Chapter 20 I bought some small things that can be used in the water...
"You didn't miss me after just one night apart, did you?"
"Perhaps..."
Luo Qingyan never expected such a conversation to occur between her and the little male merman. She didn't think he was flirting with her, but rather sensed sincerity in his words, which left her unsure how to respond.
Keep joking; the other person is being sincere. Respond sincerely, but what should you respond to?
"The takeout should have arrived. I'll go get it," Luo Qingyan said, standing up.
Actually, she had specified in the order notes that the delivery person shouldn't knock and should just leave the food at the door, because she was worried that the delivery would arrive before her and the doorbell would scare her little merman. But at the moment, she couldn't be bothered to care, since she was home anyway.
As long as you don't encounter any particularly strange people, you'll be fine.
After opening the door, the delivery person handed her the food and left quickly, without anything unusual. It's likely that there were many orders at lunchtime, and the delivery person was too busy to notice the note.
After receiving the takeout and returning to the bathroom, Luo Qingyan appeared perfectly normal.
"We'll open the delivery later, let's have lunch first!" She put the takeout box on the cabinet by the wall, then picked up a small table and placed it on the bathtub. "We're having pizza today, with margaritas and ham."
"I know pizza," the little merman said expectantly. "It's a big, round slice that you divide into several pieces to eat."
“That’s right.” After setting up the small table, Luo Qingyan first took a box of pizza, placed it on the table, and opened it. “This time it’s Italian style, we’ll have American style next time.”
"Okay." The little merman's gaze fell on the pizza, carefully examining every ingredient on it. "It smells so good!"
"This is a Margherita, a classic Italian pizza. The combination of tomatoes, cheese, and basil creates a unique aroma. Come on, have a taste."
"Hmm." The little merman took the pizza, took a bite, and was surprised to find that the pizza was stretchy with cheese. He quickly opened his mouth again and ate the stretchy cheese as well, one bite after another. He was a little flustered as it was his first time eating a meal.
"The stretchy cheese is a hallmark of pizza." Luo Qingyan watched the adorable little male merman while picking up a slice of pizza to eat himself.
The little merman was overjoyed to finally get a complete bite of pizza, and then savored it carefully: "The refreshing sweet and sour sauce flows in the thick, savory sauce, and then mixes with the crispy crust, it's so delicious!"
"Mmm, it's really delicious." Luo Qingyan swallowed the pizza in her mouth, quite satisfied. But when she was about to take her second bite, she suddenly paused. "I've been eating too much of this kind of high-calorie food lately. It's a carb explosion. I'm definitely going to gain weight."
"You look unhappy." The little merman stared at Luo Qingyan. "Aren't you happy eating delicious food?"
"It's fun to eat, but the price is that you'll gain weight afterwards, which makes you unhappy!"
"You don't like gaining weight?"
"Of course! Being fat doesn't look good, and you can't wear a lot of pretty clothes."
"But you're very thin and beautiful, and you'll still be beautiful even if you gain weight."
"Don't praise me like that, your sweet talk is too much, I can't help but laugh." Luo Qingyan couldn't hide the smile on her face. "You've never seen me when I was fat, you just start praising me like that! That's not how you praise someone, it's not sincere."
“I’m serious,” the little male merman said earnestly. “What you call beautiful or not beautiful are all imposed by human society, and these standards change. For example, in the past, it was said that women were beautiful if they had small feet; in the Tang Dynasty, plump women were considered more attractive; and in the Wei and Jin Dynasties, men admired feminine beauty. Even now, some tribes think that long necks and large earlobes are beautiful. And human skin colors naturally vary, yet people still like to pursue colors that are different from their own. It’s really unpredictable, so don’t painfully limit yourself because of external frameworks.”
"Yes, you're right. That makes sense, but living in this society, it's hard for humans to be completely unaffected by external influences. Being detached from worldly affairs is a state of mind, and very few people can achieve it."
"Knowing this is much better than not knowing it!"
"Hmm." Luo Qingyan nodded, then shook his head, "Actually, being too fat can easily lead to illness and is unhealthy."
Being too thin makes you more susceptible to illness and is not healthy.
Luo Qingyan chuckled: "Right, right, right. Sigh! Everyone has their own ideas, just follow your heart and be as comfortable and happy as possible! Hey! Are there any fat mermaids? Mermaids swim in the sea all day, their whole bodies are in motion, it's hard for them to get fat, right?"
The little male merman smiled and said, "Haven't you ever seen a fat fish? Humans like to eat plump fish, don't they?"
“I think I’ve seen it before.” Luo Qingyan recalled the chubby fish he had seen online. “But those seem to be ornamental fish, caused by humans feeding them too much. The fish tanks are too small, the fish can’t move around, and they don’t have any natural predators.”
"There are fat fish in the sea. They like to eat but don't like to move, so they get fat. But it's okay to be fat, at least they won't have the... appearance anxiety that humans have."
"You even know the term 'appearance anxiety'!" Luo Qingyan looked at the little merman's handsome face and well-defined muscles, and didn't hold back her praise. "Even if you came to the human world, you wouldn't have appearance anxiety. You conform to most humans' aesthetic standards from head to toe. Just like in TV dramas, even your hair is beautiful. Hey! Is it because mermen spend all their time in the sea that their hair is so smooth? If you stay on land for a while, will your hair quality get worse?"
"this……"
"Also, you've been eating a lot of high-calorie foods lately, but you've only been staying in the bathtub and haven't been swimming. Won't you gain weight?"
"Well..." The little merman frowned slightly, then suddenly smiled, "Do you think I'd look bad if I got fat?"
Luo Qingyan seemed quite interested in this question. She carefully observed the little male merman's face: "If you were chubby... you'd be very cute, right?"
