Chapter 17 The Little Imp Sticking Like Glue

Hao Ren basically didn't close his eyes all night.

After the little mermaid was full, she completely clung to him, impossible to shake off or put down. Don't let her half-foot length fool you; the little fellow's arms, as thin as chopsticks, had a surprisingly firm grip. And frankly, Hao Ren didn't dare use force to pry Dou Dou off his arm, afraid of hurting the seemingly frail little one. But just enduring it wasn't a solution either!

The next morning, Hao Ren appeared before everyone with dark circles under his eyes. Dou Dou was still hanging on his arm, looking like an armband from afar. Because the little thing refused to let go, Hao Ren hadn't even changed clothes the day before, lying down for the night fully dressed. On top of that, he was afraid of crushing the little one in his sleep, so he only got two or three hours of sleep, naturally yawning incessantly.

Lily was packing things, seemingly preparing to go to work (those dogs in the back alleys needed vaccinations). Seeing Hao Ren's appearance, she immediately exclaimed in surprise, "Wow! Landlord, you let her hang on you all night?"

"What else could I do?" Hao Ren raised his arm. "She was fine before I fed her yesterday, but how did she become so clingy afterwards? She doesn't even want to go near the water basin."

When the little mermaid first hatched, she wasn't this clingy. Hao Ren remembered that he could easily transfer her to the water basin, and she would even jump out of the water to wander around like an explorer. But as time passed, Dou Dou's clinginess increased abnormally. Now, hanging on his arm all night had clearly reached some kind of extreme. She refused to go to the water basin, refused to move on her own, and even refused to let go—even though the little one could stay by herself for a while yesterday when Hao Ren went to the room to get her something to eat.

Nangong Wuyue also felt that Dou Dou's situation was not quite right. She stepped forward and carefully put her finger in front of the little one's eyes. The latter cleverly stared at the finger, turning her head back and forth, her tail flapping happily. But other than that, she still refused to let go, and didn't pounce curiously at new things like she did yesterday.

"She's energetic, and her body should be fine," Nangong Wuyue gently stroked the little mermaid's smooth scales. "It should be a psychological issue… She seems confused about her surroundings, so she's found something familiar to hold onto."

"Confused?" Hao Ren was a little surprised. "Confused about what?"

"First, this environment isn't the seabed after all. The little one must feel that something is strange around her," Nangong Wuyue analyzed. "Judging from how quickly this child has grown since hatching, the intelligence of this mermaid race's young is quite high. And they can judge their surroundings from birth. She probably gradually realized that this place is not suitable for survival… Well, not unsuitable for survival, but it doesn't match the environmental characteristics recorded in her inherited memories. Second, and most importantly: she can't communicate with us. As I said before, Dou Dou is quite smart, with a very high IQ from the moment she hatched. I guess the young of this race should be able to communicate to some extent with other adults from birth, but we can't even understand her gurgling, and she doesn't know what we're doing."

"So she's afraid?" Hao Ren said, guiding Dou Dou into a comfortable position in the crook of his arm. After all, the little one must be tired of hanging there all the time. From Dou Dou's performance, you couldn't tell that she was afraid of anything: she was still full of curiosity and excitement, and when she lay down, she made a "purring" hum, as if expressing satisfaction.

"Think about what it was like when your mom first took you to the zoo when you were little. Didn't you also hide in your mom's arms at that time?" Nangong Wuyue put her hands on her hips. "The most important thing now is to figure out what this little thing is thinking. Raising a child of another race is too difficult."

Hao Ren nodded quickly. Language differences were the biggest obstacle in front of these half-baked guardians. If they could communicate with the little mermaid, everything would be fine. As long as the little one's confusion was resolved, she shouldn't be so clingy. But the problem was that the little one couldn't speak at all—a cub just one day old, how were they supposed to communicate?

At this moment, Lily suddenly said, "Why don't you ask Raven 12345 for advice?"

Hao Ren was stunned for two seconds, wishing he could bash his head against a block of tofu: he hadn't thought of something so simple, and it was a husky who had to remind him!

Lily spread her hands. "I'm just ditzy, not stupid..."

"Terminal, connect to Raven 12345." Hao Ren shouted at his pocket, and the data terminal immediately floated out and started dialing. Dou Dou was immediately happy when she saw this strange glowing thing, clapping her tail and wanting Hao Ren to grab the terminal for her to taste, but she was ignored.

"Hao Ren? What's up again?" Raven 12345's voice sounded a little rushed, as if she was busy. "How's that egg doing?"

"It hatched!"

"Huh?!" Raven 12345 exclaimed, and then Hao Ren heard a series of explosions and strange air screeches in the background. He was shocked: "What's going on over there?"

"Nothing, I'm dueling with someone. Tell me what you want," Raven 12345 said quickly. "It hatched so quickly?"

