Life in the third year of college became increasingly busy, and both Yu Xi and Gu Beilu were on track in their respective majors.

In addition to his schoolwork, Gu Beilu also has to manage his own startup company, and Yu Xi’s major requires an overseas internship, so there was a period of time when the two hardly saw each other.

In December, Yu Xi had just finished an offshore project and returned home, but Gu Beilu had just finished a meeting in another province and would not be back until the next day.

In the evening, just after he finished taking a bath, Gu Beilu’s video came over.

He lay on the bed in his bathrobe and turned on the video.

On the phone screen, Gu Beilu’s deep eyes revealed a little fatigue, but the moment he saw Yu Xi, all the fatigue disappeared: “What is my Xixi doing?”

“I just took a shower.” Yu Xi pursed his lips and asked him, “Did the meeting go well? Are you tired?”

Gu Beilu said in a deep voice: “I’m not tired. I wanted to go back tonight, but I have a lunch meeting tomorrow morning, so I can only go in the afternoon.”

Yu Xi said: “Don’t worry, take a good rest first.”

There were several times when Gu Beilu finished work and didn’t even have time to eat, and had to catch the earliest flight back.

Yu Xi thought about it and felt a little distressed.

“I’m anxious.” Gu Beilu zoomed in a little, as if he wanted to see the person in the camera more clearly. “I want to see you soon.”

It had been so long since they last saw each other that two weeks seemed so long to him.

Yu Xi leaned his head against the pillow and said with a smile: “We see each other every day.”

They video chat almost every day, and if they don’t video chat, they will call each other, otherwise they can’t sleep well. Sometimes he doesn’t understand why they are still so close after so many years.

Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but smile sweetly in front of the camera, with his eyebrows curved, looking very beautiful.

Gu Beilu was quiet for a few seconds, staring at the screen for a long time before saying, “I want to hug you, baby.”

Even though they had been together for so long, Yu Xi still had no resistance to his blatant flirting, and his face suddenly felt hot.

Seeing the little blushing face, Gu Beilu felt even more itchy: “Why are you still so shy?”

Yu Xi hid half of his face behind the pillow in dissatisfaction, leaving his beautiful almond-shaped eyes to look at the person in the camera. The person was still staring at him without blinking, his eyes full of pampering, and he suddenly felt playful.

“I want to hug you, too.”

There was a hint of coquettishness in his tone, sweet and soft, like cotton candy.

After he finished speaking, he thought for a moment and then added, “I miss you so much.”

“elder brother.”

As soon as the last word fell, Gu Beilu’s eyes darkened instantly. Yu Xi could almost hear his heavier breathing.

Gu Beilu has been coaxing Yu Xi to call him that since they were young, and this hobby has not changed in more than ten years.

Seeing the undercurrent in his eyes that was about to be revealed, Yu Xi knew when to quit.

“Okay, let’s stop talking. Go and have a rest. I’ll wait for you to come back tomorrow.”

He wanted to end the video, but Gu Beilu refused.

After being teased by him like this, Gu Beilu was so angry that he couldn’t sleep at all.

“You just want me to be able to go back tonight, right?”

Looking at the people in the video, Gu Beilu said through gritted teeth.

Yu Xi’s face popped out from behind the pillow, his eyes fluttering, and he smiled.

Innocent face.

What he said came true, but he remained fearless.

He knew that if there were still flights tonight, Gu Beilu might have already left for the airport.

Gu Beilu stopped talking, turned over, faced the desk lamp, and stared at the screen quietly, his eyes full of lust.

Yu Xi looked at the magnified facial features in the camera, scratched his face, and moved the phone closer. He felt that watching Gu Beilu through the mobile phone video was a little different. Or maybe because he had no sense of touch, he could focus more on watching people.

Compared to the past, the adult Gu Beilu’s face has become more calm and mature, and the stubble on his chin grows faster and faster, and he has to shave every morning. Yu Xi sometimes takes the opportunity to rub his chin with his cheek, which is prickly and fun.

“What are you thinking about?” Gu Beilu could always see that he was distracted.

“I want to rub your beard.” Yu Xi rubbed his face on the pillow, “I want to rub it now.”

At this time, every time he took a casual breath, it seemed that Gu Beilu was teasing.

Hearing such words, the person being teased becomes even more unable to remain calm.

“Xixi…” He said in a hoarse voice, “How many IOUs do we have left?”

Yu Xi was stunned, vaguely guessing Gu Beilu’s voice-over, and his face suddenly became even hotter.

In order to get Gu Beilu to tutor Shen Di before the high school entrance examination, he wrote a lot of IOUs and promised Gu Beilu that he could use the IOUs to make him repay the favor in the future.

Of course, at that time he thought it was just normal mutual help. It was not until he went to college that he realized that in Gu Beilu’s eyes, these IOUs had other uses.

Half a year after they moved into this apartment, Gu Beilu felt that the room was too small and wanted to move to a larger flat, but gave up after Yu Xi strongly opposed it.

Yu Xi felt that this apartment was more than enough for the two of them to live in, and there was no need for a bigger place. Besides, Gu Beilu only complained about the small house when he was bothering him at night. Every time when he was crying and confused, he would coax him in his ear, trying to get him to agree to move to a bigger apartment, the kind that could fit a bigger sofa.

After knowing Gu Beilu’s intention, it was even less likely that he would give in.

However, after giving up on moving to a new apartment, Gu Beilu insisted on renovating a family hot spring pool that was large enough for two adults to exercise.

Gu Beilu usually cherishes the opportunity to use IOUs and is reluctant to use them unless he has “evil thoughts” that he cannot control.

