Chapter 81: Jiang Yong’s sea area was a prison.
Jiang Yong’s house was quite dilapidated. When he first arrived here, he had some money with him and rented a decent small house to live in. However, he was soon evicted by the landlord. His mental disorder often caused him to wander around and babble at night, making the neighbors all very anxious.
After drifting through several places, Jiang Yong finally settled here.
The seaside was filled with many trees, their trunks slender and only sprouting a circle of crowns at the top. Jiang Yong’s house was nestled in this kind of forest. Qin Ge navigated around the garbage and cardboard at the back of the house and walked to the window. The door was padlocked, but the window was ajar. Peering through the gap, he could see the floor littered with wine bottles and a chaotic interior.
Jiang Yong was merely “living” here, not actually leading a life. His only source of income was the annual subsidy he received as a diving partner, but it was a drop in the bucket, with almost all of it spent on medication. A few years ago, Xie Weiran and others helped him secure medical subsidies, so Jiang Yong no longer had to pay out of pocket for his psychiatric medication and hospitalization. However, he soon fell into the habit of heavy drinking.
“It ended up like this,” Xie Weiran said. “He’s already getting the diving partner subsidy and medical aid; he can’t apply for any other benefits. He survives by picking up garbage and cardboard. Many in the village wanted to take him out to sea with them, but he’d rather drink and sleep than work.”
Seeing the empty house, Qin Ge thought that Jiang Yong might have gone out to collect garbage.
He and Xie Zijing decided to wait there. Xie Weiran’s crab was frightened of Xie Zijing, who enthusiastically played a game of chase with it, tirelessly enjoying himself.
As the sun climbed higher, Qin Ge reminded Xie Weiran to contact Jiang Yong again. Xie Weiran repeatedly failed to reach Jiang Yong on his phone. As noon approached, the sparse forest finally echoed with the sound of someone dragging heavy objects.
With his hair disheveled and graying, Jiang Yong saw Xie Weiran and the two young strangers outside his house without any change in expression. He walked straight to the back of the house and neatly stacked the cardboard. His eyes looked tired, his back slightly hunched, and he was emaciated, a stark contrast to the photo in his file.
Qin Ge greeted him, “Hello, Jiang Yong. I’m from the Crisis Management Office headquarters.”
Jiang Yong didn’t lift his head, muttering, “Get lost.”
Qin Ge tried again, “There are some things we’d like to understand…”
“Get lost!!!” Jiang Yong roared hoarsely, “Don’t you understand? I don’t know you; get lost!!!”
He turned to glare at Xie Weiran, his eyes bloodshot. “Xiao Xie, what nonsense have you brought to my house this time?!”
Xie Weiran was startled, shrinking back and staying silent. Xie Zijing stepped in front of Xie Weiran, “We’re here for work; why are you being so aggressive?”
Jiang Yong glanced at Xie Zijing, suddenly pausing and scrutinizing him, finally resting his gaze on Xie Zijing’s face with a look of astonishment.
“I’m Qin Ge, a mental health therapist,” Qin Ge said from the side. “And he is Xie Zijing, my diving partner.”
“Xie…” Jiang Yong was stunned.
“Xie Liang is my father,” Xie Zijing said.
Jiang Yong’s expression collapsed instantly. He tried to maintain a semblance of normalcy, but his eyebrows and eyes drooped, and his mouth kept pulling down as if he were about to cry. He grabbed Xie Zijing’s hand tightly like an iron grip, his lips trembling and twitching, finally squeezing out, “You… you’ve grown so much…”
He released his grip, took two steps back to lean against the back of the house, and then completely lost his strength, covering his eyes and squatting down.
“I know why… why you came to see me…” he sobbed, “I also… Lao Xie and I… never thought… that kid would turn into such a… monster…”
The commotion in the Crisis Management Office finally began to subside.
Lei Chi shielded the child as they entered the office, while the others dealt with the agitated family members outside.
“Sit here for a while,” Lei Chi said, pouring water for both of them using disposable cups. “When the people outside leave, I’ll take you to the infirmary.”
The nosebleed had stopped, but the child spoke nasally, “Thank you.”
Lei Chi thought the child might be too shy or too accustomed to being bullied to look up, but the boy gazed at him with clear, curious, black eyes devoid of anger or resentment. “What’s your name?”
“Lei Chi,” he replied. “It’s my first time seeing a sea child. Do you swim really well?”
The boy nodded.
Lei Chi said, “I’m a werewolf,” as he shook Xiaohai’s hand, raising an eyebrow and smiling at the boy’s astonished expression.
Xiaohai was clearly excited. He scrutinized Lei Chi and then looked down to see if he had a tail. “Special humans with animal traits… Are you new here?” he asked. “I come to the Crisis Management Office often, but I haven’t seen you before.”
“No, I’m here on a business trip to handle a case.” When Lei Chi heard Xiaohai mention “special humans with animal traits,” he suddenly recalled hearing similar words from the merman chief. Sitting up straight, he asked, “Zhang Xiaohai, why did you go to the seaside the night the fishing boat caught fire?”
Xiaohai’s eyes immediately began to flicker. “I’m used to swimming at night.”
