As the therapy entered its second phase, some minor setbacks occurred. For example, the mermaid’s memory was too fragmented, and he had no strong desire to delve deeper into these fragments.
Forcing him awake or hypnotizing him would cause a strong rejection reaction and nerve pain. After the mermaid scared away two therapists, Shu Tang directly refused the doctor’s attempts to try again.
The mermaid hissed at Shu Tang, telling her that recalling memories gave him headaches. Although she knew this beast was ferocious, with the therapists scrambling away in fear, when the mermaid cooed in her ear, Shu Tang was helpless.
Even if the mermaid refused hypnosis, he often suffered from intense nerve pain due to occasional memory fragments, making the creature increasingly restless and more irritable than before.
Shu Tang stayed by the mermaid’s side, constantly soothing him as he grew particularly irritable—
Despite the comfort, somehow, they inexplicably ended up in bed together.
They still lacked the key that would link all the memory fragments together.
However, soon, one evening, while Shu Tang was rummaging through a wardrobe, she stumbled upon a diary from the past belonging to Zhu Yan.
It was like accidentally finding a key to unlock the labyrinth of memory.
Shu Tang called excitedly for the mermaid.
But the mermaid’s gaze froze.
Past memories, for this creature, were like the recurring dream he often had—an endless journey, with desolation ahead and vast darkness behind.
Thus, this diary, for the mermaid, was like a forbidden book.
The mermaid felt some resistance and agitation. He unconsciously flicked his tail.
However, the kitten seemed very interested, so the mermaid, suppressing his own emotions, moved closer to look at the diary with Shu Tang. But he decided that if he truly couldn’t bear the painful memories, he would just carry the kitten to bed midway through.
So, in the deep night of the city, the two of them began to read Zhu Yan’s diary together, heads touching in front of a floor-to-ceiling window, nestled on the sofa.
Zhu Yan’s diary was very concise and recorded trivial matters. Given his special identity in the past, the diary contained only simple notes.
In the eyes of the creature, his past life was messy, utterly boring, and painful. Zhu Yan indeed was a man of no particular interests, his life revolving almost entirely around work, with even sleep scarcely factored in.
Suddenly, the creature began to worry—worried that the kitten would find his past too dull and lose interest in his present self as well.
After all, the creature always believed he lacked the charm to please and attract the kitten for a long time.
But that is not the case.
Shu Tang found it very interesting and whispered intimately with the mermaid.
For example, he used to like drinking salty tofu pudding.
Shu Tang commented, “Sweet tofu pudding tastes good.”
The mermaid nodded its tail, “Sweet, tastes good.”
Shu Tang praised the mermaid for changing its ways, and the mermaid flicked its tail, agreeing with Shu Tang that its past tastes were poor.
For instance, when Zhu Yan previously watched the abo world version of Titanic, he commented:
“Worthless, all lovey-dovey.”
Shu Tang turned to look at the mermaid, and the mermaid looked back at her.
The two started getting lovey-dovey.
For example, Zhu Yan used to dislike going home and celebrating holidays because too many people came to give gifts, but no one celebrated with him. Only Little Chen kindly stayed to keep the chief company.
Zhu Yan’s diary: Seeing him reminds me of overtime. Insomnia.
For example, being called suddenly to a polluted area to help some federal generals clean up the mess.
Zhu Yan’s diary: Idiots.
For example, when asked which faction Zhu Yan favored as his successor.
Zhu Yan’s diary: Too foolish to differentiate. Can’t decide. Sleep.
Shu Tang was greatly shocked; she looked at the indifferent and serene photo of the chief in the diary and then at the diary again, somewhat in disbelief.
Shu Tang suspiciously looked at the mermaid, suddenly doubting whether the mermaid, usually reticent, was secretly criticizing her in its heart, perhaps thinking she was stupid. But because it was not articulate, it hadn’t said it aloud.
She leaned in to ask the mermaid, “Are you secretly calling me stupid in your heart?”
The mermaid immediately distanced itself from Zhu Yan, telling Shu Tang that it would never think she was stupid.
Indeed, Shu Tang thought: Little Rose herself isn’t very smart, and she never won a game playing with her.
She sat back down and continued reading the diary with the mermaid.
The mermaid discovered that reading Zhu Yan’s diary with Little Cat brought out many beautiful, shining aspects of these otherwise painful past events. Amid their whispered conversations, these memories no longer seemed painful.
It was only now that the monster realized that there were many similarities between Zhu Yan and his current self. If he were unwilling to step into the past, he would always think that he and Zhu Yan were not the same person. However, a person without a past is like duckweed without roots. No one can completely abandon their past and exist independently.
