Finally, Shu Tang gave up on the bike in frustration and stood shoulder to shoulder with the mermaid at the bus stop, waiting for the 101 bus.
Actually, riding the bus together felt quite like a campus romance.
But after getting off the 101, they still had a long way to walk.
Then, it started pouring rain.
Shu Tang regretted her poor idea, feeling a bit apologetic, she suggested to the mermaid, “Shall I call someone to pick us up?”
But the mermaid said nothing and stuffed the umbrella into her hands, motioning her to lean on “his” back.
In her heart, Shu Tang thought: Being in a relationship with him feels so good.
Having made a bad suggestion, Shu Tang then leaned on the mermaid’s back, the two of them walking under the umbrella toward the sanatorium.
She gently nuzzled the mermaid’s neck.
Being pampered, turning into a kitten, turning into a child.
Raining cats and dogs.
We walked forward together in the rain.
……
Shu Tang taught the mermaid how to use a communicator on the road, including how to turn it on and off, how to charge it, and how to open the software.
When they returned to the forbidden area, both felt as though they had come home.
Since it was somewhat late upon their return, Shu Tang took a bath and then went to bed.
However, when she covered herself with the blanket, Shu Tang noticed that the mermaid was looking at the communicator, the blue light illuminating the mermaid’s delicate profile, which appeared very focused.
When Shu Tang got up at night to drink water, she noticed that the mermaid’s communicator was still on.
Shu Tang recalled how, during her senior year of high school vacation, she had obtained the right to use the communicator and had played games for a month.
While drinking water, Shu Tang thought: Could this fish have developed an internet addiction?
The Federation’s communicators have personal IDs, so purchasing one requires fingerprint registration, and thus, after the mermaid registered his fingerprint, the account was activated.
That late night, a personal account that had been dormant for ten years suddenly came online. In fact, not many people knew the great leader’s personal account—just several hundred thousand.
Initially, it was former colleagues and subordinates from the Freedom Army, but secrets tend to spread from one person to ten, to a hundred, so eventually, several hundred thousand people knew about this “secret” personal account.
However, like its owner, the account was reticent and had never been active.
Until this night, when the ID went online.
It still didn’t post any updates but suddenly followed a strange account with a cat avatar.
However, the next morning—
The big leader was unfollowed by someone.
This is what happened.
The next morning, Shu Tang turned on the communicator to check her messages and found that a strange account had followed her.
It wasn’t much, but that account had checked her updates 2000 times overnight.
Shu Tang was terrified: Who is this creep?
So, she immediately removed the follower.
Three seconds later, the person followed her again.
Shu Tang removed them once more.
The person followed again.
The mermaid across from her suddenly quieted down and hissed at her.
Shu Tang leaned in for a closer look and immediately breathed a sigh of relief: “I thought it was some unknown weirdo.”
Shu Tang wasn’t surprised that the mermaid had an account before, since the federation had unified fingerprint IDs for easier management. As long as the mermaid had registered before, he could retrieve his account by entering his fingerprint.
Shu Tang was somewhat surprised, “Oh, how did you find my account?”
She leaned over and saw that the communicator would automatically push updates to contacts in the address book.
Thus, the mermaid’s account updates were pushed to Shu Tang.
Shu Tang, curious, opened the mermaid’s account.
To her surprise, there were hundreds of thousands of followers.
Shocked, Shu Tang asked, “How did you buy so many followers before?”
The mermaid hissed at her, indicating he didn’t know.
Shu Tang’s account had over ten thousand followers, which she had naively bought for two yuan when she was younger. She thought she had bought a lot of followers, but she was astonished to find that the mermaid had even more.
Very curious, Shu Tang scrolled through the updates but found nothing.
Moreover, the account’s profile picture was the emblem of the Federal Freedom Army, and the nickname was left blank.
Shu Tang remarked, “Little Rose, your style was so aloof before.”
The mermaid showed little interest in his past account, merely glancing at it before looking away expressionlessly.
However, it was obvious that the mermaid enjoyed looking at the photos on Shu Tang’s account—
Shu Tang’s account was filled with selfies of her spirit form.
