Merfolk Pearls (continued)

Yiling poured two pearls out of her purse and held them in her palm.

The pearl wasn't particularly large, but it was round and lustrous, a beauty that Gu Wanning had never seen in either her past or present lives.

"How is it? Isn't it beautiful?" Yiling noticed the amazement in Gu Wanning's eyes and said proudly.

She beckoned with her finger, "Come, let me tell you the story behind this pearl."

Gu Wanning: "..."

They weren't really that close.

Yiling saw her yesterday, she was clearly finding fault with her, looking at her like she was a rival in love.

Today, however, she came to thank him for taking Xu Weibei, and to thank Xu Weibei for not marrying her?

Gu Wanning instinctively disbelieved her, suspecting she harbored malicious intentions.

Could there be a poisonous insect hidden inside those beautiful pearls?

She wouldn't be fooled; she was determined not to be fooled.

As long as she doesn't reach out, nothing will happen.

Don't be greedy. Don't be greedy.

Although that pearl was truly extremely beautiful.

"These are no ordinary pearls; they are the tears of Merfolk," Yiling said.

"Merfolk tears?"

Gu Wanning felt as if she had suddenly entered a world of metaphysics.

"Yes, haven't you heard of Merfolk' tears turning into pearls? These two of mine are Merfolk tears."

Gu Wanning didn't believe it.

She's not a three-year-old.

But Yiling insisted that it was genuine, and that it was indeed Merfolk's pearl.

"Have you ever seen a pearl more beautiful than this?" Yiling asked.

"I've never seen anything like it before. But since it's so precious, Princess, please keep it safe."

Don't try to scam me, and don't try to give me a free lunch. I'm not taking it!

"It's very precious to you, but only so-so to me, because I still have quite a few."

Gu Wanning: "..."

Come on, is this some kind of flaunting of wealth?

"You don't know, do you? I have Merfolk blood," Yiling said proudly.

Gu Wanning: Huh?

You didn't produce this yourself, did you?

She's interested in this. Come on, let me drop a bead for her to see.

Yiling noticed that her gaze was fixed on her eyes and said angrily, "I'm not Merfolk, I can't turn my tears into pearls. What are you looking at me for?"

Gu Wanning: "Oh, so you don't know how."

"Of course not," Yiling said. "My great-great-grandmother... my grandmother would. But these pearls weren't left by her; they were gifts from her Merfolk relatives when she accompanied her mother back to the Merfolk lands."

Gu Wanning: "Oh, I'm disrespectful."

Whose great-great-grandmother isn't formidable?

Her ancestors were even created by the Goddess Nuwa herself.

Legends that are too old are all treated as myths.

But this pearl is truly stunning.

"There are too many people, and there aren't enough pearls to go around. I'm one of the lucky ones, I have eight. I'll give you two, and you promise not to let Xu Weibei marry me," Yiling said.

Gu Wanning leaned back on the small table, relaxed and languid. "I'd like to ask the princess, why was she hostile towards me yesterday, but her attitude has changed so drastically today?"

"Because I really liked him, and I thought if he wasn't ugly, I could take him back to Southern Border and marry him. But he's too fierce! He actually hit people!"

"That makes sense. But there's still one thing I don't understand," Gu Wanning said. "Yesterday, the Marquis caused a huge scene at the post station. Under these circumstances, if you tell your father the truth, will he still force you to marry the Marquis?"

"Of course, my father is completely unyielding on this matter," Yiling said angrily. "Before, when I heard he had married, my father still wouldn't give up; later, when he heard you two were divorced, he wanted to propose marriage, but my mother stopped him, so it's been delayed until now..."

Gu Wanning understood: the King of Southern Border favored Xu Weibei, but the Queen might not necessarily like the marriage.

"... Father promised Mother he wouldn't force me, and then he sent people to tell me about Xu Weibei all the time, praising him as a peerless hero, unparalleled in heaven and earth. But in the end, he was a womanizer. Bah, I despise him!" Yiling said angrily.

She desperately wanted to sprout wings and fly back immediately so her father could see the wound on her head.

Gu Wanning: "Then you can just not marry him. Why go through all this trouble? Doesn't your father consider your feelings?"

"My father certainly cares about me, but sometimes he can be confused... Anyway, take the pearls back, keep an eye on Xu Weibei, and don't let him cause trouble for others."

Gu Wanning: If I don't go to hell, who will?

She didn't want to accept it, but Yiling put down the pearl and left.

Gu Wanning: "..."

What kind of nonsense is this!

She found it all very strange.

The way this Yiling does things is truly baffling.

She didn't move.

When Xu Weibei returned, she told Xu Weibei the whole story.

Xu Weibei's brows furrowed so deeply they looked like they'd crushed a fly. "I've never heard of any marriage proposal for her. Could it have been Grandmother? Whatever, I won't acknowledge it."

Fortunately, his kick yesterday made Yiling hesitate.

If I had known, I would have kicked her one more time; that would have been safer.

Gu Wanning felt that something was wrong, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

She showed Xu Weibei the two pearls.

Xu Weibei glanced at it twice and said, "This is indeed a good thing."

"Are they really Merfolk tears?" Gu Wanning's eyes widened in surprise.

"Yes," Xu Weibei said, "I also received one before and gave it to my grandmother. She loved it so much that she had it set into a hair ornament and wore it often."

Gu Wanning was surprised; Yiling hadn't lied after all.

Furthermore, these pearls are so rare that even the Grand Princess, who is used to seeing fine things, couldn't bear to part with them...

Do Merfolk really exist in this world?

Gu Wanning suspected that she had transmigrated into a fantasy world.

"Merfolk are just a legend; no one has ever seen one," Xu Weibei said. "I think it's mostly hearsay. They were probably just made up by pearl divers on the coast to inflate the price of pearls."