A century ago.
Your planet met its apocalypse.
A new order evolved in the world.
As one of the few survivors, you awakened the bloodline of a Jiaoren and gained a second life.
This wasn’t so bad; in fact, it was quite fortunate.

The world became a vast ocean.
Modern civilization was annihilated, regressing to a savage era.
You fumbled your way through, learning the rules of survival, just going with the flow.
Until, as a mermaid, you were nearly one hundred and fifty years old.
Just before you were about to reach adulthood, the world was once again struck by an extreme cold.

The seas froze, and everything was covered by glaciers.

As a Mermaid, you had few natural enemies in the sea.
But you couldn’t contend with a natural disaster.
Survival of the fittest.
You, along with the few remaining members of your kind, dove into the deep sea.
You sealed yourselves within the ice, gradually falling into a deep sleep under the protection of your mermaid pearl.

Until a hundred years later, when the ice peaks melted away and a true spring arrived, you were reawakened by your mermaid pearl.

When you awoke, most of the glaciers had already melted.
What you saw upon opening your eyes was no longer a thick wall of ice.
Only a thin layer of ice separated you from the quietly surging seawater.
The blue mermaid pearl guarding your heart was pulsing with light, alternating between bright and dim.

The thin layer of ice shattered beneath your palm.
Your tail, now enveloped by seawater, adapted to the environment with extreme speed.
You didn’t think about anything at all, simply reveling in the long-missed feeling of roaming the sea.
A moment later, you began to search around the base of the iceberg, trying to find any kin who might also be on the verge of waking.
The mermaid pearl circled around you, protecting you.

Even though most of the iceberg had melted, its submerged mass was still immense.
In the deep sea, there was no sunlight to refract.

Occasionally, a luminous deep-sea creature would swim languidly by.
Down in the deep, they were brazen, their forms grown with wild abandon.
The eyes of a Mermaid could see in the dark.
You carefully swam several laps around the iceberg, but strangely, you saw no other ice-bound figures.

Too much time had passed.
You weren’t sure if your memories could still be trusted.
Your thoughts, once frozen, were sluggish.

In your memory, two of your kind had been not far from you.
Perhaps they had already woken up and left, or maybe they were frozen deeper within the ice.
The Mermaid pearl nestled against your heart again, as if comforting you.

After protecting you through your long slumber, its light had dimmed considerably.
Pained by this, you swallowed it to nurture it within your body.
Then, with a flick of your tail, you left the deep sea and swam towards the surface.
You hadn’t eaten in a very long time.

The boundless, azure sea shimmered under the brilliant sun.
The surface was calm.
The people of this world called this stretch of ocean the Lost Sea.
It was dotted with countless islands, large and small, all rich in resources.

But in recent years, ships entering these waters had become extremely prone to accidents.

They would lose their way, get caught in whirlpools, or be attacked by unknown giant creatures.
The frequency of these incidents made humans shrink back in fear.
The sole survivor of a shipwreck, on the verge of death, only had time to tell the outside world that this place was the devil’s home.

Thus, this vast expanse of sea was designated a forbidden zone, one that people could not and would not enter.

You were unaware of the sea’s ill repute.
Your most pressing need was to fill your stomach.

Besides the energy your body required, the Jiaoren pearl in your belly had also overexerted its power.
Hunting was effortless for you.
You selected a large fish, tore open its white belly with your bare hands, and starting from the tenderest part, you savored your first meal since waking.

Most Mermaids preferred to live alone.
They would mark out a stretch of sea as their territory.
Mermaids on good terms would live as neighbors, making it convenient for occasional gatherings.

You observed this sea for half a month.
After determining that no one had claimed it as their territory, you decided to settle down here with peace of mind.

During this time, you tentatively sang a short Mermaid song.
The lyrics spoke of longing for your companions.
The song of a Mermaid possessed a unique sonic frequency that could travel for dozens of miles.
But unfortunately, your beautiful song received no response from your own kind.

You chose a spot near an island as your nesting site.
The island near your new home wasn’t the largest, but the underwater cave suitable for a nest was clean and spacious.
Nearby, at the surface, there was a large rock with a very smooth top, perfect for absorbing the moon’s essence and drawing energy after nightfall.

Most importantly, it was close to the iceberg.
You wanted to wait there for a while to see if you could find your kin.

You picked the softest seaweed from nearby and laid several thick layers of it in your chosen cave.
Beside the seaweed was a conch of exceptionally vibrant color, which you placed in your nest as a decoration.
Even with the seaweed and a conch, the nest was still too plain.
After an unsatisfied inspection, you came to this conclusion and swam away briskly, your beautiful and precious blue tail swaying.

‘Whatever, there’s plenty of time,’ you thought.

After arranging your nest, you lay on your back in a shallow area covered with fine sand, basking in the sun.The warmth of the sun washed over you, and enveloped in the clear, azure water, you blissfully took a nap.

