Zhao Shuqing cradled the child in her arms, momentarily taken aback. It wasn’t until her eyes met Lin Feng’s that she realized the mermaid wanted to accompany her to see Xu Tang.
“Why?” Zhao Shuqing asked her, puzzled. “Aren’t you the most afraid of Xu Tang?”
Lin Feng lowered her head and fell silent, but she mumbled in a stuffy voice, “I have something to ask her. If you won’t take me, I’ll go by myself.”
No way.
Lin Feng’s status was special now, and Zhao Shuqing was especially worried about her going out alone. Fortunately, the mermaid had never been one for venturing outside, and with the two little fish at home, she rarely left the house at all. The moment Zhao Shuqing heard that Lin Feng intended to go by herself, she hurriedly intervened.
“If you really want to go, that’s fine,” Zhao Shuqing said. She felt it would be unkind to refuse such a rare request from Lin Feng, but she added a stern reminder. “But I have to go with you, and you need to tell me what the issue is.”
Lin Feng had no objections. She nodded in agreement.
On the drive to the military base, Zhao Shuqing gave Yue Jiuchu a call. Yue had been up all night working without any rest. After a brief hesitation of two seconds when she picked up, she agreed and told them to head straight over.
It was Lin Feng’s first time at the base. Sitting in the passenger seat, she peered around curiously. Zhao Shuqing drove through without any hindrance and soon spotted Yue Jiuchu standing in front of one of the buildings. She pulled into an empty spot and parked.
“You’re here,” Yue Jiuchu said as she walked over to greet them. Her gaze lingered on Lin Feng. The day wasn’t particularly chilly, so Lin Feng wore a warm yellow dress topped with a knitted short jacket, looking every bit like a recent college graduate.
Zhao Shuqing shut the car door and joined them. Without a word, Yue Jiuchu nodded to the pair and led the way inside.
“Xu Tang’s condition is pretty rough,” Yue Jiuchu explained in the elevator. “Her wounds are severe, and her tail was almost completely necrotic. The doctors were stitching her up until past two in the morning.”
Zhao Shuqing still remembered the massive gashes on Xu Tang’s tail. She hadn’t realized they were that bad.
“Is it serious?” Zhao Shuqing frowned. “Will she be left with any permanent disabilities?”
“Not sure,” Yue Jiuchu replied with a shrug. “If she were human, there’d definitely be issues, but she’s a mermaid. Their self-healing abilities are incredibly strong. She might recover on her own after a couple of days.”
Lin Feng’s ears twitched at that. Her eyes fixed intently on the back of Yue Jiuchu’s head, lost in her own thoughts.
The elevator doors opened, and Yue Jiuchu led them deep into the facility. Along the way, they passed a few soldiers in uniform who saluted. Noticing Lin Feng’s uneasy expression, Zhao Shuqing took the initiative to grasp her hand.
Lin Feng’s fingertips trembled faintly before she lifted her gaze to meet Zhao Shuqing’s.
“It’s okay. Don’t be scared,” Zhao Shuqing said with a reassuring smile. “I’ll be right here with you.”
“Mm.” Lin Feng nodded and squeezed her hand tighter.
Yue Jiuchu didn’t glance back at their affectionate display. Instead, she approached a door and asked the guard on duty, “Is Xu Tang awake?”
“She’s been awake for a while,” the soldier replied. “Gu Yao’s inside looking after her.”
Yue Jiuchu nodded and dismissed the guard with a wave. Then she turned to the others. “Come on in.”
She pushed the door open to reveal a simple, unassuming room. Large windows draped with white curtains allowed a gentle breeze to stir, rustling the flowers growing wildly along the sill. A hospital bed sat near the window, and Gu Yao—mid-spoonful of food—looked up to see the three of them at the doorway. She froze for a second.
“What are you all doing here?” Gu Yao quickly set down the bowl and spoon, standing awkwardly to make room. “Are you here to interrogate her? Please go easy—she promised me she’d tell the truth.”
Xu Tang looked over as well. Her facial wounds had been cleaned and covered with a few bandages. She reclined against the bed, her massive tail draped limply off the end, utterly immobile.
Her wrists were handcuffed to the aluminum alloy rails on either side of the bed.
Xu Tang twisted her head toward them, her gaze settling on Lin Feng. A flicker of daze crossed her features before she curved her lips into a smile. “Are you here to visit me?”
Zhao Shuqing glanced at Lin Feng and saw that her wife’s face had gone pale, her fingertips icy cold—she looked thoroughly frightened. Zhao Shuqing stepped forward to block Lin Feng’s view and addressed the woman on the bed. “We’re here for you, but it’s definitely not a social call.”
Lin Feng raised her eyes to Zhao Shuqing’s back and gently pressed herself against it.
Xu Tang let out a weak chuckle but didn’t argue. She turned to Gu Yao instead. “You should step out for now. We have things to discuss.”
Gu Yao hesitated, glancing between Xu Tang and Zhao Shuqing. Realizing she had no real authority here, she picked up the unfinished breakfast and left.
Once she was gone, Yue Jiuchu leaned against the door with her arms crossed, thoroughly blocking the exit.
“You must have a lot of questions for me,” Xu Tang said calmly. Restrained as she was—with both hands and tail immobile—she still managed an air of detached composure. “Ask away. I’ll answer everything truthfully.”
