Jiang Lin (protagonist)
24 years old, night watchman at an abandoned observation station belonging to the Jinghai Marine Research Institute
Ability: A passive Tide Listener. When he touches seawater, he randomly receives fragments of fish memories. He needs to take suppressants to live a normal life.
Distinctive features: A birthmark on his left shoulder that looks like scales under certain lighting.
Secret: He survived a shipwreck as a child and is both afraid of and fascinated by the ocean.
Fan Duoyu (central image/secondary protagonist)
Not a specific person, but the name for a “collective consciousness” that Jiang Lin unexpectedly establishes a stable connection with during an experiment.
A personified consciousness formed from fused memory fragments belonging to seven endangered fish species.
Distinctive features: It perceives the world through Jiang Lin’s senses, and its speech mixes fragments of classical Chinese with modern internet slang.
Character arc: It gradually develops from the chaotic instincts of a school of fish into a symbiotic consciousness capable of ethical judgment.
Lin Shen (key supporting character)
Chief scientist at the Marine Research Institute and Jiang Lin’s guardian.
Public face: Dedicated to protecting marine ecosystems.
Secret: Secretly leads the “Memory Crystal Cluster” salvage project, hoping to extract ancient civilization’s technology for perceiving time.
Conflict: He treats Jiang Lin as an experimental subject to be protected, yet also forms a father-daughter-like emotional bond with him.
