Those on Land Can Also Drown

When Lu Qi raised the silver hook, Coral stepped in front of Lu Wenchao first.

She was clearly afraid of pain — the scale wounds on her shoulders hadn't healed yet, the light on her ankle scales had faded until it was almost invisible — yet she stood steady. The tip of the silver hook stopped before her brow, cold light reflected in her eyes.

"Merfolk can't come near," Lu Qi's voice was hollow. "The singing will open the door."

"Dad!" Lu Wenchao shouted at him. "It's me, Wenchao."

Lu Qi's eyes flickered.

But the silver hook still pointed at Coral.

"Wenchao..." He sounded like he was recalling a tide sound heard long ago. "Don't go through the door."

"I'm here to take you back."

"Back?" Lu Qi repeated quietly. For a brief moment, clarity surfaced in his eyes, but it was quickly swallowed by the black tide. "The door isn't closed. I can't go back."

The Rift Tide surged behind him. It wasn't an ordinary underwater fissure — it was a vertical black door gap. Countless eyes were open within the crack, like countless pearls reflecting desire. The Lady White's blue light stabbed in from a distant shore, slowly prying the gap wider.

Aunt Lan arrived with the merfolk guards. Their singing wove into a blue net, temporarily suppressing the Rift Tide. Coral couldn't fully understand those songs, but she could feel every verse trembling. The tide-keepers couldn't hold out much longer either.

Lu Wenchao tried to approach Lu Qi, but the black tide coiled up from below, icy cold, dragging at his legs.

He looked down and realized the black tide wasn't heading for Coral.

It was heading for him.

Hunter's Blood.

The Gate had recognized him.

"Lu Wenchao!" Coral lunged toward him, but Aunt Lan held her back.

"Don't go near!" Aunt Lan snapped. "You still have an incomplete Tide-guarding Song on you. The Rift Tide will use you as a key!"

Lu Wenchao was dragged into the depths by the black tide. The pocket watch on his chest grew hot. He pulled out the silver hook and cut through one strand of black tide, but more immediately wrapped around him. Seawater pressed into his lungs. Courtesy Breathing suddenly failed. For the first time deep beneath the sea, he felt true suffocation.

Those on land can also drown.

The thought flashed through his mind absurdly.

The next instant, Coral broke free from Aunt Lan.

She swam toward him.

Aunt Lan roared in anger: "Coral!"

Coral didn't look back.

She threw herself in front of Lu Wenchao, cupping his face in both hands. She couldn't speak properly — only broken tide sounds came from her throat. She saw Lu Wenchao's pupils beginning to dilate, and suddenly remembered the night he was poisoned, when he kept telling her not to sing. Now she had no song to sing.

But she still had a mouthful of the sea.

She kissed him.

Seawater, the taste of blood, and fragments of song all rushed into Lu Wenchao's chest.

It wasn't the gentle kiss from human stories. It was breath transfer, it was life-saving — a little mermaid giving the last of the tide sound left in her body to a land-dweller on the verge of drowning. Lu Wenchao could breathe again, and finally heard the wordless sentence in Coral's voice.

Don't sleep.

He opened his eyes.

Coral let him go. Her face was pale, almost translucent, but her eyes were bright.

Lu Qi's silver hook lowered.

"Wenchao?"

This time, he recognized him.

Lu Wenchao swam over and grabbed his father's wrist. Ten years apart, and his father's skin was cold as stone. Half his body was eroded by tide markings, but the bones of his wrist were still the same as in memory. When he was a child, that hand had taught him to tie knots and polish silver hooks, and had covered his ears when he was afraid of the bell chimes.

"I'm here to take you home," Lu Wenchao said.

Lu Qi looked at him, maintaining his clarity with great difficulty.

"You've grown up."

Those words came too late.

So late that Lu Wenchao didn't know whether to hate or to cry.

"Let's go first," he gritted his teeth. "We'll talk once we're out."

But Lu Qi shook his head and looked at Coral.

"She can't stay in my place. Once a Tide-guarding Song is fully given to the Rift Tide, there's no returning to shore."

Coral didn't understand everything, but she understood "no returning."

She looked at Lu Wenchao, and for the first time, real fear showed in her eyes.

Lu Wenchao gripped her hand. "I won't let you stay."

Lu Qi said quietly, "The Gate needs a gatekeeper. I stayed behind ten years ago because Bai Lingzhu had already obtained the first verse of the Tide-guarding Song. I thought ten years would make her give up."

"She hasn't," Lu Wenchao said.

"Desire never dies on its own." Lu Qi coughed out a string of black bubbles. "It just changes into a prettier name."

Deep within the Rift Tide, the Lady White's pearl light pierced through the seawater.

That light fell on the stone pillar behind Lu Qi, and also on the clan mark on Coral's neck. The Tide-guarding Mark lit up, as if pulled by a distant earring.

Aunt Lan's expression shifted dramatically: "The ritual has begun!"

A dull rumble came from the direction of White Whale Town far away. Above the sea surface, the blue lantern, the remnant song, the pearl earring, and the Tide-guarding Mark on Coral's body linked into a single line. The gap of the Rift Tide Gate was pried wider, and black tide surged out from within, as if the night had finally found its exit.

Lu Qi raised his hand and pressed a Black Shell Button into Lu Wenchao's palm.

"Find the Counter-deed," he said. "A debt opened by Hunter's Blood must be repaid with Hunter's Blood. Don't let her finish singing."

"Where is the Counter-deed?"

Lu Qi looked toward the far side of the Rift Tide Gate. His eyes began to glaze over again.

"Bai Lingzhu... hid it inside a pearl..."

Before he could finish, the black tide surged violently.

The Lady White's voice came from deep within the Rift Tide, gentle as if whispering in his ear.

"Darling, sing. The sea and the shore are both waiting for you."

Coral covered her throat.

She had already lost her voice, yet she could feel the song still left in her body being slowly pulled out by that pearl.