Life and death have always been a heavy and easily depressing subject, both adults and children – especially these children are not as simple-minded and shallow as their peers elsewhere, each of them has dressed their loved ones or neighbors in black mourning clothes, and some of them have even heard or witnessed brutal murders, their breathing stops, their bodies are cold, and their lives are fleeting and irretrievable...... Occasionally, warm blood and brains with a sweet smell would fly directly onto their eyelids and shoes—not something that could be concealed by the fiery air, the warm water, the bright sunshine, the fresh and delicious food, or even the hugs and prayers of their mothers.

Beelzebub, who was immersed in the sea, twisted his neck unnaturally, and he scratched at his hair, looking a little uneasy, perhaps because he had exposed too much of Poseidon Island and his secret relationship—but there was not much remorse in those dark olive-colored eyes—which was rare. It is often said, "Don't weep over spilled milk," but many times even adults are firmly controlled by useless remorse, complaining all day long, doing nothing, cowardly drowning in the gloomy mire of the soul and unable and unwilling to extricate themselves.

"Let's do something that doesn't need to be talked about," said one of the boys, who swam over and suggested in a contemptuous tone, "now that we're here, let's play a fun old trick to welcome our new friends." As he spoke, he kept staring at Sasha—the boy was dark and thin, with sharp yellow eyes and a long pointed nose, and the children nicknamed him 'Nail', for though he was small, but fierce and stubborn, and if anyone annoyed him, he would be killed, for even if his father's whip broke his back, he would first bite off a few pieces of flesh from you—before Sasha appeared, he was the closest friend of Beelzebub the "chief", like body and shadow, but now, His position and glory were easily taken away by a fair-skinned and brittle "city" child, which made it difficult for him to accept and understand, sad and angry, this emotion blinded his eyes and ears, and he was unwilling to accept this little outsider according to the wishes of "Don" and Beelzebub like other children, and he remained dead on the other side, full of defensiveness and hatred.

"Next time," said Beelzebub, "I was hungry, and I remember old Andreana making cream lobster and apple pie to-day, both of which had to be ...... hot."

"It won't take a few minutes," says Nails, before the other kids can react, "and our guests will love the game right away, okay?" He tilted his head into the sea and grinned a malicious smile: "Look, I'll do a demonstration first." ”

Sasha noticed that several children did not speak after the "nail" spoke, and turned their eyes to him, and their eyes were slightly evaluative - from the children, as long as the men gathered together, they would consciously or unconsciously try to rank others and themselves, but in the nineteenth district, the children relied more on appearance, clothing, grades, and the degree of love by teachers and parents, and force was certainly a part of it, but it did not account for a large proportion, and here it is much more straightforward and frank, Masoye was born here, and the natives of Poseidon Island worship violence, love violence, and see it as a form of justice – in a sense, yes.

"Nails" was the first to swim back to the Tridacnus settlement, took a deep breath on the surface, and then dived into the sea without hesitation. The water was so clear that the children who followed closely behind could clearly see that the "nail" had chosen an extraordinarily large holy water shell (i.e., the clams, because in the past, people used to use its shells to hold "holy water", hence the name), and then slowly and gently stretched their legs into the fat and dazzling mantle with layers of beautiful patterns - the frightened shell reacted immediately, and the bright red mantle wrapped tightly around the two thin legs of the "nail" like a greedy and hungry mouth curled eagerly inward, The two heavy, angular shells closed together with hundreds of pounds of muscle, not as fast as the small shells to catch with the naked eye, but not as slow as one might think - the "nail" that barely managed to break free in time was almost caught in the right foot. The edges of the shells of the holy water shells are parasitic with countless sharp snails, small sea shells and oysters, which are like the fine teeth that grow on the shells of the holy water shells, because they cannot be completely sealed, but the gaps left are not enough for people to pull out their hands and feet, and children can't.

