Pearl Earrings

When the basement door locked, Coral heard the pearl earrings laugh.

It wasn't a human laugh—it was many tiny songs squeezed together, like tide water that had been trapped for too long finally finding a crack. They burst from the glass bottles, crashing against instruments, walls, and her eardrums, only to be sucked back into the pearl.

Madam White descended the stairs slowly.

She still wore her pearl-colored gown, her gloves pristine white, her earrings blue and nearly transparent. The basement was full of glass bottles and severed songs, yet she walked as if entering a collection room.

"Don't be afraid, dear," she said. "I'm just borrowing your song for a little while."

Coral stepped back behind Lu Wenchao. "If you borrow it, will you give it back?"

Madam White smiled. "Of course. In another form."

"Then that means you won't give it back," Coral said seriously. "Even when Xiao Man borrows my straw, she gives it back."

Beside her, Xiao Man muttered, "The straw isn't really the point."

Lu Wenchao shielded Coral more firmly. "Open the door."

"Wenchao, your father used to try to solve everything with commands too," Madam White said, walking over to the glass instruments. "But the world isn't a hunting ship. Just because you pull out your hook doesn't mean others will get out of your way."

Lu Wenchao's voice turned cold. "You bottle mermaid songs in jars, and you call that the world?"

"I preserve miracles."

"You sell tickets."

Madam White's smile faded.

She took off her earrings and placed them into the glass instrument. Qin Yan emerged from the shadows, handing over the blue scale that had been cut from Coral's shoulder. The moment the scale fell into the instrument, it dissolved into watery light.

In the center of the instrument appeared Madam White's face from her youth.

That face had no fine lines, no weariness—eyes so bright they were almost cruel. Madam White gazed at it, her obsession so intense it sent a chill down Coral's spine.

"I once saw a mermaid," Madam White said softly. "I was about your age. I fell into the sea and almost died. She saved me, pushed me onto the reef, and then she was about to return to the sea."

Coral watched her.

"I begged her to stay." Madam White let out a small laugh. "I gave her my pearls, my name, everything I had. But she said the sea was waiting for her."

"She wanted to go home," Coral said.

Madam White's eyes went cold for an instant.

"Home?" She stroked the glass. "Why must beautiful things always return to the sea? Why can't they belong to me? People age, die, get left behind. But if you keep the song, keep the scale, keep that fleeting moment of miracle, then you never lose it."

"That's not keeping," Coral said. "That's locking up."

Madam White looked at her, her voice still gentle. "You're too young to understand. Freedom is something that leaves. Collections don't."

Lu Wenchao let out a cold laugh. "So you hunt and kill them?"

"Hunt and kill?" Madam White spoke as if she'd heard something vulgar. "I pay. I provide tanks, doctors, protection. It's the hunters who get blood everywhere."

Qin Yan stood to the side, his expression sour, but he said nothing.

Madam White raised her hand.

The hunters seized Xiao Man.

Xiao Man was about to curse when a silver hook pressed against her throat. Coral immediately stepped forward. "Don't take her."

"See?" Madam White said gently. "How easily she takes the bait. She can't lie, she can't weigh costs. As long as someone cries, she'll swim right over."

Coral's face went pale, but she didn't retreat.

Lu Wenchao grabbed her hand. "Don't listen."

"But she's right," Coral whispered. "I really would swim over."

"That's not wrong," Lu Wenchao said.

Coral looked up at him.

Madam White's smile turned colder. "How touching. The hunter has started comforting his prey."

Lu Wenchao ignored her, only clenched the silver hook in his palm.

Madam White pushed the instrument toward Coral. "Sing. Once you've sung, all your friends will be safe. The girl can go home, and Wenchao can go back to being a hunter. You'll only lose a little bit of your song."

"A little bit?" Lu Wenchao's voice sank.

Madam White turned to him. "Compared to a life, a little song is very cheap."

The trapped songs in the glass bottles crashed harder. Coral heard them screaming—no, no, no. But Xiao Man was still held at hook-point, Lu Wenchao still bore unhealed wounds, and the doorway was filled with hunters.

Suddenly she asked, "You've collected so many songs. Why do you still sound so lonely?"

Madam White's face went cold in an instant.

In that moment, Lu Wenchao moved.

A smoke bomb rolled out, white smoke exploding. He cut Xiao Man's ropes with a backhand stroke. Xiao Man dropped to the ground, rolled under the table clutching her manga. Qin Yan lunged for Coral. Lu Wenchao moved to block him but was tangled up by two hunters.

In the chaos, Qin Yan grabbed Coral by the wrist.

The silver hook pressed against her neck.

"Sorry, little mermaid," Qin Yan said in a low voice. "I want to win for once too."

"Win what?" Coral asked.

Qin Yan froze.

"You humans are always winning," she said softly. "Once you've won, do you go home?"

Qin Yan's eyes hardened. The silver hook slashed down.

Lu Wenchao rushed over and blocked it.

The poisoned hook sank into his shoulder.

Silver venom lines crawled into the wound like thin snakes. Lu Wenchao let out a muffled grunt but still pushed Coral behind him.

Coral felt her heart skip a beat.

"Lu Wenchao?"

He turned back, his face rapidly losing color, but he was still saying, "Don't sing."

Madam White's pearl earrings glowed inside the instrument, as if they had finally found their next song.