She was held in the mermaid’s embrace, forced to tilt her head back.
Then her lips were enveloped.
The monster’s beast-like heavy breathing was so clear.
The icy cold temperature could also melt a person.
The dormitory supervisor seemed to say something outside the door, but she could no longer hear.
At the moment their lips touched.
She felt like she turned into a soft candy, enclosed within the icy lips and teeth.
Oxygen began to thin, and the humid vapor in the air started fermenting.
She was like a candy melting in low temperatures. Pheromones began to take effect, and the impact of a dozen pecks was not as significant as one kiss, making her mind go blank and her heartbeat sound so loud.
As soft as glutinous rice mochi.
Sweeter than throat lozenges.
The monster merely tasted her briefly, yet seemed unable to control its appetite, its Adam’s apple still rolling slowly as if wanting to swallow her, yet having to restrain itself.
Thus, his breathing grew even heavier.
She didn’t know how much time had passed until she felt it hard to breathe, and the monster slowly released her.
As Shu Tang opened her eyes, she met the mermaid’s gaze.
In the cramped space, the intense aggression of this fierce beast was omnipresent, and merely meeting its gaze made her feel trapped and unable to escape.
The fierce beast’s eyes seemed to want to tear her apart and devour her, causing Shu Tang to feel a bit of tingling on her scalp and panic. After looking around for a while, she quickly covered her head with the blanket.
She heard a very deep and pleasant muffled laugh from outside the blanket.
She covered her ears and burrowed deeper into the blanket.
Shu Tang loudly complained from within her blanket, “I just didn’t answer, I’m definitely going to lose points for that.”
“Do you know how serious it is to get points deducted for a dorm check?”
Shu Tang felt her heart beating too fast, as if she needed a nitroglycerin tablet.
She frantically opened her communicator and saw in the group chat that there was a quarrel downstairs. The dorm supervisor had been called down, and the room inspection was interrupted, which allowed her to breathe a sigh of relief.
She burrowed out from under the blanket, only exposing one eye, and glared at the mermaid.
But she found that the fierce beast was staring at her intently, its gaze becoming darker and more profound. The strong sense of oppression made the air feel constricted.
This was a monster with intense possessiveness and jealousy, filled with unease due to its own barrenness and emptiness.
The monster had always hidden itself well in front of her, burying its ugly desires in the dark corners.
But now, as time passed, the burning possessiveness not only failed to subside but also gave rise to even more terrifying desires.
Especially after discovering that she did not reject its bizarre and fervent dependency, this creature of the dark felt flattered and intensified its behavior, becoming greedier.
This manifested desire turned into an invasive force that panicked the little cat.
She immediately shrank back.
Feeling a bit hot and suffocated, just as she thought about coming out, she felt panicked again, the inexplicable atmosphere making Shu Tang somewhat cowed.
But soon, she heard the sound of the air conditioner turning on.
The fierce beast grabbed the blanket-wrapped caterpillar-like cat, encircled it with its fishtail, and then closed its eyes, no longer slowly exerting pressure with its gaze.
It took a while before Shu Tang popped her head out, observing the mermaid who seemed to be really asleep, before she could finally relax, her face and neck starting to burn.
She set an alarm, got up, and turned off the light.
But when crawling back, guided by the street light, she saw the mermaid’s beautiful but indifferent face, which seemed somewhat tired.
Shu Tang thought, maybe the mermaid had been outside guarding her last night, unsure if it had slept at all.
It was hard for her to describe her feelings at the moment, as if her every principle was teetering on the brink.
She reached out and touched the mermaid’s long eyelashes.
Then, leaning over, she couldn’t help but kiss the mermaid on the cheek.
The fierce beast immediately opened its eyes.
—Shu Tang quickly covered her head with the blanket.
Shu Tang never dared to poke her head out from under the blanket.
Perhaps it was the temperature of the air conditioner, but she fell into a light sleep.
Actually, the dormitory was quite noisy, with people moving about and the sounds of late-night gaming. Someone with good hearing like a mermaid would typically find it difficult to sleep.
However, Shu Tang exuded an aura akin to a sleeping pill. When she closed her eyes and slept soundly, it gave off a sense that sleep was a beautiful thing.
The mermaid rarely slept before, his restless spirits and sharp nerve pain making it seem like closing his eyes was a long trek through darkness.
But after meeting her, the irritable beast began sleeping eight hours a day instead of just one.
On rainy days, when Shu Tang didn’t want to get out of bed and clung to the mermaid’s tail, it could even last for ten hours.
Yet, Shu Tang never felt she had led the beast astray.
Instead, she said confidently, “You were so fierce before because you didn’t sleep enough. Now that you sleep more, your temper has improved, which shows how much of it was due to insomnia.”
