Beauty and the Beasts

The mermen automatically maintained a distance from him. Silver stood dazedly at the entrance by himself for a long while before entering the stone cave mechanically.

An'an was dead. All the mermen in the sea clearly understood this. Otherwise, they would be able to sense her.

However, the baby was perfectly fine. She was contained within a large bubble, sucking on her finger as she slept, completely oblivious to what had happened around her.

Silver's heart convulsed, and his soul felt like it no longer belonged to his body. He entered the stone cave numbly and pulled An'an into his arms. Two transparent drops of substance slipped from his eyes and rolled onto his chest, transforming into tough crystals before landing on the ground.

Just like this, he quietly hugged An'an and cried, not uttering a single word for a very long time.

"Leader?"

Someone called out to him fearfully. Not hearing any response, that merman cautiously carried the child out and placed it in a bigger bubble while it rested.

"How did water get into the cave? The bubble at the entrance was personally set up by Leader. It's impossible for An'an to puncture it."

"Thankfully, the female baby is still alive. Strange. Why is she in the bubble? It's as if someone knew that water would enter the cave and specially prepared it."

No one suspected Silver of murdering An'an, for everyone could see how much he cared for her. At this moment, the one feeling truly devastated was only Leader, who had been with her from morning to night for nearly two years.

After all, they still had the little female; they still had someone to pin their hopes on.

The tribesmen's words entered Silver's ears intermittently. He looked up, and another two tears fell from his eyes.

There was a sharp fingernail at the stone cave entrance. Silver looked at his own hand and saw that the fingernail on his left index finger had yet to grow out completely.

"An'an, look what delicious food I've brought you." As he spoke, Silver punctured the bubble with his index finger.

Attracted by his actions, An'an edged closer to his hand to look closely. She even touched his fingernail, seemingly wanting to take it away.

"You like it?" Silver removed his fingernail without hesitation and only handed it to her after washing it clean.

An'an received the fingernail and immediately hid it in the miscellaneous items beside her. Seeing that she wasn't injuring herself with it, Silver didn't keep it away for the time being.

Later, he had felt worried and searched the entire cave for it but couldn't find it.

Mermen had extraordinarily strong recuperative powers, but the toughest parts of their body—the fingernails and teeth—grew at a slow rate.

As time went by, the memories from that day had gradually faded. But the index finger on his left hand forbade him from forgetting.

It was him who had inadvertently caused An'an's death…

Silver closed his eyes in despair, a string of tears slipping down his eyes again. The excruciating pain in his heart made him involuntarily hold An'an more tightly.

So she had planned this long ago. Just as he was looking forward to a new beginning with An'an, all she wanted was to die.

The obedient figure of An'an in his memories transformed into grief. If it weren't for the fact that she was pregnant, she probably would have left long ago, right?

Like a withered piece of wood, Silver hugged An'an. If it weren't for the tears falling incessantly from his eyes, the silver merman looked even more like a corpse than An'an.

After God knew how long, the voice of a merman sounded from the entrance.

"Leader… what should we feed the female?"

Only after a good while did Silver slowly raise his head and looked outside numbly.

The stone cave was covered with pearl-like beads, as though it had just snowed heavily, layering over the original color of the ground.

Silver hugged An'an and got to his feet expressionlessly. "Do as you see fit. Don't come and bother me."

After saying that, he swam out of the stone cave with An'an in his arms and quietly went far away.

The mermen carried the female baby and entered the stone cave. After sweeping the floor with their tails, it took some time for them to clear the tear beads and restore the stone cave to its original appearance.

However, that quiet female would never appear again.