Chapter 2 — Mermaid Rising Waves

I felt sorry for myself and pouted: "So why aren't my tears worth anything?" My mother looked at me with a complicated expression: "Your tears... the value does not lie in the tears themselves."

“So where is it?”

“The thing is, when you cry, other people are willing to spend money to keep your mouth shut.”

“…Mom, am I your biological child?”

“Biologically, yes, emotionally, you should go ask your grandmother.”

Grandma sat next to her, biting a melon seed, not bothering to raise her head: "Don't ask grandma, you're old, your memory is very poor." This house will fall apart sooner or later. But to be honest, even though I'm a mixed-race child, even though I can't shed any coins when I cry, even though I'm a "second-class citizen" in the mermaid tribe, I really like my current life. Every morning, my father would rise to the surface of the sea on time, occasionally holding a fresh sea fish, swimming to the shore, hitting the water with his tail and shouting: "Daughter, bring it back to your mother, she likes to eat this food——" Although my mother spoke disapprovingly, every time she took the fish, her face unchanged, cleaned it, scaled it, put it in a pot, and then brought it to my grandmother: "Mom, eat it while it's still hot." Grandma would say while eating: "My son's eyes for people aren't that bad." Me: "...Grandma, just now you told me that my father couldn't do anything other than being handsome?"

“Being handsome is enough!

You look at your mother, she's also beautiful, her temperament is a bit bad but she's beautiful, I'm different."

“What are you doing?”

“I inherited my father's appearance and my mother's temperament, which is called 'beautiful but provocative'."

I decided not to bother with a three hundred and seventy-two year old woman. As for Lam Triet, every evening he waits for me at the beach near my house. I sat on the ledge, he soaked in the water, his silver-blue tail softly glowing in the moonlight. We told each other stories at school, stories under the sea, and even the story about how today my father came up to the surface and called out "my ex-wife".

“Your father called seven times today.”

Lam Triet said.

“How do you know?”

“Because he scared my fish away so many times.”

“……

Sorry.”

"It's okay, I was just talking nonsense."

“Lam Triet, are you looking for a blow?”

He dived into the water, his silver-blue tail swishing a beautiful curve on the water's surface, splashing water all over my face.

“Lam Triet!!!”

That night I chased after him, swimming breaststroke, butterfly, freestyle, dog swimming in all kinds of ways for a distance of about five hundred meters, exhausted, and finally he pulled me on his back and carried me back. When he carried me swimming, my fingers tangled in his wet hair, the salty sea breeze, the sparkling stars. I asked: "Lam Triet, your hair is so smooth, what conditioner do you use?" He replied: “Sea water.”

“Sir, what I mean is the brand.”

“Pacific.”

“Can you be a little normal?”

“I'm very normal.

A hybrid mermaid like you asking a purebred mermaid what conditioner to use is like asking a bird what brand of wind conditioner to use... oh well, this example is not very accurate.

“What's not right?”

“Because birds don't use wind, just like mermaids don't use conditioner.”

“So why is your hair so smooth?”

“Gen.”

“Are you flexing?”

“No.”

His voice was sad but with a hint of laughter, “I'm just presenting the truth Stop. Anyway, you look like your father, so surely your hair isn't that bad?"

“My hair is really beautiful, but my mother said it's so beautiful that you can't cut it out and eat it.”

“Your mother is right.”

“What about you?

Can you eat it if you're so handsome? He was silent for two seconds, then turned to look at me, his expression very serious: "You can't grind it to eat, but you can sell pearls. My tears can buy a lot of food." I was speechless by his nonchalant boasting, so I finally had to slap him on the head: "Shut up, swim." He laughed and dived into the water, suddenly accelerating, making me scared and hugged his neck tightly, his scream echoing across the distant sea. That was a few months ago. At that time I still didn't know, the sea where we grew up together, something was about to happen. It all started on a Wednesday afternoon. That day I came home from school and as soon as I opened the door I smelled a strong fishy smell. Not the usual salty fishy smell of the sea, but a rotting smell mixed with a strong, sneeze-inducing chemical smell. My mother stood in the kitchen, papers and documents spread out in front of her, her face pale.

“Mom?

What's wrong? She didn't say anything, just pointed her chin toward the balcony. I stepped out onto the balcony and looked down—— A large chunk of dead fish floated on the sea surface. The white fish belly was exposed, stretching close together to cover the sea surface near the shore, looking like a disgusting carpet. They drifted motionless, their gills slightly opened, their eyes were cloudy, and their bodies were covered with a layer of gray-white mucus. A little further, the color of the sea water looks unusual. Normally, the sea near this shore is clear and turquoise. The sunlight shines down and you can see the sandy bottom and seaweed. But now, the water surface in the distance was covered with a strange, shiny layer of oil, mottled in many colors, looking like someone had dumped a whole bucket of paint into the sea. The air is filled with a stench of tar and chemical solvents that makes you feel dizzy if you smell it for a long time.

“What's going on, mom?”

My voice was a bit shaky.

"It's still unclear, starting at dawn this morning, mom sent someone to take samples."

“Is it pollution?”

“It looks like that.”

Grandmother sat next to her with a heavy expression: "This is not ordinary pollution." Her voice was hoarse, “This is poison. Someone is dumping poison into the sea.” That night, Lam Triet did not appear at the reef on time. I waited at the beach for two hours, sending him countless messages—yes, mermaids also use phones, we had a waterproof bag bought on Taobao for nine yuan, nine bags of shipping——but there was no response. Just when I was about to jump into the sea to look for it, the sea surface suddenly raised its head. Not Lam Triet. That's a middle-aged mermaid that I call aunt, normally in charge of residential group work in this sea area. Her face was full of worry, the fish's scales were covered with black mucus, and couldn't be wiped clean.

“Tieu Ngu,” that aunt's voice was urgent, “have you seen Lam Triet anywhere?”

“No, I'm looking for him too.”

“Something big has happened, the western reef area, is where you used to go to catch sea urchins when you were little, the seaweed is all dead, the coral is bleached, schools of fish...

The school of fish almost disappeared.” My heart sank.

“Lam Triet went over there this afternoon, saying he was going to see how the situation was.