Shu Tang had imagined many scenarios of a mermaid speaking.
It could have been a natural “good morning” one early morning, or like some TV dramas portray, after encountering danger, she might have grabbed the mermaid’s hand while on the brink of death.
But the moment she heard that voice, all those fanciful imaginations vanished into thin air.
It should be just like this, everything just perfect.
It was the first time the mermaid successfully made a sound, unsure if his pronunciation was accurate, or if his voice was loud enough for her to hear.
The two of them looked at each other for a while, and just as the mermaid hesitated, wanting to call out again—
“He” had already been embraced by Shu Tang, who had thrown herself at him and hugged his waist.
Love is a process of adjustment. Cats living on land and fish in the sea have different habits.
Cats have sharp claws. They occasionally get angry and not so bravely want to escape, hiding in the dark corners of cardboard boxes, gnawing on plastic bags; deep-sea monsters also have sharp armor, feel intense unease, often doubt, and scrutinize everything with a piercing gaze.
But fortunately, every time someone steps back, there is always someone who steps forward.
Listening to him calling her “Tang” with his husky voice, Shu Tang admitted, her heart became very soft, as if enveloped by a swelling, sour emotion.
All unease and hesitation vanished.
She looked up, her eyes sparkling as she said, “Little Rose, could you call out again?”
So the mermaid slightly bent down to match her height, allowing her to hug him, and then again clearly and accurately made the sound: “Tang.”
“I want to hear it one more time.”
“Tang.”
The mermaid’s voice actually sounded a bit odd. Though it was deep and magnetic, because the way of pronunciation was different, it didn’t sound like a human voice. If one heard it accidentally at night, even the faint-hearted might be terrified. But Shu Tang found it very pleasant to hear, listening to it over and over.
Until she realized the mermaid’s voice was an abnormal huskiness, she stopped this parrot-like behavior.
Shu Tang asked, “Did you practice many times?”
The creature simply responded again with a “Tang.”
Over countless times, the monster finally managed to make a sound, responding to her voice.
She felt her heart swell with a prickly sensation and hugged the towering monster even tighter.
Unable to control her emotions, she nuzzled her head against his shoulder again and again, like a little cat wriggling in the palm of a human.
Thus, the monster calmed down, lifting his hand to embrace her back.
The restlessness and unease in the monster’s heart were completely soothed.
It was like two people who had gone through a long journey and finally returned home, feeling a warmth and relaxation.
…
They walked hand in hand toward the pharmacy.
Shu Tang said, “Don’t talk for the next few days, your tonsils are inflamed.”
As her words fell, Shu Tang remembered the mutations in the mermaid’s body and wondered if he still had tonsils.
But the feline traditional healer still got two boxes of throat soothing candies from the pharmacy for the mermaid:
“I don’t know if it’ll work…”
She unwrapped a candy and fed it to the mermaid.
Indeed, the mermaid frowned, seemingly struggling to accept the cool, sweet taste.
“Don’t swallow it, let the throat candy dissolve slowly in your mouth.”
The mermaid looked down at the thing in his hand, then suddenly stopped and tilted his head.
Looking at her, he said, “Tang.”
—She was also a kind of candy.
Shu Tang replied, “I am the ‘tang’ from crabapple, not the candy.”
She wrote these two characters in the palm of the mermaid.
But as she unwrapped another candy to give to the mermaid, her hand paused.
To eat this candy.
Or that ‘tang’.
The mermaid lowered his head, staring intently at her.
His pale lips enclosed the candy.
The cold touch of his thin lips lingered on her fingertips for a moment.
Then he stood up straight.
Shu Tang: “…”
She immediately withdrew her hand, feeling the fingers that had been touched by the mermaid’s icy lips starting to heat up.
Feeling the mermaid’s gaze, her ears also began to warm.
She regretted explaining the difference between “tang (棠)” and “tang (糖)” (homophones with different meanings in Chinese).
She pretended to casually avoid the mermaid’s gaze, and then asked:
“Where did you sleep last night?”
