The Old Man and the Mermaid

The mermaid has seen chefs make food on various occasions.

Their standing postures and the gestures of holding various utensils are very pleasing to the eye. Of course, Aigle is not as good as a professional chef in this respect, but he looks more comfortable-more inclined to mermaids. Yes, the way humans usually behave in "family".

It's a calm and peaceful atmosphere.Aigre is never restless, very similar to this island.

And the word "family" is as distant and unfamiliar to the mermaid as a mountain on land.

When the mermaid was thinking about life calmly, Aigre sat across from him and looked at his guest's fingers silently.Previously, his attention had been drawn to the beautiful tail of the fish and the fins that seemed to be everywhere on the mermaid, so he had never carefully observed the hands and skin of the mermaid.

He originally thought that the mermaid's nails should be quite sharp and solid, but the nails of this Mr. Mermaid were unexpectedly not too long - what really made the prey deadly should be the sharp scales covering his fingertips.

Those scales grew on both sides of the mermaid's fingers, protecting the tip of his fingers, and wrapping his nails that were almost human-like in the middle.Just using his eyes to distinguish, Egre guessed that the hardness of the scales on his fingers would not be any weaker than the hardest scales on his fish tail.

On top of these sharp scales is a layer of transparent fish scales that look thinner and softer.These scales were very small, gradually climbing up around the merman's fingers, and finally disappeared on the back of the hand, making the back of his hand pale and smooth.

The back of the mermaid's hand and the center of the palm seem to be the only breaks in these scales. Starting from the mermaid's wrist, those fish scales reappeared, covering the outside of the mermaid's arms and elbow joints.

These translucent fish scales made his upper body look completely different from that of a human, but made him look more beautiful and mighty.

Aigre took a closer look and found that the tails of these scales seemed to be blue or black, not too obvious, but definitely not completely transparent.

"Sorry..." He opened his mouth in a trance, and then realized what he just said under the gaze of the mermaid.

Of course, he couldn't stop like this in the middle of the conversation, so he simply continued to make the request he wanted to make before: "I'm sorry to disturb my rare guests, but I think it should be fine to chat with guests at the table. umm...can I just, touch—I mean, shake your hand?"

The mermaid was still holding the fork, watching him quietly, and after realizing that Aigre was indeed curious about his hands, he was more or less surprised.

So he kindly extended his left hand that had been under the table before.

Aigre also stretched out his left hand and shook hands with the mermaid.Feeling the cold but not so soft touch in his hand, he couldn't help but increase some strength, and rubbed the scales on the mermaid's hand slightly with the palm of his hand.

——It feels really amazing.

It feels a bit like when I was playing on the beach when I was a child, I buried my hands in the gravel and felt the satisfaction when the slightly hot soft sand covered my skin.And those not-too-hard scales near the mermaid's palm are like shells hidden in the gravel. Even if the children's soft and fragile hands accidentally touch the edges of those shells, they will not be easily scratched. Wound.

Social etiquette is a compulsory course for Aigre.Although he was not very talkative and didn't have many friends in college, he always maintained a polite attitude towards everyone, and it was common for him to shake hands with professors and classmates.

But he had never shaken anyone else's hand with such a subtle feeling that he was so clearly aware that the left hand he was holding was not human.

It's a good fairy tale theme.Agre thought.If you have time in the future, you can try to write this picture out.

Like him, the mermaid also had a lot of new ideas.

These are a pair of human hands, which are somewhat different from the human palms he has come into contact with before.

He has been to various sea areas in many worlds, and has seen countless bones of fragile human beings buried in the depths of the sea.Occasionally, he would go to the corpses that hadn't completely become skeletons, and stretch out his hands to feel their skin—it was a look that was colder than his own body temperature, and had become extremely pale after being soaked in sea water.He couldn't feel any breath of life, as if he was facing an ordinary boulder that had been silent for countless centuries.

But Aigre's hands were very warm, as soft as those floating weeds floating on the sea all day long.When the mermaid held his hand, he could even gradually feel the thickness of the young human's finger bones.

