Mermaid Effect

Four eyeballs.

Rand saw four eyes.

The fish in the jug was not dead. The moment Rand approached the bottle, it shook its body suddenly, and its four eyeballs trembled and turned towards Rand like some kind of living thing independent of the fish body.A ray of red light flitted through the pupils with complex flower-colored fluorescence emerging from the edge.The seawater soaking the whole fish is covered with light blue fluorescent particles, and some translucent tentacles are glued to the walls of the water bottle.

The fish grinned at Rand, revealing some fine-haired teeth, covering the suckers at the back of the mouth.

"boom--"

The terrifying feeling at that moment forced Rand to let go of his hand involuntarily, and the kettle fell to the ground.

The sea water inside trickled out, and some splashed on Rand's instep.

The gray carpet turned black after being stained with water, and the water stains expanded like the shadows brought by ghosts, and a strong fishy smell permeated the room.

Is the sea water so fishy?

Questions flashed through Rand's mind, but his thoughts were soon interrupted.

The fish jumped out of the bottle, bouncing hard on the wet carpet, its tail slapping the floor.Rand shuddered, and when his eyes fell on the fish again, he realized that there were no four eyeballs at all—they were just patterns on the fish.

Rand didn't realize that he immediately breathed a sigh of relief, his shoulders relaxed, and it wasn't until this moment that he realized that his heart was beating fast.

That's kind of silly—Rand muttered, a little embarrassed.Rand admitted that he was indeed intimidated by this most primitive biological disguise.

The wound on the tail seemed to heal and some, it was no longer the naked bright red muscle that Rand had seen before, and a white membrane covered its wound.

During the short time Rand was in a daze, the fish had stopped bouncing and lay weakly on the ground with its tail twitching slightly and its mouth opening and closing.

Rand came back to his senses, he rushed to the kitchen in a hurry, found a salad basin with difficulty and filled it with water, and then rushed to the living room.However, the moment his fingertips were about to touch the fish, he immediately remembered that it was a sea fish, so he had to rush back again, crushed some sea salt and threw it into the water.

God knows how to keep a saltwater fish, Rand thought as he stirred the brine in the salad bowl.

What is certain is that the water needed to raise seawater fish is definitely not as simple as adding some salt to fresh water.So, in fact, Rand had already given up any hope for the survival of this fish. He picked up the fish—its body was much heavier than what he had seen visually, and its surface had a strange touch, like velvet or velvet. Anyway, it's not as slippery as fish should be, and it's warm to the touch.

Rand shivered instinctively, and he quickly tossed the fish into the salad bowl.

The fish sank straight to the bottom of the basin, and Rand felt that it might be dead.But after a while, the fish began to swim slowly and tentatively.

To be honest, Rand felt that this fish was a bit weird, he frowned, and poured some seawater left in the kettle into the basin, trying in vain to make up for it.

He found some extremely small scales in the water in the kettle. Those scales are very transparent, but they will reflect a faint blue light under the light of a certain angle.Rand noticed that there were many marks of scales falling off the fish's wound.

Perhaps the discomfort in the jug had caused the fish to shed some of its scales.The blue things that Rand saw were probably the illusion caused by these scales.

Rand shrugged his shoulders. He lifted the salad bowl and placed it casually on the island.The light from the kitchen fell on the back of the fish through the water, and a layer of neon light like the surface of mother-of-pearl twisted on the gray body of the fish.

Rand looked at the fish uncontrollably for a while. He thought it was just a dull fish on the reef, but now it doesn't look so ugly, he thought.Although Rand still feels a little regretful, he really doesn't know how to raise a strange sea fish. Maybe when he wakes up from bed the next day, this fish has already died from the "sea water" he prepared. .Rand felt a little irritated. He really didn't know what he was thinking at the time. Judging from the current situation, maybe if the fish was left there at that time, its survival rate might be higher.

"Anyway, man," he said, looking down at the fish, "hope you feel better soon."

The fish swam round and round in the salad bowl, looking at Rand with its bead-like eyes and the circular stripes behind them.

Rand reached out and knocked on the salad bowl, the stainless steel basin made a muffled sound of water, and the fish flicked its tail. Anyway, at least it looked normal now.

Rand left the kitchen and began to gather the rug.

"It's a really good day."

Rand said to himself.

The whole room was still filled with that smell. Rand sniffled. He felt that there might be something wrong with him, because after smelling this smell for a long time, he actually felt that strong fishy smell seemed to be fermenting. , there is an almost viscous sweet and rotten smell.

He blotted the carpet dry with paper towels, sprayed some freshener on it, and finally blow-dried the surface of the carpet with a blow dryer.As he did this, he could occasionally hear the splash of water as the fish turned in the salad bowl.

That salad bowl was too small for that fish, maybe he should get a fish tank.

—that was the last thought Rand Sievers had before falling asleep that night.

in the dark.The clock is ticking.

The smell of the sea that had faded in the room suddenly became stronger again.Just like what Rand saw before he fell asleep, the fish was still swimming slowly round and round in the salad bowl, but the difference was that blue fluorescence appeared on the edge of every scale on its body, which was caught by the fish. Red eyes swiveled behind transparent membranes in the middle of what Rand took to be body markings in circular markings.

A little gray thing - a furry skin, a slender tail, four small paws - a mouse appeared in the kitchen with a rustling.

Rand has always been a clumsy man. While he was searching for salad bowls and sea salt, he took the pre-prepared breakfast cereal out of the cupboard and piled it on the counter.

The mouse was attracted, it nimbly climbed onto the cooking table, and concentrated on nibbling the wrapping paper of the cereal, but it was definitely not bold. The sound of a car speeding past came from a distant place, and it Stopped, the beard moved forward, and focused on judging the surrounding environment.

The fishy smell became stronger.

A layer of blue fluorescence appeared on the edge of the salad bowl.

The mouse's whiskers trembled, and it seemed to sense something.Soon, it gave up the food in its mouth, and after a brief pause, it suddenly rushed towards the edge of the cooking table.

A slender tentacle ejected, and it pierced the mouse's eyes.

The mouse's body fell to the table with a "slap", like an empty leather bag.A slender, fluorescent thing slowly protruded from the edge of the salad bowl. Its body was so soft that it covered the mouse's corpse.

After a while, it slowly crawled back into the salad bowl.

The tabletop of the cooking table was empty and extremely clean.