Gu Lin finally got his wish to ride the long-awaited scooter. He was so happy he was practically flying, his little face beaming, letting out a series of childish, joyful laughs, and humming a self-modified version of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” attracting the frequent attention of passersby.

Zhuang Mu, seeing the little dumpling so happy just from riding on the scooter, couldn’t help but curl his lips.

A child’s happiness was such a simple thing.

Even in this bizarre town, facing unknown fears, he seemed not to be afraid at all.

Zhuang Mu couldn’t make out what he was humming, so he asked, “Little friend, what are you singing?”

Gu Lin said, “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”

Zhuang Mu was slightly stunned for a moment: “…The one that goes ‘Twinkle, twinkle, little star’?”

Gu Lin: “Yes.”

Zhuang Mu: “…”

Zhuang Mu didn’t comment on this, skipping over the topic.

The livestream chat, however, was filled with a string of: ???

[Excuse me, I suddenly went temporarily deaf. Can an auntie tell me, is this the song the cub was humming earlier when he was lulling himself to shuijiao?]

[This auntie is also deaf. I can’t make it out at all. The two versions don’t sound alike]

[The point isn’t that he’s singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, hahaha!]

[Hahahaha Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Cub, listen to yourself, does that sound like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star?]

Gu Lin tilted his little head. He was singing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”

Because his tummy was hungry, Gu Lin found a lollipop from his Ultraman backpack and started eating it.

Zhuang Mu glanced at the lollipop and didn’t say anything.

After a long while, Gu Lin finally remembered to ask: “Zhuang Mu-gege, where are we going now?”

He only remembered to ask now. If this were really someone kidnapping children, he would have been packed up and sold long ago.

Zhuang Mu said, “Back to the hospital.”

Hearing that it was to the hospital, Gu Lin’s little face was confused. Wasn’t xiaogege going to take him to eat something delicious?

The cub asked sincerely: “Huh? Are there delicious things at the hospital?”

Zhuang Mu: “…”

Zhuang Mu hadn’t yet experienced Gu Lin’s obsession with food. He was stunned for a moment, then said with a suppressed smile, “There are, oh.”

After a moment, he asked, “You ran out like this, won’t the friends you were with be worried?”

Gu Lin said in a childish voice, “Dagege is shuijiao’ing. I called him, but he didn’t respond. Cub’s tummy was hungry and woke up, so I ran out.”

9527: …

Livestream: …

So you’re not even going to mention wanting to ride someone else’s scooter.

So he was woken up by hunger.

Zhuang Mu smiled: “Right, the food for the guests seems to have a drug added, a sleeping pill, too.”

Gu Lin said, “Ah.”

As if afraid the cub would worry, Zhuang Mu added: “Don’t worry, they’ll wake up naturally before lunch.”

Gu Lin nodded his little head, looking muddled.

But actually, he didn’t understand at all.

What was a sleeping pill?

Livestream:

[Hahahaha, holy crap, he just said it so openly to the little cub?]

[But the cub doesn’t seem to have gotten it [laughing and crying]]

[Cub, just stick with your Zhuang Mu-gege. Let him carry you to victory, haha]

The aunties’ bullet comments, the cub couldn’t fully understand, but he understood sticking with Zhuang Mu-gege to win.

Mm-hmm, he liked xiaogege!

Gu Lin could sense people’s kindness and malice. He could feel that xiaogege only had kindness towards him, not a bit of malice, which was why he dared to follow him obediently.

Riding a scooter was much faster than walking, and they quickly crossed two streets.

At this time, passing a market, Zhuang Mu stopped.

Gu Lin, seeing him stop here, couldn’t help but let out a puzzled “Eh.”

Zhuang Mu, seeing his confusion, explained, “I’ll buy some groceries, I have to cook for Doctor Yu later.”

If it had been an adult, they might have followed up with questions like, who is Doctor Yu, and why do you have to cook for Doctor Yu?

But after Gu Lin heard this, he just said “Oh,” only asking what he cared about: “Can the cub eat too?”

Zhuang Mu smiled: “Yes.”

There was a middle-aged uncle selling cured meats at the entrance to the market, about forty years old. His two legs were human legs, not a Split-Tail Mermaid.

He was sitting on a small stool. Seeing Zhuang Mu, he greeted him.

Zhuang Mu also smiled and greeted him, looking like they were familiar with each other.

The cured meat uncle looked at the little cub standing on the scooter and his eyes lit up: “What’s this?”

Zhuang Mu said, “A child, can’t you tell?”

Cured Meat Uncle: “I can tell, but how can it be so small? Where did it come from?”

There hadn’t been any children in Mermaid Town for many years.

So, suddenly seeing Gu Lin, such a small dumpling, everyone looked at him like they were looking at a rare species.

In addition, Gu Lin looked like a porcelain doll, extremely cute. Even if you saw children every day, you couldn’t help but be charmed by this cub.

Zhuang Mu smiled and bent down to ask Gu Lin, “Little friend, how can you be so small?”

Gu Lin first took the lollipop out of his mouth and said clearly, “Because I’m young.”

Saying this, he looked at Cured Meat Uncle, and said: “Silly bobo^[1]T/N: respectful term for an older man, similar to “uncle,” but implying a larger age gap and a slightly more formal tone than shushu..”

He was young, so of course, he was small. What was so hard to understand?

After saying that, he put the lollipop back in his mouth, his fleshy cheeks bulging.

The Cured Meat Uncle, utterly humiliated by the little cub: “…”

Livestream Aunties, watching the Cured Meat Uncle, who was now questioning his life, started hahaha-ing again. After Black-Faced Shushu, Silly Bobo was also starting to doubt life.

