LSDWTWHA chapter 79

Chapter 78

With a loud rumble, the square-shaped building on Lanshan Mountain collapsed.

At the same time, at the port, a cargo ship quietly set sail from the dock.

The ship used by Yan’s Maritime was an airship. This is a special type of vessel modeled after hovercraft, which does not directly sail on the sea, but relies on its own power to fly close to the water at a very high speed. Airships are less affected by wind and waves when flying, making them less bumpy and faster. The round trip between the Empire and Freedom Island, which are half a planet apart, takes only two days.

The sun gradually dipped below the horizon, and the tranquil night sky enveloped everything.

Su Su sat in the guest cabin on the top floor, looking down at the silent sea surface through a layer of glass.

This feeling was somewhat new to him. He remembered countless nights when he would pop his head above the water to gaze at the starry sky above. He had once yearned to leave this sea area for the land and the sky.

Now it seemed he had achieved that.

A long call sounded in the distance, not from birds, but from a whale in the sea.

Hearing this sound, Su Su couldn’t help but think of the little mermaid Yi Qing, who had fallen in love with an orca. He wondered if she was happy living among the orcas now.

He should be grateful for that accidental differentiation that Yi Qing experienced; otherwise, he might not have had this remarkable connection with Qi Hanyi.

As Su Su was lost in thought, there was a knock on the door, and 06 appeared with dinner in hand. “Have something to eat. You’ve been busy all day and didn’t even have lunch.”

Dinner consisted of dishes made from various fish, and the members of the dark tide obviously had a good hand at preparing seafood. The aromas wafting in the air made Su Su’s stomach growl.

Su Su wheeled himself to the door and took the dinner. “Thank you.”

06 laughed brightly. “No need to thank me. Speaking of which, I should be the one thanking you. I know the organization didn’t originally plan to act against the training center right now; it was you who persuaded Yan Bai to change the decision. Though this action may seem reckless for the dark tide, it’s undoubtedly the best outcome for me.”

“You don’t have to thank me. I advised Yan Bai for my own sake. I’m surprised to see someone like you existing among humans.” Su Su’s eyes flashed with confusion. “Clearly a human, but entirely thinking about mermaids.”

06’s kindness toward mermaids was different from Qi Wu’s. Qi Wu loved An Xun first, which led him to care about mermaid issues. But 06 didn’t have a specific mermaid she loved. Instead, she felt sadness and guilt for the misfortunes of those mermaids. Helping mermaids brought her no personal gain, yet she was willing to risk her entire life for it.

Su Su found it hard to comprehend, but he didn’t dislike 06; in fact, he admired her somewhat.

06 seemed a little embarrassed. “Don’t make me sound so great; I just did what I needed to do. I never saw mermaids and humans as two different species. Everyone has the same feelings and thoughts. Mermaids can also become human, even reproduce with humans. So why should we draw boundaries and harm each other?”

“So when Yan Bai first approached me, saying they wanted to help mermaids fight for their rights and save those who were harmed by humans, I immediately agreed to join.”

“By the way, I’ve already organized the videos I shot at the training center and am ready to release them. I believe this time it will help more people see the real situation of mermaids and join the support for them.”

“No need to rush,” Yan Bai said, passing by in the hallway. He had just finished comforting the rescued mermaids, and the results were good. His expression conveyed a blend of fatigue and a sense of satisfaction, and his tone showed hints of weariness.

“How can we not rush? The Mo family reacted too quickly; less than half an hour after the incident at the training center, their public relations team began following up, subtly directing the narrative, suggesting that Su Su colluded with members of the dark tide organization, kidnapped the mermaids from the training center, and planned to threaten the Empire with them. They even dug up old matters of the Qi family, saying that General Qi Wu was misled by his mermaid partner and perished, and now Qi Hanyi has also fallen into the same trap as her father.” 06’s brows furrowed in anger as she spoke.

“They’ve done so many bad things themselves, yet they’re now pouring dirty water on the mermaids’ heads. Wasn’t General Qi Wu’s accident caused by a maritime disaster? How can they blame his wife? Moreover, didn’t General Qi Wu work hard to improve the treatment of mermaids when he was alive? How could mermaids seek revenge on humans by targeting him?”

“…” Yan Bai was momentarily speechless. He knew the Mo family did not wrong them; An Xun was indeed a member of the dark tide, and he had indeed caused Qi Wu’s death. At that time, the Qi family chose to downplay the incident as a normal maritime disaster, but anyone who knew the facts would understand that what the Mo family said was the truth, leaving no room for them to rebut.

Su Su didn’t expect the Mo family to use the old matters of Qi Hanyi’s father as a weapon. Wasn’t this akin to rubbing salt into Qi Hanyi’s wounds?

Su Su pressed his thin lips into a straight line, his eyes revealing some hostility.

The atmosphere became a bit rigid.

06 noticed the unusual silence between the two and realized something, feeling a little uneasy. “Could what they said be true? No way?”

“We’ll discuss this later.” Yan Bai sighed and gently massaged his temples. Facing a human who genuinely helped him, he could not resort to Yan San’s rhetoric—Qi Wu’s benevolence was just a facade, using small favors to undermine the mermaids’ fighting spirit. Mermaids did not accept this form of charity; they needed to pursue their status through more forceful means.

Even now, he himself could no longer accept that perspective.

Yan Bai had to change the subject. “We need to remain calm and not rush. Let’s let public opinion brew for a while.”

“Not many people are paying attention to this matter right now. If we release the training center video now, it can easily be suppressed before it gains traction. It’s better for us to wait for them to speak first. Once public sentiment starts to passionately denounce the dark tide for the destruction of the training center, we can throw out evidence to counterattack, informing them that the dark tide wasn’t trying to kidnap mermaids but rather to save their lives.”

