Chapter 23: The Scale-Stripped Mermaid (3) Part 1

In the exquisite little box lay three pink pearls: one produced last night, and two born just moments ago.

Bai Qian slipped it into the drawer. The girl beside her eyed the deep blue jewelry box with curiosity and asked, “In your human world, how much could one of these pearls sell for?”

The woman didn’t hesitate to flick her forehead again with a bent finger. “Keeping it. Not for sale.”

Yu Shaoling clutched her forehead, grumbling in dissatisfaction. “You won’t let me do so many things, so now I’m giving you an order too, Bai Qian! No more flicking my head from now on!”

Bai Qian ignored her, shutting the drawer and picking up the phone from nearby. She began browsing Taobao as if no one else were in the room.

Yu Shaoling was just as fascinated by the gadget in her hand. “What are you doing? Weren’t you going to buy me a fish tank? Why are you messing with that little box? Come on, get up and take me shopping!”

Bai Qian replied, “This is the phone I told you about earlier. The app I’m on right now is called Taobao—it’s for buying stuff online. I’m picking out a fish tank for you. Clear?”

Yu Shaoling nodded eagerly, scooting her head right up next to Bai Qian’s, her eyes locked unblinkingly on the screen. She jabbed a finger at it. “I like this one!”

Bai Qian checked the price tag. It was reasonable enough, so she didn’t object.

After watching the entire purchase process, Yu Shaoling perked up. “I want a phone too. Can you get me one?”

“No money. Dream on.”

Yu Shaoling had clearly found one of Bai Qian’s weak spots. She planted her hands on her hips and threatened, “Then I’ll cry!”

Bai Qian: “…”

“Buy me a phone!”

Bai Qian rummaged around in her room and finally unearthed a spare phone belonging to the original host from the bottom drawer of her bedside table.

The princess didn’t turn up her nose at it. She snatched up her gift with delight and made a solemn promise. “Bai Qian, it’s decided! When I get back to the seabed someday, I’ll send you two whole rooms full of sea cow meat!”

“…Thanks, but I don’t need any. Just remember one thing before then.”

“Hm?”

Bai Qian gritted her teeth. “No more threatening me with tears. Do it again, and you’re out of my house.”

Now the proud owner of a phone, Yu Shaoling’s invisible tail wagged furiously behind her. She put on her most obedient face. “I won’t, I won’t! Mermaids never lie. If I say I won’t, then I won’t. You can trust me!”

“You’ve got the phone now. Go play on the sofa. I’ve got work to do.”

Yu Shaoling trotted out obediently, remembering to grab her wet clothes from the chair by the door. “I’ll soak these back in the bucket for now. Once the fish tank gets here, I’ll put them in!”

Bai Qian nodded absently. “Sure, fine. Close the door behind you.”

The room stayed quiet for barely a minute before the pesky girl burst back in. “Bai Qian, you tricked me! This phone’s broken!”

Bai Qian reined in her irritation. “It’s out of battery. How do you expect to use it? Charger’s on my bedside table—go grab it. Plug one end into the wall, the other into the phone’s port. That clear enough?”

Yu Shaoling shivered at the murderous look in Bai Qian’s eyes—like she was itching to make boiled mermaid. She didn’t dare utter a peep, just shut the door quietly.

Bai Qian’s temper had just cooled when the door creaked open for the third time.

The girl wore an expression of pure innocence, the picture of helplessness. “I don’t know how to work it. Bai Qian, will you teach me? Please?”

“…”

Bai Qian made zero headway on her work that entire morning. She spent it all showing the mermaid the ropes of smartphone basics.

Once Yu Shaoling had the hang of the essentials, Bai Qian glanced at the clock. Lunchtime.

“No energy to cook today. I’ll boil some noodles. You in?”

The mermaid girl, who looked ready to dive headfirst into her phone, didn’t even look up. “Fine by me if there’s beef!”

Bai Qian headed for the kitchen but paused, remembering the wet floor Yu Shaoling had left behind. She detoured back to check. After all this time, it had dried on its own.