Consequently, the mermaid’s attitude began to change. He started trying to understand what kind of person he used to be and became concerned with Shu Tang’s reactions.
But her reactions were often to read for a while, then lift up the ID photo clipped inside, blow a kiss at the mermaid, and then, giggling, watch the mermaid get jealous. She would then call him “Zhu Yan, Zhu Yan” and jump into his arms.
Every day, they would read a few pages of Zhu Yan’s work diary. This became their new “bedtime story,” only this story was much longer and carried the weight of a person’s entire past life.
Soon, the diary finally revealed some childhood memories.
Zhu Yan grew up in an orphanage. His parents probably died in a polluted area, and like many abandoned infants at that time, he was sent to the orphanage to be raised.
However, due to a shortage of federal resources, young Zhu Yan suffered from poverty and hunger.
It was probably for this reason that he developed a stomach ailment.
Zhu Yan wrote that his favorite food was dumplings.
This was because, during the New Year celebrations at the orphanage, they would hold a dumpling-making event, and he was the only one who could make dumplings without any filling leaking out.
In his understated language, he wrote: Later, the city where the orphanage was located became a polluted area due to a rare invasion of pollutants.
During that incident, only the residents of the city center were evacuated in time, leaving only Zhu Yan from the orphanage on the outskirts to survive.
Years had passed, and the events had occurred during a vaguely remembered childhood, so when Zhu Yan wrote it, he was already very calm.
But in the diary, he mentioned: He never tasted lively dumplings again.
…
That night, it rained in Yan City.
When Shu Tang opened her eyes, the mermaid had already left.
She uncontrollably recalled Zhu Yan’s diary.
It was a New Year’s diary.
Shu Tang thought that Zhu Yan must have really detested pollutants.
But Shu Tang knew that one day in the future, Zhu Yan would find his eyes turning the black color of the pollutants.
What would his mood be then?
The shadows of childhood are not so easily shed.
But Shu Tang did not have the ability to travel back ten years.
She couldn’t tell Zhu Yan: “You later overcame the pollutants and became a great miracle.”
In the depths of the night, her heart was filled with pity and sympathy for her lover.
She got up and went to the nearby 24-hour supermarket to buy a pack of dumpling wrappers.
In the garden under the night sky, she clumsily moved the stove out, started a fire, and even found a pot.
She chopped meat, added seasonings, and mixed the filling.
When her hands began to hurt from cutting, the tall monster returned.
The monster’s footsteps paused, and from a distance, he saw Shu Tang busy, surrounded by circles of dumpling wrappers. Their minds synced as they both thought of the contents of the diary.
Thus, the monster found himself filled with a strange emotion, one that belonged to the past Zhu Yan.
Zhu Yan had briefly had a family, but it had shattered too soon. Some pursued fame and fortune, others freedom, and some spent their entire lives just seeking a haven to rest for a moment.
So, the mermaid went over and joined Shu Tang in making dumplings.
The two of them were quite lively.
Shu Tang opened a tutorial, and together with the mermaid, they mimicked the video.
But the greedy little cat always put too much meat, and the filling would peek out when sealed;
However, the mermaid, wrapping for the first time, instinctively created a perfect shape.
The mermaid was stunned for a moment.
But Shu Tang had already moved closer, exclaiming, “Wow, Little Rose, everything you wrote in your diary is true!”
They made dumplings shaped like cat heads and fish heads.
Then they ate each other’s creations and complimented the taste of each other’s ‘heads.’
Ten years ago, Zhu Yan couldn’t accept his mutated self.
Ten years later, the mermaid disliked that past too.
But time had finally healed everything.
He calmly accepted his past self, a process that was painless, probably because she had always been by his side.
Thus, they finally reached reconciliation.
…
Soon, the mermaid no longer left every midnight.
Every night, Shu Tang could feel the mermaid’s warmth, so she no longer had nightmares about him not returning. Shu Tang had memorized all the properties of the medicines, no longer fearing the mermaid would be poisoned.
As for tracking and rumors, they could no longer affect their lives at all.
Life has gotten back on track. All the turbulence outside seems to have been shut out of the manor.
Every morning, the monster picks the freshest, most beautiful blue roses for Shu Tang, adorning their bedside, desk, and dining table with them.
Shu Tang also goes out with the mermaid under an umbrella on rainy days when fewer people are about, watching a movie together or shopping for ample food at the nearby supermarket.
Occasionally, they do nothing at all, just lying on the grass watching the sky.
The mermaid is very clingy, most of the time liking to wrap her up with his tail; Shu Tang too has developed a peculiar need to touch the tail, feeling something amiss otherwise.
