The two most embarrassing things Lin Xi has ever done are these: she spent three years learning to swim and still never mastered breathing; and after choking on water and sinking to the bottom yet again, scales sprouted behind her ears.
She became a mermaid. The most useless mermaid in history: she can't even master breathing, her tail pops out whenever she gets emotional, and when she eats seafood, she can hear the "last words of the victims."
Lu Yu has been searching for her for seven years. His database contains 237 cases of "suspected mermaids." The 238th is Lin Xi, a clueless girl who spends every day in the pool until closing time. He shows up with his equipment, saying he wants to conduct research. But somewhere along the way, he researches himself into becoming her personal "translator on land."
But Lin Xi's mother was once a mermaid too. She plucked out her own scales just to become a "normal" wife and mother. On the night of the spring tide, the choices of two generations converge. Standing in the seawater, Lin Xi asks herself: be a fish, or be human?
Lu Yu crouches on the shore, clutching a ring recreated from the spectral signature of her mother's scales.
"Your mom had to pluck out her scales before she dared to love someone. You don't have to. Whatever you are, I can accept you."
