The mermaid’s dark eyes silently observed Shu Tang, his face expressionless.
But Shu Tang had already imagined a conversation for him—
Mermaid: “Eat.”
Shu Tang: Speaking of which, are sharks tasty? She heard that shark meat is sour and the texture seems a bit poor.
Shu Tang stood still, looking as if she was shocked by the sight of the mermaid dragging a shark.
After all, how many people can tear apart a shark with their bare hands? It seems illogical, and with the shark still dripping blood, it added a cruel and bloody aura to the mermaid at that moment.
In fact, after the mermaid woke up, most people reacted this way to him; he should be used to it. However, because of her reaction, a chilling aura emanated from him.
The mermaid silently watched her for a while, then dropped the shark. Although his face was expressionless, his dark eyes watched her obsessively.
Shu Tang continued her imaginary dialogue—
Mermaid: If you don’t eat, you’ll end up like this shark.
Shu Tang’s mom had the same expression every time Shu Tang was picky and refused to eat the meals she carefully prepared.
So, Shu Tang walked over and tugged at the mermaid, asking him, “Can you cook?”
*
Ten minutes later, in the kitchen.
When Shu Tang had previously rummaged through the kitchen looking for something to eat, she had found no ingredients or seasoning, and the stove couldn’t be used because the power was out.
However, the kitchenware in the cabinet was quite exquisite. Shu Tang found a fruit knife and handed it to the tall dark figure next to her.
Shu Tang made her request:
“Cut it into small pieces, discard the tough outer skin and flesh, and keep the tender meat inside.”
“The innards need to be cleaned thoroughly, but keep the liver, it’s delicious.”
The tall dark figure silently watched Shu Tang, who kept her hands in her pockets and urged him with her eyes: Hurry up, aren’t you hungry?
Finally, the dark figure moved.
The mermaid slowly turned around, his hand reaching into the sink, and quickly chopped the shark into small pieces. As the apex predator of the food chain, the deep-sea butcher was very skilled in handling his food.
In the darkness, the knife in the mermaid’s hand gleamed with the faint light from the window, his veins blue, slightly raised with a powerful sense of beauty in his movements.
This scene should have been terrifying, but his actions were beautiful, even somewhat graceful.
Ten years had passed, and the mermaid couldn’t even remember his own name, but some ingrained manners remained like lingering shadows.
However, the mermaid suddenly stopped.
—In the dark, something was glowing.
The spirit entity had some influence on her, and many changes had occurred in Shu Tang, like her newfound love for eating fish; and sometimes, her eyes emitted a green light in the dark.
When she was staying at the dorm, her roommate insisted that Shu Tang wear an eye mask at night because she would often see a pair of glowing round eyes floating in the darkness when she got up to use the bathroom.
Now, as the tall shadow in the kitchen moved, those glowing eyes followed suit.
He moved left, she moved left; he moved right, she moved right.
Finally, the tall shadow slowly turned around.
The glowing round eyes handed over a bowl.
…
Typically, in a horror tale, there would be a bizarre and peculiar monster, along with an unsuspecting victim.
Now, in the dimly lit prison—
Horror tale protagonist: Shark-cutter.
Horror movie fodder: (?﹃?)
Due to limited resources, they ate raw fish slices.
The federation today does not prohibit the consumption of deep-sea fish because, after pollution covered 30% of the Earth’s surface, human living space had been greatly reduced and food had once become scarce, altering the peacetime rules.
If you dare to eat, you could basically eat anything.
However, even so, food was still scarce, and most people could only eat nutrient fluids.
The large chicken leg in the cafeteria was considered a welfare perk for the sanatorium staff, and one had to wake up at six in the morning to queue and scramble for it. Even Shu Tang, a master at snagging meals, could only manage to get a double portion during her night shifts.
So, if it was edible, Shu Tang was always tempted.
Only when Shu Tang tasted it did she realize this fish was not a shark. Though it looked similar, the flesh was tender and sweet, bursting with juiciness at each bite.
Suddenly, the fodder noticed that the horror protagonist opposite seemed even more graceful and handsome.
He also seemed quite skillful and suitable for family life.
She asked, “What’s this fish called?”
The cool and silent horror protagonist across from her naturally didn’t answer.
Shu Tang casually named it: “Let’s call it the Sweet Big Fish.”
After eating her fill, Shu Tang finally regained some energy.
At this point, the fodder finally realized something was amiss, as the horror protagonist opposite her didn’t eat, just quietly observed her every move.
In a horror tale, this usually meant that, after the fodder had eaten her fill, she would be next on the menu.
However, Shu Tang soon realized that the mermaid was almost perfectly mimicking her eating movements.
Cannon fodder: Chew
Main character of the horror story: Chew
Cannon fodder: Chew chew chew
Main character of the horror story: Chew chew chew
Cannon fodder: Why are you copying me like that!
But Shu Tang quickly realized something: He was learning.
Although she didn’t yet understand why, Shu Tang slowed down her pace to let him see more clearly.
Cannon fodder drank water with a “ton ton ton,” and the main character of the horror story followed suit, drinking water with “ton ton ton” as well.
The cannon fodder choked on the water accidentally, and immediately saw the dark eyes of the horror story’s main character turning towards her, as if trying to interpret her action. Shu Tang quickly stopped the mermaid: “Don’t learn this!”
The meal ended.
