The Old Man and the Mermaid

The mermaid withdrew her gaze that had been staring and observing Aigre's appearance at this time, and turned to look into his eyes, silently asking him what he meant.

"Because your handwriting is very beautiful." Aigre pointed to the rows of handwriting left by Mr. Mermaid on the beach, "Although I don't know why you know our writing so well, I think that since you have such a complete language system, then there should be corresponding characters, right?"

Mr. Mermaid was still silent, but he erased the handwriting again and wrote again: We have words, but they are of little use.My family does not have a deep understanding of human culture, and I am a special case, so I am familiar with your words.

Aigre watched him finish writing, and nodded thoughtfully, "So you are considered a doctor-level existence among the mermaids? Have you considered setting up a school in the sea and charging some tuition fees?"

Mermaid: "..."

"Cough..." After talking about those two questions, Egreel himself seemed a little embarrassed, so he coughed dryly and brought the topic back, "However, your social system is not as strict as ours, so you probably don't need currency. Let’s circulate it... Usually, if you meet with the same race, will Mr. Mermaid take the initiative to talk to them?"

Mr. Mermaid carefully recalled his long but boring past, then shook his head slightly, and wrote: Less.

"That's right." Aigre patted him on the shoulder to express his understanding. "The mermaid tribe is few in number, but the sea is so vast. If you don't encounter any racial danger, you probably don't even meet each other very often, right?"

Mr. Mermaid turned his head and glanced at Aigre's hand on his shoulder, feeling a little strange about the soft touch from his palm.Human skin feels even softer than some seaweeds, so fragile that it can be torn directly by him without any effort.

He imagined the slightly bloody scene, and decided that it would be better not to speak out the metaphor.

What's more, it feels quite pleasant to be patted on the shoulder by his human friend like this.

The body of a mermaid can survive in any fairly normal sea area, so most families like to travel around and temporarily settle down in any place in the sea.This state will continue until the end of their lives—until then, they will find a truly peaceful and peaceful seabed, and sleep in each other's arms in the last night.

Of course, there have also been many clansmen who died alone or died in fighting.Mermaids cannot accept the premature death of their partner, so if the other party leaves early, the one left behind will take his or her partner's body to find that peaceful place alone, and then leave with him or her.

And most merfolk choose the same place when they meet their death.

Mr. Mermaid has been to that sea area before, and he has also seen the beauty and silence of that seabed—it is as quiet as heaven.

He wrote these word by word on the beach, so that Aigre could read and understand slowly.

"This kind of loyalty is really hard to come by." After reading Mr. Mermaid's words, Egrele said with some sighs, "People are always yearning for newer and better things, but sometimes this heart full of hope is also full of hope. It will lead us astray, and even do some things that I have hated the most... My parents were also very happy, maybe I should be glad that they left at the same time, so that I don't have to feel the loss of loved ones or Lover's pain."

He shook his head and added, "I can't even imagine how I would feel if they left when I was sensible."

Mr. Mermaid withdrew his hand and did not speak.

Because he remembered the grandfather that Aigre had mentioned.The old man had just passed away not long ago, and it sounded like he was a very important existence to Aigre, and he was also the only relative of the young man.

It must have been quite a painful process for him to send away such a cherished relative.

Thinking of this, Mr. Mermaid stretched out his hand and patted his shoulder like Aigre just now to express his relief.

"It's actually not that difficult to accept. Don't comfort me, Mr. Yu. After all, it's something that I've been prepared for a long time ago, and it's been so long." Aigre laughed, and his tone became brisk again. "You may think it's unbelievable to say it, but when I just returned to Dusk Island some time ago, the lighthouse was covered with...strange stickers, which looked very childish but interesting. They are still in my storage If you are interested, you can take a look at it next time you come - by the way, most of the stickers are pink."

Mr. Mermaid imagined that kind of girly and dreamy color plastered all over the serious and simple lighthouse, and he doubted the true taste of Aigre's grandfather.

