RAM Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Maybe if he kissed first?

Lu Xie admitted to himself that the mermaid was the innocent victim here. He had vented his frustration at him because he couldn’t reach Lu Hui. But he would never say that out loud. He was the cold, merciless bounty hunter, and even when he was wrong, he wasn’t wrong. He snatched the gold coin from the mermaid’s hand and turned to walk into the shop. Without looking back, he could hear the mermaid’s footsteps following on the sandy beach.

Once inside, the mermaid, exhausted, collapsed in front of the TV, but the screen was dark, silent. He didn’t know what to do.

“Am I still going to see The Little Mermaid today?” he asked, eyes wide.

Lu Xie reached out and pressed the button on the TV. The screen flickered to life.

The mermaid, knowing what to do now, confidently plopped onto the lounge chair, grabbed the remote, and switched to the kids’ channel. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the episode he was hoping for.

“Nope,” Lu Xie said. “This time’s not right for it.”

The mermaid, disappointed, stared at him with sad eyes. “What should we do then?”

Lu Xie grabbed a bottle of ice-cold water from the fridge and drank most of it in one go, the water spilling onto his chest. “Who watches that every day anyway?”

“What now?” The mermaid was still confused. It sounded like Lu Xie meant there was no chance to watch it today, and his nose twitched, eyes starting to well up.

Lu Xie interrupted, “We’ll go into town later and see if we can find a DVD.”

“A DVD?”

Lu Xie pointed to the shiny disc in the DVD player. The mermaid followed his finger, watching the disc sparkle. “So if we have the disc, we can watch it?”

“If you have the disc, you can watch it as many times as you want.”

The mermaid’s eyes lit up, and a smile broke through his tears. He was genuinely touched.

That smile caught Lu Xie off guard. Honestly, it was hard to deny—this crazy person was beautiful. His face was flawless, and in this sun-drenched seaside town, his skin remained smooth and fair. Though his body didn’t quite match the delicate face, Lu Xie had to admit, the mermaid was well-built. Every muscle line was perfectly sculpted, exuding strength. If it weren’t for the constant seaweed wrapped around his waist, he might have looked even better.

Lu Xie glanced at the mermaid’s lower half and furrowed his brows. “Why do you always walk around naked?”

Even if they were by the sea, even if he was a crazy person, this wasn’t right.

“I don’t have clothes,” the mermaid replied. After observing humans, he noticed they wore clothes, even when swimming in the sea. Females covered their chests and groins, while males only covered their groins. He had followed the males’ example, using seaweed as makeshift pants.

Lu Xie could accept this over the mermaid claiming to be pregnant. He didn’t care whether his claim was true. Without further thought, he grabbed some clothes from yesterday’s bag and tossed them at him.

“Put them on.”

The mermaid looked at the clothes in surprise. “For me?”

“If you want to stay here, you’d better put them on.” Lu Xie was running a business, after all, even if it was for some strange, secretive purpose. He didn’t want anyone seeing a naked man walking in and out of his shop.

The mermaid immediately began undressing, not even giving Lu Xie a chance to react. He tugged the seaweed from his waist and stood completely bare, holding up the pants, looking confused about how to wear them.

As he moved, his body swayed, and even though it was limp, Lu Xie could tell it was no ordinary size.

Blood rushed to Lu Xie’s head, his temples throbbed. He tried to push the memory of that crazy person and the ocean incident from his mind, but for a moment, flashes of that day returned like a revolving lantern.

Damn!

Lu Xie clenched his fists, gritting his teeth. “Put the clothes on first.”

The mermaid hurriedly pulled the shorts on underneath, then slipped the underwear on over them.

Lu Xie’s temples twitched as he nearly growled, “Do you think you’re Superman? You’ve got it on wrong!”

The mermaid quickly undid the underwear, turned it around, and proudly waited for Lu Xie to praise him.

Lu Xie’s blood pressure soared. His muscles tensed, the wound on his leg throbbed with a faint burn, and it felt as though his scabbed injury might tear open. He regretted letting this crazy person in.

To prevent any more surprise fashion choices, Lu Xie pushed the mermaid into a lounge chair, yanked the shorts and underwear off, then threw the underwear at his face. The mermaid hesitated, putting the underwear on first, and when Lu Xie didn’t stop him, he slipped into the shorts and tank top.

It wasn’t comfortable, especially with two layers of pants squeezing him, but the mermaid didn’t dare complain. He knew that to be human, wearing clothes was a basic requirement.

Dealing with a crazy person was exhausting. Lu Xie had already chugged a bottle of ice water, and now his hunger was getting stronger. He didn’t bother with the mermaid anymore and went into the kitchen to prepare food.

The mermaid squirmed on the lounge chair, trying various positions but never quite comfortable. The kids’ channel was on, but the content wasn’t to his liking, so he grabbed the remote and changed the channel to distract himself.

After flipping through several stations, the mermaid finally got hooked on a drama. The lead couple was fighting fiercely over a misunderstanding. This kind of melodramatic plot sucked him right in.

But then, amid their shouting, the male lead suddenly embraced the female lead. One moment they were pushing each other away, the next they were kissing passionately. At first, the female lead struggled, but the male lead held on, and the kiss grew more intense. The tension-filled air slowly shifted into something more suggestive.

The last time he kissed Lu Xie on the cheek, Lu Xie had gotten mad, so did kissing really work? The mermaid pondered thoughtfully. Next time, when they fight, he’d take the initiative and kiss Lu Xie’s lips instead.