What had happened…
Suddenly, time seemed to pause for a brief moment. This embrace didn’t last long. Soon, he pushed me away, turned around, and said coldly, “I won’t mind if your life is short. But if you become a water demon, no matter how long you live, I won’t bother with you.”
Having known Master for nearly forty years, this was the first time I’d heard him speak like this. Indeed, I had done something wrong again. By all rights, I had passed the most mischievous age and shouldn’t make him angry anymore. Yet lately, I kept being unreasonable, making him displeased and guilty, then doing even more foolish things, making him displeased again, feeling guilty again…
What I feared most was being disliked by him, but I always had a talent for making a mess of things.
That night, the moon was bright in deep winter, the cold wind rustled, fine snow fell like ash-colored brocade, and gazing at the vast sea, several water demons cleansed their scales.
I even forgot to wipe my tears, letting them freeze into ice, when I heard him say, “I have just one question: Do you want to return to Tianshi City with me? If you do, I’ll act as if nothing happened. If not, our master-disciple bond ends here, and we’ll sever all ties.”
I looked up at him, struggled for a long time, and finally nodded, “This disciple will never dare again.”
“Good.”
I looked toward where the sky met the sea, “But Master, today is already the sixth day of my demon transformation. I’m afraid it might be too late now…”
He turned his head, smiling faintly, “Under heaven, what matter could stump your Master?”
Then, he cupped a ball of light in his hands and threw it toward me. I felt almost no pain as my body returned to its original form. Even so, because the demon body had consumed too much energy, I felt utterly exhausted. Yinze said, “How much better this is. Why did you have crooked thoughts about becoming a demon?”
Before I could answer, a white shadow swam over from the seaweed thicket and took human form. The snow snake stood between us both, saying, “Greetings to Divine Lord Yinze. I have something to say.”
This snow snake’s action was no different from swatting flies on a lion’s head—extraordinarily bold. Yinze had probably never seen such a demon before. He glanced at him indifferently but didn’t respond.
The snow snake seemed somewhat afraid and moved closer to me, saying quietly, “So, after I helped Miss Luowei so much, Miss Luowei is going back on her word like this?”
I said apologetically, “I’m sorry. I still don’t want to become a demon.”
The snow snake said, “No matter. If the young lady truly doesn’t wish it, I won’t force her. However, according to our snake clan’s rules, if one party cannot keep their promise, the other party should complete one task for them.”
“Since I owe you a favor, I’ll naturally follow your rules,” I thought for a moment, “Just don’t make it too difficult—my abilities are limited.”
“Very good, straightforward.” The snow snake waved his fan with a completely carefree attitude, “I want to eat a cold nine-colored clam as a drinking accompaniment.”
“Cold nine-colored clam? Why have I never heard of such a dish…”
The snow snake said, “Miss Luowei is from the upper realm, so naturally you haven’t heard of this Eastern Sea delicacy.”
Yinze said, “Simple. I’ll have the Eastern Sea Dragon King send someone to deliver one.”
The snow snake said urgently, “No, no, no, we mustn’t alarm the Eastern Sea Dragon King! I don’t want to offend the Dragon King over such a small matter. Even if he swallows his anger today for the Divine Lord’s sake, he’ll come looking for trouble with our snow snake clan later. Besides, the clams in the Dragon King’s palace aren’t authentic either.”
Yinze sneered, “You even pick at the Dragon King’s palace food—what a noble mouth you have.”
The snow snake smacked his lips, “Not only that, I haven’t finished yet. For drinking, it must be Flowing Cloud Fine Brew, otherwise this clam won’t taste comfortable.”
“I see you’re tired of living.”
“Wow, how scary.” The snow snake hid behind me, acting coquettish, “Miss Luowei, you’re a person who keeps her word, but your Master wants to kill me. What should we do…”
I said, “Ma-Master…”
Yinze frowned, “Where must we go to get this dish? Speak quickly and don’t waste time.”
This snow snake was a difficult creature to serve. It was one thing to like seafood, but he had to like such troublesome seafood.
