Hidden in the darkness, the monster’s heart, scorching hot, rapidly cooled and sank due to its abject poverty.
“He” thought that she was angry because he couldn’t get what she wanted, and had assumed that once she realized his pockets were empty, she would leave him.
The monster silently endured, waiting for her judgment.
But she approached him angrily, with a gaze that executed him, and as the mermaid’s heart sank into the endless darkness, she leaned in with a series of soft, chirping kisses that revived the creature.
A wave of confusion and helplessness overwhelmed him, for the monster didn’t understand what he could offer her, and why she would still reward him with those soft, light kisses after discovering he had nothing.
In the darkness, “he” kept his eyes closed, breathing as calmly as he did when he slept.
But she knew that “he” was awake and could vividly feel her stormy kisses.
Mimi felt a sense of triumph after her revenge. She had planned to go back to sleep after her revenge, but then she immediately thought: No, why should she sleep in the living room?
She hesitated for a moment, then assertively lay down.
She grabbed the blanket and pulled out the only pillow from the corner, then monopolized both the blanket and pillow with a victor’s arrogance, contentedly closing her eyes.
The mermaid in the darkness opened his pitch-black eyes.
Extremely confused, he watched her return to his side.
He waited a while until her breathing gradually stabilized, then carefully drew her back into his embrace.
Though still unclear why.
But in the depths, a greedy conjecture began to grow.
The monster’s heart was rekindled.
*
In the Bastille, two people in a cold war shared a bed at night, brushed their teeth together in front of the mirror in the morning, and in the kitchen, one soaked milk and the other sliced fish.
Yet, they still did not speak.
And they both very tacitly pretended that last night’s series of chirping kisses never happened.
That morning, Shu Tang received a call from Su Yin:
“Little Tang, someone in the emergency department got hold of the exam papers, are you coming to join us?”
In the days leading up to professional exams, various leaked exam papers proliferated online, all handled like clandestine operations, secretly summoned friends to share the find.
If it had been a few days earlier, Shu Tang would have asked Su Yin to send them directly.
But today, Shu Tang looked at that tall, silent figure and intentionally raised her voice a bit, “Okay, you wait for me, I’ll be right there.”
She hung up the phone and said to the mermaid, “I need to go to the emergency department this afternoon.”
In the Bastille, under the dim light, the monster’s hand paused.
Then, pretending nothing was amiss, it turned around, avoiding her surreptitious glance.
Although they were still in a cold war, before leaving the house, Shu Tang hesitated at the door and explained:
“The emergency department is where I used to work night shifts, not far from here.”
“I will be back home before dark.”
—Don’t wait for me at the elevator.
But she swallowed that last piece of advice.
She left the Bastille and walked into the abandoned building, pretending to wait for the elevator and secretly watching the reflection in the mirror.
To her surprise, the mermaid really hadn’t followed her.
She entered the elevator and felt it descending.
A sense of loss washed over her.
It seemed she had grown accustomed to the feeling of the mermaid following her.
…
Until the elevator doors closed, the monster did not leave the abandoned building but waited in the dark corner, just like every time before, for her return.
However, this time, the monster was not saddened by her departure but let a greedy thought grow.
The monster had an uncertain guess.
In the darkness, the monster stood before a shattered glass window, staring at its reflection.
On this abandoned, forgotten wasteland, besides the monster’s three coins, only the impoverished monster itself remained.
“It” reached out, its pale fingers touching its own reflection in the mirror.
As if undergoing a harsh and ruthless scrutiny.
Staring at those pitch-black eyes.
Staring at those flaring sharp fins.
This was a completely inhuman face.
Its eyes shared a similar hue with pollutants, looking eerie and frightening.
People would only scream and leave, watching with eyes filled with fear and dread.
The cold gaze then shifted onto its body.
An extremely cold body temperature. Uncontrollable strength. Pale fingers that could easily crush her wrist. Although there are not many scars, traces of past battles still remain, imperfect, giving off the cold, metallic feel of a bladed weapon.
The monster slowly withdrew its hand.
Confused and hesitant.
Shu Tang did not know that, all along the way, the colossal creature in mid-air had been watching over tiny her.
He kept asking herself one question:
Did she really want this terrifying monster?
But if she did not take the monster’s three coins, what else could this barren world offer her besides the monster itself and a deathly silence?
…
The interns in the emergency department had to take this test, so the break room was commandeered, and a group of interns gathered inside to watch over the exam papers.
