Mermaid Effect 《人鱼效应》 Chinese BL Translation by: 黑猫白袜子

Chapter 7

When Rand woke up, he smelled a fishy odor, which was so strong that it seemed to be able to permeate through the inside of his skin. He grimaced and pushed the quilt off. The strange thing was that when he was that as soon as he became clear-headed, that smell faded away as if it had been a hallucination.

Rand breathed in through his nose, and he only sniffed out the faintly discernible scent of a high-grade incense— coming from the Egyptian cotton sheets and quilt beneath him. The early morning sunlight flooded into the room through the window and the curtains made of silk scattered it, producing the same hazy lighting as a pearl. Compared to Rand's apartment situated near the subway and parking lot, this room is so quiet in the morning that it makes one want to smile. A bird lands on the balcony, Rand heard the sound of it flapping its wings, but when he came to the balcony, the bird had already flown away, and Rand only picked up a long feather with the color and luster of an orchid. He put his hands on the balcony railing and gazed off into the distance, and across the road, he cheerfully saw beautiful green fields and groves. The sky is unimaginably sunny and cloudless without a cloud in sight for thousands of miles, and the azure blue sky is like a gigantic blue gem without a single blemish that hangs over Rand's head. Under such a sky, it seems that the haze of the secular world is entirely nonexistent.

Rand breathed in the dry air and he began to like it here a bit.

A ringtone sounded from his room, and Rand rushed back inside the room, and it took him some time to find the phone.

"Hey, Rand, are you satisfied with the apartment I prepared for you?"

  A gentle voice rang in the receiver.

Almost at the same time that he heard that voice, Rand felt a smile growing.

  "Oh," he casually sat down on the couch and relaxed, "I should have thought it was you earlier Carolyn. Everything is so perfect."

Carolyn giggled over the phone, even though it was only her voice passing through, Rand seemed to be able to see her cheerfully smiling face.

  Carolyn is only one year older than Rand. If Rand's memory hadn't disappeared, he could have remembered how many years ago Vincent and Carolyn go hunting together in the fall. She is a frequent visitor to the Sievers family, a delightful neighbor, and Rand's favorite older sister.

(TN: Not actually related, if you're close to an older girl, you'd call her older sister.)

And now, she is Vincent's personal secretary.

    Without her, Rand felt that his relationship with Vincent might be worse than it is now. What Carolyn said next further confirmed his thoughts.

"...actually, Vincent is furious with me. He tried to buy a high-class villa with three swimming pools for you, It would have come with two Lamborghinis. When I told him that you would absolutely never like it, he tried to buy the most luxurious hotel in the city center anyways. So I told him to give it up and let me come over. When I was in college, I stayed in that apartment room that you're in now, I know it is wonderful there."

Rand let out a deep sigh full of thankfulness: "That's right, it really is wonderful, Carolyn... Thank you."

He sincerely thanked her.

  Even though Carolyn never said anything, but from her experience of dealing with Rand and Vincent, it is definitely not an easy task to convince Vincent.

Carolyn erupted out into another burst of hearty laughter, the sound of her laughing was just as full as charm as herself.

"Alrighty, Rand, I am really glad that you like that apartment. In fact, I am trying really hard to make Vincent become a little bit more..."