I have a life simulator.

Chapter Six: Spring Came a Little Earlier This Year

"Dramatic conflict refers to the emergence, development, and resolution of contradictions in a play. The plot of most plays revolves around one or more conflicts."

"This is also reflected in many other types of literary works. For example, in Shiina's favorite mystery novels, there is a conflict between the detective and the murderer in seeking the truth and concealing the truth, and the story unfolds based on this."

During the spare time in practice, Kitagawa Ryo also took the opportunity to explain some basic concepts and terms to the two.

Hiyori Shiina tilted her head in confusion. She and Ryo Kitagawa had only known each other for two days, and she didn't remember telling him that she liked mystery novels. However, she didn't think much of it. Since he wasn't wrong, she nodded in agreement.

"So the dramatic conflict in the original 'The Little Mermaid' is that the little mermaid clearly saved the prince, but because she sacrificed her voice to the witch, she couldn't tell the truth and could only watch the prince and princess together, right?"

Karuizawa Megumi, who was sitting cross-legged on the other side, quickly learned a lot and spoke up.

"Yes, this is also a common method of creating dramatic conflict."

Kitagawa Ryo said as he wrote something on the whiteboard in front of him with a marker:

"These are the three most common methods."

He tapped the whiteboard:

[1. Let the audience know some secrets that the characters in the play are unaware of.]

Second, make the audience feel that the character is on the wrong path.

[III. Create a sense of urgency in the time frame.]

"The Little Mermaid, as a classic fairy tale, also basically conforms to these three laws."

"In fact, as the world's most famous fairy tale master, Hans Christian Andersen also set up many small settings in the whole work that are worth appreciating."

Even within the category of fairy tales, "The Little Mermaid" is by no means a long story. The two listened to Kitagawa Ryo's words and quickly went through the original text again. Shiina Hiyori, who had read more, was the first to offer her opinion:

"They are tears."

She pointed to a certain paragraph and said:

One evening, as the sisters rose to the surface hand in hand, the youngest sister stayed behind, watching them. She seemed about to cry, but mermaids don't have tears, which only made her feel worse.

"Mermaids don't have tears; this is a setting mentioned in the opening paragraphs."

"A genius writer never sets up useless foreshadowing in his book. The twenty rules of detective novels also mention that evidence must appear in previous chapters."

Hiyori Shiina bit her pen and slowly expressed her opinion.

She thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere of discussing books with others, an experience she had never had before.

"I remember that in Chinese mythology, mermaids can shed tears, and their tears have incredible magical power."

"Correct."

Kitagawa Ryo picked up where Shiina Hiyori left off, continuing, "Because my own name is derived from a Tang Dynasty poem in China, I am quite knowledgeable in this area as well."

"In Chinese mythology about mermaids, there is a record that 'beyond the South Sea there are mermaids who live in the water like fish and do not stop weaving. When they weep, pearls come out.' The Tang Dynasty poet Li Shangyin also wrote the line 'The moon shines brightly over the vast sea, and pearls weep.'"

"So why does The Little Mermaid specifically point out that mermaids don't cry?"

Because the conversation between the two touched on Karuizawa Megumi's area of ​​knowledge, and unable to participate in the topic, she honestly raised her own questions.

"I think sometimes it's more painful to not be able to cry than to cry."

"You see, even when the Little Mermaid turned into sea foam and disappeared into the sunlight, she still couldn't cry."

Hiyori Shiina closed the script and pressed it to her chest, then gently closed her eyes:

"Crying is the most direct way to express sadness."

While there is a saying about crying with joy, most of the time, laughter is associated with happiness and crying with sadness.

"Every step the Little Mermaid took was like walking on a knife's edge, but she still danced for the prince."

"When the prince was about to marry the princess, when she was holding up the bride's wedding dress at the princess's wedding, when she finally jumped into the sea and turned into sea foam, she couldn't cry at all, even though she should have cried her heart out."

Hiyori Shiina separated the original text paragraph by paragraph, searching for the author's original thoughts within them.

When Hans Christian Andersen constructed the story of "The Little Mermaid," his descriptions of scenery were bold and imaginative, with various magnificent scenes appearing almost effortlessly. However, his descriptions of emotions were subtle, often only touching upon the subject matter.

"Moreover, the fact that the little mermaid cannot speak or cry is itself a foreshadowing element that drives the plot forward."

"A key element of tragedy is misunderstanding."

Dramatic conflict arises from misunderstandings; it is only through conflict that the differences in people's personalities are revealed, allowing the story to continue to unfold.

"Even though it was the little mermaid who saved the prince, she couldn't tell him the truth."

"She never sheds tears. She is always happy, always joyful, and always dancing for the prince in his presence, so the prince doesn't care about her feelings at all."

"Although it was just a small detail, it laid a solid foundation for the final tragedy."

Hiyori Shiina let out a small sigh of relief:

"Really, that's amazing."

Hiyori Shiina seemed deeply immersed in Hans Christian Andersen's whimsical ideas. When she opened her eyes again, her deep purple pupils shone brightly, as if she had made a momentous decision:

"I want to revise the script."

