Chapter 38

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Sumo grunted, “What’s so good about so many wives?”

“How many do you want then?” She couldn’t help but let out a laugh, “Is one enough?”

The child turned his head away and didn’t utter a word for a long time before claiming, “Not a single one. Women are a pain in the ass.”

“Hahaha…” Zhu Yan couldn’t help but laugh and pinched his little cheek, “That’s right, when you grow up, you’ll probably be more beautiful than all the women in the world – how can you still look at them?”

Sumo indignantly opened her hand as she did so, “Don’t do that!”

Zhu Yan squeezed several times before releasing her hand and said, “When the ailment on your body is cured, if you still want to leave, I will send you back to the sea.” She rubbed his soft aquamarine hair and whispered in his ear, “Just stop running away until then, alright? You’re such a worrisome little bugger…”

Sumo’s eyes were covered with candy paper, she could not see the expression on his face, only after a long time he gave a “hmm” and said: “Then you’re not allowed to put a gold collar on me either!”

Zhu Yan was dumbfounded and laughed: “Did you take it seriously? I was just joking to scare you, how can you stand such a heavy gold collar with such a thin neck, wouldn’t you collapse?”

Sumo removed the candy paper from his eyes and gave her a sharp look, half believing and “humming”, his face instantly turning gloomy; Zhu Yan knew that the boy was angry again, so she picked up a piece of candy paper from the table and said with a smile, “Come, watched me do a trick for you, okay?”

Sumo’s eyes shifted and finally looked at her again. She laid the thin sheet of paper flat on the table, then folded it diagonally and pressed it smooth, flipping her fingers lightly and skillfully and soon folding it into the shape of a paper crane.

The child grunted coldly, “I can do that too.”

“Oh?” Zhu Yan gave him a blank look, “Do you know this one too?” She lifted the paper crane up to her lips and blew gently – the crane moved, spreading its wings, standing up slowly in her palm, fluttering and flying around the lamp.

“Wow…” exclaimed Sumo in awe as he watched fascinated. The paper crane circled the lamp, then folded back and swept across his forehead, touching his long eyelashes with its wings.

“Wow!” Sumo couldn’t help but exclaim again, his pale face filled with surprise, his azure pupils glowing with joy – and for a moment, the gloomy child truly looked his proper childish age.

Seeing how happy he was, Zhu Yan then folded all the pieces of candy wrappers into paper cranes and blew on them one by one. At once, a flock of silver paper cranes swirled around the lamp in the room, like a whirlwind of flowing light.

Sumo stretched out his hand and let a paper crane rest on his fingertips, dropping his long eyelashes to look at it steadily for a moment before suddenly raising his head and looking at her with the admiration and delight of a child, he spoke in a trembling voice, “You… you’re amazing!”

“That’s for sure!” She smiled with glee, “Want to learn?”

The boy was stunned for a moment, “You… want to take me as a disciple?”

“What, you don’t want to?” She looked at the boy and noticed that the corners of his mouth were trembling slightly and his expression was rather odd, so she said, “It’s okay if you don’t want to become a disciple. Call me big sister, and I’ll teach you the same!”

Sumo lowered his head and remained silent for a moment, his thin shoulders suddenly starting to shake.

“Hey, what’s going on? What’s wrong?” Zhu Yan could no longer predict this child’s various strange reactions at all, and hurriedly hugged his flimsy shoulders as she repeatedly chirped, “Forget it if you don’t want to! It’s not like I must take you as a disciple… hey, why are you crying?”

The child dropped his head and bit the corner of his mouth hard, his body trembling slightly as if he was trying his best to suppress some raging emotion. Tears rolled down one after another from beneath his long eyelashes and glided silently down his pale, thin cheeks, unable to stop them.

It was the first time Zhu Yan was seeing the stubborn child crying, her heart was shocked; even though she was not afraid of anything, she was at her wits’ end at this moment, circling around the child and saying repeatedly: “What’s wrong? You don’t want to be trained anymore? Don’t cry… Grandma Sheng will think I’ve beaten you again! Don’t cry!”

She shook him firmly by the shoulders. Perhaps feeling also embarrassed, the child clenched his fists hard and took a deep breath, eventually managing to hold back his tears, but his body was still trembling. When he opened his hands wide, on his palms there were four deep bright red marks.

“Alright, you can cry if you want to.” She couldn’t help but feel a bit distressed and sighed, “Hey, hold on, wait until I grab a plate to hold it for you first – shark tears can be turned into pearls, you can’t waste it when you rarely get a chance to cry!”

She really did bring over a painted gold plate and placed it under the child’s neck, saying, “There, have a good cry now! Save some of those beads to sell for some good money.”

Sumo lifted his eyes and looked at her for a moment, then suddenly burst out laughing.

