Chapter 28 The Black Beauty Comes Knocking
After the dressing was changed one last time, the bleeding from the wound had stopped. Although the scales were stained green by the grass juice, the wound had begun to heal.
Watching the moon gradually rise higher.
Su Yun yawned for the nth time and finally couldn't help but say, "That's enough for tonight. Let's get some rest... Let's try the Banlangen again tomorrow morning and see if it helps."
"Okay." Upon hearing this, Ye Feng began to tidy up the bandages and scissors on the ground, and told Su Yun to go back to her room to sleep first.
Su Yun glanced at the still-sleeping mermaid, thought for a moment, and then found a large wooden plank to cover most of the pool, ensuring that the water surface could come into contact with fresh oxygen while also providing protection.
In addition, Su Yun also placed many bottles, jars, and wooden strips by the pool, which would make a sound if anything got close.
Then the ever-vigilant night wind will awaken.
Looking at this ingenious arrangement, Su Yun felt that he was very clever.
After taking one last look around the yard to make sure everything was safe, Su Yun closed the door, went back inside, and jumped onto her warm bed.
Although it's almost summer, it's still a bit cool at night.
After soaking in the water all night, Su Yun's hands were purple. Now that she had finally crawled into bed, she felt much more comfortable. However, the quilt was a bit damp from the rain these past few days, and her body was slow to warm up.
Su Yun trembled and curled up for a long time, unable to fall asleep no matter what.
Meanwhile, the night breeze beside him began to breathe deeply and evenly. His fur was warm and cozy, radiating a comfortable heat that drew Su Yun closer and closer to him.
Night Breeze noticed her nudging motion and asked sleepily, "Su Yun? What's wrong?"
Su Yun felt embarrassed for waking Ye Feng. She carefully shrank back and explained in a low voice, "I'm sorry, my hands and feet are too cold, I can't sleep."
Ye Feng, who was always a keen sleeper, became somewhat awake upon hearing her voice. "Shall I share some of the blanket with you?"
Su Yun shook her head. "The blanket is too damp, it's useless. Night Breeze, could you lend me your tail?"
Tail? Ye Feng suddenly sobered up. He clearly remembered the strange reaction his tail had when it was petted last time. If Su Yun hugged it again...
He dared not imagine what would happen.
"Just lend it to me for a little while, okay? I'll return it to you once I'm warmer," Su Yun pleaded pitifully, shivering.
Seeing Su Yun trembling and cowering, Ye Feng immediately softened and obediently placed its tail in Su Yun's arms. A strange, tingling sensation came from the tip of its tail once again.
Night Breeze struggled to suppress the slight tremor in his voice and replied with difficulty, "Just for a moment..."
Su Yun rubbed against the big tail vigorously and replied happily, "Mmm!"
The fluffy tail was warm and comforting. Once Su Yun hugged it, she couldn't bear to let go. Feeling the fluffy little tail rubbing against her chest, Su Yun couldn't help but bury her face in it and exclaimed, "Tail, you are so wonderful."
Upon hearing this, Ye Feng trembled all over again.
I almost cried out.
Feeling the sudden movement of the night breeze, Su Yun thought she had said something wrong and quickly corrected herself, "Oh, no, it's Night Breeze, you're really too kind."
Night Wind gritted his teeth, pressed his tongue against his palate, and his body stiffened even more. He could clearly feel the strange sensation coming from his tail, which was assaulting his mind in waves.
He forced himself to remain stiff and responded softly, "Mm."
Su Yun, who was clinging to his tail, had no suspicions whatsoever.
The tail of the night breeze was like a small heater, warm and cozy when held in one's arms. Before three minutes had passed, Su Yun had fallen asleep.
She was sleeping very soundly, not even letting go of the tail in her hand.
Night Wind was suffering terribly from the torment...
It was well into the night.
A loud bang woke Su Yun from her sleep.
She was startled awake and sat bolt upright, her mind still foggy but her nerves on edge: "What happened? What's wrong? Night Wind?"
Ye Feng was no longer sleeping in bed, but got up and stood by the door. His golden pupils glowed slightly in the darkness, clearly observing the movements outside the door.
In the pitch-black night, with only a pair of golden eyes gleaming faintly, Su Yun felt no fear whatsoever.
On the contrary, I felt very at ease.
The powerful night wind gave her an unparalleled sense of security.
"There's something outside the door." Night Wind stared warily in the direction of the front door.
"Bang—" Another sound of something hitting the door, like a heavy object forcefully striking the thick wooden door.
Night Wind let out a low, angry roar, laced with threat, warning the unknown creature outside the door.
But the thing outside the door remained unmoved, continuing to pound on the doorway.
"Knock knock knock—"
The wooden door shook violently from the impact.
Fortunately, the wooden door was very thick, and it was supported by several sturdy logs on its back. Unless an elephant came, this wooden door would be very difficult to break open.
