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Shi Jihan magnanimously let him off. After he entered the room, he jumped down himself and swayed from side to side as he headed upstairs.

Zhou Jingcheng raised an eyebrow and asked, "Didn't you say it hurt like walking on knife blades?"

Shi Jihan turned back and looked at him like he was an idiot. "That's because I have legs now, dummy."

Zhou Jingcheng's mouth twitched as he watched the legged mermaid wobble upstairs in an S-shaped path.

Thinking he might as well see things through, carry the Buddha to the west and the fish to bed—and since Shi Bochuan had specifically asked him to—he followed Shi Jihan upstairs and casually looked over his bedroom.

The room was decorated in sky blue and pale yellow, with a separate area deliberately set aside as a study. The professional books on the shelves were brand-new, clearly untouched enough that not even a name had been written in them.

The desk, however, was another story. It was piled with all sorts of miscellaneous items. At a glance, there were over-ear headphones, a Switch, various data cables, McDonald's latest collaboration plush ornaments, a whole drawer of pretty round plastic pins, and a can of cola alongside an open bag of cucumber-flavored chips.

An outerwear jacket had also been tossed over the back of an expensive gaming chair, probably pulled out during the rainy cold spell a few days ago.

It was a room brimming with lived-in warmth. One could easily imagine its owner curled up in the gaming chair, headphones on, playing games.

Zhou Jingcheng withdrew his gaze, leaned against the doorframe, and asked, "Do you need anything else?"

"Yes." Shi Jihan nodded solemnly.

"What?"

"Hand me the chips on my desk." He stared longingly at the chip bag three meters away.

Zhou Jingcheng: "..."

Zhou Jingcheng: "..."

Being lazy wasn't going to kill you, apparently.

He picked up the chips. He did not even need to take a few steps; he could have simply switched hands and passed them to Shi Jihan.

After eating a few bites, Shi Jihan's brows furrowed in grievance. "They're not crispy anymore."

Zhou Jingcheng wanted to say, Whose fault was it for leaving the bag open? But Shi Jihan began muttering to himself, smoothly reasoning it out. "It must be because my mermaid body has too much moisture. The chips got soggy the moment they came near me." He nodded after saying that, utterly convinced by his own deduction.

"But they can't be too soggy either." Shi Jihan looked troubled. "I don't like humid weather."

Zhou Jingcheng fell silent for a while.

Then he suddenly laughed. Amusement flowed through his pitch-black eyes, and his long lashes curved faintly.

He wondered how someone could turn into such a little fool the moment he got drunk.

By the time he finally got Shi Jihan to settle down and go to sleep, it was nearly eleven at night.

Zhou Jingcheng closed the front doors of the Shi Family Villa, thinking it was fortunate their residential compounds were close together. If he went home and took a shower, he could still be asleep before midnight.

What an exhausting night. He sighed, got into the car, and adjusted the rearview mirror as he prepared to back out.

But the moment he saw the mirror clearly, he jumped in fright. He twisted around toward the back seat and demanded of the sitting-up Zhou Zeyang, "Why are you here?"

Zhou Zeyang, half sober, scratched the back of his head in utter confusion. "Huh? Wasn't I here the whole time?"

Zhou Jingcheng: "..."

Oh, right. He had forgotten.

"Also, bro, where did you go just now? You were gone forever."

Zhou Jingcheng turned the car around and drove out of the Shi Family Villa. "I went to do a good deed."

"Huh?"

"I released a mermaid back into the wild and helped an animal get home."

Zhou Zeyang: ?

Zhou Zeyang said, "Bro, don't drive drunk. I'm scared."

-

The next day.

Shi Jihan collapsed on his bed, his head buzzing as though a whole squad of square dancers were raving inside his skull.

He rolled over, clutched his head, and groaned, "It hurts... Whose elephant stepped on my head..."

Ghost 000 appeared: [Host, you actually know how to wake up? Do you know what you did to Dianjia Bro last night?]

Shi Jihan jolted awake and desperately tried to remember, but his mind was completely blank. Suspicious, he said, "Huh? What did I do? Don't slander me. I'm a great drunk. At most, I sing a little and dance a little..."

"...Why are you making that face? There couldn't have been anything else, right?"

Zero-Zero-Zero said nothing and merely showed him his current Malice Points: 310.93.

Shi Jihan was stunned. "Wasn't it still in the two hundreds yesterday?"

[All contributed overnight by Dianjia Bro.]

"...Fuck!" Shi Jihan looked horrified. "What the hell did I do? I didn't blow up his company, did I?"

He rolled over and got out of bed.

Then he saw a sticky note attached to his bedside table, bearing a bold, sweeping line of handwriting.

"Mr. Mermaid awake? Remember to come thank me."

It was signed by Zhou Jingcheng, who had casually drawn a fat-headed fish beside his name.

That immediately triggered the relevant memories.

Shi Jihan clenched the note, trembling faintly.

He did not remember the rest, but he fully remembered how he had wrapped around Zhou Jingcheng like an octopus last night, clinging to him tightly while calling him noisy. He had told him he was a mermaid who could not walk on land and made him carry him into the house.

"Ahhhhh! What did I do?!" Shi Jihan let out a scream and flung himself onto the bed.

