Shu Tang last caught a cold and fever three years ago.
At that time, Shu’s mother cried her eyes out. After comforting the severely ill Shu Tang and stuffing her with a box of cold medicine, she went downstairs to play mahjong with Shu’s father.
There was some familial affection, but not much.
So Shu Tang didn’t make a big deal of it. She slept through the day and night at home and woke up fully recovered.
If it hadn’t been for taking shelter from a tsunami one afternoon, Shu Tang might not have fallen ill at all.
But this time, the symptoms seemed more severe than her previous mild colds, with high fever accompanied by a sore throat and a heavy head all at once.
They administered a fever-reducing injection in the early hours of the morning.
The mermaid was very tense, worrying that Shu Tang might die, and never let go of her hand.
It was actually a bit painful, but Shu Tang did not withdraw her hand. She continued to comfort the mermaid until it could feel her temperature slowly coming down, and only then did the tense atmosphere begin to dissipate.
The fish relaxed, and once the doctors had left, leaving just the two of them on the floor, the mermaid embraced her, and Shu Tang fell asleep again to the sound of rain.
Maybe because she fell asleep in the mermaid’s arms this time, she didn’t have nightmares, sleeping heavily due to the effect of the medicine.
Unbeknownst to Shu Tang, after she fell asleep, the mermaid’s vast spiritual presence locked onto the entire building.
This creature with a strong sense of territoriality needed to ensure the surroundings were safe.
Through its spiritual presence, the mermaid heard the conversations of people in the building deep into the night.
Once it realized this was a place for healing, the monster’s hostility gradually faded.
This monster, like a sponge, absorbed words and phrases from others, learning their meanings.
However, one word came up frequently, leading the monster to grasp a concept: temperature.
Soon, the mermaid realized something:
“His” body temperature had always been very low.
The mermaid withdrew its attention from its spiritual presence and looked down at its own pale, cold hands.
Especially in this rainy weather, the mermaid’s body temperature might even be lower than the cold air outside.
Before Shu Tang’s fever today, the mermaid had never realized the impact of its body temperature on her, even though it wrapped its tail around her every night to sleep.
Looking down at the sleeping Shu Tang, the mermaid remembered how it had tightly held her during her persistent fever and realized it might have done something wrong.
The mermaid’s pale lips tightened.
Somewhat helplessly, it instinctively moved closer to nuzzle her and hissed softly as an apology.
However, the moment she got close to him, he immediately froze in place.
“He” did not continue to sleep with Shu Tang, but instead closed his eyes on the sofa in the corner.
The monster slowly shook its cold fish tail:
“He” really liked to curl up with her while sleeping.
But it seemed she couldn’t bear the low temperature.
This cold-blooded creature felt a heavy sense of loss.
…
After Shu Tang’s fever subsided, she woke up after a short sleep, instinctively reaching out for the mermaid’s hand but not finding it.
She was now fully awake.
Shu Tang realized she might have a bit of PTSD, so now when she couldn’t see the mermaid, she would instinctively feel a bit nervous.
But soon, after sitting up in bed, she immediately found where the mermaid was.
“He” was not far away.
The sofa beside the bed was somewhat cramped for the large-sized mermaid.
Shu Tang didn’t understand why the mermaid had been on the bed before she fell asleep, but when she woke up, “he” was on the sofa.
Thus, as Shu Tang was just about to get out of bed wearing her shoes—
The mermaid opened his eyes and met hers.
Then Shu Tang was lifted back into bed and tucked into the quilt.
Shu Tang was a bit puzzled, “Little Rose, why don’t you sleep on the bed?”
The mermaid remembered the time when she had a high fever, and he used his body temperature to make her “catch a cold,” pausing slightly.
So Shu Tang noticed that the mermaid looked at her and stretched out his pale, large hand, warming it in front of the air conditioner’s warm air for a while.
Shu Tang was a bit puzzled because, as far as she knew, the mermaid really disliked air conditioning.
However, feeling that his hand was no longer cold as ice, “he” placed it on her forehead.
