Chapter 3

(If there is someone who'd like to read on, please leave a message in the comments so I'll post more translated chapters, or I'll just stop with this chapter.)

Because of getting lost, it took quite a bit of effort to find her way back.

The waters of the Cold Sea were rarely visited, so of course, nobody knew that a dragon was imprisoned in its depths. It took Yara quite some time before she encountered a ray fish. After much gesturing, the ray fish finally understood her intentions. It straightened its pointed tail fin and pointed north, signaling, "Swim about two miles ahead and you'll see a shipwreck. Take a left turn and swim another two li, then you'll see a cluster of dark reefs. Take another left turn, and there's a sea of algae. Avoid going north and swim about ten miles to get there."

Yara's head was spinning from the directions, so she sank to the sandy bottom and began sketching a map. The ray fish fluttered its wings to point out various details. Finally, she understood the directions and thanked the ray fish. The ray fish playfully commented, "Such a beautiful mermaid, but alas, she's mute."

Yara pouted, feeling a bit sad, but she had to get home. She flicked her tail fin and darted away, following the ray fish's directions to find the shipwreck and the sea of algae. As she swam north, the surroundings became more and more familiar. Suddenly, she looked up and saw a stretch of red coral extending for miles, with a magnificent city standing amidst the coral, illuminated by pearls and lantern fish. This was Tide City.

The underwater city resembled the cities on land, but everything here had a mystical aura and was even more splendid. Unlike the migratory merfolk of the East Sea, who left behind empty cities after a century, the merfolk of the South Sea were sentimental. Due to the suitable environment, generations had lived in the same place, leading to the gradual expansion of the city. While defensive walls weren't a priority, altars and palaces were built for the Dragon King's use. Ordinary merfolk usually had their own coral houses, decorated with various pearls and gems to make them look beautiful.

After entering her home, Yara couldn't wait to curl up in her nest of seaweed. Her coral house appeared no different from others on the outside, but inside, there was a woven nest shaped like an egg. She liked curling up in it to sleep, feeling safe and secure. Perhaps her preference for the nest was related to her being an orphan. When she was very young, she had been abandoned outside the city. A passing mermaid found her and brought her back to the city to raise her. However, because her fish tail had an unusual color, she never truly fit in. The mermaid who found her took care of her for a while, but once she could fend for herself, the mermaid abandoned her. Yara had been alone since then, until she met Chloe.

Being on her own wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as she didn't do anything harmful to Tide City. Other merfolk were too busy to care about her.

After a long day of exhaustion and fright, she lay in her seaweed nest, half-dozing. Suddenly, she heard whimpering cries. She struggled to her feet and peered outside, seeing Chloe standing there, tears streaming down as she gazed at the moon.

Joyfully, Yara called out to her, "I'm here."

Chloe froze for a moment, then quickly swam in, arms open wide as she hugged Yara tightly, wailing, "Thank the heavens you're back. I thought you were dead."

Dying wasn't that easy; she was quite lucky! Yara smiled and showed her tail, indicating it was unscathed. She wagged her tail, which was quite long, extending from the nest entrance. Chloe was reassured after a careful inspection and let out a sigh of relief. "It's good as long as you're safe. I was worried you might run into danger in the Southern Seas. If something had happened to you, I would've gone to the kingdom of the Turtledoves and let them eat me."

The so-called kingdom of the Tattoobrows was the domain of the Tattoobrow merfolk in the Southern Seas. Since the tumultuous times, there had been three groups of merfolk: the Eastern Sea merfolk were known as "Ling-Fish" with human faces and fish bellies, possessing arms and legs; the Tide City merfolk were half-human and half-fish, unable to transform; and the other clan of merfolk were the Tattoobrows, known for their brutality and love for killing. On the night of the full moon, the Tattoobrows' tails could transform into legs, allowing them to walk on land. The merfolk of Tide City feared the Tattoobrows the most. The Tattoobrows were predominantly male with few females, and after the Dragon Lord's disappearance, they had kidnapped Tide City mermaids twice, taking the beautiful ones to their domain to propagate their offspring. Fortunately, Yara was still underage, which allowed her to escape their grasp every time. Chloe's guilt for the shipwreck seemed trivial to her. She even had the mood to joke with Chloe, "If the Tattoobrow merfolk catch you, they'll make you give birth."

Chloe responded with indifference, "Even if they catch me, I can transform back to a conch, so they won't find any opening. But you, when you grow up, are you going to be a male or a female? If you're a female, they might abduct you. I think being a male would be better, we could be a matched pair."

Merfolk have lifespans of over a thousand years, and they're not assigned a gender at birth. They get to choose their gender when they come of age. Yara was still under two hundred years old, so she had a lot of potential. For Chloe, Yara could either be a close girl friend or a boy friend.

