I set you up on a blind date, and you've managed to overcome all the weirdness?

The mermaid finally realized that she had been tricked by the guy in front of her, and she was furious.

"The pact has already given you half of the deep-water authority, and you're still not satisfied?!"

"Human! Don't be greedy, like a snake trying to swallow an elephant."

She abruptly changed the subject, uttering what she considered a fatal threat:

"And don't forget, you were first marked with that madwoman's death contract."

"If she finds out what you did to me, do you think she'll come looking for me first, or cut you into eighteen pieces?"

These words were spoken harshly, but Lin Yan didn't hear them that way.

This mermaid was exactly like a mistress afraid of being caught by the wife; her words were full of guilt.

"I have a way to handle Saya, so you don't need to worry about that."

Although Lin Yan was helpless against Saya, he couldn't lose face, so he forced himself to lean forward and get closer to the mermaid.

Their faces were almost touching.

Seeing that the time was right, Lin Yan dropped his snobbish attitude.

For a mermaid's personality, a head-on confrontation will only make her wary, while a purely transactional exchange of interests will only push her further away.

Lin Yan had already made up his mind, and without saying a word, he grabbed the mermaid's hand.

"This bead is key to your promotion, how could I possibly keep it to myself?"

The hidden gem from the deep sea was forcibly stuffed into her palm.

He pried her cold fingers back one by one and closed them.

Lin Yan's tone softened, yet remained both firm and aggrieved.

"As you can see, I have many enemies, and I'm also being targeted by the Bizarre Cult."

"The people in the bureau are unreliable, and I'm not like you big shots who have to shoulder all these messy debts myself."

Lin Yan pointed to the hideous wounds on his body.

He blinked.

"You never know when you might get ripped off in an alley."

"I don't want anything else."

"I just want peace of mind."

"In Jiangcheng, you'll come to me whenever I ask, okay?"

After he finished speaking, his gaze never left her face.

Seeing the mermaid's reaction, Lin Yan was overjoyed.

Her eyes darted around, and she didn't dare to meet Lin Yan's gaze at all.

He tried to turn his head to pretend to look at the scenery, but found that it was pitch black all around, so he moved back with a guilty conscience.

Lin Yan spoke with such confidence, mixing "I want to be a kept man" with "I need you".

They have no sense of martial ethics; they're all straightforward and blunt.

The mermaid's cheeks flushed instantly, and she quickly pulled her hand back, clutching the bead tightly in her palm.

After hesitating for a long time, she still chose to turn her head away, not daring to look at him.

"Stop spouting such disgusting nonsense!!!"

The mermaid was silent for a few seconds, as if trying to find the right tone for herself.

Even though he could barely suppress the urge to smile, he insisted on keeping his voice in a businesslike tone:

"Since I have accepted your beads..."

"Naturally, we won't let you die at someone else's hands so easily."

Upon receiving this promise, Lin Yan leaned back, letting the seawater support the back of his head, and his lips curled up in a wild smile.

You little brat, I'll be a fan of you forever.

He glanced around at the sea, where gravity remained reversed, unchanged even after the deep-sea cradle disappeared.

"Once you're promoted, this place will be yours?"

Lin Yan pointed to Jiangcheng, which was hanging upside down overhead.

"It's quite secluded as a palace, but isn't the art style a bit too depressing?"

"And what about those paper doll believers? Where did you hide them?"

"Put away your vulgar human aesthetics." The mermaid opened her mouth and swallowed the deep-sea pearl.

She closed her eyes, and the water around her suddenly became violent, as if it had come to life, flowing along the texture of her skin and seeping into her wounds.

In the dim blue light, the tattered scales fell off, and the torn flesh quickly healed.

In less than ten seconds, the mermaid was completely healed.

She curled her tail and stood up:

"Now that they've become my subjects, I'll naturally arrange suitable positions for them. As for this place..."

The mermaid snapped her fingers, and a ripple spread across the water.

Lin Yan immediately realized that the power of [Water Turns with the Heart] had been taken back.

At the same time, this underwater upside-down city began to shrink continuously, as if it had been illuminated by Doraemon's shrinking light.

Office buildings, overpasses, roads... all seem to have been crumpled up, lifted from the edge of the city, and reduced to fragments, returning to nothingness.

In the blink of an eye, the sea area was reduced to only a few hundred square meters.

And in this preserved area, change continues to intensify.

The cars hanging upside down overhead were enveloped by the power of the rules. Their outer shells were crushed, and their skeletons twisted and reassembled, transforming into crystal sofas.

The cement floor was swept by the power of the rules and instantly became as smooth as a mirror.

The seaweed in the corner started glowing, like the ambient lighting in a bar, and it even had a gradient color.

Before Lin Yan could even close his mouth, something even more outrageous happened.

With a ripple in the water, a row of figures emerged from behind the sofa.

They're all two-dimensional characters.

She was wearing a maid outfit from an anime/manga series.

Every face wore a professional smile, and people carrying juice and snacks lined up to float towards him.

Holy crap!

Lin Yan couldn't catch his breath and pointed at the group of paper maids.

"You turned the obsession of these 100,000 otaku into a maid café?"

Is this still the mermaid he remembers?

The mermaid, however, acted as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She walked straight to the magnificent crystal throne in the center and sat down in a languid manner.

He casually took the wine glass handed to him by a paper doll.

"They worship me as their king and want my protection, so naturally they must take responsibility for cleaning and offering to me."

"What, you have a problem with that?"

She glanced at Lin Yan, and seeing his ghostly expression, she felt a sense of smugness, and said calmly:

"Chu Chu said that this kind of contrast is popular on the internet among you humans."

Lin Yan had a bellyful of complaints, but he kept them all stuck in his throat and couldn't utter a single word.

What a weird contrast!

That unlucky kid Chu Chu, what kind of weird stuff has she been teaching in the group chat all this time?!

Tucao returns to Tucao.

This place is really nice.

Protected by the rules of the mermaids, not only can they evade the surveillance of the Bureau of Folklore, but even Saya and Chuchu cannot easily investigate them.

Lin Yan looked around.

"However, if I want to see you in the future, I can't just come to the underground parking garage and jump into the black water every time, can I? That would be too easy to expose me."

"Black water? What black water?"

The mermaid on the throne seemed unaware of what had happened outside during this time.

"Do you think I'm still the same as before?"

She pointed to Lin Yan's wrist.

The sea god runes on it have somehow returned to their original state.

"As long as you're in Jiangcheng, anywhere there's water, you can call me with your totem, or you can come in."

"Even your bathroom sink can be connected to mine."

Lin Yan's eyelid twitched.

This is practically a city-wide portal!

This will be the perfect refuge when I encounter any troublesome situations that the bureau can't handle in the future.