Shu Tang felt the mermaid’s body temperature, which was different from usual and a bit warm, and she was stunned for a moment.
She looked up at the mermaid’s expressionless face.
Suddenly understanding why.
Shu Tang could clearly feel that she was being treated very carefully.
—Even being doted on.
This feeling made her uncontrollably stare at the mermaid.
The mermaid hissed at her.
Probably saying that he didn’t sleep with her because of his low body temperature.
Yet Shu Tang reached out and grasped the large hand that was about to withdraw due to its blood cooling again.
She pressed the big hand to her forehead.
“Little Rose, when you have a fever, sometimes it’s necessary to cool down your body temperature,” she said.
“Have you ever seen a fever cooling patch? Look, if it weren’t for your body temperature acting like a cooling patch, my fever wouldn’t have gone down so quickly.”
The mermaid fell silent for a moment, as if checking to see if Shu Tang was lying.
Shu Tang simply wrapped herself in her blanket and moved to the already cramped sofa.
“You see, as long as I wrap myself up well in the blanket, I won’t catch a cold,” she said.
She tried to lift the mermaid’s tail and wrap it around herself.
But as she was about to touch it, the tail wrapped around her first, pressing the blanket tightly around them.
“I actually quite like this temperature. Although it’s a bit cold in the winter, it’s quite cool in the summer.”
She started to complain about how expensive the electricity bills were during the summer in the federation. Indeed, due to resource shortages, power supply was very conservative and electricity was incredibly expensive. Shu Tang dared not run the air conditioning all night; by holding “his” tail, she could save up to two thousand yuan on her summer electricity bills.
In her voice, the disappointment that had surfaced due to her body temperature gradually faded away.
The small sofa was definitely too cramped for two people.
So, the mermaid picked her up, blanket and all, and carried her back to the large bed.
This hospital room was actually of the highest standard, and the bed was not a standard one but was two meters long. However, it was still too small to accommodate the mermaid’s tail.
So, the two of them lay under the blanket, listening to the rain outside the window as they drifted back to sleep.
…
Cape Healing Hospital only treated mental health-related illnesses, but with thousands of people in the relatively enclosed facility, the hospital had set up an emergency department nearby in a separate building to handle minor ailments conveniently.
This was where Shu Tang was staying.
Although the cold came on strong, it seemed to go away quickly.
After returning to a warm environment and resting for a night, Shu Tang’s temperature had returned to normal.
Originally, they had arrived in the early morning, and Shu Tang planned to follow the doctor’s advice to stay a couple more days to monitor her condition, but she changed her mind after just one night.
The first night was still rainy.
Because Shu Tang had slept a lot during the day, she couldn’t sleep at night.
The more she tried to sleep, the more awake she became, and she started to think about the unfinished exam paper, slipping into a bout of late-night emo—her study plan had been delayed by two days due to the trip to the power station.
She began to feel anxious, even considering sneaking into the emergency department next door to check on the progress of her classmates like Su Yin to see how well they were doing with their revisions.
However, as Shu Tang was wrestling with her thoughts, she suddenly felt a cold hand touch her forehead.
It was about three in the morning.
She thought it was the mermaid who had accidentally touched her in his sleep.
—Until she noticed that the mermaid had repeatedly checked her temperature several times.
It seemed that after confirming she didn’t have a fever during the night, the mermaid settled down.
She quietly opened her eyes, thinking the mermaid had finally fallen asleep.
But upon closer inspection, she noticed that the fins behind the mermaid’s ears were still flared; in the dark, he occasionally furrowed his brow as if disturbed by some noise.
Suddenly, Shu Tang realized that with three floors of people around, the constant footsteps and talking might make it difficult for the mermaid to sleep; and since he was also checking her temperature from time to time, he had barely slept all night.
She watched the mermaid’s side profile for a while.
In the dark, she quietly reached out and covered the mermaid’s ears.
The alert creature immediately opened his eyes.
—Upon realizing it was her, he gradually relaxed.
He even lowered his head to nuzzle her.
