Mermaids Weep (7)
Taking a merman to explore the land sounds like a simple task.
The old tortoise continued to explain, "This child has wanted to see the land since she was little, but it is inconvenient for me to leave this cave, and I am really worried about letting her go ashore alone. It just so happens that we met you today, so why don't you take this child to the land for a trip, so that she can fulfill her wish."
Yao Yao was so touched that she didn't expect the old turtle to remember her wish. She couldn't help but climb onto the old turtle's back and call out "Grandpa, Grandpa" while happily wagging her beautiful fish tail.
Bringing a merman back wouldn't be difficult, but the merman's appearance would definitely cause panic and might lead to some trouble.
Ye Yingying had no clue what to do, so she had to ask Yun Yanqiu for help.
Yun Yanqiu remained calm. After a moment's thought, he agreed to the old turtle's request: "We can help with this, but she has to agree to two conditions."
Upon hearing that they could go ashore, Yao Yao nodded excitedly, her eyes shining: "Tell me! As long as it's not too outrageous, I can accept anything!"
Having received the promise, Yun Yanqiu held up two fingers: "First, you must transform into two legs and disguise yourself as a land dweller; second, once you are on land, you must not act alone and must stay with us."
People on land always harbor unknown fears towards merfolk. This girl in front of me is clearly naive, and there's no guarantee she won't be taken advantage of if I go there. It would be safer for me to disguise myself as a land dweller.
Yao Yao frowned, feeling somewhat troubled by Yun Yanqiu's request: "I can't transform into human form. If I knew how to transform, I would have gone to the land myself long ago."
"Don't worry, Grandpa has a way," said the old turtle. "Go look in that box in the back. There's a pill in a black bottle that can help you transform into human form."
Unexpectedly, Grandpa had such a treasure at home. Yao Yao immediately pouted and said, "Grandpa, why didn't you tell me you had such a good thing sooner?"
"Do you think I don't know what you're up to?" Old Turtle said matter-of-factly. He knew his granddaughter's personality perfectly well. If she knew about this treasure, she would definitely try every means to take it and use it. What would happen if something went wrong on the shore?
Unable to argue with the old turtle, Yao Yao puffed out her cheeks, turned around, flicked her tail, and swam behind the old turtle to find the pills.
Seeing her swim away, the old turtle spoke again: "This child is used to being arrogant in the sea, that's her temperament, but she's not a bad person at heart. Once she's on land, we'll have to trouble you to be more tolerant of her."
"Not at all, Miss Yao Yao is lively and quite adorable." Ye Yingying smiled, unimpressed. Compared to obtaining the mermaid's tears, these things were nothing.
Ye Yingying's goal has been achieved, but Han Chengjin's heart is still heavy.
Although everything that was happening before his eyes had a significant impact on Han Chengjin, the bold words spoken in the Yihai Hall still allowed him to force himself to calm down. He mustered his courage, stood up, and bowed to Elder Gui: "Elder Gui, I also have something I would like to ask you."
"Please feel free to speak."
“Recently, cultivators have been disappearing frequently on the shore, and people are saying that it is related to the merfolk. So we came here to investigate, but we don’t know…”
"You want to know if the merfolk kidnapped your cultivators?"
"That's right." Han Chengjin lowered his head, feeling ashamed, and dared not say more.
"Hmm..." Elder Turtle pondered for a moment before speaking, "The merfolk have always been wary of you land-dwelling humans. As long as you don't trespass into their territory, you won't be harmed. Besides, they don't have the habit of harming cultivators."
"Are there any people who broke in and were arrested?" Ye Yingying interjected.
"There were a few, but Yao Yao rescued them all first."
Upon hearing this, Ye Yingying couldn't help but ask curiously, "Isn't Miss Yao Yao also a mermaid? How come..."
Why is her attitude towards land dwellers different from that of other merfolk?
Old Turtle didn't hide anything and explained directly, "This child has heard a lot of stories from the shore since she was a child, and she also had a friend from the shore when she was young. Naturally, she has some trust in people on land and is willing to help them."
A friend on land... Considering what Yao Yao just said, it's not hard to guess that this friend is probably Han Chengyu.
It's unexpected that Han Chengyu met a merman when he was a child; that's quite a surprise. But if he was friends with the merman, why hadn't he mentioned it before?
Han Chengjin was stunned, and suddenly felt a little unfamiliar with her older brother who she had grown up with.
Ye Yingying had similar concerns; Han Chengyu was clearly hiding something.
Each of them was preoccupied with their own thoughts, and no one spoke. As a result, the cave became much quieter, with only the sound of water droplets dripping from the stone wall.
The tranquility was broken once again by Yao Yao's appearance. She had changed into a bright dress, and the shimmering fish scales on her cheeks, shoulders, and elbows had disappeared, leaving only a patch of snow-white skin.
Han Chengjin looked at her, and that face finally overlapped with the face in his childhood memories. But compared to the joy of reunion, Han Chengjin felt more lost and bewildered.
"Grandpa, look! I have two legs now!" Yao Yao lifted her skirt and jumped around to show Grandpa Turtle the results of the Transformation Pill.
This transformation pill is indeed effective. At this moment, Yao Yao has shed the unique characteristics of a mermaid and looks no different from an ordinary woman.
Old Turtle slightly opened his eyes, saw Yao Yao's appearance and said with satisfaction, "Hmm, not bad, not bad. I can rest assured now."
"In that case, let's set off." Yun Yanqiu helped Ye Yingying to her feet.
"But our ship..."
