Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Although Sihwa saw Zhang Zian walk in instead of the stinky Orange Tabby, her gaze was still fixed behind him, cautiously staring at the door.
She turned on the shower head and washed her body over and over again, trying to wash off the foul stench of the cat urine.
“Ajeo-an, hand me the shower gel!” she said as she pointed towards the shower gel on the shelf.
Zian handed the shower gel to her although he wasn’t sure if it would cause any problems––like skin allergies––when a mermaid used a shower gel that was meant for humans…
Sihwa squeezed out a little shower gel onto her palm. She sniffed it and rubbed her hands, then she asked with dissatisfaction, “Is there a shower gel that will make a lot of bubbles in the bathtub?”
“That… you will need a special shower gel for that. A normal shower gel won’t be able to produce that many bubbles.” Zhang Zian opened the bathroom cabinet to find the remainder of the bath bombs that he had from the past. They were in a corner of the cabinet, so he grabbed them and taught her how to use them.
Sihwa did as she was taught, and in a short while, the entire bathtub was filled with bubbles. Even her hair was covered with white bubbles.
“Wahaha! It’s so fun!” Sihwa happily scooped a handful of bubbles and blew them off her hands. She was having a great time.
Zhang Zian wiped the water stains on the ground up with a mop. If he hadn’t, then the house would be covered in wet footprints the moment he walked out.
Zian was concerned about his water bill. Sihwa basically changed a bathtub of water, sometimes even two bathtubs of water, every day.
He sighed. “The two of you can really mess around. One day the house is going to be wrecked…”
“Fina started it!” Sihwa said with her arms on her hips. “I’m a pacifist. If it wasn’t for that fat Orange Tabby who’s always provoking me, then I would not even care about it!”
“But you’re always calling it a fat Orange Tabby, so of course it’s going to be mad.” Zhang Zian paused then asked her, “Or do you like being called a stinky, salted fish?”
“Ajeo-an! Are you picking a fight?” She glared at him with her eyes wide open.
Zhang Zian calmly smiled and said, “Look, you’re angry when someone calls you a stinky, salted fish, so Fina also has the right to be angry when it’s called a fat Orange Tabby, right?”
“But… but it is a fat Orange Tabby! Why can’t I call it that?” Sihwa was still not convinced.
“Then smell yourself now. Are you stinky?” Zhang Zian asked a question as a response to her answer. “So why can’t it call you a stinky, salted fish now?”
There was no need to smell herself. Sihwa was fully aware that she was covered in a foul stench, but that was the smell of urine from the cat litter and it didn’t come from her.
“I’m not stinky at all! This is not my smell!” she fiercely retorted.
Zhang Zian imitated her tone. “But Fina’s not very fat, and it’s not an Orange Tabby. Her fur is obviously golden and she’s an Egyptian Mau. Are you not able to distinguish between orange and gold?”
“It’s almost the same, anyway…” Her spirit from earlier had disappeared.
Although her figure was that of a teenage girl in her prime, she had the mentality of a mischievous child.
Children loved to call people names, and it was okay if it was a nickname out of good will. Usually, however, it was an insulting nickname that arose from the physical or mental flaws of others. However, they were not aware of the psychological trauma that could be caused by those nicknames… They normally made others hate them, and they didn’t forget the names even after many years.
Zhang Zian said, “There’s an old saying in China…”
“Do not say that you have not been forewarned?” She immediately continued his words.
“…Who told you that?” Zian was dumbfounded.
“I heard you say it when that Snowy girl came over for her live broadcast—my ears are really sharp!” She mischievously flung her dark green, curly hair, causing the bubbles to go everywhere.
Zhang Zian let out a dry cough. “Cough! Actually, it’s not…”
“Then it’s ‘Shelve it when it’s too much to handle; claim it when you have the ability to handle?’” She continued his words again.
“None of those! It’s, ‘Don’t do unto others what you don’t want others to do unto you!’” Zhang Zian had wanted to look cool, but he didn’t expect her to continue his words and ruin his attempt.
He thought to himself, This mermaid’s ears are too sharp… She can hear everything I said downstairs clearly. Can’t she just let a man look cool?
“What does that mean?” she asked, looking confused.
“It means that if you yourself do not want to be treated in such a mean manner, then you should not treat others that way.” Zhang Zian explained the original meaning to her, then added, “If you don’t want to be called a stinky, salted fish by Fina, then why are you calling it a fat Orange Tabby? You’re not willing to accept an insulting nickname––so is the same for Fina. If you think about it, doesn’t it make sense?”
Sihwa puffed her cheeks. She wanted to refute what Zhang Zian had said, but after giving it some thought, she didn’t know how to.
I’m a mermaid, not just some cat that can be seen everywhere, she thought to herself. I’m also not stinky.
But what Zhang Zian said wasn’t wrong, either… the Orange Tabby isn’t that fat. It is, of course, fatter than I am, but it’s not orange, either. I can obviously differentiate between orange and gold.
Actually, she had heard the slogan “out of ten Orange Tabbies, nine are fat, and one will crush the bed” from a few children who were repeating it by the seaside, and she had only remembered it because it was interesting and very fun to say. The moment she saw Fina, she had accidentally blurted it out without thinking.
