Cyril looked Ye Chuqi up and down. Only after confirming that nothing seemed wrong with her did he speak. "We found the household that first encountered the Sea Demon, but there was only a man who'd gone mad left there. We couldn't get anything out of him, so we thought we'd wait until you came back to take another look. The tracks along the shore aren't very clear, and many have disappeared altogether. Kailan found traces of Sea Beasts near the mountain and wanted your opinion, too. As for Nora... well, you can see for yourself..."
—She was having far too much fun to stop.
Ye Chuqi spoke slowly, amusement still in her voice. "Big Black, how about you stay with her from now on?"
Big Black Fish scrambled back to shore and set Nora, who was dizzy from all the fun, down on the ground. Not daring to look at Ye Chuqi's expression, he slipped straight back into the space, buried himself in the mud, and meekly blew a bubble.
With every ounce of strength in his body, he conveyed a single message: I'm not leaving. Not even if I die.
Cyril couldn't help chuckling. "You treat Big Black completely differently from Starry."
"Because their personalities are completely different." If she treated Big Black Fish the way she treated Starry, he might sink even deeper into self-doubt, wondering whether Ye Chuqi was about to throw him away.
Because of his origins and the way he had come to her, Big Black Fish had no confidence in himself. He was always trying hard to prove his worth. To him, it was normal for Ye Chuqi to be stern with him and even a little disdainful. If she showed him any tenderness, he might frighten himself into fainting first.
Cyril nodded,