Colorful clams were an Eastern Sea specialty, extremely rare, with tender and juicy meat, and the more colors they had, the more superior they were. Originally, seven-colored clams were already the rarest type; only dragon palace nobles had the fortune to taste them daily. Until a hundred years ago, when merpeople discovered a cavern in a small Eastern Sea town. Its geographical location was peculiar and mysterious, with seven-colored light bands penetrating the seabed all year round. They also found nine-colored clams there. Since then, nine-colored clams replaced seven-colored clams as the most luxurious dragon palace delicacy. Because they had only appeared within the past hundred years, even Yinze didn’t know much about them.
The snow snake only gave us a worn map, pointing to a small dot on it, saying it was a small island in the sea with a mermaid cook who was the most skilled at making this dish in the entire Eastern Sea. She was the person we needed to find.
At times like this, we still followed our usual practice: I grabbed Master’s sash and flew with him to the island indicated on the map. The island was only a few dozen meters across, completely deserted except for a kitchen built of red coral.
When we approached, we saw two lines of text. The first read: “To cook nine-colored clams, first bring the ingredients. Without nine-colored clams, what nine-colored dish can be made?”
The second line read: “This old lady only appears at midnight.”
We had made a wasted trip. I was feeling lost when Yinze decisively made a decision: “First, let’s find the nine-colored clams.”
“Does Master know where the nine-colored clams are?”
“No.”
I said dejectedly, “The Eastern Sea is so vast, where are we supposed to look…”
“Follow me to the seabed first. I have a method.”
“The seabed?” I stretched out both hands and slapped my face. “Master, you should have changed me back later. Now I can’t move around on the seabed…”
Not being able to go underwater was indeed quite troublesome. But I had forgotten what Master said—nothing under heaven could stump my Master, and this was an iron rule. I saw him wave his sleeve lightly. Though nothing changed about me, I no longer felt cold, and after entering the water, I could breathe on the seabed like a water demon.
On the seabed, we found a palace covering hundreds of miles. He threw some glowing shells to the giant crab guarding the entrance and swam inside with me.
It turned out to be a library. The books on the seabed were completely different from ours—the pages were strung together with huge, thin scallop shells, and the covers were inlaid with pearls, with book titles and authors’ names carved on them. He stopped in front of a cabinet marked “Cooking,” extended his right hand, and with a light hook of his jade-ringed index finger, all the books on the top shelf flew out and floated in front of him in a row.
He tilted his index finger to the right, and the pages began flipping rapidly. In the blink of an eye, he finished one book, which flew back to the cabinet by itself, followed by the second book… I was watching with my tongue hanging out when he finished the first shelf and hooked over the second shelf to form a long queue. At this moment, in the vast library, there was only the crisp sound of shell pages turning.
Not until he reached the fourth shelf did he find the recipe for cold nine-colored clam and where to source the ingredients. He put all the books back in the cabinet, then swam to the cabinet marked “Geography,” scanning from the top shelf down, pulling out one book, flipping through it rapidly to a certain page, pausing briefly, then putting the book back: “Let’s go.”
“Oh, okay, okay.” Indeed, gods were worlds apart from us…
Half an hour later, we arrived at a small underwater town. In front of the town was a winding path with a stone tablet reading “Mianman Town.” The path was lined with sea anemones of various colors—crimson, purple-red, iris purple, peony pink, wisteria purple, and so on. When we passed by, these anemones would bloom and sway their waists in the water like catkins.
But we weren’t the only ones coming here. There were mermaid couples dressed in silk clothes, coming in pairs from all directions toward the town. I stood in place watching for a while, then suddenly tugged at Yinze’s sleeve: “Master, it seems they’re celebrating a festival.”
“So it appears.” Yinze walked ahead first and asked a mermaid couple.
“Today is our Intimate Joy Festival. Mianman Town has always been the celebration site—only lovers can enter hand in hand,” the mermaid man smiled. “Other races can participate too, but your clothes probably won’t do. Look, over there are people from your upper realm.”
He pointed to a fairy couple not far away, who were also wearing mermaid clothes and swimming hand in hand toward the town. To attend a mermaid festival, there were so many requirements. We found a tailor shop, bought a set of clothes, and each went behind a curtain to change.
