The Love-Hate and Grudges Between Me and the Mermaid - Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The statue was exquisitely crafted; one could clearly see the texture of the scales on the fish tail.

The tail was beautiful and slender, its massive fin hidden beneath the folds of a skirt, winding together across the ground.

It was a mermaid.

Bu Yan’s heart jolted, and she couldn’t help but grow tense.

Merfolk creatures that existed only in myths and were regarded as omens of misfortune—why were they suddenly being brought out to be served as a holy “God”?

“Sister, where are you?”

Just as Bu Yan lifted the statue to examine it closely, Yi An’s voice rang out from outside.

“In here.” Bu Yan set the statue down and hurriedly walked out.

For some reason, she didn’t want Yi An to see her holding the Xenogeneic God.

Hearing the other’s hurried footsteps, she quickly exited the room, bumping into something the moment she pushed the door open.

Blue and white intertwined, green and cyan alternating four colors flashed before her eyes.

Due to the interaction of force and the elasticity of the object, both of them took a step back after the collision.

Moving further away, Bu Yan saw the object clearly.

It was a bouquet of flowers.

Yi An was holding a bunch of Blue Shimmer roses.

“When did you go out?” Surprise outweighed alarm; Bu Yan froze for a moment before immediately reacting to ask.

Hearing this, Yi An also froze. She tilted her head and looked at Bu Yan with confusion.

The internet said that humans all like flowers, especially roses.

Roses symbolize pure and noble love. To win her wife’s favor, she had run a long way to buy them. Why was her wife using this kind of tone now that she had brought them back?

It was as if she wanted to eat her alive!

“Do you… not like roses?”

She blinked her eyes and asked in a small, pitiful voice.

“It’s not that,” perhaps realizing she had lost control too much, Bu Yan reined in her anger slightly, trying to make her voice as gentle as possible. “It’s because it’s dangerous outside. Don’t go out alone whenever you feel like it.”

From her earlier conversation with that police auntie, she had caught some deep-seated information about this world.

It still needed verification, so she didn’t dare speak plainly; she could only remain vigilant at all times.

Yi An: “Oh…”

She still didn’t quite understand. Why did humans always emphasize that the outside was dangerous?

On the contrary, she felt the outside was very comfortable and safe. The gray sky, the trash everywhere, the crawling insects all of it gave her a sense of belonging.

The thick scent of decay and the stench in the air fascinated her; she was hopelessly obsessed and couldn’t help but want more.

Everyone on the street prayed to the Xenogeneic God, hoping He could grant eternal life. They shared the same faith.

The outside was her home; the place without Bu Yan was her true destination.

But these were just thoughts. Yi An didn’t dare actually do it or have a falling out with Bu Yan.

She was a coward; she was terrified of death; she just wanted to live.

The marriage contract stated that to enter the human world, she could only survive by marrying “Bu Yan” and staying with “Bu Yan.”

She only had one life, and her margin for error was almost zero. She didn’t dare take risks.

If it weren’t for that book, 101 Ways to Coax Your Wife, which mentioned giving her small surprises and gifts from time to time, like flowers…

Flowers were fragile and couldn’t survive outside at all. If it weren’t for letting her wife see fresh, living flowers to achieve the so-called “surprise” mentioned in the book, she wouldn’t have been willing to rush home immediately after buying them.

“Mm-hmm.” Seeing her wife staring at her with a tense, angry gaze—as if wishing to burn, scold, or stab her to death, Yi An spinelessly echoed her agreement again. She pinched the corner of Bu Yan’s clothes and apologized, “I was wrong. I understand now, Sister. I promise I won’t dare do it again…”

But Yan remained silent. Yi An grew even more panicked and frustrated, two completely different emotions intertwining.

In her heart, she cursed that book and the phone thousands of times.

It was all their fault! If it weren’t for them, how could she have thought of buying flowers? Why would she have sneaked out!

It was all their fault!

But the next second, she heard a sentence: “Thank you.”

Yi An: “?”

She looked up blankly.

But Yan’s gaze remained unchanged, still fixed on the bouquet. “Thank you for buying me flowers. It was hard work, Yi An.”

