A Shoe That Bites

There was a secret passage beneath the lighthouse leading to the Old Inn.

Jiang Yue said it was dug by rum smugglers in the old days. Coral misheard her and thought she said "wave smugglers," and had been in shock ever since they started down the stairs.

"Can you steal waves too?"

Jiang Yue walked ahead with an oil lamp, her shadow stretched long and thin. "Some people steal anything."

"Where do they put what they steal?"

"In bottles, in ledgers, in glass cabinets."

Coral thought it over. "Do people bottle up the ocean and sell it?"

Jiang Yue snorted. "Close enough. Some actually think that way."

The passage was heavy with moisture. Water seeped through the wall cracks. Coral moved slowly; her newly learned legs weren't very obedient yet. She touched the wall and felt wetness on her palm, then immediately stopped.

"The wall is crying."

Lu Wenchao brought up the rear, lowering his hat brim to listen for sounds above. "That's called seepage."

"Seepage is just the wall crying in secret."

Jiang Yue laughed from up ahead. "The little mermaid talks better than you."

Lu Wenchao: "She talks too much."

The end of the passage connected to the Old Inn's cellar. The Old Inn had long been closed; its sign was missing half, and the wooden planks upstairs creaked in the sea breeze. The room smelled of dampness, dried lavender, and a faint layer of dust from long vacancy. Jiang Yue pushed open a seaside guest room. The curtains were nailed shut, with only a thin gap letting in the gray-blue sky.

"You two hide here first." Jiang Yue tossed the key to Lu Wenchao. "I'll go lure away those tails downstairs."

Coral looked down at herself. "I don't have a tail anymore."

"Not you." Jiang Yue stopped at the door and turned back to warn them. "Don't sing randomly, don't open the window, don't touch the mirrors. Especially you."

Coral immediately put her hands behind her back. "Do mirrors bite?"

"More than shoes do."

That remark made Coral treat the full-length mirror in the room with great respect.

After Jiang Yue left, Lu Wenchao first checked the windows, doors, and floorboards. He clipped a thin thread around the door handle and placed a glass upside down by the window. Coral sat on the edge of the bed watching him work, her toes restlessly tapping the floor.

"Are these human shell traps?"

"Alert systems."

"What's an alert?"

"If someone comes in, I'll know."

Coral stared at the thin thread. "What if the wind comes in?"

"The wind doesn't open doors."

"Sea wind does. It's really good at slipping through cracks."

Lu Wenchao stuffed the window crack tight. "So don't you slip through either."

Coral nodded obediently. A moment later, she took off her ill-fitting cloth shoes, placed them neatly by the bed, far away from herself.

Lu Wenchao looked at her. "What now?"

"They're unfriendly."

"Shoes aren't friendly or unfriendly."

"They are. This left one has a small heart. It keeps biting my heel."

Lu Wenchao was about to reply when three long knocks and one short one came from the back door. That was Xiao Man's agreed signal. Lu Wenchao opened the door, and Xiao Man squeezed in carrying a bulging bag, her hair a mess from the sea wind.

"Emergency love escape supplies!" she announced excitedly.

She dumped everything onto the bed: a few pieces of clothing, two boxes of band-aids, three lollipops, a pack of biscuits, an old phone, a half-drawn comic notebook, and a pair of soft-soled shoes.

Lu Wenchao: "Who's in love?"

Coral raised her hand. "What is love's supplies?"

Xiao Man clutched her chest. "Oh my god, she really doesn't know anything. Brother Lu, you're doomed."

"Don't teach her nonsense." Lu Wenchao stuffed the candy back into the bag.

But Coral had already unwrapped a lollipop. She didn't know how to remove the wrapper and almost bit through it along with the paper. Xiao Man quickly helped her tear it off. The moment the candy tip touched her tongue, Coral froze.

Her eyes went wide, as if she'd seen an entire sun sink into her mouth.

"Humans hide the sun on sticks," she whispered.

