The Undersea Adventures of the Little Jellyfish (JELLYFISH)
A blatant false accusation.
But since he was already being accused, it’d be a waste not to make it true. Shen Jixiao reached out and patted the jellyfish’s head.
“Bad mermaid—!”
The jellyfish pushed at Shen Jixiao’s fingertip with his tentacles, then abruptly swallowed it whole.
He then spat it back out immediately. “Bleh… not tasty.”
From the mermaid’s bright, alert eyes, he could tell Shen Jixiao hadn’t slept at all. Seeing the sky outside nearly brightening, the jellyfish swam back to his nest. “Go to sleep, mermaid. And no more secret head-poking.”
……
To the little jellyfish, the mermaid settlement was just a temporary resting place.
After spending another day, the once-every-few-years celebration of new life came to a complete end.
The final day was mostly spent with the mermaids chatting leisurely with long-lost relatives and friends, simply relaxing.
Once the gathering concluded and the guests dispersed, the little jellyfish also decided it was time to leave.
He found Qingbo and gave her a pearl on which inside was meticulously recorded detailed steps for improving inscription magic—including the structure and principles of the spell.
It could be said he had explained this magic thoroughly. On land, self-created minor spells were usually considered highly private knowledge, and few were willing to share their unique skills selflessly with others. Even teaching disciples was done with extreme strictness. But the little jellyfish didn’t think this was anything special—he, too, would learn interesting things from other creatures.
In return, he received a map from Qingbo, which meticulously outlined the surrounding terrain and creature settlements. It even conveniently marked the most accessible routes for him.
"Where are you heading next?" he asked Shen Jixiao while holding the map. "I can tell you don’t want to stay here."
Shen Jixiao replied, "Just wandering around."
In a week, he would return to land.
He had already obtained the mental energy analysis from Qingbo—an incredibly detailed spectrum filled with various curves, numerical values, and a riot of colors, as if someone had overturned a bucket of paint onto it.
According to Qingbo, only masters who specialized in mental energy could decipher such a spectrum. Even she could only comprehend part of the information: "A very peaceful mental energy—its owner must be a kind soul," she said, offering a few inferences.
Shen Jixiao decided to take the spectrum ashore and consult an experienced mage.
"Alright then."
Originally, the little jellyfish had planned to hitch a ride with another mermaid, but now that Shen Jixiao said he was free, he latched onto him again: "Then let’s go to this island over here!"
"Sure."
Shen Jixiao was now a mermaid who knew how to use his tail properly.
Dozens of mermaids of different colors swam off in various directions, awaiting their next reunion. Meanwhile, Tang You, hitching a ride on a mermaid, waved his tentacles in farewell to Qingbo and the others.
Shen Jixiao circled once. "Let’s go."
Before leaving, he had already made sure to thank the mermaids. The elders in the settlement had taught him many methods for handling mental energy, the physician had shared numerous key points, and they had assured him he could return anytime. Shen Jixiao noted everything down while mentally calculating whether he’d have time to return to the sea later and bring gifts to the settlement. After all, it wasn’t too far from the coast—he could make a special trip.
No matter how reluctant they were, it was time to leave.
He swam away.
As his tail flicked, the scales shimmered with shifting hues of blue and purple under the sky’s light. His fins, neither too large nor too small, lay flat against his sides, spreading into sharp angles when extended. The two transparent membranes occasionally fluttered, aiding in turns.
Mermaids truly were the ocean’s darlings—when swimming, the surrounding water seemed to propel them forward effortlessly. Their gills opened, allowing currents to carry oxygen through and enabling them to swim endlessly without fatigue.
The little jellyfish watched for a while, struck by how different Shen Jixiao seemed from the fish he had first met.
He still remembered when they had first encountered each other—back then, this mermaid hadn’t even known how to flick his tail properly.
Now, Shen Jixiao not only knew how to flick his tail but could also swim incredibly fast. He was naturally more athletic than other fish—not overly muscular, but with well-proportioned muscles, broad shoulders, and a narrow waist. When he exerted himself, the smooth curves of his muscles were often visible.