Even though the wooden door was as solid as a rock, the thing outside was still very stubborn and kept banging on the doorway, making it bang loudly.
Hearing the banging sounds coming from the wooden door, Su Yun got up and got out of bed. She pulled out the dagger hidden at the foot of the bed, slowly gripped it, and her heart was pounding wildly. All of this made her very nervous.
With the violent impact, the doorway shook violently for a while, swaying and showing signs of instability.
Just as Su Yun was so nervous that her heart was about to jump out of her throat, the area outside the door suddenly became quiet again.
Then, a deathly silence fell outside the door.
"What's going on? Did they leave?" Su Yun asked, clinging to a sliver of hope.
The night wind pricked up its ears. "It shouldn't be. I feel like they're still outside the door. I didn't hear any footsteps leaving."
Then, as if in response, the doorway shook violently as soon as the words were spoken.
A loud bang echoed again at the doorway.
Then came a series of loud, rapid impacts.
"Bang bang bang..."
Su Yun's heart pounded along with the sound of the impact.
Fortunately, after a brief tremor, the doorway held firm and was not breached.
Looking at the rickety door, Su Yun felt grateful for the first time that she had chosen a sturdy courtyard.
The sturdy wooden door withstood the attack once again, and silence returned outside.
Su Yun felt that they couldn't just sit and wait to die, so they had to hurry up and carry two cabinets and large vats to block the doorway.
In case of another fierce attack from the other side.
Just as Su Yun began huffing and puffing as she started moving the cabinet, the banging sounds outside the door did not reappear as expected.
Instead, it was a low sob.
Su Yun sensed something was wrong. "It sounds like crying. It sounds like a person outside, not something else."
"A person?" Ye Feng raised an eyebrow, looked at the swaying gate, and decided, "Then I'll go up and take a look first."
As he spoke, he lightly touched the ground with his toes, and before Su Yun could react, he had already leaped onto the wall.
Ye Feng stood on the wall, looking towards the entrance, observing carefully.
"How is it? Is it a person? Is it in danger?" Su Yun jumped up and down below, somewhat worried.
Night Wind shook its head. "It's not a person, it's that black mermaid."
"Huh? A black mermaid?" Su Yun's eyes widened in surprise. "She... how did she get here? I remember the stream was very far from here!"
"I don't know either, but she doesn't look too good..." Ye Feng frowned slightly.
"What's going on? I want to see too! Quick, pull me up, Ye Feng!" Su Yun reached out her hand, ready to climb the wall. She had climbed trees and trees a lot when she was a child, so this little wall was no challenge for her.
With the help of the night wind, Su Yun was successfully brought up the wall.
The weather was perfect; the moon peeked out from behind the clouds, its clear light falling to the ground and illuminating everything clearly.
Dark blue tiles, slender branches and leaves, and a long-tailed mermaid on the ground.
Covered in mud and leaves, the dried fish lay sprawled on the steps in front of the door, looking utterly wretched.
Hearing the two of them talking, the mermaid looked in the direction of the sound and finally discovered their presence.
She lifted her body from the ground, struggling to prop herself up. Her soft, weeping expression was gone; her eyes were sharp and fierce. She looked up at the two men on the wall, baring her fangs, and said menacingly, "So it really is you! Hand over Shepard!"
"Snowflake?" Su Yun and Ye Feng exchanged a glance, both seeing confusion in each other's eyes.
A quick glance confirms it: they're all just clueless bystanders.
"What 'shember'?" Su Yun asked, puzzled.
"What are you pretending to be stupid for? Didn't you kidnap her?" Despite being disheveled, the other person still glared at them menacingly, unwilling to back down.
Su Yunye stared at him, completely bewildered.
Night Breeze: "What is 'snow amber'?"
In the end, Su Yun reacted quickly. She peeked out and tentatively asked, "Could it be the white one?"
The black merman roared, "It's her! What have you done to her? Give her back to me!" Once the black merman confirmed that the white merman was in their hands, he immediately went into battle mode, arching his back, taut his tail, and extending his claws.
"Hey, hey, hey, let's talk this out! We didn't do anything to her, we just saw her lying in the pit because she was dehydrated, so we rescued her..." Su Yun explained gently while squatting on the wall.
"I don't believe it! There's a distinct smell of blood here, the smell of Shepard."
"Why would I lie to you?" Su Yun raised an eyebrow, somewhat surprised. "In your current state, you probably can't even beat me." Seeing that the other party was being unreasonable, Su Yun lost her patience. The knife in her hand moved slightly, flashing a glint in the dark night, the threat obvious. She had kindly saved her companion, and if she wanted to repay kindness with enmity, she would definitely not be polite.
The sharp blade gleamed faintly in the darkness, and the warning in Su Yun's eyes was clear.
