"Hey, did you hear? Pete went missing two weeks ago too. I heard his wife has been crying every night, and the neighbors can hear it!"
"Really? But isn't it said that he applied for leave because he was afraid something might happen?"
"Yes! That's why he's missing, not drowned. I heard his wife woke up to find Pete missing; his clothes were still in the blankets, but he was gone, and the sheets were wet!"
"Oh my god! That sounds really scary, you'd better not say it so late!"
Gu Qingqiu pretended to tidy up the table and mop the floor, constantly hovering around the two people and gathering a lot of information.
According to the information heard, the two men were both sailors, and Pete was their colleague. Other sailors on their ship had also had accidents, but Pete, who had a family, did not dare to take the risk, so he chose to take leave during this turbulent time. Unexpectedly, he still could not escape the fate of disappearing.
At first, perhaps emboldened by alcohol and with the tavern full of people, the two sailors could still discuss Pete's disappearance as if joking. However, as night deepened and the tavern became less crowded, the two sailors seemed to sober up a bit when the cold wind blew from the window, and their faces showed an emotion similar to fear. This made Gu Qingqiu feel that things were not so simple.
They exchanged a glance, then shouted "Check, please!" in unison, paid the bill, and left together.
Gu Qingqiu wanted to follow them to get more information, but it wasn't time for her to leave work yet, so she had to stay in the bar wiping glasses.
The tavern owner seemed to notice that Gu Qingqiu was somewhat absent-minded today, and actually took the initiative to call her over, "What's wrong, young lady? Are you also afraid because of the rumor that the mermaid has appeared in the world?"
Gu Qingqiu thought for a moment and shook her head. "Actually, I'm not that scared. I'm just a little curious. Do mermaids really exist? But my parents told me that mermaids are guardians of the town. We regard mermaids as gods of the sea. They should protect us, right?"
The boss smiled meaningfully. "That might have been the case at first, but human greed is always beyond imagination. Just wait and see, things are probably about to get a little unsettled here."
As one of the few small taverns in town, the owner wasn't worried about his business being affected. On the contrary, because fewer people were going out to sea recently and more people were idle, the tavern's business had actually been better than before.
The next day was Gu Qingqiu's weekly day off. Although she slept until noon as usual, she spent the afternoon familiarizing herself with the map in the town before going home to cook dinner for her parents.
Interestingly, in this world, Gu Qingqiu's mother was a seamstress, her father was a blacksmith, and she herself was a waitress at a small tavern. None of the family's jobs had anything to do with the sea, so although they weren't rich, they always had a stable income to support their family.
The mother arrived home before the father. Looking at the meal on the table, which wasn't lavish but looked quite appetizing, the mother smiled gently: "Good child, so sensible."
Gu Qingqiu smiled shyly, accepting the praise. Then, following behind her mother, she subtly inquired about the rumors of the mermaids appearing in the world. Unexpectedly, her mother sighed and said bluntly, "This is the sea god's revenge."
Unexpectedly, her mother knew the inside story! Gu Qingqiu's eyes lit up, and she immediately pestered her mother to ask questions.
It wasn't something that couldn't be told, so after a slight hesitation, the mother simply began to recount the story.
It turns out that a hundred years ago, the ancestors of the current residents of this town not only saw mermaids, but the mermaids at that time had a close relationship with humans. They would even swim to the shore and play with the residents, and they got along very harmoniously.
Many residents became good friends with the mermaids. Among them was a girl named Zhang Jianqiu who fell in love with a mermaid who looked very handsome. Yes, a human and a mermaid fell in love, even though they didn't speak the same language and were of different social statuses.
At first, people just thought they had a good relationship and were good friends, until someone discovered Zhang Jianqiu and the mermaid kissing by the rocks.
A few months later, Zhang Jianqiu's belly grew bigger. The local people were simple and honest, and it was easy to be looked down upon for having a child out of wedlock, let alone the fact that the child might be a mermaid.
Who knows what kind of monster would be born from the union of a human and a mermaid? So people started bullying Zhang Jianqiu, and her parents beat and scolded her.
However, the town's medical resources are limited, and there is no way to guarantee that the mother's body will not be harmed after the abortion.
At the same time, Zhang Jianqiu insisted on giving birth to the child, so her parents had no choice but to lock her in the basement and send her three meals a day at regular intervals to prevent her from coming out and embarrassing herself.
The mermaid who couldn't see Zhang Jianqiu lingered on the shore day and night, making strange noises to passersby. People couldn't understand what the mermaid was saying, and they only felt more frightened. After this incident, people realized that they shouldn't get too close to the mermaid, and fewer residents went to the beach to play with the mermaid.
A few months later, Zhang Jianqiu's water broke.
After much pleading and spending a fortune, Zhang Jianqiu's parents finally managed to hire a midwife to deliver their daughter's baby. Zhang Jianqiu groaned in pain and twisted her body, straining, but the baby still could not be born.
Basins of bloody water were carried out of the basement, and it wasn't until the first light of dawn that the cries of a baby could be heard from inside.
Unexpectedly, the midwife's face turned deathly pale when she saw the baby's appearance, and she rushed out without even asking for money.
When Zhang Jianqiu's parents saw their child's appearance, they nearly fainted. They immediately locked the basement door and placed Zhang Jianqiu, covered in blood, and her newborn child in the dark and damp basement.
"What a tragedy." The mother shook her head, still feeling a mix of fear and remorse. "That child really did look like a monster. His upper body was that of a human child, but his skin was covered in fish scales. His lower body was like a fish tail, thrashing about on the ground like a fish that had just been pulled from the water and was struggling."
Just imagining that scene, Gu Qingqiu could guess how scared the person who witnessed it must have been, but Gu Qingqiu didn't feel scared at all. What did the child do wrong?
Perhaps it's because she's also a mother, and her child is now inside something that looks like an ostrich egg, which might seem like a "monster" to outsiders.
A hint of disgust flashed in the mother's eyes. She paused, then continued, "A week later, Zhang Jianqiu's parents finally unlocked the basement door, and the scene... well... it was quite unsettling..."
The child died, of course, and Zhang Jianqiu did not survive either. This matter could not be kept from the residents of the town, after all, the midwife who fled that morning went crazy and exaggerated the scene she saw in the town that day.
While they condemned Zhang Jianqiu's parents as murderers of their own daughter and grandchild, they were also relieved that the monster was dead.
However, the body needed to be disposed of. After a vote by the town's residents, they unanimously decided to burn Zhang Jianqiu's body and bury it, and then throw the child's body back into the sea.
People at the time didn't know what the consequences of doing so would be.
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