“People always enjoy stories with twists and turns. When emotions are heightened, the response when a reversal occurs will be all the more intense.”

06’s attention was successfully diverted. She found it difficult to trace the truth of events that happened over a decade ago at sea while current events were unfolding.

“What should I do?”

Yan Bai pondered for a moment. “You can release your video footage tomorrow evening. Edit a two-minute clip, focusing on the segments that best show the training center’s abuse towards mermaids. Then compile a one-hour long video explaining the whole situation. Finally, put up the entire archive of your hundreds of hours of raw video online as evidence for reference, but remember to delete parts that design information related to the dark tide. This task is rather complex, so I’ll have Lin Dian help you with it later.”

“Okay.” 06 had received the instructions she wanted, but she didn’t leave immediately. Instead, she hesitated between Yan Bai and Su Su. “I don’t know what role the dark tide played back then, but at least in this matter, they didn’t do anything wrong, right?”

Yan Bai replied, “Destroying the mermaid training center and bringing these mermaids home is the decision I have no regrets about.”

06 sighed in relief, feeling relaxed. “That’s enough.”

After 06 left, Yan Bai looked anxiously at Su Su. “You hate the dark tide for what happened back then, don’t you? After all, they are Qi Hanyi’s parents.”

Su Su did not deny it. “I hope when we go to Freedom Island this time, your leader will give me an explanation.”

Yan Bai felt that Yan San’s explanation wouldn’t convince Su Su, nor could it persuade himself. “If he can’t…”

“Then he should atone for the mistakes of the past.” Su Su looked at Yan Bai, emphasizing each word. “Blood for blood.”

Upon seeing Yan Bai’s tense expression, Su Su’s tone suddenly relaxed. “I’m just joking. What ability do I have to influence your dark tide’s head?”

“However, blood for blood—hasn’t this been your stance all along? Why can mermaids demand that humans pay with their lives for the mistakes of their ancestors but are unwilling to take responsibility for their own actions?”

Yan Bai fell silent for a while, replying dryly, “I will seek an explanation for the events of the past.”

There were many things he could no longer avoid; he had to clarify. For instance, what exactly did Yan San want to do, what did he wish to achieve, and what was he willing to sacrifice?

The next evening, videos of mermaids being abused at the training center were released across various websites. Due to the timing of the hot topics, as soon as they were out, they garnered huge attention.

By the time the Mo family’s public relations team realized it needed to be deleted, the footage had already spread like wildfire across the internet.

The Mo family’s PR team was busy contacting various websites to delete the video and suppress related topics, but the heat of the discussion was too great, and the video spread rapidly in a short time, becoming increasingly impossible to remove. This behavior only made onlookers believe they were being suspicious, further solidifying the truth of the video’s content.

Originally, people sympathized with the Mo family, thinking they were just trying to run a training center that ended up being bombed, and that their peaceful, reclusive little master, who loved painting mermaids, had also been kidnapped and was missing.

Now, however, public sentiment shifted dramatically.

Everyone could see how inhumanly those mermaids sent here were treated, especially those without family protection in the sixth-floor area—living as slaves, subject to arbitrary abuse and torment. Some were dead, others insane.

And their gentle little master, who loved painting mermaids, had set up his studio above where those mermaids lived. The mermaids’ blood and tears flowed without reaching him; their desperate cries never penetrated his space. He was contentedly painting, praising the beauty of mermaids, only to send them down to the executioners, ignoring the anguish they faced.

People were shocked to see the filthy, tormented mermaid girl in the video and exclaimed, “Isn’t that the mermaid girl from his painting ‘Under the Sunset’?”

Then they saw a mermaid with scales ripped off her tail, writhing in pain on the floor due to electric shocks, shouting, “Isn’t that the mermaid from ‘A Tail of Galaxy’ he painted?”

These were all works by Mo Lin that had gone viral, each fetching auction prices in the hundreds of millions. The mermaids in his paintings were serene, beautiful, and happy. Yet the more beautiful the painting, the stronger the impact from the distressing video.

Such beautiful mermaids deserved kindness, but instead, they were facing a reality more terrifying than hell.

[Is this something humans are capable of?]

[I just used facial recognition to compare; several of the managers in the video, especially those who treated the mermaids the worst, were death row inmates who should have been executed years ago.]

[Why are death row inmates still alive? It’s chilling to think about.]

[Don’t let the Mo family say they didn’t know.]

[So the dark tide is doing something good?]

[I find it outrageous for someone to take his own wife to such a place. He brings back a mermaid and doesn’t take care of her, just abuses her?]

[I think that brainwashing class is even more outrageous. Infidelity, abuse, and emotional neglect are all the mermaids’ fault?]

[Suddenly it feels like, compared to the Mo family, the dark tide doesn’t seem as hateful.]

[The mermaid training center is detestable, but the dark tide can’t be so easily dismissible. They can’t absolve themselves for what they did to General Qi Wu.]

On the internet, various voices denouncing the Mo family and the training center emerged one after another. Those nobles who sent mermaids to the training center rushed to distance themselves, claiming they were unaware and only thought it was standard teaching and training.

But soon they were slapped in the face by new video evidence. Many of them had visited that training center, not to see their partners, but as guests, to patronize those mermaids on the sixth floor, subjecting them to harm and violence.

There were still some disillusioned voices saying that mermaids were originally human’s property, and it was normal to teach them a lesson when they misbehaved.

However, this rhetoric was immediately attacked by the crowd. They questioned these people, asking why humans have compassion for cats and dogs but can be so cruel to mermaids, who are of the same origin.

Throughout the night, the topic further fermented, and discussions of protecting the basic rights of mermaids were raised once again. This time, the idea of supporting mermaids’ rights to equal human rights and establishing dedicated protection agencies gained significant support.