met free Chapter 67 It's Different
Chapter 67 It's Different
Under the moonlight.
The woman's fish tail swayed slightly, its scales reflecting a shimmering silver light.
Her upper body was no different from that of an ordinary woman, with fair skin, a long neck, and long black hair that cascaded down her smooth back into the water.
But when those arms clung to the fisherman's neck, a thin layer of webbed skin flashed between their fingers in the moonlight.
The fisherman was completely unaware.
I should say I don't care at all.
……
The razor clams were so engrossed in watching that their mouths were slightly open, just enough to fit a razor clam.
When it came to its senses, it wiped the drool off its mouth, glanced at Song Quyou who was sitting cross-legged to the side, and then lay down, watching the man and woman below with great interest.
A night breeze swept by, and the sound of water gradually subsided.
The woman pushed herself up from the pool, her long, wet hair plastered to her back, the tip of her hair swaying gently, creating a ripple.
She whispered something in the fisherman's ear, her voice soft and gentle, like the tide washing over fine sand.
The fisherman chuckled twice, then reluctantly left the water and went back to his house.
When the mermaid saw that the doors and windows were closed, his upper body suddenly changed.
Her long, wet hair transformed into fish fins, her fair skin became dark, bluish scales, and her beautiful features instantly turned into a sinister, fanged, and terrifying appearance.
The fish's tail, which was its lower body, split into legs and feet, and it nimbly climbed ashore. Looking at the closed doors and windows of the house, it drooled, greedily licked its lips, covered itself with straw again, and then burrowed back into the fishpond.
……
Song Quyou, who was standing to the side, saw everything clearly, but did not act rashly.
Finally, it all turned into a soft sigh.
He stood up from the low slope, brushed the grass clippings off his Taoist robe, tugged at the ear of the dazed mountain scraggly dog beside him, and whispered, "Let's go check on other places."
Upon seeing the ugly mermaid-like mountain spirit, he shuddered and followed behind him, becoming much more obedient. They clung to the mountain wall and made their way to the top of the second house's courtyard.
The same was true of this place: a female mermaid, a male fisherman, and a stone-built pool below with clear water that shimmered throughout the courtyard. Finally, the man returned to the house, and the mermaid changed her appearance.
Should we look at a few more companies?
The third, the fourth... are generally the same.
……
Until the last house, which had a larger courtyard than the previous ones, there was no water in the courtyard; instead, it was completely dark.
Song Quyou listened intently from the low slope.
The faint sound of a woman's voice could be heard from inside the courtyard. It was no longer the soft, tender tone from before, but a low, mournful wail, as if she were arguing and pleading for something.
"The fishy smell here is stronger than the others," Shan Gao sniffed.
Song Quyou's heart skipped a beat, and he said to Shan Gao beside him, "Wait here for me, don't wander off."
As soon as he finished speaking, Song Quyou leaped down, his whole body as light as a falling leaf, and landed silently on the courtyard wall, squatting in the shadows on the top of the wall and looking into the courtyard.
The straw in the courtyard had been lifted, revealing the stone pool underneath.
There was no water in the pool, but a layer of viscous black liquid had accumulated at the bottom. It gleamed with an oily sheen when the moonlight shone on it. The stones on the edge were covered with rotten straw, emitting a pungent, fishy stench, somewhat like a fermenting cesspool.
Two "women" were kneeling by the pool.
With her back to Song Quyou, she was slender, with long, wet hair hanging down to her waist, the ends of which were still dripping water onto the dry stone slab by the pool, leaving a small dark stain.
Their shoulders were trembling slightly, as if they were crying, or as if they were suppressing some deep fear.
Song Quyou's gaze fell on her lower body.
That was the fish's tail; the tail fin was mostly torn apart, as if it had been ripped open by some blunt object.
Broken scales lay scattered along the edge of the pool, mingling with the black water, occasionally gleaming with a cold light.
The two merfolk had their hands tied behind their backs with a thick hemp rope. The knot was rough but extremely tight, digging into their flesh.
Just then, footsteps could be heard coming from inside the house.
A man's voice rang out from inside the door, rough and irritated: "You pretend to be weak when there are people around, but when you're eating people, where's your gentleness?"
The mermaid shuddered and immediately stopped making a sound, leaving only her fishtail twitching unconsciously, slapping against the dry pond edge again and again.
Song Quyou recognized the voice.
It was the fisherman who chased and cursed him with a harpoon during the day.
He came out of the house holding a glowing bead. The light from the bead shone across the courtyard, illuminating his weathered face with a bluish glow.
He held a harpoon in his hand, its sharp edge covered in a sticky black liquid and some fine scales.
"It seems those two old men have spoiled you too much, making you forget that not everyone will be tempted by your beauty."