She couldn’t wrap her head around it at the moment and she didn’t want to talk.
Zhang Zian stopped after pointing out what he wanted to. He did not force her to admit her mistakes immediately, otherwise, it would only evoke her rebellious mentality.
He changed the subject and raised up the box containing the phone. “Right, the phone you wanted––I’ve bought it.”
“Yi? Really? I want it! I want it! Give it to me!”
Sihwa immediately threw all of the problems from earlier to the back of her head. She impatiently extended out both of her arms as she stared at the phone box. Her body rose up as if she was going to stand up in the bathtub, but immediately, she slipped back down again. After all, she had no legs and the lower half of her body was covered in large, slippery fish scales.
“Hold on, let me say this first—your hands are covered in bubbles and, although this phone has a certain waterproof function, the charger isn’t waterproof. If there’s an electrical leakage, you’re going to become a boiled fish!” Zhang Zian warned.
“There won’t be an electrical leakage! I’ll be careful!” She was just like a child, impatient to get her hands on her new toy and making meaningless promises. Also, when the charger came into contact with the water, there would definitely be an electrical leakage; whatever she said didn’t count.
Zhang Zian opened up the box in front of her and turned the phone on. “I can give you the phone, but the charger must be placed outside. If you need to charge the phone, let me know and I’ll charge it for you—but you can only charge the phone once a day.”
“Why?” She wrinkled her nose, looking very dissatisfied.
“Because this is my house. Are you paying for the electricity bill?” Zian asked her.
She rolled her eyes. “Ajeo-an, you are stingy!”
Zhang Zian felt that if he did not impose any limitations, she would definitely play around with the phone all day and all night without stopping.
The unopened, new phone basically had about half its battery charged. Zhang Zian simply checked through the pre-installed apps in the phone and uninstalled all the useless ones.
“What are you doing?” Sihwa asked anxiously. “Quick, give me the phone!”
“Almost ready… just wait a minute. Didn’t you want to watch live broadcasts? I’m installing the live broadcast app for you. How else would you want to watch them?” Zian answered.
If it was before, he probably would not have agreed to let her watch live broadcasts because the content of the live broadcasts were not always suitable for children with a lack of judgment.
However, with continuous crackdowns by the country recently, the live broadcasts’ platforms were starting to change for the better and were gradually entering the tracks of proper development. They had also launched a parental control modes for minors where only the contents that had been screened by the live broadcast platforms could be viewed. The content rating for the television, however, was still far away…
He had already considered all of this, which was why Zhang Zian had agreed to her request.
He installed the app from the live broadcast platform that Snowy was in. He felt that it was not bad, so he installed it for Sihwa on her new phone, too.
“Okay, here.” He handed the phone over to Sihwa after he was done with it.
“Uwah! I’ve got a phone now! I’ve got a phone!” Sihwa was so happy that she started dancing while also holding the phone very carefully.
“Right, does that fat Orange Tabby have a phone?” she asked, blinking her bright, big eyes.
Zhang Zian answered truthfully, “Nope.”
“Hehe! That’s great! That fat Orange Tabby is always flaunting its diamond ring in front of me. Now I also have something that it doesn’t!” Sihwa was really very happy. She looked at the bathroom door again, as if hoping that Fina would appear so she could flaunt her new phone.
She was aware that Fina had an extraordinary position in the shop––she seemed to be treated preferentially everywhere––but finally there was something she could beat it at.
Seeing that it wasn’t early anymore, Zhang Zian estimated that lunch would be arriving soon and was about to head downstairs for his meal.
“Wait a minute!”
His shirt was tugged on from behind. He turned around to look; the foam between Sihwa’s fingers got on his shirt.
“Is there anything else?” Zian asked.
“This… how do I use the phone?” Sihwa stared at the phone with a frown.
She had only seen people use their phones through the window or on the television; she had never personally used one before. She didn’t know what to do as she stared at all of the strange looking icons––just like a tiger trying to devour a porcupine, she didn’t know where to begin.
“Okay.”
Zhang Zian sent a message to Lu Yiyun, telling them to go ahead with the meal when it was there and to not wait for him. He then wiped the water and foam off of the edge of the bathtub with a towel and sat sideways on the edge. He pointed to the icons on the screen and said, “It’s actually very simple. All you have to do is remember the icons and their uses—for example, this is for watching live broadcasts.”
Taking Snowy’s live broadcast app as an example, he introduced the operation method of the live broadcast app to her. He then showed her how to subscribe to a live broadcast room, what bullet screens were, and he also helped her apply for an account so she could watch the live broadcasts.
Snowy was not currently broadcasting, so they could only watch her previous recordings.
Sihwa was very smart. Not even a few minutes had gone by and and she had already learned how to use the phone, starting and quitting the apps with ease.
“Ajeo-an, what are these icons for?” she asked as she pointed towards the few icons at the bottom of the main page.
“Oh, this is to make a phone call; this one is to send a text message; this is your contact list and other functions. Currently, however, this phone has no phone card installed, so you can’t make a phone call or send a text message,” Zhang Zian said.
“Then what can I do to make a phone call?” Sihwa asked.
Zhang Zian was in a blur. “Who do you want to call?”
Sihwa appeared dejected. “I want to call Oppa. I want to let him know that Sihwa is lonely.”
