Hao Ren and Vivian were both utterly baffled by the contents of the note. The only thing they could be sure of was that everything written on it had something to do with Doudou—including the part about heating her over low heat. Now they had a vague idea why Doudou had been placed in the rice cooker: because it could be set to a timer, and its temperature stayed stable...
If some random species had been lying in that pot, Hao Ren would have immediately leaped to his feet, his mind filling with grisly, decidedly-not-for-children jokes about murder, cooking corpses, and bizarre cannibalistic curiosities. But the little merman in the pot liked swimming in boiling water, so he couldn't think that way. He was merely curious about what had happened during the half-month he'd been away from home, and what the sesame oil and Isatis root were supposed to be...
As Hao Ren pondered this, he heard a loud splashing from the pot. Looking down, he saw that Doudou had slept through her nap—although the nap had started rather early—and was stretching out her tail as she slowly woke up. The moment she lifted her head and saw Hao Ren's big face, her entire fish instantly perked up. Her upper body broke through the water, and she let out a tiny squeal in an extremely excited tone before splashing into Hao Ren's face. Then she slipped straight down through his collar...
Everyone could picture the scene: It was the dead of winter on Earth, with snow falling thickly outside. There was no heating in the kitchen, and Doudou was soaking wet from head to tail...
In any case, Hao Ren immediately felt a chill shoot straight down to his core. The sensation was so excruciatingly refreshing that it nearly drove