After changing clothes, I spun around in front of the mirror, my eyes sparkling with novelty: the person in the mirror wore wide-sleeved short skirts, silver-scaled short boots, with plain-colored fish-wing shoulders. From head to toe, everything was light blue silk gauze. The jade wings were pressed against my temples, and my black hair fell. Whether hair or gauze, everything swayed in the seawater like sea anemones. I cupped my face and shyly twisted in front of the mirror, pulling the skirt down a bit.
So mermaid clothes were this beautiful. Mermaid women must be beauties too. I wondered if Master would swim around the seabed and bring back a mermaid…
Pushing aside the hanging curtain and poking out my head, I found many visitors from other races buying clothes in the shop, but I instantly caught sight of the most eye-catching figure. The man was standing in front of the shopkeeper, wearing a matching set with mine, but more masculine: brocade narrow sleeves, blue-black trouser legs, more upright fish-wing shoulders, and both the upper garment and knee-high boots were silver-scaled. His black jade hair was scattered to his waist, with mermaid jade wings worn above both ears.
Most eye-catching were those silver long boots—how could they be so sleek and long!
However, his discussion with the shopkeeper was also about these boots. The shopkeeper said, “Young master, these are already the longest pair in our shop. Please make do with them.”
“Can’t you make new ones? If they don’t cover the knees, how can they be called long boots?”
Hearing this voice, I nearly fell to the ground—this person was a Master! I’d always seen him in long robes and knew he was tall and slender, but I hadn’t expected his figure to be this good.
Seeing his old problem acting up again, I quickly ran over to grab his arm and drag him away: “Master, we’re here to find nine-colored clams. You won’t be wearing them long anyway, so stop being picky and let’s go.”
Yinze looked down at me, I looked up at him, and we both froze for a long moment. After that, I bounced away like I’d touched a cactus, awkwardly and quietly retreating a distance before silently swimming forward. I didn’t understand what I was getting nervous about. These two outfits were a matching set—didn’t I know that before buying them?
But I wasn’t the only one who felt strange. The way Master looked at me just now was also somewhat off. Indeed, not distinguishing between superior and inferior, old and young, was a great fault. I secretly vowed in my heart that once we came up from the seabed, I would immediately change out of these clothes.
We swam one behind the other to the entrance of Mianman Town. Standing here and looking inside, there were hundreds of households with coral pillars, jade towers, pearl platforms, snow fan canopies, giant fish and turtle domes everywhere—truly a sea palace growing rice and wheat.
I was so amazed I forgot to blink, and in my excitement, I turned back and said, “Master, Master, let’s go in quickly…”
Before I finished speaking, he had already come over and reached out to hold my hand. I was stunned for a moment, then all the blood in my body began to boil, almost heating the seawater to scalding: “Ma-ma-ma-ma-Master…”
“Don’t we need to hold hands to enter? Let’s go.” He seemed quite calm, pulling my hand as we swam into the town.
Mianman Town truly was a sea wonderland. We followed the mermaid crowd, seeing countless magnificent pavilions and beautiful towers along the way. Around us, precious fish churned the waves, jellyfish danced with their tentacles, just like dancing girls proudly shaking their sashes. Seeing a small red fish swim past me, I reached out to catch it in the water, but it swam extremely fast, darting far away with a whoosh.
I involuntarily waved my claws and followed after it, but my other hand was pulled back by a powerful force. Looking back, Yinze was gazing at me indifferently. Without saying a word, his eyes clearly said, “Don’t wander off.” I immediately restrained myself and moved much closer to him, but the distance between us seemed a bit too close. I wanted to swim farther away but was afraid of being scolded, so I could only hang my head and let him firmly clasp my hand.
So this was how Master’s fingers felt. This was what holding hands with him felt like…
Before long, we found the legendary cavern. It had been converted into a nine-colored clam cultivation hall, with seven-colored light rays indeed shining down from above. Yinze easily knocked out the guards with magic and quickly went in to take a pile of nine-colored clams. I was still in shock from Master committing theft in broad daylight when he had already taken my hand again and was swimming toward the outside of Mianman Town.
Watching his long legs and agile form, his long hair flowing with the waves in the deep blue seawater, his profile with a nose bridge as straight as a snow peak, I once again sincerely sighed in my heart that Master was truly a beauty. But it was rare for Master to be confused, too. He only needed to swim upward to reach the surface—why was he still holding my hand as we swam out of Mianman Town?
