Chapter 145: It’s Hard Being a Babysitter.
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
At first, there were only three people surrounding the small fish and studying it. Now, there were four of them in the living room. Vivian just joined them. After hearing about the little one's origins, she stared open-mouthed and asked, "Did this just hatch?"
"She did it." Hao Ren pointed to the innocent Lily, who was squatting on the sofa and scratching her face with her foot. He then lifted his arm to indicate that he was entangled with the little fish and said, "This little fish has completely taken me as her mother, somebody help me."
Vivian curiously reached over to touch the little mermaid's tail. The little mermaid was bolder. She did not dodge. However, when Vivian tried to get the little mermaid out of Hao Ren’s arms, the little mermaid resisted fiercely. She flapped her tail violently and hit the vampire’s hand without hesitation. This frightened Vivian.
"It's been like this since just now," Hao Ren said and sighed helplessly. "At the beginning, she was still willing to swim in the basin for a while. But after she got tired, she came to me and rested on my arm. You see, she completely won’t let go."
The little mermaid curled her tail slightly and sat on Hao Ren’s arm. She stared at the strange people around her with inquisitive eyes. She was a fingerling with great ability to adapt and feel the changes in the atmosphere around her. She was unusually nervous when she first arrived in a strange environment or met a stranger. But, as long as there was no danger in a certain period of time, the little mermaid became bolder. Now, she was completely unafraid of people and things around her. She was just looking around in amazement, wondering why other people did not have long tails.
The little one stayed quiet for a while but, as Hao Ren was trying to figure out a way to get her back into the basin again, she suddenly jumped away. She then hopped and flipped around on the coffee table afterwhich, she began to emit a loud cry, which was sharper and nastier than before.
"What’s wrong?" Hao Ren was suddenly confused. He stepped forward, trying to calm the little mermaid down but, that just made her more aggresive. Lily and the others were startled, and hurriedly came forward to help. Nonetheless, nobody had any experience in taking care of a little kid. All of a sudden, the living room was in chaos. The little mermaid got even more excited when she saw the scene. She shouted even louder to entice them. Nangong Wuyue thought the little one had probably been dehydrated for too long, and was feeling uncomfortable. So, she made a small water ball, attempting to get the mermaid wet. After that, she forcefully threw the little mermaid into the basin. However, it did not work, and she was almost bitten. Lily made faces and scratched the little mermaid’s tail, trying to make her happy. Instead, she scared the little mermaid. Finally, Vivian thought of something and asked, "Is she hungry?"
And it reminded everyone that newborns were very prone to feel hunger. However, Hao Ren as well as the other three half-baked guardians looked at each other for quite some time and realized there was a problem. "...What do mermaids eat?"
"Don’t look at me." Nangong Wuyue waved her hand and explained, "I'm a siren but also, a hybrid siren. I drank milk when I was little."
Lily asked without thinking, as usual, "Do you have any milk then?"
Everybody was speechless.
"Go and get everything in the fridge plus, whatever snacks you guys have. Let’s try them one by one." Being the ace guardian in the house, Hao Ren was stood on the sofa and gave instructions. "Take anything edible you have. This mermaid from a different world may want to eat something we have. Lily, put your molar stick back. Do you think such a tiny little thing can bite that?"
Everyone went back to their own rooms to find food. Hao Ren remembered that he had half a box of cookies in his room and ran back to get it. The little mermaid was probably really hungry at the moment. She was busy messing around on the coffee table, and no longer pestered Hao Ren. Seeing Hao Ren run away, she seemed to understand that he was going to find food for her. She just stared at him and watched him walk away but, she did not jump up and follow him.
Hao Ren rushed back to his room and found the half box of cookies on the desk, which he left two days before. However, when he ran back to the living room, he saw a scene that almost stopped his heart: a black and white cat was on the coffee table, curiously sniffing the little mermaid and the mermaid was ignorantly using her thin hand to poke the cat’s nose!
Hao Ren yelled, "Rollie!" He had not shouted so loudly for ages.
Hao Ren swore that, since the cat believed it was called "Rollie", he did not have to shout it out for such a long time.