Ordinary clams are difficult to open once the double shell is closed, not to mention the holy water shell that is thousands of times the size of the clam, yes, scalding the clam with boiling water will open the embrace, but unless the volcano erupts, no one can boil the entire shallow sea, not to mention that in that case, the first to be scalded will only be the unfortunate victim, so the common practice of the residents of Poseidon Island is to directly cut off the clamped limbs.

Of course, children cannot go into the sea with heavy and sharp knives, and even if they do, they may not be able to accumulate the strength and courage to cut off the hands and feet of living people in a short period of time...... But taking a step back, hemorrhage can also lead to death...... So, if they don't want to watch their companions suffocate to death, they have a third, and last, option - to seek help from the nearest adult or adults, the problem is that victims confined in the sea often can't wait long - and all they can do is recover the body along with the holy water shell.

Every year, children die because of this, and no one has ever been stern to stop this dangerous "game of braves".

The "nail's" feet were as if they had been scraped by an iron grate, and from the calves to the toes, there were clear and bright red marks everywhere, and the blood was quickly carried away by the seawater, and his face was distorted in pain, and his nose was wrinkled, and he looked like he would cry out at any moment. But the children had already gathered around, and they grabbed the arm of the "nail", carried him to the surface, and cheered at him, so that on the same face, the pain disappeared like lightning, and was replaced by double triumph and satisfaction.

Beelzebub blinked calmly, he didn't gather around to cheer like the other children, but he didn't look disapproving. He patiently waited for his former subordinates to calm down, and then dived into the sea without hurrying, the double water shells he selected were not as big as the "nails" selected, which was more dangerous, because the smaller the holy water shells, the smaller the gap was reserved, and the faster it closed.

Like Nail, Beelzebub reached into both legs at once, but with a taller and stronger body than his peers, he was much more agile and nimble than Nail, and was sure that every child had seen what he had done—after doing a more beautiful job than Nail, he curled up like a lively octopus and got rid of the huge colorful "lips" with lightning lightning, unharmed.

"That's it, it's easy." Beelzebub said, "You only need to stretch out one hand and go in." Pick a big one. He reminded.

Sasha accepted his kindness, and after taking a deep breath, he sank into the warm blue waters, and in the corner of the holy water shell colony stood a standard behemoth, standing there like a rock crawling with seaweed and parasites, the wheels arranged in close proximity, one layer after another, impossible to count—it may have lived for more than three centuries by the length of a shell, which is roughly the height of an adult.

Its coat is lake blue, sky blue, sapphire blue and cobalt blue, dotted with dark blue dots, and Sa Sand swims close to it, curiously touching the cold shell, it reminds Sa of the proud work of Madame de Pompadour, the mistress of Louis XV, a whalebone dress with opalescent background, dark golden flowers, undulating edges, and dense with precious stones. Little Hopkins' fingers were in its body and it felt very bizarre, and the mantle was smooth and dry (can you imagine?). In the sea) and warm, it squirmed, with great force, greedily sucking the sandy fingers, hands, wrists, arms...... Blue swelled in front of the purple eyes, and the mantle rolled wildly in a matter of seconds...... Beelzebub's new friend plunged into it, and in the blink of an eye, most of it was gone.

This was something that no one could have imagined, including the "nails", and the children panicked at once, led by Beelzebub, and they tried to pull out the sasha—but they could not compare with the strength of such a large holy water; Or stop the two scallops from closing – stuffing them with small clamshells or crushed coral reefs buried in the sand...... The shells continued to gather slowly but unswervingly, and the smaller ones and the reef didn't bother it in any way—they were crushed in an instant.

A child mouths Beelzebub in a "what to do" gesture, and Beelzebub, with his black eyebrows furrowed, thinks for about three seconds and makes an upward gesture.

Even if it was his own brother who had the accident, there was nothing he could do, he was still burdened with the lives of other children, and the rescue just now had consumed most of the children's strength, and it would be dangerous to stay any longer, and they had done their duty.