Hao Ren knew that Raven 12345's daily life couldn't be measured by common sense, so he didn't ask about the duel. Instead, he seized the time to introduce the little mermaid's situation, and finally mentioned the problem that he couldn't communicate and that he was mistaken for the mermaid baby's mom: "Now the biggest difficulty is that none of us can understand what this little thing is saying—and she can't understand us. The little one doesn't seem to realize that this is where she's going to live in the future. Now she's hanging on me and doesn't want to come down."

Raven 12345 paused for a moment. "Um, it can actually be cooked… But to communicate, that's really a bit difficult for a newborn, but according to what you said, the little one's intelligence should be enough. She just needs to be able to understand you… Nangong Wuyue, you should be able to do it."

"Me?" The siren girl looked surprised. "I don't understand either, and how many times have I said that I'm a siren, not a mermaid!"

"It's not about the mermaid, it's about your innate ability to communicate with deep-sea races. Sirens can communicate with any deep-sea creature, even deep-sea creatures from other worlds. But this is a lazy program left by a creator god from another pantheon a long time ago. It was to test new biological templates at the time. You've evolved for so many years, and this plug-in seems to have been automatically deregistered. I'll try to activate it for you and maybe it'll still work."

Raven 12345 spoke so easily and naturally about the creator god's dereliction of duty, causing Hao Ren and Nangong Wuyue to break out in a cold sweat. The latter asked with a strange expression, "What should I do?"

"Go out, find an open space. This goddess will give you a thousand… um, remote empowerment. Oh, by the way, take off your cell phone and other electronic devices, there may be interference."

Nangong Wuyue was confused, but thinking that the other party was a "goddess sister," she should at least be trustworthy in terms of strength, so she didn't think much about it. She took out her phone and threw it on the sofa before going out.

Hao Ren thought for a while and felt that Raven might be tricking people again, but before he could call the siren girl back, he heard a crack of thunder outside the door.

Nangong Wuyue pushed the door in with an explosive hairstyle: "...I'll never believe her again."

Raven 12345's voice was still shouting next door: "The method is a bit intense, but the effect is good! It's been successfully activated, try it the way I said... I'm pretty busy here, I'll hang up first."

Nangong Wuyue went to the water room to wash her face. After returning, she had Hao Ren sit on the sofa. She carefully placed her finger on Dou Dou's forehead: "I'll try it, don't have too high of expectations."

Vivian and Izaak, who had heard the news, and Lily, who had been watching the fun all along, came over, and a group of people stared at how Nangong Wuyue would accept the results of the "remote empowerment." Hao Ren felt cold sweat running down his neck from the tension—later, he looked up and saw that Lily was standing behind him drinking water again.

The communication between the big fish and the small fish lasted for more than ten seconds. Dou Dou suddenly looked at Nangong Wuyue in surprise, and the latter breathed a sigh of relief: "Phew… It seems to have worked."

Hao Ren exhaled and immediately urged Nangong Wuyue: "Quickly let this little thing understand the situation here—the most important thing is to let her understand that I'm not her mom!"

"Come, let me talk to her slowly." Nangong Wuyue nodded and carefully took Dou Dou from Hao Ren's arms. Strangely enough, after some mysterious connection was established, this little mermaid seemed to have developed a high degree of trust in Nangong Wuyue, and actually let go of Hao Ren's clothes—although she turned her head and shouted a few times before being picked up, it didn't sound like panic, as if she was just saying goodbye.

Nangong Wuyue took the little mermaid to her room to communicate. It was estimated that she would be more sensible when she came out. Hao Ren finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the first thing he did was hurry back to the room to change into clean clothes: he was still wearing the same clothes he had worn when he went to the alien planet before, and he hadn't found a chance to change them yesterday!

When he came out, he found Nangong Wuyue already waiting in the living room with the little one. Hao Ren was a little surprised: "So fast?"

"It's similar to mental communication, so it's very fast, and she's also very smart," Nangong Wuyue's expression was a little strange. "Basically, I've explained the situation clearly… The little one will slowly adapt to this place."

Hao Ren was very happy: "Then she knows now that I'm not her mom, right?"

"About this… there's a bad news and a good news," Nangong Wuyue said with a dry laugh. "Which one do you want to hear first?"

Hao Ren's expression froze on the spot. He felt that the situation might be tricky: "...Tell me the good one first."

"Dou Dou does understand that you are not her mother," Nangong Wuyue handed the little mermaid to Hao Ren. "She thinks you are her father. And to be honest—as a guardian, this identity is not wrong."

Hao Ren felt that this news was neither good nor bad, but he still nodded: "Being a father is fine, at least it's not as embarrassing as being a mom, as long as she doesn't cling to me too much in the future. What's the bad news?"

Nangong Wuyue reached out from behind and pulled out a pot: "This is her mother."

Hao Ren: "..."