Wangji was on a night hunt, just outside Caiyi Town. The cold November air filled his lungs as he gracefully glided through the trees on his trusty sword, Bichen.

He weaved his way through the tall and fragrant bamboo stalks, as a vast snowy lake came into view. The moonlight gently shone over the surroundings, as a few birds flew overhead, their feathery silhouettes mirrored on the water's surface, with only the slightest of ripples caused by an icy breeze from the north.

Wangji always loved the serenity of BiLing lake, especially the outskirts. Hardly anyone lived there except for a few local fishermen and their families. It was the kind of place Wangji adored. Quiet, and peaceful.

As he came to a slow descent, he jumped from his sword and landed on the ground with a soft thud.

The snow crunched under his feet as he walked along the edge of the lake. As he took a deep breath in, he identified each and every smell.

Sweet plum blossoms, dead leaves hidden under the snow, and...

The smell of blood.

Now picking up his pace, he searched for the source. As he went further in, the smell intensified. It was fresh, he could tell. After a minute of searching, the smell became almost unbearable as the coppery tinge invaded his nose.

Coming to a small dip in the grass filled with water, he identified the source at last.

A young woman was sprawled out on the grass, half submerged in water and covered in blood and cuts. She looked deathly pale and was shivering, her yellow hanfu was stained with red and brown.

Not wasting a second, Wangji instantly rushed over to the woman's side. Crouching down on the slushy snow and dirt, he checked her for injuries. It wasn't good. She had numerous cuts along her arms, most likely caused by a sword, and a large hole in her abdomen in which an arrow was half sticking out.

Anyone else would automatically see that she wasn't going to make it. But Wangji was a bit stubborn.

Ripping off a piece of fabric from his robes, he bundled it up and pressed down on the wound.

Without any warning, the woman grabbed his wrist, and look at him with a face full of fear and anger.

Wangji flinched, and his breath caught in his throat. Not because of the sudden movement, but because the eyes staring at him were bright neon pink and seemed to be glowing.

At that moment, the glistening full moon appeared, illuminating the surroundings like a floodlight.

Wangji found himself rather dumbstruck at the fact that he hadn't noticed it before, but where the woman's legs should have been, there was a bright red and orange tail.

Her scales glowed in the moonlight, and now that Wangji looked closer, she had green patterns of little ribbons along her arms and cheekbones.

But he could process this information later, right now this woman, fish, whatever she was, was bleeding out profusely.

Prising his wrist out of her vice-like grip, he continued to press on the wound, ignoring the girl's shocked and confused expression.

But instead, the woman simply stared right into his eyes and spoke in a barely audible whisper.

"T-Thank you."

Her skin went icy and her whole body seemed to glow, as her hand went limp in his.

But her body continued to glow brighter and brighter in a fierce pale white glow that momentarily blinded Wangji.

Feeling a huge surge of energy, Wangji covered his eyes as what felt like a colossal tidal wave of sunbeams washed over him. He felt the energy flow inside of him and at the same time go through him like he was nothing but a shadow.

When he opened his eyes, there was nothing but small flickering lights like fireflies floating around where the woman once was.

The strange feeling he had in his chest soon spread to his arms and legs and throughout his entire body.

He felt hot and breathless like he was being burned alive and strangled at the same time.

He was choking, he needed to cool down, or he would die. Snow, snow would cool him down.

Plunging his bare hands into the fresh powder, he buried his face in it.

No, he was still too hot, he couldn't take a breath in. He was going to die.

Frantically looking around, his eyes narrowed on the edge of the lake.

The lake, yes the lake. He needed water, he needed to be in the water.

Dragging himself to the water's edge, he plunged in head first into the icy depths.

It was so cool and refreshing, he felt like he could finally breathe again. He didn't even seem to mind the fact that he was slowly sinking into the murky, pitch-black water.

It wasn't even that dark anyway, just a few more minutes.

He gently kicked his legs in a non-committal attempt to stay close to the surface, although they felt rather odd. Not uncomfortable, but they didn't feel like what he was used to.

Also, he wasn't holding his breath. Or was he? His chest was rising up and down, but he wasn't suffocating.

Feeling a strange sensation behind his ears, he felt them and he was shocked. Two gill-like slits were behind both of his ears. He touched and groped them to the point where he almost hurt himself.

He panicked when he saw a large scaly-looking thing circling the end of his feet. Thrashing around in an attempt to scare the creature off, he was confused when he ended up turning himself upside down.

Although, when he looked up, or was it down? the scaly thing was still there.

Wangji's stomach did a nauseating lurch, it wasn't a creature that was following him. He was the creature.

Where his legs should have been there was a huge blue and green tail.

Frantically rolling up his sleeves, he found there were patterns of purple gentians along his arms that seemed to glow and shimmer even though there was no light source.

After that little discovery, he ended up flailing around even more violently and was now cartwheeling around under the water in a frenzy.

He wasn't sure how to control it and was hyperventilating.

