Chapter 96

Zhao Shuqing sat up in bed, her long black hair tumbling messily down her back with no time to tidy it. Her gaze fixed on the message Gu Yao had sent to her phone.

Gu Yao: 【Image】

Gu Yao: Your wife crossed the ocean to find you.

Zhao Shuqing stared at the photo over and over. It showed a slender woman standing barefoot on black rocks, carrying what looked like the backpack she kept in the cabinet. The woman was facing away from the camera, her light-colored long hair standing out strikingly.

Was that Lin Feng?

But why did Lin Feng have legs?

Was it edited?

And what exactly did Gu Yao mean by “your wife crossed the ocean to find you”??

Zhao Shuqing didn’t care what time it was back home. She called Gu Yao right away, but the call wouldn’t go through for some inexplicable reason. Without hesitating, she dialed Wen Xiaoying instead, and this time it connected smoothly.

“Shuqing, I’m sorry,” Wen Xiaoying said, apologizing the moment she picked up. “I was just about to let you know. How did you beat me to it?”

Wen Xiaoying’s voice sounded terribly guilty. Zhao Shuqing frowned and asked, “Where’s Lin Feng?”

“I-I was getting to that,” Wen Xiaoying replied. She glanced at the empty pool and continued, “She was fine in her room before I clocked out yesterday, but when I came in this morning, she was gone. The surveillance footage got deleted too. We’ve been searching all morning and haven’t found a trace of her.”

Zhao Shuqing’s voice sharpened. “What do you mean the surveillance was deleted? Who did it? Did someone take her?”

Wen Xiaoying was on the verge of tears. “I don’t know! The door lock isn’t broken, and the night guard said no outsiders came in. The only visitors were from your laboratory.”

Zhao Shuqing’s mind went blank for a moment. It took her a while to find her voice again. “When did they come? Who was it? Is there a record?”

Wen Xiaoying hurriedly replied, “Yes, I took photos of the log and sent them to you. Don’t panic. As soon as we realized Lin Feng was missing this morning, we went straight to Group Leader Xu. She told us not to tell you. I figured your team must have taken her for something important.”

The moment Zhao Shuqing heard Xu Tang was involved, she hung up and called her instead.

She’d expected no answer, but surprisingly, the call connected.

“Shuqing,” Xu Tang’s voice came through calmly, as if she’d anticipated exactly what Zhao Shuqing wanted to say. She spoke slowly. “I know what you’re going to ask, but Lin Feng isn’t with me. Gu Yao let her go.”

Zhao Shuqing furrowed her brow tightly. “What did you drag her to the laboratory for yesterday? What experiments did you do on her?”

Xu Tang didn’t answer directly. Instead, she said to Zhao Shuqing, “You’ve seen the photo Gu Yao sent, right? Lin Feng grew legs. Surprised?”

Zhao Shuqing clenched her fist in silence.

Xu Tang continued, “Your sweet, obedient Lin Feng lied to you. She hid the fact that she could grow legs, turning your paper into a joke for the whole world. She tricked you. Are you still going to defend that fish?”

“That’s… between Lin Feng and me,” Zhao Shuqing said quietly. “It’s her business if she lied to me. I want to know what you did to her.”

“Nothing much. I performed a minor surgery, but when I tried to implant a tracker, she woke up, injured two team members, and escaped.” Xu Tang glossed over the previous night’s events lightly before adding, “Gu Yao confessed that Lin Feng went into the sea four hours ago to find you. By now, she should be in the South China Sea.”

Zhao Shuqing frowned deeply. “She’s just a mermaid. She doesn’t even know the way. How could she swim that far to find me?”

Xu Tang chuckled softly. “Who knows? Maybe finding you was just an excuse, and she really wanted to escape.”

Zhao Shuqing’s mind was a whirlwind. She felt like the sky was falling after just one night’s sleep.

She didn’t even notice when Xu Tang hung up. All she knew was that her whole body felt like it had plunged into an ice cellar, chilled to the bone.

Lin Feng had deceived her.

Deceived her from the very start.

If mermaids could grow legs, what difference was there between them and humans?

Suddenly, Zhao Shuqing understood why Shen Qingming had hinted early on, before her paper was published, that she should double-check the data. Back then, she’d never considered that angle and simply thought he meant a routine review.

It seemed Shen Qingming had known all along that mermaids could transform into humans. He’d been trying to keep her from becoming a laughingstock worldwide and urged caution, but she hadn’t gotten it.

Suddenly, a parade of faces flashed through Zhao Shuqing’s mind like a lantern show.

Fang Wen, the recorder whose smile had turned rigid after returning from the Antarctic research vessel.

Yao Jiajia, the little girl whose behavior had been off after waking from her vegetative state.

And Shen Qingming, who had gone from critically ill to suddenly healthy upon discharge, unable to even use chopsticks.

And Xu Tang…

Had they all become mermaids long ago?