Coming back to her senses, Yi An immediately held the flowers high as if to make up for her mistake. She offered them up with both hands, adding a cheesy line she had learned online: “Sister, I shaun (love) you~”

“I bought a bouquet today, guess what kind of flower?” Fearing Bu Yan’s anger hadn’t dissipated, Yi An quickly answered her own question. “The kind where I earn money to ‘spend’ (hua) it on my wife.” After speaking, she made a finger-heart with one hand.

Bu Yan’s reaching hand paused.

Yi An instantly realized something was wrong. With quick eyes and hands, she forced the flowers into Bu Yan’s arms, bowing to apologize. “Sorry, Sister, I was being long-winded. Please don’t be annoyed with me.”

Bu Yan: “…”

Under the blue and white wrapping paper, Bu Yan’s fingers tightened repeatedly. She desperately suppressed the urge to slap Yi An away and throw the flowers, forcing herself to find comfort.

These weren’t bought for her, they were for the original owner. She had no reason to throw away the original owner’s flowers… She continued to use this rhetoric to brainwash herself. It took a dozen seconds to recover from Yi An’s bizarre, toe-curlingly cringe-worthy speech.

Flashy and glib where on earth did she learn this?

In the afternoon, while Bu Yan organized materials to renovate the basement, she pondered. After assembling a flame-throwing machine gun according to a tutorial, she opened her phone for a surprise inspection.

Bu Yan: [Yi An, what are you doing?]

The other replied instantly: [Sister, I’m tidying up our home.]

[Image]

[Look, I just cleaned this place up (>_<). I haven’t been messing around on the internet!]

Like hell you haven’t!

If you weren’t, you wouldn’t have replied instantly!

Bu Yan was about to send a warning, but at the last moment, reason triumphed over emotion.

Why was she fixating on this?

Bu Yan scrolled through her phone and thought.

Using the internet allows one to receive a lot of information in a short time, and receiving and understanding external information is human nature, as is learning slang to follow the crowd. ①

Is it not because humans dare to accept new things and challenges that they have surpassed countless creatures to become high-level animals? 

The human brain is far more developed and complex than those of other animals. ③

Especially the people of this world.

Born on the eve of the apocalypse, they would naturally be much more open-minded.

Worshiping a “Xenogeneic God,” craving a non-existent “eternal life.”

Yi An just liked using internet memes; it wasn’t like she liked playing with bugs or trash, and her faith in the Xenogeneic God wasn’t that obsessive… What was there to control?

She wasn’t the original owner, nor was she Yi An’s real wife. Why manage so much?

She would do her best to let her live one more day at a time in the apocalypse; as long as she didn’t fail the original owner, it was enough.

As long as she’s alive, it’s fine…

She shouldn’t impose her own thoughts, those of someone who didn’t belong to this world upon her.

Thinking of this, the heavy stone in Bu Yan’s heart was finally set down.

She deleted the words in the dialogue box and replied with a cute kitten emoji. She stared blankly for a while at the room full of firearms, ammunition, steel pipes, paint, and high-voltage wires before continuing her work.

She had to be fast. Faster.

It felt like time was truly running out…

＊

Humans have been very busy lately.

Yi An sat before the statue of the Xenogeneic God, counting on her fingers: one day, two days, three days…

Since that day, she hadn’t seen Bu Yan for eight whole days.

They couldn’t talk together, couldn’t eat together, and couldn’t sleep together at night.

Every day, they only communicated via periods and question marks on WeChat.

Generally, Bu Yan would send a question mark, meaning “What are you doing?”

She would reply with a period, meaning “I didn’t go out, I’m staying in the room.”

It was truly too boring…

Collapsing onto the table in her loneliness, Yi An sighed repeatedly, muttering her grievances to the Xenogeneic God. “God, what should I do if my wife doesn’t believe in You?”

“What must I do to make her believe in You…”

“God, please forgive the ignorance of my wife, Bu Yan. I will greet You on her behalf and remain forever faithful and loyal to You.”

“Please bless my wife so she recovers soon, and guide her soul back home…”