Shu Tang kept her hand in place, not letting go.
Perhaps because covering his ears worked, the mermaid seemed more relaxed and eventually fell asleep.
…
Upon waking up in the morning, Shu Tang decided to leave the hospital.
Her cold wasn’t severe, and if it weren’t for Chen Sheng’s instructions to the doctor, she wouldn’t have needed to be hospitalized at all—likely just sent home with some boxes of medicine.
Between the two of them, the mermaid had more serious injuries; from the time he carried her to find Chen Sheng until now, he had only slept a little over thirty hours.
She felt somewhat sorry for him.
So early in the morning, Shu Tang spoke to Old Wu, who was watching outside, and went downstairs before the mermaid woke up.
If it were before discovering the mermaid’s healing abilities, Shu Tang would have taken the opportunity to get him a full physical exam; but now she had an intuition that perhaps it was better to keep this secret with fewer people knowing about it.
So she didn’t make a big deal out of it.
After receiving a prescription from her doctor, she asked the nurse at the pharmacy counter while waiting for cold medicine, “Do you have any medicine for external injuries?”
Actually, one can’t get medicine without a prescription.
But Mr. Chen had given instructions to both parties involved.
Thus, the nurse checked and gathered painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, bandages, gauze, and disinfectant into a box for her.
Shu Tang packed up a large bag of medications and went upstairs with her medical record, indeed finding the mermaid.
In fact, the mermaid had woken up when Shu Tang got out of bed.
After all, this very vigilant creature would never feel comfortable letting her go out alone.
So, the mermaid followed her the whole time.
Only when Shu Tang had completed the “discharge procedures” did the mermaid return to the hospital room.
As expected, when Shu Tang opened the door, she said, “Little Rose, let’s go home.”
The mermaid now understood what the discharge procedures meant.
“His” dark eyes fixed on her, and although he said nothing, Shu Tang immediately felt something unusual.
“He” looked somewhat stern, his gaze filled with scrutiny as he stared at her, almost menacingly.
It was as if he was asking her: Why are you discharging?
Shu Tang felt guilty because she indeed had the idea of acting now and explaining later.
—But Shu Tang knew clearly that if she didn’t leave the hospital, the mermaid might not rest properly for the next three days.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t explain this directly to the mermaid.
So, she faced the mermaid’s oppressive gaze and forcefully pretended to casually pack her things.
Shu Tang began by educating the mermaid: “A cold usually gets better on its own in three to four days.”
She then recounted several instances from her childhood when she had fevers.
Finally, she lifted the medical record: “Little Rose, look, the attending physician said it’s okay.”
She started to feel the hairs on her back stand up.
The mermaid stared at her expressionlessly.
—She must think “he” is easy to deceive to say such a thing.
The doctor had clearly told her to stay in the hospital for two more days before leaving.
Because the mermaid had been listening to their conversations using its psychic sense, it could completely understand much of the diagnosis now, and the doctor had clearly mentioned Shu Tang still had some “tonsillitis.”
So, at this moment, the mermaid knew that Shu Tang was lying.
She must have another reason for wanting to go back.
But Shu Tang refused to say.
“Little Rose, it’s really just a minor issue, I’ll just take medicine for two days and I’ll be fine.”
Yet the mermaid thought she was a little liar.
When she lay feverish in “his” arms, the mermaid felt she was about to vanish.
This fear and tension were still vivid in the mermaid’s memory.
“He” was terribly afraid that she might die by accident.
The two remained in a stalemate for a while.
The mermaid reached out and lifted her over.
Yet, wanting to scold her while she was still sick with a cold seemed unreasonable; she was, after all, ill.
Wanting to admonish her, he found himself unable to utter anything beyond a hiss.
So the mermaid looked down at her for a long time.
In the end, he could only helplessly purse his lips.
And sulk.
…
In the end, Shu Tang was discharged from the hospital. She had brought nothing with her when she arrived, and when she left, she merely gathered all the medicines from the past two days.
Shu Tang thought the mermaid had compromised.
