At this point, Shu Tang was almost completely enveloped by a tall, dark shadow.
Shu Tang was stunned for a moment and instinctively wanted to open her eyes, but the mermaid immediately covered them.
Although the temperature was cold, the air seemed to slowly warm up.
Shu Tang felt a bit hot and groped around for the remote control, turning off the air conditioner.
The last bit of buzzing noise disappeared, and the duty room became very quiet.
Neither spoke for a while; Shu Tang meticulously dried his hair, feeling the excellent texture of his long hair, and couldn’t help but touch it a few more times with the towel.
Shu Tang felt the mermaid tense up, so she went along and massaged his long hair, feeling him slowly relax. Shu Tang thought, it was actually a bit like a Samoyed—just rub its fur, and it would calm down.
Though a bit larger and slightly frightening in appearance, he was very well-behaved.
The mermaid let her continue, slowly closing his eyes, like a beautiful statue in the dark.
Smelling her scent, the strong restlessness slowly subsided, and the initial strong repulsion towards this world also gradually faded due to Shu Tang’s scent.
Shu Tang slowly touched the edge of the mermaid’s long hair near his ear.
Shu Tang had always been curious about this part. She had seen two forms of mermaid ear fins: one was soft, like light blue, semi-transparent ribbons; the other was when he hissed, the fins behind his ears would become sharp and lethal.
A thought struck Shu Tang, and she really wanted to touch it.
But the fins behind the ears were extremely sensitive, almost as soon as Shu Tang’s warm fingers touched the edge—
The sharp fins stood erect, the soft and beautiful blue instantly turned into a beautiful yet sinister weapon.
This spot was extremely sensitive, being close to the head, and for monsters, it was a very fatal spot. The deep-sea monster immediately opened its eyes and avoided Shu Tang’s touch.
The mermaid’s ear fins could easily rival his tail in lethality; Shu Tang was nearly reflexively slashed by the upright fins, cutting through her fingers!
The mermaid was extremely angry, almost immediately emitting a dangerous hiss from his throat, his dark eyes staring icily and menacingly at her.
Shu Tang’s brain instantly sounded an alarm, realizing the danger was drawing near. The previously harmonious atmosphere vanished in an instant, and her body hair stood on end.
She froze in place, not daring to open her eyes.
The mermaid hoisted her up and pinned her against the wall, coming close and emitting a hoarse threatening sound, his ear fins standing sharp and gleaming with a cold light, looking like a brutal monster.
Shu Tang should have been frightened, but she quickly understood the mermaid’s meaning: Do not touch the ear fins.
She remembered the light that resembled a dagger when his ear fins stood up and realized her own recklessness.
—This was her fault; after all, she was the one who touched his ear fins first.
Shu Tang, with her eyes closed, said, “I didn’t know I shouldn’t touch, I’m sorry.”
The mermaid hissed at her again.
Shu Tang immediately swore, “I won’t touch them sneakily again!”
Finally, after confirming that she would not do it again,
Shu Tang was let down—
But she was placed behind a curtain.
Shu Tang sat on the carpet, her body hair standing on end for a while before she calmed down.
After waiting a while, there was no sound inside.
Shu Tang tentatively asked, “Are you still angry?”
At this moment, everything seemed to return to their first meeting in the Bastille.
The monster remained a monster, no matter how quietly it disguised itself. Once someone touched its trigger zone, it would immediately reveal its claws and teeth.
At such times, most people would start searching within themselves; the graveyard is oriented that way.
However, for Shu Tang, once bitten, twice shy, she gradually became familiar with stepping into minefields; the process went as follows:
Stepping on a minefield—being caught shrieking—assuring never to step on it again—nothing happens
After hearing no movement inside for a while, she believed that it had reached the “nothing happens” phase.
So—
Shu Tang decided to go back to work.
She casually told the still-angry monster inside, “I still have to work, you go to sleep first if you’re tired.”
Then Shu Tang bowed her head and started writing the medical report.
In fact, Shu Tang was copying while keeping her ears pricked up to the movement behind her.
Shu Tang: Why is there still no movement?
Shu Tang: Isn’t the temperature close to zero today? Why has it suddenly gotten so hot?
At some point, the temperature in the duty room began to change, and Shu Tang’s forehead started to sweat from the heat.
