Chapter 23: Approaching Xiaohai, he embraced her...

“Come back to the temple with me.”

Xiao Jiang shook her head, dodging Qingdai's hand, "I'm fine, don't worry about me."

"But it clearly hurts, I saw it..." Wu Hu didn't dare to look Xiao Jiang in the eye, hiding behind Qing Dai and speaking softer and softer.

He witnessed her expression change instantly when she pulled him out of the cave, and he didn't understand what she was still trying to prove. But her final strike that split the spider's body in its body filled him with fear, making him afraid to disobey her.

Liu Chong'er, with her swollen, red eyes from crying, looked at Xiao Jiang with a puzzled expression.

Being stared at by the three people like that, Xiao Jiang felt as if ants were crawling all over her body. She said, "I'm leaving now. You guys hurry up and take Liu Chong'er home." Then she immediately ran away as if something terrible was chasing her, and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Only after escaping home and closing the door did Xiao Jiang finally breathe a long sigh of relief.

Sitting behind the door, Xiao Jiang took the glass bottle from her waist and held it in her hand. The merman who had just gone through a fierce battle with her and had been shaken all the way here was holding his forehead, seemingly still not recovered.

Seeing the merman's appearance, Xiao Jiang couldn't help but laugh. She tapped the little merman's forehead with her finger through the bottle, "Did you get dizzy from all the shaking? I'm sorry, please forgive me, Xiao Hai, I didn't mean to."

She paused, her eyes dimming. "But I'm hiding some secrets that they can't find out. They seem to care about me..."

She didn't continue her sentence: Precisely because their attitude had finally changed, she couldn't let them discover that she was indeed a monster, a monster with feathers growing on its back.

Through the glass bottle, the merman could see the white-haired girl smiling slightly, but he could not see joy; instead, he saw loneliness in her eyes.

Night had fallen, and the villagers were asleep; no more lights shone from their houses. Tonight, however, was a full moon, its light illuminating the roads clearly.

Xiao Jiang took off the glass bottle hanging from his waist, put the merman into the river, and then lifted the spell on him. The merman, who was originally only the size of a palm, instantly returned to his original form.

A huge and long fish tail appeared in the river. Following the fish tail upwards, there was his long gray-blue hair that could cover his entire upper body, and a perfect face that did not resemble a human.

In the relatively wide river, the mermaids could finally stretch out their bodies. Under the bright moonlight, the mermaids in the flowing water appeared even more beautiful.

Xiao Jiang put the mermaid into the river, and only turned her gaze away after the mermaid disappeared into the water.

She loosened her belt and waded into the river, sinking completely. The blood splattered from her fight with the spiders in the mine, mixed with her sweat, made her smell terrible.

As the cool water submerged her feverish body, Xiao Jiang breathed a sigh of relief, and the pain in her injured left hand also lessened considerably.

She knew her body would recover quickly.

From a very young age, Xiao Jiang knew that her body was different from others. Whenever she couldn't control her emotions, her body would get hot, not like the fever of a common cold, but a burning heat like burning charcoal.

It felt like there were sparks in her blood that could ignite her body in an instant. Her back was the place where the fire burned the most intensely, often making her feel like her back was about to be burned open. And it was during this time that those strange feathers would grow.

She plucked the feathers again and again, even though it hurt her so much she cried.

She was terrified that one day she would wake up and find herself covered in those feathers, making her no different from the monster they were talking about.

How can a person be covered in feathers?

If she didn't want to become a monster, she had to pluck out her feathers. Once she plucked them out, she would be just like everyone else again.

Under the moonlight, the mermaid emerged from the water, quietly combing his hair, his gaze fixed on the end of the river. Suddenly, a whiff of blood reached his nose, and he instinctively looked towards the shore. There was no one there, only a glass bottle standing alone on a rock.

The mermaid's heart sank, and she immediately swam quickly towards the shore.

But there was no one to be seen on the shore either...

Looking around blankly, he couldn't see the white-haired girl anywhere.

The merman's gaze was dark as he stared for a long time at the lonely glass bottle on the shore.

As the stench of blood grew stronger, he looked toward the source of the smell.

Suddenly, a head emerged from the river not far away. Wet white hair dripped water continuously, and the owner of the head was panting heavily while wiping the water off his face.

She had her back to him and couldn't see him behind her. The merman saw her reach behind her back, groping, and finally touch something, then pull it out forcefully.

The smell of blood in the water grew stronger, and he heard her breathing become heavier; the smell of blood earlier had indeed come from her.

The flowing water carried what she had plucked to him—a tiny feather. Its soft down was easily clung to by the water, making the gold and red colors even more intense, resembling the color of blood.

The merman took a closer look at the girl in front of him for the first time.

Who exactly is she?

Or perhaps, it wasn't even human?

"So there are new friends here. Humph, none of them will escape my grasp." Xiao Jiang muttered to herself. After plucking so many feathers, these feathers had become like old friends to her. Friends that grew in familiar places were the easiest to pluck, while new friends, because they grew in places that had never been plucked before, were often the most painful. But even if it hurt, she wouldn't leave a single one behind.

With only human skin remaining on his back, Xiao Jiang tried to soothe the wound with running water as usual.

Suddenly, a soft, smooth hand was placed on her back, and the touch, colder than river water, startled her.

Xiao Jiang turned around and saw Xiao Hai's calm face. His gaze, like his hand, was on her back. There was a gentle expression in his blue eyes. Although it was a touch without force, it seemed to lock her in place, making her afraid to move, for fear of accidentally disturbing the rare favor bestowed upon her by the merman.

