When he had just recovered, the mermaid’s memory became somewhat confused.
He would often return to an uncertain point in his memories. Like a traveler continuously traversing through the cracks of time and space, he frequently forgot things randomly.
Sometimes, the mermaid would revert to the chaotic state he was in when he first awoke. At that time, having just emerged from a deep slumber, he possessed only his animal instincts, devoid of any common sense or humanity.
Upon opening his eyes at dawn, the monster stared at the people nearby with a wary and aggressive gaze.
He refrained from attacking immediately because her scent felt incredibly familiar and pleasant, leading the monster to restrain his claws and teeth, merely observing her with cautious scrutiny.
Shu Tang woke up to find the mermaid hissing by her neck.
She hazily looked at the fierce and formidable monster and leaned in to give the mermaid a kiss.
The monster, “attacked” by her, froze in place.
He immediately wanted to retaliate, but as he moved closer, Shu Tang kissed his nose and chin.
Because of the warmth of the kiss on his cheek, the cautious beast obediently followed her to the bathroom.
He examined the kitten, and when she turned on the tap and the sound of water filled the air, his fins stood erect in alertness, watching the tap intently.
It was then that Shu Tang realized something was amiss: the mermaid had forgotten how to brush his teeth again, and he looked somewhat adorably cautious staring at the tap.
She moved closer to examine the mermaid closely, which indeed provoked a cold, threatening hiss from the beast.
Shu Tang looked at the mermaid, puzzled, wondering: Why has he reverted again?
She decided to consult the old academician for advice.
But now, the mermaid was a big trouble—he was hissing at the tap and had grabbed her, circling her within his arms to dodge the “attacks” from the tap.
Shu Tang found him so endearing in this moment.
It had been a long time since she had seen such a foolish little rose; she found it hard to outsmart him now and was often tricked by the mermaid, who would then lazily flick his tail, a gesture she found nostalgically endearing.
So she leaned in and kissed him, and under the mermaid’s vigilant gaze, she casually turned off the tap.
The mermaid looked at her.
With her hands in her pockets, bathed in the mermaid’s gaze, Shu Tang patiently re-taught him how to use a toothbrush and how to wash.
He was still chaotic at this point, not as quick on the uptake as he would be later. It took him a long time to learn, and he was always clumsy with the toothbrush, breaking it as soon as he grasped it tightly.
The monster then looked at the toothbrush angrily and hissed at Shu Tang.
The monster thought she would laugh at him and was somehow annoyed by this, but she did not laugh. Instead, she tiptoed up to give him a kiss.
So the monster calmed down.
He obediently learned how to use a towel.
Shu Tang told the monster that she was his lover, his partner.
The monster didn’t understand what these words meant.
So he looked at her puzzled, appearing somewhat naive and gullible.
Shu Tang explained, “It means someone you hunt with, eat with, and kiss.”
She pointed to her lips.
The monster thought for a moment, looking puzzled. Just when Shu Tang thought it would take much longer to teach him, the monster suddenly bowed his head, imitating her, and awkwardly kissed her cheek.
The two of them nestled into the couch.
Shu Tang said, “Oh dear, it was hard enough teaching you to speak, and now you’ve forgotten how to do it in the blink of an eye.”
The monster understood and thought she was complaining about his slowness.
He hissed at her, a bit angrily.
But as Shu Tang turned around, she realized the mermaid had disappeared.
She hurried to the alleyway and found the mermaid had returned.
The monster had two fish in his hands.
He gave the fish to the cat, hissed at her, and then looked down at her.
He was probably telling her that he could hunt for her, that he was capable.
“Don’t think I’m stupid,” he seemed to say.
Shu Tang stared at the fish in his hands for a long while.
She pulled him back home, telling him, “Don’t wander off, I’ll worry about you.”
She muttered to herself:
“I’m not complaining you’re stupid.”
“If you forget again, I’ll teach you one more time.”
“We have a lot of time,” she said. “No matter how many times, it’s all right.”
The monster hissed softly at her, asking how long was a long time.
Shu Tang thought for a moment. “At least fifty years, I guess?”
She felt that if she kept herself in good shape, living into her seventies or eighties wouldn’t be a problem.
She gesticulated as she explained to the mermaid how long fifty years was.
The mermaid understood and hissed back in protest:
“Fifty years is too short; make it five hundred.”
Shu Tang: “….”
She then sat the mermaid down in front of the TV to reeducate him about the outside world.
It was like going back to the time of the Bastille, even the lines were exactly the same.
