Chapter 1

I was the prettiest mermaid in our entire clan.

Also its most useless slacker.

My brothers and sisters all had fish heads and human bodies. They could raise tsunamis and command entire pods of whales.

I alone had been born with a human upper body and a fish's tail. Apart from being beautiful and having a sweet singing voice, I was good for absolutely nothing.

Afraid I'd get hurt, Father and Mother had built me a palace on the seabed and forbidden any fish to come near it.

Then a tycoon's daughter brought her people into our forbidden waters.

I was singing on a coral reef when her fiancé stared at me, transfixed, for a moment too long.

That single glance sent her into a jealous rage. Her three older brothers had spoiled her all her life.

She ordered her men to shoot me with a tranquilizer gun and drag me ashore, then planted a foot on my face.

"Trying to seduce my man? I'll slash that face of yours first, then chop you up for soup!"

Her brothers immediately had a stove and pot brought out.

I threw back my head and let out a piercing scream, calling for my clan.

She only laughed in triumph.

"Scream all you like. However many come, I'll catch them all."

"The females can go into the soup. I'll keep the males as my pets. And those tears that turn into pearls? Perfect for jewelry."

Her stupidity almost made me laugh.

Who had told her all merfolk were delicate beauties?

In tens of thousands of years, our clan had produced precisely one pretty mermaid.

Me.

Pick anyone else at random, and you'd get an ocean overlord capable of swallowing a ship whole.

…

Gu Mingzhu clearly didn't believe it.

Annoyed by my screaming, she motioned for a bodyguard to gag me.

The reeking rag had barely come close before I whipped my tail across his face.

Smack.

He flew sideways, losing both front teeth.

Silence fell.

Gu Mingzhu looked down at the blood on her skirt. Her face went pale.

"You fish bitch. You dare fight back?"

Her third brother, Gu Ye, grabbed a whaling harpoon gun and aimed it straight at my tail fin.

I tensed, ready to overturn the yacht and drag them down with me, when an ancient voice sounded in my head, carrying the cadence of the tide.

"Don't."

"If the ship sinks and they die, the sea will wash away their scent. Your clan will find the bodies, but not whoever is behind them."

I stopped.

Fair point.

My family might be fiercely protective of its own, but we didn't slaughter innocent people.

If these people died in our forbidden waters, the Gu family could invent some story about deep-sea monsters attacking humans, then send a fleet to wipe out my clan.

Killing them outright would feel wonderful.

It would also leave a much bigger problem behind.

Winning didn't mean sinking one lousy boat.

It meant delivering these people alive to my family.

I relaxed my tail and slumped onto the deck, pretending the tranquilizer had finally taken effect.

Gu Ye thought he'd frightened me. He pressed the muzzle hard against my fin.

"What happened to all that attitude? Go on. Hit me again."

Gu Mingzhu stepped on the side of my face, grinding her heel against my ear fin.

"Don't kill her yet. That face is still useful."

"If Chenzhou so much as looks at her again, I'll cut it to pieces at the engagement party."

Lu Chenzhou frowned.

"Mingzhu, she can speak. She's conscious. She isn't an ordinary fish."

"Feeling sorry for her?"

She slapped him.

"I'm your fiancée, and you're defending a fish?"

His head snapped aside. Disgust flashed in his eyes.

Gu Mingzhu missed it.

She turned to her brothers and told them to suppress the news.

The eldest, Gu Cheng, contacted the maritime authorities and had the yacht's log changed to a sightseeing trip in international waters.

The second, Gu Xiao, called in a private doctor to examine my vocal cords.

Gu Ye was more direct. He crouched in front of me with a dagger.

"Didn't you want mermaid jewelry, Mingzhu?"

"I'll cut off a few scales. We can have a jeweler set them in a tiara."

The point slipped beneath the edge of a scale.

Pain made my fingertips tremble, but I didn't stop him.

As Gu Ye drew close, the tidal mark I'd left in his bones lit up.

That scream hadn't really been a plea for help.

It was a tracking signal.

Anyone who heard it and then harmed me would carry an echo in their blood and bones, one only the sea folk could sense.

The farther they ran, the clearer it would sound.

Gu Ye cut off three scales. Gu Mingzhu still wasn't satisfied.

She had me stuffed into a cramped fish transport crate, my tail forced into a tight coil.

Before the lid closed, she patted my face.

"Don't die on me yet."

"Tonight, the whole city gets to see what happens when you seduce my man."

The yacht sped out of the forbidden waters.

I closed my eyes and let my blood drip through the bottom of the crate into the sea.

Tens of thousands of meters below, the giant octopus guarding my undersea palace curled a tentacle around a bloodstained golden scale.

A moment later, all eight of its enormous tentacles went rigid. Any one of them could have crushed an aircraft carrier.

In the black trench, a pair of bloodred eyes slowly opened.