The tall orc beside them also extended its sharp claws.
The black fish was slightly taken aback upon seeing this, and only then did its mind calm down a little, ceasing its anger and roaring.
Seeing that she had finally calmed down, Su Yun continued to reason with her: "We didn't do anything to her. She was just resting peacefully in the pool. You can see for yourself if you don't believe me."
The black fish was in very poor condition. Due to being out of the water for too long and crawling all the way, its arms were covered with scratches and bloodstains, the scales on its tail were scattered, and its body was covered with mud and grass, a stark contrast to its former elegance and aloofness.
Watching her slender fingers crack and bleed, her arms almost completely stripped of scales, yet she seemed oblivious to the pain, pounding on the door again and again, fighting her "enemy" with all her might.
She knew perfectly well that the shore wasn't her home turf.
Even though I know the hope is slim.
The black fish's face darkened slightly, but when he raised his head again, a resolute look appeared in his despairing eyes.
Looking at that strong yet desperate mermaid.
Su Yun suddenly felt a pang of pity, her tone softening slightly as she softly said, "She's alright, her wounds have been bandaged, and it's safe for us to put her in the pool. You can come in to see her, but you must promise not to lay a hand on us once you're inside."
"Really...really?" Faced with this sudden change, the black merman clearly refused to believe it. She looked up at Su Yun's gentle face, still somewhat hesitant.
Su Yun gripped the knife hilt, her palms slightly sweaty. If she could, she didn't want to fight, even though they had a significant advantage, it was a fight to the death...
Su Yun didn't want to take any risks.
"You can believe it or not... you know that..." Su Yun gripped the hilt of the knife, his eyes resolute.
The black merman stood there silently for a long time before finally nodding in agreement: "Okay, I promise."
Su Yun breathed a sigh of relief and said softly, "Ye Feng, open the door."
Night Breeze hesitated for a moment, "But..."
Su Yun knew what he wanted to say, and gently patted the back of his hand to comfort him, "It's okay... even if we fight, we can win."
Looking at Su Yun's resolute face, and then at the injured black merman, Ye Feng nodded and agreed.
After the logs holding the doorway were moved aside, the door creaked open, and Su Yun and Ye Feng, on high alert, were on the move.
The black fish eagerly used its slender arms to support its massive tail as it moved in.
One step, two steps...
Her slender fingers were scraped raw and bleeding from the floor. It was hard to imagine how the other person had moved so far from the stream and bumped into the doorway so many times.
The black merman struggled to crawl on the ground, finally managing to stand up and come to Shepard's side. He saw that in the reflection of the bright moon, the person at the bottom of the pool was still so beautiful and serene, appearing perfectly intact before him.
"Shepard, Shepard..." The black merman whispered her name as he lay by the pool, his voice incredibly gentle, like the most delicate and tender caress, or an intimate kiss, each sound touching the heartstrings.
The sleeping mermaid was gently called by a familiar voice, one call after another, one sentence after another… Her eyelids trembled slightly, and she finally opened her amber eyes, the first thing she saw was the person calling her name.
Her eyes lit up with joy, and she was about to reach out and hug the other person with a smile when she suddenly noticed the injuries on their body. All her joy turned to surprise. She looked at the black merman lying by the pool, covered in blood and looking disheveled, and exclaimed in surprise, "Wanwan? What happened to you? How did you get like this?"
Upon seeing Xue Po awake again, Wan Wan burst into tears. "Xue Po, thank goodness, thank goodness, you really are alright."
Wanwan woke up her sleeping companion, a smile appearing on her face for the first time. Then her head tilted to the side, and she could no longer hold on. She closed her eyes and collapsed.
"Wanwan, Wanwan!" Xuepo had finally woken up, but Wanwan collapsed again...
"Hey? No way?" Su Yun, who was observing from a distance, exclaimed in surprise, "No way... not again?"
Looking at the two black and white mermaid ladies, one awake and one dazed, in the pool, Su Yun rubbed her aching forehead and sighed again.
"Miss Xuepo? Is that your name?" Su Yun hesitated and stepped forward. Xuepo, who was in the pool, saw Wanwan fall down and became visibly panicked. Ignoring her injured tail, she struggled to stand up, leaned out most of her body, grabbed Wanwan's hand, and tried to pull her into the pool.
"I think your wound hasn't fully healed yet, so it's best not to move around too much," Su Yun stepped forward to stop the other person's movements.
“But Wanwan, she…” Xue Po was slightly taken aback when she heard this, and then noticed that there were two other people beside her, a human girl who looked very weak, and a silent beastman boy.
She finally noticed her surroundings, realizing it was no longer a waterside, but human habitation: "Who are you? Where is this?"
Su Yun pointed to the bandage wrapped around Shep's tail and replied briefly and quickly, "We saved you."