There are only hairs on the human skin, no scales that belong to the sea, and the muscles seem to be softer than his own—this once again shows the fragility of human beings, but it does not completely mean that Aigre is a defenseless A weak person of ability.

On the contrary, this young man has a strong physique and undiscovered, more powerful potential. He still has countless spaces for his own growth, and holds a future that no one can predict.

What attracts the mermaid's attention the most is actually some obviously stiff and thick skin in Aigre's palm.

The mermaid was curious, so he simply relaxed a little bit, turned Aigre's palm over so that his palm was facing upwards, looked at the parts on his palm skin that seemed harder than other places, and used his only softer part. His fingertips lightly pinched those parts a few times.

Aigre noticed this small movement of the mermaid, followed his gaze to look at his palm, and explained clearly: "Ah... When I was still studying in the academy, I once met a fencing enthusiast. My tutor. At that time, my homework was not too heavy, so I studied with that teacher for a period of time. Moreover, my activity is not too small, and I need to use it in many cases. After a long time, I will grow these thick Cocooned."

The mermaid knew that this was probably a layer of stiff and dead skin, and he actually had many similar stiff skin parts on his body.It's just that if you just touch it with your hands, human skin does seem to be somewhat different from his.

However, this does not interfere with the fact that Aigre's slightly rough palm is still softer than his own.

Humans are so fragile.

The mermaid withdrew her left hand and continued to enjoy the lunch the young man had prepared for her in silence.

Aigre himself wasn't really that hungry.He used to buy some not-so-healthy but definitely delicious snacks in the market, such as the small barbecue stall at Old Ted's that was open all day.Occasionally, there will be young girls selling pastries that have just been baked at home in the morning.

He lives alone, and most of the time he doesn't want to buy a lot of ingredients to go home, spend a few 10 minutes to make them, and then eat them alone.

That sounds worse than the feeling of being sprayed with water by a sprinkler when you go home after being soaked in the rain and change your clothes, and are about to adjust your mood and go out again.

Aigre hadn't expected that Mr. Mermaid would appear again the next day. It was actually a coincidence that he bought these cods from other places in the market, so he simply prepared them for his guests alone. had this lunch.

Thinking of this, he looked back at the clock hanging on the wall by himself.

It's actually less than eleven o'clock now.

When he thought of this, he became curious about the mermaid's work and rest habits—for example, their sleep duration, or their eating standards.

His mind was full of these flying thoughts all day long.If there is some kind of machine that can test the strength of human brain power, then his brain hole can probably directly detonate that machine.

The mermaid did not open her mouth to speak. After quietly finishing the pieces of cod in front of her, she politely bowed down to express her thanks to Aigre.

To be honest, Eigre was very surprised at how much this Mr. Mermaid knew about human culture.

Except for the fact that he never speaks, his movements, expression and eyes are almost the same as those of humans, and he even understands their greeting and talking habits better than some foreigners.

Aigre felt that he was eager to get to know this new friend who came from a foreign race in the sea, but Mr. Mermaid didn't seem to plan to stay for a long time. After nodding to him again, he turned out the window and left the lighthouse .

In fact, Mr. Mermaid is also very happy to spend some time with him, but the environment here makes him feel anxious.

When Aigre was making pan-fried cod, the temperature in the entire kitchen rose, and it became even hotter at noon in this hot summer.The mermaid has been trying to ignore this temperature, but the water around him is continuously and rapidly evaporating, so that he finally feels the changes in his body that are gradually weakening.

So he decided to return to the sea for the time being.Anyway, he still has a chance to meet that young man.

It's a pity that summer is still long. If it's winter, he can at least stay on land for a whole day without any problem.When returning to the embrace of the sea, the mermaid thought with a little regret.

Aigre stood by the window and watched him leave, looking up thoughtfully at the scorching sun hanging high in the sky.

He thought he might have to go buy some new high-tech gadgets.