“First time I’ve seen you so cooperative,” Zhao Shuqing remarked, speaking first. “Why not before?”
“In the past, I believed mermaids could still be saved,” Xu Tang replied evenly. “We just wanted to propagate our kind—it’s not some unforgivable crime. But things are different now. I think they’ll end up dooming themselves.”
Lin Feng fell silent.
Zhao Shuqing did too.
Zhao Shuqing had no idea what had prompted Xu Tang’s sudden change of heart, but it was clear the woman had abandoned her former obsessions—otherwise, she never would have left the mermaids to return to land.
Gu Yao deserved a lot of credit for that.
It had to be the power of love.
“I… have something I want to ask you,” Lin Feng spoke up abruptly, addressing Xu Tang. “Can you tell me if the immortality enzyme really exists?”
Xu Tang shifted her gaze to Lin Feng, meeting her eyes steadily.
Lin Feng’s intentions were all too transparent. A mermaid inquiring about the immortality enzyme could only be for Zhao Shuqing’s sake. At this point, Xu Tang had no intention of hiding anything—she was happy to tell the truth.
“Of course it exists,” Xu Tang said, tilting her head slightly by way of emphasis. “The key technology is all in my head. I can’t explain it in detail right now, but I can guarantee that humans can achieve the same lifespan as mermaids.”
Without waiting for Lin Feng to press her, Xu Tang laid it all out methodically. “Mermaids and humans share an extraordinarily high degree of similarity, both externally and internally. The mermaid eternal life enzyme acts like a genetic switch. It alters human genes, granting mankind the same longevity we enjoy.”
Zhao Shuqing frowned after hearing this. “That sounds too outlandish. How could different species possibly share the same lifespan?”
Xu Tang countered with a question of her own. “Why do you assume mermaids and humans are entirely distinct species?” She continued, “If they truly were, your children with Lin Feng would never have been conceived due to reproductive isolation.”
Reproductive isolation?
Zhao Shuqing blinked in surprise. She hadn’t considered that angle. She turned to look at Lin Feng, whose cheeks glowed softly pink in the daylight. With her legs transformed into human form, no one would suspect she was a mermaid unless they dragged her off for genetic testing.
But to claim humans and mermaids were the same species? That didn’t quite fit either.
“Mermaids have tail fins, while humans don’t,” Zhao Shuqing pointed out. “We can’t just assume they’re identical on that basis alone.”
Xu Tang smiled, her expression one of keen interest as she regarded Zhao Shuqing. “Have you forgotten everything you learned in biology, Zhao Shuqing? Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species—surely you haven’t erased it all? Even if you have, you must still remember evolution. All species originated from the sea, didn’t they?”
Zhao Shuqing’s face flushed at the scolding, memories flooding back of her days working under Xu Tang in the laboratory and getting chewed out. The sudden reprimand left her a bit embarrassed even now. She sneaked a glance at Lin Feng beside her and saw that the mermaid hadn’t quite grasped the flaw in Xu Tang’s logic.
“So you’re saying there’s hope for humans?” Lin Feng asked.
Xu Tang nodded. “Of course. The method works just like administering a longevity vaccine—it flips the genetic switch. Future generations will inherit it automatically, and even those who miss out can receive it later.”
Xu Tang’s words undoubtedly bolstered Lin Feng’s confidence. Though she’d suffered much at the woman’s hands, Xu Tang had never once deceived her.
Hope was all she needed.
Visits were limited in duration for the time being, so Yue Jiuchu soon ushered them out. Back in the car, Zhao Shuqing didn’t start the engine right away. Instead, she turned to Lin Feng in the seat beside her and took hold of her hand.
“You didn’t really need to come in person,” Zhao Shuqing said softly. “They would’ve asked more thoroughly than you could.”
Lin Feng knew “they” meant the military personnel, but she had wanted to hear it straight from the source. At least as fellow mermaids, Xu Tang was less likely to lie to her.
She hoped Xu Tang hadn’t lied, anyway.
“I wanted to ask her myself,” Lin Feng replied, looking at her. “At least this way, I’ll feel reassured.”
“And if Xu Tang had said there was no hope—what then?” Zhao Shuqing asked curiously, cupping Lin Feng’s cheeks.
“I don’t know.”
Lin Feng pressed her soft cheek into Zhao Shuqing’s palm, her lovely eyes staring unblinkingly. “If you ended up leaving me first, I’d probably build a little house right by your grave. Then I’d sing to you every day.”
Zhao Shuqing couldn’t help but picture it: a lonely grave on a desolate beach, Lin Feng curled atop the plain white tombstone, humming softly. Her beautiful tail would sway gently with the waves amid the endless sea and sky, while Zhao Shuqing lay forever in the dark underground.
The thought of vibrant, beautiful Lin Feng spending her widowhood mourning her was unbearable.
What if some bold predator took advantage of her immobility in the grave to seduce her sweet, innocent little widow? Zhao Shuqing felt like she’d claw her way out of the dirt in a rage.
“No.”
Zhao Shuqing’s eyes flashed with determination. She declared it unequivocally to Lin Feng. “This lifetime, you can only love me.”
Which meant she absolutely had to outlive Lin Feng—no way was she leaving an opening for anyone else.
