Winsor discovered that humans were truly magical creatures.
There were all kinds of professions in the human world. Humans with good acting skills could become actors, performing all sorts of fictional stories in television dramas and films.
Perhaps this could be considered a human talent.
And now, he was being forced to "appreciate" Lansi's performance—
"Go away. I'm not Lansi, I'm Lanco!"
Lansi had already said this to Winsor for the second time.
According to him, the second personality currently controlling the body was called "Lanco," and he was a cool, aloof guy.
This little cool guy walked alone, knew neither Winsor nor Quirrell…
So, Quirrell, could you stop beating the drums already?
Although Lansi said all that, anyone with even a little common sense could tell that "Lanco" was just a fabricated identity. Lansi was still Lansi. There was no "Lanco" at all.
After all, there was no such thing as a second personality whose temperament was nearly identical to the original. Rather than calling "Lanco" a second personality, it would be more accurate to say he was simply an unhappy version of Lansi.
Lansi was using this excuse to force Winsor into admitting the identity he still refused to reveal.
In truth, this matter could be either big or small. At first, Lansi had only wanted to know the relationship between Winsor and Wen Yu. But after witnessing what happened with Michael, Lansi realized that he wanted to truly understand Winsor completely.
It was the same for lovers. Once the passionate stage of a relationship settled down a little, people naturally wanted to know each other more deeply.
At its core, it was simply about wanting a sense of security.
Honestly, Lansi no longer knew what kind of attitude he should have toward Winsor.
Back then, he had only thought Winsor was a mermaid. But now, not only did he know Winsor was a mermaid, he also knew Winsor could create different identities, and perhaps… wasn't even a creature of this world.
Lansi didn't want to learn about Winsor through other people's mouths. He hoped that one day, Winsor would willingly tell him the truth himself.
Even if it was only a little.
Meanwhile, Winsor's thoughts were far more complicated than Lansi's. He still could not understand why Lansi insisted on learning the truth.
What was there to know?
The mindset of a superior being unconsciously lingered within him.
To Winsor, he was a lifeform far beyond the creatures of this world. If he revealed his existence in its true form, the creatures of Earth would go mad the moment they saw him.
In other words, Winsor arrogantly believed that there was no need to tell Lansi the truth, while at the same time thinking it was better if Lansi never knew.
Because many years ago, humans on Earth had once called for him.
At the time, Winsor had still been young. Curious after hearing humans beg for his descent, he had personally appeared in his true form on a whim.
The result was exactly as expected—
Every human who saw him went insane, and the nation that summoned him was erased from history.
After that experience, Winsor understood that humans could not withstand his true body, not even for a single glance.
That was why, after trying to approach the little mermaid, Winsor changed his form and even crafted the appearance of a mermaid to stay beside Lansi.
Winsor believed that if possible, it would be best if Lansi never saw his real self.
However, what Winsor did not know was that Lansi had already glimpsed the tip of the iceberg.
Back in the restaurant in District 19, Lansi had seen a fragment of the "true form" shown to him by "Will."
Ironically, Will had claimed to be Winsor's "clone," and when Winsor appeared, Will had immediately fled, proving that he could sense Winsor's existence.
Yet even now, Winsor had never known about Will's existence, nor did he realize that it was precisely because of Will that Lansi had become determined to uncover Winsor's hidden identity.
Faced with Lansi's inexplicable persistence, Winsor felt helpless. He could only watch as Lansi dragged a small suitcase out of the cabin and swam past him. Winsor stood there blankly, not even moving to stop him.
And in Lansi's eyes, Winsor's lack of reaction was an unforgivable offense.
Why had Wen Yu known to stop him the last time, yet now that he had become Winsor, he was so indifferent?
Sure enough, Wen Yu was more human than Winsor.
Lansi felt so wronged that he refused to even glance at Winsor. He dragged the little suitcase and swam toward the upper waters of the sea.
Ever since building his nest, every part of Lansi's body had grown stronger. He could now drag heavy objects through the ocean with ease.
From another perspective, Lansi was no longer as fragile as before. Even without Winsor, he could survive on his own in the sea.
Although Quirrell and the hermit crab were foolish, they were not foolish enough to ignore the atmosphere.
Ever since realizing that something was wrong between the two mermaids, Lansi and Winsor, both sea monsters had become unusually cautious.
Even Quirrell had stopped drumming so often.
