RAM Chapter 13

 “Do you even know what you’re saying?” Lu Xie raised his eyes, staring expressionlessly at the merman in front of him. According to Hai San’er, he was still in his mating season, which meant he needed to engage in mating to nurture and grow pearls.

But as a perfectly sane human, Lu Xie remained skeptical of Hai San’er’s explanation. Even if he believed it, there was no way he would mate with a merman. He wasn’t insane.

Hai San’er, however, knew exactly what he was saying. He was courting his mate. “I know,” he said firmly.

“You said you could turn into a human?”

Hai San’er nodded vigorously.

Lu Xie replied slowly, “Do you understand that being human means having basic decency? Humans don’t talk about mating like animals do. Only animals bring up reproduction without considering the time or the place.”

Hai San’er, undeterred, grew desperate. He didn’t understand the rejection. Grabbing Lu Xie’s hand, he pressed it down to the area below his scales. The heat under Lu Xie’s palm made him pull back instantly, his expression shifting through a complex mix of surprise and discomfort.

First, he was astonished at the sheer size and placement of the merman’s… anatomy. Second, he found it bizarrely unsettling that he had just touched such an intimate part so boldly.

Seeing Lu Xie’s abrupt withdrawal, Hai San’er was visibly hurt. He couldn’t comprehend why Lu Xie was so resistant. “Can’t we mate now?” he asked.

“No, we can’t,” Lu Xie stood up abruptly. Hai San’er’s fiery heat was starting to scorch him, and he needed to put some distance between them.

Hai San’er wasn’t ready to give up. He pitifully leaned on the edge of the tank, his eyes filled with pleading. “Then when can we mate? If not now, then next time? When will that be? Please give me a specific time, just like how you promised to show me The Little Mermaid.”

This overly persistent and suggestive fish! He hadn’t even considered mating seriously. Was he supposed to compromise himself for the sake of the merman’s value? That would be utterly nonsensical.

Before heading downstairs, Lu Xie very considerately added, “The rooftop is all yours. Do whatever you want. I won’t disturb you.”

He considered himself to have done his utmost. If it were anyone else, Lu Xie would have snapped long ago. But since the other party was a fish, he extended the greatest patience and tolerance possible for an animal.

Once Hai San’er was settled, Lu Xie went downstairs to clean up the trash. After finishing everything, he finally prepared some food for himself. Just as he took his first bite, the sound of something being overturned echoed from upstairs.

Lu Xie, concerned, rushed back up. He found Hai San’er stretching out his arms to reach a corner where a sun umbrella had fallen. The floor was littered with the items he had knocked over.

“What are you doing?”

Hearing the irritation in Lu Xie’s tone, Hai San’er shrank back into the tank, exposing only his eyes above the water. “It’s too bright,” he said.

The sun beat down mercilessly on the rooftop, and the merman, accustomed to the deep sea, couldn’t tolerate the harsh sunlight. Adding to that, his head injury made sweating a risk for infection.

Lu Xie let out a heavy sigh and went over to open the umbrella, propping it above Hai San’er. “Better now?”

As Lu Xie turned to leave, Hai San’er mustered his courage. “Can’t you stay with me?”

He thought it over and guessed that Lu Xie was mad because he had insisted on mating. “Okay, we don’t have to mate now,” he relented. “Just stay with me.”

Leaving an injured merman alone on the rooftop didn’t sit well with Lu Xie. Since Hai San’er had dropped the mating issue, Lu Xie begrudgingly agreed.

However, the rooftop was still unbearably hot and boring. Lu Xie decided the umbrella alone wasn’t enough. He set up a rain canopy, bringing some cool shade to the area. Then, he ran electrical lines upstairs, hauling a TV, DVD player, and lounge chair to the rooftop. Business was slow anyway, so he locked up the store, grabbed a pile of snacks, and headed back upstairs.

Dumping the food and drinks onto the lounge chair, he handed Hai San’er a coconut.

“What’s this for?” Hai San’er asked, looking perplexed.

“Drink it,” Lu Xie replied as he crouched by the DVD player, selecting a movie.

After some deliberation, he picked an unfamiliar disaster film. When he returned to the lounge chair, he saw Hai San’er biting into the coconut shell.

Lu Xie looked at Hai San’er like he was the biggest idiot alive. Snatching the coconut back, he poked a hole with a knife and inserted a straw before shoving it back into Hai San’er’s arms.

“With teeth like yours, I should’ve asked you to open a beer for me,” he muttered.

Despite his words, Lu Xie opened the beer himself, popping the cap with a deft flick of the knife. As the bottle hissed, he clinked it against Hai San’er’s coconut before taking a sip. The malt aroma filled his mouth, and he pulled a pair of sunglasses from his pocket, sliding them on as he leaned back in the lounge chair.

Hai San’er tried imitating him, taking a big gulp of coconut water. A satisfied expression spread across his face, and he relaxed in the tank like a puddle of water. But something felt missing—he wanted sunglasses too.

“I want that thing on your face,” he said.

