“If you’re planning to apologize, don’t — none of this was ever your fault.” The Tianra Prince offered a small, easy smile.

“And you ended up captured along with the rest of us. We’re not exactly slow on the uptake — even without knowing the specifics, the situation speaks for itself.” Ye Kong nodded in agreement.

“Ha! A beautiful woman can’t be at fault. If she ever seemed to be, that’s somehow still not her fault!” Sea Fatty’s particular brand of nonsense had long since earned him universal disregard.

“Not your fault,” Snow-Hungry Wolf added, in his characteristically minimal style.

“Thank you… thank you, all of you!” Qingping was genuinely moved. The people who had raised and shaped her own life couldn’t accept who she’d become — and here were people she’d known only a handful of days, people she’d spent that entire time deliberately deceiving, extending this much grace. Sea Fatty and Ye Kong weren’t fools; they clearly understood exactly what had unfolded aboard this ship, and even now, in genuine danger, they were the ones offering her comfort. She couldn’t help being moved by it. If only I’d found friends like this sooner. After hearing the Liqie brothers’ quiet words of comfort, she waited, and noticed that Yue Yang — the lecher of the group — hadn’t said a single word, still working through his chicken leg. A flicker of irritation surfaced. “Hey. Aren’t you going to say anything?”

“Everyone else already said it. What’s left for me to add?” Yue Yang waved a dismissive hand. “Honestly, that’s just how it is. You’ll work through it on your own.”

“…” Qingping had nothing to say to that. She could obviously work through it herself — she’d just wanted to hear something comforting from him specifically.

Fine. Engaging with this man on his own terms is a fast track to losing years off my life.

She decided this wasn’t the moment to pick a fight with him.

She took a deep breath, steadied herself, and forced down the pain of the curse continuing to build inside her body. “Our situation is genuinely dangerous right now. Someone’s going to come for us before long, and when they do, we’ll… There are some things I want to tell you all. You may not know this — I was sent here as an infiltrator. From the moment I met the lecher on the tram, my assignment was to get close to all of you and gather intelligence. Why isn’t anyone surprised?”

Sea Fatty and Ye Kong exchanged smiles and said nothing.

Yue Yang shrugged. “How’d the intelligence-gathering go?”

It was only then that the truth landed for Qingping. She gasped aloud. “You already knew. This whole time.”

Sea Fatty struck a pose meant to convey I am a genius, my sharp eyes saw through everything from the start — to absolutely no audience response, leaving him to slink into a corner of the cell and sulk by himself, tracing circles on the floor.

Ye Kong offered a more gracious explanation. “We haven’t exactly just arrived in the Sky Realm yesterday. We’d hardly walk in with zero caution. The truth is, we’re all part of the same group — Yue Yang, Liuye, Sea Fatty, Snow-Hungry Wolf, the prince, all of us — we come from the same place, and we’ve fought side by side through life and death more times than I can count.”

Qingping’s eyes moved across each face in turn, finally settling on Yue Yang, and she ground her teeth in frustration. “So that’s why Liuye became your student. You absolute lecher — you played me completely. Please don’t tell me even your names are fake.”

Yue Yang spread his hands. “Why would we need to lie about that? Honestly, the truth gets disbelieved more often than the lies around here. Liuye really is my student, for instance.”

Qingping wanted to bite him. “I’m never trusting a word you say again.”

“Ha!” Ye Kong and the others couldn’t hold back their laughter.

“Maybe save the laughing for later — Qingping’s curse is still progressing, and we’ve all got our own blade hanging over our heads. Let’s actually figure out how to get out of here.” Sea Fatty decided it was finally his moment to take charge. He reminded everyone, not for the first time, that he was technically the leader of this group, known by titles ranging from the Mountain of Flesh Demon King, no wait, the Mountain of Flesh Foolish Overlord, no — the Little Flying Dragon of the Meat-Faced Persuasion!

“There’s no way out — even if we could get off the ship, we’re still stuck. This part of the Wave-Mist Sea operates under a sealed-flight law. No flying allowed anywhere in this zone. That’s exactly why none of White River City’s ships are fitted with flight systems. Here, you can’t fly, you can’t even walk on water — a boat is the only way out, period. You’ve all been careful, but careful isn’t enough. There’s a fish in the Wave-Mist Sea called the Atonement Fish — its meat is exceptional, but anyone who eats it loses their strength entirely for a month inside this region, exactly the way you’re all experiencing now, under the influence of the Atonement Law. The most popular dish at the party — that sashimi everyone loved, the caviar like black pearls, and that Black Blood Wine you all tasted — all of it was made from Atonement Fish. Only White River City natives are immune to its effects.” Qingping delivered this unwelcome truth reluctantly, but completely.

“Poisoned and bound by some kind of magical law — great, what now?” Sea Fatty, self-declared leader, was suddenly entirely out of ideas.

“Get a good night’s sleep. Maybe when you wake up, this’ll all turn out to be a bad dream.” Yue Yang offered this as a genuine suggestion, and Sea Fatty actually considered it — no effort required, problem solved by simply sleeping through it.

“Could you two be serious for one second?” Qingping had no energy left to argue the absurdity of the timing.