Entrusting one's life to someone familiar was always more reliable. If Yara chose to be a merman in the future, he would undoubtedly be the most handsome in the entire city. With such a wonderful companion, why look for distant options? However, Yara's heart seemed to be set on a different path since she met the Dragon Lord, who was male, virtuous, and had a normal orientation. Yara had firmly decided to become a mermaid.

Yara's devoted heart had been unwavering to this day. It was a pity that merfolk couldn't leap through a Dragon Gate and turn into a dragon as carps could do. Cross-species love without a foundation of mutual affection generally didn't have a promising future. Chloe couldn't help but worry for her friend.

Yara, on the other hand, didn't have much in mind as she lay back, gazing at the sky. Her slender and fair arms were resting behind her head, and her chest was as smooth as a plain. It was only when viewed from the side that one could see her beauty was blurred, somewhere between the masculine and feminine, exhibiting both the grace of a teenage boy and the charm of a maiden.

She blew out a string of bubbles and pushed open the skylight on top of the pile of grass. Through the watery veil, she looked at the stars. Each star had a halo around it, creating a hazy effect. She playfully lifted a cluster of long hair with her fingers and indulged in her thoughts, "I don't want you; I want the Dragon Lord. When I come of age... I'll be even more beautiful."

Chloe couldn't help but discourage her, "The whereabouts of the Dragon Lord are uncertain. Don't dwell on it too much."

Yara recalled the dragon beneath the Cold Sea, the one she had thought about sharing with her, but hesitated and decided against it. Flipping over to prop herself up, she asked Chloe, "What about the person you saved?"

Chloe's eyes welled with sorrow, "Dead. Humans are truly fragile."

Yara let out a sigh, feeling regretful. They risked so much to save those people, only to have them perish in the end.

Chloe retrieved something from her pocket and handed it to Yara, "Take a look at this."

It was an exquisite box, palm-sized, made of tortoiseshell with gemstone inlays and intricate carvings. Yara didn't fully understand, she turned it over and found inscribed characters on the bottom, spelling out "Tangfang." She murmured in confusion, unsure if it was a place or a person's name.

Because Chloe took on a human form with legs on land, she had more knowledge about these things than Yara. She explained, "This is a woman's rouge box. It's used for grooming and beautifying. It's applied on the face and lips, making them look rosy and appealing. Generally, when a man carries something belonging to a woman, it indicates he has feelings for her. Or perhaps it's a gift he brought back from another country, intended for a woman named Tangfang. Unfortunately, due to unforeseen circumstances, he never got the chance to give it to her."

Yara felt melancholic after hearing this. She turned to her side and curled up. Chloe, seizing a whimsical idea, parted Yara's layered tail fins, "How about we go ashore to find that woman? We could give her the item and let her know her lover has passed away. She won't have to wait for him anymore."

Monsters' thoughts are straightforward, never considering that withholding news of someone's death might be advantageous to the living. Encouraged by Chloe, Yara found the idea feasible and nodded while expressing through gestures, "Tomorrow night there's a sea market... we'll exchange seashells for silver, and we can go together."

Merfolk wove sea silk, not for their own use. There was a sea market every three months on the ocean, similar to those on land, where goods were exchanged. Foreign nations and even merchants from the land would participate. Pearls and sea silk were in high demand. Yara usually traded them for various odd trinkets. This time, she decided to exchange a significant amount of silver to give to the woman. People on land liked money; with money, the woman would find happiness and forget the pain of her lost lover.

Having made their decision, Yara and Chloe were filled with joy. Yara remembered the old turtle and asked about its fate. Chloe smirked, "Luck was on its side. It escaped danger this time, but after causing such a disaster, its luck won't hold next time. The crew of a whole ship died because of it, yet it managed to get away."

Yara was infuriated, "Ugh, this seafood... next time, it will be electrocuted!"

When she got angry, she would curse like this. Once she had been mocked by a sand crab, and after a great effort, she had managed to move a reef and catch it. The sand crab begged for mercy, saying, "We're all seafood; don't be so prejudiced." Yara knew then that "seafood" wasn't a compliment. Who would want to associate with a crab? At the very least, she was half-human, and the Mother Goddess was half-human too. If one considered connections, she was more advanced than this crustacean.

