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

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

Shi Jihan looked back at him as though he were an idiot. "That's because I have legs now, dummy."

Zhou Jingcheng's mouth twitched as he silently watched the legged mermaid zigzag upstairs in an S-shape.

Thinking he might as well see it through, carrying the Buddha to the Western Heaven and the fish to bed, and remembering Shi Bochuan's specific instructions, he followed Shi Jihan upstairs and took a look around his bedroom.

The room was decorated in sky blue and pale yellow, with a separate area deliberately sectioned off as a study. The professional books on the shelves were brand-new, clearly untouched—even their titles probably hadn't been read.

The desk, however, was another matter. It was piled with miscellaneous things: over-ear headphones, a Switch, all kinds of charging cables, McDonald's latest collaboration plush display figures, a whole cabinet of pretty round plastic pins, plus a can of cola and an unsealed bag of cucumber-flavored chips.

A jacket had also been tossed over the back of the high-end gaming chair, probably taken out during the rainy cold spell a few days ago.

It was a very lived-in room. One could easily picture its owner curled up in the gaming chair, headphones on, playing games.

Zhou Jingcheng withdrew his gaze and leaned against the doorframe. "Need anything else?"

"Yes." Shi Jihan nodded with great seriousness.

"What?"

"Hand me the chips on my desk." He looked at the bag of chips three meters away with longing in his eyes.

Zhou Jingcheng: "..."

Zhou Jingcheng: "..."

Being lazy won't kill you, will it?

He even picked up the chips. He didn't need to take more than a couple of steps—he could have just switched hands and passed them to Shi Jihan.

After taking a few bites, Shi Jihan frowned pitifully and complained, "They're not crunchy anymore."

Zhou Jingcheng wanted to say that was because he hadn't sealed the bag, but Shi Jihan was already talking to himself and logically talking himself into it. "It must be because there's too much moisture on my mermaid body. The chips got damp as soon as they got close to me." He nodded after saying that, utterly convinced by his own reasoning.

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

Zhou Jingcheng was silent for a long while.

Then he suddenly laughed. Amusement flickered in his pitch-black eyes, and his feathered lashes curved slightly.

He thought, how could someone turn into such a little fool as soon as he got drunk?

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

Zhou Jingcheng closed the Shi Family's front door, thinking that thankfully their neighborhoods were close. If he went home and took a shower, he could still get to bed before midnight.

This evening had really worn him out. He sighed, got into the car, and adjusted the rearview mirror before preparing to back out.

But when he saw the rearview mirror clearly, he jumped in fright. Turning toward the back seat, he directed a soul-searching question at the suddenly upright Zhou Zeyang. "Why are you here?"

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

Zhou Jingcheng: "..."

Oh, right. He'd forgotten.

"Also, bro, where did you go just now? You didn't come back for ages."

Zhou Jingcheng turned the car around and drove out of the Shi Family villa. "Did a good deed."

"Huh?"

"Released a mermaid back into the wild. Helped an animal get home."

Zhou Zeyang:?

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

—

The next day.

Shi Jihan lay sprawled on the bed, his head buzzing as though a square-dancing troupe was clubbing inside his skull.

He rolled over and clutched his head with a groan. "It hurts... Whose elephant stepped on my head..."

Ghost 000 appeared: [Host, you finally woke up. Do you know what you did to Dianjia Bro last night?]

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

"...Why are you making that face? Don't tell me there was more?"

Ghost 000 said nothing, only showing 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 exactly did I do? I didn't blow up his company, did I?"

He rolled out of bed.

Then he saw a sticky note pasted to the headboard, bearing a single line of sharp, elegant handwriting.

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

It was signed Zhou Jingcheng, with a plump-headed fish casually doodled beside it.

A related memory immediately surfaced.

Shi Jihan clenched the note, trembling faintly.

He didn't know about the rest, but he now completely remembered how he had clung to Zhou Jingcheng like an octopus last night, accusing him of being noisy and telling him that he himself was a mermaid who couldn't walk on land, demanding that Zhou Jingcheng carry him inside.

