Chapter 5 What kind of light do you use at home? It's so bright! ...

The moment the power went out, Luo Qingyan had the urge to curse out loud.

Just as she made up her mind and rekindled her hope, everything around her suddenly went dark, as if God was telling her "impossible".

Deep down, she wasn't very confident; true love was such a rare thing. The little male merman had said that mermaids' true love was quite different from what humans understood, and besides, her time was running out. To make a mermaid she barely knew fall in love with her within three or four months, and for them to truly love each other, sounded like a fairy tale, but she lived in reality.

The darkness felt like a bucket of cold water had been poured over her, and she was quite unhappy about it!

Suppressing her anger, she knew this wasn't the time to be mad; there was a sulking little male merman in the bathroom! Not knowing if the little merman was afraid of the dark, she quickly turned on her phone's flashlight and ran to the bathroom to check on him.

-

The moment Luo Qingyan opened the bathroom door, all her worries vanished.

The bathroom was filled with a breathtaking view of a starry sky and a vast ocean.

The little male merman's tail could actually glow, sparkling in the dark! It wasn't a glaring light, but a soft, ethereal glow like that of a luminous pearl, accompanied by twinkling stars, like the Milky Way in the universe, like the aurora borealis in the sky, like the blue tears of the sea—it was incredibly beautiful.

The gleam on its tail made the rippling water sparkle, filling the bathroom with a dreamlike glow.

"So beautiful!" Luo Qingyan exclaimed, walking over to the little male merman. "Mermaids' tails can glow? So you're not afraid of the dark underwater! How amazing, how romantic!"

Hearing the praise, the little male merman felt a little proud and moved his tail: "It's controllable."

As the fish's tail swayed, a faint glow shifted. Upon closer inspection, its scales shimmered like jewels.

“No wonder mermaids are afraid of humans, or rather, they don’t like humans.” Luo Qingyan stared at the fish tail in a daze, blinked, and then looked at the little male mermaid’s face. “Being so handsome, even a 3D model couldn’t create someone like you. It’s no wonder you attract jealousy. Your tail is so shiny, isn’t that the kind of gem that humans covet? And having a way to cure cancer will surely make people flock to you. Besides these, there must be other amazing abilities that humans envy to death. It’s a good thing mermaids are amazing, otherwise… they would be extinct.”

Faced with the praise, the little male merman no longer blushed. He met Luo Qingyan's gaze and said, "Each species has different characteristics, but humans... are too greedy. Of course, not all humans, but most of them. Human nature is complex."

Looking at the little merman's delicate face, full of seriousness, Luo Qingyan found him incredibly cute. She leaned forward and said, "I'm liking you more and more; I might really fall in love with you. But you, how can I make you fall in love with me?"

The little male merman tried to face Luo Qingyan, but Luo Qingyan's gaze was too intense for him, so he eventually avoided it, turning his head to look at the wall, chin up, looking arrogant.

Just then, Luo Qingyan's cell phone rang.

"The takeout is here, I'll go get it." Luo Qingyan said with a smile as she left the bathroom.

-

It was dark outside because of the power outage.

Luo Qingyan didn't have time to grab a spare light, so she continued to use her phone's flashlight for illumination. It was dark and the light source was limited, so she first called out to the delivery driver that she was out, then carefully and slowly walked away.

The delivery driver didn't turn off the lights on his electric scooter, and since it was bright outside, the delivery handover went very smoothly.

After picking up her takeout, Luo Qingyan was about to go home when her neighbor called out to her from afar.

"Qingyan, what kind of light do you use? It's so bright!" The neighbor aunt said, holding a flashlight in one hand and a half-eaten apple in the other. "My Youyou says your light is sparkly and very pretty!"

Luo Qingyan paused for a moment before realizing it was the little male merman with the glowing tail in the bathroom. She guessed the light was coming from the bathroom window, which had frosted glass and was usually left open with blinds. She smiled slightly, "Oh, it's a crystal ball lamp. Is it very bright? It's alright at home."

"Where did you buy it? Do you have a link? My Youyou likes it, I'll buy one for her too." The neighbor aunt hurried up to Luo Qingyan, followed by a five or six-year-old girl, Youyou.

"Auntie, your lamp looks like the lamp of an ice fairy, it's so beautiful." The little girl peeked out shyly from behind the adults, and it was clear that she really liked Luo Qingyan's lamp, which was why she mustered up the courage to speak.

"Oh dear, you should call her 'sister'!" The neighbor lady bent down and stepped aside, trying to push the little girl behind her out. "Don't hide, be natural!"

“Her mother is only two years older than me, so I should call her Auntie.” Luo Qingyan smiled while quickly thinking of an excuse. “That lamp… I think I bought it when I went on a trip. I forgot where I bought it. You can search for crystal ball lamps online. Uh… I have something to do, so I’ll head back first. Bye!”

"Oh, okay, I'll go check it out online." The neighbor waved the apple in her hand. "A crystal ball lamp, right?"

"Yes!" Luo Qingyan nodded as she backed away towards her home, afraid that the other person might want to come to her house to see the lights.

