Beauty and the Beasts

Chapter 424: Threaten

“Bluepool said that he managed to save the female and brought her back. Had Jean been snatched away by another tribe before?”

“No! This isn’t true. I can’t imagine the consequences of Jean being snatched away.”

Similar comments like these rang out, and the sea suddenly became so noisy that nothing could be heard clearly.

“Quiet!”

King called out, and there was instant silence in the sea.

“It’s true that Jean has been snatched away before, ten years ago.”

After saying this, no commotion ensued. Instead, there was complete silence.

King continued, “I hid this news from everyone for the village’s survival, only sending out the strong merfolks with mating rights to the land to search for her. Now that Jean is back, our village’s danger is gone.”

“That’s not true!”

A clear voice interrupted King’s words. All the merfolks’ gazes turned toward Bai Qingqing.

Bai Qingqing suddenly shrank back a little to be stared at by over 100,000 pairs of eyes. She lost a lot of her composure.

“I’m not Jean. Haven’t you guys seen Jean before? It can’t be that there isn’t a single one of you who recognizes her, right?”

Bai Qingqing was in disbelief. What she found the hardest to understand was that Jean’s identity didn’t seem to be just a female. Judging from the over 100,000 merfolks’ attitude, it seemed she was revered as a queen.

King looked toward Bai Qingqing’s face through the film, with him being kept outside.

“It seems that you really like the male from the land.” King threw a meaningful look at the leopard cubs in Bai Qingqing’s arms. “For his sake, you’re throwing away your status and responsibilities.”

Bai Qingqing looked into King’s eyes and said in a displeased tone, “You know I’m not.”

Her tone was certain and without a doubt. This merfolk had four animal stripes and clearly had the highest status. He must be very familiar with Jean judging from what he had just said.

The blue merfolk had almost believed her, but this merfolk here was trying to mislead everyone on purpose. She could understand that he wanted the village to have an additional female, but his method of achieving this was too sly.

“You are,” King said with certainty.

Bai Qingqing wanted to continue to argue with him, but she shuddered after seeing his ice-cold gaze.

“Meow—”

The leopard cubs initially found this place quite novel, but they suddenly started to shiver. Bai Qingqing hugged them, knowing that she was being threatened.

Suppressing the displeasure in her heart, Bai Qingqing turned her head away, as if giving her silent acknowledgment.

King smiled, then held onto the bubble and swam toward the bottom of the sea. “I’ll send you back.”

Bai Qingqing sank down together with the bubble. This bubble itself seemed to have a gravitational force, causing her to feel as if she was standing on flat land when moving downward in this manner, instead of experiencing a loss of gravity as one would when taking a lift.

The group of merfolks followed behind, some of them feeling happy, some sad.

Bai Qingqing’s attitude toward them was too cold, and this not only brought them heartache, but also disappointment.

“You were snatched away by someone from another tribe. We were incapable and didn’t manage to protect you well. It’s normal for you to fall in love with someone stronger. I don’t blame you for that. We’ll take care of these three leopard cubs as well. You can return with peace of mind.”

The first part of King’s words helped to clear up Jean’s name in front of the other merfolks, but the latter part of his words was a consolation toward Bai Qingqing.

Bai Qingqing was now certain King was threatening her. If she wasn’t agreeable to this arrangement, this merfolk was probably going to lay a hand on her children.

Forget it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. She wanted to look for Curtis in the sea, and the greatest chance of success for this was to work with the merfolks. Since Curtis could bring Jean out from the sea, then he should be able to bring her away as well.

As long as she could find Curtis, then all problems would be resolved.

After King said those words, the merfolks’ emotions became a lot better.

It was just that Bluepool still felt very uncomfortable. He had seen the female getting along intimately with the male from the land. However, her attitude toward the merfolks was very different.