She puzzled over this while quietly turning back to look at the mermaid.
—A tall figure inside the curtains, as if isolated in a corner of the world.
The mermaid’s icy gaze still rested on Shu Tang.
Suddenly, Shu Tang realized that this stepping on the minefield seemed different from the previous times.
The mermaid was genuinely angry this time and was determined to teach her a lesson. It was very easy for “him” to exert pressure with those utterly soulless, pitch-black eyes.
It felt as if a massive creature was targeting her, making the hair on Shu Tang’s back stand up. This was the first time she was so vividly aware of the danger of the mermaid behind her. Shu Tang stiffened for a moment.
But soon, this feeling disappeared—
Because Shu Tang suddenly saw: the mermaid was holding the air conditioner remote.
Shu Tang: No wonder it’s so hot!
Having seen Shu Tang use it once, the clever mermaid had learned how to use it and was now holding it to turn up the temperature, blasting the air conditioner’s wind at Shu Tang.
Shu Tang thought to herself that she wouldn’t quibble with a fish.
But after enduring it for a while, she grew angrier the more she thought about it; the fear just now vanished in an instant:
My goodness, is there no justice left? He’s being fierce to her again and even wants to use the air conditioner to roast her to death!
Shu Tang couldn’t contain her anger and with a snap, she turned off the air conditioner.
Mermaid turned his head slowly and deliberately, and then slowly turned the air conditioner back on.
Shu Tang turned it off, Mermaid turned it on; back and forth they went several times.
Finally, Shu Tang grabbed the remote control to turn on the air conditioner—
The next second, there was a fizz; the air conditioner’s electrical wire exploded.
Behind the curtain, a shadow casually shifted its gaze and flicked its tail.
Shu Tang exclaimed, “How despicable! Cheating!”
By this time, Shu Tang had completely forgotten that she initially wanted to turn off the air conditioner.
While fuming, Shu Tang worked on a report and ignored the mermaid behind her all night. And perhaps it was her imagination—Shu Tang felt like the mermaid was teasing her.
Tonight, all the patients were unusually quiet, not calling for her as frequently as usual, so unwittingly, Shu Tang fell asleep at her desk.
After Shu Tang fell asleep, “he” came to her side and quietly watched her sleeping face.
Every night, the Mermaid could see Shu Tang sleeping.
Mermaids have a low body temperature, are not afraid of the cold, and do not need to maintain their body temperature. When in the sea, they only need to rest by a rock with their eyes closed; but Shu Tang needed a bed to sleep and definitely something to cover her.
Shu Tang even projected her own needs onto the mighty deep-sea lord, arranging a little nest for him.
It wasn’t necessary—
But the mermaid liked it very much.
After a moment of silence behind her, long fingers approached her sleeping face and picked up the white coat on her chair. His movements were slow, he tilted his head, and covered Shu Tang just as she would with a blanket—
—including her face.
Shu Tang slept very peacefully all night, albeit a bit short of breath.
When she woke up the next day, everything in front of her was a blur of white.
Confused upon waking, Shu Tang thought, “Have I passed away?”
After a while, Shu Tang took the garment off her face, reignited with fury, looked around, and searched for the mermaid.
Sure enough, the mermaid was gone, but he had left behind a fresh tuna.
……
Shu Tang had sashimi for breakfast.
As she ate, Shu Tang realized that her mood was actually quite good.
She also had a new goal: to one day touch the fin behind a mermaid’s ear.
Humming a tune, she was about to close the door of the duty room when she suddenly discovered that the lock was broken.
The person who broke it seemed to have tried to restore it, but clumsily reattached the lock askew back into the door frame.
—The lock was put back, but an exaggerated crack was left on the wall.
After losing all her memories, everything that used to be routine in the human world became utterly strange to a mermaid.
Actually, the scene looked somewhat comical.
But for some reason, Shu Tang paused, and her heart suddenly felt as if it was bitten by a tiny ant.
She returned to the duty room and looked up at the air conditioner that had been blown off, suddenly realizing that mermaids probably hated this thing.
Even “he” disliked everything here.
Shu Tang suddenly understood why the mermaid had been so cautious last night.
She just touched his ear, and the fin behind it immediately stood up at a terrifying speed.
—Like a tiger thrown into the hustle and bustle of traffic in the mountains, the slightest honk could make it irritable and alert.