Lei Chi stared at him. “That’s not true, is it? Do you know the merman chief?”
Xiaohai’s eyes widened, and he couldn’t speak for a while, but a smile slowly spread across his face. “Do you… do you know him too?”
“Yes, he wanted to meet me, which is why I came here,” Lei Chi confirmed. “That night, did you go to see the merman chief?”
“We’re friends,” Xiaohai said, scratching his head. “But the chief said I mustn’t let anyone know that we know each other, or I would be in big trouble.”
Lei Chi nodded. For the fishermen, mermaids were not considered auspicious beings. Xiaohai’s life was already tough enough; the merman chief was protecting him.
“The chief knows a lot about things on land. Did you tell him about these things?”
Xiaohai nodded. “I bring him many books.”
As he spoke, the boy began gesturing with his hands. “In the mermaid territory, there are actually many objects used by humans on land. For example, they use a bubble this big to wrap books and isolate them from seawater. When I touch the bubble, it breaks, but mermaids can put their hands through the bubble and flip through the book without any problem. It’s amazing.”
Lei Chi listened, nodding. Xiaohai was good at swimming; he must have ventured deep into mermaid territory. This also indicated that the merman chief trusted him deeply; they were close friends.
Therefore, it couldn’t have been Xiaohai who set the fishing boat on fire and allowed it to drift into the mermaid territory, disturbing the mermaids. If Xiaohai had angered the mermaids, they, with their unpredictable tempers, would not have let him off so easily.
The merman chief was telling the truth: they had seen the perpetrator in a speedboat. The perpetrator couldn’t swim long distances and was an ordinary person, or possibly one of the Sentinels or Guides.
Suddenly, the office door opened, and the team leader walked in, followed by a woman.
“No smoking!” the team leader said over his shoulder. “Xiaohai is here. Take him home.”
The woman stubbed out her cigarette, put it in a small box, and placed it in her bag. She appeared to be in her thirties, with light makeup and curly hair tied back. She scrutinized Lei Chi and the boy sitting opposite him.
“Who the hell hit my son?!” she shouted at Lei Chi. “Was it you?!”
Jiang Yong and Xie Zijing sat face to face by the window. Using the light, Jiang Yong carefully studied Xie Zijing, as if trying to find traces of Xie Liang in his face.
“I held you when you were just a baby,” Jiang Yong said. “You were so tiny, just a little bitty thing. I was afraid to hold you, but Lao Xie said it was fine, and your mom let me hold you too. You didn’t like me; as soon as I held you, you woke up and started crying.”
Xie Zijing smiled. “I don’t remember that.”
“Of course you wouldn’t. You were only a few days old.” Jiang Yong suddenly remembered something. “Do you remember a bow at home, wrapped in animal skin?”
Xie Zijing was stunned. Childhood memories suddenly rushed in, and he immediately remembered. “You’re the uncle who gave me that bow!”
Jiang Yong’s face creased into a smile. “Yes, yes, that was me.”
According to Jiang Yong, he and Xie Liang were university classmates. After graduation, they both joined the Tianjin branch of the Special Management Committee and remained good friends. Jiang Yong often visited Xie Liang’s house to eat or play with Xie Zijing, but when he applied to become Xie Liang’s diving partner, he was required to reduce contact with Xie Liang’s family for confidentiality reasons.
“Your dad originally had no fixed diving partner. He would find a Sentinel to accompany him on missions. But it didn’t work out, so the Special Management Committee required him to have a fixed diving partner, who had to be an internal member and good friends with Lao Xie, and pass numerous screenings. Lao Xie consulted me and put my name forward.”
Qin Ge stood beside them, quietly listening.
Since he was about to start exploring Jiang Yong’s “sea area,” Xie Weiran couldn’t enter. Looking out the window, he saw her sitting in the forest, reading documents, while the crab walked back and forth in front of her, turning red and green.
“You’re here to find Zhou You, right?” Jiang Yong asked.
Both Qin Ge and Xie Zijing nodded.
Jiang Yong looked at Qin Ge with some trepidation. “You’re very young.”
Qin Ge said, “My abilities are different from Xie Liang’s. I can eliminate the negative emotions in your ‘sea area,’ so at least you’ll be able to sleep well for the next few nights.”
This finally made Jiang Yong lower his guard. He nodded.
Qin Ge moved behind him and released his spiritual entity. The long-haired rabbit landed on Jiang Yong’s head and immediately tried to jump to Xie Zijing upon seeing him. Qin Ge quickly held it down. Closing his eyes, the long-haired rabbit turned into a mist in his hand, enveloping Jiang Yong.
Qin Ge found himself standing in a pitch-black cave with only a bright opening above his head.
“Jiang Yong!” he shouted, but there was no reply. There was no echo, only the dead silence, as if swallowed by the black rock walls.
Taking a step forward, Qin Ge suddenly found himself falling, as if the ground beneath him had given way.
The next moment, he was standing in the cave again, everything identical to before.
As long as he moved, he would fall, but the place he fell to was still the cave, with no exit, no path, surrounded by sealed black rock, with only a bright spot above.
Jiang Yong’s “sea area” was a prison.
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