Why is being chubby considered cute, while being thin is considered pretty? Although both words are positive, there is a difference. Can't being chubby be considered pretty, and being thin be considered cute?
Speaking of health, she's no longer healthy, so she should enjoy life even more. However, these words weren't appropriate to be spoken in such a warm atmosphere. She felt a moment of disappointment, then continued eating her pizza, using food to mask her emotions: "Let's eat pizza! It won't taste good cold."
"Hmm." The little merman also realized what was going on, but since Luo Qingyan didn't want to mention it, he naturally didn't either, and silently ate his pizza with his head down.
-
After lunch, Luo Qingyan started unpacking packages and bought things she thought the little male merman would like.
Life should be lived happily!
"I was worried you'd get bored in the water, so I bought you some little toys." Luo Qingyan opened the first package and took out a small yellow thing. "Look! A little yellow duck!"
The little male merman stared at the little yellow duck, blinked, and looked puzzled, unsure of what expression to make.
"Oh, this is a bath toy." Luo Qingyan said as she unwrapped the transparent packaging bag and placed the little yellow duck into the bathtub. "It can float and swim on the water, isn't it cute?"
The little merman paused for a moment, then nodded vigorously: "Yes, cute."
"Hmm..." Luo Qingyan sensed that the little male merman didn't particularly like it, so she picked up the little yellow duck from the water and squeezed it. "It can even make a sound."
The little yellow duck in front of him suddenly cried out, and the little male merman's body trembled.
“Uh… if you don’t like the little yellow duck, there are other things.” Luo Qingyan put the little yellow duck back into the bathtub and made it float away, then continued to take things out of the package. “There are also little frogs, little dinosaurs, little turtles, little dolphins, little hippos, little tigers, little unicorns, little crabs, little seals, clownfish, little… little elephants.”
The toys, still in their packaging, were arranged one by one along the edge of the bathtub, colorful and adorable.
The little merman stared at the long row of toys in front of him, his eyes unable to take it all in.
"Isn't there anything you like?" Luo Qingyan observed the little merman's expression. "Hey, don't think it's childish! You say that beauty and ugliness are assigned by human society, but playing with toys is childish is a prejudice. No matter how old you are, you can play with toys, as long as you're happy!"
"Yes, as long as you're happy." The little merman's eyes crinkled. "I like it, it's very cute, but I've never seen it before, so... I was curious and looked at it a bit more. Heh, some of the little animals here can't stay in the water."
“Hey! But they all need to take a bath, or rather… they can all play in the water!” Luo Qingyan smiled. “Putting them all in the bathtub would be a bit noisy. You can choose a few to disassemble first, and the rest can be disassembled in a few days.”
"Okay." The little merman carefully selected the small toys placed on the edge of the bathtub, looking at each one with a serious expression.
“There’s something different from these little animals!” Luo Qingyan opened another package, took out a small paper bag, and inside the bag was a small blue ball. “I originally wanted to buy an aromatherapy lamp, but I thought that you like to let the room air out for a while after every meal, so I figured you’re too sensitive to smells and that aromatherapy isn’t suitable for you. So, I bought a bath bomb.”
"A bath bomb?" The little male merman looked at the small ball in Luo Qingyan's hand and noticed that in addition to blue, the ball also came in yellow, red, green, purple, and shimmering colors, making it very beautiful.
"It's like putting flower petals in the bath water; it smells nice, looks pretty, and moisturizes the skin," Luo Qingyan explained. "The bath bomb extracts various essential oils directly, blends them together, and is easy to store. You can just put one in the water whenever you want to use it. Do you have any allergies? Things you can't touch? I'll check the ingredient list."
"Things that can't be touched... but things that humans can touch, I can touch too, right?"
"That's good! By the way, after you put the bath bomb in the water, the water will change color and there will be some sparkly things. If your purifying ability can't remove these, we'll just change the water."
"good."
Then, Luo Qingyan put the bath bomb into the bathtub.
The bath bomb tumbled and bubbled as soon as it hit the water, spreading out a deep, ocean-blue hue. At that moment, it didn't seem particularly beautiful; it was just clear water with a bit more color.
Soon the ball completely melted in the water, as if a paint palette had been overturned, with various colors floating on the surface, creating a vibrant, multicolored spectacle, like the Milky Way.
"So beautiful, like a painting." The little male merman smiled and moved his tail.
"This isn't the final state yet, move it around a bit more." Luo Qingyan was happy to see that the little male merman liked it. "Move your tail and hands to push the color of the water surface apart."
"Okay." The little male merman obediently did as Luo Qingyan said. He moved his tail rather slightly, since his tail was large and the bathtub was small. He used his hands more to disperse the colors on the surface of the water. As he moved, the colors on the surface of the water gradually disappeared, revealing a crystal-clear blue underneath full of fine shimmer, like a dream.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Luo Qingyan caught the surprise in the little merman's eyes.
"Yes, it's beautiful." The little merman lowered his eyes and stared at the water's surface, his long eyelashes trembling slightly. "It's like the starry sky, and it's also like the sea."
Luo Qingyan immediately sensed other emotions. After a moment's thought, she felt that some emotions didn't need to be avoided. She shrugged slightly and asked, "Are you... homesick?"
The little merman looked up and said, "Mm."
"Then get well soon, and you can go back to the ocean once you've recovered," Luo Qingyan said gently. "A small bathtub can't compare to the vast ocean. The ocean is so beautiful, isn't it? Especially for mermaids, it's better than the entire landmass."
"The sea is indeed very beautiful, and I miss it very much." The little merman gently swayed his hand in the water. "But... this place is also very nice."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
