Where there are people, there are societies, even in forbidden areas. The people here are broadly divided into two factions:
One faction consists of therapists, who know little of the inner workings and are primarily responsible for following the instructions of Director Qiu to provide treatment and argue. They are very wary of the threat from Subject 001.
The other faction is represented by Chen Sheng, an alpha. A large portion of them were originally subordinates of Zhu Yan who voluntarily transferred over. They are tight-lipped and highly protective of Subject 001.
Physical and verbal conflicts often occur between the two groups in the cafeteria, tea room, and bathrooms. However, they generally do not interfere in each other’s territories.
This delicate balance was disrupted by the arrival of Shu Tang. Because she was transferred into the therapists’ team in the forbidden area by Chen Sheng, she essentially meddled in the therapists’ affairs, leading to her natural isolation.
Especially since Shu Tang is an intern, everyone thought she might be a relative of Chen Sheng. She had access to data solely because Colonel Chen obtained some secret weapon that brought him close to Subject 001, and he paved the way for her.
However, when the second major meeting began, 17 scallops had brewed countless advanced workplace PUA skills, eagerly waiting for the little intern to appear. The meeting room was filled with laughter and chatter.
When the door opened, a familiar tall figure appeared.
Familiar because he often visited these therapists’ nightmares.
The room fell dead silent.
Then, Shu Tang poked her head in and asked, “Why isn’t anyone laughing anymore? Is it your nature not to laugh?”
Everyone: “……”
Shu Tang smoothly got her chance to speak. And today, she had refuted their earlier point with her actions.
—They said in the meeting that “he” was a monstrous, inhumane creature with three heads and six arms. She appeared with the monster, telling them that “he” did not have three heads and six arms, nor the imagined savagery. He could even sit quietly in the meeting room dressed as neatly as the therapists.
That day, the irreversible sense of loss completely disappeared from her.
The two of them sat in a corner, so everyone dared not look in the direction of the mermaid.
Shu Tang quietly told the mermaid, this is called “using power to bully others, a fox exploiting the tiger’s might.”
But the mermaid only felt—
When she smiled, her eyes sparkled brightly.
This proud little cat was very spirited and adorable when excited.
The two left contentedly.
But they didn’t know, once they left, the 17 scallops slumped on their chairs, looking at each other.
…
Because communication went “smoothly,” that night Shu Tang received a new treatment plan and special medicine. Director Qiu said that if the current stable state could be maintained for two months without further psychic outbursts, the research institute could move to the next phase of treatment.
That sentence, “There is hope for recovery,” made Shu Tang’s mood even better.
That night, Shu Tang tried to secretly release her large chicken leg spirit, climbing onto that huge being outside to begin psychic diversion.
Director Qiu said her compatibility with the mermaid was high. If the psychic diversion was done by her, the effect would far surpass that of others.
So, Shu Tang decided to follow the new treatment plan, releasing her spirit every night to meet the mermaid’s spirit.
The mermaid discovered on his first night that a sneaky large chicken leg, in the form of a cat, was approaching his spirit. However, he didn’t make any rash moves.
The vast spirit became interested and observed curiously.
He noticed that the little cat would climb onto him every night, releasing a gentle wave. This wave was fascinating, like singing a lullaby to a monster, causing the large and fierce spirit to subconsciously become calm and serene.
At that time, the mermaid would naturally let his vast spirit extend a blue wave to envelop the cat. But because his spirit was so fierce and overly large, he only approached the cat when it fell asleep, buzzing with excitement.
The blue spirit would touch the cat’s nose and stroke its trembling whiskers.
The cat would often swipe it away with a paw.
Thinking in its sleep: “Who is this, really has no sense of boundaries.”
But even less sense of boundaries was yet to come.
Perhaps because it couldn’t bear to let go, and the cat’s scent was so comforting, the blue giant occasionally used its spirit to “swallow” the cat completely into its large, transparent body.
The cat in the dreams began to struggle: Is there a dog?
After dreaming for several days that a dog had swallowed her head, Shu Tang often woke up and subconsciously touched her head, relieved to find it still there.
Shu Tang did suspect it might be the mermaid next to her.
But the enormous creature didn’t move at all when she approached, seemingly not noticing her.
And whenever she looked at the fish with a probing gaze, the mermaid’s expressionless face revealed nothing, appearing very aloof and noble.
Shu Tang had no choice but to chalk it all up to a nightmare.
In fact, the enormous creature outside always pretended not to know, never mentioning it during the day, mainly because the mermaid’s spirit was quite frightening;
Shu Tang also didn’t bring it up herself, and the large chicken leg was afraid of being caught nibbling on the giant.