But this time, after he hung up the video, he went online and ordered a mermaid swimsuit for Yu Xi.

The next morning, Yu Xi was awakened by a call from the courier.

Before going to bed yesterday, Gu Beilu said he wanted to exchange the IOU for this, and he had a bad feeling. Although he was mentally prepared, he was still surprised when he opened the box.

He had many freediving fishtail swimsuits, but none of them was so informal, and it was obvious that they were not the kind of style that could be worn in a children’s aquarium.

The last time they hadn’t seen each other for two weeks, the night they reunited was full of noise until dawn, and Yu Xi remembered that he had to lie in bed for two days to recover. He had learned his lesson, and the more he cried and begged for mercy, the more Gu Beilu lost control.

Gu Beilu has been working non-stop for so many days this time and must be very tired. As long as he is more proactive, he should be able to finish earlier.

That evening, when Gu Beilu returned home with a chill, there was no one in the living room. He put down his suitcase, took off his coat and hung it up, and called Yu Xi’s name, but no response.

There was no one in the room, the bathroom door was closed, and there was no sound of the shower.

When the bathroom door was pushed open by a strong hand, humid water vapor hit me in the face, bringing with it the scent of seaweed.

The steam is like a veil, gently covering the entire bathroom. The unique warmth and humidity of the hot spring melts away all the coldness and fatigue at this moment.

After seeing the people in the hot spring pool clearly, Gu Beilu’s breathing stagnated.

In the water, a fish tail is covered with mysterious and noble black diamond scales, flexible and slender, reflecting a star-like luster under the soft light.

The thin and transparent fabric extends to the waist, and the smooth muscle lines extend upward like a perfect work of art.

Gu Beilu couldn’t take his eyes off her and even forgot to speak.

“Brother, your mermaid has been waiting for you for a long time.” Yu Xi put his arms on the edge of the pool, like a mermaid floating out of the water. A few strands of wet hair were scattered on his forehead on her palm-sized face, and his big watery eyes blinked.

The next second, Gu Beilu leaned over and warned in a low voice.

“Baby, didn’t anyone tell you that it would be dangerous for mermaids to leave the sea?” They were close enough that they could see themselves clearly in each other’s eyes.

A tsunami was brewing in Gu Beilu’s deep eyes.

But his little mermaid, ignorant of the immensity of the world, stretched out his hand to invite him.

*

The next day at noon, Yu Xi curled up in bed, drinking the hot porridge brought to his bedside, questioning his life.

He was full of confidence yesterday and hooked up with Gu Beilu, not giving Gu Beilu a chance to catch his breath after returning home, thinking that this would make it all over quickly.

I have to admit, it feels great in the hot spring. When the exaggerated fishtail dress was torn off, he took the initiative to ask for navel orange.

But unexpectedly, Gu Beilu’s eyes were hooked red, but his speed was not faster than usual.

That fishtail dress released all the evil in Gu Beilu’s heart.

So in the enclosed space in the hot spring vapor, Yu Xi felt as if he had experienced a violent storm at sea.

Dark clouds loomed overhead, and huge waves surged. He had never seen such an out-of-control storm at sea when he was a mermaid.

In the face of this raging natural force, a little mermaid struggled to survive in the raging waves. His body was light and soft, but in the violent tsunami, this lightness became a disadvantage, and every hit of a big wave could be a fatal impact.

The little mermaid tried hard to keep his direction, but was constantly overturned and swept away by the huge waves. He felt an unprecedented loss of control, and every time he went deep into the bottom of the waves, he was surrounded by darkness and a sense of oppression.

Faced with the test of this tsunami, the little mermaid could not resist and could only learn how to find balance in this turbulent environment.

Nature is the best teacher. The little mermaid learns quickly. He uses the small gaps between the waves, breathes quickly, adjusts his frequency to avoid direct collisions with the huge waves, and even uses a swimming posture that he has never used before.

Finally, he found a harmonious rhythm and indulged in it.

At the top of the huge wave, he looked up and saw the gorgeous aurora, like a fantasy. This was a beautiful sight he had never seen in the sea. The boundary between the sea and the sky was blurred, everything was immersed in the colorful light waves, and time was completely frozen at this moment.

After an unknown amount of time, after accelerating to the limit, the storm finally began to weaken, the rage on the sea gradually subsided, and things returned to normal.

Although the little mermaid who remained in the sea was exhausted, he gained rare survival experience. Every breath after deprivation of oxygen became more precious.

*

After Yu Xi finished drinking the hot porridge, Gu Beilu kissed him on the forehead, apologized with a distressed look, and said that he had made the baby tired again last night.

He glared at Gu Beilu unhappily, and asked with a lozenge in his mouth, “Where’s the fishtail dress?”

Gu Beilu paused for a moment, his eyes fell on his long, straight legs, and said, “It’s torn.”

Yu Xi breathed a sigh of relief, then realized what Gu Beilu was looking at, and immediately got under the quilt.

Gu Beilu said: “You want to wear it? I’ll buy some more…”

Yu Xi blushed and ordered: “No more buying!”

“Okay, then I won’t buy it.” Gu Beilu laughed and rubbed the little head sticking out from under the quilt, “Then can I make the hot spring pool bigger?”

“No way!”

Yu Xi fell into deep thought.

When will these IOUs be used up?

Later, he came up with a good idea – adding an unfair clause to the frequency of use of the IOU, which allowed it to be used only once a month.

Of course, the price of this additional clause was that he wrote another IOU to Gu Beilu.