“Huh?” Zhu Yan was really confused by this child, “What’s wrong now?”

“…” Sumo shook his head and bowed it, not saying anything.

“Just don’t cry.” She sighed in relief and muttered, “I actually have the biggest headache with kids crying…”

“I grew up alone.” Suddenly, she heard the child whisper into the silence.

“Hmm?” Zhu Yan froze for a moment.

“I was raised in a cage in the Western Market right after I was born,” Sumo said softly, a chill in his voice, “closed with all the other little pets in the area, confined in an iron cage with a basin of water and a bowl of rice next to it.”

Her heart sank a little, not knowing what to say.

“I wasn’t getting any water or food until all those kittens and puppies were sold… And I couldn’t sell them all the time.” The child murmured, lowering his head, “I have a deformed body and a bad temper. They say that sharks are growing too slowly and have to be raised until they are a hundred years old before they can be sold for a good price. Until then, I was only a money-losing product, and the owner would have to wait until his next life to make some profit – once he got so impatient that he almost tried to kill me and dig my eyes out to make pearls.”

“Where was your mother?” She couldn’t resist asking, “Didn’t she protect you?”

“She was a very good deal and was bought long before I could have the chance to be with her.”

Sumo shook his head and said softly, “I was kept in a cage until I was sixty years old, when my mother came to find me in the Western Market – by that time she was very much favored by the Old King of Huotu, so she bought me out.”

Zhu Yan froze for a moment, “Huh? Then aren’t you seventy years old?”

“Seventy-two.” The child corrected her attentively. The equivalent of eight years old for you humans.”

“Really? Eight years old? That big!” She examined the child over and over again with amazement and shook her head, “No way… you look six at most, okay?”

“I’m clearly almost eighty years old!” Sumo said with indignation, unhappy.

With a life span ten times longer than that of a human being, it is clear that the mental development of a shark is also ten times slower than that of humans. The child in front of her, who has lived to an old age, speaks like a human child, despite all the ups and downs and experiences he has gone through.

“Fine. Eighty if you want eighty.” She compromised, stroking the child’s head and muttering, “Poor thing, you must not have eaten well since you were born, so you look thin and small, like a cat – from now on, stay with me, drink buttermilk and eat lamb every day, so you can grow more, okay?”

“I don’t eat buttermilk and lamb!” The child turned his head away, outraged.

“Uh, so what do sharks eat? Fish? Shrimp? Water plants?” Confused, Zhu Yan stroked the child’s soft hair and boldly promised, “No matter what you eat, with me, you won’t have to worry about starving in the future! I’ll feed you!”

Sumo didn’t reply, but neither shacked off her hand, he just leaned into her arms and silently watched the silver paper cranes swirling around the lamp; his small face, always pale and cold, filled with an expression of wariness and hatred, slowly loosened up, and there was a surprisingly serene and soft glow in his eyes.

“I grew up all alone.” The child murmured blankly, tiny fingers tugging at her sleeve, shivering slightly, “I don’t know what it’s like to have a friend… or be a master and disciple.”

He paused and said very, very softly, “I… am terrified of getting attached to someone else.”

“…” Zhu Yan’s heart jolted, unexpectedly feeling a vague burning pain.

“Auntie Ru said that the Kongsang people will never be truly kind to us – you raise sharks like you would raise a small dog or cat, petting them when you are happy and throwing them away when you don’t feel like having them, so how can you be friends with us?” The child stared blankly at the lamp and said softly, “Sooner or later, you will abandon me anyway.”

“Who is Aunt Ru?” Zhu Yan frowned, “Don’t listen to her nonsense!”

“She is the best person in the world to me besides Ah-Niang.” Sumo said softly, “When I was in the Western Market, I was often sick, she was always the one who took care of me… until she was later bought out too.”

“You know, what she said may not be the golden rule either!” Zhu Yan was a bit anxious and after thinking about it, she suddenly said, “Hey, let me share a secret with you! Do you know what? The person I want to marry is also a shark!”

The child was taken aback and turned his head to look at her, “Really?”

“Yes! Really.” She sighed and for the first time pulled out the pendant from her close-fitted bodice and showed it to the child, “Look, this is what he gave me. I really loved him… since I was a child! Unfortunately, he doesn’t love me…”

Sumo glanced at the jade ring with the piece of corner missing and his eyes seemed to light up for a moment, “What is this?”

“He said it was a Dragon Blood Ancient Jade, something very precious.” Zhu Yan replied.

The moment the child stretched out his tiny fingers and carefully touched the ancient jade, Sumo’s expression changed subtly and suddenly uttered an involuntary “ah”.

“What’s wrong?” She was taken by surprise and asked in a hurry.

“I don’t… know,” the child wavered, “I felt a sudden burn on my back just now… and it hurt.”

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