Another four or five days passed, moons setting and suns rising.
You used the sharp edge of a stone to carve another mark on the reef.
You had just returned from a search near the iceberg in the deep sea, but found no trace of your kin.
The novelty of your new home was gradually fading.

You sifted through the starfish in the sea, wanting to pick the prettiest one to wear in your hair.

Recently, a migrating pod of dolphins had been lingering near your territory.
One of the young dolphins came to play with you every day.
Today, it first circled you a few times, then came over to gently nuzzle your arm.
Once it had your attention, it dove down several meters before returning to look at you.

After it repeated this a few times, your gaze followed the direction of its dive.
A hundred meters below lay an ancient shipwreck that had been resting quietly in the water for a long time.

The hull was covered in a dense layer of disgusting, ugly barnacles.
Plagued by occasional bouts of trypophobia, you had disdained it many times and refused to go near.
With a gentle flick of your tail, you swam a dozen meters or so.
Bored as you were, you decided to begrudgingly play a little game of treasure hunting.

Your tail was about two meters long, swaying effortlessly in the azure water.
Its scales were full and lustrous, its fin long and flowing.

The little dolphin led you as you darted in and out of the shipwreck’s windows.
The ship had been sunken for too long; many of its contents were ruined by the water.
The light underwater wasn’t very good today.
In just a short while, you lost interest in exploring and wanted to go back to sorting through starfish.

Just then, the little gray dolphin emerged from a cabin, holding something in its rostrum, presenting it to you like a treasure.

It was a small, well-sealed iron box.
You extended your sharp nails and broke it open.
Inside was a pair of colorful tassel earrings, inlaid with fine gemstones.

You had a piercing in your right ear, one a kinsman had helped you get so you could wear a pearl earring you had made on a whim.

In a good mood, you picked one up and put it on.
You gave the little dolphin a rewarding pat, then took the other earring, along with the box, back to your nest to store away.

Two days after the expedition, the little dolphin came to bid you a reluctant, whimpering farewell before leaving with its pod to migrate.

As for you, you’d been feeling tired a lot lately.

When the great cold came, you fell into your slumber on the verge of reaching adulthood.

After waking, your body began to develop once more.

The day of your coming of age was drawing ever nearer.
This meant your tail was about to transform.
Your pelvic fins would also develop more perfectly, and the color of your tail would finally change to a dreamlike blue-violet.

So, in addition to searching for your kin each day, you had one more task: to redecorate your nest and make it more concealed.
Your increasingly heavy body made you a bit reluctant to move.
During your adult transformation, you might even fall into a deep sleep again.

You had some inherited racial knowledge in your mind, like how to create pearls.
But compared to the pearls formed from your tears, these were merely larger, rounder, and of higher quality than ordinary pearls.

As for weaving Mermaid silk, you hadn’t done that in a very long time.
You had tried it when you first learned the skill.
Your initial fiery enthusiasm cooled in the time it took to weave a small piece of the silk.
You managed to whip up two small vests for yourself before washing your hands of it completely.
It was too troublesome and tiring.

The little vests were long lost.
Your upper body had always been bare.
You lazily planned to weave yourself a couple of new garments after this period passed.

You were only willing to practice the magical inheritance of the Jiaoren to about seventy or eighty percent proficiency, never mastering it.
This was perhaps related to the innate nature of the Jiaoren race: arrogant, disdainful, cold-blooded, and selfish.

The night before your tail was due to transform, you climbed onto the reef and sang aloud for the second time.
The moonlight tonight was exceptionally bright.
Admiring your own iridescent tail, which was about to become even more beautiful, you felt a surge of joy.

You recalled a cheerful melody from your memories and began to hum it softly.
The song of a Mermaid was so enchanting that small fish and fluorescent jellyfish were drawn to you, dancing in the moonlight.

The song drifted into an adjacent sea.
A tentacle in the middle of strangling its dinner paused, then slowly released its prey.
The large fish, now freed, fled in terror, covering a hundred meters in the blink of an eye.
Behind it was a massive dark shadow, eagerly pursuing the source of the song.

Before preparing to transform and fall asleep, you went on a killing spree, chasing after delicious food.
You extended sharp claws from your webbed fingers, picking out only the tastiest parts to eat a few bites of.
The rest you drove away, to prevent the tasty fish from attracting dangerous predators.

You felt carefree, as if you were simply toying with the schools of fish for an extra snack.
This recent period of comfort had made you complacent.
After all, Mermaids were powerful, at the top of the food chain in the sea.
An adult you would only be more formidable.

You covered the entrance to your cave with long, thick algae, and circled the perimeter with plants that grew poisonous thorns.

After one last check of your nest’s arrangements, you slipped into its deepest part.
Leaning against the soft seaweed, you allowed the accumulated fatigue to pull you into slumber.

You felt yourself wandering in a boundless darkness.
You moved without direction, yet with a vague premonition, you fumbled forward blindly.
At the end of the dream was a mist that glowed with a soft, moist light.
You walked into it, falling into an even longer, sweeter dream.

And at that very moment, the dark shadow that had followed the song came to a stop at the entrance of your cave.