"Crack-"
Rand pressed the camera button on the salad bowl, then frowned at the screen. The fish in the photo is a blob of white light with no 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 salad bowl is his cell phone, a Suha camera (a gift from Vincent), which means that plus the normal digital camera he's holding now , he has tried three ways to get a picture of the odd fish—and, all three, failed.
All the pictures, heck, really all the pictures, the fish were obscured by that weird white light, as if the center of those pictures he took had been plucked 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 cause: the neon glow on the fish. As the fish's wound was covered more and more tightly by the albuginea, the luster on its body gradually became more obvious, as if the gray spiritual piece of the thing was covered with mother-of-pearl, and the light from certain angles Rand can see the rainbow-like sheen emanating from it when illuminated.
Rand thought it was the sheen that prevented him from taking pictures 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 can't get a picture of this fish.
He explained it a little bit, but just as he expected, the people in this fish lovers forum almost completely dismissed his request for help as nonsense.
Rand wasn't very familiar with forums or any other way of communicating online, but when he finished his coffee this morning, he realized one thing, Kansas has no sea, and this odd fish is a sea fish.
At first Rand just wanted to save it and put it back when the horrific wound was healed, but now it's getting complicated. Of course, if he asks Vincent to go back, Vincent will get the private jet ready without asking any questions...
Rand shuddered and swore he would never want to do this.
He found a fish enthusiast forum on the Internet for help, but when he explained that the fish survived well in the "salt water" prepared with edible sea salt and water, everyone expressed extreme Do not trust.
No fish can do this, just like no one can survive a whole day in a vacuum without any equipment... Of course, people can survive without oxygen for a period of time, a short period of time, tens of seconds or minutes , but in the end he always died of hypoxia.
The same goes for fish.
It is absolutely impossible for a real marine fish to survive for such a long time in the brine prepared with table salt and water.
One of the only IDs tried to get Rand to take a picture and post it on the forum, but that too failed.
Rand was 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 eventually decided to buy the tank first.
In fact, the easiest solution was to kill the fish, but Rand looked at the fish and couldn'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 at the somewhat overly clean apartment, thinking that having a pet might not be such a bad thing.
Thanks to Rogers, his chatter made it easy for Rand to find that pet store in the city center. The other party didn't have much about fish, but Rand still bought the fish tank, water pump, and other miscellaneous things he needed, and of course, the most important thing, the prepared sea salt.
Just like the members on the fish lovers forum, the boss didn't believe Rand's words at all, what sea fish that lived in salt water all day, eating 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 the due precautions on the sea salt packaging.
The next thing was basically said to be smooth, but Rand had to put down the heavy aquarium because he had too many things in his hand when he went home, so he had the spare energy to fetch the keys in his bag.
It is precisely because of this that when he awkwardly opened the door, a dry hand easily grabbed him like a witch's claws.
"what-"
Rand was startled, and he turned to see the man who had caught him. It was an old gray-haired lady who looked half the size of Rand, standing there shivering, staring viciously at Rand from behind the folds of her skin with blue eyes faded to gray.
"give me back!"
She yelled at Rand vaguely, a black cat almost as scrawny as hers hissing in her arms.
"sorry, I… "
Rand had never encountered anything like this, and he had no idea what was going on.
The old lady held his hand with a strange force that was completely incompatible with her age. He even had the illusion that her fingers were going to sink into his flesh.
And that cat, God, that cat looked like it was going to eat him.
"Give it back! Give me back Corolla! Woohoo... my poor Corolla..."
The old man continued yelling 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 embarrassingly, but the old man seemed to be completely unable to understand what he said and still howled desperately at him, asking him to return the so-called Corolla to her. And the terrifying cat even exploded its fur and looked terrifying. The cat's hiss mixed with the old man's meow, and the confusion finally made Rogers open the door and stick his head out.
"What the hell is going on... Rand?"
Rogers frowned in trouble, and his eyes widened in surprise after seeing the old man who was entangled in Rand: "Mrs. Smith? Rand, how did you provoke her?"
"I do not have!"
Rand shouted in pain, then he turned his head and tried to communicate with the old man: "Sorry, I really missed your Corolla..."
"It's useless, Mrs Smith has Alzheimer's, she can't understand what you're talking about. Besides, Corolla is just a cat." Rogers came over, not knowing what technique he used, and easily removed Mrs Smith from Lanzhou. De pulled away.
The move apparently angered Mrs Smith, who screamed and slapped Rogers' chest before the cat slid from her arms.
Rand is now trying to figure out what all this is about.
"Cats? Damn, I haven't seen any cats at all... Hey, that's my house!"
His words were abruptly interrupted, because he watched helplessly as the black cat rushed straight through the crack of the door toward the room.
Rand followed it into the room, and then saw it at a glance on the kitchen counter. The cat now appeared to be twice as big as it used to be, and it made a sound as if from hell. She screamed at the salad bowl on the cooking table.
Oh his fish!
Rand rushed over and subconsciously stretched out his hand.
The cat's claws grabbed directly on his hand, and the blood spurted out almost instantly - Rand had never realized that just a cat's scratch could make so much blood.
Also, cat scratching is a damn pain.
Some blood from the wound fell into the water, and Rand wondered if the blood had irritated the fish, which changed at a terrifying rate—an unusually bright blue-green spread over it , the tail opened, and most importantly, a bright red film burst out from behind its cheeks, shaking like a cloak.
Immediately afterwards, the cat's hissing stopped abruptly as if it had seen a ghost, and then its tail shrank to the middle of its hind legs, bounced off the cooking table like a shadow, and rushed out of Rand's house.
"Hey!"
Rogers, who followed Rand, tried to stop it, but unsurprisingly failed.
After seeing the cat running away, Mrs. Smith in tears began to call out another name, Juana Greymaria... and she began to stagger after the cat.
Rand clasped his hands and stared at it all in stunned eyes.
"Rand! How are you?"
Rogers stared at Rand's hand and stood there as if he had been punched.
Rand waved at him to say it was okay, but was quickly gasped by his own actions.
"Actually, apart from a little pain I think it should be fine..."
"You are bleeding!"
Rogers looked like he was about to faint, but he still helped Rand get hydrogen peroxide and bandages.
"Uh, it's just bleeding," Rand looked at the wound on his wrist, about two centimeters long after the blood was washed away by the hydrogen peroxide—not serious, but it was a damn pain, "That old man... Mrs. Smith ... I think you should go see her."
Rand was a little worried about the old man (though her cat seemed like a lunatic), and she didn't seem like someone who could keep herself safe, especially if she was chasing a cat.
At Rand's insistence, Rogers had to leave his house to check Mrs. Smith's condition - Rogers promised he would find a way to call Mrs. Smith's guardian to deal with the matter, but Rand wanted to stay in the house first. stayed until he came back and took him to the hospital.
Rand slowly regained his senses after he closed the door.
He moved his steps to the salad bowl.