How nice, the little jellyfish thought. As a jellyfish, it was a creature that hadn’t even evolved muscle structures yet.
He reached out and touched the merman’s abdominal muscles.
Shen Jixiao jolted abruptly and spun around. “What are you doing?”
“Touching you,” Tang You said matter-of-factly. “You’re always patting my head too.”
The merman fell silent.
“Don’t touch the waist,” he said, gesturing to his beautiful side fins and arm muscles. “You can touch here instead.”
“Why?”
Tang You thought the merman’s waist was especially attractive. Below it was the smooth, flowing tail, and above was the human-like torso, where the scales transitioned from dense to sparse. Small fan-shaped scales were embedded in the muscles, shimmering brilliantly with every movement—utterly mesmerizing.
There were even a few silver scales that extended upward along the curve of his waist, climbing to the side of his chest. Upon closer inspection, Tang You noticed that the merman’s back also had delicate silver scales, scattered across his lean lower back.
He reached out and touched them.
The merman: !!!
“If you keep this up, I’m throwing you off,” Shen Jixiao grabbed the little jellyfish. “Do you know what touching someone’s waist means in mermaid culture?”
This was common knowledge the physician had taught him.
During gatherings, there were always too many young mermaids, and the surge of hormones could easily lead to certain springtime activities. Especially for newly matured mermaids like Shen Jixiao, who hadn’t yet settled on a partner—restless hearts were hard to restrain.
And the most significant marker of a mermaid committing to a partner was allowing each other to touch their waists.
"It can increase sperm... motility and fertilization... chances," the physician said coldly. "Our reproduction is done through external fertilization. Please do not attempt to... insert it into your partner's body during the breeding period—it's not good for egg formation."
Shen Jixiao: "..."
"Other times... do whatever you want." The physician mumbled a vague conclusion, finishing the physiology lesson.
"..."
The memory faded. He wasn’t some innocent, naive fish.
His earlier life as a human had been spent leading troops in battle, and a bunch of rough men had long teased him about such matters. It was just that Shen Jixiao had never been interested in romance, and his lineage likely had reproductive isolation issues, so he’d never considered it.
Not considering it was one thing, but after becoming a merman, the muscles in his waist had grown stronger, and being touched felt... strange.
Shen Jixiao explained these merman customs to the little jellyfish, thinking it would understand.
Instead, the little jellyfish huffed, "But you touch me all the time too."
Shen Jixiao: "I only pat your head."
Tang You smacked his finger: "Jellyfish have their reproductive glands inside their heads. Didn’t you know?"
The merman fell silent.
The merman’s pupils trembled violently.
"I didn’t know." He couldn’t help but think about how many times he’d touched the jellyfish’s head—too many to count. "I really didn’t know. I’m sorry."
"So those pink things in your head are..."
"That’s my stomach," the little jellyfish said, realizing Shen Jixiao had misunderstood. "Those are digestive glands."
Shen Jixiao: "..."
"Jellyfish have both digestive and reproductive glands in their heads. Got a problem with that?" Tang You asked.
"...No," the merman answered dazedly.
……
They resurfaced, swimming to shallower waters where sunlight and clouds reflected on the water’s surface.
It was still early in the morning.
The sky was overcast, with winds pushing massive clouds from one horizon to the other. The sun hid behind the clouds, casting layers of color upon them. A thin mist settled over the sea, and the waves were calm.
The diurnal creatures had just woken up, while the nocturnal ones had only just gone to rest. The few fish still traveling moved sluggishly, as if everyone had silently agreed not to disturb the peace of this moment.
Except the merman was still thinking about what consequences touching a jellyfish’s reproductive glands might have, and the jellyfish was wondering if the scales on the merman’s waist would fall off.
Everything was quiet.
Reaching the little jellyfish’s destination would take three to five days of swimming. Moving too fast would drain their energy too quickly. After a burst of speed, Shen Jixiao slowed down, relying on his newly honed instincts to glide through the water.
Even so, he was still quite fast.
