Chapter 128 Fish Food

In the living room, the original trio huddled around studying the little mermaid had now become a quartet: Vivian had just joined them, and after hearing about the little thing's origins, she was dumbstruck: "It hatched just now?"

"She cooked it," Hao Ren said, pointing to Lily, who looked completely innocent as she squatted on the sofa, scratching her face with her toes. He raised his arm to indicate that he was being clung to by a certain little one. "This thing has completely taken me as her mom. Can any of you think of a solution?"

Vivian curiously reached out to touch the little mermaid's tail. The latter had already become bolder, not flinching at all. But when Vivian tried to snatch the little thing from Hao Ren's arms, she met with fierce resistance. The tail swung around with a crackling sound, hitting the ten-thousand-year-old vampire's hand without hesitation, scaring Vivian.

"It's been like this since just now," Hao Ren said, helplessly twitching his lips. "At first, she was willing to swim in the basin for a while, but after getting tired, she came to lie here with me. Look, she won't let go at all."

The little mermaid curled her tail slightly and nestled in the crook of Hao Ren's arm, her big, curious eyes examining the unfamiliar people around her. She was a very adaptable cub and could sense changes in the surrounding atmosphere. When she first arrived in an unfamiliar environment or met strangers, she seemed unusually nervous, but as long as she didn't encounter danger within a short period of time, the little thing's courage would grow very quickly. Now, she was no longer afraid of the people and things around her, just looking around in wonder, seemingly curious as to why the others didn't have tails.

The little one stayed put for a while, but just as Hao Ren was trying to figure out how to get her to return obediently to the basin, she suddenly jumped out on her own and hopped around on the coffee table with a pattering sound, beginning to emit a cry that was sharper than before, but still chaotic and indistinguishable.

"What's wrong? What's wrong?" Hao Ren was immediately thrown into a flurry of panic. He stepped forward to try to calm the little thing down, but only managed to make her even more agitated. Lily and the others were also startled and quickly stepped forward to help, but none of them had any experience caring for children, and the living room was immediately thrown into chaos. Seeing the excitement around her, the little thing became even more excited, as if to demonstrate her power of attraction, shouting even louder. Nangong Wuyue thought that the little one was uncomfortable from being dehydrated for too long, so she conjured a small water ball and swept it over the mermaid's body. Later, she simply forced the little thing into the water basin, but that didn't work either, and she was almost bitten. Lily, on the other hand, was making funny faces and scratching the little mermaid's tail to try to make her happy, but instead scared the little thing half to death. Finally, Vivian reacted: "Could she be hungry?"

A single sentence reminded everyone, and they realized that newborn cubs are the most easily hungry. However, Hao Ren and the other three half-baked guardians looked at each other for a long time, realizing there was a problem: "...What do mermaids eat?"

"Don't look at me," Nangong Wuyue waved her hand. "I'm a siren, and a half-blooded siren at that. I drank milk when I was little."

Lily's brain twitched as usual: "Then do you have any milk?"

Everyone: "..."

"Go to the refrigerator and get a little of everything to eat, and whoever has snacks or anything like that in their room, bring them out and try them one by one," Hao Ren exerted his authority as the ace guardian, standing on the sofa and gesturing grandly. "Also, bring out anything else that looks like it can be eaten. Who knows what this mermaid from another world will eat. Lily, put your teething stick back. Do you think such a small thing can bite that thing?"

Everyone scattered and went back to their rooms to find food. Hao Ren thought for a moment, remembering that he also had half a box of cookies in his room, so he ran back to get them. The little mermaid seemed to be really hungry at this point, busily flopping around on the coffee table and no longer clinging to him. Seeing Hao Ren running away, she seemed to understand that he was going to find food for her, just widening her eyes and watching him go, but not hopping along.

Hao Ren rushed back to his room and found the half-box of cookies left over from the day before on his desk, but when he ran back to the living room, he saw a scene that almost stopped his heart: a black and white cat was curiously sniffing the little mermaid on the coffee table, and the latter was ignorantly poking the cat's nose with her toothpick-like arms and hands!

Hao Ren roared with a volume he hadn't used in a long time: "Get out!"