The mermaid courts his little cat, emitting a deep, pleasant purring by her neck; Shu Tang would lie still as a salted fish, fully aware of her own lack of combat prowess.
But she often finds herself distracted by the mermaid’s long hair and breathing, occasionally losing control and kissing him back. However, the result is always waking up the next morning with a sore back.
Life has become as leisurely as if in the Bastille.
At night, they read Zhu Yan’s diary together.
Shu Tang learns about Zhu Yan’s frequent need to use tape to bind his wounds due to his self-healing ability.
Shocked and angry, Shu Tang twists and turns in the mermaid’s arms. She calls Chen Sheng and finally locates the health bureau responsible from ten years ago, sending them ten complaint letters.
Pretending to be a die-hard fan of a historical figure, Shu Tang learned about this incident from a biography and demanded an immediate apology to the historical figure, threatening to expose the issue online.
The mermaid asks Shu Tang: “What is a die-hard fan?”
After she explains, the mermaid bursts into laughter.
She thinks to herself: “This fish is really silly.”
Shu Tang tirelessly submits complaint letters to the health bureau, and finally, one day, she receives an apology call from the old doctor.
The complaint letter worked, possibly because: she sent it to address number 001 in Yan City.
…
The diary grows thinner as she reads.
It seems as though she’s flipping from someone’s childhood day by day into adulthood.
And from glory, she sees a tower about to fall.
She witnesses, through the years, the smoothest period of Zhu Yan’s life, as if seeing a spirited young man, turning back to smile at her.
Shu Tang knew that Zhu Yan had undergone surgery, where a bullet was removed from a spot several centimeters displaced from his heart; she also knew that Zhu Yan frequently had to be hospitalized for stomach issues.
Prosperity and decline, she had flipped through it all with the mermaid under the wisteria.
Zhu Yan’s image in her eyes became increasingly full and vivid.
Occasionally, Shu Tang would gaze at the mermaid, and then a shadow would overlap on him.
The mermaid asked Shu Tang what she was thinking about.
Shu Tang just smiled and remained silent.
She thought: After learning about his past, what if I like him even more?
But she decided to save these sweet nothings for the rest of her life, to slowly share them with him later. This was to avoid using up all romantic expressions too soon and running out of new ideas later.
However, time passed quickly, and they eventually turned to the last few pages of the diary.
At that moment, Shu Tang hesitated a bit.
She knew what was going to happen next, but she was a bit afraid to witness the journey of Zhu Yan’s transformed heart.
But after a long hesitation, when she finally mustered the courage to turn the page, she found only a paragraph:
Zhu Yan wrote: “Dreaming, waking up at dusk. It gets dark quickly.”
Shu Tang turned the page. That was it.
What happened to the story then?
The mermaid told her: Zhu Yan forgot to write it.
Actually, after writing that sentence, Zhu Yan made a decision.
He decided to head to the cape prison.
He had heard that the sea there was beautiful.
At that time, Zhu Yan had not yet evolved to be as strong as he was now, his fish tail would hurt from dehydration, and Yan City was no longer suitable for him.
He wanted to go to the seaside.
So, Zhu Yan put down his pen, closed the door, and walked towards that prison, thinking it was the dusk of his life.
However, ten years later.
He witnessed a dawn in his life.
…
In the pouring rain, Shu Tang closed that yellowed diary.
She turned around and was surprised to find that the mermaid’s eyes had turned a beautiful deep blue, as if a pearl had been dusted off. She was captivated by the beauty of the sea god and was stunned.
The mermaid belatedly turned his head to look in the mirror.
The image of Zhu Yan from ten years ago overlapped with that of ten years later.
The man in military uniform and the mermaid with fins tilted their heads together.
They both stared at each other in the mirror for a long time, both very surprised.
Shu Tang felt it was a moment worth celebrating. The mermaid thought so too.
She said, “Celebrate rebirth!”
Then, the music in the record player changed from the melancholic tunes Zhu Yan liked ten years ago to a lively rain dance.
They chose a bottle of red wine.
She took a sip of wine, then looked up and entwined kisses with the mermaid.
She wrapped her arms around the mermaid’s neck, and her nightgown spun into white petals, the cold fishtail becoming the support for the skirt’s hem.
The tall monster bowed his head and responded with a cold kiss to his girl.
She heard the mermaid’s breathing.
Their laughter intertwined.
The music played tirelessly.
In the heavy rain, the curtains slowly closed.
—
Author’s note:
I want to let everyone know that the main text will end in about three days, but I will write a long extra story to cover important plots not explained in the main text, such as the wedding, meeting the parents, that letter’s foreshadowing, and married life, so don’t worry about it being rushed and unclear~