"Woo-hoo!" Something shot past them, leaving behind a trail of rapid currents and bubbles.
Tang You, who had been clinging to the merman while studying his scales, nearly got swept away by the sudden current, flattening into a jellyfish pancake. He clung desperately to the merman’s fingers for a while before recovering enough to see what had just zoomed past.
But whatever it was had already vanished.
When he asked the merman, even Shen Jixiao hadn’t gotten a clear look.
They paused for a moment but found nothing unusual, so they dismissed the incident and continued on their way.
"Woo-hoo!"
There it was again. This time, they were prepared and dodged it in advance.
It was a large fish, over a meter long, with a streamlined body tapering at both ends. It swam so swiftly that its scales were a blur, revealing only beautiful dark bands and fins. Its back was a deep blue, its belly white, with a vibrant yellow stripe bridging the two. Its fins and tail were also a striking, brilliant yellow—truly eye-catching.
"It's a tuna," Tang You said. "A yellowfin tuna."
Shen Jixiao responded, "I know."
"Huh?"
"I've had it once before." After all, Shen Jixiao had experienced a bit of aristocratic life in his childhood. "It's considered a luxury on land."
"Oh..." Tang You pondered this.
If Shen Jixiao had eaten tuna on land, the nobles who kept him must have been quite wealthy. And given the rumors that the richer people were on land, the more twisted they became, he felt even more sympathy for the merman's plight. "The mermaids also consider tuna a delicacy, but they swim incredibly fast. Trying to outpace them is nearly impossible—we can only catch them with traps."
"Today, though, there are so many of them for some reason."
This piqued Shen Jixiao's interest.
He wasn't particularly hungry, but the idea of hunting intrigued him.
"I want to try," he said eagerly.
"..." Tang You didn't understand the merman's mindset. He glanced at Shen Jixiao's build, then thought about the tuna.
Large fish were no joke in terms of strength underwater. Though mermaids were powerful, subduing a tuna without tools, traps, or assistance—especially as a lone merman—was practically impossible.
Tang You could already picture it: Shen Jixiao chasing the tuna, only to be slashed by its sharp fins, scales flying everywhere, utterly unable to hold on.
"It takes at least three mermaids to catch one tuna..." he cautioned.
"I just want to try."
"I don't support hunting purely for personal amusement," Tang You objected for the first time. "You don’t even have a weapon."
"No, it's not just for amusement," Shen Jixiao countered. "This journey will take us three to five days. If we rely on seaweed and shellfish, I’d have to spend at least three hours every day digging through the sand for food. But if we hunt, one large catch could sustain us for a long time."
Preserving the catch was an issue—mermaids didn’t eat spoiled meat—but having something was better than nothing. Worst case, they could use psychic energy to wrap the excess fish and slow its decay.
The lack of a weapon was another problem, but then the merman had an idea. "Maybe we can solve that."
He explained his plan to the little jellyfish.
Tang You: "..." He had been about to dissuade him further, but seeing how determined the merman was to eat meat, he sighed and decided to give it a try.
He could create a simple, thin psychic shell—not rigid in shape, fragile but serviceable. Following Shen Jixiao’s request, Tang You quickly fashioned a spear. It was sharp enough but brittle, shattering after a single throw.
"It can’t be too far from me."
"That’s easy to solve," Shen Jixiao said. "Just stay close to me."
"Huh? But you’re the one hunting."
The little jellyfish froze. The next moment, he found himself clinging to the merman as they shot forward at full speed.
"Whoa—!" The world spun around them.
They raced after the tuna.
Soon, Shen Jixiao spotted several massive tuna and a tightly packed school of fish encircled by predators.
"Tuna are... carnivorous..." the little jellyfish added hesitantly. "They must be hunting."
And the tuna weren’t the only ones hunting.
The water’s surface erupted with splashes, churning up countless bubbles. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a group of sleek, agile fish deliberately creating waves to herd the school together. They even emitted sharp sounds and blew streams of bubbles, forming underwater "fences" to trap their prey.
"It’s dolphins cooperating to hunt."