“Madam Instructor’s wisdom is duly noted.” Sea Fatty snapped to attention.

“Ignore him.” Ye Kong kicked him aside.

“Heaven rarely closes every door at once,” the Tianra Prince offered, calm as always. “Even with everything that’s happened, there may still be a way through. No need for despair.”

“Right. Yes — heaven rarely closes every door.” Qingping bit her lip, and something in her expression suggested hope rekindling. She paused, then looked around at each of them once more, as though committing every face to memory. Sea Fatty was about to speak when she raised a hand to stop him. “Let me finish first. Hear me out, please. They threw me in here hoping to win me back. They invested so much in raising me — some of them were like fathers to me, and I’m grateful for that, genuinely. But that gratitude doesn’t override what I actually want, which is freedom. I don’t want to be a cursed half-fishfolk woman. I want what you all have. I want to be a normal human. Wait — let me finish. The reason they threw me in here is because they believe I’ve fallen for one of you. They’re allowing me to take one of you with me — and they’ll use the cursed blood to transform him into one of us. Which means one of you might actually survive this. As a cursed fishman.”

“So you’re saying — pick one of us to go with you?” Ye Kong caught it immediately.

“I volunteer! First in line!” Sea Fatty’s hand shot up without an ounce of restraint.

“Becoming a cursed fishman doesn’t bother you? And it’s not even guaranteed — only a possibility of surviving.” Qingping asked this while studying Ye Kong, the Tianra Prince, Snow-Hungry Wolf, the Liqie brothers, and Yue Yang in turn, trying to read their reactions.

“Doesn’t bother me at all. Staying alive is what matters.” Sea Fatty’s position was clear: if becoming a fishman meant living, fine by him — and bonus, no more struggling to swim.

“Once you’re transformed, you may never be able to leave White River City again. Even with a curse-protection charm, they won’t allow someone who joined under these circumstances to simply walk away — you’d remain a suspect indefinitely.” Qingping continued the warning.

“Not being able to leave is a bit of a downside, sure, but alive beats the alternative. And White River City’s got plenty of pretty women — I’m fine with this arrangement!” Sea Fatty had decided this was acceptable.

“So that’s everyone’s answer? Sea Fatty leaves?” Qingping looked to Ye Kong, the Tianra Prince, and Snow-Hungry Wolf for confirmation.

“Sea Fatty’s our nominal leader. The cursed blood should go to him — feels right.” Ye Kong stepped back graciously, declining to compete.

“The cursed blood isn’t a good fit for me.” The Tianra Prince also stepped aside.

“Stay.” Snow-Hungry Wolf’s contribution remained brief.

“Neither of us brothers will contest the cursed blood against our leader Sea Fatty.” Liqie and Ligua — the only occasion in this entire story where either of them addressed Sea Fatty as “leader” with any sincerity.

“And you? Don’t you need to get back and tell Liuye? She’s waiting for you at the Iron Cross Hotel right now. If you don’t go back, that sweet girl will probably just keep waiting — and once whoever’s behind this finishes here, they might come for her too.” Qingping turned her attention to Yue Yang, who had finished his chicken leg down to the bone and was apparently still reluctant to throw it away. Gray Wolf watched the bone with naked longing while Yue Yang pretended not to notice his existence at all.

“I’ll let Liuye know. We don’t need this one for that.” Sea Fatty thumped his chest, offering his guarantee.

“You — say something…” Qingping was still hoping to hear an actual answer from Yue Yang.

“Bit early to be deciding all this, isn’t it? Maybe a miracle happens. A meteor falls out of the sky, kills everyone else on board, and somehow leaves us perfectly fine.” Yue Yang finally let go of the bone he’d been holding — though when it dropped, Gray Wolf didn’t even glance at it.

“One can hope.” Qingping managed a thin, exhausted laugh. She hadn’t expected Yue Yang, of all people, to be even less practical than she was.

She was a cursed defector hoping, foolishly, to become human. And somehow this man was even more naive than that.

A meteor falling out of the sky wasn’t going to selectively wipe out every passenger except their small group. Short of an actual divine intervention, that simply wasn’t a thing that happened.

The iron cover above the cell suddenly flipped open. Water Spider’s face appeared in the gap, her expression dripping with mockery.

“I’ve met plenty of idiots in my life, but never quite this committed to it. Ha — listening to you all talk, I almost feel an urge to help you out of pure pity. People this hopeless surviving would be a genuine loss to the entire Sky Realm if it didn’t happen!”

Sea Fatty perked up immediately. “Beautiful lady, how exactly are you planning to help us?”

Water Spider laughed, low and dark. “Obviously — by pulling all of you out of this cell and putting you on a boat. I’ve already arranged everything. Don’t worry — I’ll personally make sure your jailbreak succeeds, and that you escape the Wave-Mist Sea entirely.”

What? Water Spider — helping them escape?

Qingping’s face went bone white at the words.

How vicious.

This was nothing short of a death sentence dressed up as mercy — exactly the kind of scheme that would secure Water Spider’s reputation as the most ruthless woman among White River City’s younger generation, and rightly so.