CHAPTER 89: CHAPTER 89; A BEAUTIFUL JADE MERMAID

"I won’t." She was already moving away, walking with purpose toward the rear of the mansion. "Good night, Lu Yuze."

She disappeared through a doorway that led toward the private wing of the estate before he could even respond.

Lu Yuze stood there for a moment, sighing loudly. He was considering following her, then remembered what she’d just done to Chen Ting and his secretary. If Shuyin wanted to be left alone, it was probably wise to respect that wish.

His mansion was heavily guarded right now, so no one would dare to attack her.

He turned and headed toward his own room, his phone already buzzing again with more calls he had no intention of answering tonight.

Chen Wan was also served food and kept hidden until the situation was taken care of.

Shuyin moved through the mansion’s corridors with a single-minded purpose, her enhanced senses guiding her toward what she’d sensed earlier but hadn’t had the energy to investigate.

Water.

A large body of water, somewhere within this sprawling estate.

She followed the pull of it, that primal connection her kind had always had to their element, until she reached a door marked "Private Pool - Staff Restricted."

Perfect.

She pushed through the door and descended a set of stairs that opened into an enormous underground natatorium. The pool itself was Olympic-sized, built into what appeared to be a converted basement with high ceilings and mood lighting that cast rippling shadows across the water’s surface.

But it was what lay at the far end that drew her attention.

The pool wasn’t just long, it was deep. Incredibly deep. Lu Yuze had apparently had a diving well installed, a section where the bottom dropped away into darkness, easily fifteen meters or more.

Deep enough.

Dark enough.

Private enough.

Shuyin shed her clothing without ceremony, letting the expensive fabrics pool on the tile floor. Her human body, pale and marked with the faint shimmer of recovering from energy depletion, stepped to the pool’s edge.

And then she dove.

The moment the water closed over her head, she felt it, the immediate, overwhelming sense of rightness. This was her element. Her home. Even chlorinated and confined, water was water, and it welcomed her like a lover’s embrace.

She swam toward the deep end, toward the darkness where the diving well plunged down, and as she descended, she reached for the part of herself she’d kept carefully suppressed since arriving in this borrowed body.

Her true form.

At first, nothing happened. The human body remained stubbornly human, legs kicking to maintain depth, lungs beginning to burn slightly from lack of air.

But then...

Shifting....

It started in her legs, a tingling sensation that spread rapidly upward. Bones restructured themselves with soft pops and cracks that would have been agonizing if she’d still been purely human. Her legs fused together, skin transforming into scales that gleamed like jade and silver in the dim underwater light.

Her tail formed, powerful, elegant, ending in fins that caught the water with perfect efficiency.

Her hands developed slight webbing between the fingers. Her ears shifted, becoming more streamlined. And most importantly, her lungs adapted, gills opening along her ribs to filter oxygen directly from the water.

She was home.

Not literally, this was still a prison of concrete and chemicals compared to the vast ocean depths she’d been born in. But in this form, in this element, she was finally, completely herself.

Shuyin, no, Kailani, because that was her true name, the one her father had given her when she’d been born as a princess of the deep, swam in lazy circles through the diving well, testing her transformed body.

Everything worked. Everything was as it should be.

The transformation was complete.

Which meant....

She could go home.

Eventually. When her business here was finished. When she’d fulfilled her promises and collected what she was owed.

She could go home and she wasn’t trapped in this human form forever. The relief of that knowledge was almost overwhelming.

But there was more than relief flooding through her now.

There was power.

In her true form, in her element, her abilities were magnified a hundredfold. The energy she’d depleted healing Yuyan and killing Chen Ting was already replenishing, the water feeding her essence directly, restoring what had been lost.

She could feel her strength returning, building, flowing through her like an electric current through water.

And with that restored strength came clarity.

Memories of the phone calls Lu Yuze had been receiving all evening. The Chen family, demanding answers, making threats, promising destruction.

Madam Liu’s voice, cold and venomous: I’m going to take everything from you. Your business. Your reputation. Your freedom.

Chen Wei’s suspicious questioning clearly builds a case against Lu Yuze.

Chen Guowei’s rage, barely contained, was blaming Lu Yuze for his son’s death and swearing revenge.

They were going to come for him. For the man who’d given her shelter, who’d kept her secrets, who’d protected Chen Wan because Kailani had asked him to.

They were going to destroy him because of her.

Because she’d killed their son, their brother, their heir.

And Lu Yuze would take the fall for it.

Unless.....

Kailani stopped swimming, her tail curling beneath her as she floated in the darkness of the diving well. Her jade eyes, brighter now in their true form, glowed like beacons in the black water.

Unless she removed the threat entirely.

In her human form, killing Chen Ting had taken significant effort. Had depleted her reserves, left her exhausted and vulnerable.

But now, in her true form, with her power fully restored?

Now it would be easy.

Almost trivially so.

She closed her eyes and reached outward with her mind, her consciousness spreading through the water, through the pipes that connected to every part of the city, through the vast network of liquid that humans took for granted but that was, for her kind, as natural as breathing....

She found them.

The Chen family compound, with its ornate fountains and decorative water features, its plumbing, and its pools.