That night, Shu Tang no longer glanced occasionally at her communicator as she had done the previous few days; instead, she set it to silent and changed her status to “Working Overtime.”
She could understand her colleagues’ wariness and precaution towards Little Rose, which was a natural human sentiment.
Understanding aside, when she heard those words, she still felt downhearted.
However, as the mermaid slowly and carefully wiped her long hair, this downcast mood gradually subsided.
They sat in front of the fire, no one speaking, quietly enjoying the serene atmosphere.
Suddenly, Shu Tang asked, “Little Rose, have you had dinner?”
Of course, he hadn’t.
—Just a short while ago, the mermaid thought Shu Tang wouldn’t return and had completely forgotten about eating.
Upon hearing her question, the feeling of hunger slowly reached the tips of his nerves.
The mermaid lowered his gaze and hissed softly towards Shu Tang.
Clearly a fierce monster in everyone’s eyes, yet when she was not around, he even forgot to eat dinner.
She struggled out of the mermaid’s embrace, unable to restrain herself from complaining about him.
This time, she didn’t rashly say that skipping dinner could lead to death but instead warned him that not eating could cause stomach issues. This time the mermaid did not argue back but followed her, listening to her voice.
Shu Tang rolled up her sleeves to catch a chicken, but the mermaid merely approached the chicken and with a stretch of his hand—
The old hen, previously lively in Shu Tang’s arms, fainted from fright.
Shu Tang: “…”
Nowadays, why does even a chicken show toughness and fear?
The mermaid tilted his head.
Shu Tang, with hands tucked in, directed the mermaid to handle the chicken.
After fiddling in the kitchen for half a day, they finally got the jujube chicken stew going.
However, Shu Tang soon realized a serious issue: the chicken needed to stew for at least an hour.
All the while, the mermaid kept watching her, seemingly eager to go hunting.
But each time the mermaid looked outside, Shu Tang reassured, “It’ll be ready soon.”
To appease the mermaid, she started feeding it snacks.
She offered chocolate.
The sweet and bitter taste was hard for the mermaid to accept.
Eventually, the chicken took over an hour to be ready.
During the meal, Shu Tang saw the mermaid wolfing down the food for the first time. “He” was expressionless and graceful in his movements, but ate very quickly.
Shu Tang thought to herself that she might not stew chicken next time, but then she suddenly noticed: How come the mermaid doesn’t spit out the bones when eating chicken?
She panicked, suddenly remembering that deep-sea fish don’t have bones and the mermaid might not know to spit them out.
Soon, she saw the mermaid stop.
She grew anxious.
Could it be choking?
She thought: What if the “monster” from the forbidden area was choked to death by a chicken bone?
Then, Shu Tang heard the sound of bones crunching.
A beautiful Adam’s apple rolled.
Swallowed.
Shu Tang: “……”
She quietly sat back down.
Shu Tang decided to eliminate bone-in meats from the menu in the future.
…
The next morning, Shu Tang wandered around the Bastille with a fresh perspective.
She finally realized belatedly that the huge thing they used as a bed at night, complete with thoughtfully designed rails, was a genuine prison.
The poorly lit “Bastille,” just like its exterior, was truly a massive jail.
The extremely curious kitten started jumping around on her adventure, and when the mermaid lifted her from the corner, her head was already covered in dust.
The mermaid picked her up like a plastic bag and took her to the seaside to clean up.
Sitting on the rocks, Shu Tang suddenly felt that the “forbidden area,” although terrifying to hear about, was actually quite nice.
The “Bastille” had countless rooms, each of massive size, resembling a luxurious mansion;
It also had a vast private beach and numerous surrounding small and large islands.
Even the landscaping here involves ultra-expensive blue roses sold outside.
Because no one dares to enter, all the seafood is free to enjoy, and you could eat for decades or even a century without paying a dime.
Moreover, Shu Tang discovered a benefit of the forbidden area:
Since everyone is afraid to enter, no one knows what she does inside. She can stay as long as she wants, sleeping for three days and nights without any issues.
Asking means overtime.
Asking means devoting oneself heart and soul to the company, passing by one’s home three times without entering.
This place is like a utopia belonging only to her and Little Rose, a completely independent realm.
Shu Tang suddenly had a quirky idea:
“Little Rose, let’s found a country.”
“Let’s call it the Catfish Republic.”
People outside one nation.
She and Little Rose another.
The national flag is a bedsheet.
The territory is the entire forbidden area.
The cat is the king, and Little Rose is the president.
…
The entire morning, they were blowing in the wind on a tall rock.
After surveying the territory with a fresh perspective, Shu Tang couldn’t help but stare at the mermaid.
Shu Tang found it hard to associate the mermaid with the monster described by everyone in the forbidden area, largely because the mermaid was too beautiful.
However, perhaps because Shu Tang looked his way too many times, the mermaid mistook her desire to touch his ear fins but was too shy to say it.
So, he suddenly lowered his head and moved closer to her.
Shu Tang: ?
The mermaid hissed at her.