Shu Tang entered through the back door and found the last row, sitting together with Su Yin.
Su Yin whispered to her, asking how she was doing in Zone 01. Shu Tang picked what she could share and told her.
As they chatted, Shu Tang casually asked:
“Little Yin, do you know the difference between pheromones and perfume?”
Su Yin was puzzled: “Didn’t your high school teacher explain?”
Shu Tang thought: I couldn’t smell it back then.
Su Yin, suspecting this cat might not have passed her health class, kindly explained:
“Actually, among the same sex, like when I smell you, I can only sense your pheromones, not the scent.”
“Only when an alpha and omega’s compatibility is extremely high, can they smell each other’s scent.”
“That must be your favorite scent.”
After saying this, Su Yin wondered: Isn’t there only one patient in Zone 01? She just ended a genetic match, and there shouldn’t be…
Then suddenly, she thought of a possibility.
Linking to some rumors.
She looked at the cat as if seeing a ghost.
As if seeing a fat orange cat ready to drag a whale ashore.
…
Shu Tang quieted down and began to focus on her exam.
On her way to the emergency department, Shu Tang was thinking, if “he” didn’t like her, why would he be so nice to her? Because Director Qiu had mentioned “high compatibility,” she vaguely thought of the possibility of pheromones.
When Shu Tang was young, she was like a greedy cat, but since fish meat was expensive in the Federation, her father often took her fishing. On the way home, she would ponder whether to cook the precious fish sweet and sour or grilled.
Eventually, not wanting to stick to one flavor, she decided to make half of it sweet and sour, and the other half grilled.
It was during a heavy rain that Shu Tang first smelled the scent of pheromones.
It seems that between sweet and sour fish and grilled fish, she had unconsciously made her choice.
Thus, among all the flavors, mermaid turned out to be her favorite grilled fish flavor.
However, as fragrant as the fish was, she couldn’t have it anymore.
Shu Tang looked down at her exam paper, her spirits drowned silently in despair.
She rallied her spirits, trying hard to focus on distinguishing the ABCD choices.
It took Shu Tang over an hour to finish the mock exam paper. She and Su Yin checked the answers together, and both did well, with Shu Tang estimating her score around 87.
Su Yin said, “This paper is really valuable, almost as difficult as the actual exam questions; we should both safely pass.”
They both relaxed.
Su Yin asked, “Are we going back to school together this weekend? Have you asked for leave from Zone 01?”
Shu Tang was momentarily taken aback.
Asking for leave was simple, after all, it was for a major qualification exam.
But the exam would last three days, which meant she had to leave the Bastille and stay at school for at least three days.
She thought again of that forbidden fish—since they had met, they hadn’t been apart for so long.
*
When Shu Tang was ready to leave, it was already past five in the afternoon.
She had just pushed open the back door of the emergency department when a sudden downpour began.
Because she had argued and hadn’t listened to the weather forecast, she didn’t bring an umbrella today.
Su Yin and her colleagues from the emergency department had all gone back to the duty room for a meeting.
She simply decided to wait at the door for the rain to stop. After waiting for half an hour, the rain continued heavily, and the sky gradually darkened.
Shu Tang remembered that she had promised the mermaid to be home before dark and started to feel anxious.
—”He” must think she didn’t want “him” anymore, maybe he would wait at the elevator entrance again for an afternoon.
She was about to call Old Wu, but a thunderclap made her immediately think of someone who had been struck dead by lightning, so she quickly turned off her communicator’s signal.
She waited a bit longer until the rain slightly eased, and it was almost completely dark.
Shu Tang simply put on her jacket’s hood, hugged her book to her chest, and dashed into the rain.
In fact, she hated the feeling of being drenched by rain, it felt like her fur was clumping together in masses.
This sensation made her even more depressed.
So depressed, she felt like she had transformed from a cat into a drenched little dog.
But as she walked, gradually, she felt the rain on her head disappear.
By then, it was completely dark, and the street lights along the road lit up one by one.
She paused, seeing another tall shadow on the ground.
She continued to hug her book and trudged forward.
The mermaid seemed to pause for a moment but still followed her.
She heard steady footsteps behind her.
Shu Tang also wanted to make peace and shake hands with “him.”
But she found this to be a difficult thing.
—Whenever she was about to let go, “he” would treat her a bit better.
She wanted to attribute it all to the thrill of pheromones, as when “he” came close to her meticulously and loved her unconditionally, her heart began to beat uncontrollably.