And now, watching Lansi drag the small suitcase away, the two sea monsters could only cling to each other.
The two of them watched Lansi's retreating figure for a while, then turned to look at Winsor, who was still standing there motionlessly. Deep down, they both felt that they were especially like two foolish children left behind after their parents had a fight.
[What the hell is this?]
The hermit crab expressed its dissatisfaction. Although it had enjoyed seeing Winsor completely helpless against Lansi, things seemed a little serious today.
It definitely did not want to be boiled alive one day by an enraged Winsor.
[This won't do. We have to bring Teacher back.]
Quirrell raised all eighteen tentacles and swore solemnly.
[I absolutely have to bring Teacher back!]
Lansi had only just returned, yet now he had stormed off in anger. If not for the fact that Winsor was too dangerous, Quirrell would have tied him up into a rice dumpling and dragged him over to apologize already.
And so, for their own survival as well as for Lansi's happiness, the two sea monsters reached a consensus—
They had to gather their courage, give Winsor some proper emotional counseling, and make him admit his mistakes!
After encouraging each other for a while, Quirrell cautiously swam toward Winsor first and awkwardly tried to start a conversation:
[It seems Teacher is a little angry, haha…]
Winsor glanced at him coldly.
[Why are you laughing?]
Quirrell's laughter stopped instantly. He almost choked to death on the spot.
All eighteen tentacles stiffened and twisted together into a knot. Before he could even say a few more words, Quirrell had to focus entirely on untangling himself.
[Uh%…&…*@##%]
The hermit crab had always had a fiery temper. The moment it saw Quirrell twisted into a tangled ball beside Winsor, it immediately exploded in anger.
Since Winsor still had not revealed his true form, the hermit crab dragged its little sunken ship over with a loud clanging noise and stopped directly in front of him, towering over him aggressively.
Winsor merely glanced at the hermit crab indifferently and said nothing.
[Are you even a damn man?!]
the hermit crab roared.
[Sneaking around, hiding things, refusing to speak honestly—if you're a real man, then settle things properly! What can't you say clearly? Why do you even have a mouth?! Huh?! You call yourself dignified, yet you won't even go after Lansi yourself. If you don't go find him, then you're a coward!]
Winsor: "..."
It was the first time in his life that a tyrant-level sea monster had pointed at his face and cursed him like this. The feeling was both shocking and strangely novel.
Even Winsor found himself unwilling to kill this ridiculous hermit crab.
[Ahhhh! What are you doing?!]
Quirrell was terrified. Hearing the hermit crab directly call Winsor a coward made Quirrell shrink to nearly half his size. He desperately tried to untangle all eighteen tentacles at once.
Sneaking a glance at Winsor and seeing that he did not appear angry yet, Quirrell hurriedly swam forward to smooth things over.
[Cow—]
Winsor shot him a cold look.
[Bah, bah, I misspoke!]
Quirrell cried internally, feeling for the first time in his life that his intelligence had truly reached its limit.
[The hermit crab means well. It just wants you to talk to Lansi properly and confess everything directly.]
[I already confessed, but Lansi is still angry.]
Winsor replied flatly.
[No, no, you should know what Lansi actually wants to hear. Try putting yourself in his place.]
Quirrell spoke while feeling increasingly bitter inside. It had never even been in love before, yet somehow it now had to worry about the relationship problems of two mermaids. This was completely unfair!
After hearing Quirrell's "advice," Winsor finally fell into deep thought.
Seeing that Winsor seemed occupied and unlikely to "deal with" the hermit crab for the moment, Quirrell immediately breathed a sigh of relief. It hurriedly stretched out its tentacles, grabbed the hermit crab, and dragged it away at top speed.
…
Meanwhile, what about Lansi?
In truth, Lansi had never planned to run away from home completely.
He was afraid that if he went too far, Winsor would not be able to find him.
So after wandering around for a while, Lansi eventually returned to the deserted island in the waters of Sunset Bay.
Dragging his little suitcase behind him, Lansi climbed onto the lonely island.
[Wow—small—island—]
The little turtle had been following Lansi the whole time. It poked its head out from the pouch attached to Lansi's belt, staring at the tiny island in amazement.
[Yeah.]
Lansi answered simply.
His mood now was nowhere near as excited as it had been when he first discovered the island.
Dragging his long fishtail behind him, Lansi sat down on the beach.
