Chapter 156
What happened next was not as cliché as people had written in the books.
A hundred years ago, the world was far less orderly than it is today. The three modes of transportation, sea, water, and land, all had their own dangers. The ship attacked by the mermaids was a fishing boat at sea, which often transported the fish they caught, dried sea vegetables, and pearls that were hard to catch by pearl divers to the docks in various places.
The young man on the deck was not looking at the scenery, but was observing whether there were any schools of fish gathered along the way that were suitable for fishing. Then, everyone on the boat was knocked over by the girl who emerged from the water.
As night fell, the oppressed people gathered around the brazier trembling with fear to keep warm. The most comfortable position was a few stools put together with soft quilts on them. The girl who had beaten up a group of people lay lazily on them, staring at the leaping flames.
No one dared to say a word, and the deck was silent.
After a long silence, the young man who was the first to suffer asked cautiously with a purple face, "Boss, do you want to eat something?"
Their stomachs were rumbling with hunger, but no one dared to speak in front of this female pirate.
The girl seemed to come to her senses and said casually, "Find a few people to cook for you, don't play tricks."
She can chop a stick as thick as an adult's arm with one hand, and a large net that can catch two or three meter long fish can be torn apart by her two hands. She can kick people and make them fly into the air... No one dares to play tricks on this female pirate with such abnormal strength. They still want to see tomorrow's sun alive.
The food on the fishing boat was very simple, just some easy-to-carry food. Everyone ate while secretly glancing at the female pirate's expression. Fortunately, although she didn't look satisfied, she didn't look disgusted either.
After eating and drinking, the fire in the brazier was almost extinguished. The people on the fishing boat saw her and waved: "Go and have a rest. We will go to the dock to sell goods tomorrow afternoon."
Their fishing boat had just gone out to sea today when it was attacked by this person. The boat was empty. What would they use to sell goods tomorrow afternoon?
Everyone was wondering about this question, but no one dared to speak out. The chaos at sea taught ordinary people who made a living to be silent and obedient as long as their lives could be saved.
The others who were beaten returned to the cabin one after another, only the young man was hesitant.
He saw the girl's eyes squinting at him, like a knife: "Why are you still here?"
"Boss." The young man with a purple face lowered his voice, "My quilt."
The quilt under the girl was the cleanest and softest in the entire cabin, with a smell of sunlight. It was unlike other people's quilts which were smelly and hard, and she even disliked using them as footrests.
"It's mine now, understand?"
There was a hint of impatience in the voice, which frightened the young man so much that he fled in panic. The deck was completely quiet, with only the waves lapping against the hull, like a lullaby at night.
"A beauty in trouble? Love at first sight? A match made in heaven?" Di Zhangqing asked an incredible question after seeing the behavior of the subject of the memory fragment on the beach, "That's it?"
He had seen a lot of outrageous things over the years, but this was the first time he had seen the truth explained in such a way.
What happened in the past was still continuing on the ship. The dark night was turning towards dawn. After daybreak, the new boss turned the fishing boat into her own place, but everyone on the fishing boat found that their boss was like a fish in water on the sea.
She said where there were fish, there must be fish, she said where you cast your net, you will definitely not return with empty nets. In just half a day, people on the fishing boat began to believe her - going out to sea is often accompanied by danger. Men go out to sea to fish, while women stay at home to weave and mend the nets and collect the catch. Even half-grown children are laborers, but they are still very poor.
This gradual conviction reached its peak when they loaded a whole boatload of goods and sold them at the dock. The boss kept half of the money and divided the other half equally among them.
If there is someone who can take them through this chaotic world with food and clothing, and who will not be bullied or in danger as long as they obey, what does it matter if they recognize a boss? What does it matter if the boss is a woman?
When even staying alive becomes a problem, people won’t care so much.
The reason why memory fragments are fragments is that they do not show all the details to the viewer in detail, but only show the important nodes.
The fishing boat returned on the third day, and everyone was in high spirits. The people in the small fishing village were full of hostility towards the mermaids who got off the boats, but soon the hostility disappeared - all those who had objections were subdued by the mermaids and locked up in the warehouse of the small fishing village for storing pickled fish.
Mermaids don’t understand human nature, but that doesn’t matter. People who benefit from her understand it, and people with vision and plans understand it.
The small fishing village soon followed the mermaid's lead.
Because the ship she leads out always has a full harvest, and can always return safely when encountering storms. If they encounter robbery... that's even better, the mermaid will directly lead people back to the pirates' lair and take away three points of the land.
The mermaid became a terrifying existence for the pirates in this sea area - because she was still crazy about fishing and enforcing the law, at one point the pirates in the sea were so scared when they saw the fishing boats that they wanted to disband on the spot and behave themselves.
The poor village soon changed. In the fragments of memory, men and women shouted "Boss" one after another, and everyone was sincere.
They worked together to build the best house for the mermaid, arranged everything according to her preferences, and they even agreed to the mermaid's proposal to take the woman out to sea!
The reason is that the mermaids find it difficult to communicate with some stupid bosses.
Other small fishing villages were both envious and contemptuous. They thought this village was crazy for recognizing a woman as the boss and disrespectfully allowing women to go out to sea.
The small fishing village that worships mermaids as gods is too lazy to respond. The only thing that matters is making a fortune in silence.
In this way, the small fishing village became the best developed and most prosperous village in the vicinity. The mermaids spent five years eliminating pirate dens of all sizes and established their own maritime gang - charging a certain amount of protection fees to protect the safety of ships traveling on the sea.
