The Old Man and the Mermaid

The mermaid itself doesn't particularly understand the definition of shame for humans, but after reading so many books, it is probably clear that Aigre's current reaction is because he saw the body of his own race when he was caught off guard—at least from the beginning. In terms of the structure of the upper body, mermaids are not much different from humans.

He met Aigre's slightly embarrassed gaze, and only found this young human's reaction quite amusing.

Although Aigre recalled what Mr. Mermaid had told him about the culture and living habits of the mermaid tribe when he saw the mermaid lady jumping out of the water, he knew that they were just like all sea creatures and didn’t care about humans. The most important thing is to dress.

... Anyway, mermaids never live in groups, and there will not be too many encounters with their own kind.Aigre comforted himself.

It's just that when he was really shocked by the vision, he still felt a little uncomfortable.

Eigre sighed silently, clenched his right hand into a fist and tapped lightly between his eyebrows twice, then turned his head to Mr. Mermaid's ear and asked, "What should I do to be the most polite?"

... don't know if you realize, my friend, I'm naked too.The mermaid pursed her lower lip and complained in her stomach.

He lowered his head and glanced at his own tail, and finally decided not to discuss the issue of racial and cultural differences with Eigre for the time being, but raised his finger and wrote a few simple words on the sand: look directly into her eyes , is the most polite behavior.

After writing this sentence, he turned his eyes to his fellow clan who was sitting on the bank with a smile, and made brief eye contact with her.

The mermaid girl laughed amicably, then gently stroked her long hair that had just grown past her waistline a few times, and pushed it from both sides of her neck to her chest, covering her chest and half of her abdomen .

——It’s really strange how much human beings attach importance to clothing.

The girl said this to Mr. Mermaid.Her voice was sharper than that of an ordinary human girl, but it was still beautiful. It sounded a bit like a bird that perched on the treetops in early spring, or the cub of some vegetarian and gentle animal.

Mr. Mermaid raised his hand and shook it in front of Aigre, then simply bent his fingers and pressed his knuckles against one side of his cheek, forcing him to turn his head to look at the girl.

The girl seemed to be very interested in Eigre. She even used the power of her tail to prop up her body. The fish tail swiped a few times on the beach behind her, and then slowly moved in front of Eigre and Mr. Mermaid.

She blinked and looked at Aigre curiously, and greeted him with her beautiful voice.

This is the greeting of the mermaids, similar to "good day" and "all is well" in human language.

Aigre had heard Mr. Mermaid explain the meaning of this phrase before, because he hadn't been exposed to too many mermaid languages ​​yet, so he remembered these few phrases very clearly.

After confirming the meaning of this sentence, Aigele breathed a sigh of relief, smiled slightly, and bowed his head politely to her, "Good day, beautiful lady."

The mermaid girl seemed delighted with Aigre's reaction.She raised her hands together in front of her chest, showed a bright smile to Aigre, then blinked her right eye lightly, and said a few words to Mr. Mermaid.

Eigre couldn't understand such a complicated mermaid language, but he still thought that this language was really beautiful-it had nothing to do with the voice and tone of the user, it was all due to the charm of the language itself.

What's more, the voices of these two mermaid guests are already quite nice.

After listening to her words, Mr. Mermaid stretched out his hand in front of Aigre to attract his attention, and then wrote on the beach: She can only understand the simplest everyday language, so she can't have a direct conversation with you.She hopes to bring her husband and children with her next time, so she will come alone this time and ask your permission.

"I welcome them very much." Aigre was a little surprised at first, then nodded, and then asked with a slight frown: "However, although only our small island exists in this sea area, for you It’s still too dangerous to say—not to mention that your actions on land don’t seem to be particularly convenient, right?”

Mr. Mermaid was silent for two seconds and wrote: She is curious about you.

Aigre glanced at what he wrote and asked, "Why?"

The mermaid didn't answer him directly, but turned to repeat Aigre's answer to the expectant lady, and then turned around while the girl raised her hands and cheered softly, and wrote again: Because of me.

The girl didn't give them a chance to continue the conversation, she just stretched out her hands happily and shook them in front of them twice, and when they looked at her at the same time, she made a gesture of thanks.

