Everyone knows Shi Mu has a lover he keeps hidden from the world, someone who clung to his side for five years, insisting he owed him his life.
Qiao Li is that secret lover.
He was a little merfolk who diligently picked up trash in the deep sea, until one day he found an especially beautiful piece of trash. From the big piece of trash, he learned for the first time that beyond the vast ocean lay another, completely different world.
Shi Mu described it so gently that Qiao Li began to yearn for it. He shed his scales, grew human legs, and wanted to see this other world.
Only after coming ashore did he learn that human society was not as wonderful as Shi Mu had said.
Even though they knew he was afraid of cats, Shi Mu's friends deliberately brought all sorts of kittens and let them chase and scratch him, laughing as he trembled and scrambled to hide.
And Shi Mu knew he couldn't live without water, yet when Qiao Li's legs hurt unbearably and he wanted to jump into the pool for a drink, Shi Mu locked him in a dark little room, ignoring his tearful pleas.
Qiao Li thought perhaps he was simply too clumsy to be liked, so he worked hard to learn the rules of human society, hoping to fit in. All he got in return was even crueler treatment.
He couldn't understand what he had done wrong until he heard it with his own ears:
"Love? Don't make me laugh."
"I only wanted to find a way to save A Sheng through him."
Qiao Li regretted everything. He resolved to leave, but before he could, people in white coats burst in, knocked him unconscious, and carried him away.
A cold blade cut into his fish tail. Pain sent pearls sliding from the corners of his eyes. Through his tear-blurred vision, he saw Shi Mu. So the so-called sincerity had been nothing but lies and exploitation.
When Qiao Li woke again, he was back in the sea. He had forgotten his painful past, remembering only that he must stay away from land and never get involved with humans.
So when he saw someone working hard to clean up the trash on the seabed, he turned and fled without hesitation. But the man didn't give up. Somehow, Qiao Li kept running into this strange man in all sorts of places.
Later, Qiao Li gradually grew used to this strange human. He even heard from him a sad story about exploitation and betrayal.
He asked, "If you were him, would you forgive me?"
Looking at the human's sorrowful, desperate expression, Qiao Li swished his tail, long since healed, and answered with a smile, "Of course not!"
"If you knew firsthand how much it hurts when a merfolk's tail is injured, you wouldn't ask such a silly question!"
Theme: Protecting the environment is everyone's responsibility.