Bantering and cursing, they wished that the old turtle would lose its inner core halfway, so that next time it attempted to cross the tribulation, no one would suffer. They didn't dare to reflect on the heart-pounding day. They fell asleep just before dawn. The Tide City was the place where the sunrise was first embraced in this sea region. As the sun gradually ascended, its light reached the grass mounds, marking midday. Chloe woke up and found herself alone. Stepping outside, she noticed merfolk weaving in groups of two or three amidst the coral clusters, and Yara was among them. Yara was seated on the tip of a coral, her fingertips dappled with sunlight. Being close to the water's surface, her skin was nearly translucent, and her scales shimmered with a soft radiance. Chloe enjoyed this sight—the woven sea silk gently bobbed in the water, as light as mist. Her Yara was the most beautiful, with hair as dark as clouds and eyes gleaming like gold. Since Yara had vowed to become a mermaid, Chloe believed that she was meant to be a woman. If the Dragon Lord were to choose a partner north of the Southern Sea, there was no other aquatic being in the entire realm more suitable than Yara.

Once they finished weaving, Yara returned with the sea silk, neatly folding it and placing it into a clay pot. She said with a grand air, "Cry under the moon, let tears become pearls."

Chloe understood her intention. Yara planned to shed some tears, turning them into pearls to exchange for silver. Merfolk were treasures in themselves; even tears shed in the wind were so precious. They had already decided to give as much money as possible to the owner of the rouge box.

In the remaining daylight, they floated to the water's surface hand in hand and went to the location where the shipwreck had occurred yesterday. So much time had passed, and the sea was completely empty, leaving no trace behind. Yara asked Chloe, "Where is the captain?"

Chloe led her towards a reef while explaining, "He was too far from the shore. I left him by the water's edge, tied with kelp. He won't get lost. When tonight's sea market ends, we'll take him back and leave him by the shore. Someone will naturally take care of his body." They spotted a piece of clothing floating in the water bay from a distance. Chloe guided her gaze towards it and said, "There, right over there." She placed the clay pot under Yara's chin and added, "Start crying!"

Yara fixed her gaze and let out a piercing scream, leaping into the sea and escaping with a swift dive.

Everything happened too quickly, leaving Chloe puzzled. "What's going on?" She turned around and was equally surprised. The corpse had been soaking for too long and had swollen up, the fish and shrimp in the sea that were never satisfied had already started feasting on it, biting off half of his face, leaving only the grim sight of white bones.

A surge of nausea swept over Chloe. No wonder Yara had been frightened away. Bringing back such a sight would probably make him unrecognizable. Instead, she decided to set the body on fire and cremate it.

Returning to Yara, she noticed that Yara's complexion wasn't good, and she was hiding within the grass piles, unwilling to come out. Chloe said, "I've taken care of it, you don't need to be afraid."

There's a saying that goes "those who share the same fate feel each other's pain." Although merfolk weren't entirely human, witnessing such a scene still triggered fear. Chloe comforted Yara for a while before she cautiously emerged, her voice trembling, "I was so scared that I couldn't even cry."

Chloe nodded to show understanding, "It does look quite unpleasant. But don't worry, we still have the mermaid silk, and we can exchange it for a lot of silver."

Their "sea market" would be called a mirage in human terms. The reflected scene in the sky was indeed real, but it occurred here, thousands of miles away from the land.

As they arrived at the night sea market, it was already bustling with activity. Merchants from the Bolyu Kingdom and the Lie'er Kingdom had brought various novelties, both consumable and wearable. While Yara used to trade without much consideration for cost, this time she paid extra attention. The value of silver was standardized in the market, so trading was straightforward. She filled a bag with silver coins, the weight substantial.

Chloe inquired about the situation on the mainland, specifically asking about the merchant ship dispatched by the imperial court of Emperor Dixiu. She learned that the deceased ship owner was named Deng Bao and resided in Jiyize. However, whether there was a wife or fiancée named Tang Fang remained unknown.

While Chloe was gathering information, Yara observed her surroundings. Lantern fish provided light on the water's surface, and numerous Tattoobrow merfolk were coming and going. The males of that clan had horned fins and a fierce look, making people nervous whenever they passed by. Yara discreetly purchased two rolls of grass matting, and wrapped herself and Chloe up.

"Jiyize is quite a distance from here," Chloe examined a map carefully. On the map, a segment the length of an eyelash represented thousands of miles. Calculating from the Southern Sea, the journey was about 12,000 miles. "We can cover a maximum of three thousand miles a day. The round trip alone will take eight days. Can you handle that?"

With no family or obligations, Yara thought it should be fine after notifying the elders before leaving. However, she suddenly remembered the dragon in the Cold Sea. Shouldn't she explain things before she left? Although she had never agreed to serve it, it was rather pitiful, and besides her, it seemed that no one else could care for it. She looked at the sky, the moon directly overhead. It wasn't early anymore. It instructed her to come again today, and she had forgotten. She quickly handed the bag of money to Chloe, asking her to go back first. Then, Yara changed her direction, swiftly swimming southward.