The Old Man and the Mermaid

Aigre was indeed quite drunk.

Although he didn't look much different from usual, his face didn't look abnormal, and even his eyes were calm, but his thoughts were already messed up like hemp rope with countless knots, and he probably had already connected himself. The red wine and ketchup on the table couldn't be distinguished clearly.He felt dizzy, and his thoughts were completely broken into pieces, flying around himself and Mr. Mermaid.

——At least he can still recognize that the friend sitting in front of him is Mr. Mermaid.

congratulations.

But he wasn't supposed to be this drunk.After leaving the lighthouse, Aigre went straight back to the town, met Royce who was tasting the summer special ice cream in a coffee shop on the commercial street, and went with him to find Professor Nice who had moved into a separate house.

These villas are the only residences on Dusk Island that are rented out to outsiders.Occasionally, some relatives or friends of the townspeople who live outside the island will come to the island. The rent of these houses is not expensive, so the guests are generally quite willing to rent here for a period of time.

When Aigre and Royce walked into the garden of the villa that Professor Nice rented, they saw the girl named Natalie coming out of the door.She finally changed into clothes that could cover most of her skin, and when she saw them, she even gave a friendly nod as a greeting.

"Good afternoon, beautiful lady." Royce raised his hand with a bright smile, and greeted the girl in a friendly manner.

The girl let out a muffled laugh and trotted into the villa without saying a word.

"She's quite cute." Royce shook his head and sighed, "I just don't know what her personality is... From the previous short stories, it seems that they are not easy to get along with. "

"I don't know." Aigre shook his head, "I only talked to one of them."

Royce touched his chin thoughtfully, and promised: "Don't worry, I will help Professor Nice all the time, and by the way, let's take a look at what these alumni who have never gotten along with before are like." People. If Professor Nice can't control them, hey, I will also have a way."

"Your pranks are too low-level, be careful." Aigre hit him expressionlessly.

"...At least better than you." Royce said with narrowed eyes, "Look at what you are doing in the room, I don't need to observe carefully, you will expose yourself first."

Royce refuted Aigre, and followed him into the villa.Professor Nice's expression looked very gentle, and he probably hadn't clashed with those disobedient guys yet, so Aigre was relieved for the time being, and stepped forward to help them arrange the equipment.

In the process of packing their luggage, Aigle finally had a word or two with each of them.To his surprise, the man named Robertson made a special trip to apologize to him, and promised to buy him a drink in the evening to apologize.

It's probably not a cunning trap, but this man does drink a lot.If it wasn't for Aigre's previous experience of being drunk and making sure that he would not be ashamed, he wouldn't dare to compete with him casually.

Yes, competition.

He and Royce accompanied the professor to a restaurant in the town. After having a good dinner, Aigre was directly dragged to the bar by those guys.

But compared to him, Royce is much worse—that kid is still sleeping unconscious on the sofa in the living room of the lighthouse, and he will probably experience at least two or three hours of splitting headaches when he wakes up tomorrow morning.

And now, Aigre is rubbing his forehead, looking like he is trying to keep himself awake, but what he said is already telling a story: "Mr. Fish... It's a pity that mermaids don't wear underwear, It makes you feel really safe, honestly, like you're protecting your privacy."

Mermaid: "..."

"I'm serious." Aigre laughed heartily, and suggested sincerely, "Actually, if you are willing, I believe that someone will be willing to design a set of mermaid-specific underwear for you."

Mermaid: "..."

Friend, you really drink too much.

Mr. Mermaid looked at Aigre's blank expression with a smile, and couldn't help but also laughed along with him.

"Don't laugh." Aigre said slowly, "I haven't been as drunk as I am now...don't worry, I know I'm drunk, not like those drunks who occasionally wander on the street Same drunk. I know what I'm doing."

...If you really knew what you were doing, you wouldn't be talking to me about human underwear for no apparent reason.Mr. Mermaid said silently in his heart.

"I remember the last time I was drunk, it seemed to be when I was a teenager." Aigre's tone was still slow and low, and it sounded like he would fall asleep in the next second, "I liked to fight with other children at that time Yes, after getting addicted to beating, I was dragged to drink like this time. Of course, the adults in the bar would not let the children in to drink, so one of the children asked his brother to buy it for us. A few bottles of wine."