Realizing what was happening, Shu Tang paused for a moment but did not touch the mermaid’s ear fins as she did the day before.
She realized that the mermaid did not like being touched there, and his allowing it was actually a subtle, “submissive” behavior.
She turned and gently touched the mermaid’s tail fin.
Although not quite understanding her intent, the mermaid still flicked his tail.
After a simple lunch, the mermaid lifted Shu Tang out of the water.
Shu Tang had gotten used to the mermaid taking her hunting in the afternoon, so before leaving the fortress, she packed a communicator, a notebook, and a small blanket in a waterproof bag.
The mermaid placed her on a rock in the middle of the sea, flicked his tail, and disappeared into the ocean.
Shu Tang settled herself on a rock, spread out a blanket, and began to work, holding a communicator and a notebook.
The first thing Shu Tang did was to make a call to Chen Sheng.
She could distinctly feel that Chen Sheng and Old Wu’s attitudes were different from others.
At a critical moment, the former still remembered to find someone to ease Little Rose’s psychic eruption;
The latter, upon hearing that Shu Tang wanted to make red date chicken soup for Subject 001, volunteered to buy a pound of rock sugar for her.
—This reflected Shu Tang’s moral compass.
She intuitively felt that these two people were trustworthy.
Chen Sheng was not surprised when he received Shu Tang’s call; in fact, he had been expecting her to resign. After all, even the most oblivious person would feel fear and terror upon learning what Subject 001 was.
However, the ensuing conversation took him by surprise—
Because Shu Tang had no intention of backing out and was instead keen to inquire about the situation in Zone 01.
Chen Sheng thought for a moment and shared all he could.
Thus, Shu Tang learned something.
Although Shu Tang had the same status as the other 17 scallops, she was the only executor, meaning that whether they followed the discussed plans or not, the decision ultimately lay in her hands.
Feeling vaguely ostracized, Shu Tang suddenly perked up.
She said, “Does that mean I can isolate the seventeen of them by myself?”
Chen Sheng: “…”
No, how did she come to that conclusion?
After roughly understanding the situation, Shu Tang happily ended the call.
She sat on the rock, occasionally glancing at the sea.
For some reason, the mermaids seemed unusually slow today.
Spurred by Chen Sheng’s words, Shu Tang suddenly found her work enthusiasm rekindled. Unlike her usual procrastination, she turned on the communicator, pulled up the records from yesterday’s meeting, put on her headphones, and began to take notes.
She fast-forwarded through the recording, stopping only at the parts discussing the mermaids’ condition.
Then she began to write notes.
Shu Tang found that most therapists were very conservative in their approach due to the mutation of psychic powers, lacking any previous experience to draw from. Just as Chen Sheng had just told her, the therapists’ role was merely to maintain the stability of the psychic state, while more in-depth research would require the efforts of a research institute, so Shu Tang did not need to be overly anxious.
For this reason, Chen Sheng had specifically given her the contact information of Director Qiu.
Thus, Shu Tang noted down all the mentioned medications, planning to consult Director Qiu later.
……
Originally, today was supposed to be a very calm day.
Although Shu Tang and the mermaid both knew that they had discovered the truth about each other, they maintained a strange tacit understanding and continued to get along.
—No matter what the reason, as long as Shu Tang was willing to come back, the monster no longer wanted to delve deeper.
“He” indulged her many presumptions, even allowing her to touch the fins behind his ears, which was a sign of weakness. It seemed that as long as he appeared less fierce and behaved more gently, she would never leave “him.”
Last night, she asked how the chicken soup made by the mermaid tasted, and the mermaid, without changing his expression, flicked his tail.
But how could chicken, eaten bones and all, taste good?
Shu Tang could clearly feel the mermaid’s indulgence toward her.
But after understanding why, she never did that again.
Shu Tang even felt that her presumptuousness at this time was like bullying “him.”
Thus, this pampered and arrogant behavior stopped.
Originally, maybe this strange atmosphere could have lasted a long time.
However, the problem arose with Shu Tang’s earphones.
The mermaid had exceptionally good hearing.
—So good that he could hear even the faintest electrical sounds clearly.
Even if Shu Tang wore earphones and kept the volume very low, as long as it was within a hundred meters, the mermaid could hear it.
So, when the mermaid swam towards that rock from the sea, “his” movements paused.
The fierce monster from the deep sea suddenly looked up from beneath the rock.
The mermaid heard the screams in the video, heard many voices chaotically discussing.
These voices, like a torrent, suddenly pulled the mermaid back to that rainy night.
The sharp fins behind the mermaid’s ears stood up.
His first reaction was to destroy, destroy that little box making the noise—do not let her hear it.
……
Shu Tang was about to fast-forward, but the next second, the communicator lost its signal.
She heard the sound of water.
Turning around, she saw the mermaid by the rock.
“He,” with droplets of water dripping down his body, stared intently at the communicator.
Shu Tang suddenly realized something and instinctively tried to hide the communicator behind her.
But this action completely enraged the monster.