It’s often said that the dining table is the best place to foster relationships—
Shu Tang and the silent mermaid across her shared a meal, and she felt that their relationship had made a qualitative leap, moving from “not acquainted” to “somewhat acquainted.”
At this moment, outside the window, it had turned completely dark.
The rain, however, had not stopped but was instead growing stronger.
Shu Tang had to do rounds in the morning and needed to get up early. She hesitated by the window for a while, knowing she would get soaked if she went back now, and it was too late to return to the dorm.
Since they were now “somewhat acquainted,” Shu Tang wanted to ask if she could stay overnight at his place. The place seemed to have many rooms and there were no concerns about improper intimacy.
She was just about to speak, but the mermaid had already lifted Shu Tang up and started heading upstairs.
The mermaid carried her to a room at the end of the second floor.
Distinctively, there was a large iron cage in the room.
The mermaid put Shu Tang inside the iron cage.
Before cannon fodder Shu Tang could panic, the mermaid quickly joined her inside.
His long legs turned into a fish tail, encircling Shu Tang in the middle, and he quietly closed his eyes.
Shu Tang looked at the cage door that remained open: Was this actually his “bed”?!
Shu Tang was somewhat shocked.
But she looked around and decided to lie down.
Because, compared to the hard stony floor below, the bottom of the cage had a thick black mat, made of an unknown material, softer than a mattress. Moreover, the cage was the only shelter from the wind.
Shu Tang: Sigh, I’m so sleepy, I only slept for two hours this afternoon!
Because there’s still a monster in the cage, and this monster is particularly large, making it a bit crowded.
Shu Tang nudged him: “Can you move a bit to the side?”
The monster didn’t respond, seemingly asleep.
Shu Tang thought enviously: Sleep quality really is better without work stress.
*
Thus, the doomed Shu Tang peacefully fell asleep.
People like her usually don’t live past a day.
Indeed, after the doomed Shu Tang fell asleep, the tall mermaid in the darkness opened his eerily odd eyes.
Shu Tang had initially slept a bit away from the mermaid, but after she fell asleep, he used his tail to pull her closer.
The mermaid’s pitch-black eyes stared at her, drawing near.
His slender fingers could easily tear apart her soft body; her breathing was faint, her hair soft. In front of the mermaid in the darkness, she had no means of defending herself.
Animals rely on their sense of smell to differentiate, and compared to vision, the deep-sea butcher’s sense of smell on land is clearer and more sensitive.
The pheromones emitted by Shu Tang were not of flowers or grass but smelled somewhat like baked bread, like the warm, dry scent of a sun-bathed kitten, which was out of place in the perennially rainy South Island City and starkly different from the gloomy forbidden area.
These pheromones weren’t aggressive or predatory, just lazily inviting, very conducive to sleep.
Since waking up, sharp neural pain had left this fierce monster extremely irritable. He had returned to his den countless times, yet he couldn’t close his eyes, with countless signals and radio waves chaotically scurrying above the forbidden land. His overly developed hearing allowed him to hear many noises; it was very noisy.
Shu Tang was completely unaware of the looming danger. The two hours of daytime sleep were clearly not enough for her; she slept deeply, her breath long and rhythmic, much like a kind of sleep-inducing white noise.
Miraculously, the mermaid’s restless aura was soothed, and the twitching neural pain seemed to slowly alleviate.
The tall dark shadow slowly retracted its sharp teeth, maintaining its proximity to her, and quietly closed its eyes.
…
Although a fierce monster slept beside her, Shu Tang still slept soundly.
At six o’clock, Shu Tang woke up.
She really wanted to continue sleeping, but their department had a twisted rule that required punching the clock, especially for interns, with a deduction of two hundred for being late.
Shu Tang really didn’t want to go to work.
She sat up, hoping against hope as she looked at the mermaid, wishing that if she walked just two meters away, the mermaid would immediately pull her back.
That way, wouldn’t she be able to skip work and go back to sleep in comfortably?
Shu Tang left the cage.
Shu Tang walked three meters.
Turning her head, Shu Tang saw the mermaid with its eyes closed, showing no signs of awakening.
Weren’t the rules of this spooky tale that if she moved two meters away, she would be pulled back?
Undeterred, Shu Tang tested her luck by walking back and forth several times.
But the mermaid seemed to be in a deep sleep.
Disappointed, Shu Tang left dejectedly.
Indeed, the “Bastille” had no exit, and Shu Tang couldn’t push open the stone door.
But Shu Tang could climb through the window.
The window was rather small for a larger alpha, but Shu Tang could squeeze through.
First, she went to the kitchen to serve breakfast, setting out a portion for the mermaid and fetching a cup of water from the fortress’s water filter.
However, speaking of which, do mermaids drink freshwater or seawater?
Regardless of whether the mermaid could understand or not, Shu Tang left a note on the table.
In the end, she went back to look at the mermaid one last time.
The tall mermaid maintained a sleeping posture, and the dim morning light coming in still couldn’t reach its dark corner. Such a fierce and large mermaid looked surprisingly gentle in sleep, with long eyelashes the same silver-white color as its hair. Shu Tang couldn’t resist reaching out to touch them.
So long, tickling her palm.
She took off her coat and covered him with it, then climbed out the window.
The cannon fodder who survived by luck felt lost:
Sigh, she really wished she could be captured so she wouldn’t have to go to work.