CHAPTER 90: CHAPTER 90; A BEAUTIFUL JADE MERMAID 1

She found Madam Liu, sitting in her bathroom, staring at her reflection in the mirror, plotting Lu Yuze’s destruction while she prepared for bed.

Found Chen Wei, in his shower, washing off the smell of his mistress while already mentally drafting the lawsuit he would file against Lu Yuze.

Found Chen Guowei, in his study with a glass of water beside him, making calls to corrupt officials who would help him bury Lu Yuze legally.

Found Chen Hao, in his basement prison, drinking whiskey while his latest victim cried in the corner.

All of them. The entire rotten family was there. No one was a little bit better... They didn’t deserve any humanity, and whatever she hated was men; they have always been beneath her feet.

All of them were connected by water.

All of them were vulnerable.

Kailani smiled, though in her mermaid form, it looked more like a predator baring her teeth.

Found you, she thought. All of you.

And she squeezed their brains.

CHEN FAMILY COMPOUND - 1:47 AM

Madam Liu was in the middle of her skincare routine when the first pain hit like a torrent.

It felt like someone had grabbed her brain and started crushing it, like invisible hands were compressing her skull from all sides. She gasped, her expensive moisturizer dropping into the sink as her hands flew to her temples.

"What....."

But she couldn’t finish the sentence. The pressure intensified, and suddenly she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything except feel the cold presence rifling through her memories like someone flipping through a filing cabinet.

’You threatened him,’ the presence observed with clinical detachment. ’You promised to destroy the man who protects mine. That was very unwise of you woman!’

And then, how can this woman exist and watch her fellow women get beaten and tortured by this family she created and the stupid sons she had born?

Madam Liu tried to scream, but only a choked gurgle emerged. Blood began trickling from her nose.

’You hurt women,’ the presence continued, now digging deeper, finding memories Madam Liu had buried. ’Taught your son to hurt them. Created a legacy of suffering. The world will be better without you.’

The pressure increased one final time, and something essential broke.

Madam Liu collapsed, her body hitting the bathroom tile with a heavy thud. Her eyes stared sightlessly at the ceiling, blood pooling from her nose and ears.

Heart attack, the coroner would eventually determine. Stress-induced, brought on by the grief of losing her son.

Tragic, but not suspicious.

In the guest house, Chen Wei never made it out of the shower.

He was rinsing shampoo from his hair when his brain simply... stopped. The presence touched his mind briefly, almost carelessly, like someone swatting a fly away.

Collateral, it noted dismissively.

Chen Wei’s body crumpled in the shower stall, water continuing to cascade over him as his heart gave its last, stuttering beats.

Drowning, they would say. Slipped and hit his head, lost consciousness under the spray.

Unfortunate, but these things happened.

Chen Guowei died mid-phone call, clutching his chest and gasping into the receiver while the corrupt official on the other end listened in a growing alarm.

"Chen? Chen, are you there? What’s happening...."

But Chen Guowei couldn’t answer. The cold presence had found every dark secret, every evil deed, every person he’d destroyed to build his empire, and judged him wanting.

Another predator, it observed. The bloodline is rotten.

Massive coronary, they would say. The stress of losing his son, combined with his age and pre-existing conditions. He succumbed...

Sad, but not suspicious.

Chen Hao, in his soundproofed basement, had time to realize something was wrong.

He felt the presence enter his mind and immediately knew this was no natural occurrence. His last thought before the crushing pressure obliterated his consciousness was a question:

What are you?

The presence answered with an image, vast ocean depths, scales that gleamed like jade, eyes that glowed with ancient power.

Retribution, it said simply.

Chen Hao’s body seized, every neuron firing randomly before shutting down entirely. He collapsed onto the floor beside his latest victim, who stared at his corpse with wide, terrified eyes, not understanding what had just happened but knowing, somehow, that she was free.

Stroke, the medical examiner would determine. Sudden cerebral hemorrhage. His lifestyle choices had caused all these, the drinking, the drugs, the stress, and had finally caught up with him.

Predictable, really.

LU ESTATE - POOL - 1:52 AM

Kailani snapped open her eyes in the dark water, her jade gaze glowing like twin stars.

It was done.

The entire Chen family leadership, gone in less than five minutes. All the major threats have been eliminated. All the people who would have come for Lu Yuze, who would have investigated, who would have tried to destroy him for crimes he hadn’t committed.

Were all removed.

And no one would ever know how.

Four sudden deaths in one family compound would raise questions, certainly. Would spark investigations. But what would they find?

It will be just Medical emergencies. Heart attacks. Strokes. Drowning.

All explainable. All tragic. All the kinds of things that happened to people under extreme stress.

The family had just lost their heir. These things happened.

No one would suspect the truth, that a woman had been swimming in a pool fifteen kilometers away and had simply decided they needed to die.

No one would ever make that connection.

Kailani swam upward, her powerful tail propelling her toward the surface with effortless grace. She broke through into the air, her gills closing as her lungs expanded to take in oxygen the human way.

That night, Kailani didn’t leave the pool.

Why would she? This was the closest thing to home she’d experienced since being captured three years ago. The water, though confined and chemically treated, was still her element. Still her sanctuary.

After eliminating the Chen family threats, she’d simply continued swimming, enjoying the freedom of her true form, the way her tail cut through the water with effortless grace, the way her scales caught what little light filtered down into the depths.