Lu Xie handed them over without hesitation. As long as Hai San’er didn’t pester him about mating, small requests like sunglasses were manageable.

Hai San’er was endlessly curious. He marveled at how the world turned gray through the lenses, repeatedly putting them on and taking them off. Even Lu Xie’s appearance changed color, as did the images on the TV screen.

“What are we watching? Is it The Little Mermaid?” he asked.

Lu Xie replied lazily, “There’s more to this world than The Little Mermaid.”

Since it wasn’t The Little Mermaid, Hai San’er’s interest waned slightly. He grabbed snacks from the table, intrigued by the unfamiliar items alongside the pumpkin taro buns he already loved.

“Can I eat these?”

Lu Xie handed him a bag. “Go ahead.”

The movie’s soundtrack soon drew Hai San’er’s attention back. Though disaster films lacked the vibrant charm of animation, the realistic frames gripped his focus. The sheer insignificance of humans and animals in the face of nature’s wrath left him stunned. Bloody and brutal scenes made Hai San’er freeze, his entire body tense as he instinctively clung to Lu Xie’s arm, cowering closer with every terrifying moment.

Even with the gray filter of the sunglasses, the splattering blood seemed vividly real.

“What about them? Isn’t anyone going to save them?” he asked anxiously.

The film shifted to an ocean scene, showing a whale stranded ashore, gravely injured.

Hai San’er couldn’t stay still. Dropping his snacks, he tried to climb out of the tank. “I need to save it!”

“It’s fake,” Lu Xie said nonchalantly. “That whale isn’t real.”

But Hai San’er wasn’t convinced. “It was breathing and moving just now! How can it be fake?”

“This is a movie. Everything in it is staged,” Lu Xie explained patiently. The disasters were fake, the deaths were fake, and even if the whale looked real, it was probably just an elaborate prop. Yet, considering humanity’s cruelty, the possibility of a real whale being sacrificed for a film wasn’t entirely far-fetched.

Hai San’er trusted Lu Xie, so he hesitated. “Fake?”

“Yes. Look, isn’t the sea outside calm and peaceful?”

All around was the sound of the sea breeze, rustling the leaves of the coconut trees and stirring the waves into a peaceful harmony, completely unlike the chaos portrayed in the screen.

A deafening crack of thunder shattered the tranquility. The humidity in the air shifted, but Lu Xie was unfazed—he had seen this many times before. There was likely to be a heavy downpour tonight.

By evening, dark clouds were already gathering in the distant sky. After having dinner with Hai San’er, Lu Xie began moving all the electronics downstairs. He glanced at the rooftop’s rain canopy and sun umbrella. Those things would have to be put away as well. If the wind blew them off, there’d be no retrieving them.

The once lively rooftop was now cleared out, leaving only the fish tank and the mermaid within it. Lu Xie turned to the mermaid and said, “There’s going to be a heavy downpour tonight.”

As a mermaid, Hai San’er was highly attuned to the weather and had already sensed it. “Mm, I know.”

“You’re okay staying up here on the roof, right?”

“No problem.”

Seeing Hai San’er nod, Lu Xie felt slightly reassured. After all, mermaids had to endure wind and rain in the wild too—it wasn’t like they had anywhere to hide.

“Your head…” Lu Xie thought for a moment, then found a sun hat at home. After placing it on Hai San’er’s head, he instructed, “Wear this properly and try to keep your wound dry.”

“Okay.”

Hai San’er agreed so readily that Lu Xie felt at ease.

Back downstairs, Lu Xie took a quick shower before it got completely dark. As he stepped out of the bathroom, the world outside was already filled with flashes of lightning and rumbles of thunder. Raindrops the size of beans hammered against the window of his second-floor bedroom, forming a dense curtain that obscured the view. He could only vaguely make out debris being whipped around by the fierce wind.

The crashing thunder sounded like a drumbeat, battering his eardrums. While drying his hair, Lu Xie glanced up at the ceiling.

Hai San’er didn’t seem like a particularly brave individual, but Lu Xie couldn’t quite remember what, if anything, the mermaid feared. With such a grand display of lightning and thunder, he had no idea how Hai San’er might be faring. After a moment of hesitation, he slipped on his sandals and headed upstairs.

The stairwell echoed with the howling wind, eerie and sharp, like a woman’s desperate screams. Battling the gale, Lu Xie struggled to push open the rooftop door. The moment he stepped out, rain splashed onto his feet. Turning his head, he saw Hai San’er clutching the brim of the sun hat tightly with both hands, his tail fin raised high and flapping in the wind.

The raging storm didn’t seem to bother him, but his rain-soaked hair clung to his skin in messy strands, leaving him looking utterly bedraggled and pitiable.

“Lu Xie!” Spotting him at the door, Hai San’er’s previously laid-back expression lit up with delight. He obediently held onto the sun hat as instructed and asked, “What are you doing up here?”

Hai San’er didn’t care about the ferocity of the storm, his only reaction was pure joy at Lu Xie’s sudden appearance.