The Old Man and the Mermaid

After waiting for a few seconds, Aigre still didn't hear Mr. Mermaid's answer. When he raised his head, he finally saw Mr. Mermaid's slightly dangerous eyes and obviously unfriendly expression.

He froze for a moment, quickly recalled what he said and the question he had just said, coughed awkwardly, organized his words and explained: "I was just guessing what the tail bones of mermaids would look like, Then I thought about the specific location of this organ... sorry, I really don't have any malice."

You certainly mean no harm.Mr. Mermaid answered him in his heart with no expression on his face.

Otherwise you are finished.

"I'm just too curious." Aigre rubbed his brows a few times and continued to explain, "Because you mentioned before that mermaids generally live in families and will carefully raise their offspring, but The number of children is not too many. So if I guessed correctly, mermaids should be mammals like humans... Cough, I am very sorry if this question is too private, I will not repeat it Keep asking questions about it.”

Only then did Mr. Mermaid withdraw his intentionally unfriendly gaze, and couldn't help but laugh at Aigre's almost completely thoughtless question.He even smiled slightly, and wrote on the paper: Basically the same as human beings.

"...Then I'm probably right." Aigre breathed a sigh of relief, relaxed again, and said, "In the past two days, I occasionally saw some sayings on the Internet about mermaids giving birth outside the body , but after thinking about it, I think this statement seems inaccurate, so I want to ask Mr. Mermaid directly."

Mr. Mermaid glanced at him, and after a few seconds of silence, he continued to write: In front of the tail of the fish, below the abdomen.

Such a serious answer made Egreel a little embarrassed to continue this topic.Although he was indeed quite curious about the body structure of the mermaid, this kind of question was still too private after all.

But even though he was thinking this way, his eyes still uncontrollably glanced at Mr. Mermaid's belly twice.When he raised his head again, he happened to see Mr. Mermaid's half-smile teasing expression, which made him feel even more embarrassed. Although his face was not hot, this kind of silent communication made the atmosphere of the whole living room weird. stand up.

"I may not be very good at this kind of topic." Aigre finally said helplessly, "If I say something that is too embarrassing or disrupts the atmosphere, please don't mind Mr. Yu."

Mr. Mermaid laughed softly. Although the laughter was short, it was quite sweet.

Hearing the muffled laughter, Aigre knew that Mr. Mermaid didn't mind the topic, so he laughed along with him, shook his head and sighed, and continued to ask: "Since you don't mind, then I might as well finish asking my questions." Let’s start with the question...is it the same for mermaid women?”

Mr. Mermaid nodded to show that he was right.

"I understand." Aigre touched his chin thoughtfully, paused for a moment, and asked again: "But since the birth method of mermaids is basically the same as that of humans, the birth process should not be bad. Too far? Won't the baby be hurt by those hard scales that cover the fish's tail at birth?"

The scales under the female abdomen are soft and will soften completely during pregnancy, so they will not hurt the baby.Mr. Mermaid explained this sentence on the paper, and then added with a smile: Probably only you would ask this kind of question.

After getting rid of the embarrassment before, Aige felt more magnanimous at this time.He shook his head with a smile, and said: "Sometimes I may think too much, but I am really curious about mermaids—before Mr. Fish appeared, mermaids were all living in legends in my eyes creatures, so I was a little surprised when I learned that mermaids need to follow the normal process to conceive offspring just like us."

Normal Process?

Mr. Mermaid raised his eyebrows, and asked on the paper: What did you think before?

"Before? The storybook said that mermaid girls would of course be pregnant, but after pregnancy, they would lie on a strange magic table. After the elders of the clan cast a spell, the child would fly out of the mermaid mother's belly in the form of a ball of light... ...This kind of thing." Aigre said while thinking about it, "There is also a saying that mermaids can't conceive at all, and are creatures created directly by the sea. Or it's simply a way of inheritance like fish eggs."

Mermaid: "..."

It sounds like although Egre's thinking is often quite wonderful, but the brains of other human beings do not seem to be too small.

Mr. Mermaid has also read these fairy tales before, but he has never read any stories about the birth of offspring.After all, there are too many books in human society, and there are few channels for him to get these books, let alone want to read every book that interests him.

"I know this sounds strange." Aigre continued, "But I believe that there are many people like me who are always full of curiosity about unknown things."

This is an indisputable fact.Mr. Mermaid quite agrees with Aigre's statement on one point, because he himself is quite curious about the unknown human society.

At this time, Eigre finally saw the poor dinner plate that he had neglected for a long time, raised the back of his hand and wiped it on his forehead, "Sorry to disturb your meal. Let me look at the related sentences later. If you don’t mind, welcome to use my computer this afternoon, last time I saw you seem to be quite interested in computers.”

Mr. Mermaid nodded and agreed, and continued to tease him on the paper: Are you referring to the time when you studied how to cook me?

Aigre: "..."

Can we have a good chat.

After Professor Nice arrived at Twilight Island, Eigre's daily life was a little busier than before, but it was also much more fulfilling.When Professor Nice is concentrating on leading those students to research the subject, he usually will not disturb them at the villa, but will choose to stay in the lighthouse and chat with Mr. Mermaid who has never left.

Mr. Mermaid still won't stay on the shore for too long, but with the air conditioner and humidifier, he obviously no longer feels uncomfortable due to the environment and temperature.This made Aigre very happy, and at the same time, he was more willing to prepare some meals with different tastes for Mr. Mermaid.

It's almost become a hobby of his.