…

Women love to shop.

Mermaids are no different.

Yu Shaoling had memorized Bai Qian’s shopping routine. The moment Taobao finished downloading, she fired it up, eager to snag something for herself.

She hit a snag right away.

No phone number meant no account.

Bai Qian had just gotten the water boiling when the troublemaker showed up with her phone in hand. “Bai Qian, it wants a phone number, but I don’t have one. Can you hook me up?”

“I’ve got two SIM cards. Just take one later.”

“Great! Let me know when it’s ready.”

Yu Shaoling turned to leave, but Bai Qian called her back.

“I’m the one cooking lunch, Princess. You know what that means, right?”

“Help you polish it off?”

“…” Bai Qian refused to get angry with this dim-witted mermaid. “You’re in charge of washing the dishes.”

“I don’t know how!”

“This time, I’ll teach you first. Starting tonight, all the dishes are yours. Got it?”

The noble Mermaid Princess broke from her usual demeanor and didn’t reject the task, which seemed utterly beneath her station. Instead, she nodded obediently. “Okay.”

Bai Qian was a little surprised but didn’t press the issue. “Then go wait for me outside.”

~~~

Yu Shaoling wheedled and cajoled until Bai Qian finally registered a Taobao account for her.

“No buying stuff willy-nilly, understand?”

The mermaid girl agreed with lightning speed.

Less than ten minutes later, Bai Qian’s phone buzzed with a bank alert about a balance change.

Her face darkened instantly. She slammed down her pen and stormed out to confront the culprit lounging on the sofa, scrolling through Taobao. “What did you buy? That cost me a fortune!”

Yu Shaoling answered honestly. “The bathtub’s too small, so I bought myself a new bed. Don’t worry—I’ll only buy this one. Absolutely nothing else for a while!”

“What kind of bed costs as much as ten of mine?”

The mermaid proudly showed her the order. Bai Qian took one look: it was an enormous fish tank, big enough for Yu Shaoling to stretch out in and put on a full mermaid show right in the living room.

“Are you insane? Why buy a fish tank that huge!” Bai Qian was so exasperated she started laughing.

Scolded by her, Yu Shaoling pouted unhappily. She was about to argue back but remembered the money she’d just spent, so she swallowed her words with great reluctance. Instead, she said, “Back in the Mermaid Kingdom, my room was several times bigger than this tank. And this was the smallest one I could find after searching forever. I was already compromising, and now you’re complaining about it?”

Bai Qian was speechless. “If my bank card could talk, it’d probably feel even more hard done by than you.”

“I don’t care! I want this one—you have to buy it for me! If you don’t—” Yu Shaoling remembered her promise not to threaten with tears, and her voice cut off abruptly. Her surging confidence crumbled like a sandcastle washed away by the tide.

“Do what?”

The girl thought for a moment, then mumbled, “If you won’t let me sleep, then I won’t let you sleep either!”

Bai Qian tried to negotiate. “There’s a swimming pool outside. Wouldn’t it be more convenient to sleep there?”

“You didn’t help me wash last night, so even if you beg me now, I won’t use it! I don’t care—I want my new bed! You have to buy it!”

“What can you give me in return? Surely the Mermaid Kingdom has a concept of fair trade.”

Yu Shaoling’s confidence shattered with those words. She fell silent for a long moment, then said guiltily, “I… uh, I can give you three servings of sea cow meat.”

“…”

Mentioning her homeland’s irresistible specialty brought the mermaid’s pride roaring back. She puffed out her chest and declared loudly, “I forgot to mention earlier—in the Mermaid Kingdom, sea cow meat is even more precious than pearls. You might not be interested now, but just wait—you’ll be begging me at the shore every day to bring you some!”

“Thanks, but once I help you get your tail back, I don’t think we’ll need to see each other again.”

Bai Qian was stating the facts. Once the Female Protagonist reclaimed her power in the Mermaid Kingdom, her mission would be complete.

And then she’d have to move on to the next world.

But Yu Shaoling didn’t understand her connection to this world. Hearing that, her face fell. She bit her lip, wanting to say something, but mindful of her status as the Mermaid Princess, she feigned indifference with the opposite of what she meant. “Well, don’t regret it later. Even if you come begging me to see you every day, I absolutely won’t show up!”

With that furious declaration, the girl stormed out the door without looking back.

Bai Qian sensed something off in her mood but didn’t dwell on it and went back to her work.

Yu Shaoling stayed sulky all the way until evening.

Bai Qian finished cooking and went to call her, but the girl probably didn’t hear, sitting motionless on the sofa and fiddling with her phone.

Bai Qian walked over and called again.

Even standing right behind her, the girl acted like she was deaf, ignoring her completely.

Bai Qian took a closer look and saw the girl’s hands clamped tightly over the phone screen, pressing so hard that her delicate nail beds had turned white.

“Yu Shaoling?”

No response.

“Are you mad at me?”

Still silent, but her earlobe twitched slightly.

Bai Qian thought back briefly and guessed the reason for the sudden silent treatment. She sighed helplessly. “When you go back, I’ll come to the seaside to find you. That okay?”

The mermaid girl, who had been sitting utterly still like a statue deep in meditation, whipped her head around at once. Her long, beautiful eyes were hazy, veiled in a layer of mist, the outer corners flushed a delicate pink—a clear sign she was holding back tears.

“You can’t say things like that anymore. And besides, you were the one begging to see me. It wasn’t me who wanted to see you—you insisted!”

Bai Qian said, “Alright, alright, alright. I wanted to see you. It was all my fault. So now, can we go eat?”

The tsundere mermaid, successfully coaxed, huffed in response before finally rising to her feet. “Fine, let’s go eat then.”