Since a specific camera could capture one’s spirit form, many people liked to post their photos online.
Shu Tang also liked it, and she always edited her photos.
Feeling that her spirit form was a bit plump and her cat face too large, she was often commented on by classmates and relatives: “You’ve gained weight again.”
So, Shu Tang always used the slim face mode.
She also thought her cat face was a bit short, so she would intentionally lengthen it a bit in the photos to look more imposing.
This resulted in many peculiar cat photos.
The mermaid found it very interesting.
And so, he viewed it 2000 times.
Shu Tang asked, “Should we change to a couple’s username?”
The mermaid asked what the couple’s online names were.
Shu Tang replied, “Just like the toothbrushes and cups we are using right now.”
Shu Tang explained, “Everything comes in pairs, signifying that we are a perfect match.”
She also explained the concepts of “even numbers” and “odd numbers” to the mermaid.
The mermaid flicked his tail.
He decided that from now on, when hunting, he would catch two of every fish.
When killing pollutants, he couldn’t just use one tail slap; it had to be two tails.
Because using even numbers has a good meaning.
After the explanation, Shu Tang returned to the topic of the couple’s online names, and the mermaid showed great interest.
They started discussing which nicknames to use.
Shu Tang wanted to call the mermaid “Little Fish Jerky,” but the mermaid immediately thought of the dried salted fish hanging upstairs; Shu Tang suggested calling them “Romeo Cat and Juliet Fish,” but who was Romeo was still up for debate.
In the end, they both compromised.
Shu Tang’s nickname became: Little Fish Jerky.
The mermaid’s nickname became: Five Yuan.
Shu Tang’s signature: Can it be a bit cheaper?
Mermaid’s signature: Yes.
Beep, the deal was made.
— And so, the big fish was packaged into Shu Tang’s shopping cart.
…
After changing their couple names, they quickly forgot about it.
Because Shu Tang started teaching the mermaid how to make phone calls, and this became their new fun.
The mermaid learned very quickly.
While Shu Tang was showering, the communicator rang.
Shu Tang answered the phone: “Hiss hiss hiss—”
Shu Tang thought: We’re so close, why call?
So, she complained while talking on the phone for 20 minutes in the bathroom, separated by a wall from the mermaid.
Shu Tang was hanging clothes upstairs when the communicator rang again, the phone: “Hiss hiss hiss—”
Looking down from the balcony at the mermaid, Shu Tang thought: Ah, this could be settled with just a shout.
Then, the two of them chatted for another half hour.
The mermaid really liked this feature.
After hunting, the mermaid came out of the sea and called Shu Tang.
Shu Tang was upstairs watching TV: “Oh, oh, alright, I know you’re back.”
But five minutes passed and there was still no sign of the fish.
Shu Tang immediately called:
“Hey, why are you so slow? Hurry up, the weather forecast is about to start!”
Although they were no more than fifty meters apart and could hear each other if they spoke loudly, they still enjoyed calling each other.
In the evening, Shu Tang and the mermaid grilled scallops by the seaside.
The sea breeze gently brushed against them; the mermaid leaned against the rocks, lazily flicking its tail, occasionally glancing down at her.
The atmosphere was very pleasant.
Suddenly, Shu Tang called the mermaid: “Little Rose, should we kiss now?”
A “yes” came through the phone and from behind her at the same time.
So, she turned around and kissed the tall creature.
They shared a long, lingering kiss.
Then they continued grilling scallops.
While grilling, Shu Tang suddenly remembered:
“Little Rose, it seems we haven’t even known each other for half a year.”
“But for some reason, I feel like we’ve been living together for a very, very long time.”
Then, the creature stopped, gazing down at her profile.
Finally, it responded to her with a deep, pleasant “hmm” amidst the sea breeze.
She thought the mermaid felt the same.
But it wasn’t so.
The mermaid, still unable to comprehend what love really was, had realized its inherently unequal nature.
The mermaid did not consider “Zhu Yan” to be itself.
Thus, the creature believed its life began on the day it awoke.
From awakening to now, it had been a brief life of nine months.
And Shu Tang’s existence had occupied six months of “its” life.
Rounding up.
She was the entire length of “his” life.