Mermaid Effect

"Crack-"

Rand pressed the camera button on the salad bowl, and he frowned at the screen.The fish in the photo is a mass of white light without any shape.

Rand couldn't help looking at the salad plate in front of him. The fish was swimming as slowly as any normal fish in the world.Next to the brushed stainless steel salad bowl is his mobile phone, a Suha camera (a gift from Vincent), which means that plus the ordinary digital camera he is holding now. , he has tried three ways to get a photo of the odd fish - and all three have failed.

All the pictures, hell, all the pictures, of the fish were covered in that weird white light, as if the center of the pictures he had taken had been gouged out with a fingernail.Rand turned off the flash and tried different focal lengths, but couldn't get a picture of the fish.He's not a very good photographer, but he's not that bad either.After thinking for a moment, Rand finally determined the reason: the neon light on the fish.As the fish's wound was more and more tightly covered by the white film, the luster on its body gradually became more obvious, as if the gray piece of the thing was covered with mother-of-pearl, and the light from certain angles Rand could see its iridescent sheen in the light.

Rand thinks it's the sheen that prevents him from getting a photo of the fish at all.He reluctantly put away the camera, walked back to the computer and typed that line in the reply box.

Sorry, I couldn't get a picture of the fish.

He explained a bit, but as he'd expected, the guy on the fish lovers forum took his plea for help almost entirely as gibberish.

Rand was not very familiar with forums or other online communication methods, but when he finished his coffee this morning, he realized one thing, Kansas has no sea, and this weird fish is a sea fish.

At first, Rand just wanted to save it and put it back when the terrible wound healed, but now this matter seemed to be complicated.Of course, if he asked Vincent that he wanted to go back, Vincent would have the private jet ready without asking any questions...

Rand shuddered. He swore he would never want to do this.

He found a fish lovers forum on the Internet to ask for help, but when he explained that the fish survived well in the pot of "brine" made of edible sea salt and fresh water, everyone expressed extreme outrage. distrust.

No fish can do this, just like no human can survive in a vacuum for a whole day without any equipment... Of course, humans can indeed survive without oxygen for a while, a short period of time, tens of seconds or a few seconds Minutes, but in the end he always dies from lack of oxygen.

The same goes for fish.

It is absolutely impossible for a real marine fish to survive for such a long time in the salt water prepared with table salt and clean water.

The only ID tried to get Rand to take a picture and post it on the forum, but this also failed.

Rand was a little at a loss. He sat in front of the computer. After a few minutes, the post sank, and no one paid any attention to him.

Rand finally decided to buy the fish tank first.

In fact, the easiest solution is to kill the fish, but looking at the fish, Rand still can't forget that he brought it back from the sea.

To use a funny word to describe it is that he feels that he may have some responsibility for it.

And... Rand looked around the apartment that was a bit too clean, and felt that having a pet might not be such a bad thing.

Thanks to Rogers, his chatter made it easy for Rand to find the downtown pet store.The other party didn't have much information about fish, but Rand still bought the fish tanks, water pumps, and other miscellaneous things he needed. Of course, the most important thing was the prepared sea salt.

Just like the members on the fish lovers forum, the boss didn't believe Rand's words at all, what kind of marine fish that lived in salt water all day, ate meat and cereal...

"Hahaha, are you raising a monster?"

The other party made a joke, but this did not prevent him from carefully marking Rand's due precautions on the sea salt packaging.

The next thing basically went smoothly, except that when Rand returned home, he had to put down the aquarium that was almost deadly because he had too many things in his hands, so he had the energy to dig out the keys in his bag.

It was precisely because of this that when he clumsily opened the door, a withered hand grabbed him as easily as a witch's claw.

"what--"

Startled, Rand turned and saw his captor.It was a gray-haired old lady who looked half Rand's size, standing there trembling, blue eyes faded to gray due to aging, staring at Rand viciously from behind the folds of skin.

"give me back!"

She yelled vaguely at Rand, and a black cat almost as skinny as herself hissed and howled in her arms.