Suddenly, Shu Tang’s mood felt like a sponge soaked with water, becoming heavy.
Shu Tang thought: It’s okay not to know how to use an umbrella, not to recognize door locks, and even not speaking is not a big problem. She could start teaching him again, slowly awakening “his” memories, and eventually, he could return to human society.
However, thinking about the blank medical record, Shu Tang felt a hint of unease:
If he had never been treated, then he is now an extremely unstable bomb.
Just like the patients Shu Tang was responsible for checking, their mental powers would become disordered and erupt every now and then. The symptoms of a mental power outbreak were bizarre, including one spiritual entity that was canine, howling at the moon every night.
—But it is precisely because of frequent outbreaks that they are in the emergency department, not a more severe department.
Shu Tang has known the mermaid since she met him, and has never seen him completely mentally disordered or explosive.
But this is not a good sign.
Realizing this, Shu Tang could no longer sit still.
The original plan for a medical check-up and prescribing medication had to be scheduled without further delay. Mainly because the mermaid wouldn’t let her examine him when he came at night—there was no way to conduct any checks.
She could only try going to Zone 01 during the day.
Shu Tang thought that although the sanatorium was under martial law recently, taking a leave of absence should not be difficult.
…
Just as Shu Tang left the duty room, her communicator rang.
Caller ID: Mom.
Not long ago, after Shu Tang reported that the matchmaking went smoothly, her excited parents went to visit the Zhu family.
The Shu family, though modest, was quite comfortable in South Island City, but seemed unremarkable compared to the Zhu family at South Island Base.
Unbeknownst to them, Colonel Zhu did not even glance at the gift prepared by Shu’s father, and Mrs. Zhu was quite picky, commenting that Shu Tang’s spirit type was rather mediocre, which would limit her chances for promotion and future prospects.
Upon hearing this, Shu’s mother left in a huff.
When she got home, Shu’s mother felt that this arrangement was likely doomed, so she contacted Shu Tang’s aunt to inquire further, and suddenly learned about the Zhu family’s contact with the daughter of the deputy director of Cape Sanatorium. She instantly knew that Shu Tang likely had no chance.
After hesitating for several days, she discussed it with Shu’s father and decided to call Shu Tang.
—She also wanted to subtly remind Shu Tang to give up on this idea sooner.
Shu’s mother cautiously probed: “Little Tang, how have you been getting along with your matchmaking partner recently?”
Upon hearing this, Shu Tang eagerly began talking about the Blue Rose, how beautiful it was, and how it brought her fish.
Shu’s mother’s heart sank, the fragile omega almost immediately bursting into tears, but she held back, choking up, “Little Tang, you know, you can see a face but not the heart.”
Shu’s mother scraped the bottom of the barrel: “Look, his health is poor, he’s always in the hospital, and I heard he has a bad temper. It will be so tiring to appease him every day, won’t it?”
Upon hearing this, Shu Tang replied, “His temper is a bit bad, but he still has many good qualities.”
For example, he could catch big sweet fish and was very gentle. Although he couldn’t speak, he would bring her fish.
And—
It wasn’t that hard to appease him, either!
Mother Shu choked and cut to the chase, “Didn’t you say you wanted to find him to end the match? What about now?”
Shu Tang was at a loss for words.
End the match?
She had indeed forgotten about that.
Hesitating for a moment, she vaguely said, “Let’s wait a bit longer, at least until he gets better.”
A sense of dread hit Mother Shu, and she exchanged a glance with Father Shu: It’s over.
Shu Tang said, “I plan to take a leave tomorrow to see him. Don’t worry, I’ll keep an eye on him and won’t let his condition worsen. As for the rest, it’s not too late to discuss it once he’s recovered.”
In an instant, the numerous stories from “Zhiyin” magazine about phoenix alphas being abandoned after climbing high, along with countless tales of devoted hearts being deceived by omegas in the news, all flooded their minds.
With a heavy heart, Mother Shu hung up the phone and said to Father Shu, “So, do we still go to the Zhu family?”
Thinking about the Zhu family’s attitude, Father Shu hesitated, “If we leave it be, the worst she might suffer is being scammed out of some money.”
Recalling the gifts that were thrown out, Mother Shu sat back down and added, “But then again, how much money does she have?”