Xiao Man was almost moved to tears. "I hereby declare this the most expensive candy review I've ever heard."

Lu Wenchao watched her brighten. He wanted to tell her not to eat too much, but the words died in his throat. He turned to check the door lock and casually placed the remaining two lollipops on the corner of the table within her reach.

Coral saw it and quietly hid one up her sleeve.

"I saw that," Lu Wenchao said.

She immediately pressed her sleeve down. "No, you didn't."

Xiao Man shook with laughter beside them.

In the afternoon, Lu Wenchao decided to take Coral into town to buy a pair of shoes that actually fit. The shoes Xiao Man had brought at the Old Inn were too stiff. Coral frowned every three steps. She didn't complain about pain, she just talked to her shoes: "You're already living on my feet. Be polite."

Lu Wenchao listened for five minutes before he couldn't take it anymore. "Change shoes."

The market streets of Beluga Town were just coming to life. To avoid attention, Xiao Man put a hat on Coral and tucked her silver-blue hair into a scarf. It was Coral's first time walking among people in daylight, and everything was new. When the automatic door slid open, she stepped back half a pace. When a mannequin stood frozen in the window, she tried to say hello to it. When a child on the street licked an ice cream cone, she asked Lu Wenchao in shock: "Are they eating snow that melts?"

Lu Wenchao pulled her along. "Don't stare at people."

"I'm staring at the snow."

"There's a person next to the snow."

At the shoe store entrance, Coral stopped.

A row of leather shoes sat in the display window — black, brown, white — their openings neatly gaping outward. Coral's expression grew solemn, as if facing a horde of deep-sea monsters.

"They're all opening their mouths."

"That's the shoe opening."

"They want to eat my feet."

"No, they don't."

Five minutes later, Coral tried on the first pair. The moment her toes slipped in, she yanked them back. "It bit me!"

The shop assistant's shoulders trembled as she tried not to laugh. Lu Wenchao crouched down, untied the laces for her, and swapped them for a pair of soft-soled shoes. His movements weren't gentle, but they were careful. His thumb avoided the shell-scale marks on her ankle. Coral looked down at him, and her voice suddenly grew quiet.

"Do you humans take care of your prey like this too?"

Lu Wenchao's fingers paused. "No."

"Then am I not prey anymore?"

He looked up at her. Sunlight fell on her lashes from outside the window. She was serious, not testing him — she just genuinely wanted to know what she had become to him.

Lu Wenchao tied her laces, straightened up, and said: "You're a nuisance."

Coral thought for a moment, then smiled. "Can nuisances eat candy?"

"Not too much."

She immediately hid the second lollipop Xiao Man had given her into her sleeve, thinking no one had noticed.

On the way back to the inn, Lu Wenchao noticed they were being followed. He led Coral through two alleys and shook off the tail using the back door of a seafood shop. Coral clutched a small plastic dolphin the shop owner had forced into her hands and asked, "Is this a friend too?"

"A freebie."

"Do freebies get sad?"

"No."

"You humans often decide for things that they won't get sad."

Lu Wenchao paused mid-step.

Then she looked down and touched her new shoes. "But these shoes aren't too sad. They bite a little lighter."

When they returned to the inn that evening, Xiao Man rushed in urgently and handed her phone to Lu Wenchao. On the screen was a poster for Beluga Town's secret exhibition: Beluga Town Mermaid Legend Exhibition, three days from now, limited VIP entry.

And in the corner of the poster was the silhouette of Coral's tail.

Coral bit her lollipop and asked, vaguely: "They drew me. Do they want to be friends with me?"

Lu Wenchao set the phone down on the table.

"No," he said. "They want to sell you."

Coral's licking stopped.

Outside the inn window, a row of cold white lights lit up from the direction of the aquarium — like a net finally spreading open.

And at the very bottom of the poster, there was a line of small print: Exhibits will complete transfer registration tonight.