The tuna were probably just there to scavenge.
Eventually, the school of fish was compressed to a terrifying density—so tightly packed that simply reaching in would snag several at once. With a triumphant cry, the dolphins surged into the mass, feasting on the fruits of their labor.
Meanwhile, the opportunistic carnivores lurking nearby also rushed in.
The tuna were the fastest, followed by small sharks drawn by the commotion. Similar in size, they didn’t attack each other, instead silently dividing the smaller fish among themselves.
The larger predators scattered the tightly clustered school again, sending a few panicked fish darting straight toward the merman. Shen Jixiao instinctively reached out, only for an incredibly swift streak of white to snatch the fish right from his grasp.
He blinked in surprise. The white blur had plunged diagonally from above—like a short, rapid harpoon. No fish could move like that. Upon closer inspection, he realized they weren’t fish at all, but white seabirds folding their wings to dive, spearing into the water and snatching fish before darting away.
It was Shen Jixiao’s first time seeing birds that could swim.
There were quite a few of them, diving one after another, turning the scene into a barrage of white projectiles.
This was a rare hunting frenzy.
The merman’s presence was too conspicuous, and soon, the dolphins leading the hunt noticed him. One swam over, with a fish still clamped in its jaws. "Hey! It’s been ages since I last saw a merman. Are you alone?"
Shen Jixiao nodded. "This is my first time seeing dolphins, too."
"Haha," the dolphin bubbled with laughter, twisting playfully. "You’re a very pretty merman."
They weren’t actually fish but mammals—sleek, scaleless, with blowholes on their backs for breathing.
"Come hunt with us," the dolphin said after swallowing its catch. Their long snouts and sharp teeth made escape nearly impossible for prey. "Let’s see who catches more fish today, yeah?"
They were lively, intelligent, and brimming with enthusiasm. After greeting the merman, they dove back into their fishing spree.
The school of fish had already begun scattering, the survivors fleeing in all directions.
"Merman, hurry! If you don’t go now, there won’t be any fish left for you," the little jellyfish urged while still clinging to him. "Charge!"
The merman steeled himself, gripping the spear the jellyfish had given him. "Get ready. I’m going in."
...
After eating their fill, they circled around a small island and came upon another stretch of coral.
This area had plenty of coral, though the reef wasn’t as grand as the one near Grandma Clam—more like a small underwater flowerbed.
The moment the merman arrived, a swarm of bright orange shrimp swarmed around him.
"Hello there, need some service?" The little shrimp had a long white stripe running down its back, with a bright red upper body and a lighter orange underside. They chattered excitedly around the merman. "Sir Merman, our services are very comfortable."
Shen Jixiao was somewhat taken aback.
"We're cleaner shrimp, experts at cleaning fish scales, especially dead skin and parasites," the shrimp waved their white antennae to attract customers. "No charge at all."
Shen Jixiao: "Free?"
"Of course! We get food during the cleaning process."
The word "free" always held immense temptation for humans, and Shen Jixiao was no exception. Since he needed to rest for a while anyway, why not settle in this small coral reef and experience the cleaner shrimp's services?
He stopped and slowly approached the reef.
"Please try not to move for now."
A dozen or so shrimp emerged from the crevices of the coral and began inspecting the merman's scales. They were a species that specialized in waiting here for fish to visit, feeding on the dead skin and parasites they found during cleaning. Occasionally, they even helped large carnivorous fish clean food debris from their mouths. The shrimp worked meticulously, examining each scale with great care.
It was a little ticklish, but mostly comfortable. Shen Jixiao glanced back at his scales—the cleaned areas did look shinier. Bits of debris he hadn’t noticed and ones that were stuck to him during the hunt, were all carefully removed by the shrimp's tiny claws.
"Sir Merman, this here is..."
Shen Jixiao: "Leave that alone."
It was a small jellyfish clinging to him. During his hunt, he had swum too fast, and the jellyfish had gotten motion sickness. Now it lay limply against one of his larger scales, too lazy to even lift its tentacles.
"Bad merman..."