How had they turned into mermaids?

What exactly were mermaids?

Zhao Shuqing’s temples throbbed with pain. She knew she should be piecing together a thousand questions, but none of them could drown out Xu Tang’s words: She tricked you.

She tricked you.

Lin Feng had lied to her from beginning to end.

Half an hour later, Zhao Shuqing packed her bags and headed out, but the staff member in charge of hosting spotted her and hurried over.

“Hey, Zhao Shuqing,” the blonde, blue-eyed woman greeted her enthusiastically. Seeing the black suitcase, she asked, “The seminar’s about to start. Where are you off to?”

“Sorry, I won’t be able to attend the conference after all,” Zhao Shuqing told her. “I’ve booked a flight for this afternoon. I’m going home now.”

“This afternoon? Does it have to be so soon?” The woman tried to dissuade her. “Everyone’s looking forward to your mermaid series lecture. Don’t you want to show them your adorable beautiful mermaid?”

Zhao Shuqing frowned. “Sorry, I have to go home.”

The woman tried to block her path, but Zhao Shuqing was resolute. She hailed a car at the entrance and headed straight for the international airport.

Zhao Shuqing bought the next available flight back home. It was expensive with an awful time slot, but none of that mattered. She just wanted to get back as soon as possible.

She endured a miserable afternoon, but the ground staff’s response was that she couldn’t check in— she had been barred from entry.

“What?” Zhao Shuqing couldn’t believe it. “Why am I barred? Who did this?”

The staff member shook her head, saying she had no details.

Zhao Shuqing was furious. She called Xu Tang, then Shen Qingming— no one picked up. The official response was vague: She was linked to an overseas incident and temporarily barred from entry.

Zhao Shuqing knew she was being targeted. Someone didn’t want her coming home.

Inevitably, Lin Feng got lost.

She had been swimming south, but somehow she’d ended up in the Pacific Ocean— the complete opposite direction from what Gu Yao had indicated.

Lin Feng frowned, blew out a glistening bubble, and surfaced. Spotting a small island nearby, she swam toward it.

She’d been swimming for over a week now. Far from reaching Europe, she’d gone the wrong way entirely. Lin Feng felt utterly useless. She should have brought a compass.

When she left, aside from two dresses and a map, Lin Feng had brought almost nothing. She sat on the shore, pulled out her backpack, unzipped it, and stared glumly at the soaked map inside.

A couple of days earlier, a whale had tailed her relentlessly. During the fight, her backpack got torn, ruining the map. Lin Feng herself was fine— she’d slashed the whale’s eye and escaped— but the map was a lost cause.

It was unusable.

No map meant no direction, which meant no way to find Zhao Shuqing.

Lin Feng cradled the ruined map and pondered her next move.

Gu Yao had said to ask dolphins or sea turtles if she got lost, but dolphins were bad-tempered, always picking fights with rude words. Lin Feng wanted to punch them on sight.

Sea turtles were milder, but they barely responded. She’d ask ten questions and get a “hmm” after ages— and she never knew which one it answered.

And that whale had been stalking her since she entered the sea. It was its fault she was lost.

Lin Feng eyed her waterlogged, illegible map and racked her brain for another plan.

She was still wearing the blue dress from when she dove in. Now that she had legs, she considered going ashore to ask locals or animals for directions. But the moment she stood, dizziness hit her hard.

It felt awful.

Ever since learning about the surgery, Lin Feng had felt off. This past week, she’d barely eaten or slept, desperate to see Zhao Shuqing soon. Now the dizziness was back, along with a bitter taste in her mouth and nausea that made everything worse.

Was she dying?

Lin Feng thought her days might be numbered. She had to find the right path quickly.

Meanwhile, things weren’t going any better for Zhao Shuqing.

After being barred from entry, local police took her in for questioning. Though nothing explicitly tied her to a crime, she still couldn’t leave the country. Her work visa had only two months left, and the police warned that any overstay would result in deportation for illegal entry.

Zhao Shuqing returned to the hotel with a dark expression, locking herself in her room and seeing no one.

She called Gu Yao repeatedly, but got no answer.

Staring at the hundred-plus missed calls, Zhao Shuqing grew deeply worried. She had no idea what had happened to Gu Yao or why she hadn’t replied in a week, but she suspected trouble.

Wen Xiaoying didn’t have high enough clearance. She was just an ordinary oceanarium keeper. She’d tried a few times to find Gu Yao on Zhao Shuqing’s behalf but was always blocked from the laboratory. Calls didn’t work either. In the end, she went to Gu Yao’s place, picked up Pumpkin, and was temporarily keeping the cat in the office area.

Zhao Shuqing turned to gaze at the coastline out the window, her brow furrowing slightly.

Lin Feng…

Would her Lin Feng really cross the ocean to find her?

And if she did, how was Zhao Shuqing supposed to face her?

Zhao Shuqing still couldn’t understand why Lin Feng had lied to her…