But in the blink of an eye, something even more surprising happened, for the shell suddenly and violently trembled, and then, so to speak, it opened again so quickly, and the sand was "spit out", and Beelzebub threw himself at it, grabbed his hand, and immediately floated up as fast as he could—his lungs were about to explode.

They weren't very fast, but the last one to stumble onto the beach was "Nail", the boy looked bad, his face was gray, his lips were purple, he was panting heavily, he felt like his legs were fried in oil, and there were people who kept adding fire.

Sasha and Beelzebub fell side by side, little Hopkins blackened with the pain of suffocation, intelligent beings had always been his friends and accomplices, but he had not suffered from them.

Their wisdom is certainly admirable, but it can also be inadequate at times; And he won't be too merciful when he instinctively or simply wants to teach you a lesson—Big Hopkins is fierce and agile enough for both humans and animals, but Sasha has been wounded several times under his care—and before he can control his strength and ability, he's had his ribs broken by anacondas, he's been bitten in the face by crocodiles, and the little monkeys have fought with him, and his fingernails have nearly gouged out his eyes, not to mention all sorts of accidents caused by birds, mice, fish, and endless insects.

If it weren't for the fact that his body had been unusually strong since infancy (and, of course, the damn healing powers), Great Hopkins would have had to leave that dangerous but safe natural shelter years early.

It must be noted that the hostility of such behavior is only a very small part of the case—more often, the adult beast is purely instinctive and experienced to protect this strange but comfortable human toddler, as the blue mantle holy water mussel does—it senses danger and generously opens its arms.

It was difficult to express gratitude for the sand, which was neither a fish nor a shrimp, and he almost drowned in that soft and beautiful chest.

Now he just wants to relax, slump his limbs, breathe fresh air and lie down on the beach for a while.

The other children, including Beelzebub, thought the same way, which caused it to take a while for the "nail" to be discovered - the creepy bright red whip marks appeared on his thighs and waist, crisscrossed and covered with tiny blisters, and the "nail" was blue and breathless, and his hands were clutched to his chest.

Beelzebub asked in a loud voice, but everyone could answer what had happened, not the "nail", and he could not speak.

"Jellyfish." Sasha said he now knew what the "danger" was, and at first thought it was a shark attracted by a wounded "nail" — it was much worse than he thought, the tens of millions of stinging cells on the slender tentacles of the poisonous jellyfish contained more venom than a shark, and it was silent and elusive. Fortunately, the children of Poseidon Island were no strangers to jellyfish, and they had only been a little dazed by panic and fear, but since there was a reminder of the sand, they immediately took action, Beelzebub took some of the children into the sea with the wrists and condyles of the "nail", and washed the place where he was stung with seawater, while other children called out to the adults, who would bring vinegar, wine, and injections to detoxify the jellyfish.

"We've got to go far." Beelzebub shouted that the troublesome jellyfish might still be floating around.

"Did you see it?" Beelzebub asked.

"Only the tentacles of the great jellyfish can leave such a clear and wide mark unconsciously," Sasha said, "and the jellyfish should be gentle, and we can see it—only a lion's mane jellyfish or a monk's hat jellyfish have transparent tentacles tens of feet long, so that people don't have time to guard against it." He felt a little exhausted, "Can you climb the rocks over there?" Maybe where can I see them......"

His words were interrupted by a sudden shout.

The method of washing away the tentacle stinging cells and venom with seawater worked, but the jellyfish's toxin had completely penetrated into the body of the "nail", and the pain caused by the toxin gradually intensified, and after a small peak, the "nail" rolled in the sea, and a child did not catch him, and Beelzebub was almost thrown out.

Beelzebub didn't have time to ask anything more, he had to press the "nail" so hard that he almost used up his last strength.

"Nail" howled, his lips and sides of his tongue bitten by himself. "For the sake of Our Lady, find something to gag his mouth!" Bessiber shouted.

Sachari pulled off Nail's underwear, rolled it tightly into one, and carefully but forcefully poked it between Nail's snow-white teeth.

(To be continued)