Chapter 5

The mermaid lifted her head, her sapphire-blue eyes gazing calmly at Zhao Shuqing. She seemed unaware that this was the name Zhao Shuqing had given her.

“Lin Feng.”

Zhao Shuqing looked down at the mermaid in the water, chuckling softly as she repeated the name. “Lin Feng.”

The mermaid blinked in slight surprise. She seemed to realize something and propped herself up, leaning closer to Zhao Shuqing. When Zhao Shuqing extended a hand and tapped the tip of the mermaid’s nose, repeating, “Lin Feng,” the mermaid’s eyes filled with confusion.

Lin… Feng?

Bewilderment flickered in the mermaid’s eyes as she gazed at Zhao Shuqing and mimicked her, murmuring, “Lin…”

Zhao Shuqing’s eyes lit up. She grinned, her eyebrows curving in delight, and nodded approvingly while stroking the mermaid’s head. “Lin Feng.” Then she pointed to her own nose. “Zhao Shuqing.”

“Qing…”

The mermaid seemed to have a special reaction to Zhao Shuqing’s name the moment it was spoken, though her pronunciation was still a bit unclear as she repeated the syllable.

“Shu… Qing…”

“Yes, I’m Zhao Shuqing, and you’re Lin Feng,” Zhao Shuqing said with a smile. She asked, “Do you like the name I gave you?”

The mermaid didn’t fully understand, but she vaguely grasped the meaning. She pronounced the name clearly and roundly: “Lin… Feng…”

And so, the mermaid miss received her temporary name: 【Lin Feng】.

Though Lin Feng was a mermaid, she learned quickly. In just one day, she responded to her new name and could even say Zhao Shuqing’s name. Her intelligence was remarkable.

During the routine group meeting, Zhao Shuqing introduced the new name she had given the mermaid.

“She’s adapting to the name very well so far,” Zhao Shuqing said to the group as she stood. “Lin Feng’s condition has remained stable. She can eat once every six hours now, consuming about four or five small green fish per meal. Her appetite is excellent.”

Xu Tang nodded in satisfaction, flipping through Lin Feng’s records from the past two days. She addressed the others: “Based on our navigation, we’ll reach domestic waters in about thirteen days. The news of capturing the mermaid has been kept under wraps. The research institute’s orders are to announce it only when we’re near shore, to prevent other countries from trying to snatch her away.”

She looked up at Zhao Shuqing. “Shuqing, your main task right now is to keep taking good care of Lin Feng. Everyone else, continue with your own projects. This expedition wasn’t just about investigating the mermaid—we still need to collect samples from the deep-sea environment and nearby organisms.”

Sun Chengzhou sat in the farthest corner with his arms crossed, rolling his eyes in dissatisfaction.

Once the meeting ended, Zhao Shuqing was the first to step out. It was lunchtime now, and she planned to head to the kitchen to grab some food for Lin Feng first. Eating only fish wasn’t ideal; she needed some vitamins too.

She wondered if Lin Feng liked cherry tomatoes.

“Shuqing, wait up.”

Zhao Shuqing hadn’t gone far when someone called out to her. Turning around, she saw Xu Tang hurrying over with a folder in hand. Zhao Shuqing looked at her in surprise. “Senior Sister, is something wrong?”

“You’re heading to the tank to check on the mermaid, right?” Xu Tang asked. “I was thinking of going to see her too.”

“Sure,” Zhao Shuqing said with a smile. “But you’ll have to wait a moment. I still need to grab some food for her from the kitchen.”

Xu Tang smiled as well. “No problem. I’ll come with you to the kitchen.”

Two people from Lin Feng’s research room were on duty around the clock, recording her diet, daily habits, sleep patterns, and more. But Lin Feng disliked anyone else getting close, so Zhao Shuqing handled all the feeding and close-up observations.

Xu Tang watched as Zhao Shuqing expertly asked the kitchen staff for small green fish and rinsed a handful of plump, red cherry tomatoes. She chuckled. “You’re really devoted to that mermaid.”

Zhao Shuqing laughed too. “Of course. After all the hardships to get close to her for the first time, I have to do my best.”

Xu Tang said nothing more about the food Zhao Shuqing was carrying and went with her to the research room.

Lin Feng seemed to be in a good mood that day. The moment they opened the door, they saw her swimming happily back and forth in the tank. The researchers greeted Zhao Shuqing and Xu Tang, who nodded in response. Xu Tang peered at Lin Feng’s graceful form in the tank. “How’s she doing today?”

“She’s in much better shape than the past couple of days,” one researcher replied. “She’s not as scared as she was at first. Aside from not letting anyone get close, she’s already swimming around the tank on her own.”

The tank was large, but it was still small for a mermaid over two meters long. A single stroke brought her to the end, forcing her to turn around and swim back.

Perhaps sensing Zhao Shuqing’s presence, Lin Feng splashed to the surface with a whoosh and pressed her face against the glass wall, her damp eyes fixed on Zhao Shuqing.