Shen Jixiao wanted to pat its head but hesitated—after knowing what was inside that little head, he always felt a bit embarrassed.
"Sorry, I got too carried away." He had the spear given to him by the little jellyfish, but this was his first time hunting in the sea.
Unlike the still and massive targets, the small fish he was trying to catch were not only fast but also had slippery, tough skin and were twisting their bodies at any moment to evade attacks.
They were numerous, all uniformly silver-gray. If his focus wavered even slightly, it was easy to lose track—staring at one fish while thinking about another, only to end up catching none at all.
Shen Jixiao only grasped the technique after several attempts before finally managing to seize the small fish.
He ate his fill.
In truth, Tang You had also eaten quite a bit. During the hunt, the fish tore off many scraps of flesh, and fresh fish meat was a rare delicacy for the little jellyfish—something he could never catch on his own.
The little jellyfish’s tentacles continuously gathered the scraps, and soon the pink hue at the center of his head was nearly overtaken by the color of the fish meat. He ate so much that he couldn’t finish it all, leaving tiny bits of fish clinging to his tentacles like stored rations.
Aside from being dizzy from the fish, another reason Tang You didn’t want to move was that he was too full.
Transformed into a chubby jellyfish candy and too bloated to swim—time to slack off!
The cleaner shrimp worked with practiced efficiency, swiftly tidying up the merman from head to tail before retreating, waving their pristine antennae. "Thank you for your patronage!"
Shen Jixiao nodded. "Thank you."
He picked up the little jellyfish clinging to his scales. "It’s nighttime. Should we rest here?"
The coral reef was indeed an ideal resting spot—plenty of food, a place to relax, and the sight of beautiful anemones and corals to soothe the mind.
"Sure..." The little jellyfish pulled out the map and studied it for a moment. "We’ll need to be careful ahead. We’ll pass by a siren’s lair in about ten nautical miles. We might encounter sirens out hunting."
—The sirens were a mysterious race, mostly females who ventured out to forage.
"As long as we don’t linger, we should be fine." The little jellyfish suddenly remembered something. "That day, that black merman—which settlement did he say he belonged to?"
Shen Jixiao: "Yifuximei."
"Ah... isn’t that nearby?" Tang You was slightly puzzled while looking at the marked location on the map. "Generally, mermaids don’t live so close to sirens. Sirens do prey on mermaids. But you know, mermaids have strong mental resilience and are hard to charm, so their conflicts turn into bloody battles where neither side can gain the upper hand. Over time, the two races separated."
"I’ve asked other mermaids. Some younger ones don’t even know about the Yifuximei settlement," Shen Jixiao said. "Sister Qingbo mentioned that this settlement has been plagued by sirens for centuries. She thought they might have relocated by now, but surprisingly, they’re still there. The invitation was randomly sent through an altar, so she didn’t know if they’d attend."
"He said he lived in Tasang or something. As part of the settlement, shouldn’t he be in Yifuximei?" The little jellyfish couldn’t make sense of it. "The map doesn’t show Tasang either. Well, we’re just passing through."
"Let’s keep moving tomorrow."
The merman nodded.
He found a quiet spot by the coral reef and prepared to set the little jellyfish down to rest.
As a result, Tang You ate too much and was too lazy to move. Without someone holding him up, he would slowly sink, turning into a jellyfish hanging from a coral branch. Occasionally, he would muster some effort to swim, but unlike before, he couldn’t make any progress—just flailing uselessly against the coral, as if he had grown there naturally, a little pink-filled fruit nestled among the branches.
The coral was hard and unsuitable for jellyfish. The mermaid had no choice but to reach out and cradle the little jellyfish in his palm again. Even if he didn’t lie in the mermaid’s hand, the little jellyfish could still cling to the mermaid’s body. The mermaid slept peacefully, never thrashing around wildly like the little jellyfish did when asleep.
Tang You was quite satisfied with the mermaid’s palm.
Today’s limited-edition chubby jellyfish candy lazily rolled over in the mermaid’s hand and declared, “Rest.”
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