After Raising a Beautiful Merman - Chapter 2

I found Lu Zhuo by the sea.

He had been stranded on the beach, more dead than alive.

Anyone else would have called the police and had him taken to an animal research center.

Only someone as kindhearted and fond of money as me would have saved him.

The ancients said that a life-saving debt should be repaid with one’s body.

I didn’t want his body. I only wanted his tears.

I swindled him out of his money, not his virtue.

You could say I was a model modern woman.

What did he have to complain about?

Besides, I wasn’t planning to keep him trapped forever.

Once I had saved enough money to retire, I would naturally let him go.

But a physical door alone couldn’t confine Lu Zhuo.

I had no choice but to employ a little verbal artistry.

“The world outside is full of humans. You’re the only monster. I’m the only one kind enough to keep you.”

“You’re covered in slimy scales. It’s disgusting. I’m the only one who doesn’t mind.”

The first time Lu Zhuo heard those words, his eyes held nothing but shock.

But after I repeated them enough times—and with the people outside the window indeed all walking on two legs—he gradually came to believe me.

He would even grow anxious and worried over the smallest gesture or expression from me.

At the right moment, I would hug him and offer soothing words.

Lu Zhuo would be so moved that he cried.

Then I would hand him a tissue.

“Don’t cry in front of me. If you need to cry, go back to your little basin. Save me from having to mop the floor.”

Lu Zhuo would nod obediently.

He even learned to collect the pearls he shed in my little metal box.

Anyone who had raised a dog knew that slaps alone weren’t enough.

Sometimes I gave him a little sweetness, too.

After he finished his chores, I would praise him verbally.

When Lu Zhuo broke into a delighted smile, I would add at the appropriate moment, “See how well I treat you? I even praise you. Who outside would ever praise a fish?”

And so Lu Zhuo became even more convinced that I was a good person.

Lu Zhuo had cooked dinner. It tasted thoroughly ordinary.

But it was cheap and nutritionally balanced, which was what mattered.

After eating, I replied to a few messages from parents and went to bed.

Lu Zhuo, however, remained where he was.

He had retreated into that little red basin to contemplate his fish life again.

The heat left me irritable all over, but I couldn’t bear to turn on the power-hungry air conditioner.

I called to him in a sharp tone. “Lu Zhuo, are you going to sleep or not?”

Within seconds, Lu Zhuo came hopping over.

Perhaps merfolk were built differently.

No matter how high the temperature outside climbed, his tail always felt faintly cool.

It saved me the cost of air-conditioning and helped me sleep.

So I usually had him sleep at the foot of the bed while I rested one hand on his tail to cool off.

But for some reason, Lu Zhuo was unusually restless that night.

One moment he rolled over; the next, he flicked his fins.

Every time I finally began to feel drowsy, he broke it.

At the end of my patience, I smacked his entire fishtail once with a flyswatter as a warning.

Only then did Lu Zhuo settle down, transforming into a salted fish glued to the pan, utterly motionless.

I sank into a deep sleep.

Beyond my sight, dense lines of text drifted through the air.

[This random extra has no manners at all. Where does she think she’s hitting him?!]

[Exactly! What if she breaks him? How’s the female lead supposed to use him then?]

[The male lead must be at the end of his rope, too. Look, his face is red with anger.]

[No kidding. Even his fists are clenched. Let that random extra keep courting disaster. Once he gets his memories back, he’ll definitely take revenge on her.]

[All I can say is that the random extra is playing at a whole other level. She’s manipulated the male lead so thoroughly that he doesn’t even dare leave the house. If only he’d go to the shore more often and spend more time around his own kind, his memories would return in no time.]