As if the behavior during this period was just the monster’s disguise, it finally revealed its violent and icy nature.
Shu Tang had not yet reacted when she was easily pinned against the rock.
The monster approached her cheek and let out a sharp hiss.
In the pitch-black eyes burned a cold fury, accompanied by a subtle hint of bewilderment.
“He” breathed heavily beside her ear, dangerous and icy like a wild monster.
“He” wanted to destroy the communicator, to threaten her into handing it over, but his manner was too frightening.
So much so that Shu Tang’s mind went blank, and she subconsciously stepped back a little.
But this movement seemed to instantly sting the mermaid.
His pale lips were tightly pressed, his body ice cold.
Long hair fell down, still dripping with water.
The mermaid let go of her and turned away without a word.
His fishtail disappeared above the surface of the sea.
…
Everything happened too quickly.
Shu Tang sat on the ground for a while until her legs were no longer weak, and then she got up.
From the rocks, all she could see was the vast sea surrounding her.
She called out, “Little Rose,” but only the sound of the waves responded, with no other reply.
If you didn’t know this mermaid, you would think he was a thoroughly temperamental monster.
But Shu Tang merely zoned out for a while, then quickly understood what was happening.
She looked at the troublesome earphone cord and sighed.
Then, she simply pulled off her shoes and left the rocks.
Sea of Tears wasn’t far from here.
Shu Tang guessed that the mermaid might have gone there.
Although Shu Tang could swim, she was relatively slow. She thought of the direction the mermaid had taken her last time and swam in that direction. But what had felt like a minute’s distance before now seemed very long.
Halfway through, she felt her strength beginning to wane.
So, she immediately swam toward a nearby group of rocks.
Because her strength was fading, her speed slowed more and more.
The next second, a cold arm suddenly wrapped around her waist.
Shu Tang fell into a broad embrace.
The mermaid’s strong arms pulled her, and his fishtail, like an arrow shot from a bow, headed towards the group of rocks.
By the time the mermaid lifted Shu Tang onto the rocks, her strength was nearly depleted.
She lay on the rocks for a long while to catch her breath, with no one around, as if what had just happened was merely an illusion.
She called out to the sea, “Little Rose,” but only the sea breeze responded.
However, as Shu Tang was about to get back into the water, a threatening hiss came from behind the nearby rocks.
Thus, Shu Tang immediately pulled back her legs.
She walked over to that rock.
She sat down behind that massive rock.
“I’m sorry, Little Rose, I didn’t know you could hear.”
Although she didn’t mean it, objectively, Little Rose still heard those prejudiced words. In fact, Shu Tang felt uneasy; after all, she felt uncomfortable hearing those words herself, let alone the person involved?
She had some regrets.
There was no response from behind the rock.
Throughout the journey, Shu Tang was considering whether to have an honest talk with Little Rose.
She sat on the rock, blowing in the sea breeze, and suddenly realized this was a great opportunity.
So, after a long while—
“Little Rose, actually I know everything now.”
Shu Tang didn’t use flowery language to deceive this sharp and sensitive creature; nor did she show any panic, she didn’t care whether the mermaid understood or not, she just told “him” everything she knew.
She knew about the forbidden zone, the destructive nature of mermaids, everything.
The mermaid silently watched the sea.
Silently waiting for the final judgment.
However, the little cat said—
“Little Rose, how pitiful.”
A ferocious being like a mermaid, naturally at the top of the food chain. Even having lost their memory, they still possess power superior to most humans. Such proud creatures greatly dislike being pitied.
Especially by the weaker ones, it feels almost like an insult.
The fierce monster behind the rock instinctively wanted to reject any sympathy and pity from her, but was stunned by her tone.
Her tone was no longer one of sympathy, but almost one of “compassion.”
Strange, she was feeling compassion for a monster that everyone else feared;
But even stranger was that this monster wasn’t offended, it even felt a very peculiar sensation.
As if this huge and ferocious creature became very small, small like a fish in a fishbowl being touched on the nose by a little cat saying:
“Little Rose, how pitiful.”
An unprecedented emotion swept over the monster.
Rigid and confused.
Shu Tang slowly approached the reef and indeed, in the darkness, saw a pale shadow.
The tall creature’s hair dripped with water, its pale lips tightly shut, silently watching the sea.
She sat down next to the mermaid.
She tried to reach out and touch the mermaid’s hand, attempting to unfold the tightly clenched hand.
But the mermaid did not react.
So she calmed down.
After a while, she suddenly said:
“Little Rose, would it be okay if I moved in and lived with you?”
The air quieted down.
As if only the sound of the sea breeze remained.
…
She decided to stay.
Though it was due to a strange “pity.”
But in the monster’s barren and cracked world.
Rainwater nourished the roots and sprouted, suddenly blooming a blue rose.
…
Much later.
In the darkness.
The creature moved closer.
Its cold chin rested on her shoulder.
Encircling her.
She successfully pried open the monster’s tightly clenched, pale hand.
—And saw the pearl it was ready to give her.