However, as soon as we left Mianman Town, he let go of my hand and returned to the old arrangement where I grabbed his sash and let him lead the way. During the time swimming from Mianman Town to the small island, I never understood one thing: being dragged around by Master like this, I didn’t feel annoyed at all. Instead, I wished it could continue forever. Why was this? It seemed I did like Master very much—I was a good disciple.
However, Master wasn’t a good master. When we were about to surface, before I had even emerged from the water, he canceled the magic on me. I happened to be inhaling and choked on a big mouthful of seawater, screaming as I burst to the surface.
He showed no remorse and instead said dismissively, “You’re too slow.”
By this time, the sky had already darkened completely. Leaving the seawater, I was both cold and uncomfortable, walking toward shore while shivering and coughing. But just as I reached behind Yinze, I kicked a stone, lost my footing, and fell straight toward him. He quickly reached out to catch me, so we almost embraced completely.
“Be careful.” His voice sounded in my ear, both steady and youthfully pleasant, not at all like Master’s voice, making my heart flutter for a moment. In comparison, the sound of waves hitting the shore seemed to be a hundred thousand miles away.
I nodded vigorously. Just as I stood firm and hurriedly tried to leave him, something on my chest caught my clothes, preventing me from breaking free. Looking down, I saw that an ornament on his mermaid clothes had hooked onto my chest clothing, creating a long tear. At this moment, the bright moon hung over the sea, washing everything for a thousand miles, waves lapped the shore, soft sand ground against stones, casting both of us in silver-white light.
Because of the backlighting, I couldn’t see clearly, so I deliberately adjusted our positions to face the moonlight. Who knew that this illumination would make me wish I could die: my clothes were made of light gauze, and after being soaked in seawater, they had completely lost their shape, clinging to my body wet and thin. Compared to wearing no clothes at all, the only difference was that the clothing color was different from my skin color.
I heard my heart thump once, looked up at Yinze, and saw that he, like me, was stunned by this situation.
Seeing me looking at him, he shifted his gaze elsewhere and commanded, “Untangle it.”
My ears immediately felt like they were burning. I quickly pulled my arms in to untangle the ornament, but didn’t expect that because I was so cold, my fingers couldn’t move normally and kept trembling. I heard a “rip” sound, and the original tear was pulled even wider.
Seeing a large patch of snow-white skin exposed to the moonlight on my chest, I felt my face was about to become whiter than the moon.
“…What exactly are you doing?”
Yinze pushed my hands away and untangled the ornament himself. This brief period was unprecedentedly long. He was very careful not to touch my skin, but I could hear that his breathing was heavier than usual. At this moment, even the slightest movement of clothing made my entire body extraordinarily sensitive.
If it were any other time with any other man looking at me for a few extra seconds, I would feel deeply offended and want to beat them up severely. But at this moment, with Master so close to me, I felt no displeasure at all.
Not only that, but deep in my heart, there was a kind of expectation, hoping he might do something more. As for what exactly, I didn’t dare think about it.
Just having such thoughts already made me bear a sense of guilt and feel uncomfortable for a long time.
“Done.”
Inexplicably, his voice was somewhat hoarse, as if the words came directly from his throat. After speaking, his Adam’s apple moved slightly, though the motion wasn’t very obvious. But my heart was beating so hard it was about to explode… No, even if you gave me ten hearts, I still couldn’t handle it.
He threw my previous clothes at me: “Change into this.”
Finally, he let go and turned around, as if looking at me any longer would shorten his lifespan. I took the clothes and hid behind a reef. Changing and washing were daily routines, but as that layer of gauze slipped off my body, I knelt on the beach, using seawater to wash the sand from my body. For a moment, I felt rigid all over, my head buzzing, as if the person changing clothes wasn’t myself.
At this moment, the sea was like night, jade-green for ten thousand miles, and I didn’t dare look at Master’s back even once.
I thought this situation couldn’t get more awkward. But in the silent night, a charming woman laughed and said, “What an unromantic man! The little girl’s face is so red, even this old lady feels stirred seeing it, yet you sit there like a block of wood?”