The mermaid fell silent.
The monster lowered his eyes.
Shu Tang had a vague guess.
“I won’t be angry because you came to see me.”
“I’m just afraid you’ll get lost. What if I can’t find you then?”
Both of them quieted down.
Shu Tang wanted to say something else, like asking him how he managed to find his way to Hua University, whether he got lost on the way; or why he didn’t say anything when she was leaving, even though he wanted to come find her.
But in the end, she realized she might need to be a bit more honest.
So she confessed:
“Actually, these last two days, I missed you a little.”
The throat lozenge slowly melted between his lips and teeth.
The monster tasted a bit of sweetness.
She emphasized it was just a little, and showed half the amount on a bottle of mineral water, telling the mermaid:
A little is this much.
The mermaid was quiet for a moment.
The mermaid had only just learned to say one word and couldn’t respond to her.
So, the monster reached out and silently placed bottles of mineral water into the shopping basket.
One bottle, two bottles, three bottles… until there were eight.
—A person needs to drink eight glasses of water a day.
“His” longing is just right for eight bottles.
Shu Tang was stunned.
She looked at the eight bottles of water, then at the mermaid’s expressionless profile.
As he calmly looked up at her.
At this moment, her heartbeat was so loud.
……
When Shu Tang arrived at the cafeteria, the mealtime had already passed and there were hardly any people left. She initially ordered two portions of fried rice but ended up ordering three, thinking of something.
Indeed, when the mermaid ate dinner, although his movements were graceful, his speed was very fast.
Shu Tang didn’t even ask the mermaid if he had eaten well the day before; she already knew the answer in her heart.
Shu Tang remembered something. She had once wondered what kind of person the mermaid was in the past, but Chen Sheng was very tight-lipped, merely telling her to keep it a secret and leaving it at that; others knew even less, as if the mermaid had appeared out of thin air.
So, on the day she went to buy an old hen to stew soup, Shu Tang tried asking Old Wu again.
Old Wu said, “Founder… he was very respected and beloved in the past, impeccable in speech and behavior. He was a very good person.”
Old Wu sighed with regret, “But now, alas.”
Shu Tang instinctively countered, saying, “Actually, he is still very good now.”
She counted on her fingers as she spoke, though she wasn’t fond of the outside world, the mermaid was an impressive hunter with strong survival skills in the wild, and actually had a good temper, and could even open scallops…
She instinctively rejected that tone of regret.
But when she saw the tall mermaid wolfing down his meal under the light opposite her.
Shu Tang suddenly felt that she might have made the same mistake as everyone else.
She thought that the current mermaid couldn’t distinguish his own emotions.
But, is that really the case?
The eight bottles of longing were right there in their two plastic bags.
Shu Tang was not the type of human with strong self-discipline. She wanted to save money, yet every time she passed by the supermarket, she couldn’t resist taking a box of fish.
She felt her principles were in jeopardy, her bottom line starting to retreat flexibly.
The kitten sighed, feeling utterly defeated by the eight bottles of water.
Shu Tang heard the thudding sound of drinking.
At first, it did not catch her attention.
—Until she noticed the mermaid had finished four bottles of water and placed the remaining four in front of her.
The mermaid bowed her head, calmly gesturing her to drink.
Thus, Shu Tang realized something she had overlooked for a long time:
After she told the mermaid to drink eight glasses of water a day, the mermaid always drank them in one go. But at the Bastille, they drank water from cups, and Shu Tang had not noticed that the mermaid always spent a long time at the water dispenser.
Shu Tang told the mermaid they could split it up, to drink slowly throughout the day.
Shu Tang muttered, “What would this fish do without me? He’ll drink himself to death.”
Upon hearing this, the mermaid subconsciously wanted to argue.
But suddenly, the mermaid noticed a strange phenomenon.
After sighing, “What would you do without me,” the cat began to hum a little tune, hands in her pockets.
The mermaid tilted his head.
Confused for a moment, he suddenly recalled some of the cat’s nature.
