Chapter 3 — Mermaid Rising Waves

Until now, I still haven't seen him."

“I'll go find him.”

I turned around to jump into the sea.

“Wait!”

My aunt held me back, "Tieu Ngu, that water area is not good. As soon as your fish scales touched those black things, they started to tingle. Even though I'm a mixed-race child——" "So I'm not even afraid." I interrupted my aunt, "My skin has the keratin layer of a human, a buffalo is much better than a purebred mermaid, let me go." Aunt hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded: "Be careful, if you feel uncomfortable, you have to go back immediately." I took off my shoes and jacket, and was already wearing my swimsuit inside. Since being neighbors with mermaids, I've developed this habit. I took a deep breath and dove headfirst into the ocean. The sea water is much turbid than usual. Visibility is only about two or three meters, and tiny floating particles can be seen everywhere. I tried my best to dive in, my eyes were stinging with sea water. A hybrid mermaid's physique does endure pollution better than a pure mermaid's, but after all, I only have half the stamina. After swimming for about ten minutes, my skin started to feel burning. Soon, the western reef area arrived. The scene before my eyes almost made me forget to breathe. The once colorful coral reef has now turned into a dead gray and white area. The coral skeleton is bare, covered with a black sticky substance like tar. The seaweed completely dried up, like shriveled corpses floating in the water. On the sandy beach at the bottom of the sea are scattered countless fish and shrimp carcasses, some of which have begun to decompose. In the middle of that dead land, I saw a silver-blue figure. Lam Triet was kneeling on the sand at the bottom of the sea, his hands supporting a bleached coral block, his head bowed, his shoulders trembling slightly. His fish tail was covered in black pollutants, and the fish's scales, which once sparkled brightly, were now dull, as if they had been splashed with a layer of ink.

“Lam Triet!”

I swam over and grabbed his shoulder. He raised his head. His eyes were red, his face showed anger and extreme helplessness.

“Tieu Ngu,” his voice was hoarse and almost inaudible, “they ruined this place.”

“Who?”

“I don't know.”

He clenched his fist, “But I saw something.” He dug out an object from the coral cave next to him, a broken piece of plastic, with a logo printed on it: a blue circle, in the middle were white wavy lines, above the ripples was a stylized anchor.

“What is this?”

“I tore it from a floating barrel.”

Lam Triet said, “That barrel is still leaking black liquid. There's not just one, there's everywhere on the bottom of the sea." I turned the plastic piece over and over again, feeling like this logo was familiar, but I couldn't remember it at the moment.

“Let's go first.”

I pulled him, "There's a problem with the water here, you can't stay long." He nodded, but didn't move.

“Lam Triet?”

“Tieu Ngu,” his voice was very soft, “Mr. Sea Turtle is dead.”

I stopped breathing for a second. Mr. Turtle is one of the oldest inhabitants of this sea, a Hawksbill turtle, about one hundred and twenty years old this year. He often lives in a large cave in the western reef area, has a gentle and slow personality, and likes to rise to the surface of the water to bask in the sun in the afternoon, then greet every passing sea creature. When I was a child, I was once swept away by ocean currents. Mr. Sea Turtle himself carried me home.

“The pollutants went straight into his cave.”

Lam Triet's voice trembled, "He didn't have time to escape." I closed my eyes, "Let's go!"

“Where to?”

“Go back, then we'll think of a way.”

When we swam to shore, it was already dawn. My mother wasn't asleep yet, she was waiting for us on the balcony. Seeing Lam Triet covered in pollution, her face became more unsightly than I expected.

“Let's go inside first.”

My mother's voice was terrifyingly calm, "Go take a bath, then tell me everything." Lam Triet nodded. After showering, Lam Triet sat on the sofa in my living room, recounting in detail everything he saw at the bottom of the sea. My mother was expressionless throughout the process, the pen in her hand quickly scrolling across the notebook. Grandma sat to one side and sighed.

“Are you saying,” my mother spoke up after a long silence, “that there is a logo on those boxes?”

“Yes.”

Lam Triet nodded, "Blue circle, white waves and anchor." My mother opened the photo gallery on her phone, scrolled for about 30 seconds, then turned the screen towards us.

“Is this it?”

Lam Triet glanced at it, his pupils twitched: "Yes, that's it." I leaned closer to see, on the screen was a photo of the website interface of a company——Deep Blue Group.

“Tham Lam Group, one of the largest marine resource exploitation enterprises in the country.

The main business activities include deep-sea mineral exploitation, seabed oil and gas exploration, and ocean waste treatment.”

“Dealing with ocean waste?”

I frowned, "To put it bluntly, you're dumping trash into the ocean, right?"

“It's not just trash.”

My mother put down the phone, rubbed her temples, "The Tham Lam Group has a 'Deep Sea Landfill' project, specializing in compressing industrial waste, liquid chemicals, and even nuclear waste into blocks and then sinking them into cracks on the seabed. They always claim that this technology is 'safe, protects the environment, meets international standards'."

“Safe?

Ridiculous!” Lam Triet's voice suddenly rose, he was agitated, his eyes began to turn red again. I quickly pushed the box of pearls on the tea table in front of him, not because I was greedy for money, but because if these pearls fell on the floor, tomorrow morning my mother would curse loudly when cleaning the house.

“I know.”

My mother raised her hand to signal him to calm down, "But the problem is... the evidence."

“Proof?”

“Tham Lam Group is a large enterprise ranked in the top 50 nationwide, paying huge taxes, supporting tens of thousands of employees in three coastal cities.

Their environmental report is rated 'Excellent' every year, receiving a ton of environmental protection awards. You guys say they dump waste into the sea, you must have proof. A few photos, a few pieces of the barrel, legally is not enough.”

“What about dead fish in the sea?”

I raised my hand to speak.

“They will say it is a natural phenomenon.

Algae blooms, changes in water temperature, unusual ocean currents——just looking for a reason will cover the matter right away.” The living room fell silent. Suddenly, Grandma stood up, her eyes turned dark yellow that only appeared when mermaids were angry, her pupils narrowed into a vertical line, looking like an ancient sea dragon.

“Then let's go find evidence.”