As she taught, she looked at the mermaid’s furrowed brow, his puzzled side face absorbing the information she was providing.
Time seemed to flow backwards to the rainy season when they first met.
—She found that, even if it took many tries, she was willing to teach him everything all over again.
…
The old academician told Shu Tang that it wasn’t a degradation of memory, but rather some aftereffects of healing; with so many fragmented memories, the brain would undergo a period of confusion that would typically resolve itself in about one or two weeks.
Like any other day, Shu Tang climbed over the mermaid’s body to give him a morning kiss, then clomped downstairs in slippers to brush her teeth; she didn’t notice that her partner was watching her warily and with confusion at that moment.
She handed the toothbrush to the mermaid, about to teach him how to brush his teeth again, but he paused for a moment before smoothly starting to use the toothbrush.
Shu Tang thought the mermaid had returned to normal, so she began brushing her teeth noisily.
Zhu Yan woke up to find an extra person beside him.
The decor had changed too. A bunch of blue roses sat on the bedside table, and the curtains were beige transparent chiffon, no longer resembling the temporary confinement space used by Zhu Yan, but rather a real home.
Zhu Yan sat up and rubbed his temples, mistaking it for a hallucination caused by excessive medication use.
—Until that hallucination ran over, kissed him, and then stepped over him in her nightgown.
Zhu Yan looked at the blue fish pajamas he was wearing, then noticed Shu Tang wearing a pink version of the same pajamas. He also saw the blue couple’s toothbrushes.
He didn’t stir up any alarm.
Everything was so logical, just like an ordinary couple;
The only illogical thing was the monster’s sharp fin reflected in the mirror.
With such a monster standing beside him, humming and swaying as she brushed her teeth, he wanted to ask her: Why aren’t you afraid?
So, he drew closer to her to see her reaction.
Shu Tang felt that the mermaid was being inexplicably strange today.
At first, he watched her brush her teeth with a solemn face, then leaned in close, seemingly unsure of what to do next.
While brushing her teeth, Shu Tang wondered to herself: Is he trying to be affectionate?
After she finished brushing, she turned and gave him a kiss.
However, Shu Tang realized that after she kissed him, the mermaid looked even stranger.
He did not naturally kiss her back as usual, but stood frozen and stiff, as if he had turned to stone.
Shu Tang: Didn’t he return to normal? Why has he become silly again?
Muttering to herself, she glanced at the mermaid and then went off to boil some milk.
A while later, the aroma of milk filled the air.
Zhu Yan finally snapped back to reality.
Just yesterday, he had made a decision, which he wrote down as the last sentence in his diary.
But for some reason, he did not appear at the prison in South Island City today. Instead, everything around him had drastically changed, and there was this strange girl by his side.
He could have immediately called Secretary Chen or someone else to take the girl away and restore order.
But he found that he didn’t want to do that.
Maybe it was because he felt no malice towards her, as if they had been living together for a long time.
Maybe it was because if she left, the manor would be as quiet as a grave, where he could hear nothing but his own footsteps.
So he did nothing and tacitly accepted her presence.
Shu Tang saw that the mermaid had come down, “Little Rose, I want toast with blueberry jam for breakfast!”
Zhu Yan was stunned for a moment.
He hesitated in front of the refrigerator for a long time before remembering the steps to make toast.
—Because he remembered that it had been a long time since he had eaten anything warm.
They made breakfast together in the kitchen and then drank hot milk at the dining table.
The blueberry jam tasted great.
She hummed a tune while eating breakfast and turned on the TV to watch the weather forecast.
Actually, it was a bit noisy.
Zhu Yan remembered that he was supposed to leave Yan City today and go to that prison, but maybe because the morning sun was so nice and the hot milk so fragrant, with a ring of milk foam around her mouth as she drank, he suddenly thought: Let’s wait another day.
We’ll leave tomorrow.
Shu Tang soon realized something was amiss.
The mermaid hadn’t joined her in the garden to bask in the morning sun but instead was watching her from afar in the study. This was almost impossible on a normal day because the mermaid liked to wrap his tail around her, resting his chin on her head. They often spent a lot of time like this.
But now, he didn’t come to cling to her; he hid in the shadows of the study and watched her.
Shu Tang curiously looked outside the window for a while. She belatedly realized something—
The person before her was the very Zhu Yan from her diary.
Shu Tang knew that Zhu Yan was a big leader back then, someone important like him would be very cautious and interrogative towards strangers. But after pondering in the garden for a while, she curiously glanced at Zhu Yan, who was flipping through books inside—
Strangely, she wasn’t driven away.