As the fisherman spoke, he raised his harpoon high and thrust it forcefully into the tail of the smaller mermaid, then flicked it towards the edge of the pond.
Black blood splattered, flowing in streams to the bottom of the pool.
The merwoman wailed in anguish, lying on the ground, trembling, with glistening beads rolling further and further away from her face, as lustrous as pearls, yet even more translucent and crystalline.
The slightly older merman pondered for a moment upon seeing this.
She immediately hugged the smaller merman next to her, while looking at the "villain" who was committing violence, shaking her head and begging for mercy in a hoarse and weak voice.
"If I hadn't driven you away a few days ago, wouldn't those two old men have ended up in your bellies?"
Since you merfolk want to eat people, then you should be prepared to be killed.
Furthermore, if I had any conscience, I should shed more tears so I could earn more money to buy food for the children in the orphanage. That would be doing you beasts a favor.
The fisherman kept talking.
I recall a while ago, there was a young man who pursued a mermaid. Ignoring all advice, he abandoned the riches the mermaid had left him to survive, blindly believing in their supposed love, and threw himself into the sea. In the end, all he found were the man's tattered clothes.
resignedly.
They could only stuff some silver coins and pearls into the grave and bury it deep by the sea, which was considered a proper burial for him.
The fisherman shook his head regretfully, but the words that were on the tip of his tongue changed to: "Fool, lamb to the slaughter."
……
Song Quyou stood in the shadows on the wall, holding his sword, and just watched coldly.
courtyard.
The fisherman kicked the smaller mermaid on the ground, and seeing that she didn't move, he snorted coldly:
"Playing dead? When it comes to eating people, you're full of energy, more vigorous than anyone else."
He crouched down, his rough hands gripping the little mermaid's chin, turning her face toward the pearl.
The face resembled that of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl, with a deathly pale complexion, chapped lips, and deeply sunken eye sockets.
Gradually, it exhaled more than it inhaled, and could no longer maintain its girlish appearance, transforming into a terrifying face with blue faces and fangs.
"This cannibalistic look is more pleasing to the eye."
The slightly larger merman raised its head, its previous weak and frightened appearance instantly transforming into one of righteous indignation, and called out to the fisherman in a hoarse voice:
"Just kill me."
Her voice was like gravel rubbing against a stone slab, dry and desperate:
"My sister hasn't touched water for three days. If you don't let her go back to the sea, she will die."
"Kill me, take my scales, take my flesh, and let her go."
The fisherman, annoyed by what he heard, grabbed the slightly larger mermaid by the neck and said viciously:
"Stop pretending. When we first caught you two, you pushed the little one into the pit."
Furthermore, I released her, so who among you will return my brother?
You beasts, after coming ashore you use your beauty to show off, pretend to be innocent, talk about human relationships, and don't tell a single truth.
After they've had their fill of playing, they'll eat the person.
After eating a person, he pretended nothing was wrong, shook his behind, and went into the sea. There's no such thing as a free lunch.
The fisherman became more and more agitated and angry as he spoke, and two drops of water rolled down his face.
The veins on his hands were bulging, and his bones were cracking.
"I will never forget that my brother was deceived by you merfolk."
"You tore it apart piece by piece, swallowed it bite by bite, until only bones remained, not a trace of flesh left."
As the fisherman spoke, his veins bulging, he suddenly flung the mermaid aside and calmly said:
"Letting you go is not impossible, as long as you return my brother, I will cut off a piece of my flesh to atone for my sins, and I will never commit the same offense again."
The mermaid realized that feigning weakness and trying to evoke emotions was useless.
The pitiful-looking mermaid instantly transformed, revealing a blue face and fangs. She leaped forward, her chilling fangs snapping at the fisherman.
The fisherman couldn't dodge in time, and a piece of flesh was torn off his arm.
While the mermaid was swallowing flesh and blood, the fisherman kicked her away, picked up his harpoon, and pushed her into the pool.
……
The next day.
Song Quyou arrived at the courtyard of the two old men.
Seeing that the gate was ajar, he knocked on the door and then pushed it open to enter the courtyard.
The house, with half of its roof collapsed, still leaned there, the rotting black straw drooping, emitting a faint, fishy stench.
The two old men were sitting by the wall. When they saw Song Quyou arrive, they hurriedly got up, their faces showing anxious smiles.
Song Quyou didn't rush to look at the basin of rotten grass and black water that had been caught. Instead, he sat in the courtyard with the two old men, leaning against the wall, and chatted idly.
"Old man, were you able to see the appearance of that demon clearly?"
The two old men were taken aback, exchanged a glance, and the older one quickly nodded:
"I could see it clearly: it had a blue face and fangs, was covered in scales, and was holding an iron fork."
"But old man, the black liquid from this rotting grass looks somewhat like the blood of a mermaid in the legends, and has little to do with the Yaksha."
The two old men's expressions changed drastically.
