Mermaid Wharf

Tangba Yiyan stood up, pulled himself together and got off the deck, and continued his inspection with two big dark circles under his eyes.

"Go back and rest, Mano, your vacation isn't over yet." Captain Garcia wiped his binoculars, picked them up and looked into the distance, and didn't look me in the face while speaking, "I hope you'll be back after tomorrow." I can forget everything about Fisher's Wharf and return to my position."

Hearing that Mr. Captain had no intention of chatting with me, I responded knowingly, obediently crossed out my name on the attendance sheet, and then got off the deck under the meaningful eyes of everyone.

Not long after the Royal Ghost sailed out of the bay area, except for a layer of hazy sea fog on the tall ship, there was only the sound of rippling shallow sea water.I sat by the porthole and stuffed two mouthfuls of bread indiscriminately. I was so tired that I almost couldn’t open my eyes, but my head was so clear that I didn’t feel sleepy. and loneliness.

I looked around me, and saw that the messy furnishings had been tidied up, but there were obviously traces of a certain mermaid's existence.Perhaps because he was very interested in human art, Veliga drew a portrait crookedly on the blank page of my sketchbook with a charcoal pencil. Although the appearance was a bit horrible, I could tell at a glance that it was me.

I was bored and picked up the guitar and wanted to play a song. I felt something wrong with the touch of my fingertips. When I looked down, I found a string hanging loosely on the head of the guitar. It seemed that someone wanted to play it twice while I was away. , but accidentally broke the string with too much force, so he hung it up in a hurry, trying to pretend that nothing happened.

And I can't go back to settle accounts with the mermaid at this time.Dumbfoundingly putting the guitar back in place, I stood up and changed into a pair of shorts, grabbed the towel and went to the bathroom to take a shower.When I opened the cabin door, Tangba was walking down the gangway with a lamp, and cast the not-so-glare light at my feet.

I could see that he was seriously searching for something. Just as I was about to speak, he raised his hand to signal me to keep quiet; The edge of the wainscot flew by so quickly that it was hard to tell where it came from.

"...First officer, did rats really get on board?" Seeing his frowning, I asked in a low voice.

"It's hard to say. It may have crawled in along the pipe smelling the smell of sausages. We must catch it quickly. These giant rats with no natural enemies on the island have amazing attack power. Even one of them can kill our cargo. The sweep was riddled with holes." Tang Ba said as he dimmed the lights, "But it fell into my trap just now, and it was seriously injured at the moment, so it seems that it won't be able to run far."

I asked him if he needed help, he shook his head, patted my shoulder again, and continued to catch mice with vain steps.

After returning from the shower, the warm sunlight on the sea has lazily shone into the porthole, steaming a little heat in the short cabin.I lay on my side on the bed and dozed lightly, opened my eyes again after a while and yawned, looked at those dark green eyes that were still water-colored, turned over and continued to sleep.

When I fell into a drowsy sleep, I was still thinking, maybe I really miss Velijia a little bit, otherwise how could there be the illusion that he is still here.

—Wait, illusion?

I opened my eyes suddenly, sat up and looked towards the fresh water tank by the hatch.I don’t know when it was filled with water, and it stood quietly in front of me. Occasionally, two bubbles appeared on the surface of the calm water, as if trying to hide something.

There was a bit of rust-like smell in the air. I put my hands on the side of the water tank, and I was silent for 3 minutes before I bent down and fished this unexpected guest out of the water.

"Hey, hey, take it easy——!"

Velija was thrown on the edge of the bed dripping wet, and the silver fish tail fluttered wildly around my waist, and soon I restrained my hands and pressed them against the wall, taking a deep breath in pain.I couldn't tell what my mood was the moment I saw him, my gaze swept over his upper body heavily, and landed on his thin silver scales that were mottled with blood oozing.

The mouse traps used to deal with giant rats on the boat were all extremely powerful, and even human beings would hurt their muscles and bones if they touched them. Judging by his distressed appearance, he should have broken free from those iron grappling hooks abruptly.I picked up a piece of silver scale that fell by my feet, looked at it, and asked him expressionlessly, "Does it hurt?"

"It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt, you're so annoying." Velija pulled back the wrist I was holding, trying to hide her injured fish tail in a panic, but she didn't know which nerve in the transparent bone was involved, pale There was a little sweat on his face.

The air in the cabin became quiet, he avoided my sight with a guilty conscience, and the smell of blood around him became more and more intense.I ignored him, got up and took the medical bag on the shelf, lowered my head to pick away the bloody silver scales, and gently sterilized and applied the medicine for him.

Although the mermaid's wound healed quickly, the pain still didn't feel good; Velija hummed softly following my movements and didn't speak any more.The injury this time is obviously much more serious than the small metal thorn last time. Fortunately, Tang Ba didn't paint the mousetrap with meth, otherwise the person in front of me at this moment may already be a mermaid. dead body.

Seeing that the atmosphere had eased a little, Velijia muttered in a low voice: "Your first officer is really sick, why do you keep chasing me..."

