The Runaway Mermaid - Chapter 4

Lu Jingran was furious. After dragging me into the car, he clamped his hand painfully around my shoulder.

“Meng Tan, have I been too lenient with you? You left me there so you could treat someone else!

“Have you forgotten that your father gave you to me? You’re an object that belongs to me, and you dared act without my permission!”

I had never seen him this angry. With no idea how else to calm him, all I could do was apologize.

My apology only enraged him further.

“You want to heal people so badly? Fine. I’ll let you heal to your heart’s content.”

Lu Jingran took me to a place packed with sick humans. They lay curled in on themselves, shivering with severe illnesses.

He shoved me forward. “Heal them. Sing!”

He was beside himself with rage. I did not dare argue, terrified that the slightest resistance would bring harm to my kin.

So I sang again and again until my voice broke.

At last, blood burst from my mouth.

Panic flashed across Lu Jingran’s face.

“Meng Tan…”

I stared at him in stubborn defiance. “Is that enough?”

“You…”

Something complicated flickered in his eyes.

“Jingran, what are you doing?”

Qin Yan came running up behind us.

Lu Jingran’s face instantly went cold again, though his voice softened when he spoke to her. “What are you doing here?”

“I was worried about you. Please don’t hurt Miss Meng because of me, all right?”

I had no idea what she meant.

“What are you talking about?”

Lu Jingran gave me an icy glance. “You were jealous of Qin Yan, so you incited the merfolk to attack her. If I hadn’t arrived in time—”

“Impossible!” I cut him off.

Did he think I was an idiot? So that was why his mood had changed after he came back earlier.

“Lu Jingran, I’ve been beside you this entire time. I—”

“Jingran,” Qin Yan interrupted.

She leaned weakly into his arms.

“I don’t like merfolk.”

Lu Jingran embraced her. “Then I’ll avenge you.”

At his command, bodyguards seized me.

“Lu Jingran, what are you doing?”

He gave a cold snort. “You love saving people, don’t you? Let’s see how you manage it once you’re mute.

“And as for your kin…” His eyes were devoid of warmth. “Capture every last merfolk.”

“No!”

I struggled, but all I could do was watch his men leave.

“Lu Jingran, you can’t do this! I stayed with you for three years—three whole years. You can’t treat me like this!

“Please, Lu Jingran. Let my people go. They couldn’t have done it.”

“Noisy.”

He flicked a hand. Someone immediately forced my jaw open.

A burning, pungent drug poured down my throat. Agony seared through me.

“Ah…”

I opened my mouth, but only a torn, rasping sound emerged.

“Lu… ah…”

When the bodyguard released me, I collapsed. I clawed desperately at my throat, trying to make myself vomit up the poison.

Only blood came out.

Lu Jingran looked down at me. “Meng Tan, you aren’t indispensable. It’s time you learned your place.”

I lifted my face to him and felt nothing but despair.

Then I shoved him away with all my strength and ran.

“Catch her!”

Dark clouds had swallowed the sky. Thunder rolled, and rain began to hammer down.

Lu Jingran left in a car with Qin Yan.

Instinct drove me toward my kin. I had to save them.

I stumbled hard, tearing open my palms on the pavement. Rain, tears, and blood streamed together.

I ran until I could barely feel my legs.

As I passed a billboard, a familiar face caught my eye.

Gu Ze—Lu Jingran’s sworn enemy.

Everything I knew about him raced through my mind. His legs were paralyzed, and he had spent years in a wheelchair. Once, he had approached me in secret and asked me to defect to his side.

I had refused him then.

Now I turned and ran in the opposite direction.

When I reached a villa, I found Gu Ze just getting out of a car. He sat in a wheelchair with a blanket over his legs while a bodyguard held an umbrella and prepared to wheel him indoors.

I opened my mouth, only to remember I could no longer make a sound.

I darted through the gates in the final second before they closed and ran so fast that I fell beside his wheelchair.

“Who are you?” the bodyguard demanded, instantly alert.

Gu Ze turned his head, his expression calm.

“Where did this poor little stray come from?”