Before Han Cheng lost consciousness, he witnessed their ship being torn to pieces by the waves, and now it was lying somewhere on the seabed, its fate unknown.
Without a boat, they can't possibly swim back.
"Don't worry, I have a secret passage that leads directly to the shore. You can go through there."
"Grandpa, you!" Yao Yao stared wide-eyed in disbelief. She had wanted to go to land for more than a day or two. She had come to the old turtle to confide in him countless times since she was a child, but he had never been moved. It turned out that he had everything, but he just wouldn't tell her.
The mermaid girl was furious and threw several glares at the giant turtle to express her dissatisfaction.
"Don't be angry, Yao Yao, Grandpa is just worried about your safety." Old Turtle changed the subject by dodging the question. "Alright, after you go out of my cave, go in through the third entrance from the left. When you encounter a fork in the road, just go into the rightmost entrance. When you reach the end, you will be on the shore."
"Thank you, senior." The group bowed to the old man and then turned to leave.
Although Yao Yao was still angry, she still greeted and said goodbye to Old Turtle.
"Yaoyao," Old Turtle called out to Yaoyao, adding as a final reminder, "Don't be too playful, and remember to come back on time."
"Okay." Yao Yao replied somewhat impatiently, and left the cave with Yun Yanqiu and the others without looking back.
The old tortoise's cave was hidden very deep. When the group came out, they found themselves still in the deep cave. There was nothing around them except for several cave entrances of different sizes arranged in all directions.
“I know this place well, follow me.” Yao Yao rushed to the front and followed the old turtle’s instructions into the third cave entrance.
Seeing this, Yun Yanqiu took Ye Yingying's hand and followed. Han Chengjin hadn't figured out how to face Yao Yao yet, so he consciously walked at the back of the group.
"Oh right, I haven't asked you your names yet," Yao Yao said, turning around as she walked.
“My name is Ying’er, and he is Yun Yanqiu. We all call him Senior Yun.”
“Sister Ying’er, Senior Yun,” Yao Yao murmured, then suddenly craned her neck to look past the two in the middle at Han Chengjin at the back of the line. “And you? Han Chengyu’s younger brother.”
"Huh?" Han Chengjin was startled by the call and looked up abruptly. He inadvertently met Yao Yao's curious eyes and immediately panicked. He quickly looked away and said hastily, "Han Chengjin."
"Han Chengjin?" Yao Yao murmured the name twice. "Is your surname 'Han Cheng'?"
“Our surname is Han, but our family has been accustomed to using characters to indicate seniority for generations. My brother and I belong to the ‘Cheng’ generation,” Han Chengjin explained, lowering his eyes.
"Interesting, this is the first time I've heard of this."
Ye Yingying suddenly became interested and asked, "Speaking of which, do you still not know Miss Yao Yao's honorable name?"
“Me? My surname is Pei, and my full name is Pei Yao.” After saying that, she added, “But we usually only address each other by our full names on very formal occasions. Everyone usually calls me Yao Yao, so you can call me Yao Yao too.”
"Yaoyao, do you usually spend time with Old Turtle?"
"Well, no, I usually stay in the clan and only come to visit Grandpa when I'm free."
"So how did you and Old Turtle meet?"
“I often went to see him with my mother when I was little. Later, I heard that my grandfather knew a lot about things on land, so I liked to stay with him and listen to his stories. We gradually became familiar with each other.”
"Doesn't Old Turtle live in the sea? How does he know about things on land?"
Speaking of this, Yao Yao raised her chin proudly: "Hmph, Grandpa is the oldest venerable one in this sea. There is nothing in this sea that he does not know."
Ye Yingying had long suspected that this old turtle was something special, and now it seemed he really was.
"So, Yao Yao, what do you plan to do on land?"
"Hmm... let me think." Yao Yao pouted and pondered for a moment, then started counting on her fingers, "I want to see how people on land live, what their homes look like, and what they usually eat..."
Yao Yao listed a bunch of things she was curious about: "I also want to see a horse-drawn carriage. I heard that it has four legs pulling two legs. I've never seen anything like that in the sea!"
"?"
Running with four legs pulling two legs—this description doesn't quite sound right, but upon further reflection, it doesn't seem to make much of a difference.
Yun Yanqiu clenched his fist and placed it to his lips, coughed twice, and said seriously, "In short, once we get to land, stay with us and don't wander off. We'll take you to see all of this."
"Okay!" Yao Yao nodded happily, then suddenly remembered something and quickly added, "Oh right, I also want to see Han Chengyu!"
Upon hearing his brother's name, Han Chengjin paused in his steps.
Yun Yanqiu nodded: "Okay, you can come back with us and you'll see him."
"That's good." Yao Yao smiled sweetly, her eyes crinkling.
Yun Yanqiu continued, "But you can only look at him, you can't go and reminisce with him."
"Ah—" Upon hearing this, Yao Yao's eyebrows, which had just been raised with joy, immediately drooped. "But I still want to share so many things with Han Chengyu!"
“No.” Yun Yanqiu immediately refused.
Yao Yao felt that this cold-blooded guy was even stricter than her own mother. She wanted to argue back, but she was intimidated by his imposing aura. After weighing her options, she decided to swallow her words.
Ye Yingying found it amusing and offered an explanation: "Han Chengyu is in an unusual situation now. Too much contact with him would be detrimental to both of you."
Upon hearing this, Yao Yao's eyes flickered slightly. She turned her head and glanced at the two people behind her with a probing look, asking, "Is he in some kind of trouble?"
"Well... we'll have to ask Brother Cheng Jin."
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