Compared to the way Mr. Laoumu had appeared beside her bed last night like a ghost—his face covered in blood, completely unconcerned about being hit, gripping her hand tightly while crying and laughing—the Laoumu standing in the sunlight now seemed almost too normal.
He smiled at her with that mesmerizingly beautiful face and casually told her to eat something before saying that he would wait for her in the garden.
Li Leyou stared at him blankly.
Faced with such a normal attitude, the only sound she could manage was:
“Ah…”
Did something else happen last night that I forgot about?
Otherwise, why is he acting so familiar with me?
Grandma Su Wei, wearing an apron, waved her over.
Li Leyou hurried over to the small kitchen.
“Xiao Li, what is going on?” Grandma Su Wei looked just as confused.
She had woken up early that morning and had nearly fallen down the stairs when she saw Mr. Laoumu sitting by the living room window, calmly wiping the blood from his face and fingers.
Ever since Mr. Laoumu had announced that he would soon return to the sea and would no longer meet outsiders, she hadn’t seen him for quite some time.
When she suddenly saw him this morning, she had assumed that his final day had finally arrived.
Unexpectedly, he looked to be in surprisingly good condition.
He had even taken the initiative to tell her:
“Make shrimp dumplings for breakfast. Li Leyou likes them.”
Then he returned to the bedroom he hadn’t visited in ages, changed into a new outfit, combed his hair, and sat on the living room sofa.
He had waited there from the faint light of dawn until the sun was already high in the sky.
It was extremely unusual.
While preparing breakfast, Grandma Su Wei had secretly slipped out several times to peek at him, wondering whether she should notify Anla to come over.
Li Leyou felt slightly embarrassed.
She glanced outside before leaning toward Grandma Su Wei and whispering like a thief.
“Actually, it’s like this…”
“Captain Anla brought me here because I look exactly like Mr. Laoumu’s late lover. He wanted Mr. Laoumu to see me during the final stage of his life, so he could have some emotional comfort.”
“And last night, after seeing me, Mr. Laoumu might have really mistaken me for his former lover…”
There were many things that were difficult to explain, so Li Leyou left out all the unnecessary details and only told Grandma Su Wei the important parts.
Grandma Su Wei’s eyes widened.
“Oh my! Mr. Laoumu actually had a lover? I’ve worked here for more than twenty years and I’ve never heard about it. But Mr. Laoumu is already over five hundred years old. It’s only natural that he might have had a lover at some point.”
“What? How old?”
“Over five hundred?”
Li Leyou’s voice involuntarily rose.
No one told me mermaids could live this long!
Looking at Laoumu’s appearance, she had assumed he was about two hundred and fifty at most—or maybe twenty-five after removing another zero.
“Mermaids live much longer than humans,” Grandma Su Wei explained. “They don’t age as visibly as we do, but Mr. Laoumu really has been alive for a very, very long time.”
As she spoke, she handed Li Leyou a plate of shrimp dumplings.
Li Leyou stood in the kitchen with the plate in one hand and chopsticks in the other, happily eating.
“Mmm…”
“He’s that old, so I suppose I can understand it.”
“Mmm… Grandma, these are the best shrimp dumplings I’ve ever eaten. They’re so good. I’ll never forget them for the rest of my life.”
Thinking about it, regardless of how young Laoumu looked, he was still genuinely a dying… merman.
If his mind was a little confused and he truly believed that she was his former lover, perhaps it wasn’t so strange.
Humans with Alzheimer’s could forget things and confuse memories.
Maybe mermaids weren’t all that different.
Grandma Su Wei cleaned the kitchen counter and said, “Perhaps it’s fate. Why don’t you spend some time talking with Mr. Laoumu? It might make him happier during his final days.”
Li Leyou had been thinking the same thing.
Forget the dramatic replacement-lover nonsense.
She could simply treat him like an elderly merman suffering from severe memory problems, pretend to be an old friend, chat with him, and provide some emotional comfort.
That was humanitarian care, wasn’t it?
As for the somewhat inappropriate concern she had secretly worried about before…
Considering how old Mr. Mermaid was, it seemed she didn’t have to worry about that anymore.
