Oh, hey. So, yeah, I’m literally in my kitchen right now, and I just rescued a merman cub. Things are super complicated: The original me treated the male lead like a personal cash cow, hanging him upside down and forcing him to cry pearls. My own daughter is a total nightmare. And that egg, the one that was about to be boiled alive? Yeah, that’s his sister. So, question: Is it too late for a redemption arc? Seriously, asking for a friend. Help! I burst through the kitchen door. The first thing I saw was a battered blue fishtail, hanging suspended in mid-air. A flood of memories, or rather, *information*, slammed into my brain. I’d transmigrated into a novel, becoming Chloe, the male lead Leo’s wicked aunt. The original Chloe, greedy for her sister Rainey’s estate, had ostensibly adopted Leo, a merman hybrid, and his unhatched sister, Anya. But in reality, she’d turned the boy, who could shed pearls when he cried, into her personal money-making machine. Along with her biological daughter, Hazel, the original Chloe had cruelly abused the little merman. And twenty years later, the adult Leo had brutally sliced her up. Literally, like *sashimi*. The child hanging from the kitchen beam in front of me couldn’t have been more than six or seven years old. His small body was tightly bound from head to tail. Most of his beautiful scales had been pried off, revealing raw, pink flesh underneath. Directly below him, a small wooden bucket held a handful of rice-sized pearls. *This* was Leo? The future male lead? “Mom, what’s up? Is the egg almost ready to cook?” A little girl with bouncy pigtails trotted up behind me, her eyes sparkling with excitement as she peered at the stove. Only then did I notice the large pot full of water on the stove. Inside, a pale blue egg glowed faintly. My heart hammered in my chest. I quickly turned off the burner. The water was already close to boiling. I carefully wrapped the egg in my apron and lifted it out. “Mom, what are you doing? Didn’t you say we were having boiled egg today?” Hazel pouted, clearly annoyed by my actions. “This isn’t an eating egg.” I carefully placed the pale blue egg in the sink and turned on the faucet, trying to cool it down. Then I turned back to the boy still hanging. He’d been struggling frantically since I walked in, his blue eyes continuously shedding tiny pearls. Muffled whimpers escaped his bound mouth. “Don’t be scared, your sister is fine.” I moved towards Leo, but realized I couldn’t reach the rope tied to his fishtail. I grabbed a chair and stood on it. As I worked on the knots, I said to Hazel, “Hazel, sweetie, can you go grab two towels for Mom? The softest ones you can find.” The moment the rope loosened, his skinny body plummeted. I frantically caught him. He was terrifyingly light in my arms, his ribs starkly visible. A faint scent of blood and seawater clung to him. “Mom, are you crazy? If you let him down, where will we get pearls? What about Dad’s medical bills?” Hazel had just brought the towels when she saw me putting Leo down. She tossed the towels at me, yelling. “Hazel! This is your cousin!” I snapped at my daughter, then wrapped Leo in a towel and removed the gag from his mouth. “Sis…” The first thing he did, free from his restraints, was reach for the egg in the sink. I quickly wrapped the other towel around the egg and tucked it into his arms. Only then did Leo truly calm down, clutching the egg tightly. His blue eyes, filled with distrust and fear, stared straight at me. “I won’t ever treat you two like this again.” I murmured softly, my fingers gently brushing over Leo’s wounds, my heart aching with sympathy. But Leo clearly didn’t trust me. He flinched, curling back, his gaze fixed on my hands.