Just like the blue umbrella above her head, it tightly shielded her from the wind and rain outside.
She felt more grounded and safe, and yet, this made her even more irritated.
Because if “he” didn’t like her, he shouldn’t be so nice to her.
In the night, the mermaid bowed his head as if he hissed towards her.
But she walked faster and pretended not to hear “his” voice.
The tall monster looked down at her retreating figure.
The rain dripped down from the edge of the umbrella.
His pale lips were tightly sealed.
That faint suspicion surfaced again in the monster’s heart.
But the monster hesitated—
Did she really want this terrifying monster?
Was she truly angry about this?
But why wouldn’t she even turn around to look at him? Perhaps she had noticed “his” clumsiness, so she changed her mind and no longer wanted him.
The monster’s pale lips remained sealed.
His gaze gradually changed.
In Shu Tang’s memory, this monster had always been obedient and enduring in front of her, even forgiving and retreating.
Whenever she approached, the monster would step back or retreat into the darkness, silently watching her.
Out of concern that she might be frightened or hurt, the monster had retracted its claws and hid its highly aggressive and somewhat ferocious nature.
Like a silent shadow, it loyally followed behind her.
In her presence, it even seemed a bit “easy to bully.”
Just like every time, as she walked forward sullenly, “he” often didn’t know what he had done wrong, and could only follow behind, silently watching her figure.
Such a tall monster often made her feel like she was bullying “him.”
Perhaps the heavy rain had cooled the temperature, and as the night wind blew, she gradually calmed down.
She suddenly remembered: an umbrella is only so big; if she walked too fast, the mermaid would get wet.
She slowly stopped.
She turned around, and indeed saw the tall mermaid silently following her. His silver-white hair was already drenched, dripping water steadily, with the umbrella over her head, clearly not intended to cover himself.
She felt a sourness in her eyes, mixed with a bit of anger.
She stared at the monster in the darkness for a while, hoping to act as if their recent quarrels and the events of the past few days had never happened. However, when she tried to speak, no sound came out; she could only look at him in a daze.
The tall monster became quiet for a moment, lowering his head to look at her. His pitch-black eyes deepened, resembling a bottomless dark pool, and even the aura around him seemed to change.
It was like a forsaken lone wolf.
However, Shu Tang did not notice this; she turned around and continued walking forward, thinking of rushing back without his umbrella. This way, the mermaid wouldn’t keep handing the umbrella just to her.
She knew the mermaid would continue to follow her silently.
Just like yesterday, the day before, and every time before that.
But just as she turned around.
The silent monster moved.
Suddenly, she was swept up into his arms with one hand.
The mermaid’s body temperature was cold, but his large frame was powerful; lifting her with one hand was effortless, easily controlling her struggles.
Shu Tang’s first reaction was to freeze.
However, no matter how much she asked the mermaid to let her go, he did not obey as before and release her.
He just silently carried her forward, as if he couldn’t hear her voice.
Without saying a word, he carried her toward a storage room at the corner, opening the door.
When Shu Tang began to scream for help, the tall mermaid had already carried her inside.
He placed her on top of a large cabinet in the storage room and closed the door.
After dark, there was no one else around.
In the darkness, only the sound of the heavy rain outside could be heard.
She didn’t know what the mermaid intended to do, but whenever this large monster’s face turned cold and silent, she couldn’t help but feel intimidated by him.
At that moment, she glanced nervously around and met the monster’s pitch-black eyes, feeling somewhat shaken.
She tried to back away, to avoid his overly aggressive gaze at the moment, and then jumped down to leave the place immediately.
But as soon as she moved a little, she was pushed back to her original spot.
The monster bowed his head, bent down at the waist, and came closer to her.
In this small room, the presence of the tall mermaid was overwhelming, as if his essence filled the air.
The monster-like heavy breathing was cold, and his gaze was intense and stubborn.
The monster watched her almost obstinately.
Her breath hitched, and as she instinctively closed her eyes and tried to move aside—
Her face was cupped in his hands.
A cold kiss, first a bit awkward and uncertain, landed on the tip of her nose.
Then it slowly slid down, firmly landing on the corner of her lips.
Chin, cheeks, ears…
Amidst the pattering rain, even the breathing became moist.
In the dark, cramped room, the air was filled with the cold breath of monsters.
“He” did not know what this was.
But relying on his excellent memory.
The 17 kisses she gave “him”.
Each one precisely landed in the exact same spot.