But Shu Tang didn’t know that the mermaid had learned to “maneuver indirectly.”
The mermaid had memorized the route and remembered the person named Chen Sheng. If Shu Tang had a fever again, the mermaid would lift her into this place for an injection in the middle of the night.
But if that time came, the mermaid wouldn’t be so easy to talk to.
On the way back, Shu Tang could feel that “he” was still angry.
The towering monster walked ahead of her expressionlessly, carrying a big bag full of medicines. Though he remained expressionless, anyone who got close to “him” could feel the irritable aura.
The evidence was the passersby who sensed danger early and quickly fled away.
Moreover, due to poor communication, Shu Tang probably didn’t know, there was another reason this monster was angry:
“He” thought Shu Tang was fooling him.
Like how Shu Tang often lied to “him,” for example, telling the mermaid that people ran away upon seeing “him” because it was KFC’s Crazy Thursday.
“He” looked down at the little trickster.
If it had been a month earlier, Shu Tang’s nonsense could have easily swayed the mermaid, basically accepting whatever she said. She claimed the sun was flat, and the mermaid would just agreeably flick its tail.
But as time passed, the mermaid began to understand more and more.
Shu Tang had previously told the mermaid that she suffered from a severe disease called “bed-separation anxiety,” claiming she needed to lie in bed for 22 hours every day. Initially duped, the mermaid skeptically put Shu Tang back in bed, only to later realize it was just plain laziness.
Then there were times Shu Tang couldn’t recite her books, blaming the weather/fish/meat/water temperature, making the mermaid run in circles. The mermaid watched as Shu Tang played with sand and read books for a while, yet still did not expose the little trickster.
Such deceit, among many others, did not anger the mermaid.
Today, the mermaid suddenly realized that in the eyes of this little trickster, “he” was probably seen as clumsy and easy to deceive.
Thinking about this, the mermaid inexplicably pursed his lips.
—It seemed that, subconsciously, this monster hoped to appear reliable and strong in her eyes.
The little trickster, feeling guilty, walked behind with her hands in her pockets, stealing glances at “him.”
It was a huge misunderstanding.
The mermaid didn’t know that she was hiding things from “him” because she was worried “he” wouldn’t sleep well.
Shu Tang also didn’t know why the mermaid was angry.
Between the two, only one had a mouth.
However, halfway through their walk, Shu Tang stopped.
She looked around and sat down on a flower bed.
Hearing no footsteps, the tall figure walking ahead paused. After a moment of silence, he finally turned back.
The mermaid looked down at the cat sitting on the flower bed, appearing even more upset.
Then she heard her say:
“Little Rose, it looks like it’s going to rain, and we only have one umbrella.”
“I can’t walk anymore, can you carry me back?”
She said this while sneakily watching the mermaid’s expression.
The mermaid was quiet for a while and said nothing.
He just put the plastic bag down on the ground.
Shu Tang successfully climbed onto the mermaid’s shoulder.
She held up the umbrella over their heads with one hand.
Her head rested on the mermaid’s shoulder.
As he prepared to stand up, she quickly signaled the mermaid to bend his head down a bit so she could hold on to “his” neck, making it easier to stay on.
The mermaid was silent for a while, then supported her legs with his large hands.
—This way she wouldn’t fall off.
Shu Tang was startled.
His body temperature was ice cold, like a block of ice.
But she felt an unprecedented sense of security.
She rested her head on the mermaid’s shoulder and couldn’t help but laugh.
The breathing tickled, and the mermaid paused his steps.
In the heavy rain.
She whispered, “Little Rose, I really like today.”
Her voice was so soft.
It was drowned out by the curtain of rain.
The mermaid seemed to hear it, yet perhaps he did not.
He paused in his steps, carrying her on his back toward the forbidden area.
The corners of his mouth seemed to curl into a barely noticeable smile.
She quietly lay on the back of the tall mermaid, swaying as she held the umbrella.
Her lips uncontrollably turned upwards.
She used the heavy rain and the long path as excuses.
But both of them knew very well.
There were two umbrellas.
And the path was not long.