Zhao Shuqing turned to Xu Tang. “Senior Sister, I’ll go feed her the fish now.”

Xu Tang nodded. “I’ll come with you.”

Zhao Shuqing went first, squatting at the edge of the platform and gently patting the water’s surface. Lin Feng immediately swam over and rested right in front of her.

Zhao Shuqing thought she was so well-behaved.

“How about five small fish today?” Zhao Shuqing stroked Lin Feng’s head and held a glistening cherry tomato to her pale pink lips, whispering, “You need to eat some fruit too, for the vitamins.”

Lin Feng lifted her beautiful eyes to stare at her. She didn’t understand what Zhao Shuqing was saying, but she caught the fresh, enticing scent from the thing touching her lips.

Food?

Lin Feng hesitated for two seconds, then slowly opened her mouth and took the cherry tomato from Zhao Shuqing’s fingertip.

It burst with juice the moment she bit down. Startled, Lin Feng clapped a hand over her mouth. The bright red juice trickled from the corners of her lips, sliding down to her fair neck.

She blinked, surprised yet intrigued. With a plop, she dove back into the water, swam a couple of loops, and surfaced again.

Her antics made Zhao Shuqing laugh. Zhao Shuqing patted the water and said, “Lin Feng, don’t be scared. The red isn’t blood—it’s fruit juice, and it’s sweet. Try it.”

Hearing her name, Lin Feng swam back over. She spat out the tomato remnants with a few “pthoos,” shaking her head to show she didn’t like it.

“You don’t like it?” Zhao Shuqing popped one into her own mouth and chewed with a squish. “There aren’t many fruits on the ship. Once we reach land, I’ll buy you tons of delicious ones.”

Lin Feng studied Zhao Shuqing’s puffed cheeks intently, but before she could look longer, she noticed Xu Tang standing in the corner.

The moment their eyes met, Lin Feng froze in place.

“Hey, we meet again,” Xu Tang said, walking over with a friendly smile as she looked down at Lin Feng. “Remember me? I was the one who had you hauled up from the sea.”

Lin Feng stared at her for a long moment, then turned without even touching the fish in Zhao Shuqing’s hand and dove back into the water.

Zhao Shuqing blinked in surprise. It took her a moment to react, and she gave Xu Tang a wry smile. “I guess she’s holding a grudge.”

Xu Tang chuckled and squatted down at the water’s edge.

Lin Feng hadn’t swum far. Through the rippling water, they could faintly make out her silhouette. Her beautiful long hair swirled up and down in the tank, and her eyes watched Xu Tang warily as she silently backed away a step.

“Looks like… she’s holding a grudge,” Xu Tang said with a helpless laugh. “She’s pretty smart—remembers that I was the one directing the capture.”

Zhao Shuqing set the bowl of fish aside and patted the water, calling to Lin Feng, “It’s okay, Lin Feng. This is my senior sister. She’s not a bad person.”

But Lin Feng resisted fiercely and refused to come up.

“If she doesn’t want to, that’s fine,” Xu Tang said understandingly to Zhao Shuqing. “I just came to see how she’s settling in.”

“She’s doing great overall,” Zhao Shuqing said, glancing at the figure in the water. “Once she fully trusts us in a bit, she won’t be so resistant.”

“Mm.” Xu Tang nodded. “Good thing she has some fondness for you, or we’d be in real trouble.”

After browsing the files in the research room, Xu Tang left.

The moment Xu Tang was gone, Lin Feng poked her head out of the water and slowly swam to Zhao Shuqing’s side.

“You…”

Zhao Shuqing stroked Lin Feng’s head with fond exasperation and smiled. “Hungry? Want some fish?”

Lin Feng propped herself up and sat on the edge, her long blue tail curling and draping over the platform. Water droplets from it soaked the surface. She picked up the bowl Zhao Shuqing had set nearby and started grabbing the fish to eat.

As she ate, she idly swished her tail over the water.

That’s when Zhao Shuqing suddenly noticed a glaring wound on that beautiful blue tail.

It was a triangular gash running from top to bottom, slicing off a large chunk from the side near the tail fin. White mucus coated the wound, and the flesh had turned pale, looking necrotic. They could even faintly see the white bone inside.

“You’re hurt?” Zhao Shuqing gasped, thinking it might have happened during the capture. But upon closer inspection, she saw numerous white scars of varying sizes scattered across the end of Lin Feng’s blue tail—some fresh, others old.

The deepest was this triangular one, which had torn away a whole slab of flesh from the side.

Lin Feng finished her lunch in a few quick bites. Seeing Zhao Shuqing staring at her tail, she hurriedly slipped it back into the water and hid it.

Zhao Shuqing frowned at the somewhat guilty-looking beautiful mermaid before her. “How did you get that injury? Why is it so severe? Do you need us to treat it?”

Lin Feng stared intently at Zhao Shuqing, blinked once, then turned and fled into the tank in a panic.