~~~

8:24 p.m.

When Yu Shaoling’s symptoms flared up again, Bai Qian deliberately pulled out her phone to check the time, then jotted it down in her memo app.

She had also spotted another problem: the moment the symptoms began, Yu Shaoling lost all reason. She turned into a beast driven solely by the urge to devour flesh, relentless until she got what she wanted.

And Bai Qian was clearly the choice cut of meat she craved.

Just like that morning, the woman tried to fight back. The outcome was identical to twelve hours earlier—the only difference was that the forceful kiss had shifted from the sofa to the bed in the bedroom.

Her peach-pink fingers clutched weakly at the bedsheet beneath her. The once pristine, neatly made white sheets were now marred by the room’s owner with ragged claw marks.

Panting breaths, the kind that brought a flush to one’s cheeks, came in waves, one after another.

They lent an even more intoxicating layer of chaos to the room’s already charged, intimate air.

Bai Qian’s long hair, simply tied back with a rubber band, had come undone at some point. A few strands draped across her collarbone, bared by her sleepshirt. In that moment of utter dishevelment and allure, she looked like a pristine sheet of white paper brought vividly to life with a few captivating strokes of ink.

Yu Shaoling stared down at the vision of pink-tinged beauty beneath her, her breathing growing noticeably heavier. The feral instinct that had ebbed away now threatened to surge forth once more. But the woman, having regained her strength, snatched up a pillow from nearby and smashed it straight onto her head.

Her furious voice came out hoarse, like the rasp of an ancient tree clinging to its final breath: “Get the hell back to your damn sea right now!”

The feral impulse, just sprouting anew, was smacked flat and slunk back underground to lie in wait.

Yu Shaoling didn’t dare argue or snap back as she usually would. She carefully picked the pillow up off the floor, gave it a couple of gentle pats, and set it back beside Bai Qian’s head. Only after retreating all the way to the door did she speak: “Then I’ll go to sleep too. Good night.”

Bai Qian was so furious she didn’t sleep a wink all night.

The female protagonist’s symptom flare-ups were now confirmed: 8:24 a.m. and 8:24 p.m.

Exactly twelve hours apart.

Bai Qian decided to run an experiment.