Xuan stood with his back to the water tank, silently gazing at the oil painting on the room wall.
The water in the tank made a splashing sound as Tutu[1] moved around with enthusiasm. Every now and then, she would leap from the water, creating a graceful arc in the air before splashing back into the water with a 'plop.'
"Xuan!" Tutu stopped her somewhat boring self-amusement, rising to the water's surface. "What's wrong? You seem really unhappy today."
Xuan didn't look back, his slender figure casting a shadow on the oil painting.
"I'll escort you back," he said, "back to the Western Waters of the Hidden Sea, your home."
Tutu's tail fin moved slowly, and the ripples in the water grew smaller and smaller.
"Endless nights of running for your life, and you still don't think it's a kind of torture?" Xuan walked over, sizing up the thick glass in front of him seriously and sternly. "If you stay any longer, you could die at any moment."
The movement in the water tank became smaller and smaller, and Tutu swam away in silence.
Xuan turned to the other side of the water tank and took off his shirt, exposing his right shoulder with its brutally obvious wound.
"You're injured?!" Tutu exclaimed, swimming over in surprise, almost crashing into the glass in her haste.
"Its power is getting stronger and stronger, and I don't have much confidence to resist it again." Xuan put his shirt back on. "You must leave."
There was absolute silence in the secret room, not even breathing could be heard.
"It's time for you to pick Kai up from school!" Tutu suddenly shouted, her voice crisp and clear, and she excitedly wagged her tail, her gaze fixed on the imaginary window outside, a smile in her eyes.
Yes, fish can smile too, as long as you look into their eyes carefully.
"Do you really need to do this?" Xuan stared at her in bewilderment. "You understand what I'm saying."
"Shouldn't you be asking yourself that question?" Tutu playfully blew out a string of bubbles, forming a comic face in the water. Her momentary silence and restraint were as elusive as popped bubbles.
Tutu was, of course, no ordinary fish. She was a monster, a fish demon named "Wangxing[2]."
They roamed the Three Realms[3] unhindered. As long as they wished, they could conceal their forms and go unnoticed by anyone, including the most profound experts who could find their targets without using their eyes.
Almost all monsters, and even some human cultivators, harbored an intense desire to taste a "Wangxing" in their lifetime or at the very least, catch a whiff of it. They were just like the monsters in "Journey to the West," where each and everyone was coveting a piece of Tang Monk's flesh that granted immortality[4].
"Wangxing" was their shortcut to acquiring everything, a means to do as they pleased without anyone standing in their way. Even if it were just a low-level demon that consumed "Wangxing," they could descend into the Underworld and break into the Heavenly Palace, seizing its treasures as if they’d entered a deserted land.
"Wangxing" was their myth.
Precious things are always rare. The price one had to pay to catch a "Wangxing" most often amounted to a life. "Wangxing" was born in the depths of the Western Waters of the Hidden Sea. Since ancient times, the Western Waters of the Hidden Sea had been a sacred land teeming with monsters. It was already a difficult feat for those lucky enough to reach the seaside, but venturing into the sea to search for the fish meant risking being swallowed up by the strange undercurrents in the sea or being eaten by the monsters hiding in it.
So far, only an old man surnamed Jiang, who had ventured alone to the Western Waters of the Hidden Sea thousands of years ago, had successfully caught a "Wangxing" that was still in its infancy. However, on his way back, Old Man Jiang let it go because the "Wangxian" said something to him.
In a previous conversation, Xuan had asked Tutu what she had said to the old man all those years ago.
Tutu blew out a bubble, recalled it for a long time, and then replied, "I just said something very foolish and naive. I asked, 'Can you build a nation by eating a single fish? If so, then eat me.'"
Xuan smiled, "And then he let you go?"
"The old man didn't say anything. He just stood under the starry sky all night. The next morning, he put me in a river. The river was so clear back then, nothing like it is now with plastic bags and food containers everywhere," Tutu said earnestly.
Whenever he recalled the scene of chatting with Tutu, Xuan would be amused by her innocent expression. He was not someone who smiled easily.
But today, even though Tutu was displaying all her happiness and cuteness, he couldn't find a smile.
"The news said that tonight is the day of the blue moon. It's not too late to change your mind now." Xuan said heavily, walking straight out without looking at Tutu.
"Xuan……"
In that fleeting moment just before he left the secret room, Tutu called his name.
He didn't turn around, didn't want to look at her, and definitely didn't want to see those bright eyes.
"You and I are the same, including our choices."
Her figure gradually disappeared in the water.
Footnotes:
[1] Names like Tutu are often chosen for their simplicity, phonetic sound, or aesthetic qualities. The character tú means wish; draw; plot; map; picture; diagram; to seek.
[2] 忘形 (wàng xíng) : to be beside oneself (with glee, etc.); to have one's head turned; ecstasy; oblivion.
[3] 三 界 is actually Trailokya or the “three worlds” of Buddhism. However, in fantasy novels like this story, Three Realms usually refers to the Sky (God/Heaven) Realm and the Earth(Demon/Hell) Realm, with the Mortal Realm in between.
[4] Tang Monk is Tang Sanzang, a central character in the novel Journey to the West. He is sent by the Emperor Taizong on a mission to India to fetch a set of Buddhist scriptures back to China for the purpose of spreading Buddhism in his native land. Along the journey, Tang Sanzang is constantly terrorized by monsters and demons due to a legend which says that one can attain immortality by consuming his flesh because he is a reincarnation of a holy being.
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