So during the day, both of them tacitly didn’t bring up the topic—
Only after bidding each other goodnight, they would switch to their spirit forms.
One sneaky, stealing a few bites.
One pretending not to care, then swallowing the other whole after they fell asleep.
*
After the treatment got back on track, aside from waking up every day feeling like her head had been swallowed, Shu Tang felt everything was going well. Now she must face another major life event.
Shu Tang had one more month to prepare for her exam. If she crammed at the last minute, she could still pass.
Especially after hearing in the emergency department group that the interns had formed a quiz team, even the least motivated among them had to perk up.
The mermaid had no concept of “exams.”
But Shu Tang had changed.
She no longer sleeps until the sun is high in the sky but wakes up immediately when the mermaid starts listening to the weather broadcast;
She starts to repeatedly mutter a passage from a book, sometimes even repeating it for half an hour;
She also likes to scribble on paper with a small wooden stick, sometimes frowning in thought over a line of text;
Occasionally, when playing in the sand, she suddenly shows a guilty, introspective expression and says she must not degenerate and should go back to study.
The mermaid knows how to groom its tail but does not understand what studying means, yet still hands over a brush.
Shu Tang: “……”
This continued for two days.
The mermaid then equates “exams” to being “possessed.”
Maybe because she often studies late, Shu Tang becomes very hungry at night, so she always wakes up to have some snacks before returning to sleep.
But one night, there were no cookies left.
She searched the kitchen, sighed, and decided to just drink some water.
But then, as she turned around, she saw the mermaid watching her.
In her urgent review, lost in a sea of questions, seeing the mermaid felt like seeing an old friend after a long time.
She greeted absentmindedly, and her stomach growled.
“He” looked away, slowly lifted her up without a word, and took her to find food.
His steps were steady.
Shu Tang then realized how empty and quiet the seaside was at dawn.
The mermaid walked toward the rocks, hearing her mutter about how dark it was and that they should have brought a flashlight.
So the mermaid went back to let her pick up some things, and finally took her to the Sea of Tears.
Shu Tang sat on a rock, watching the mermaid’s tail flick and disappear by the seaside.
Suddenly, a series of joyful little bubbles burst from her heart, making her smile involuntarily.
When the mermaid returned, she had already set up a blanket, a lamp, cutlery, and plates.
“Little Rose, do you think I neglected you while I was studying?”
Actually, several times she felt the mermaid’s tail brush against her faintly, and sensed the mermaid’s hesitation at night, but the mermaid would just quietly sit next to her after watching her for a while.
She began to sigh.
The mermaid tilted its head, lifting the ‘possessed’ kitten to the tuna, and began to methodically cut the fish for her.
—Actually, it was a little.
But he never told her.
She ate the fish, resting her cheek on her hand, gazing at the sea.
The sea was beautiful, with waves rolling up blue tears, yet her gaze couldn’t help but be drawn to the divine presence of the sea, secretly observing the mermaid’s clear jawline, his half-closed eyes, and when he turned his head, the dark eyes reflecting blue stars.
Watching him, she couldn’t help but move closer.
And rested her head on the mermaid’s shoulder.
The deity of the sea was momentarily taken aback before turning to look at her.
—Decided to forgive her for being a bit distracted during this time.
Listening to each other’s heartbeat.
Watching blue tears spread across the sky filled with stars.
……
At that time, she didn’t know what that was.
She mistook it for a friendship that would last forever.
*
After that day, Shu Tang finally managed to pull some of her focus away from her frantic studying.
She began to sit by the mermaid’s tail while studying, and while the mermaid was hunting, she’d sit on the rocks with her books, waiting for the mermaid to return.
Occasionally tired, she would gaze at the sea and become lost in thought watching the agile figure of the mermaid in the water.
Shu Tang had long noticed that once in the sea, the wild ferocity of the mermaid was no longer concealed, yet it was paradoxically beautiful, possessing a kind of contradictory tension.
Until that afternoon, Shu Tang was studying on the rocks.
She had just memorized “Ma Dongmei” yesterday, and today it turned into “Ma what Mei.” She was hesitating between option a and c.
Suddenly, a fish tail pointed at d.
Shu Tang soothingly stroked the mermaid’s tail, guessing she must not have touched it for half an hour.
She still chose a.
Next question.
Shu Tang chose c, and the tail poked at b.
Shu Tang immediately objected: “How could that be? I just reviewed it yesterday!”
Then she flipped to the answer.
Shu Tang: “……”
She turned her head and found the mermaid lazily watching her, gesturing for her to quickly choose option b.
She didn’t believe it, thinking it must be a coincidence.
However, Shu Tang tried a few more questions.
To her amazement, she discovered that the mermaid now recognized some characters.
