"Ding-"
With the sound, two pieces of toast that had been baked to a golden brown jumped out of the toast driver. Not far from it, above the bluish flames, a fried egg was creaking on a black frying pan, there was bacon in the kitchen, and the smell of yellow mustard danced. The yellowish sunlight streamed in from the window and fell on the island-shaped countertop, and the white milk in the bowl was littered with crispy cereal, studded with red and purple dried berries.
Rand tilted his head, tossing Greek salad with yogurt and sweet orange and mint leaves in a salad bowl (not the one Munster had been to), his phone tucked between his shoulders and ears. Unlike the laid-back and warm atmosphere that spread throughout the kitchen, his expression was actually a little anxious... mixed with some helplessness. There was urgency in his voice.
"… yes, I know it's a hassle, but I do need an aquarium... yes, I don't care about the size, it's a lot bigger than the previous one? Oh, no problem, really, whatever... Anyway, if you guys It would be wonderful to have it installed today... oh, ok... thank you so much, thank you so much!"
After hanging up the phone, he breathed a long sigh of relief. He never thought that one day he would feel the redemption of his life because of an aquarium.
Thinking back to when he woke up this morning... oh, that was a nightmare.
He didn't remember what happened to Munster last night, he just walked straight into the bathroom in a daze, dragging his sleepy body as before. However, after opening the shower curtain, he instantly saw the little monster floating above the water—
Its belly is facing upwards, the two claws-like pectoral fins are gathered in front of its chest, its eyes are closed, and it makes a small even breathing sound of "whispering", and the two tiny tentacles occasionally vibrate on the top of its head.
It slept so well that it took Rand a moment to remember that his bathtub had now become the little monster's home.
Well, in fact everything seemed to be fine as of this point - Rand even just held his forehead and decided to forego his morning shower with a hint of resignation.
At this time, he just thought simply, maybe he could observe the little monster carefully, after all, it floated so easily on the water and was so close to him. Rand really wanted to find out what the hell it was.
So Rand bent down and leaned over. He narrowed his eyes slightly because of his shortsightedness. Maybe he was a little too close to Munster. He could even smell the light water on the little monster. taste…
And Munster also opened his eyes at this time—
It saw Rand at a glance.
God knows what's going on in that weird little head.
"Haw-haw-"
It jumped up from the water with a scream, and its tail instantly slapped everything in the bathtub, and Rand was immediately soaked. He suspected that Munster was about to jump on his face, and even his face was slapped by its tail, he felt a sharp pain, and the large amount of spray made his vision blurred.
Rand closed his eyes in a panic, and shoved his hands around in front of him—all in all, the scene was hell—he only touched something slippery, maybe his fingernails picked something, but he didn't react at all.
Until another loud splash sounded, Munster fell back into the bathtub. Rand wiped his face casually with the shower curtain, and he looked down with a livid face, and saw Munster scurrying at the bottom of the crystal clear bathtub - after a few seconds it hit the wall of the bathtub and curled up there. , appears to be trying to bury himself under water.
If it was on the real bottom of the sea, his behavior might be barely "disguised", but for God's sake - it's in Rand's fucking bathtub!
Rand could hardly contain the anger in his chest, he was going crazy, after all, he never thought that one day he would be so embarrassed by a fish (maybe not a fish)!
And, twice.
He took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and even started thinking about the possibility of getting it out of his home. But then he saw a hint of blue floating in the clear water.
oh wait...
Rand frowned, he remembered that the blood of this little monster is blue, and he just... seems to have picked something
Looking down, Rand found that he also had a dry blue streak on his nails. He couldn't help tensing his lower lip, realizing that he might have hurt Munster just now.
He stood there, dumbfounded for a moment, and then he thought he might still be unable to turn a blind eye to Munster's injury. So he had to be frightened to cheer himself up and put his hand into the water.
"Hey, you bloody little fellow, I don't want to hurt you, so you'll calm down a bit too?"
He spoke to it uncontrollably, his face still aching where his tail had fanned before.
Oh god, why did he get to where he is now, Rand groaned in his own heart, vowing that he would never save any fish of unknown origin... or any kind of strange animal in the future. .
Not sure if Rand's muttering played a role, Munster showed no panic this time, although Rand took a little effort to pull his head out of that corner (can someone tell him Why does a fish have so much strength?!).
Then Rand found that one of the tentacles on Munster's head had fallen off, and the other one didn't look very good - it was on one side, half separated from the root and the other side was attached by a thin skin .
From where the tentacles fell off, blue blood slowly oozes out.
"Damn."
Rand cursed in a low voice.
He didn't know what the tentacles meant to the odd creature but apparently it had been injured by his previous actions.