"Our little sister's blood."

【Chapter 2】

It was dark by the time I reached the Gu family's seaside estate.

Gu Mingzhu had me thrown into the display aquarium in the middle of the banquet hall.

The water was only two meters deep. I couldn't straighten my tail, only curl up in humiliation behind the glass.

She changed into a couture gown, then stood outside the tank and inspected me with satisfaction.

"My engagement party is tomorrow."

"Behave yourself and sing for the guests. I might even leave your corpse in one piece."

A maid brought a diamond-studded collar.

The metal clasp locked tight around my neck. A little tag hung beneath it.

Pet Fish.

I almost laughed.

"Do your pets usually look like me?"

Gu Mingzhu's face darkened.

"Still talking back?"

She pressed her remote.

Electricity surged from the bottom of the tank, racing up my tail and into my bones. I slammed against the glass in agony.

On the other side, guests laughed, chatted, and took pictures.

A wonderful time was being had by all.

Gu Xiao stood beside her with his arms folded.

"Go easy, Mingzhu."

"Her vocal cords are unusual. Send her to my laboratory before you kill her. I'm working on a mind-control device. That voice could be useful."

Gu Ye objected immediately.

"You can have the vocal cords. The tail is mine."

"My yacht needs another specimen. Her tail would look perfect on the wall."

Gu Mingzhu beamed.

"No hurry. Tomorrow, we can all have a share."

A few casual sentences, and they'd divided up my body.

I looked at the ceiling.

If my third sister were here, this building would already be an unauthorized structure on the seabed.

Unfortunately, the collar suppressed my vocal cords. I couldn't scream again.

Gu Mingzhu mistook my silence for surrender.

She pointed at Lu Chenzhou, who stood a little way off.

"Sing."

"Enchant him. Then get on your knees and admit you're a shameless little monster."

I opened my mouth and sang a few very low notes.

They were so soft that even Gu Mingzhu couldn't make them out.

She tapped impatiently on the glass.

"Was that a mosquito?"

She didn't know the song wasn't meant for human ears.

The low frequencies traveled through the bottom of the tank, into the drain, along the underground sewers, and out to the open sea.

The chandeliers began to sway.

Wineglasses hummed, one after another.

An elderly professor studying me beside the tank went white and lunged for the controls.

"Turn it off!"

"She's summoning the tide!"

Gu Cheng seized him by the collar.

"Professor Zhou, you'd better think carefully before you speak."

The professor pointed at the golden markings on my tail fin. His voice shook.

"Those are the sacred markings of the Tide royal family!"

"The old texts say true mermaids aren't fighters. They're royal heirs the entire sea folk will die to protect!"

He turned to Gu Mingzhu.

"Release her immediately. Otherwise, it won't be the police coming for you."

"It will be the entire ocean!"

Gu Mingzhu stared at me for a few seconds.

Then she burst out laughing.

"The entire ocean?"

"Do you think I was born yesterday, old man?"

She slapped him.

"The Gu family doesn't pay you to make up fairy tales and scare me."

Gu Cheng summoned security and had Professor Zhou dragged out.

As they took him away, he clung desperately to the doorframe.

"Mr. Gu! There are whales gathering offshore!"

"They aren't migrating. They're looking for someone!"

Gu Cheng slammed the doors in irritation.

Gu Mingzhu pressed another switch.

Seawater rapidly drained from the tank.

My upper body emerged into the air. My skin began to burn.

She watched me struggle for breath and waved her phone, delighted.

"Ocean overlords, are they?"

"Tell them to come."

"Every last one can go on the chopping block."

Outside the estate, dozens of whales rammed the breakwater at once.

On the maritime monitoring screens, red dots marking large creatures multiplied rapidly.

The duty officer rubbed his eyes.

When he looked again, he froze.

Dense red dots covered the entire stretch of sea offshore.

【Chapter 3】

By noon the next day, news of the Gu family's engagement party was trending.

Gu Mingzhu made no attempt to hide me.

She had someone put makeup on me and stuff me into a mobile aquarium. The livestream title was blunt enough.

"The World's First Mermaid—Dissected Live Tonight."

Reporters crowded outside the estate as soon as the news broke.

When people questioned the abuse of a sentient creature, the Gu family's public relations team produced an assessment report.

According to it, I was merely a biomimetic robotic fish manufactured by Gu Group's laboratory.

Gu Cheng spoke smoothly to the cameras.

"It has no human consciousness. It only imitates speech."

"Tonight's demonstration is a routine experiment. Nothing about it violates the law."

I watched him through the glass.

"Then why did you make a test subject sign a nondisclosure agreement last night?"

His smile froze.

The livestream comments exploded.

Gu Ye simply yanked out the audio cable.

"Why waste your breath on a fish?"

In the confusion, Lu Chenzhou slipped behind the tank.