If anyone dared to attack the ship she was protecting, she would definitely destroy the attacker's lair.
She was able to call the shots in this sea area and was extremely powerful for a time. Her experience was like a thrilling legendary movie.
When the official forces showed signs of taking action against large non-official organizations, she made a decisive decision and retired from the small fishing village that had made its fortune by fishing and pearling, and began to turn to doing business on land.
The rumor that mermaids "never give up on weaving" is indeed true. With the same silk thread and the same weaving loom, the warp and weft of the cloth woven by mermaids are always the most dense, and the patterns are always the most outstanding. Even if they are placed in a pile of other cloths, they can still be liked at first sight. With the support of the huge capital accumulated over the years, the cloth shop was opened and gradually improved.
However, this reform, which involves the foundation of one's life, has been turbulent for a long time. The fragments of memory are filled with various faces, people's greed, and the complicated world.
After everything came to an end, the memory fragments presented a very special memory——
It was a deep moonlit night. The mermaid was sitting on the side of the boat. Baili Xiangxun, the young man who first came into contact with the mermaid, was wearing a thick coat and standing on the beach, looking at her.
The mermaid waved to him, and Baili Xiangxun ran towards the boat holding his coat.
It has been ten years since the mermaid came to the human world from the sea. She has had many deputies, but they were replaced for various reasons. Some died of illness, some were killed in fights, some were bribed, and some wanted to replace her... Only Baili Xiangxun has been following her for ten years since they met on the fishing boat.
After ten years of struggling in the world, even the dumbest person would not be as innocent as before, not to mention that the mermaids themselves were extremely smart. She watched this young man grow from immature to mature, from being flustered to being able to handle things with ease, just like a green and upright young tree growing vigorously and bearing sweet fruits.
Baili Xiangxun ran to her side and stood behind her as he had done countless times before.
The mermaid turned around and said, "Baili, look up at my eyes."
It was as if she had returned to that day ten years ago when the mermaid had roughly pushed Baili Xiangxun down on the fishing boat, pressed her sharp shell against his neck and said, "Behave yourself, I'm robbing you." She asked bluntly, "Do you like me?"
In the fragments of memory, the red color started from the earlobe of the young and handsome Bai Li Xiangxun and spread recklessly.
But he did not walk or move. His eyelashes kept trembling, but he tried hard not to look away. He stared into the mermaid's eyes, but could not speak. In the end, he just nodded heavily.
It had been many years since the merman had seen Baili Xiangxun’s expression, so desperate and yet so pitiful that he wanted to flee. After these years of experience, he had become calm.
The mermaid approached with interest, their breaths intertwined, their noses almost touching. She suddenly kissed Baili Xiangxun on the lips, as if a dragonfly touched the water.
The skin exposed to the outside of Baili Xiangxun was so red that it looked like it had just been pulled out of a hot spring.
"You can breathe when you're kissed." The mermaid never understood what was meant by beating around the bush. She was direct in most things, especially in her emotions. She pressed Baili Xiangxun's shoulders and said, "Call me 'Jiaoyue' for me?"
"Jiao" means pure, white and bright. In Baili Xiangxun's heart, she is the moon hanging high in the sky, out of reach. And now, the moon in the sky has fallen into his arms.
It was this moon that loved to bully people. Baili Xiangxun fell on the deck, and Jiaoyue lay on his chest, laughing with great joy. Since she decided to transform, she hadn't laughed so wildly and happily for a long time.
"Will you marry me?" she asked.
Baili Xiangxun has stood behind her for ten years without being tempted by various external things. Jiaoyue is willing to give him a chance.
"But—" She held a thin ribbon in her palm. At the end of the ribbon was a delicate little rope with a transparent round bead the size of a soybean tied inside. "You have to eat this bead."
The most precious thing to a mermaid is her heart scale, not the mermaid pearl. The mermaid pearl is born with the mermaid at birth and is the mermaid's "marriage contract". If the other party who takes the mermaid pearl wants to do anything to harm the mermaid, they will die instantly.
She smiled and said, "After you eat this bead, if you do anything that harms me, you will die."
She handed the choice to Baili Xiangxun.
Baili Xiangxun did not hesitate, he ate the mermaid pearl.
"I'm very happy, extremely happy." Baili Xiangxun's earlobes were red and almost bleeding. "I will never have the chance to hurt you."
The current feelings are strong and true, but time is fickle and no one knows whether one will change his or her heart in the future. Vows are too illusory and too unreliable.
"If I change my mind, let it kill me." Baili Xiangxun's voice was low but firm, "Love should be loyal. If I change my mind, then I will no longer be myself. If I die, you don't have to be sad."
Seventeen-year-old Bai Li Xiangxun met Jiaoyue on a small fishing boat and chased her figure for ten years.
The 27-year-old Bai Li Xiangxun was able to stand on his own and finally got what he wanted.
"You're so good." Jiaoyue kissed his eyelashes and saw that the heat that had faded from Baili Xiangxun's face had returned again, and the whole person looked like a red apple.
Jiaoyue pulled him up, leaned back from the side of the boat, and flipped into the water. The mermaid pearl could allow ordinary people to breathe freely underwater, and they sank endlessly in the water.
In the dim seabed, Jiaoyue spread out her gorgeous blue-purple tail. She had long known that Baili Xiangxun had already guessed her identity as a mermaid. When she was too lazy to hide it, Baili Xiangxun was more worried and nervous than she was.
The blue-purple tail surrounded the humans who entered the underwater world.
Mermaids also have hunting instincts.