I frowned and said, "Because he thought you were a mouse."

……

Veliga looked at me, as if she wanted to come over to act like a baby, but seeing that my face was dark and I had no intention of making physical contact with him at all, so she just kept silent and let me continue to clean up those scary traumas.

I carefully helped him pinch out the iron filings stuck in the gap, and after making sure that there was no foreign matter left in it to hinder the wound healing, I poured the potion on it and put away the tools. "Okay, my little prince." I sat in front of him and looked at him calmly, my temples ached a little, "Now, should you explain why you are here? You agreed to wait until next year? How many hours ago was the last time we saw each other?"

I paused, and said again: "Or, you don't believe me?"

Wei Lijia obviously didn't expect that I would ask the teacher so soon, and the movement that he planned to throw into my arms froze for a moment. After hesitating for a long time, he explained in a low voice:

"Actually, I didn't intend to follow at first...Really, I swear. I believe in you. Last night I was on the shore watching you make preparations on the deck before sailing. When I was going back to the tribe, I suddenly saw your first officer. I took a few people to row out, I thought it was a bit strange, so I followed up to have a look."

Velijia took a breath, and continued:

"They paddled out to a deep lagoon and threw the box overboard; I heard your mate say it was from Captain García that Mano had wanted the box and had to throw it away Far away, it must not be found by mermaids. After they left, I dived to the bottom of the lake and fished it out. I wanted to send you back here quietly and leave. Who knows how long I haven’t come up, you all put down the anchor and set sail That’s right, the first mate also started chasing me with the whole boat.”

I looked at the corner next to the freshwater tank following Velijia's line of sight, and found that there was indeed a wet box there. I stayed there for a long time before looking at him again, and said in disbelief, "You...why did you put it Send it to me?"

"Because they said that Mano wanted it all the time." Velijia raised his head as a matter of course, and saw that my expression was unpredictable in an instant, so he flinched a little nervously, "I, did I do something wrong... "

I was silent for a while, then hugged him and kissed him hard.

"You did nothing wrong, you are really my big baby."

……

I didn't have time to think about why Captain Garcia prevented me from getting this box, and what about Veliga who had already boarded with us. I quickly opened it and found that it was full of Angelo's old things. , reached out and groped for a while at the bottom of the box, and then found two thick diaries.

Flipping through the pages quickly, I see that this is beyond doubt what happened to Angelo after he boarded the Polar Delight.The whole truth of ten years ago is being held in my hands at this time, but I suddenly feel a little uneasy, and hesitate to open it formally.

[In order to facilitate my actions, I did not board the ship in the name of the sponsor of the Polar Joy, but chose to become its crew member.Although the crew as service providers are not noble, they always have more convenient privileges than these guests; just as I stood at the ticket gate a few hours ago and greeted all the tourists who boarded the ship with a smile on my face, See which of them is more suitable to be the bait of the mermaid. 】

[There are not many handsome young people in the bay area, but the blond hair that mermaids love most is quite rare. Perhaps it is difficult to find such a pure color among nobles except our family, which is favored by the royal family; even so, I am in those Among the darkly dressed guests saw a touch of bright gold, it was a little girl looking around beside the governess.When I looked at her, she was also taken aback by me, came over and said I looked like her brother, and gave me a daisy she pinned on her sun hat. 】

[I like cute little girls very much, but this little blonde girl gives me a strange sense of familiarity—because she really looks like me, in other words, very much like my unsmiling and handsome father.But her family is just a rich peasant in the countryside, theoretically it is impossible to have anything to do with me—until I heard her name. 】

【Her tutor calls her Mo'er.I heard this name in a very distant childhood. At that time, my father once said with emotion that if he could have another daughter, then her name must be Mo'er, and this name used to belong to my great-grandmother. 】

[I never expected that the first windfall on board the Polar Joy would be my half-sister. 】

……

When I saw this, I was completely stuck in place.

I had conceived countless possible identities of Angelo in my mind, but I never thought that he was not only the blond young man that mermaids like, but also Mo'er and I's real brother.

I just don't know which romantic aristocrat in the Bay Area my father is, and where my real mother is now.

Just when I came back to my senses and was about to turn the page, I suddenly heard a dull loud noise behind me, and then I realized that I seemed to have ignored Velijia for a long time.When he hurriedly turned his head to look at him, Velija was lying on the floor panting heavily, his expression stuck on his neck in pain, there seemed to be a strange energy flow in the translucent silver fish tail, and the bones on his back were also gurgling It rattled and looked very scary.

"Vilija!!" I hugged him into my arms, patted his cheek anxiously and said, "What's wrong with you?"

In the next second, I became stiff, and I clearly felt that there was something strange about the body in my arms.The delicate and thin human half body has matured, and the thin skin that originally belonged to the teenager has also swelled up. The perfect figure leans against my arms, exuding strange and charming hormones like those adult fish in estrus .

Velija raised her head, her long smoky gray hair had long since turned into a fiery red, her chest heaved violently, and she looked at me with flustered and blurred eyes:

"Mano, I... am an adult..."