Section 36: Yuwen Wan'er, Marriage Recruitment Assembly

Yuwen Wan'er was sixteen this year.

On Mermaid Island, sixteen was no longer young—it was the age to discuss marriage. If a girl passed that age without marrying, she would be forbidden from marrying for the rest of her life. This was a tradition Mermaid Kingdom had inherited for tens of thousands of years.

This tradition had originally been gradually abandoned, but over the past several decades, after the Mermaid King took power and issued new decrees, it was revived and even vigorously promoted. Nowadays, girls of fourteen or fifteen on Mermaid Island had already begun making plans for marriage. In the eyes of Mermaid Kingdom's people, a sixteen-year-old girl was already an old maid.

This was not due to the Mermaid King's harsh rule, but to Mermaid Island's unique national circumstances.

On Mermaid Island, women outnumbered men, and the population was sparse. Of newborns, eight or nine out of ten were girls; only one or two were boys. In earlier years, Mermaid Island's population had even suffered negative growth. If that continued, the population would inevitably wither away, the nation would cease to be a nation, and the consequences would be grave.

The Mermaid King had no choice but to encourage and guide this tradition. Every year, she held a nationwide marriage-seeking convention, drawing talented young men from other lands to come and wed the girls of Mermaid Kingdom.

The women of Mermaid Kingdom enjoyed a fine reputation throughout Star Continent. Together with the women of Stable Kingdom, they were hailed as Star Continent's twin walls, each with her own strengths. Every year, great numbers of young men traveled thousands of miles to Mermaid Island, displaying their talents in hopes of marrying its beauties.

The Mermaid King had successively issued many decrees encouraging young men from foreign lands to