"You're welcome." Aigre said gently to her, "You are welcome to come here at any time. After all, there are many other human activities around here, so please be careful when you go ashore."

The girl looked at him with blinked eyes, then smiled sweetly again, turned to Mr. Mermaid and said: It seems that some human beings are still very cute and friendly, I understand you!

She turned around as she spoke, and before she jumped into the sea and left, she turned her head and stuck out her tongue at Aigre. After taking a last look at Mr. Mermaid, she made a heart shape with both hands.

Aigre was stunned, and after a short period of silence, he suddenly asked: "Is she expressing her love and friendship for us, or is she giving us a thumbs up?"

Mermaid: "..."

You play too much social software, my friend.

The gesture, of course, has other meanings.While thinking about it, the mermaid looked in the direction the girl left, thinking about what she wanted to express.

"I remember you said before that the number of mermaids is very rare, and the reproduction rate is not fast, and there is little contact between families, but they all know each other, right?" Aigre went to the sea with him Looking up for a while, then asked again, "So you know her too?"

The mermaid withdrew her thoughts, wiped off the two lines of writing on the ground, and wrote again: I know her, but I haven't talked to her.I think I should know her husband.

"I see...she looks different—I mean, different from you." Aigre couldn't help laughing as he said, "I noticed that you basically don't talk much even when you talk to your own people , so when we get along with me, it doesn't seem to be completely because of the language barrier that I choose to be silent. Compared with you, she is much more lively, so she should be younger, right?"

Mr. Mermaid turned his head to stare at the sea expressionlessly, feeling that this young man with too big a brain would never say anything nice next.

"...Probably similar to the difference between our uncle and niece."

...you may want to fight, my friend.The mermaid raised her eyebrows, and glanced sideways at him.

As if guessing what he was thinking, Aigre raised his hand and gave a dry cough, explaining: "I don't want to fight, Mr. Fish (Note 1), this is just a little joke... oh——"

While smiling kindly, Mr. Mermaid raised his fish tail and wrapped it around Aigre's feet and ankles, forcing him to land directly on his back, and he could only stretch out his hands to grab the ground.

Aigre also laughed along with him, but he didn't speak anymore, but focused all his attention on the mermaid's offensive action.

From the first time he fought against Mr. Mermaid on the coast, he had already admired his friend's strength and fighting skills—he could feel that the mermaid and his physical fitness trained in the training room were not the same. Same, those are the skills obtained in the process of countless hunting and killing.

If Mr. Mermaid really wanted to take his own life, he probably wouldn't survive 3 minutes.Aigre thought so.

Besides, even for Eigre, this kind of fighting can only be regarded as a joke.

To be honest, he really wanted to see what Mr. Mermaid looked like when he was fighting those huge creatures in the sea - just imagining it was already quite attractive, not to mention those stored in the depths of his memory. real experience.

In the end, Mr. Mermaid was the first to snatch the opportunity to suppress the other party, and pressed Aigre to the ground. While maintaining a slight smile, he took a deep breath lightly and slowly.

Aigre took a few breaths, stretched out his hand to the mermaid, sat up again with the help of his strength to pull himself up, shook his head, and said, "Maybe I haven't exercised for too long... It seems that I did the same thing last time." Complained about it. It’s a pity that there is no suitable partner for fighting on the island. If Mr. Mermaid doesn’t mind, you are welcome to come and practice with me.”

The mermaid sat up, flicked the fish tail and splashed the seawater on her body. After relieving some of the dryness and slight pain caused by the sun, she looked at Aigle and nodded.

He admired Aigre's physical strength and certain fighting skills that can only be displayed to the fullest on land.If these skills can be learned thoroughly, they may be of great use in the sea.

The mermaid looked at Aigre's side face covered with sand and water droplets, and felt that although the young man who was speaking more and more presumptuously looked a little embarrassed and his face was not very clean, his appearance still looked very seductive.

"I always have a lot of questions, but it's a pity that my progress in learning your language is too slow." Aigre thought for a few seconds, then smiled and asked: "If I'm not wrong, you should also have one. Does it correspond to the text of this language?"

(Note 1: Mr. Fish was used by Aigre when joking with the mermaid, not the previous Mr. Mermaid.)