"sorry, I……"

Rand had never encountered such a thing, and he was completely at a loss as to what happened.

The old lady held his hand with a strange force that was completely out of her age, and he even had the illusion that her fingers were going to sink into his flesh.

And the cat, God, the cat looked like it was going to eat him.

"Give it back to me! Give me back Corolla! Woooooo...my poor Corolla..."

The old man continued to yell at Rand, and this time he finally heard her clearly.

"Sorry. I don't know what you mean by Corolla, but I swear I never touched her."

Rand tried to explain in embarrassment, but the old man was still howling desperately at him as if he couldn't understand what he said at all, asking him to return the so-called Corolla to her.And the scary cat had its hair blown out, looking terribly scary.The cat's hissing mixed with the old man's meowing, and the confusion finally caused Rogers to open the door and stick his head out.

"What the hell is going on... Rand?"

Rogers frowned very troubled, and opened his eyes even more surprised after seeing the old man pestering Rand: "Mrs. Smith? Rand, how did you provoke her?"

"I do not have!"

Rand yelled in pain, then he turned his head, trying to communicate with the old man: "Sorry, I really didn't have your Corolla..."

"It's useless, Mrs. Smith has dementia, she can't understand what you are talking about. And, Corolla is just a cat." Rogers walked over, and he didn't know what trick he used, and easily put Mrs. Smith out of Lan De pulled away from the side.

This action obviously angered Mrs. Smith, who screamed and slapped Rogers on the chest, and the cat fell from her arms.

Rand was trying to figure out what was going on at this time.

"Cats? Damn, I've never seen a cat before... Hey, that's my house!"

His words were suddenly interrupted, because he watched the black cat rush straight into the room through the crack of the door.

Rand rushed into the room after it, and saw it scurry onto the kitchen counter at a glance. The cat now seemed to be twice its original size, and it made a sound that seemed to come from hell. Screamed at the salad bowl on the counter.

Oh his fish!

Rand ran over and subconsciously stretched out his hand.

The cat's paw directly grabbed his hand, and the blood gushed out almost instantly - before this, Rand had never realized that just a cat's scratch could produce so much blood.

Plus, cat scratching is a damn pain.

Some of the blood gushing from the wound fell into the water. Rand didn't know if the blood had stimulated the fish. It changed at a terrifying speed—an unusually gorgeous blue-green color spread across its body. Come on, the tail opened, and most importantly, a bright red film popped out from behind its gills, shaking like a cloak.

Immediately afterwards, the cat's hissing stopped abruptly as if it had seen a ghost, and then its tail retracted between its hind legs, and it bounced off the cooking table like a shadow and rushed out of Rand's house.

"Hey!"

Rogers, who was following Rand, tried to stop it, but failed as expected.

After seeing the fleeing cat, Mrs. Smith, in tears, began to call another name, Juana Gremaria... and then she began to stagger after the cat.

Rand covered his hands and watched all this dumbfounded.

"Rand! Are you all right?"

Rogers stared at Rand's hand, standing there as if he had been punched.

Rand waved at him to show he was okay, but quickly gasped at his own actions.

"Actually, apart from a little pain, I think there should be nothing wrong..."

"You're bleeding!"

Rogers looked like he was about to faint, but he helped Rand get hydrogen peroxide and bandages anyway.

"Uh, it's just bleeding," Rand looked at the wound exposed after the hydrogen peroxide washed away the blood. On the wrist, it was about two centimeters long—it wasn't serious, but it was a damn pain. "That old man... Mrs. Smith . . . I think you should go and see her."

Rand was a little worried about the old man (although her cat seemed to be a lunatic), she didn't seem like a person who could keep herself safe, especially if she was chasing a cat.

At Rand's insistence, Rogers had to leave his house to check on Mrs. Smith's condition first - Rogers promised that he would find a way to call Mrs. Smith's guardian to deal with the problem, but Rand had to be in the house first Stay well until he comes back and take him to the hospital.

After he closed the door, Rand slowly recovered.

He walked over to the salad bowl.