The older one's lips trembled a few times, his face stiffened slightly, while the younger one turned his face away, his shoulders shaking slightly.
The courtyard was quiet for a while.
Song Quyou didn't urge him, but leaned against the wall, watching the bare tree branches sway in the distance.
"Song..."
The elderly man finally spoke, but his throat seemed to be blocked by something, and his voice was low and hoarse:
"You...you knew all along?"
Song Quyou neither nodded nor shook his head, but looked gently at the two elderly people and said:
"Sir, I just want to know, what is the background of those two ladies?"
"...They are mermaids."
The older man covered his face, his voice leaking out from between his fingers, muffled.
"We always knew it was under the straw in the corner of the yard that we had placed there."
At this moment, the young old man spoke up, urgently saying:
"Master Song, we've been bachelors our whole lives, so poor we can't even afford to fix the leaky roof."
Suddenly, this woman appeared, not minding our age or poverty, comforting us with daily warmth and care. Even if she were a demon, we would accept her.
Song Quyou was silent for a moment, then said softly:
"But they are still cannibals."
……
The two old men's faces turned white at the same time, like the salt flats left after the seawater dried up.
"Taoist Master, you knew all this?"
Song Quyou, his face grave, looked at the two elderly men and said softly:
"I not only know these things, but I also know that the Yaksha you're talking about is the family with the bigger yard in the village."
The older man gripped the hem of his shirt tightly, his knuckles white, and his lips trembled for a long time before he finally managed to squeeze out a single sentence:
"Has the Taoist priest met that person?"
"I've seen it."
The younger old man's shoulders slumped, as if his bones had been removed.
The older man buried his face in his rough hands and said in a muffled voice:
"That man is Zhao Da from the village. He used to be a fisherman. His younger brother, Zhao Er, died a few years ago."
"Eaten by merfolk?"
The elderly man closed his eyes in pain:
"Zhao Er was only in his early twenties when he rescued a woman who had fainted on the mudflats. She was extremely beautiful. He took her home and cared for her carefully. The woman was also gentle and said she was willing to marry him."
Zhao Er was overjoyed and went mad with happiness, preparing for the wedding. Zhao Da spent all his savings of over ten years to help his younger brother get married.
"And then?"
"Later, the woman became pregnant, and Zhao Er was overjoyed, preparing delicious meals for her every day. But in these days full of hope..."
One morning, as usual, Zhao Da woke Zhao Er up to go fishing.
Inside Zhao Er's house, only a stark, scattered skeleton remained, not a single piece of flesh left. The woman, along with the seawater in the pool inside the room, had vanished without a trace.
"Where did the wives of these two old gentlemen come from?"
I met him while fishing.
"Does the old man know he's going to be eaten?"
The younger old man said, "Taoist Master, she's different. I've been with her for so long, and she's so gentle. She's never thought of harming me."
The older man did not answer immediately.
He lowered his head, his rough hands clasped together, his thumbs rubbing back and forth unconsciously until the sun-exposed skin on the back of his hands turned red.
After a long silence, he finally spoke, his voice much calmer than before:
"We know, we're old and just want a few days of warmth and affection, so we're willing to be eaten by the two of them."
Song Quyou rose from the base of the wall and sighed:
"Do you two old men know that you survived from the mermaids not because they were kind, but because of a man named Zhao Da who saved you?"
The younger-looking old man suddenly stood up, his lips trembling: "Why didn't Zhao Da... why didn't he tell us?"
"What good would it do to tell you? You would just say you'd be willing to be eaten."
These words struck the old man like a hammer blow, causing him to fall back down.
Song Quyou got up, walked to the corner of the courtyard to the pond covered with straw, and reached out to lift a corner of it.
The pool water was clear, shimmering softly in the morning light, without a trace of fishy smell, and even a few fresh flower petals floated on the surface.
"Old man, the bloodthirsty merfolk of the East Sea are extremely lewd and have a thirst for blood."
Don't be fooled again and get lost in the allure of beauty and tenderness.
As soon as he finished speaking, two paper cranes landed in the hands of the two old men.
But Song Quyou walked away on the distant road:
"Gentlemen, I will not help you retrieve those two man-eating merfolk, but if you encounter any evil spirits that threaten your lives in the future, these two paper cranes can protect you once."
……
Song Quyou left the house and headed towards Zhao Dajia in the village.
The gate to Zhao Dajia's courtyard was ajar, and the strong fishy smell was suffocating.
Song Quyou knocked on the door and went in. Zhao Da was squatting in the yard sharpening a harpoon.
The whetstone was covered in murky water mixed with dark brown debris, making it impossible to tell whether it was rust or dried blood.
Hearing footsteps, Zhao Da raised his head, a hint of alertness flashing across his weathered face, and then he recognized Song Quyou.
"Is it you?"