Chapter 4
After licking the fish food crumbs from Wen Ming’s hand, Number 55 wanted to lick up what had fallen on the floor.
Wen Ming stopped it, scooping the little mermaid’s waist with his clean hand.
“Home butler, clean the mermaid room.”
“Beep beep!” A cylindrical robot entered the mermaid room, emitting an electronic announcement.
The chubby body of the home butler contained a multitude of functions. It extended a mechanical arm, swept across the floor where the fish food crumbs had fallen, and completed the cleaning.
Wen Ming rinsed his hands at the small sink extended by the robot: “Record mermaid information.”
“Beep beep!”
The camera on top of the round robot focused on the curious Number 55, scanning it up and down:
“Recording… This mermaid has been added to the family member list. Please enter the mermaid’s name!”
Wen Ming’s gaze instinctively fell on the little mermaid’s left ear.
When he first saw it in the aquarium, there had been a tag with “55” printed on it, but the second time, the tag was gone…
Wen Ming’s thumb brushed against the ear hole on the little mermaid’s left ear: “Is ‘Fifty-Five’ your name?”
Number 55 shook its head uncomfortably, dodging his touch.
As if to show its dislike for the name…
Wen Ming silently repeated “Fifty-Five” a few times. When he spoke again, it had changed: “MuMu?”
Number 55’s pointed ears twitched, with no particular response, but no obvious rejection either.
“Continue recording information. The mermaid’s name is ‘MuMu.'”
“Beep beep!” The home butler’s indicator light blinked, attracting the little mermaid to reach out and play with it.
“Recording complete. Hello, MuMu, welcome to the family!
Mermaid care assistant mode activated. It’s almost bedtime, MuMu, come and clean your mouth!”
An opening suddenly appeared in the middle of the robot, revealing something shaped like a small dried fish.
Fishy snack!
MuMu opened its mouth wide and bit the “dried fish.” With a “psst,” its mouth was filled with a strange-tasting cleaning solution.
It quickly recoiled, doing a backward roll in the water in its panic, spitting bubbles and going “ptoo, ptoo.”
The home butler’s indicator light blinked again: “Beep beep! Cleaning complete…”
“Shh.” Wen Ming interrupted its announcement.
MuMu was a little mermaid with a fiery temper, willing to throw herself headfirst to slap Qi Xuan’s tail twice.
The home butler had just provoked it. If it made another sound, MuMu might jump out of the pool and fight it…
“MuMu?” Wen Ming said to the bubbling water surface.
The mermaid pool was quiet for a few seconds before MuMu slowly poked its head out.
It glared sideways at the home butler, slapped its tail in the water, splashing the round robot.
Only then was MuMu satisfied. It swam to Wen Ming, its innocent expression as if to say:
It’s not my fault, that broken machine sprayed water on me first!
The corners of Wen Ming’s mouth curved almost imperceptibly: “If you don’t like this method, we’ll switch to cleaning snacks later, okay?”
Snacks!
MuMu swam a large circle around the pool: “Awoo!”
The home butler silently mopped the floor.
“MuMu,” Wen Ming added to the little mermaid, “Try not to splash water out of the pool when you’re playing.”
MuMu retreated to the edge of the pool and stayed still…
“It’s bedtime, dear family members. Sweet dreams.” The home butler’s indicator light switched to a soft night light as it left the mermaid room.
Wen Ming also picked up the fish food bag and walked out.
‘Mermaids have poor adaptability and can be quite restless in a new environment.’
Wen Ming paused at the door of the mermaid room and looked back uneasily—
The mermaid pool was as calm as if nothing had happened.
“MuMu, good night.”
A few small bubbles gurgled up from the water’s surface…
Perhaps because it was the first time a human had said “good night” to MuMu, it slept very soundly.
MuMu opened its eyes, stared blankly at the comfortably warm new environment for a while before remembering that it had a new home, a new master, and a new name.
“Beep beep!”
Outside the door, the home butler’s voice was cold and stiff, like it was reciting lines: “Good morning, let’s start a new day.”
The mermaid room switched to daytime mode. The ring of small night lights embedded around the pool dimmed, and the curtains automatically opened.
The heavy fabric parted, and sunlight streamed in, scattering across the water.
Sunlight!
Sunlight it had never seen in the laboratory!
MuMu’s face flushed with excitement, and it plopped out of the pool, crawling towards the window.
Wen Ming came to feed the mermaid and saw MuMu propping itself up against the windowsill with its tail, looking like it was about to “escape.”
“MuMu.”
His voice was a little urgent.
“?”
MuMu slid to the floor. Its skin was fair and delicate, almost translucent under the natural light.
It didn’t need to “escape,” it was already so beautiful that it seemed to belong to another world…
“Beep beep!” The home butler detected the wet floor in the mermaid room and passed by Wen Ming.
Wen Ming lowered his eyelids, casually placing the rush-ordered mermaid bowl on top of the home butler.
The cylindrical robot, carrying the mermaid bowl, began to clean the floor where MuMu had crawled.
“MuMu, come back.”
Wen Ming shook the fish food, the pellets rattling inside the bag.
MuMu immediately forgot about the sunlight and jumped back into the mermaid pool, clinging to the edge, waiting for its meal.
“Awoo!”
I’m ready!
As if there was still no mermaid bowl, Wen Ming grabbed a handful of fish food and fed it.
Only when the little mermaid’s tongue brushed against his palm did Wen Ming truly confirm:
MuMu hadn’t left him.
…
Mermaids have low attack power and are incapable of breaking through doors or windows.
But before leaving, Wen Ming had added the command “Report any unusual mermaid activity immediately” to the home butler.
“Beep beep!”