Although, could you even hyperventilate underwater? Well, whatever you wanted to call it, he was panicking.

Eventually, he calmed down. But that was mainly because he made himself rather dizzy and opted to stop moving around.

Taking in a deep breath; again he wasn't sure how, he calmed his mind and schooled his thoughts.

Once he thought about it, the explanation was rather straightforward. that woman was a mermaid, and now, for reasons unbeknownst to him, he was one as well.

Or merman, he assumed.

But he knew what had occurred, more or less anyway, but he didn't have the faintest idea why.

He recalled that warm sensation of energy just before the woman disappeared, and then he felt like he was dying.

This was not good. At all.

What if he was stuck like this forever?! he couldn't live underwater! I mean, technically he could, but he didn't want to!

His mind was going a million Li an hour, and he had no intention of slowing it down. Now was not the time for rationality, he was a goddam carp! Rationality went out the window the moment he turned into a fish!

He couldn't be stuck like this, there must be a way to change back. The woman was wearing human clothing, so she must have bought it from somewhere on land, right?

Meaning, there was a way to change back, and he just had to figure it out.

And he needed to figure it out soon, because judging by the pale light that was slowly illuminating the surface, he had been here a lot longer than he would have liked.

Concentrating hard, he looked down at his le-tail.

Now that he got a closer look it was truly quite beautiful. It was sky blue from his waist down and faded into pale green towards the end. It had small purple flecks in it, and sharp-looking dorsal fins on either end.

It shone brightly like a thousand pearls. But he could admire himself some other time.

picturing in his mind, he imagined that he still had his legs and they were kicking about normally like how normal, non-fishlike limbs, kick about.

Concentrating with all his might, he watched as his tail glowed a pale white just like how the women did and watched with a bright flash as his legs reappeared from out of nowhere.

Unfortunately, his gills also had taken it upon themselves to disappear with his tail, leaving him helpless under the water.

Quickly swimming to the top, he broke through the water's surface with a gasp, as he took deep breaths in of what was definitely air this time.

Blinking the water out of his eyes, he precipitously looked around. After surmising that no one was out on the lake yet, he swam back to shore. Where his abandoned sword was waiting for him in the snow.

Desperate to get home, he unsheathed Bichen and flew away swiftly. Arriving stealthily in Cloud Recesses, he wasted no time getting back to the Jingshi.

Not even giving anyone the chance to see the sight that was Lan Wangji looking like a drowned ferret, he broke the rules and ran back to his quarters.

Slamming the door behind him, he went over to his bed, and sat down, his clothes still soaking wet.

It didn't happen, he told himself as he subconsciously rocked himself back and forth.

It was a dream, or a hallucination, whatever it was, it didn't happen.

He was thrust out of his reverie by a small sneeze. His sneeze to be exact.

Ultimately, it's not a wise idea to go swimming with all your clothes on in the middle of November.

But it didn't happen! There's no reason to be sneezing, he thought.

Though he couldn't actually delude himself to that point. Regardless of whether or not he turned into an aquatic creature, he was still drenched in icy water.

Opting to push these thoughts aside for now, he got up and drew himself a steaming hot bath.

Peeling his icy robes off his porcelain skin and placing them on a side table, he sank into the large tub with a dreary sigh.

Looking down, he saw that his legs were most definitely legs and not a tail.

So that was that, it didn't happen.

But you could try and transform back, a treacherous voice in his head told him.

Shut up and mind your business, he told the voice.

But the voice- I mean he was right. If he can go from merman to human of his preference, then surely it must work the other way around.

Looking around for no reason, he swung his legs over the side of the tub.

Focusing hard, he visualized his tail in his mind's eye. The shimmer of the scales, the vibrancy of the dorsal fins.

As soon as he did this a white flash enveloped his legs, and he was staring down at a massive tail, as the bathtub gave a mighty creak.

This isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening this isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening.

The design on his arms gleamed even more luminous under the dawning sunlight peeking in through the windows. And his skin had a radiant moonlight lustre as he moved his arms about. his skin felt cold but not uncomfortable, and he could see a lot more clearly despite the minimal light in the room.

This. Is. Not. Happening!

yes, it is, the voice bit back.

Shut up! he told the voice.

He reached his hand out to the bath side table without taking his eyes off of his tail, as though it would try and attack him if he did.

With trembling hands, he held up a small mirror, which he almost dropped into the bathtub due to nerves.

Condemning himself for being so uncharacteristically cowardly, he held it up to his face.

Staring back at him weren't his normal dark brown eyes, but sparkling lilac orbs that had an odd tinge of sky blue in the rims.

The pattern went across either side of his cheekbones, like some sort of blush.

The bathtub gave another mighty creak as he flung his head back in utter defeat.

Oh god, this was truly happening wasnt it?

Yep, the voice retorted.

He gave out a small whine as he grabbed at his hair in nervousness.

It was going to be a very interesting year indeed.