"Okay, thanks!"

"You're welcome!"

-

After saying goodbye to her neighbor and the children, Luo Qingyan returned to her house, placed the takeout and her phone on the dining table, and then went out again. After confirming that no one was outside by using light and sound, she quietly left the house.

She wanted to go to the side to see what the light coming from the bathroom looked like and how bright it was.

Upon closer inspection, wow! It was truly bright, standing out conspicuously in the darkness. She even suspected that the little male merman had deliberately made the light on his tail brighter after she left the bathroom, and then danced around in the bathroom.

She hurried home and went back to the bathroom.

-

"Xiaomei, you can control the light on your fishtail, right? Make it dimmer, the dimmer the better, people outside can see it." Luo Qingyan put the takeout she was carrying on the sink after entering the bathroom, and then went to close the blinds.

"Just because humans like it...aren't you afraid of attracting other people?" After closing the blinds, Luo Qingyan went to get the takeout from the sink. Chestnut, smelling the aroma, kept fluttering at her feet. She stretched out her leg to block it. "Chestnut, you can't eat it."

"Why can't we eat chestnuts?" the little merman asked curiously, blinking his eyes.

"Many human foods are unsuitable for dogs. Barbecue is high in oil and salt, which can easily cause inflammation in dogs," Luo Qingyan explained as she opened the takeout packaging. "And things like raisins and chocolate are practically poison. Just like not everything in the sea is edible; most jellyfish are poisonous, so you certainly wouldn't eat them, right?"

"Understood." The little merman nodded, his attention already drawn to the barbecue.

"Let me go get another stool to use as a table." Luo Qingyan could see the little merman's anticipation, but she couldn't let her hold the takeout bag forever. She put the takeout bag on the chair the little merman was sitting on and turned to go get a stool.

Chestnut didn't run after Luo Qingyan. Instead, it stayed by the chair, lunging towards it with its front legs and standing up on its two hind legs to get as close as possible to the food on the chair, sniffing incessantly.

"Chestnut, you can't eat it." The little merman leaned against the edge of the bathtub and spoke softly to Chestnut.

Chestnut only had eyes for food; it couldn't see or hear anything else. It stretched out one of its front legs to pry open the takeout bag.

“I know you have a sensitive nose, and food must smell incredibly delicious in front of you. I can tell.” The little merman reached out and stroked Chestnut’s head. “But you really can’t eat it. Barbecue is bad for your health.”

Chestnut stopped jumping and first nudged the little male merman's hand with its head, then tilted its head back and stuck out its tongue to lick it.

Luo Qingyan, who had taken a stool back to the bathroom, saw this heartwarming scene as soon as she entered: "Chestnut seems to really like you. Come to think of it, it's the one who picked you up. Hey, were you the one who actively tried to attract it?"

The little merman paused in stroking the chestnut, then lowered his eyes and continued stroking it: "I wouldn't say that..."

Luo Qingyan now knew that if the little merman was vague, she should just listen. He was injured and insecure, and had many secrets; asking more questions would be useless. She picked up the takeout bag from the chair, sat down, and opened it: "Try the pork belly first; it looks pretty good."

The aroma bursts out the moment the foil wrapping the barbecue is opened.

The little merman took a skewer of pork belly, took a bite, and his eyes almost turned into stars: "Delicious! The outside is crispy, and the inside is tender and juicy. It feels like it can melt in your mouth."

“Your description…” Luo Qingyan placed the opened takeout bag on the stool next to him. “Luckily, Chestnut doesn’t understand, otherwise it would be drooling with envy.”

"Why aren't you eating?" The little merman waved the barbecue in his hand. "It's so delicious!"

The barbecue smelled delicious, and Luo Qingyan wanted to eat it, but the surrounding environment... Although the bathroom had partitions, it was still in the toilet, and she lost her appetite just thinking about it: "I... am not hungry. I ate a lot outside for dinner. You eat."

What did you have for dinner?

"We ate Western food, like steak. If you find a suitable Western restaurant that delivers, I'll let you try it sometime. Now, have some grilled beef!" Luo Qingyan took a skewer of beef from the takeout bag and handed it to the little merman. Suddenly, she remembered something very important. "By the way, do mermen have any dietary restrictions? I remember you said that mermen should be able to eat human food, but there are differences between mermen and humans, right? Are there any foods that mermen can't eat?"

The little merman took the beef skewer: "There shouldn't be anything I can't eat... as long as I don't try dangerous foods."

“Mermaids are really amazing. There’s a difference between seawater and freshwater, and you can survive in freshwater too. Hey! You can…” Luo Qingyan suddenly remembered that in literary works, mermaids’ tails could turn into legs. She wanted to ask the little male mermaid if he could, but her phone rang suddenly, interrupting her.

"I'm going to take this call. You can choose whatever you like to eat!" She reached out and moved the takeout bag, turning the opening towards the little merman, then got up and left.

When she picked up her phone from the dining table, she found that the caller ID was an unfamiliar number.