Nobita pointed to himself and asked, "Me? Why me?"

I sighed and said, "Is there anyone else here who speaks Russian besides you?"

Nobita was speechless for a moment, scratched his head, and then had no choice but to turn and run back. Before he had gone a few steps, he turned his head and shouted, "Make sure you tell me what happens later!"

I ignored him and instead followed Madame Rabinovich onto the fishing boat.

As soon as we boarded, the village chief spoke to Madame Rabinovich in urgent Russian for a few moments.

None of us understood, but judging by Madame Rabinovich's expression, we knew it couldn't be good news.

Then the village chief greeted us and led us into the cabin.

The light in the cabin was dim, and a group of elderly fishermen were gathered under the light, arguing heatedly over something on the floor.

The village chief called out, and the fishermen cleared a space, allowing us to approach.

On the floor lay a fishing net. Inside the net, there were no fish, only a few humanoid figures.

At first, I thought they were dead bodies, but upon closer inspection, I saw that these people were covered in scales.

I immediately understood and murmured to myself, "This is... a Merwoman?"

Seeing that I seemed to recognize what was in the net, the village chief questioned me in Russian.

Not knowing how to answer, I pointed toward the sea and then used my hand to trace the curve of a woman's figure.

The village chief shook his head, indicating he didn't understand.

I pointed to the things in the net and said, "Can you open the net so I can take a look?"

The village chief seemed to understand my request. He waved his hands and shook his head, speaking a torrent of Russian, sounding particularly anxious.

I figured he must have some taboo regarding these things, so I abandoned the idea of opening the net.

Just then, Liang Qian, standing nearby, twitched his nose and said to me, "There seems to be a strange smell here."

I sniffed as well and asked, "What kind of smell? Is it fishy?"

Liang Qian shook his head and said, "Smell it closely."

At his urging, I moved closer to the Merwomen and indeed detected, beneath the scent of fish, a sharp, pungent odor, almost like chili peppers.

"This is..." The smell felt incredibly familiar, and suddenly I remembered: it was the scent of the powder from the wings of the Ming E moth!

Alarmed, I quickly motioned for everyone around to clear the cabin, lest they be misled or affected by the Ming E powder.

Just as we retreated, the cacophony of voices rose up behind us. It turned out Nobita had managed to summon the villagers, including Andrei, who had gathered.

Andrei boarded, immediately demanding, "What happened?"

The village chief pointed toward the cabin interior, and Andrei was about to lead a few men inside.

At that moment, I stopped him and said, "Do you have any masks? Better yet, wear a mask."

Andrei looked at me, understood my implication, and nodded.

There were no masks on the boat, but there were simple diving helmets.

Andrei and I each donned one and then re-entered.

Andrei looked down at the figures in the net on the floor, and his realization was immediate: these were Merwoman corpses.

He glanced at me, then walked over, picked up a pair of fish-gutting scissors from the wall, and cut the net open.

Then, three incredibly grotesque Merwoman corpses were revealed before us.

Their faces were triangular, so gaunt they resembled skeletons; they lacked upper lips, leaving two rows of sharp teeth fully exposed. Their noses were flat, essentially just two holes, and their ears were like fish fins.

We examined the three bodies. They had been dead for a long time. Judging by the seaweed entangled around them, the village chief’s crew must have accidentally hauled them up from the seabed. Furthermore, they had clearly been dead for quite some time when they were brought aboard.

Their fatal wounds were all in the abdomen—a circular hole, the size of a bowl, piercing entirely through the body.

This wound was unmistakable to me; it was caused by the feeding apparatus of a Ming E moth.

Andrei, having heard my account of the events beneath the Lop Nur, clearly also recognized the handiwork of the Ming E.

"Are these the things that attacked us on Ruin Island?" I asked Andrei.

Andrei frowned but did not answer.

The reason I asked was that while I hadn't clearly seen the specifics of our attackers on Ruin Island, they absolutely did not look like this. Although the Merwomen bore a superficial resemblance to humans, perhaps due to prolonged life in the sea, their arms and legs were extremely slender, and their hands and feet had webbed structures like a frog’s, making them seem quite deformed. They walked with a severe outward turn of the feet, somewhat reminiscent of the Dragon King in Journey to the West. The black shadows we saw on Ruin Island, however, could move quickly, walking like normal people—a significant difference.

After thoroughly examining every inch of the three corpses, we found nothing else noteworthy and exited the cabin.

Andrei then asked the village chief where the bodies had been retrieved.

Unsurprisingly, the chief replied they were recovered near Ruin Island.

Andrei then inquired if there were any unusual phenomena around Ruin Island.

The chief shook his head, stating that everything on Ruin Island was as usual, still shrouded by the vast, impenetrable white fog.

Andrei and I found this deeply perplexing. Why would Merwomen die at the hands of Ming E moths? It was utterly inexplicable. The Ming E moths were ancient demonic beasts bred by the Lingyu Temple, while the Deban Kingdom on Ruin Island had flourished and was destroyed by a tsunami. It seemed impossible that the Lingyu Temple could have reached that location.

I paused to consider, then said to Andrei, "Mr. Andrei, must we wait until the sea freezes over to visit Ruin Island? I fear that if we delay further, we might miss crucial clues."

Andrei looked at me, then shook his head. "We absolutely cannot go now. Haven't you witnessed the power of that mist? Setting aside the venomous insects and savage beasts, the incredibly dense fog alone can destroy your lungs."

Hearing this, I fell silent, saying no more.

After a while, Andrei and I both stepped out, and Andrei exchanged a few words with the village chief.

I didn't catch the substance of their conversation, but shortly thereafter, several young men came from the village carrying large cages and water barrels.

They first used the barrels to fetch seawater, rinsing the three corpses clean, and then confined the bodies within the cages.

If it had been anyone else, they might have found it amusing—why cage bodies that were already dead? But after hearing Andrei’s story, I understood the villagers’ deep apprehension and awe toward these creatures.

When the three cages were carried off the boat, the villagers who saw the contents began to murmur amongst themselves, some showing expressions of sheer terror. For so long, the Merwoman had been nothing more than a legend. To see the physical manifestation of the monsters their ancestors had battled—the shock was comparable to a Chinese person seeing the corpse of a Dragon.

I asked Andrei how he planned to dispose of the three bodies. Andrei admitted he didn't know and needed to consult with the villagers before deciding.

Then, surrounded by hundreds of villagers, we returned to the settlement.

The three cages were placed in the circular plaza at the center of the village. To prevent a tragedy similar to one that occurred a thousand years prior, the village chief assigned more than a dozen men to guard the cages, and the village's fiercest guard dogs were stationed around the perimeter.

The village chief then invited the elders who held influence in the community to convene and deliberate on a course of action.

Nobita, * and Liang Qian, being outsiders, didn't even have the right to listen in, so we sensibly returned to the village chief's house.

As soon as the door opened, Nobita complained, "Hey, Xiaochuan, what exactly happened? When I ran over later, I couldn't even squeeze in. What was in those cages?"

The others evidently shared my curiosity and looked at me expectantly.

I considered the situation and said, "What’s in the cages isn’t the main issue. But I suspect there are traces of the Lingyu Temple on Ruin Island, which I visited earlier. I think we should find an opportunity to secure a boat ourselves and go take a look. If we wait until the season when the sea freezes, the goose down will already be cold."