The mermaid agreed with Shu Tang. As long as she was by his side, the monster could sleep peacefully, dissolving all sharpness and restlessness in their embrace.
The mermaid had its longest sleep in days.
…
The next morning.
As Shu Tang was packing up, she saw the words written in her notebook.
It was the question she had asked when feeling down, and beneath it was a neat reply:
Needed.
Shu Tang paused for a moment, then glanced at the mermaid.
Pretending nothing was amiss, she packed up the notebook.
The two of them went to the washroom together, just like any other day.
While washing her face, Shu Tang was massaging the foam on her face.
Suddenly, the mermaid bowed its head.
Thinking the mermaid was about to kiss her, she immediately dodged back and shouted, “You haven’t brushed your teeth yet!”
Instead, the mermaid slowly smeared a bit of cleansing mousse and then nonchalantly turned to start brushing its teeth.
Shu Tang thought to herself:
Was that necessary? Ignoring the large bottle and insisting on using what was on her face.
But as she looked in the mirror at the fierce beast holding the new toothbrush expressionlessly, with a bit of foam on its face, it didn’t seem so fierce anymore; in fact, it looked a bit silly.
Shu Tang called out “Little Rose,” and then, as the mermaid bowed her head, she dabbed some foam on the tip of its nose.
Humming a tune, she turned her head and paused for a moment.
She thought to herself: She’s done for; she might have fallen into that love.
Could she dial 119 for help?
*
The exam was only in the morning. Shu Tang originally wanted the mermaid to stay in the dormitory and wait for her to finish the exam, but she was a bit worried because she always felt the mermaid would come to find her.
So she thought about it and chose a classroom on the first floor directly opposite the exam room on the third floor, so “he” could just look up and see her there.
By the time Shu Tang returned to the exam room, they had already started checking admission tickets, and Su Yin was inside, waving at her.
Shu Tang hurried to her seat.
Today’s exam consisted of the last theory and one practical.
Shu Tang was still by the window.
The weather forecast had predicted rain, and sure enough, as Shu Tang was writing, a drizzle began outside.
She had just turned her head when the window slowly closed.
Just as Shu Tang was about to lower her head and continue writing, she suddenly paused.
She realized who the exam god that brought her luck was.
Her heart began to warm, and her lips started to curl up uncontrollably.
This last exam was tough, everyone looked gloomy.
Shu Tang in the corner was quite noticeable.
The examiner passed by, thinking she was a hidden genius, but upon closer inspection, found her copying materials because she couldn’t answer the questions, trying to scrape together some presentation marks.
The examiner looked at her, thinking: This kid must be dumbfounded by the exam.
But Shu Tang was blissfully unaware, her smile growing wider and wider.
She finished the paper and began to check the questions. This exam was hard, but after checking, Shu Tang found that most of what she knew was correct.
She was just about to put down the test paper.
Suddenly, the pen on her desk moved—
It slowly marked an “X” next to a multiple-choice question.
The mermaid began to recognize words because Shu Tang was reviewing therapeutic materials. As a result, the mermaid’s vocabulary became quite odd: he knew many professional therapeutic terms, but not everyday words like “toothbrush” or “cup”; he could solve professional therapeutic multiple-choice questions but couldn’t understand the instructions for a rice cooker.
When Shu Tang was almost done with her revision, hesitating over choices on the rock, the mermaid’s tail always managed to poke the correct answer.
Shu Tang looked at the pen.
She whispered, “This is cheating, you can’t do this.”
She refused righteously.
So, the pen calmed down.
Because the monster in the air had seen the exam rules on the blackboard.
After a while, the principled Shu Tang sneaked a quiet question:
“So, should I choose A or B?”
The pen was quiet for a moment.
She sneaked, full of anticipation.
Then the air knocked her on the head.
Shu Tang: “…”
Finally, the cat, soaring on the edge of illegality, was knocked back onto the path of law-abiding behavior.
After the first session ended, Su Yin asked, “How did you do on the test?”
“Ah, the questions were so tough, I just scraped by.”
They compared their answers and found that both were equally matched. Fortunately, they had both performed well in the previous two days, and passing overall was all that mattered.
Then Su Yin turned her head and noticed that the cat, for some reason, had a smile on its face.
A smile like that of a lucky cat.
Su Yin tentatively said, “Little Tang, you got six multiple-choice questions wrong.”
Cat: Hehe.
Su Yin: “…”
Su Yin was a bit scared.
The second session was a practical exam, requiring everyone to release their spiritual entities and use instruments to simulate the dispersion of mental energy.
Because she visited the mermaid’s spirit every night, this was Shu Tang’s most proficient subject.
During the exam, the sea was calm, and everyone released their spirits for testing, causing the classroom to become crowded with wealth wolves, tigers, and leopards.
