Lu Yun lowered his hand, and before the still feigning Shu Sheng could speak, he said coldly, “Stop pretending. If you were an ordinary human, you’d have collapsed by now. Your mental strength is indeed formidable, but you’re definitely not human. Nado is right, you’re sea creatures, aren’t you? What is your purpose?” “Please forgive us,” Shu Sheng finally spoke after a long silence, “We mean no harm.” Su Ying, already stunned, covered her gaping mouth with her hand, staring unblinkingly at the two. “Alright, don’t worry about it,” Lu Yun smiled, patting Shu Sheng on the shoulder like greeting an old friend, “We mean no harm either, but I hope you and your companion can explain everything clearly to us.”
Shu Sheng and his companion sat on the sofa. I still couldn’t believe that this young, shy, and honest journalist from my newspaper was actually a sea creature. After another long silence, pondering how to begin his narrative, he finally spoke:
“The Illusionist’s Encore (6)”
“I am indeed a sea creature. This is my companion. We are not human. In fact, the existence of sea creatures predates humanity by many millennia, our history began about tens of thousands of years ago. From an evolutionary perspective, we might have evolved from jellyfish, which, according to your classification, would make us a type of mollusk, several stages ahead of humans in development.”
I wanted to say that would make them much more primitive than us, but considering Darwin formed his theory without knowing about sea creatures, I held my tongue.
“Although we have developed a civilization, our thinking differs from humans. Sea creatures focus on enhancing our own abilities rather than figuring out how to use tools, or what you call developing technology. Due to the limited resources underwater, our lives remain simple and primitive, with almost no technological advancement. However, our physical capabilities are very strong, quite different from humans.”
“How did you manage to take on human form then?” I asked him.
“That’s a long story,” Shu Sheng sighed deeply, “It starts with a tale from many years ago.”