“Okay. I understand.”
After eating the last shrimp dumpling, Li Leyou wiped her mouth.
With a solemn sense of duty, she straightened her back and walked into the garden.
Whatever Mr. Laoumu wants to talk about, I’ll talk with him.
The first question immediately made Li Leyou nervously pick at her fingers.
“How did you come back from the dead?”
The two of them sat facing each other across a small round table on a seaside garden balcony.
“Did I die? I don’t really remember that.”
The confident posture Li Leyou had adopted when she arrived had already collapsed.
“You don’t remember…”
“You’ve forgotten everything, including me, haven’t you?”
Some people’s voices were so beautiful that you could hear hundreds of different emotions hidden inside them.
The sorrow and restraint beneath Laoumu’s calm voice were strangely affecting.
It washed over Li Leyou’s heart like the tide creeping onto a beach at night, leaving her chest feeling so tight that she wondered if she’d eaten too many shrimp dumplings.
Wanting to make the merman happier, Li Leyou steeled herself and lied.
“I remember a little.”
Sure enough, Laoumu’s eyes brightened slightly.
“Then what do you remember?”
“I remember that you’re a mermaid.”
“And… um, that you can sing.”
With a voice this beautiful, he definitely had to be able to sing.
It was a safe guess.
Phew.
Come on. Let’s see what else you’re going to ask me!
She waited.
And waited.
But Laoumu didn’t ask anything else.
The silence lasted so long that Li Leyou couldn’t help shifting in her chair.
Finally, Laoumu spoke again.
He changed the subject.
“You once asked me what happens to a mermaid when they grow old.”
“I told you that if you were curious, you could stay beside me and witness what it was like for me to grow old.”
“Mermaids are faithful to their partners. If nothing unexpected happened, we could grow old together.”
“You told me that although you couldn’t promise me anything else, you would definitely stay beside me during my final days.”
“After you left, I thought about those words countless times.”
“I thought you were a cruel liar.”
“But I never expected you to actually keep your promise and return to my side during my final days.”
Li Leyou: “……”
She didn’t know what to say.
People in love really do say all kinds of ridiculous things.
And most of those promises never actually come true.
“Since you don’t remember anything, I won’t ask anymore.”
Laoumu smiled calmly and nodded.
“Those things aren’t important anymore.”
He looked at Li Leyou across the table.
Right now, every minute and every second of the time he had left felt extraordinarily precious.
Behind him, several cars were driving across the bridge leading to the seaside castle.
Several men and women stepped out of luxury vehicles, carrying and pushing all kinds of large and small boxes.
“They’re here. Let’s go.”
Laoumu stood first.
“I noticed your clothes don’t fit properly, so I had some suitable ones sent over. You can try them on now.”
Once the group entered the castle’s living room, the middle-aged man at the front approached Laoumu with obvious excitement.
Even from several steps away, he had already extended both hands.
“Mr. Laoumu, it is truly an honor to serve you!”
“I don’t know if you remember me, but when I was young, my grandfather once brought me to take your measurements for a custom-made suit.”
“I still remember the suit you wore to that international conference.”
“Unfortunately, by the time I took over the family business, you had already stopped appearing in public very often. I never had the chance to design clothes for you myself. It is truly one of the greatest regrets of my life…”
The middle-aged man, who couldn’t stop talking and whose eyes practically glowed with excitement, was a famous designer.
Laoumu gave him a brief handshake.
“But when I contacted Mr. Pan, I said that I wanted clothes made for the lady beside me.”
“Yes, yes, of course!”
Mr. Pan immediately understood.
He turned toward Li Leyou.
“I certainly haven’t forgotten today’s main guest!”
“Beautiful young lady, I’ve brought the latest collections from all our designers, including their proudest designs. I’m certain you’ll find something you like.”
Li Leyou:
What is this conversation straight out of some extravagant upper-class society drama?
If you just wanted to buy me clothes, couldn’t you have told me? I could’ve ordered two outfits online myself.
But she was living under someone else’s roof.
Her philosophy was simple:
Cooperate with everything.
So she tried on the clothes.
The dresses were undeniably beautiful.
