The False Engagement

“Ariel…”

“Ariel…”

When I woke, Lin Xuan’s small face filled my vision.

He jumped onto me.

“Great, you’re awake! Hurry, come to tonight’s banquet!”

Still confused, wearing only a nightdress, I was dragged into the banquet hall.

The first thing I saw was Gao Shan and Lin Qi standing side by side onstage.

Gao Shan smiled brightly, holding a black stick that amplified her voice.

“Tonight, I have happy news to announce. Lin Qi and I have confirmed our engagement. The official engagement date will be announced later.”

My ears rang.

The air in the banquet hall grew thin.

Lin Xuan said something beside me, but I could only see his mouth open and close.

Lin Qi stood there, expression cold.

Unmoving.

I turned and fled.

I was not a mermaid who liked dropping pearls.

I was brave.

But leaning against the cruise railing, looking at the ocean I could no longer return to, I hurt so badly I could not breathe.

Pearls fell into the sea wind.

One mermaid surfaced.

Then another.

Then many.

“Ariel, don’t cry! Jump down!”

My sisters opened their arms.

Shanna called anxiously,

“As long as you agree to destroy humanity with us, I won’t care that you betrayed the clan.”

My rising hope sank.

I shook my head.

“Ariel!” Shanna shouted. “The fish in that sea died in agony. They remembered you blocking the pipe with your body. Why are you retreating? Is a man that important?”

“I can prove only Nerushima discharged the wastewater!”

“And even if we sink that island, the contamination will still exist!”

I stumbled through explanations of nuclear plants, wastewater, and ocean currents.

Then footsteps sounded on deck.

Lin Qi appeared and saw me by the railing.

He quickly explained,

“It isn’t what you think. Gao Shan accused you of pushing her yesterday. My parents forced me to agree temporarily, or the investigation would trap us here and we couldn’t find your clan.”

“I will not marry her.”

“The person I like is you.”

My people erupted.

The scene was too familiar.

A human man.

A false fiancée.

A mermaid by the sea.

“Kill him!”

“Evil human!”

“He deserves to die!”

Their anger battered me like waves.

I stepped back and fell.

The sea witch appeared behind me.

Her octopus tentacles wrapped around my throat.

“I give you a choice,” she rasped.

“Do you want her to die, or will you turn into foam?”

My sisters threw a silver dagger onto the deck.

It landed at Lin Qi’s feet.

He looked at me.

Then picked it up and pressed it to his neck.

I shook my head desperately, but could not escape the slippery tentacles.

Lin Qi’s expression did not change.

“If I cut my throat, will you believe nuclear wastewater has nothing to do with other humans?”

The sea fell silent.

Shanna said,

“Yes.”

“No,” a small voice said from the shadows. “This logic is a disaster.”

Lin Xuan walked out slowly.

“You don’t believe Ariel because you think she’s lovesick.”

“So now you want Lin Qi to prove he loves her, and then use that proof to prove Ariel’s words are true.”

He raised one finger.

“Why not ask someone who is not in love? For example, me.”

With five years of compulsory education, Lin Xuan successfully stunned a group of uneducated mermaids.

He then began a lecture on deck.

Lin Qi’s evidence became his teaching material.

By the end, my people believed him.

I quietly sat beside Lin Qi.

“Do you love me?” I asked.

He looked away toward the sky.

“I like you. But love needs time to prove—ow!”

I cut his fingertip with the dagger and smeared the drop of blood on my leg.

My human legs transformed rapidly.

A magnificent tail appeared.

“There,” I said, flicking it proudly. “I proved it.”

“You love me very much.”

My people gasped.

“Look! He truly loves Ariel!”

“Why is it different from the legend?”

Lin Qi’s face turned completely red.

Then he fled.

The fairy tale was over.

Reality continued.

With my tail returned, I leaped into the sea and swam toward the deepest waters.

Hours later, I burst into the Deep Mermaid District shouting,

“Father! Mother! Where is the Atlantis Shield? I need to lock Nerushima inside!”

Father appeared behind me.

“Why use the shield? Sink it with the Golden Trident.”

I touched my barely regrown hair in pain and began explaining nuclear power plants again.

Finally, Father handed me a crystal sphere.

I swam back.

Naturally, I got lost.

When I stopped, the familiar discharge pipe stood before me.

I fell silent.

Then began the ancient mermaid song.

I pushed the crystal sphere forward.

The Atlantis Shield opened.

In an instant, it swallowed the entire island nation.

The lost city shimmered below.

Nerushima floated above.

Inside the shield, tiny humans ran in panic.

I hesitated.

If I dragged them to the deep sea, pressure would kill them.

So I sang again.

The crystal sphere expanded.

Nerushima returned to its original size near the sea surface.

But now, whenever they discharged wastewater, they would only poison themselves.

Satisfied, I dove back toward the cruise.

Naturally, I reached the familiar beach instead.

This time, without legs, I hid in the water and watched humans from afar.

Children ran across the sand.

“Nerushima got sealed!”

“My grandpa bought a cake to celebrate!”

“The Earth is prettier without them!”

I secretly smiled.

Human children were actually quite cute.

Night fell.

Just as I was losing patience, two figures appeared on the beach.

One tall.

One small.

“Lin Qi! Lin Xuan! I’m here!”

I waved wildly.

Then a current moved behind me.

My people appeared.

Shanna handed me a purple potion and the silver dagger.

“Go.”

“Don’t forget to hold the wedding in the sea.”

“We should bring that human to the Deep Mermaid District for Father and Mother to see.”

Amid my people’s chatter, I drank the potion.

Then stepped onto the shore.

Not to become foam.

Not to abandon the sea.

But to choose, freely, where I wanted to stand.