Because she often read the same passage over and over aloud, the mermaid sitting beside her had almost grown calluses on its ears. And the mermaid looked wherever she looked, so after Shu Tang read it over a dozen times, the mermaid remembered every pronunciation of each character.
Moreover, Shu Tang had to memorize a lot of noun definitions, so the mermaid even understood what unfamiliar words meant.
Thus, after a week of Shu Tang’s review—
The mermaid was able to do simple multiple-choice questions.
Shu Tang: “……”
Among the two of them, Shu Tang always considered herself the smarter one, thus she appointed herself as the strategist, believing that the mermaid was the muscle of the Forbidden Land gang, while she was the brains.
Now, the strategist had suffered a great blow.
Because of this, it no longer seemed appropriate for Shu Tang to tell the mermaid “Baby Bus” and “Children’s Idiom Stories” every night.
Shu Tang had always thought that she was opening the doors of wisdom for the mermaid every night, often feeling that the mermaid’s occasional glances were filled with admiration and trust.
That is, until tonight, when Shu Tang was preparing to tell a story, she met the mermaid’s encouraging gaze.
How to put it—it was similar to the look Shu Tang gave her three-year-old nephew when encouraging him to eat with chopsticks.
The mermaid also flicked its tail at her, feigning great interest.
Shu Tang: “……”
The cat-headed strategist was furious and began to brainstorm.
She sifted through her mind and finally picked out “Water Margin.”
This cunning cat chose a story from a long ago era.
Indeed, this time, she saw a confused expression reappear on the mermaid’s face.
The next morning, the two of them went to gather firewood.
For some reason, the mermaid stopped walking.
Suddenly, it pulled out a tree.
Shu Tang: “What are you doing?”
The mermaid tilted its head and looked at Shu Tang.
Shu Tang suddenly remembered: she had told the story of Lu Zhishen pulling up the willows the night before.
Shu Tang: “……”
She had intended to follow up with the story of Wu Song fighting the tiger.
But then Shu Tang remembered the several sharks the mermaid had dragged back.
Resigned, she gave up.
Shu Tang sat on the tree trunk, and the mermaid dragged her away, tree and all.
She felt that maybe this “Water Margin” was just too fitting for this peculiar world.
But there were exceptions—
That afternoon.
Shu Tang yelled from downstairs: “Little Rose, can you throw down the test papers for me!”
At the second-floor stone window, a figure appeared.
Under the sunlight, framed by the blue rose, the mermaid looked from afar like a sea deity with beautiful long hair.
She was stunned.
The mermaid turned his head, and even his hair seemed graced by the sunlight, giving his expressionless features an almost divine beauty.
The Siren leisurely flipped through the pages.
Finally, he found the test paper and threw it down to her.
Shu Tang suddenly felt this scene was somewhat familiar:
It somewhat resembled Fish Golden Lotus and West Gate Cat.
West Gate Cat sat on the beach, pondering for a long time, and felt that this metaphor was somewhat inappropriate.
So, she decided to change the metaphor.
Was there still a couple in front of the balcony?
Of course, there was.
—Romeo and Juliet, right?
So, little cat, are you Romeo or Juliet?
She inexplicably turned around and glared at the fish upstairs.
The mermaid inexplicably lowered his head to look at her.
The two exchanged glances inexplicably for a while.
The sunlight was like dazzling apple blossoms.
…
Suddenly, neither was willing to be the first to look away.
The occurrence of love needs some catalysts.
Just like Romeo and Juliet, whose passion burned due to numerous obstacles;
But if Romeo and Juliet were together every day, listening to the radio, discussing the weather, and the new songs on the music station; and if Juliet watched Romeo go through “100 Sets of Real Exam Questions” every day—
The burning of love would be like the bundle of wet firewood that Fish Juliet dragged home, smoking slowly and belching little sparks, with no telling when it might finally ignite.
It might also be like the porridge Cat Romeo cooked, bubbling slowly, and then suddenly overflowing when least expected.
If quick, it might be some years later; if slow, perhaps not until both were laid to rest.
Cat Romeo: Eh? How did I end up living a whole life with him?
Before being laid to rest, Cat Romeo suddenly realized: Oh, so this is what love is.
Lying hand in hand in the coffin, Cat Romeo suddenly sat up and told Fish Juliet: That is love.
Fish Juliet: Flipping her tail, agreed.
And then the two agreed to continue their good relationship in their next lives.
End.
The epitaph on their joint tombstone hadn’t been changed in time: Friendship lasts forever.
Fortunately, due to unexpected changes, such a tragedy did not occur.
Cat Romeo’s undercooked porridge suddenly bubbled up vigorously.