The Merman I Raised Got Lost, So I Have to Bring Him Back

Blurb:

Chen Rui, who hated trouble, once raised a mermaid.

It had sharp teeth, pointed claws, a beautiful fish tail, and a pair of lake-blue eyes. It was vain and fussy, and spent all day pestering her to make the freshest fish soup and the prettiest shell bed.

Then one day, it disappeared.

She didn't go looking for it. She simply carried on with her peaceful life without a mermaid.

Until she got hold of a book.

In the book, the mermaid was the obedient tool at the heroine's side. She found it after it lost its memory, and in gratitude, it gave her mermaid pearls when she had no money, shielded her from danger, and slit its wrists to give her blood when she was injured.

Chen Rui, meanwhile, was a nameless cannon-fodder character whose job was to give her life at just the right moment, so that the broken and despondent mermaid would devote itself to the kind heroine who comforted and stayed by its side.

Chen Rui quietly finished the book, then spent the entire night sharpening a knife on the blue stone the mermaid used to rub its scales. The next day, she went straight to the sect where the heroine lived.

*

When she saw the mermaid again, it stood in front of the heroine to block Chen Rui's knife.

Chen Rui gave it a cool glance, turned, and walked away. She paid no heed to the heroine, who was frightened to tears, or to the mermaid's outstretched hand.

That night, the mermaid somehow climbed into the room of that strange woman, only for her to grab it by the throat and pin it against the wall.

It stared hard at her, baring its sharp teeth. A whimper that sounded like both a warning and a plea escaped its throat, while its parched, miserable tail curled around the human before it with practiced, gentle familiarity.

Chen Rui didn't like talking, so she couldn't be bothered to investigate. She just stroked the mermaid's sharp teeth, bit by bit, and asked, "Do you want to come with me?"

It didn't answer. Its sharp teeth kept extending and retracting as if they were broken. It didn't dare bite her, and its lake-blue eyes were full of inexplicable nervousness.

Tired of waiting, she simply pressed down on its head and made it nod.

And so the mermaid "obediently" followed Chen Rui home.

She put a new muzzle on it, used the knife she'd sharpened to trim its claws, and lowered it into the pool. As she stroked its beautiful tail, restored by the water, she caught the lustrous pearls that fell one by one.

P.S. This is a one-on-one healing romance with a happy ending.

P.P.S. The mermaid is underage and genderless in the first half, and Chen Rui raises it as a pet, so it is referred to as "it." When she takes it in again in the second half, it has reached adulthood and developed as male, so it is referred to as "he." The romance officially begins then.

Theme: See things through to the end, even when raising a mermaid.