He wriggled desperately across the bed, rolling from one end to the other in a full 360-degree spiral. If he had been a batter spreader, he would have flattened three crepes by now.

[Host, if you're itchy, go take a shower.]

"Shut up!" Shi Jihan buried his head beneath the blankets like an ostrich. Whether from suffocation or something else, the backs of his ears had turned red, and even his neck was flushed.

His phone suddenly vibrated.

As though he had sensed Shi Jihan waking up, Zhou Jingcheng sent him a message.

[Z: Awake?]

[Z: Why hasn't anyone come to thank me yet?]

Shi Jihan scratched at his hair and took a long time to calm down before slowly poking his head out from under the blanket and reluctantly beginning to reply.

[Why Are You Still Awake?: I'm up...]

[Why Are You Still Awake?: Forget what happened yesterday. You're not allowed to mention it again!]

[Z: Why are you denying everything now?]

[Z: Didn't you ask whether I could do it last night and tell me to feed you water another way?]

First Blood.

Shi Jihan took the bait immediately. Those words seemed to have a built-in heating function, raising the temperature of his face another level. He suffered a second breakdown, shut his eyes, and cried, "What the hell did I do last night?!"

Zero-Zero-Zero floated over. Seeing that line, it muttered inwardly, You're only bullying the host because he doesn't remember everything. When he said "another way" last night, that wasn't your reaction at all, brat.

When Shi Jihan did not reply, messages began chiming in from the other end again. He did not want to look. He did not want to die of embarrassment a second time. But he was also curious about Zhou Jingcheng's attitude—whether he thought Shi Jihan was too noisy and annoying—so he secretly opened one eye and quickly peeked.

His entire body froze.

It was a photo. Shi Jihan had wrapped himself in a blanket to make a tail, leaned against the headboard with his legs crossed, and struck an elegant, affected pose. Facing the camera, he showed off his perfect profile, the smooth line of his shoulders and neck, and the tear at the corner of his eye that looked ready to fall.

Shi Jihan knew all too well what he had been thinking when he took that photo. He had imagined himself as the mermaid statue by the Danish seaside, even inventing a tragic, pitiable backstory for himself. He had turned himself into a beautiful, strong, tragic little darling, and the tear at the corner of his eye had only been squeezed out after ten yawns.

He had forced Zhou Jingcheng to take the photo and even told him to edit in seawater, reefs, and a beach after he got home.

Zhou Jingcheng quickly sent over the edited version as well.

The seawater had become bubbling golden pickled-cabbage fish broth, while the beach and reefs had turned into minced garlic and chili peppers. Zhou Jingcheng had even thoughtfully edited in a fish tail, scored it with diagonal cuts, marinated it in pepper, and garnished it with yellow pickled peppers. It looked perfectly spicy and flavorful.

Double Kill.

A grave crime! A grave crime!

Shi Jihan shot upright and started typing furiously.

[Why Are You Still Awake?: Zhou Jingcheng, you'd better have something happen to you!]

[Z: [Dying hairtail fish at the market.gif]]

It was a candid shot of Shi Jihan lying on the bed, wriggling as he tried to free himself from the blanket.

Triple Kill.

A capital crime! A capital crime!

Shi Jihan was so angry that he did a set of Eight Brocades at ten times speed, then spread himself across the bed and flattened three whole crepes, yet still could not vent the rage in his heart.

"Zhou Jingcheng, just you wait!" In the end, all he could do was burst out with an elementary schooler's declaration of war.

Zero-Zero-Zero observed from the shadows and felt that its host was quite motivated.

Look, because he could not beat Shen Qinghuai, he had decided to exercise diligently. These past few days, he had been throwing punches more and more often.

Shi Jihan kept chanting that murder was illegal, barely managing to calm himself down. With a messy nest of curly hair, he shuffled into slippers and went to wash up.

After suffering so much today, there was no way he was going to work. He submitted a leave request through the system and urged Shi Bochuan to approve it quickly.

The other party did not reply in time, but Shi Jihan did not care. He went downstairs and ordered his favorite takeout to reward his exhausted heart.

He had survived another day. That was already amazing.

With that thought, Shi Jihan treated the meat sauce pizza in his hand like that bastard Zhou Jingcheng. He opened his mouth, took a huge bite, puffed out his cheeks, and chewed viciously.

Then, that afternoon, he received a call from Yan Bo, the pattern maker.

Yan Bo first asked why he had not come to work today. Shi Jihan said, "I took leave. Didn't you get the notice?"

When he checked, his request had not yet been approved, and Shi Bochuan had not replied to his message either.

He asked, "What happened? Why does my brother seem to have vanished today?"

Yan Bo said, "Good thing you didn't come today. Something happened. President Shi threw a huge tantrum today."

Shi Jihan was so shocked his voice rose. "My brother? Threw a tantrum??"

Good heavens, there was actually someone in this world who could make Shi Bochuan angry?

The odds were on par with one of his papers getting accepted on the first submission.

It was too book-believable.

Shi Jihan hurriedly stuffed the remaining pizza into his mouth in two or three bites and mumbled to Yan Bo, "Wait for me. I'll go to the company and take a look in a bit."

He wanted to see what kind of divine person had such ability, capable of angering a fragile man enough to make him stand tall.

He absolutely had to witness this spectacle.

He sprinted upstairs, changed clothes, and rushed to the company in a flurry.