“Mom! See? He doesn’t even appreciate it. He’s such a little monster, no emotions at all.” Hazel pulled at my hand, looking at Leo with disdain. I quickly led her out of the kitchen, ready to give her a serious lecture. To my surprise, Leo, clutching the egg, stumbled out behind us. Before I could react, he pushed open the front door and darted outside. Hazel’s eyes widened in shock. “Mom, the little monster ran away.” “Hazel, that’s not a little monster. That’s your cousin, Leo. He’s your Aunt Rainey’s child, he’s family, okay?” But my little terror just stared blankly, clearly not getting it. “Mom, he ran away. Do I still get the dress you promised to buy with the pearls?” This kid. Spoiled rotten by the original me, she was a true little terror. I sighed and grabbed my jacket, intending to go find Leo. It was so late, and even if he was the protagonist, he was still just a six or seven-year-old kid. “Mom, it’s so dark outside. Why don’t you look for the little monster tomorrow?” Hazel tugged at my sleeve, trying to stop me from leaving. “Hazel, it’s late and cold out there. Wouldn’t you be scared if you were alone outside?” Hazel thought for a moment, then nodded. “Well, Leo is only a year older than you. He’ll be scared too, all alone. I need to go find him.” Finally, Hazel stopped pulling on my sleeve. “Mom, be careful, and please come back safe.” I ruffled her hair, then turned and left.
I scoured the neighborhood with my flashlight, checking every alley, every shadowy corner, even peering into storm drains. But there was no sign of Leo. The night wind bit at me, chilling me to the bone. Then something clicked. I bolted, running towards the nearest beach. Under the moonlight, the sand glowed a cold white. The waves breathed, ebbing and flowing, a steady rhythm. Right at the ocean’s edge, a small blue figure knelt in the water. “Leo!” My shout startled the little merman. He whipped his head around, and when he saw it was me, he clutched the egg and tried to dive into the sea. “Wait, stop! Your tail will get infected!” The seawater was already up to his waist. I rushed into the waves, grabbed his collar, and dragged him back to shore. “There are hardly any good scales left on your tail. Why are you running into the ocean?” His scales were gone because the original Chloe had ripped them off to prevent him from escaping. The saltwater would burn like hell on his raw skin. “Sister…” He clutched the egg tightly, afraid I would try to harm her. “The eggshell turned gray. It needs saltwater.” Only then did I notice the egg’s strange appearance. From the moment I’d pulled it out of the boiling pot, it had looked a sickly, dull grey-blue. “But you can’t soak yourself in the ocean, either. There’s a tide pool area over there; we can go there.” Noticing that the child under my hand was shivering violently, I quickly took off my coat and wrapped it around him.
The tide pools near the shore formed natural basins. I carefully placed the egg in the seawater, and after a moment, its shell regained its vibrant color. I noticed Leo wasn’t doing well. His tail was in saltwater, and his whole body was ice cold. “Leo, how long does it need to soak? Can we just do it for a bit tonight and come back tomorrow? Your wounds need to be treated, too.” “I promise I’ll be able to cry tomorrow. Please, don’t boil my sister.” He tugged at my sleeve, his large blue eyes pleading. My heart ached, a sharp pang of empathy. I pulled the wounded child into a tight embrace, holding him close – this boy, covered in cuts and bruises, yet still clutching his sister’s egg. It felt like I was holding a younger version of myself, the scared, lonely kid from the orphanage. “You won’t have to shed little pearls anymore. I’ll be good to you and your sister.” The little merman curled into a ball in my arms, his damp hair sticking to my arm like seaweed. A while later, once the egg had completely returned to its original color, I held the egg in my arms and carried Leo on my back as we walked back. As we reached the seawall, he suddenly asked, “Why did you… suddenly change?” The world seemed to go quiet, the sound of the ocean fading away. How was I supposed to tell him? That I transmigrated here? That they were just characters in a book? “I had this really long dream… I dreamt about your mom, Rainey. She was furious, pointing her finger right at me, screaming that if I ever treated you two like that again, she’d come back from the grave and string *me* up.” Suddenly, I felt something hard pressed against my back. As I took a step forward, I saw it was a tiny pearl. The child on my back mumbled, “Mom…” When we got home, only a small night light glowed in the living room. Hazel was curled up on the couch, fast asleep. At the sound of the door opening, she immediately sat up and rushed to the entrance to greet us. “Mom! You’re back!” “Yep, we’re back. Hazel, you did great looking after the house by yourself.” I carried Leo towards the bathroom. The steamy air quickly fogged up the mirror. “Hazel, can you help Mom grab the medical kit? It’s the blue box under Mom’s bed.” She quickly ran back with the medical kit. “Little monster, where did you run off to? Why are you carrying that egg? Wasn’t it for us to eat?”
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