Like how she would claim to work 13 hours a day in a forbidden zone while on the phone, but actually would go back to sleep for 13 hours the moment she hung up; or how she claimed to wake up early to exercise, yet every day the mermaid could see a perfectly flat cat pancake lying on the beach.
The mermaid also belatedly realized: despite complaining that “he” couldn’t live without her, she actually enjoyed this dependence.
This made this creature feel a wonderfully surprised delight.
To confirm this, the mermaid suddenly moved closer and gently rubbed the kitten’s cheek.
Sure enough, the kitten looked left and right.
She pushed him away a bit, saying, “Hey, we’re in public.”
The mermaid slowly straightened up.
Staring at her for a while, he suddenly curled the corners of his mouth into a slight smile.
“He” learned a new idiom: saying one thing but meaning another.
After finishing her meal, Shu Tang went to check her communicator, only then remembering that she hadn’t yet contacted the sanatorium to inform them about the mermaid.
So, she immediately called Chen Sheng.
Shu Tang had thought that Chen Sheng would come over with people right away.
Unexpectedly, while Chen Sheng breathed a sigh of relief, he merely cautioned:
“Don’t turn off your phone, keep your location on, we’ll have someone follow you.”
Then Shu Tang waited, but Chen Sheng didn’t continue.
Even Chen Sheng, when dealing with the mermaid, seemed to be on high alert.
But today, he unexpectedly seemed very “reassured”.
Shu Tang was a bit puzzled.
After she hung up the phone, the mermaid withdrew its gaze from her communicator.
— “He” knew who had tipped them off.
Shu Tang didn’t realize that this change in attitude was actually due to the mermaid’s spirit undergoing another “evolution”.
At this moment, anyone releasing a spirit would see, behind this silent and tall man, a slow-moving giant blue entity in the sky.
However, what was visible from the ground was still too little; if one looked down from a helicopter above the city of South Island, they would see an immense blue spirit enveloping the sky.
Half the city was submerged in deep blue sea water.
When “he” was only the size of a forbidden area, people feared and were hostile, some even wanting to destroy this creature;
When “he” was only as big as a sanatorium, people began to feel despair and helplessness;
But when “he” enveloped half the city and continued to expand, regardless of their positions, all those in the know without exception chose to compromise and started praying that the monster would remain stable.
However, Shu Tang was unaware of the changes occurring in the mermaid as she planned to escape with this disaster-like creature— from the dormitory management’s pursuit.
The management of Hua University alpha dormitory was very strict; every time Shu Tang brought takeout, she had to hide it in her backpack and sneak in as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
On a normal day, it wouldn’t be difficult for Shu Tang to bring someone in, but today was exam week, and the fierce dorm manager was guarding the main entrance.
Shu Tang hid behind a large tree, stealthily discussing tactics with the mermaid: “I’ll distract the dorm manager, and you take the chance to go upstairs.”
The mermaid understood her plan.
He looked up at Shu Tang’s window on the fifth floor, then at the dorm manager, who seemed less intimidating.
Shu Tang peeked from behind a tree and was suddenly lifted off the ground.
In the darkness, the mermaid’s figure was like a nimble leopard, one hand wrapping around her waist, slightly bending his knees, and the other hand gripping the wall.
The speed was astonishing.
Before Shu Tang could react, they had already landed steadily on the fifth-floor balcony.
Shu Tang: “…”
Shu Tang peeked at the height of the fifth floor.
She leaned against the wall, feeling a bit weak in the knees.
But before she could calm down, the mermaid had already whisked her into the dormitory.
Shu Tang usually felt that her dormitory was quite spacious, but when the mermaid entered, there suddenly wasn’t even space to turn around.
The mermaid had visited two of Shu Tang’s nests, both characterized by their compactness.
Shu Tang said a word to the mermaid, took out some snacks and placed them on the table, then went into the bathroom for a quick shower.
She had been caught in the rain today, so she washed her hair as well.
Shu Tang’s pajamas had two drooping cat ears, which swayed as she walked.