The mermaid's hand stroked the uneven marks on Xiao Jiang's back, patches of scars, new ones overlapping old ones, varying in color, clearly caused over many years.

"It feels so good. Xiao Hai, your hands are amazing. When you put them on my back, the wound doesn't hurt at all."

Her tone was light and cheerful, as if the pain had truly disappeared because of him.

...

The merman simply and silently comforted her wounds.

"Xiao Hai, are you happy swimming in the river?"

She always liked to ask him some strange questions, even though she knew he wouldn't answer, she would still keep asking them tirelessly. Sometimes even the mermaids couldn't tell whether she was asking him or just talking to herself.

Behind her was eternal silence. Xiao Jiang never expected the merman to answer her; she just wanted someone to talk to.

The moon is round and bright tonight, and when it shines on the water, it seems to melt into the water, reminding Xiao Jiang of the night he found Xiao Hai, which was also a beautiful full moon night.

She cupped a handful of water in her hands, and a tiny moon appeared in her palm, as if she were holding the moon in her hands.

She wanted to show Xiaohai the moon in her palm, but before she could speak, she was suddenly pulled into a cold embrace. Cold, smooth skin pressed against her bare back, and a body as cold as jade soothed every burning, stinging wound on her back.

Xiao Hai hugged her...

Now the pain is really gone, and even the fever is subsiding.

But the cold contact also made Xiao Jiang's mind clearer.

"Xiao Hai, are you leaving?"

Since his spiritual power has been restored and he can leave this place, is this how he is saying goodbye to her?

Inside the mine, she knew it was Xiao Hai's blow that saved her.

She hadn't expected him to know magic, and although she was surprised, she quickly accepted it.

Based solely on the vague legends he heard as a child, Xiao Jiang knew that merfolk were a species favored by the Creator, born with many things that humans could only dream of.

She didn't want to ask about Xiao Hai's magic. Some things, if left unasked, could be pretended to be as if nothing had happened, and that he was still the companion she had taken in.

But self-deception cannot last forever.

His wounds had long since healed, and his spiritual power had now returned; there was no reason for him to remain here. To a merman who belonged to the sea, neither a bathtub nor a pool of water seemed too small.

From the moment Xiao Jiang found Xiao Hai, he knew that the time of parting would come sooner or later, but he didn't expect it to be so soon.

We'll probably never see each other again.

The merman paused in his embrace at her words, turning his head to look at her from beside her neck. Her eyelids drooped, and her usually bright and dazzling eyes dimmed, a look she always wore when she wanted to hide her emotions. His hand around her waist tightened unconsciously, and he felt the texture of the large scars on her back, a strange itch rising in his teeth.

I want to bite her, to break her skin, just like last time.

But the person in front of him released his arms, turned away from his embrace, and faced him. Xiao Jiang forced a smile and gave him a reassuring one.

"Go ahead, don't worry, I won't stop you."

The merman frowned slightly.

"Go home, go back to where you belong. Although I saved you during this time, I am actually very grateful to you."

The white-haired girl continued, "You should be able to tell that I have no companions. They all think I'm a monster, and no one wants to be friends with a monster, so I can only talk to the birds on the mountain. The birds said that there is a god living on the mountain who can help me. So I tried to pray, asking the mountain god to give me a companion to keep me company. I don't know if the mountain god heard me. Then one day, you appeared."

"Xiao Hai," her voice was light and airy, as if it had drifted from a distant place, "has anyone ever called you a monster?"

"When I found you, I thought, the mountain god is so kind. He must have heard and seen. No one is more suitable to be my partner than you. Your hair and eyes are different from theirs. You even have a fish tail. In the village, you are a monster. Monsters with monsters are the most suitable match."

“But this isn’t right.” She swam back a step, creating some distance between them. She looked into his eyes and smiled. “You and I are different after all. You have your people. You just don’t belong here. I should be happy that you didn’t just disappear without a word.”

The girl scratched her head, apologetic, and said, "I don't know if you understood what I said. But none of that matters. I just wanted to tell you that even if you leave, I will always remember you."

After expressing her hidden thoughts, Xiao Jiang's sadness at parting dissipated considerably. Her face appeared very calm as she sincerely bid farewell to the merman.

The white-haired girl swam towards the riverbank, leaving him alone in the water. The riverbank was lined with dense forest, and a thought suddenly popped into the merman's mind: if she continued forward, if she disappeared into the forest, she would be like a drop of water falling into the ocean, and he would never be able to find her again.

This strange thought seized his mind, and before he could even process it, his body reacted. The merman raised his hand, and a powerful beam of blue light shot out from his fingertips.

Xiao Jiang was nearing the shore when suddenly a powerful force gripped her waist, immobilizing her and preventing her from taking another step forward. She looked down; there was nothing restraining her waist. She assumed she had accidentally stumbled into a magic array. She even used a speed-moving spell to struggle forward, trying to break free of this strange constraint. But the next moment, an overwhelming force pressed down on her like a tidal wave. The speed-moving spell vanished before this force like a wave in the ocean. Her body was controlled by this force, slowly moving backward, unable to turn back.

"Thump!"

The force suddenly vanished, and Xiao Jiang suddenly lost her balance, her body sinking uncontrollably to the bottom of the water. In that instant, she almost felt like she was drowning. Xiao Jiang struggled to open her eyes underwater, only to see a fish tail and long hair like seaweed floating in the water.

A note from the author:

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