Mr. Mermaid no longer made strange expressions, but sat side by side with Aigre, listening to every word he said as usual.

"I was so drunk that I couldn't find my way home. It was my grandfather who came out and found me when he saw that I hadn't returned for a long time." Aigre closed his eyes half-closed and looked casually at the sea not far away, which was sometimes shrouded in light from the lighthouse, " I was severely reprimanded, and I never dared to fight with other children outside... At that time, I knew that I was wrong, but when I was a child, I couldn't hold my breath, so I followed Grandfather quarreled a few words... Now that I think about it, it feels better to have an old man by my side who can always admonish me than if no one pays any attention to me at all."

There was no expression on the young man's face, but when he talked about it, his eyes became more relaxed.

A few months ago, Mr. Mermaid might not be able to fully understand what Aigre meant, but after feeling the joy of communicating with others, he can quite understand the mood of this young man now.

He had also experienced so many lonely days and nights, and he was alone in every starry night.He is strong enough, strong enough to protect his family, but he also lives meaninglessly because of it.

Looking back now, he didn't even know what he'd been trying to survive all these years.

"I just left the academy." Aigre continued to speak slowly and gently, "I still have many, many years to go...I thought I was ready."

Mr. Mermaid listened, raised his hand and stroked his forehead and the top of his head a few times.

"...the scale on your wrist feels a bit like the cocoon in my grandfather's hand." Aigre laughed, and then fell silent after saying this, and continued after a while: "Mr. Yu, I don't Don't know if you've had close encounters with other humans before - but it was a pleasure getting to know you."

Mr. Mermaid stopped what he was doing, but still didn't make any sound.

He felt that somewhere in his heart seemed to be instantly filled with a burst of salty sea water, rushing towards a strong refreshing breath.Although it was such a hot night, he unconsciously thought of the cool air he had felt in the eastern part of the ocean a long time ago.The sea breeze was rushing wantonly on the surface of the sea, and there was no one on the beach. It seemed that there were no fish around him, and he was the only creature left in the entire boundary between the sea and the sky.

It was a pretty amazing feeling.

Mr. Mermaid turned his head to look at Eigre, and keenly noticed his extremely sad gaze, whether it was because of alcohol or emotions.

"When I saw those sticky notes my grandfather left in the lighthouse at the end," said the young man at last, "I felt that I actually owned the whole world—but the old man who gave me the world has left me."

After Aigre finished speaking, it seemed that he suddenly relaxed his tense nerves, and gradually fell asleep.

Before he fell to the ground, Mr. Mermaid caught him again, silently letting him fall into a dream mixed with happiness and sadness.

Mr. Mermaid feels that his current feeling is very subtle.During the time he had known Eigre, this was the first time he had seen Eigre express such strong sadness directly because of the old man's death.

Compared with this time, the nostalgia and longing mixed in his words and actions before seemed to be covered with camouflage gauze, which seemed overly polite and restrained.

This is probably a kind of trust.Mr. Mermaid thought silently.

——Showing his emotions without reservation, and even falling asleep without any precautions, it is not a kind of absolute trust.

...But what does this have to do with panties?

Mr. Mermaid was puzzled.

The next morning, Aigre was awakened by a glare of sunlight.The temperature in the room was not too high, because the air conditioner was always on, and his body was really covered with a thin quilt.

Aigre sat up, still feeling a little dizzy due to the alcohol, he raised his hands and tapped lightly on the side of his forehead and head for a while before he got better.

Then he naturally thought of every scene before falling asleep last night-especially the few scenes about underwear before pouring out his heart.

Aigre: "..."

Royce had been sleeping on the other sofa next to him, and finally woke up at this time, looked at Aigre sleepily and asked, "Good morning... what's the matter? My brother, your The expression looks like I ate a worm in a hamburger - and the kind that only saw half of it after taking a bite."

Aigre slowly raised one hand and covered his eyes with the palm: "...I want to go to heaven."

"……what?"