Once on the small island, he untied his belt and released the little turtle.
Then he began sorting through the things he had brought with him. He walked over to the place where he had previously buried some supplies in the sand, dug them out, and started organizing everything.
The little turtle slowly crawled across the sand while watching Lansi work.
[You—plan—to—live—here—?]
[That's right!]
Lansi had brought sleeping bags, clothes, and other daily necessities. It was obvious that he intended to stay on the island for a while.
[Why—?]
[Because Winsor is in the sea.]
Lansi pursed his lips as he answered.
He felt that this was the only way to create some distance between himself and Winsor.
One in the ocean, one on the island.
Originally, Lansi had planned to set up a small tent first, but he quickly discovered that having a mermaid body made everything inconvenient.
He had no choice but to turn his fishtail into legs.
As a result, Lansi stared blankly at his pale, slender thighs for a moment.
His ten round toes shifted awkwardly in the sand.
After watching too many cartoons, he had subconsciously assumed that once he transformed, clothes would magically appear on him as well.
A little embarrassing.
Blushing furiously, Lansi hurriedly dug out a T-shirt and shorts from his suitcase and put them on.
The little turtle, however, could not understand this behavior at all.
After all, there was nobody else on the island. Even if Lansi ran around naked in front of it, the turtle would not think anything of it.
Not even as interesting as female turtles.
Besides, when everyone was in the sea, weren't they all naked anyway?
After becoming human again, Lansi quickly busied himself setting up the tent.
The little turtle slowly asked:
[Need—more—things—? I—can—ask—seagulls—to—bring—some.]
[Really? That'd be great!]
Lansi agreed immediately.
There were plenty of things in the sunken ship, but most of them were useless.
The little turtle nodded seriously and began performing some mysterious dance on the spot.
Half an hour later, the chubby seagull boss descended from the sky with a whole flock of underlings behind him.
[Buy—]
Lansi froze.
Why was it so fast?
The little seagull boss nodded at him with reserved dignity before signaling its underlings to open the bundles they had brought.
Lansi looked inside and immediately sucked in a breath.
Good lord.
There was a basket of bread, a bag of apples, and even a pile of seasonings.
Had this seagull evolved into a businessman?
Lansi subconsciously reached toward one of the apples, but the little seagull mercilessly pecked his hand.
"Hiss—"
Clutching his hand, Lansi finally realized the bird was expecting payment first.
What a profiteer.
Still, he had no choice. Pouting unhappily, Lansi began searching through his belongings for something shiny.
If he remembered correctly, the little seagull loved sparkling objects.
After rummaging around for a while, Lansi laid several things out in front of the seagull one by one:
Tea cups, a teapot, camera lenses, and finally a jewelry box stuffed with jewels to make up the numbers.
Lansi thought smugly that the little seagull probably had no idea how valuable these jewels were.
Unfortunately, the bird was smarter than he expected.
The little seagull strutted around the items like an experienced merchant inspecting goods. In the end, it proudly grabbed a string of jewelry and arrogantly carried it off while ordering its underlings to unload the supplies.
Lansi: "..."
He suddenly felt like he had suffered a huge loss.
After the transaction was completed, Lansi asked curiously:
[Can you say anything besides "buy"?]
The little seagull shot him a contemptuous look, cleared its throat, and replied:
[Consultation fee.]
Lansi: "..."
Reluctantly, he handed over another small batch of jewels.
Only after receiving them did the little seagull kindly ask:
[What do you want to know?]
[What happened to the humans after I left?]
Lansi asked anxiously.
The little seagull tilted its head.
[They're fine. After you left, the humans repaired the power grid, and now they're rebuilding the high wall.]
Lansi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
[Though a lot of people died,]
the little seagull added.
[Humans keep coming to the edge of the high wall to cry. Once there were a lot of them holding photographs. It seemed like some important person had died.]
Lansi's heart suddenly tightened.
[Among those people… was there a red-haired man and a woman?]
[I think so.]
The little seagull nodded.
[The red-haired man cried so hard he fainted.]
As seagulls, they loved following humans around and gathering gossip wherever people gathered, so they knew a surprising amount about human affairs.
Lansi fell silent.
He guessed that the red-haired man was probably Carl.
To Carl and Rose, their boss Wen Yu was likely dead.
For some reason, imagining Carl and Rose mourning Wen Yu left Lansi with an indescribably complicated feeling.