstorm.
On the day the typhoon hit, the morning air was dry and hot. The sea child was listless all day, rushing to the faucet to drink water during breaks. As school was about to end, the heavy rain started, and students were let out early. The rain was so heavy that the air was instantly filled with moisture.
“That day, everyone in his class saw Xiaohai’s gills…” Xie Weiran mimicked the motion with her hand, “moving.”
Just imagining it made Qin Ge feel sad.
The sea child held his gills in panic, but it was his instinct, something he couldn’t control. The whole classroom of children screamed and ran, the commotion drawing students from other classes, and the screams grew louder and louder. The sea child was at a loss. The teacher told him to cover his gills with his clothes, so he hurriedly took off his shirt, forgetting that he also had gills on his ribs and neck.
From that moment on, Xiaohai was ostracized by the other children. He was no longer human to them; he was a monster.
“He barely finished one semester before he refused to go back to school. No one talked to him, and many bullied him,” Xie Weiran shrugged. “His mother said as long as Xiaohai was happy, it didn’t matter if he wasn’t part of the crowd. Honestly, he was indeed much happier not going to school and has been living quite happily ever since.”
Xie Weiran thought for a moment: “It’s just that he’s quite poor.”
Qin Ge didn’t know if the sea child heard their conversation. The boy led them silently through the low trees, finally arriving at a dilapidated brick house.
The brick house was shabby, with windows open but the door closed from the inside.
Xiaohai poked his head through the window: “A-gong (Grandpa)?”
Qin Ge heard snoring from inside. He approached the window, only to see darkness inside, with a few bottles rolling on the floor. An old man with white hair was sleeping on the bed, his snores filled with the smell of alcohol.
“A-gong is Jiang Yong,” Xiaohai said. “But he’s drunk and might not wake up until tomorrow.”
When Xie Zijing and Lei Chi left the South China office, besides receiving a serial murder case report, they also got some news.
“Another guide from headquarters arrived a few days ago; you should meet them soon.”
Xie Zijing was slow to react, and it wasn’t until he was eating a 15-yuan boxed meal on the high-speed train that he thought to ask Lei Chi, “Another guide from headquarters? Who?”
Lei Chi calmly replied, “I don’t know.”
They finally arrived at the seaside, under a starry sky.
The Criminal Investigation Division personnel accompanied the two of them, patrolling the beach: “When the fishing boat was discovered burning, a lot of people had gathered on the beach.”
Lei Chi and Xie Zijing had read the report on the high-speed train and were already familiar with the situation of that day.
This season was the South China Sea’s fishing moratorium, so there were no fishing boats near the shore. All fishing boats capable of going out to sea were chained together and docked at the fishing port. However, some people still risked being caught and went out at night in small fishing boats to fish or go angling.
It was these fishermen trying to fish stealthily who first saw the fire on the sea.
A burning fishing boat on the sea, fire on the water—these are key elements of the legend of Abanhuo. Regardless of the legendary aspect, a fishing boat catching fire at sea is a very serious incident in itself.
Several people, carried by the night wind, heard the cries of anguish from the burning boat and hurriedly launched their small boats to try to rescue those on board. But after their boats had only gone ten meters from shore, they saw mermaids around the burning boat.
“The South China Sea fishing moratorium coincides with the mermaids’ breeding season. During this time, mermaids are very aggressive, regardless of gender. If they find a human boat invading their territory, they will definitely capsize the boat and drag the people into the deep sea,” their colleague told them. “So those fishermen didn’t dare go any further. People on the shore also saw the boat on fire, and soon many had gathered in this area. They saw the mermaids putting out the fire, but by the time the fire was extinguished, the people on board were completely burned. The mermaids then pushed the boat ashore, alerting the fishermen that the boat reeked of kerosene.”
The bodies were completely burned, making identification impossible. But the mermaids found a ring that had fallen from a woman’s finger during her struggle on the burning boat.
By this ring, they were finally able to confirm that the deceased was a guide.
“I want to see the leader of the mermaids,” Lei Chi said. “Can that be arranged?”
The colleague looked troubled: “Mermaids don’t like interacting with humans. We can only communicate with them if they voluntarily approach the shore.”
Xie Zijing suddenly walked a few steps up the seawall.
In the dark distant sea, a few silver backs flashed in the water.
“Are those the mermaids?”
“Yes! They like to swim out on moonlit nights!” The colleague quickly contacted the fishing port, asking them to provide a speedboat immediately. Lei Chi called the head of the Criminal Investigation Division: “Chief, is there anyone in the crisis office who is familiar with mermaid behavior? I know, they’re not classified as special humans yet… Yes, these mermaids are very likely direct witnesses to the recent murder case.”
Standing on the seawall, Xie Zijing felt the refreshing vastness of the sea breeze, making him want to shout aloud. He walked along the seawall towards the sea, white mist rising from him, and finally fell on the seawall. A Barbary lion emerged slowly from the mist, its demeanor regal and kingly.
It walked in front of Xie Zijing, staring at the distant figures of the mermaids just like him.
Midway along, the lion suddenly stopped. It shook its mane and stared at the beach below the seawall, its tail starting to lash furiously.
“What did you find?” Xie Zijing hurried over.
His lion was clearly excited, its mane shimmering like gold in the moonlight. In the next moment, the lion leaped down, disappearing below the seawall.
Xie Zijing: “?!”
Below the seawall was not water but a shallow beach. Qin Ge stood there with a flashlight, locking eyes with Xie Zijing above.
The lion was circling around a bundle of white fur on the beach, snorting through its nose.
The bundle of white fur trembled, a pair of black eyes peeking out from the long fur, watching the lion while tears streamed down.
The lion made its move.
Its paw gently patted the back of the long-furred rabbit twice.
For every Ko-fi received for a perticular novel, I will release a new chapter!