But their cuts required extraordinary figures to carry them properly.
Some featured intricate hand embroidery, while others were decorated with wave patterns made from countless one-millimeter pearls painstakingly sewn into the fabric.
No matter how luxurious the designers claimed they were, if the clothes weren’t comfortable, they simply weren’t comfortable.
They were trying on clothes in a small sitting room on the second floor.
Even though Laoumu sat quietly in a corner by the window, he remained the center of everyone’s attention.
Almost everyone present kept stealing glances at him, their eyes filled with excitement and admiration.
But Laoumu paid them no attention.
His gaze remained fixed on Li Leyou as she stepped out of the dressing room.
She didn’t look particularly happy.
That isn’t the expression she makes when she truly likes something.
“How do you think this one looks?”
After being surrounded by all these people, Li Leyou had unconsciously started addressing Laoumu respectfully as well.
“You don’t like it,” he said.
He only cared about what she wanted.
“It’s… okay. The clothes are all beautiful.”
Li Leyou lifted the heavy hem of the dress.
At least all these pearls and gemstones are real.
Just then, another group of people arrived.
This time, it was a tall, thin elderly man with white hair, accompanied by two younger men.
All three wore suits and carried themselves like seasoned corporate professionals.
“Mr. Laoumu, I’m very happy to receive your message!”
The old man had clearly tried to control his emotions, but his excitement was still obvious.
Laoumu nodded at him.
“Sorry to trouble you, He Ping. You’re already retired, yet I still have to ask you to come work for me.”
He Ping looked so moved that he seemed ready to cry.
“No, no. I’m very happy to serve you again. Whenever you need me, I’m always willing to help!”
He Ping was already sixty years old.
He had once been Laoumu’s assistant and had worked by his side for nearly forty years.
Two years earlier, when Laoumu stopped needing other people’s services, He Ping had retired with tears in his eyes.
“For the time being, your main responsibility will be to serve her.”
Laoumu introduced Li Leyou, who was standing nearby.
“Her name is Li Leyou.”
True to his reputation as Laoumu’s longtime trusted assistant, He Ping didn’t ask a single unnecessary question.
He immediately slipped back into his professional role.
First, he saw the famous designer, Mr. Pan, off.
Then he contacted the other renowned designers Laoumu had previously invited and informed them that they no longer needed to come.
“It was my oversight,” Laoumu explained.
“I haven’t gone out in a long time, and I haven’t kept up with the outside world. I didn’t know what kind of clothes would suit her, so I invited several designers whose names I remembered.”
“I didn’t expect their designs to be unsuitable.”
It wasn’t merely a few designers.
Given Laoumu’s status and influence, every move he made was enough to spark endless speculation.
That morning, the entire city of Xinhai—and even the wider Haizhou region—had been shaken.
Countless people were probably wondering what the long-reclusive Mr. Laoumu was planning.
But his actual intention seemed to be nothing more than buying a few clothes that the woman beside him would like.
After seeing the guests out, He Ping stood by the doorway.
He heard Laoumu apologetically say to the young woman:
“If you don’t like something, you have to tell me.”
He Ping had first come to work for Laoumu when he was twenty.
At that time, Laoumu had already been an extremely powerful and influential figure.
The Laoumu in He Ping’s memories had always been distant.
He never wasted emotional energy unless it was necessary.
He was always calm and composed, capable of handling any problem or crisis with ease.
That effortless confidence and charisma had left a deep impression on He Ping, and he had always admired him greatly.
But he had never seen Laoumu behave this way.
So attentive.
So gentlemanly.
So considerate toward a woman.
And the young woman herself…
She looked innocent and somewhat naive, like a student who had never left the safety of an ivory tower.
“You don’t have to go this far,” she said optimistically.
“It’s just a few clothes. I could’ve gone to the mall and bought them myself.”
“You’d rather go shopping yourself?”
Laoumu stood up.
“That makes sense. That would indeed be more suitable.”
He turned toward He Ping.
He Ping immediately gave them a kind smile.
“Then I’ll arrange everything for you two. Depending on the time, you may also need to have a meal outside. Shall I make a reservation at a restaurant in advance?”