Shepherd then looked down and noticed her wound, which had been bandaged up sometime earlier. She looked up at her surroundings, then down at Wanwan, who was covered in blood, and quickly realized that it was the human girl in front of her and the cat-eared boy behind her who had saved her.
"Thank you for saving me... thank you... thank you..." Shepard's lips trembled, her eyes filled with pleading, "Could you please help me...?"
Su Yun knew what she wanted to say and quickly interrupted her, "She dragged me into this mess before, almost killing me..." Su Yun was not a saint without principles. Between right and wrong, Su Yun would not blindly choose to repay kindness with enmity.
Shep was overjoyed to have encountered a kind-hearted human who had rescued her, but upon hearing Su Yun's words, her heart sank again. "How could this be? Wanwan is so kind..."
“Why not?” Su Yun showed the wound on his arm. “This is the arm she injured.”
Shepard's expression gradually changed from surprise to silence. The arm in Su Yun's hand was indeed something that only a mermaid's claws could have created.
She understands the道理 (principles/reasoning), but how can someone who has been hurt in the past save the person who hurt her? That's impossible...
But even so, she couldn't stand idly by... She knew that everything Wanwan had done was for her...
If she hadn't been injured and unconscious...
If she hadn't been swept away by the flood...
It won't turn out like this even at night...
Therefore, she didn't care if it was a humiliating plea or a beg, as long as it could save Wanwan.
The desperate mermaid embraced her injured companion, a faint sorrow appearing on her beautiful face. "Wanwan did all this for me, she wanted to drive everyone near the water away because of me... She didn't mean it... If you can heal her, I'm willing to pay any price. Gems or scales, as long as you can save Wanwan, I'll do it all..."
As she spoke, tears welled up in her large amber eyes, turning into sparkling gems that fell to the bottom of the pool.
"If you insist on not forgiving her, then I will pay with my life." With a sorrowful expression, he raised his hand to slit his own throat.
"Hey, no, no, no." Su Yun hurriedly stepped forward and stopped her, coldly saying, "The law doesn't concern itself with atonement. One thing is one thing. Even if you die, it won't erase the mistakes she made, and I still won't save her. Don't do anything pointless."
Seeing the merman raising his hand to slit her throat, Su Yun was startled. Why were these beastmen so single-minded?
It's all about fighting and killing all the time; it's really scary.
Su Yun wasn't being petty, it was just—
"The law?" Shepar looked confused, her tears flowing even more freely. "Then what do you want from us, girl? What will it take for you to save Wanwan? Just tell me, and I'll atone for my sins."
Su Yun: "..."
"The one who needs to atone first is not you, but her. My demands are not high. Intentionally injuring someone is punishable by imprisonment according to the law. Since there is no prison available right now, we can only impose a fine. After that, you will have to work to pay off the debt."
"Work to pay off debts?" Shepar opened her eyes wide, looking puzzled. "What do you mean?"
"We demand compensation!" Su Yun said solemnly. She had made up her mind that in order to make up for her mental and physical losses, she would have to ask them to compensate her for the hundred or two hundred catties of fish or something similar.
“Okay, I promise you.” Shepard agreed to Su Yun’s request.
"Furthermore, we demand a sincere apology and guarantees for the personal safety of those involved," Su Yun said solemnly.
Shepard: "Yes, I'll have Wanwan apologize to you. She's always been kind; if she did something wrong, she should admit it..."
Girl, you seem to have some misunderstanding about the word "kindness".
However, seeing Xue Po's pitiful appearance with tears streaming down her face, Su Yun eventually softened and decided to save them after agreeing on the terms.
"Alright, Night Breeze, come and lend a hand, carry her to the well."
Night Wind hesitated. He wasn't Su Yun; he was someone who had truly experienced the brutal apocalypse. He had always been... (The sentence is incomplete in the original text.)
He lowered his head and hesitated for a moment before saying, "Su Yun, didn't you tell the story of the farmer and the snake?"
Su Yun sighed, unsure whether to be happy that Ye Feng actually remembered her little lesson or saddened by her own soft heart.
She said softly, "There's nothing I can do. I guess I was blinded by their good looks. I'm willing to give them another chance. Anyway, we're on shore now. If anything goes wrong, I won't hesitate to help."
Su Yun gave the knife a final, subtle flourish, making a gesture of striking. Though his movements were decisive and swift, his eyes remained clear and bright.
The night wind looked down and saw that the human girl in front of him was both weak and strong, both cautious and reckless. Humans always have emotions and actions that he could not understand. Just like now, even in the face of such a situation, there was still a gentle and pure kindness in her eyes.
She is always optimistic and courageous, bravely trusting everything and everything, and bravely trusting the world.
Night Wind sighed and made a concession, considering it a gesture of trust for himself and for this hopeless world.
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