Heaven can testify that Hao Ren hadn't shouted that word so loudly in a long time, not since this cat thought its name was "Get Out".

"Get Out" heard the shout and immediately released the fish that was already at its mouth, excitedly running to Hao Ren's feet and rubbing against him: it thought its master was shouting so loudly because it was time to eat.

Hao Ren saw that the fish-baby in the distance was still spiritedly propping herself up and waving her tail at him, and only then did he breathe a sigh of relief. He casually took out two cookies and threw them to the cat, put the cookie box on the coffee table, and then pointed at the little mermaid and introduced her to "Get Out": "Listen, this is our new tenant, strictly forbidden to eat her!!"

As mentioned earlier, "Get Out" was intelligent, and over the years it had become very familiar with Hao Ren's "work", even understanding what the words "tenant" meant. So in the past, as long as Hao Ren introduced someone, it would know that there would be someone new coming to share its kingdom in this big house. But this time, it showed a sluggish look. The cat stared blankly at the strange-looking fish on the coffee table, its face showing an expression as if its worldview had been shattered. It stared for a long time, unable to understand why its master had decided to take in a fish as a new tenant.

And more importantly—it wasn't allowed to eat it.

"Anyway, just remember that this fish can't be eaten," Hao Ren really didn't know how to explain something that could shatter a person's worldview to a cat, let alone whether his orders would be effective on a cat, so he could only emphasize again and again, "If you dare to eat her, I'll throw you to Doubao in the back street."

Doubao was a fierce dog in the back street, fat and strong like a steamed bun. Before Lily came to this street, it was the king of all the dogs in the southern suburbs, and also the only enemy that the lawless "Get Out" was truly afraid of. Although Doubao had now retreated to the second line in the southern suburb dog kingdom and become a local separatist (the new dog king was Lily), its remaining prestige was still there, and every four-legged creature on this street was afraid of it. Hearing Hao Ren's words, "Get Out" finally had no more objections. It lowered its head and purred, licking its paws as if it didn't know anything: this was its euphemistic way of expressing "you're the boss".

Presumably, smart readers have already discovered that there is actually a diagram of mutual generation and mutual restraint above: Get Out restrains Lily, Lily restrains Doubao, Doubao restrains Get Out—this seems to be a sad story for everyone involved.

At this time, Lily and the others also came out of the room with all kinds of snacks. The three of them had heard Hao Ren's shout earlier, so when they saw "Get Out" in the living room, they could of course guess what had happened. Vivian took a breath: "Thank goodness, I almost forgot we had a cat!"

"Be careful in the future, this is too dangerous," Hao Ren said with lingering fear. He looked at Nangong Wuyue, "Speaking of which, when will the mermaid grow up? She can't be this long forever, right?"

"How many times do I have to say it, I'm a siren! And I'm born alive!" Nangong Wuyue was almost driven crazy by this question. "You'd be better off summoning Andersen than asking me!"

A variety of foods were quickly placed in front of the little mermaid, all sorts of things. Hao Ren's half-box of cookies was still the most simple. Nangong Wuyue brought seafood such as shredded squid, dried squid, and salted fish slices. Vivian, although poor, was now living a life of plenty thanks to Hao Ren, and she brought some small snacks that she usually made herself. Lily brought the most lavish snacks: shrimp sticks, rice crusts, sachima, spicy strips, shrimp chips, popcorn, and even a bag of dog food...

"Ah haha... I just wanted to try," Lily said embarrassedly as she put away the dog food. "But to be honest, the taste is not bad."

Everyone unwrapped the snacks and placed them in front of the little mermaid. The latter was immediately dazzled by this pile of colorful packaging bags and small plates. She looked at these mysterious substances that emitted various strange smells with surprise, seemingly never expecting that her fuss would bring so many things. But as Hao Ren had feared: the mermaid from another world didn't seem to eat human's regular food...

The little mermaid grabbed a small cookie, took two bites and spat it out, grabbed a spicy strip, smelled it and threw it aside in fear, held chocolate beans for a long time, seeming to think that this could not be eaten, and finally, when everyone was about to give up, the little thing finally discovered something she was interested in: she came to a plate of small snacks that Vivian had brought out, smelled it, and happily clapped her tail, and then...

Happily ate the chopsticks.