After I Dumped 7 Beast Husbands and Ran

Before long, Lanxing had used one of his own scales to cut the Blue Fish’s meat into pieces.

Nan Zishi said, "I wanted thin slices, not chunks. And there can’t be any bones!"

"What a pain." Still, Lanxing deboned the fish, sliced it thinly, and handed the pieces to her.

’This sashimi looks pretty good.’

Nan Zishi took out a pair of chopsticks and began to eat elegantly.

Soon, the plate of fish was finished. Nan Zishi said demurely, "I’m full."

Lanxing sized her up.

"What are you looking at?" Nan Zishi asked.

"You only ate that much?"

"That’s right."

Lanxing glanced at the Blue Fish, which was now in two halves. "If I’d known you were only going to eat that little, I wouldn’t have killed it."

’That little bit of meat wouldn’t even count as a minor wound.’

Nan Zishi was speechless.

Lanxing waved his hand, and two male mermaids swam in from outside. They carried the Blue Fish out to let the other mermaids share it.

Lanxing turned, preparing to leave.

Startled, and remembering the recent crisis, Nan Zishi immediately swam over and clung to his arm. "Where are you going?"

The young male mermaid instantly stiffened as he felt her soft hands wrapped around his arm.

Nan Zishi tightened her grip on his arm and said quickly, "Lanxing, you promised to fulfill your duties as a Beast Husband for these seven days. I don’t care. For the next seven days, you have to be wherever I am!"

’The 50-meter limit... He can’t exceed it, not even by an inch!’

"You! You’re being unreasonable!" The male mermaid stammered, the tips of his ears turning red as he felt her soft hands on his arm. "What on earth are you trying to do?"

Lanxing truly couldn’t understand.

’She wouldn’t take his outstretched hand.’

’She ran away at the first chance she got, even sending him away just so she could escape.’

’She hadn’t come to see him once in five years, and it seemed she hadn’t come to the sea for him this time, either.’

’She doesn’t like me at all. She’s practically forgotten all about me.’

’But now, she’s actually... actually...’

Lanxing secretly glanced at her hands holding his arm.

’She’s simply... shameless.’

Nan Zishi caught sight of his ears...

’They’re red again!’

In truth, both then and now, Nan Zishi thought this merman was like a seventeen or eighteen-year-old boy who’d just come of age.

He was so endearingly awkward, and she loved it.

’Look at that... all I did was hold his arm and his ears are red again?’

"What am I trying to do, you ask?" Nan Zishi tilted her head, observing his reaction.

’If I’m more than 50 meters away from Lanxing for over 15 minutes, I’ll turn back into a human.’

’If I turn human at the bottom of the ocean, I’ll die, won’t I?’

Nan Zishi refused to let go of his arm. "Never mind what I’m trying to do. In short, if you want to sever our partner bond, you have to do as I say!"

"You’re being completely unreasonable!" Lanxing blurted out, his face red. He tried to pull his arm away but found he couldn’t.

Finding his expression utterly amusing, Nan Zishi couldn’t resist pulling her phone out of her storage space and snapping a photo of them together.

It was a good thing that when Nan Zishi had been stocking up on supplies, she’d made a point to buy a durable, waterproof phone, so it could even take pictures underwater.

The moment Lanxing saw his image appear on the phone, his face went deathly pale.

"What are you doing?!"

"Nan Zishi, did you trap my soul inside this little thing just to control me?!"

Nan Zishi: "...?"

Nan Zishi’s gaze shifted, her black-pearl eyes meeting Lanxing’s brilliant, blue-violet ones.

Her eyes darted about as her mind raced. Then, she broke into a cunning smile, just like Anya Forger.

"That’s right. You figured it out!"

Nan Zishi let go of him, straightening her clothes and hair. "I used this little thing to trap your soul."

Lanxing’s expression was strange. Then, looking as if he’d been horribly bullied, he was on the verge of tears. "Why? Why would you do this to me?! What did I ever do to you that you’d trap my soul?"

"You just don’t like me, so you enjoy bullying me! You just love bullying me!"

’Still as gullible and cute as ever.’

Watching his tears fall, transforming into blue-violet pearls, Nan Zishi collected them in a glass bottle. After a good while, her conscience finally kicked in and she went to console him.

"Don’t cry. It breaks my heart to see you." ’What a scumbag thing to say,’ she thought with disgust. ’Blech.’

Lanxing cried even harder. "You’re just bullying me! You used the fact that you bought me to have your way with me, and then you abandoned me and just dumped a child on me! And..."

"...and you won’t take responsibility for me and our daughter!"

Lanxing accused her, "Everyone knows I have a female master, but what they don’t know is that I was bought, used, and then thrown away..."

"Why? Why do you have to bully me like this?"

Nan Zishi’s cunning smile finally faded. She realized she might have taken the teasing too far.

"There, there, don’t cry." Nan Zishi carefully wiped away his tears. "I was wrong in the past. I didn’t do right by you. I’ll change, I promise."

Nan Zishi hadn’t expected her gentle coaxing to be so effective. Lanxing actually, gradually, stopped crying.

"Can you give my soul back to me?" Lanxing asked.

’He’s so obedient! So easy to trick!’

Nan Zishi cleared her throat and said with a straight face, "Not yet. I need to make sure you’re going to listen to me."

Lanxing calmed down. Coerced by the fact that his soul was trapped, he was uncharacteristically subdued. "How do you want me to listen?"

Nan Zishi said, "For the entire time I’m in the sea, you cannot be more than 50 meters away from me!"

"Fifty meters?" Lanxing frowned. "Is that one of your land-dweller measurements?"

Nan Zishi said, "First, stay right there. Don’t move."

She swam backward until she was at the very edge of her superpower’s range. "This is the distance," she said. "You can’t be any farther away from me than this. Otherwise, your soul inside this little gadget won’t be safe!"

After carefully gauging the distance, Lanxing said with a hint of grievance, "Fine. I understand."

’Looks like I’ve successfully fooled him!’

Lanxing felt like she had him completely under her thumb, but he was still a little defiant.

He said, "Don’t think you can control me just because you have my soul."

He paused, then added in a stammering, aggrieved tone, "I’m still going to sever our partner bond!"

...

Lanxing had made so many empty threats that Nan Zishi had finally gotten used to them.

’In any case,’ Nan Zishi thought, ’when it comes to severing the bond, I’m the one holding all the cards.’

’If I don’t agree, he can shout about severing the bond all he wants, but it’ll never happen.’

Nan Zishi felt like she had rediscovered the right way to handle Lanxing. She watched him with a leisurely gaze.

Before long, another mermaid came to call for Lanxing. He went out, but mindful of what Nan Zishi had said about fifty meters, he didn’t go far.

The moment Lanxing left, a swarm of male mermaids who had been waiting for their chance outside surged in.

Nan Zishi was startled and shrank back slightly.

Yu Lang suddenly swam closer, a wide grin on his face. "Hey there," he said. "How about we keep you company for a while?"

———

Don’t tell me you guys not only didn’t sympathize with our poor Lanxing’s plight, but you actually laughed?!

Huh?

You’re all terrible!