Rand tried to touch Munster's tentacles, which still had a layer of skin attached, and it felt soft... and Munster immediately let out a cry.
It twisted its body violently, escaped from Rand's hands, and continued to fall into the corner of the bathtub.
Rand was really unsure whether to leave those two little wounds alone... and... he really wasn't happy that his bathtub had been soaked in unknown blood from unknown creatures.
After thinking for a while, he brought the first aid kit from the room, and with the thought of "I am treating a fish right now" constantly echoing in his mind, he sterilized the scissors with alcohol, and then carefully removed the small The monster was fished out, and the layer of skin attached to the tentacles was cut short as gently as possible.
He thought Munster would scream or struggle, just like before, but the strange thing was that this time it just sat wet and motionless on the edge of the bathtub, letting Rand move, making small "chirps" in his mouth. hum.
This was the first time Rand had heard anything other than "chirp" in its mouth.
I have to say that Munster looks much cuter than before.
Rand abnormally hopes that its nature can also agree with what it is now...
He and Munster looked at each other for a moment, then heaved a deep sigh.
He stretched out a finger and tapped Munster's bare head, which made a "chirp...chirp" tone, and turned over and dived to the bottom of the water.
All in all, that's what Rand does all morning—fighting and healing his pet fish.
By the way, he was also deprived of a place to bathe by the other party.
To sum up, in Rand's current life, he finds that the thing he needs most is an aquarium. So he called the store where he had ordered and asked if they could install it on the same day. This request is unreasonable, after all, it was initially agreed that it would be a week later. In fact, Rand did not report too much hope, but after hearing that Rand was willing to give up the good deposit, the other party happily said that he could introduce a Sichuan restaurant in Chinatown to Rand.
Yes, this may sound crazy, but in fact, this restaurant has exactly what Rand needs in stock: they've just ordered a bunch of aquariums in China, and for the money, they're more than happy to put them in. One goes to Rand, although the aquarium is probably slightly bigger than he needs in terms of specifications (actually this is exactly what Rand wants, after all, even he is not sure now whether Munster will continue to grow in the future. Big). The most gratifying thing is that those hard-working Chinese people are willing to come to help the installation on the same day.
Rand finally felt that the god of luck favored him once.
On this afternoon, the Sichuan restaurant rang the doorbell of Rand as agreed. The aquariums they brought were, in theory, to display live fish for that group of guests in the restaurant - which they say they always do in their hometown, after all only the freshest fish make the most delicious food Boiled fish.
The size of the aquarium was actually bigger than Rand had imagined—it took a little while for the Chinese workers in charge of the installation to fully install it. Sure, it's a bit rougher than the average commercial aquarium available, but…
"Very easy to use... very... sturdy... "
The leading Chinese worker stammered at Rand in English with a Taiwanese accent.
"Ah, thanks," Rand said gratefully to him, and then he looked at the aquarium, which was a little exaggerated compared to the living room, and muttered to himself hypnotically, "and I think it only takes a long time to look at it. Maybe it's not that ugly either."
In fact, even if it is a beautiful aquarium, for the current Rand... and the real resident of the aquarium, the little monster called Munster doesn't make any sense, after all, Munster itself is not counted. A delightful creature.
After filling, Rand pulled Munster out of the tub and put it in the aquarium.
During this process, a young worker who was still debugging the water inlet equipment kept his eyes on Munster.
"Any questions?"
Rand couldn't help asking.
The worker shook his head shyly. His English was not that good, but he still quickly said a word to his friend, the leading worker, in Chinese.
"He said... it's a pike..."
The lead worker translated.
Rand was very surprised. He thought Munster was some weird deep-sea species, but he didn't expect that any Chinese would recognize it.
"Haha... He said... He doesn't know very well, but it looks a bit like... "
The other party continued.
Rand repeated the odd word, and decided to look for some information on the Internet later.
"Thank you," he thanked very sincerely, and in all fairness, with a sense of relief knowing that Munster wasn't a real little monster, "I thought I'd never know what it was."
"In China... it's very precious and it makes a noise... but it is also raised and eaten, and it is said to be delicious... "
When the worker finished speaking, he seemed to realize that something was wrong, and he showed an embarrassed smile.
"This one of yours is so pretty..."
He quickly explained, indicating that he really had no other intentions. Rand twitched the corners of his mouth, showing he didn't care, although fundamentally he was shocked by what the Chinese said.
After paying the fee and sending the worker away. He returned to the front of the aquarium and carefully observed Munster - the latter was obviously not used to his new residence and was circling up and down. The faint blue scales emit a pearl-like light on the bottom of the water.
Rand felt that for such a creature, even if he killed him, he would not be able to have an appetite.