Zhuang Mu smiled so much that his eyes were watering, his already beautiful face adding a touch of vividness.

The Cured Meat Uncle was speechless for a long time, his eye twitching. He didn’t know what to say.

Zhuang Mu then explained to him: “This is our little guest.”

Hearing this, the Cured Meat Uncle slapped his forehead, as if realizing something: “Oh, this is the little guest the town mayor told us to take good care of?”

Zhuang Mu smiled: “Yes.”

The mermaid town mayor was clearly very respected here, and since he had instructed them to take good care of the little guest, the Cured Meat Uncle didn’t dare to neglect him. He immediately picked out two of his best salt-cured ducks and geese and handed them over.

“Come, little guest, this is bobo giving you on behalf of our town mayor.”

Gu Lin, hearing the word “town mayor,” looked at Zhuang Mu and asked, “Is it Mayor-yeye?”

Zhuang Mu: “…”

Cured Meat Uncle: “…”

Mayor-yeye?

The two of them were momentarily stunned by this form of address. Anyone calling him “Bandit-yeye” would be more fitting than “Mayor-yeye.”

Zhuang Mu was the first to regain his composure, his tone uncertain: “It…should be?”

Hearing that it was ordered by Mayor-yeye, Gu Lin happily accepted the goose and duck, thanking him politely: “Thank you, bobo.”

Before leaving, the Cured Meat Uncle added: “Little guest, when you get to the hospital, don’t forget to tell your Mayor-yeye that I gave these to you!”

Gu Lin clenched his little fist, his little face serious, promising: “Mm-hmm, bobo, cub will tell Mayor-yeye!”

After the two left, Gu Lin was surprised: “Mayor-yeye is also at the hospital?”

Zhuang Mu was still unable to adapt to the title “Mayor-yeye,” smiling: “Yes, the Mermaid Festival is coming soon, and the town mayor and Doctor Yu are discussing the matters of the Mermaid Festival.”

Next, without exception, all the uncles and aunties selling vegetables who saw Gu Lin were stunned for a moment. After hearing Zhuang Mu say that this was the little guest the mermaid town mayor wanted to take good care of, they all said nothing, picking out the best and freshest vegetables, giving them to this round, chubby, sweet-talking little guest for free.

After a stroll around the large market, not a penny was spent, and those enthusiastic townspeople gave so much meat and produce that they couldn’t carry it all.

With a bountiful harvest, Zhuang Mu looked at the large bags of fruits, vegetables, and meat with satisfaction, and said to Gu Lin with a smile: “Little friend, let’s go. It’s time to go back to the hospital.”

The livestream chat was stunned by this operation.

They had a reasonable suspicion that Zhuang Mu was doing this on purpose, deliberately taking their cub to mooch food and drinks.

–

The market wasn’t far from the hospital. Riding the scooter, it took only a few minutes to get there.

At this time, the handlebars of the scooter were covered with large bags.

Gu Lin was standing between the handlebars and Zhuang Mu. Because he was so small, he was completely hidden.

From the front, if you didn’t look carefully, you wouldn’t even notice that there was a little dumpling hidden here.

Gu Lin looked out through the gaps between the large bags. He could see that the hospital was very large, and the floors were also very high. The hospital’s name was written above—Mermaid Hospital.

But Gu Lin couldn’t read, so he didn’t know what was written, but at least he could count to five, knowing that there were five floors.

At this time, a group of people came out of the hospital entrance.

Leading the group were two people. One wore a worn and dirty fedora on his head, his back straight, his face full of bark-like wrinkles, with a fake and gentlemanly smile that didn’t reach his eyes, and narrow, small eyes flashing with a shrewd cold light.

And walking side-by-side with him was another person, a very young and handsome man, wearing a knee-length white coat, white gloves on his hands, tall and slender, with an extraordinary temperament.

He had a pair of gold-rimmed glasses on the bridge of his high nose, and his skin was pale, almost white, without a trace of blood.

At this moment, he was tilting his head and talking with the town mayor.

Behind the two of them, a meter away, four or five people in nurse uniforms followed quietly.

The group quickly spotted Zhuang Mu riding the scooter.

Seeing a scooter loaded with large bags, and even a salt-cured duck and a salt-cured goose hanging, quite a feast.

The young man looked at Zhuang Mu, his handsome face without emotion, his voice flat: “You’re back.”

The town mayor, seeing the almost overflowing bags, couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow: “You bought so many things?”

Zhuang Mu smiled: “They weren’t bought, oh.”

The mermaid town mayor raised his eyebrows even higher, mocking in a yin-yang tone: “I can’t believe it, Doctor Yu’s face is so valuable, even more valuable than mine, the town mayor’s. You can buy vegetables without spending money.”

After saying that, the mermaid town mayor put his finger on the brim of his hat in a half-finished gentleman’s salute, then turned and started to leave.

The Mermaid Festival was approaching, and there were many things waiting for him, the town mayor, to deal with.

The young man, Doctor Yu—Yu Youmian, looked at Zhuang Mu, seemingly asking him what was going on.

Zhuang Mu smiled and blinked: “The townspeople gave them to the little guest for free, in consideration of the town mayor’s face.”

The mermaid town mayor’s footsteps paused: “…”

At this time, the little dumpling, who had been hidden behind the large bags, quietly poked out a round little head. His big, black and white eyes blinked, looking around at the uncles and aunties in white coats in front of him, and then looked at the town mayor who was about to leave.

The exquisitely carved little dumpling looked at the town mayor and called out in a well-behaved childish voice: “Mayor-yeye!”

Mermaid Town Mayor: “…”