Beauty and the Beasts

As the land was only so big, before the merfolk managed to get onto the shore, they had formed a long queue while attempting to do so.

King indicated for the remaining mermen to come back, and the group of fishes started swimming towards the depths of the sea.

“Leader, this clearly isn’t our female.” A daring merman raised his doubt.

Jean instantly flared up. Pointing a finger at him, she demanded to know. “King, who is he?”

“A merman who just came of age. Don’t be calculative with him,” King indulgently said, in a voice so gentle it made all the merfolk shiver.

Was this really their leader? Could it be that the previous female wasn’t their tribe’s female? Then, what was Bai Qingqing?

“Where’s Bai Qingqing? Isn’t she our female? Why did it change to this one?”

Another silly young merman asked. The instant he voiced out these questions, he hid into the group of fishes, afraid he would incur the wrath of the female.

“Bai Qingqing?” Jean’s voice raised a pitch in disbelief. “She’s here?”

“You know her?” Instead of answering her question, King asked her a question in turn.

“Hmph! If it weren’t for her…” She would long have taken Winston as her spouse. If she had obtained a green crystal, she wouldn’t have had to return to the sea.

But if she were to say this out loud, it would hurt their feelings. Hence, Jean put it differently. “She’s the mate of that leopard who wanted to kill me earlier. She also has a snake beastman as a mate—that snake was the one responsible for hauling me out of the seas.”

King abruptly clenched his fists, his golden hair spreading out in the water and dancing about despite the lack of waves.

“Snake beastman? He’s also here?”

His icy and deep tone caused Jean to involuntarily shiver. She felt a chilliness creep up from the depths of her heart. All of a sudden, she felt that King was incredibly foreign to her.

“Yes… yes. Since Bai Qingqing is here, he must also be here.”

“Send Jean back.”

King shoved the bubble, and a merman instantly swam over and caught hold of her.

Jean asked anxiously, “Where are you going?”

“I’m going to kill the snake beastman,” King said coldly. With that, he turned around and swam away, bringing with him more than half of the tribe.

“Kill Bai Qingqing together with him!”

Jean shouted as she gazed at his departing back.

King’s back view speedily shrunk as he swam away, not giving her any response. If it wasn’t because Jean had used her unique sound waves, she would have thought that King didn’t hear her at all.

…

In the deep sea, with the bubble containing Bai Qingqing in his arms, Bluepool rapidly swam towards the shore.

“How much longer is it going to take?” she asked with a sense of urgency, looking around nervously. “I told you to hide somewhere nearer to the shore, instead of hiding so far away.”

Bluepool had hidden her in a grotto close to the nest. It was only when he heard Jean’s voice that they started to flee.

“What would I do if it turned out you duped me?”

Bluepool said innocently. As he spoke, he didn’t forget to keep moving. However, as he had to push a bubble along, there was a limit to how fast he could go.

“Who knew, it turned out you were telling the truth. I’m done for. If Jean finds out I helped you, I can forget about getting a spouse in this lifetime.”

“If you hadn’t abducted me, things wouldn’t have ended up like this. Now, I didn’t get to find my spouses, and I might even end up dying. I feel even more aggrieved than you!”

She scratched her hair in frustration. Bluepool suddenly halted.

“What is it?” Bai Qingqing looked up and drew in a cold gasp.

Mermen had densely gathered above. And the scariest thing was, King was also there.

Bluepool shielded Bai Qingqing behind him and said to King, “How did you know I was here?”

“I guessed.” King shook his fishtail and blinked, then scurried forward a great distance. “This is the best location for hiding someone. I guessed that you wouldn’t dare to simply let her leave.”

Bluepool truly regretted his decisions. As he retreated, he asked, “Are you really going to listen to Jean and kill Bai Qingqing?”

“Hand her to me!” King merely said this, before he abruptly dashed over.

Embracing the bubble, Bluepool turned around and started swimming away.