She Called the Sea

Outside the bell tower, White Whale Town turned into a water-filled box.

Tidal water flooded the square as tourists screamed and fled to higher ground. The stall selling mermaid hair clips was overturned, plastic scales floating across the streets. Blue invitation letters, soaked soft by the water, still gave off a faint glow. Those lights connected into thin threads, one end tied to the lampposts in the square, the other stretching toward the sea—like ropes the White Lady had used to leash the entire town.

Coral crouched by the bell tower window, her face growing paler by the second.

She wanted to explain that she hadn't meant to frighten people with the sea, but her throat could only produce broken gasps. She had only heard the remnant songs crying and wanted to quiet them. But the sea came, came too fast, swept away the celebration, and frightened many who didn't know the truth.

Lu WenChao pulled her back. "Don't look."

She shook her head and pointed at the pocket watch in the water.

The old watch spun in the tide but wasn't swept away, as if someone held it from below. Each time it turned, the watch in Lu WenChao's pocket chimed once.

Click.

Click.

"Wait for me," Lu WenChao said.

Coral grabbed his sleeve.

He looked at her. "I'll come back."

She wrote on paper: When you humans say "I will," you have to mean it.

Lu WenChao read it and nodded. "I will."

He rushed downstairs.

The bottom floor of the bell tower was already flooded up to the knees. Silver threads floated on the water, some still carrying remnant songs that stung the skin upon contact. Lu WenChao used a silver hook to part the threads, bent down, and fished out the old pocket watch. The watch was cold to the touch but hadn't been damaged by the seawater.

He opened the lid.

Inside, there were no engravings—only a single photo bleached white by the sea: a young Lu Qi standing beneath a lighthouse, beside a silver-haired mermaid. The mermaid's face was unclear, her hair like moonlight, holding a black shell button in her hand.

When Jiang Yue arrived, she saw the photo.

Her expression shifted slowly, like an old tide receding from her eyes.

"She was the mermaid who saved the White Lady back then," Jiang Yue said.

"And also the Tide Guardian," Lu WenChao said, looking at the photo. "Right?"

Jiang Yue nodded.

"She sealed the Tidal Rift together with your father. Bai LingZhu hated her because she saved people but refused to stay. Your father trusted her because she could have left, yet still came back to close the door."

When the two pocket watches were brought close, both hands pointed toward the direction of the sea cliffs.

Coral was helped downstairs by Xiao Man. As soon as she got near the watches, she heard Lu Qi's voice.

The voice was closer than the recording, and more tired.

"Don't let her stay in my place."

Coral looked at Lu WenChao.

He had heard it too.

Xiao Man trembled as she asked, "What does that mean?"

No one answered.

In the distance, a blinding blue light lit up on the roof of the aquarium. The White Lady stood there, her skirt blown by the wind, pearl earrings hanging by her ears like tiny moons. Behind her, blue lamps lit up one by one in a line, and the sea surface split open into a dark crack.

It didn't look like an ordinary wave.

It was more like a door at the bottom of the sea, pried open from below by a crack.

Jiang Yue said quietly, "There's no time to wait for the next tide. We go to the Tidal Rift now."

Lu WenChao tucked away both pocket watches. "Where's the entrance?"

"Sea Cliff Cave," Jiang Yue said. "That's where your father went down back then. The watches are the markers. When both watches are combined, the door will open."

"What about the White Lady?" Xiao Man asked.

Jiang Yue looked toward the aquarium. "She's using the celebration to hold everyone back. The more panicked the townspeople, the more chaotic the remnant songs become, and the easier it is for the Tidal Rift to respond to her."

Xiao Man gritted her teeth and raised her hand. "I'll stay and evacuate the crowd."

Lu WenChao frowned. "No."

"I'm not a hunter, nor a mermaid—no one will target me first." Xiao Man's voice trembled, but she tried to stand straight. "Besides, I know the square routes. I can lead people toward the old school. The terrain there is higher."

Coral grabbed her.

Xiao Man thought she was about to persuade her to stay, and her eyes reddened first. "Miss Mermaid, I really can do this. I may usually only draw comics, but I can run a little faster than you."

Coral reached into her pocket, pulled out a candy, and pressed it into her palm.

Xiao Man didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "Why are you still giving me candy at a time like this?"

Coral said in a hoarse whisper, "Live… long…"

The rest of the words broke apart in her throat.

Xiao Man's tears fell instantly.

She nodded vigorously. "I'll live long. You have to, too."

Coral wrote: I'll write back.

"Good." Xiao Man gripped the candy tight. "Even if you return to the sea, you have to send me letters. Drift bottles. It's okay if the words are wrong—I'll still understand."

Lu WenChao looked at Jiang Yue. "You take her."

Jiang Yue shook her head. "I'm going to Sea Cliff Cave. Without me, you can't open the Old Tide Gate. Xiao Man can run on her own."

"I can!" Xiao Man said immediately, her voice still choked with tears.

Outside the bell tower, a second tidal surge rushed onto the streets. The White Lady's blue light grew brighter and brighter, and the black crack on the sea kept widening.

Lu WenChao picked up Coral, who could no longer stand, and rushed toward the sea cliffs.

Coral leaned against his shoulder and watched the lights of White Whale Town distort one by one in the water. She knew she had called the sea again. But this time, she couldn't just apologize.

She had to go back with it and close the door.