It wasn’t until the exam ended and everyone was preparing to recall their spirits that suddenly, an alpha in the front row looked up at the window and let out a cry of surprise.
In the spirit of watching the excitement, the translucent spirits all poked their heads out of the window to look up at the sky.
They witnessed a truly breathtaking scene.
In the torrential rain, it seemed as if the entire world was engulfed by the ocean.
The examination room immediately buzzed with noise.
The mermaid’s massive spirit had grown as large as half a city. Even if the sanatorium and the South Island base wanted to hide the existence of 001, it was now impossible.
The reason there hadn’t been an uproar was simply because, as a safe area for a long time, the people of South Island City didn’t need to release their spirits and pollutants to fight, so there had been no movement. This gap in time was enough for the South Island base to think of an explanation.
And these alphas taking the therapist qualification exam became the first group to witness the massive creature outside.
The disturbance quickly spread.
“What is that, is that a spirit?”
“No, that must be a pollutant?”
In the dark sky and curtain of rain, the entire city seemed to be submerged by seawater.
Su Yin’s little wolf spirit began to circle restlessly. She had a vague idea of what was happening, so she instinctively looked towards Shu Tang.
However, the curious cat glanced out the window and then turned back very calmly.
—To be honest, Shu Tang didn’t recognize it.
She was very familiar with the mermaid’s spirit. Because she often swam and frolicked in the mermaid’s spirit, she even knew its size well.
In her mind, the size of the mermaid was relatively fixed.
Although it would grow, it was like a pet slowly getting fatter.
But it couldn’t possibly grow from a cat into an elephant.
So Drumstick merely peeked out, saw that it wasn’t familiar with the large creature outside, and immediately turned around to look for the mermaid’s spirit. After looking around and not finding it, she withdrew her gaze.
Amidst a group of spirit-like jackals and leopards, a cat calmly walked away from the excited onlookers, its composure making it seem somewhat out of place.
Normally, Shu Tang would have joined Su Yin and the others at the window to watch the commotion, but today, her mind was elsewhere.
After finishing the exam content, she kept looking at the time, waiting for the bell that would signal the end of the exam.
It was as if she had a hopeful rabbit in her bosom, eager to meet the mermaid.
Perhaps since discovering that her “Exam God” was Little Rose, she found that she had been thoroughly shaken.
If her principles were a boat, it would now be riddled with holes, constantly leaking.
She was a classic scaredy-cat; afraid of ghosts grabbing her feet at night, she would cover herself up tightly; she would constantly look back when walking at night, and she was even too scared to apply to Yan University. Shu Tang’s life principle was caution and moderation, which, translated, meant she was like a salted fish.
She knew nothing about the mermaid’s past and was afraid that his kindness was merely due to a fledgling complex towards the amnesiac mermaid.
So, the scaredy-cat immediately shrank back.
But now, she suddenly felt an urgent need to meet this person, and she didn’t understand where this urgency came from, but she had a lot to tell “him.”
Her concerns hadn’t vanished; the mermaid might recover one day, and perhaps that day they would encounter new changes.
But today, Shu Tang suddenly mustered a great deal of courage.
Shu Tang thought: If she continued to be timid, taking steps forward only to retreat again, their story might never even begin, ending in this rainy season.
Yet, Shu Tang realized that she had grown accustomed to having this person’s presence behind her.
If one day she turned around and found the mermaid gone,
She would feel as lost as if she had misplaced many cans.
Thus, Shu Tang put the excitement aside, packed up her things, said a word to Su Yin, and excitedly ran downstairs.
First, Shu Tang went to the convenience store downstairs to buy two boxes of milk, preparing to fulfill a vow to her “Exam God.” She still had many, many words she wanted to say to “him.”
……
Shu Tang did not know that the monster also had a lot to say to her.
In repeated attempts and growing greed, the monster decided to reveal its inner feelings.
For the first time, she felt that rainy weather was good.
The heavy rain on the road, the dark clouds overhead, she also felt the sound of the rain was like a lively symphony.
She felt a sense of lightness and happiness descending upon her.
Humming a tune, she walked toward the first floor where the mermaid was located.
The empty school building seemed very quiet in the stormy weather.
However, as Shu Tang passed each glass window, traces of water would appear on them.
The water traces neatly formed the word “like.”
On every window the little cat passed, it was overwhelmingly “like.”
The monster’s first confession was drenched by the heavy rain.
This time, “he” chose another method, one that she definitely could not ignore.
So, as she walked forward with unprecedented courage.
She looked up and discovered the secret of the glass window.
Her steps halted.
The world became very quiet.
As the heavy rain poured down.
Every raindrop was filled with “like.”