Moreover, the other party said nothing, seemingly allowing her to roam freely around the manor.
In the morning, she had asked the mermaid to warm some bread for her, and surprisingly, he did, even adding some sauce.
From him, Shu Tang sensed an unexpectedly generous tolerance.
At this time, Zhu Yan in the study had begun to notice more and more puzzling things, such as the wallpaper of the communicator being a picture of them together in front of begonia flowers.
Zhu Yan stared at it for a long time, for some reason, he didn’t change it.
For instance, the severe neuralgia that bothered him yesterday had disappeared today. The expected bout of pain and suffering did not occur.
Instead, by the window, a cat’s head popped out.
Cats are animals particularly good at taking liberties.
She peered in from the window, calling him “Little Rose.”
Zhu Yan wondered: Little Rose, who is that?
She crawled in from the low window, holding a big bunch of blue roses, which she then placed in a vase on the table.
She leaned in, curiously sizing him up, much like a peering little cat.
Zhu Yan didn’t like others entering his study because it contained many secrets. Unexpectedly, he didn’t speak up to drive her away.
Thus, Shu Tang picked a book from the shelf, first sitting opposite him and pretending to flip through a few pages. Noticing that Zhu Yan only glanced at her and didn’t send her away, she moved closer to him, quietly, like a tall, silent sculpture sitting in the dark.
She moved closer bit by bit.
She then stayed quiet for a while, continuing to test the waters.
She pushed some nuts toward him: “Little Rose, could you peel these for me?”
So, Zhu Yan fell silent for a while, his beautiful fingers beginning to peel the nuts for her.
Shu Tang immediately cheered up when she realized that Zhu Yan did not make her feel alienated. Even if he didn’t remember those things, Zhu Yan still showed a peculiar kind of tolerance towards her, as if he were a slightly more serious little rose.
Shu Tang began to treat Zhu Yan in front of her as one would treat a past lover.
She leaned in and told him:
“Little rose, your illness is cured, you’ve just temporarily forgotten some things.”
“Look, I’m your current partner and lover.”
…
She chattered endlessly to the mermaid about how the two of them were deeply in love.
But Zhu Yan paused slightly.
He slightly lifted his eyelids to look at the little liar before him—
She was lying.
Because the illness would not be cured.
Nor would anyone love a monster.
But perhaps the sunlight was too dazzling, the air filled with dust-like sprites, and a fuzzy halo over her head, the scene was as beautiful as a dream.
So, he just silently cracked nuts, not contradicting her.
Even occasionally making a sound of “hmm” in response as she spoke.
But as if by some telepathy, Shu Tang seemed to sense what he was thinking.
She gradually stopped speaking, instead turning her head to look at her lover.
Zhu Yan felt her gaze.
No one had ever measured him so directly, and he instinctively wanted to hide his fins.
But he soon realized that this was an act of self-deception and stopped, his pale lips tightly closed, letting her gaze measure him.
Zhu Yan coldly mocked himself internally: Do you really think she is your lover?
The dust in the sunlight slowly settled.
But her gaze was like looking at a flower, a kitten drenched in rain, filled with curiosity, fondness, and pity. It was completely the gaze of someone looking at a beloved, with no trace of fear or withdrawal.
Thus, the monster slowly relaxed, his sharp fins easing.
Behind the curtains, she propped her chin in the sunlight, swinging her legs, causing the hem of her nightgown to rise with her movements.
In the sunlight, like a layer of pink glow on glutinous rice cake.
And a white ribbon gift tie, looking very appetizing.
She occasionally glanced his way.
He paused for a moment, then looked away. His Adam’s apple involuntarily bobbed as he took a few sips of water.
The chief had never seen anyone so disheveled in his presence.
He wanted to remind her to dress properly—
But such a reminder, once voiced, seemed to carry an odd undertone.
So, he chose to remain silent.
He just quietly stood up, walked over, and pulled the curtain to block the view from the window that might overlook this scene, shielding the springtime garden.
But what he didn’t realize was that this retreat was a form of indulgence to a criminal.
Because the kitten noticed that he only averted his gaze and drew the curtains without scolding her to dress properly, she suddenly found her past lover endearing and slightly stiff in an imperceptible way; she didn’t find it boring, but rather suddenly saw it as an opportunity.
So, she stealthily moved closer, in the dazzling sunlight, she climbed onto his lap.
She gazed into her lover’s blue eyes, at his somewhat bewildered expression, and giggling, tried to kiss his thin lips.
He awkwardly tilted his head to avoid her.
Thus, the kiss landed on the cold fin.