He turned his head and saw that it was a girl who only reached his shoulder.
The girl was young, and her arms looked less than half the thickness of his, yet they were like a pair of pliers, clamping his arm so that he could no longer move an inch.
"You...you let go!" Cold sweat broke out on the man's forehead.
Lu Qing pushed hard, and the man stumbled back several steps, almost falling to the ground.
"Who the hell are you?!" the man cursed angrily.
The next second, Gu Xicheng slowly walked up to him, his cold and sharp gaze falling on him:
"Don't let me hear another swear word from your mouth!"
Although the man was arrogant, he wasn't without sense; he clearly knew he couldn't afford to offend the man in front of him.
"You...you just wait!"
After saying that, the man scrambled away.
Lu Qing helped the woman up and smiled slightly:
Are you alright?
The woman gave Lu Qing a grateful look, whispered that it was nothing, and was about to leave when Lu Qing stopped her.
"I saved you, aren't you going to think about repaying me?" Lu Qing said with a smile.
The woman frowned, then took out her phone:
How much money do you want?
Lu Qing: "Do we look like we're short of money?"
The woman glanced at Lu Qing's clothes. She didn't recognize the brand, but based on her years of experience as a live streamer, the dress Lu Qing was wearing must have cost at least six figures.
It's not just the clothes; the watch on her wrist is worth tens of millions, and it's a limited edition worldwide. Anyone who can buy it is definitely not an ordinary rich person.
The woman paused, and after a long while, asked:
"So what do you want?"
Lu Qing: "Please treat us to a meal!"
The woman agreed.
After they had almost finished eating, Lu Qing took out a picture of the mermaid painting and handed it to her:
You should be very familiar with this painting!
The woman took the phone and, upon seeing it, was so frightened that she immediately threw it onto the table.
"Who...who painted this picture?" the woman asked in terror.
Lu Qing replied with a smile, "He's a painter. He said he saw it by chance while waiting for the sunrise at Mermaid Bay, so he painted it."
The woman turned pale with fright, and her hands began to tremble slightly.
Seeing that she didn't speak, Lu Qing continued:
"Is that girl in the painting you?"
"No!" the woman retorted instinctively, which only proved her guilty conscience.
"Don't rush to deny it, let me show you something else!"
Lu Qing took out the blood bead and placed it in front of her:
"Mermaids only shed tears of blood when they are extremely sad or angry. The tears of blood turn into blood droplets, and each drop consumes their life."
"Miss, you think you let him go for his own good, but to the mermaid, you betrayed him. He wanted to kill you that day."
Upon hearing this, the woman's eyes were filled with shock.
She had no idea about this; she only thought that releasing the mermaid back into the sea was for his own good.
After a long silence, the woman gently stroked the mermaid in the painting and asked, her voice choked with emotion:
"Does he really want to kill me?"
Lu Qing sighed and said:
"Although mermaids look like humans in terms of their upper body, they actually have fish brains. It's impossible for them to understand your intentions."
"So can you tell me your story with that mermaid?"
The woman remained silent for a moment, two clear tears sliding down her cheeks, before softly recounting her story with the mermaid Liushang.
The woman's name was Jiang Lan, and the man who had just tried to hit her was her father.
Jiang Lan's father was a pearl farmer who made a living by selling pearls. However, as more and more people started pearl farming, ordinary pearls could not fetch a good price.
Later, he accidentally pulled up a little mermaid while at sea.
The little mermaid looked to be about five or six years old in human years. Jiang Lan's father remembered that mermaid tears could be turned into high-quality pearls, so he took him back and kept him in a huge fish tank.
Jiang Lan was only five years old at the time. Seeing that the little mermaid was about the same age as her, she often went to play with him and talk to him.
Mermaids only shed tears after they turn eighteen, and Jiang Lan's father can only support him.
From then on, Jiang Lan made a friend, whom she named Liu Shang.
Liu Shang couldn't even speak at first. It was Jiang Lan who slowly taught him until he finally learned to speak human language.
And just like that, more than a decade or so passed quickly.
The fish grew more and more beautiful, and the fish tank was replaced with larger and larger ones, but he just couldn't shed a tear.
At that time, Jiang Lan's father's business was on the verge of collapse. In order to force Liu Shang to shed tears, he actually stabbed him with a knife.
Liu Shang felt the pain and finally shed tears.
Those tears transformed into round, white pearls, which Jiang Lan's father exchanged for a large sum of money.
From then on, whenever Jiang Lan's father wanted pearls, he would make several cuts on Liu Shang's body.
Jiang Lan couldn't bear it, but she couldn't go against her father's wishes.
Later, Jiang Lan's father's ambition grew, and he wanted more and more pearls, while Liu Shang's injuries increased.
Jiang Lan couldn't bear to see Liu Shang get hurt, so she devised a way to bypass the jewelers who collect pearls and sell them via livestream. This way, she could earn more profit and Liu Shang would suffer less.
Before graduating from university, Jiang Lan became a live-streaming e-commerce host, specializing in selling pearls.
She thought that once she had earned enough money, she would never let Liu Shang get hurt again, but little did she know that her father had become addicted to gambling.
In just a few days, Jiang Lan lost all the money she had earned over three years and even owed millions in loans.
In order to repay the debt, Jiang Lan's father secretly cut countless wounds on Liu Shang's body, and even considered giving Liu Shang away to someone else to pay off the debt.
Only then did Jiang Lan realize that as long as Liu Shang was still alive, her father would never stop being greedy.
So she secretly put some sleeping pills in her father's food, and then, under the cover of night, took Liu Shang to Mermaid Bay and released him back into the sea.
On the day they parted, Liu Shang shed many tears, begging her not to abandon him.
As she cried, the pure white pearls gradually became stained with blood.
Jiang Lan was also reluctant to part with Liu Shang, but in order to protect him, she had to send him away.
And so the scene that the painter saw on the beach came about.
After hearing the whole story, Lu Qing and the other two couldn't help but sigh.
The root of all the tragedy was Jiang Lan's father's greed, but unfortunately, with Liu Shang's fish-like mind, he could never understand Jiang Lan's good intentions.
Sympathy is one thing, but Liu Shang still needs to be brought back.
After all, a mermaid that can exude blood beads imbued with malevolent energy is a great threat.
"Jiang Lan, help us find Liu Shang! In his current state, if we don't find him soon, he probably won't live much longer," Lu Qing said.
Jiang Lan was puzzled and hurriedly asked what it meant.
Lu Qing gave a brief explanation:
"It's probably because the blood beads he sheds are very tempting to certain evil creatures. In addition, the blood beads will consume his life. At the rate he's bleeding, he probably won't live past this year."
"What?!" Jiang Lan was shocked.
"Why should I trust you? What if you're also trying to capture Liu Shang!"
Lu Qing shrugged indifferently:
"I've already told you what to do. Whether you believe it or not is up to you. Regardless of whether you want to join us or not, we will still bring him back. The only difference is whether you will be able to see Liu Shang again."
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