When Rollie heard him shout, it immediately let go of the fish, which had already reached its mouth at this point. It ran excitedly to Hao Ren and rubbed itself against his feet. It thought that when its owner called so loudly, dinner was ready.
Hao Ren saw the fish baby prop herself up and move her tail to greet him. He was relieved and threw two pieces of biscuit to the cat. He then put the cookie box on the coffee table, pointed to the little mermaid and introduced her to Rollie. "Listen, this is our new tenant, you are strictly forbidden from eating her!!"
As mentioned before, Rollie was a spiritual cat. Over the years, it became familiar with Hao Ren's "work" and even understood what "tenant" meant. So usually, when Hao Ren introduced a new tenant, it would know that there would be a newcomer sharing in its kingdom in the big house. But this time, it just looked blank. The cat looked foolishly at the weird fish on the coffee table as if its understanding of life was massively impacted. It froze for quite some time and did not understand why its master decided to take a fish as a new tenant.
And more importantly, it was not allowed to eat the fish.
"Anyway, just remember that you can’t eat the fish." Hao Ren really did not know how to explain this to a cat. He did not know if his orders would work for a cat. He could only repeatedly stress it. "If you dare to eat her, I'll throw you to Bean Bun in the back alley."
Bean Bun was a dog in the back alley, plump and sturdy like a bean bun. Before Lily came to the street, it was the alpha dog of the entire Southern Suburbs and the only enemy, whom the lawless Rollie was truly afraid of. Although Bean Bun had since been relegated to the second tier, and became a local separatist in the Southern Suburbs' dog kingdom (the new alpha dog was Lily), Bean Bun was still powerful. Every creature with four legs was afraid of it when it walked the streets. When Hao Ren said this, Rollie finally accepted it. It lowered its head and mumbled; licked its paws and pretended it did not know a thing. It was its own way of saying, "You're the boss".
Clever readers would have probably discovered that there is a counteractive relationship between Lily, Rollie, and Bean Bun: Lily was scared of Rollie, Bean Bun was scared of Lily, and Rollie was scared of Bean Bun. It seemed to be a sad story to anyone.
At this time, Lily and the rest also came out of their rooms with a variety of snacks. The three of them heard Hao Ren shouting earlier on. When they saw Rollie in the living room, they could certainly guess what had happened. Vivian gulped and said, "Phew, we almost forgot there’s a cat at home!"
"Be more careful next time, this is too dangerous." Hao Ren was still in a state of shock. He looked at Nangong Wuyue and asked, "When will the mermaid grow up? She's not gonna be like this forever, is she?"
"How many times do I have to tell you, I'm a siren! And I’m viviparous!" Nangong Wuyue could not take it anymore. "It'd be even better for you to bring Hans Christian Andersen back from the dead and ask him than ask me!"
A variety of food was quickly placed in front of the little mermaid. There were all kinds of food. Hao Ren’s half a box of biscuits was the most plain. Nangong Wuyue had squid strips, dried squid, salted fish and other seafood. Although Vivian was poor, she now lived a worry-free life with Hao Ren’s help. She took out some of her handmade snacks. The snacks Lily took out were the most delicious: prawn strips, crispy candied fritters, spicy strips, shrimp crackers, popcorn, and even a pack of kibble...
"Aha... Just wanted to try." Embarrassed, Lily kept the kibble and explained, "But, they really taste good."
Everybody put their snacks in front of the little mermaid. She was immediately dazzled by this big pile of colorful packaging and small dishes. She looked at these mysterious and weird-smelling items with astonishment. She did not expect them to bring her so many things after she made a little noise. However, it was exactly what Hao Ren was afraid of, the little mermaid from a different world did not seem to eat conventional human food...
The little mermaid grabbed a cookie, bit it and spat it out. She then grabbed the spicy bar, smelled it and threw it away in fear. Then, she held the chocolate bean and looked at it for quite some time and thought it was not edible. At last, just when everyone was about to give up, the little mermaid finally found something it was interested in: she came to a plate of tiny snacks prepared by Vivian, sniffed and flapped her tail happily. And then…
She happily ate the chopsticks on the plate.
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