Chapter 27
Chapter 27
“What are you doing? He’s my boyfriend! You can’t take him away!” Chu Yanran spread her arms and stood firmly in front of Chen Fei, like an eagle protecting its young.
“Visitors who obstruct official duties will be forcibly removed from the aquarium.” Without a trace of emotion, an employee in blue drew a boning knife from behind their back.
A clash was imminent.
Lin Yinxi intervened at once. “Wait. Leave this customer to me. Hurry and take the performing merman for treatment. Don’t delay the upcoming shows.”
She stood in front of the employees in blue and showed them her blue wristband.
“Miss Lin…” Chu Yanran was frantic.
Lin Yinxi secretly pinched her, signaling for silence.
“Ow…”
The two employees looked at Lin Yinxi. When they blinked, the white films over their eyes first covered their pupils, then slowly opened again.
They looked vicious, but froze at the sight of her wristband. Their expressions turned respectful, and they gurgled a few words in the language of entities.
Lin Yinxi couldn’t understand a thing.
These two things spoke human language when they looked at humans.
But with her, they took her for one of their own and started gurgling incomprehensible entity talk.
Lin Yinxi pretended to understand.
Bosses and colleagues often spouted incomprehensible bullshit at work anyway. Just smile, nod, and bluff your way through.
The two entities left Chu Yanran alone and went to lift Chen Fei.
A tear trickled from the corner of Chen Fei’s eye. Weakly, he reached toward Chu Yanran.
His legs had completely fused. Blue water spilled from his mouth as he slurred, “Baby, save me… Don’t let them take me into the water…”
Lin Yinxi held Chu Yanran back and let the two employees carry Chen Fei away.
Chen Fei struggled violently. “No! Let me go!”
“Feifei…” Chu Yanran wanted to follow.
Lin Yinxi firmly caught her.
Chu Yanran pulled hard to free her hand. “Let go. They’re taking him away…”
The pull sent Lin Yinxi stumbling sideways. “Whoa, whoa, don’t yank so hard. I’m pretty fragile.”
Once the two employees had gone a little farther, she spoke.
“All right. I know you’re frantic, but stop being frantic for a moment and listen.”
Lin Yinxi blinked and raised one finger.
“The employees said they’re taking him for treatment. They didn’t say they’re disposing of him.”
“The aquarium needs merfolk shows. They’re probably taking Chen Fei to the infirmary to make him more like a merman, rather than kill him.”
“Once those two turn the corner, follow them. Remember, you mustn’t directly clash with the employees here. If you get thrown out of the aquarium, you won’t save your boyfriend, and you’ll lose your own life too.”
Chu Yanran froze, then laughed through her tears. “I thought you wouldn’t let me save him. That you’d tell me everyone has to fend for themselves when disaster strikes…”
“I wouldn’t. Your life is your own. Of course you decide what to do with it.” Lin Yinxi had only stopped her because she had been carried away by emotion and was getting herself killed.
“If you follow them to the infirmary, I won’t come with you. You’ll have to find the rules specific to that place yourself.”
Chu Yanran was deeply moved. “I will… Thank you for saving me just now.”
“It only took a few words. Like Haitang said, we’re a team now.” Lin Yinxi hoped as many people as possible survived. That would improve their chances of finding Zone C.
Chu Yanran truly loved Chen Fei. Without hesitation, she headed for the infirmary.
Lin Yinxi stayed in Whale Shark Hall.
While exploring the exhibit area, she noticed something peculiar about the glass.
Signs with information about fish were affixed to the inside of the tanks’ glass.
Lin Yinxi found that strange. They were on the inside, on the side with the water.
Most of the writing was in the entities’ script, which she could not read.
There was a little human writing. Looking carefully, Lin Yinxi discovered that it consisted of people’s names.
Names reversed left to right, like mirror images.
Something seemed to occur to her. She hurried back to the exhibit she had visited earlier, found the fish whose tail looked tightly squeezed, and searched the glass for signs, her expression grave.
She discovered she had been wrong earlier. The sign did not say “Ba Hu.” It said her own name.
She struggled to pick out the names on the signs.
She also found Xu Haitang’s, Chu Yanran’s, and Yang Shu’s.
Chen Fei’s was absent.
Visitors watched the fish, and the fish watched the visitors.
The fish slowly swam closer.
Its cloudy eyes fixed on Lin Yinxi. Then it opened its mouth, and a string of bubbles appeared against the inside of the glass.
It seemed to be trying to attract her attention.
She heard waves.
Lin Yinxi suddenly remembered Chu Yanran saying that when Chen Fei’s legs mutated, he too kept hearing waves in his ears.
Instinctively, she reached for her ear. Her palm touched something cold, wet, and slippery.
Looking down, she saw a layer of transparent slime on her fingertips, like fluid from a fish’s body.
The fish pressed against the glass, blowing bubbles. Though it had no expression, Lin Yinxi kept feeling that it was mocking her.
She stepped half a pace back and bumped into Xu Haitang, who had come looking for her.
“Haitang, you’re just in time. I found something terrifying. Look at the fish behind this glass…”
Xu Haitang signaled with her eyes. “Shh. Let’s talk over there.”
They moved away from the glass to a nearby spot with fewer visitors.
“Haitang, why are you so pale?”
Xu Haitang answered tersely. “A side effect of the taboo artifact.”
She was severely anemic now, her vision darkening.
She pulled Lin Yinxi aside. Without a word, both found a bench and sat down first.
“The real problem is here.” Xu Haitang rolled up her sleeve. Several fish scales had appeared on her arm. “I’ve discovered that the longer we spend viewing exhibits in Zone A, the worse our contamination becomes.”
Lin Yinxi spread her fingers. “Slime came out of my ear just now too.”
Xu Haitang pressed her lips together. “We can’t stay in Zone A except to buy food! It’ll eat away at our bodies. We won’t even last seven days before becoming half-human, half-fish monsters.”
Lin Yinxi nodded. She had reached the same conclusion.
Xu Haitang continued, “Last night, when Chen Fei was rehearsing for the merfolk show, I secretly followed him. By chance, I ended up in the cleaners’ break room and found the secret of the red water.”
She raised her head, the corners of her eyes drooping, and took a torn page of an operating manual from her pocket.
“Lin Yinxi, look at this.”
The page contained three work rules for cleaners.
In her haste, Xu Haitang had only managed to tear out part of it.
Lin Yinxi read the incomplete rules.
…
[2. When wiping the glass, if an exhibit attempts to communicate with you, including but not limited to speaking human language, writing with its fingers, or making gestures begging for mercy, knock on the glass immediately to remind the exhibit of its status.
Remember, you are an employee. They are only fish.]
[3. If the water turns red, the exhibit has developed excess self-awareness.
Do not panic. This is normal wear and tear.
Immediately tag the Water Quality Manager in the Green Bubble group and request blue sedative solution to pour into the filtration trough.]
…