After Aigre finished recalling, he still couldn't help laughing, so he turned his body completely to face Mr. Mermaid, so that the sun could only shine on one side of his body, and then suggested: "It's still early, if Mr. Yu doesn't mind, Just teach me a few more words of your greeting? So that I won't even be able to understand her greeting when that pretty lady comes over next time."

Mr. Fish.

This title sounds like he can be roasted into a small fish in minutes by these dazzling and scorching sun.

The mermaid raised her eyebrows, not caring about the little problem that Aigre had become addicted to this name, nodded, and began to slowly and patiently teach him some commonly used phrases.

In fact, even when meeting with the same race, mermaids rarely use their own language. In most cases, they can accurately judge what the other party wants to express by relying on movements, eyes and currents.Moreover, Mr. Mermaid is probably the least gregarious existence in their clan, and there are too few opportunities to meet or even talk with his fellow clan. If it wasn't because he is more interested in culture, he probably wouldn't be able to remember these languages ​​and characters all the time.

Thinking of words, he recalled some things about his ethnic group because of Aigre's question.He remembered that when he was very young, the mermaid couple who didn't mind adopting him kindly taught him.

There are many stones and shellfish shells with those words engraved on the seabed where countless mermaids sleep.

But there is one thing that Aigre didn't guess correctly.Although the mermaid race is rare in number, it does not mean that there is no need for transactions between the same race, so they have currency, and there are also utensils similar to human books that can be used to record words.

While writing down the meaning of the phrase he just uttered on the beach, he thought that he could go deeper into the sea in the past few days and find some things that recorded the mermaid language.

That should be a pretty good gift for Eigre.

Aigre's study attitude has always been very serious, and because he has no parents to watch him strictly since he was a child, if he wants to learn anything, he must be strict with himself.What's more, it is Mr. Mermaid who is sitting opposite to teach me now, he is more likely to concentrate and not distracted at all.

The mermaid's language seemed very interesting to him.This is a completely different language family, and there are many details that are quite different from human languages, so he has to ask every point that he can't understand more carefully, so as to ensure that he will not judge Mr. Mermaid when he speaks. mistake.

This is a very novel experience, and it has more or less brought back some of the urgent and expectant learning attitude that Eigre had when he first entered college.

But even though Aigre was willing to study like this until night, Mr. Mermaid might not be able to cooperate.There were fine beads of sweat on his forehead, and his skin looked much drier than when he went ashore, but his mental state was not bad, and there was always seawater surging ashore, so Eigre just discovered his abnormality.

"Let's go here first today, thank you very much for your hard work, Mr. Fish." Aigre felt a little worried, so he simply ended the teaching, "We can continue next time, or go to my lighthouse first? "

The mermaid glanced at the lighthouse, thinking of those young people who had just left, she shook her head slightly, rejecting Aigre's kindness.After moving his body for a certain distance, he let the sea water cover his fish tail and waist, and said goodbye to the young man.

Aigre was just familiar with this phrase, so when he heard Mr. Mermaid's deep and pleasant voice, he couldn't help smiling, nodded and said, "Then see you next time, and please be careful when you go ashore."

The mermaid didn't say any more, turned over and jumped directly into the sea.

Aigre habitually watched him leave, and then looked back at the few plans that he had just put away, feeling a little headache.

He is very aware of Professor Nice's ability, and believes that the professor will never write any observation plan that will endanger the island itself and the residents on the island, but he can't fully trust those alumni who don't seem to be very friendly.

They looked like seven-year-olds who had been forced into Professor Ness's house, at an age when they would not be persuaded and who loved to be extremely playful.

…Seven-year-olds are even more polite than they are.Aigre thought of Mrs. Irene's youngest son, and silently slandered.

He got up from the beach and walked back to the lighthouse with the stack of plan books, thinking that before he started reading the plan, he might go to the market to buy some small dried fish as an afternoon snack.