After constant exploration and adjustment, Eigre also gradually learned some differences in the taste systems of mermaids and humans.For example, in terms of sweet and sour, Mr. Mermaid's taste buds are obviously much more sensitive than normal humans - he even feels that the kind of candy that children often eat in their mouths is completely sour.

Aside from the sour taste, Mr. Mermaid doesn't seem to have a sweet tooth either.Aigre tried to bake a few normal cakes in the oven in the lighthouse. He thought he did a good job, but Mr. Mermaid thought it was too sweet.

This made Eigre feel quite strange, but he also grasped Mr. Mermaid's preferred taste in the process.

As for whether Mr. Mermaid doesn't like sweet and sour food, or the whole mermaid clan can't accept sweet and sour food, we have to wait until the last time the mermaid lady brought her family to visit as promised.

Aigre didn't like making friends very much, but the impression that the mermaid lady gave him was as friendly as a high school girl who volunteered in the orphanage every weekend.Her personality is very lively and friendly, so Aigre didn't think it would be difficult to make friends with her.

Mr. Mermaid also once said that the girl's personality is very famous among the mermaid tribe, and she is also very likable.

In addition, Aigre is still learning the language of the mermaid tribe as quickly as possible.Although he still could only understand a few simple greetings, it was much better now than when he had to think carefully before he could figure out what Mr. Mermaid meant.At least when he heard the greeting from Mr. Mermaid, he didn't need to think too much before he could respond immediately.

It's only been more than a week, his learning ability is not weak, and there is still plenty of time to learn slowly in the future.

In addition, the few students who were conducting research with Professor Nice have also been quite peacefully guarding the west coast for exploration and data sampling. Nothing happened.

This surprised Eigre somewhat, but it was still reasonable under the supervision of Professor Nice.

He always felt that those guys wouldn't just be peaceful all the time.

After more than a week, Dusk Island is finally about to usher in a heavy rain this evening, which can be regarded as a period of respite for the dry and sultry weather.

Mr. Mermaid specially came to the lighthouse in the morning, taught Egre to learn and memorize those words and phrases as in the previous few days, and also brought him some seafood that can be made into delicious food.

Ever since he had tasted Aigre's craft, he was reluctant to continue eating those raw things in the sea.It seems like a good choice to use these meals provided by Aigre as tuition fees.

Since the rain would probably come before dusk, Mr. Mermaid didn't stay too long, lest someone would rush to the lighthouse to look for Aigle under such circumstances.After making an appointment to meet again at the end of the heavy rain, he returned to the sea.

After tidying up the living room, Egrele checked the various facilities of the lighthouse, and decided to take advantage of this time to go shopping in the market twice to buy some snacks that he might want to try at night.

By the way, he also wanted to go to the commercial street to see the price of a product that he had been considering for a long time.

As soon as he entered the market, Aigre heard the conversation between Mrs. Irene and the owner of the shop next door.

"...But it should be some mysterious sea creature, right? Didn't the old Mr. Payer often see it before? He even took a photo." Mrs. Irene said with a charming smile, "Of course it can't be anything Poseidon!"

"We're just guessing." The boss next door replied with a smile, and then greeted Eigre, "Hey! Aigre, don't you have to guard the lighthouse today? It will rain heavily in a while."

"Come out to buy some food, and I'll be back soon." Aigre first greeted them separately, and then turned around and asked, "Are you talking about something?"

"It seems that Mr. Pei saw a very beautiful creature when he went fishing two days ago." Mrs. Irene said, "At that time, there was fog on the sea, and the old man's eyesight was not very good, so we all thought he was Maybe I misread it, but I can't rule out the possibility that I really saw some mysterious creature!"

"From what he said, the creature he saw had hair and he was sure it was definitely a fish, but the shadow also looked like a woman," added the boss next door.

female?Aigre was stunned for a moment, the first thing he thought of was the mermaid girl who appeared some time ago.If it was really her that the old fisherman saw, it would be a little unsafe.

He felt a little worried, and asked at the same time: "When did Grandpa Pei see that creature?"

"It seems to be early in the morning." The boss next door said, "It was not completely cold at that time, and it is normal for the old man to be dazzled."

"Indeed." Aigre replied softly, and then changed the topic, "How are the dim sum at the market recently?"

"Oh! Speaking of which, Little Iger, you have to go and see a newly opened store at the market." Mrs. Irene immediately cheered up when she heard this question, "The cakes in that cake shop are delicious. Our family likes it very much. The pastry chef of that shop seems to be the son of the owner of the cake shop on the commercial street, and he has just returned to the island not long ago.”

"I'll take a look later." Aigre nodded and said, "Thank you."

After saying goodbye to the two shop owners, Aigre walked in the direction Mrs. Irene said. At the same time, he was also thinking about the topic they had just discussed, thinking about going to the beach to see if Mr. Mermaid was there before the heavy rain came. .If Mr. Mermaid didn't leave too far, I have to ask him to remind that girl to be careful when she appears near Twilight Island.

Before he had gone too far, he ran into Royce who had been helping Professor Nice with his busy schedule for the past few days.

"Hey, buddy!" Royce smiled and stepped forward to pat him on the shoulder, "I was just going to find you. Professor Nice doesn't have much to do today, and I just have time to go out for a walk. Are you Where are you going?"

"Go to town," said Aigre, "will you come with me?"

Royce nodded and agreed without thinking, "Okay, do you want to buy something? Or do you just want to go for a walk?"

Aigre was silent for a few seconds, and after walking a certain distance, he met Royce's slightly puzzled eyes and said, "I want to buy a boat."