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

He wriggled desperately across the mattress, rolling from one end to the other in a full 360-degree spiral. If he had been a dough scraper, he would have spread three pancakes evenly by now.

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

"Shut up!" Shi Jihan buried his head beneath the blanket like an ostrich. Whether from suffocation or something else, the area behind his ears had turned bright red, his neck following suit.

His phone suddenly vibrated.

As if he had sensed that Shi Jihan was awake, Zhou Jingcheng sent him a message.

[Z: Awake?]

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

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

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

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

[Z: Why are you denying everything now?]

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

First Blood.

Shi Jihan took the bait just as expected. Those words seemed to have a high-temperature heating function, raising the temperature of his face by another level. He suffered a second breakdown, squeezed his eyes shut, and cried, "What exactly did I do last night?!"

Ghost 000 floated over. Seeing that line, he muttered to himself, You're only taking advantage of the fact that the host doesn't remember everything. When he said "another way" last night, that wasn't your reaction at all, kid.

When Shi Jihan didn't reply, more messages began arriving with a series of dings. He didn't want to look. He didn't want to die of embarrassment again. But he was also curious about Zhou Jingcheng's attitude—whether he thought Shi Jihan was too loud and annoying—so he secretly cracked open one eye and quickly glanced over.

His entire body froze.

It was a photo. Shi Jihan had wrapped himself in the blanket like a rolled-up tail, leaning against the headboard with his legs crossed. He had struck an elegant, affected pose before the camera, displaying his perfect profile, smooth shoulder and neck line, and the teardrop trembling at the corner of his eye.

Shi Jihan knew exactly what he had been thinking when he took that photo. He had imagined himself as the Little Mermaid statue on Denmark's coast, even inventing a tragic, pitiable backstory for himself and turning himself into a

beautiful, strong, tragic

little darling. 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 for him and even told him to add seawater, reefs, and a beach after getting home.

Zhou Jingcheng soon sent over the edited version as well.

The seawater had become a bubbling golden broth of pickled cabbage, while the beach and reefs had become minced garlic and chili peppers. Zhou Jingcheng had even thoughtfully given him a fish tail, scored with diagonal cuts, marinated in pepper, and garnished with yellow pickled chilies. It looked spicy, fragrant, and perfectly seasoned.

Double Kill.

A capital offense! A capital offense!

Shi Jihan shot upright and clattered away at his keyboard.

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

[Z: [Near-death hairtail fish at the market.gif]]

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

Triple Kill.

Death penalty! Death penalty!

Shi Jihan was so furious that he did a set of Eight Brocades at ten times speed, then spread out three whole pancakes on the bed, yet he still couldn't 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.

Ghost 000 watched from the shadows and felt that his host was still very motivated.

Look, since he couldn't beat Shen Qinghuai, he had decided to exercise diligently. These past few days, he had been boxing more and more often.

Shi Jihan kept chanting that murder was illegal in his heart, barely managing to calm down. With his messy, bird's-nest curls and slippers dragging along the floor, he went to wash up.

After suffering so much today, he would rather die than go to work. He submitted a leave request through the system and messaged Shi Bochuan, telling him to hurry up and approve it.

The other man didn't reply in time, but Shi Jihan didn't care. He went downstairs and ordered his favorite takeout to reward his exhausted heart.

He had survived another day. That was already impressive.

Thinking that, Shi Jihan treated the meat-sauce Pizza in his hand as that bastard Zhou Jingcheng, opening his mouth to take a huge bite and viciously chewing with puffed cheeks.

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

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

When he checked, his request still hadn't been approved, and Shi Bochuan hadn't 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 in today. Something happened. President Shi threw a huge tantrum today."

Shi Jihan's tone rose in shock. "My brother? Threw a tantrum??"

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

The odds were comparable to getting his thesis accepted on the first submission.

That was too book-credible.

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

He wanted to see just what kind of remarkable person had the ability to make a fragile man like Shi Bochuan get fired up.

He absolutely had to join in on this excitement.

He raced upstairs, changed clothes, and rushed to the company in a whirlwind.