She stood not far from the mermaid, drying her hair:
“Little Rose, you should take a shower later too, don’t change your clothes yet, I’ll help you dry them.”
As she finished speaking, Shu Tang suddenly felt that this conversation was eerily similar to the ones between her mom and dad. They were always nagging about these trivial things, each finding the other too chatty.
Shu Tang: “……”
She remembered that the mermaid probably hated the sound of the hairdryer, so she closed the door a bit. But after that action, Shu Tang paused for a moment, feeling just like her dad.
Shu Tang dried her hair for a while, feeling a bit gloomy.
She and the mermaid were fast approaching a love story typical of middle-aged couples.
Especially since they often walked together at sunset, it seemed they were nearly entering the ‘sunset red’ stage.
But not even two minutes had passed when the door opened.
The tall mermaid walked in and naturally took over the hairdryer from her hands.
In the mirror, Shu Tang was just tall enough to reach the mermaid’s chest.
“He” stepped back slightly, enveloping her completely.
—This no longer seemed like a middle-aged love story.
The tall mermaid lowered his gaze, awkwardly mimicking her actions as he helped her blow-dry her hair.
Shu Tang watched her hair strands stand out starkly against the mermaid’s pale, large hands; she felt the top of her head being gently massaged, like a cat being stroked, so comfortable she wanted to purr.
Shu Tang calmed down, looking up at the mermaid’s handsome jawline.
Her heart felt as if it were bubbling up with tiny purrs.
The bubbles overflowed, almost enough to fill eight mineral water bottles.
“He” looked somewhat stern as he focused intently on the task. Without making a sound, combined with his size and formidable presence, he seemed somewhat fierce.
Yet, as she observed the mermaid’s lips, slightly moist from drinking water, she suddenly felt an impulse to stand on tiptoe and kiss him amid the misty vapor.
However, just then, someone from the next dormitory shouted:
“Dorm manager is coming!”
Shu Tang snapped back to reality.
She began to panic, looking for a place to hide the mermaid.
But the mermaid was too large to be easily hidden; he wouldn’t even fit in the wardrobe.
As footsteps approached, Shu Tang made a quick decision, pulling the mermaid hurriedly into her small bed and swiftly drawing the bed curtains.
The small bed, measuring one meter ninety in length, was spacious enough for Shu Tang alone, but it was very cramped with a mermaid stuffed in.
Shu Tang distinctly heard the bed creak under the weight.
Her heart thudded rapidly.
Shu Tang told the mermaid, “Hide well and keep quiet.”
This deep-sea creature naturally didn’t perceive the overweight dorm manager as a threat, but the mermaid found her panicked expression and furtive glances adorable as she looked for places to hide him.
Thus, the formidable creature lazily watched her.
Even when she stuffed him into the bed, he cooperated fully.
The mermaid was pressed into the corner without making a sound.
The already tight space now felt oppressively cramped, and they could clearly hear each other’s breathing.
Shu Tang smelled his pheromones, which made her slightly dizzy.
She wasn’t sure if it was panic or something else, but she felt her heart pounding loudly.
Her long hair, still wet, was damp with moisture.
The tall mermaid quietly bowed his head. He seemed easy to bully, very obedient, but the aggressiveness characteristic of such large, fearsome creatures surrounded her like the mist.
The monster couldn’t help but stare at her lips.
Her lips were different from the mermaid’s; his were cold, while hers were soft, looking as tender as a sweet dessert Shu Tang loved: glutinous rice cakes.
Back then, as Shu Tang sat in front of the TV describing the texture of glutinous rice cakes to “him,” the mermaid had gazed at her lips for a long time.
Remembering this, the monster’s cold Adam’s apple subtly moved.
The dorm manager asked, “Is anyone in Room 501?”
Shu Tang was jolted out of the delicate atmosphere and was about to respond when—
The mermaid remembered her command, “Don’t make a sound.”
So, he naturally lowered his head.
And kissed her.
Sealing the words she was about to speak between her lips.