Throughout the day, the home butler’s notifications kept ringing on his optical brain:
“Report, MuMu has repeatedly leaped from the water, which does not match any behavior described in the ‘Mermaid Behavior Interpretation’!
Emotional scan initiated – It is amusing itself.”
“Warning! MuMu is floating motionless on the water surface, matching the ‘death posture’ described in the ‘Mermaid Behavior Interpretation’.
Vital signs scan initiated – It is basking in the sun.”
“Report, MuMu has jumped out of the mermaid pool…”
Wen Ming’s pen paused mid-signature on a document.
“It bit a succulent plant, went ‘ptoo’ a few times, spat it out, and secretly buried it in the soil of a flowerpot.”
“.”
It took Wen Ming several minutes to sign the document.
Assistant Xu couldn’t believe that his usually efficient and solemn boss was so unusually unproductive today…
“Admiral,” Assistant Xu tentatively asked, “Is there a problem with a project?”
Wen Ming tapped his fingers lightly on the desk: “I don’t know where I’m going wrong with raising it, but my mermaid wants to escape.”
“So it’s a mermaid ques…” Assistant Xu’s face changed drastically. “Mermaid?”
The Admiral is raising a mermaid?
Even more unbelievable than “Wen Ming raising a mermaid” was Wen Ming’s attitude towards it.
Assistant Xu had been working with Wen Ming since the Wen Corporation’s mermaid supplies business started, through thick and thin, and he had never seen Wen Ming interested in anything.
In Assistant Xu’s eyes, Wen Ming was a precision instrument in human skin.
Go to work, work, go home, a set program running mechanically, waiting for death…
This emotionless “machine” was actually initiating a conversation about something other than work!?
Assistant Xu was so shocked that the “corpse-like pallor” he usually wore from overwork faded a little.
“The mermaid wants to escape…”
Of course, it’s because the Admiral, who had once lived and died on the battlefield, had an aura of decisiveness and killing that scared the mermaid.
Assistant Xu adjusted his glasses and rephrased it tactfully:
“Mermaids are very delicate. They refuse to soothe if they feel uncomfortable. They should be cared for meticulously.”
Wen Ming’s tapping slowed down, a thoughtful expression on his face…
Assistant Xu found a copy of the “Mermaid Care Manual” and placed it on Wen Ming’s desk:
“If you’re… interested, you can start with the introductory tutorial.”
Wen Ming’s hand hovered over the next document. After a moment of hesitation, he opened the “Mermaid Care Manual.”
Assistant Xu clenched his fist, almost weeping with joy.
His boss was finally showing some signs of being “human”…
The first line on the first page of the “Mermaid Care Manual”:
‘Although a mermaid’s teeth are not sharp enough, they can cause bleeding wounds. Never hand-feed them directly, as they may bite at any time…’
Wen Ming closed the manual.
Assistant Xu watched Wen Ming return to work, sighing inwardly:
“It was just an illusion after all. How could the Admiral possibly be interested in anything…”
‘How were the results of this language assessment?’
‘Their rankings fluctuated greatly… except for Number 55.’
‘Number 55 never performs particularly well in assessments, but it always manages to stay in the middle-to-low ranks, earning just enough fish food to eat.’
‘Should we say it’s lucky or unlucky? It hasn’t even tasted high-grade fish food…’
The laboratory fed the mermaids different grades and amounts of fish food based on their performance.
The mermaids who first understood and responded to the commands in human language received a sufficient amount of high-grade fish food.
Number 55’s ranking only earned it enough low-grade fish food to barely fill its stomach.
Low-grade fish food mostly consisted of filling seaweed, lacking in nutrients, which is why the poorer performing mermaids in the laboratory had dull tails.
‘The professor specifically emphasized that Number 55 was caught unexpectedly from the ocean and should be focused on, trained, and its abilities explored.’
‘But so far, it doesn’t seem to have anything special about it… Could it be that fish food alone isn’t enough to stimulate its potential?’
‘A combination of reward and punishment will achieve the best results!’
Number 55 looked up in horror as the lab personnel approached it with an electric prod…
‘Zzzt—’
“Whimper!”
The blue tail in the mermaid pool suddenly thrashed, splashing water everywhere.
“Beep beep!” The home butler flashed a red warning light. “Aggressive mermaid behavior detected, automatically activating suppression device.”
A pair of mechanical arms extended from within the cylindrical robot.
“Cancel.”
The mechanical arms stopped, retracted, and stood by.
“MuMu, I’m sorry.” Wen Ming held the ointment in his hand, his clothes soaked. “I startled you.”
MuMu didn’t stop thrashing until it bumped against the pool wall, the gills on the side of its neck rapidly opening and closing.
It quickly touched its ear. There was no tag.
Thank goodness, it was just a nightmare…
MuMu surfaced, its gaze locking onto Wen Ming by the pool, finally relaxing its body.
It was no longer Number 55 in its former master’s laboratory.
Its name was MuMu.
“MuMu.” Wen Ming sensed something strange about the little mermaid’s state. “Come here, your tail needs ointment.”
MuMu pretended not to understand and retreated to a corner.
The home butler’s camera scanned left and right: “Automatically searching for ‘What to do when your mermaid doesn’t listen’. The top-rated answer is as follows—
A combination of reward and punishment will achieve the best results!”
“!?”
Hearing the familiar words, MuMu felt as if it had been electrocuted again, its tail aching and numb.
It rushed to the edge of the pool.
‘Try not to splash water out of the pool when you’re playing.’
MuMu’s splashing motion abruptly changed into a bared-teeth glare at the home butler, fierce and menacing:
“Awoo boo woo!”
I know you’re a spy sent by my former master! Get out of my master’s machine!