Excitedly sharing her thoughts in one breath, Hiyori Shiina flipped through the existing script in her hand and introduced herself:

In Greek mythology, sirens sometimes disguised themselves as mermaids, using their songs to lure passing sailors and cause their ships to sink. There is actually a similar passage in *The Little Mermaid*:

"[At dusk, the five sisters would often float up hand in hand, forming a line on the sea. They would sing beautiful songs—more melodious than any human voice. When a storm was approaching and they thought some ships were about to sink, they would float up to those ships and sing very beautiful songs, saying how lovely the seabed was, and telling the sailors not to be afraid of sinking to the bottom; however, those people could not understand their lyrics.]"

Kitagawa Ryo was the first to understand Shiina Hiyori's meaning, and he gestured for Hiyori to continue:

"It's like holding a rainmaking ceremony and then it rains the next day, so we conclude that the rain was caused by the rainmaking ceremony. First, an event exists, and then we look for things that happened before, and then we imagine the cause-and-effect relationship between the two events. This is human wisdom, and also karma. Humans need to find cause-and-effect relationships in order to be a peaceful being."

Having gained Kitagawa Ryo's approval, Shiina Hiyori also stood up and wrote a few keywords on the whiteboard with an oil-based pen.

"Mermaids in the sea sing for ships that are about to sink when a storm is coming. Their intention is to comfort these poor sailors and not to be afraid of sinking to the bottom of the sea, because in their eyes, the seabed is a lovely home."

"But in the eyes of those sailors..."

"Could it be that the singing of these mermaids has brought about disaster and storms?"

Karuizawa Megumi finally understood Shiina Hiyori's thoughts, and she subconsciously asked:

"You mean the prince's shipwreck..."

"Ah."

"The little mermaid sang for the prince she fell in love with at first sight, but that night the prince was shipwrecked."

"Based on the legends told by the sisters, the prince will most likely believe that the siren's song caused the disaster."

"But in fact, this has nothing to do with the little mermaid. On the contrary, she is the prince's real savior."

She looked quite excited, and two blushes appeared on Shiina Hiyori's cheeks.

"Stubbornly clinging to a false truth is more tragic than not knowing the truth at all."

"They regard their true benefactors and the objects of their pursuit as enemies, yet they give their hearts to imposters, and they are unaware until the very end of the enormous sacrifices made for them."

"……marvelous."

Kitagawa Ryo finally understood why Shiina Hiyori's social life had made no progress before high school; after all, children shouldn't be discussing such strange world-line developments.

In a sense, the thoughts of a literary girl are indeed hard to fathom.

Look, isn't Karuizawa Megumi standing to the side also completely bewildered...?

"When did the princess become an imposter?"

Why would I care about such trivial details?

With a slight twitch of his lips, Kitagawa Ryo watched as the two of them started arguing again over the character settings of "princess" and "mermaid," and quietly found a corner to shift into a more comfortable position.

However, the argument seemed to last only a short while, and the two unexpectedly came to agree on the same story.

"Ultimately, it all comes down to the prince."

"He said he liked the Little Mermaid, but he went and married another woman."

"He has a fiancée but still harbors feelings for other women of unknown origin."

Shiina Hiyori and Karuizawa Megumi started complaining, one after another, and finally they said in unison:

"Scumbag!"

"Scumbag!"

-------------------------------------

Seven days later.

"The Little Mermaid, the final act, rehearsal begins!"

The little mermaid's sisters traded their hair for a knife from the sea witch, and they surfaced to tell their youngest sister:

“Take it, look how sharp it is! Before the sun rises, you must plunge it into the prince’s heart. When his hot blood flows to your feet, your feet will rejoin and become a fish tail, then you can regain your mermaid form and return to our waters.”

In this way, you can still live for three hundred years before you turn into lifeless saltwater foam.

"Hurry up! Come back quickly! Didn't you see the red light in the sky? In a few minutes, the sun will rise, and then you will surely perish!"

The mermaid sisters bewitched their younger sister with their songs, plunging the princess and prince into a deep dream.

They firmly believed that this was the right thing to do, an act of love for their family, and the only way to bring the little mermaid back to the sea.

For them, who knew nothing of romantic love, family love was the greatest emotion in the world, and their youngest sister was their precious treasure.

His steps were unsteady.

My consciousness was hazy and I couldn't distinguish the boundaries. I didn't know if it was just my imagination, but with each step I took, the sharp pain from the knife tip was gone. Instead, it felt as soft as walking on clouds.

The little mermaid lifted the purple curtain of the tent and saw the beautiful bride asleep, her head resting in the prince's arms. The dawn was gradually growing brighter. She glanced at the dagger, then looked back at the prince. He was murmuring his bride's name in his sleep, her only thought on him.

A maddening bitterness called jealousy welled up in the little mermaid's heart.

"The church bells are ringing, and the mermaid can only watch from the sidelines~"

"The good news of the engagement has spread far and wide, and the mermaid can only watch from the sidelines~"

"The bishop has finished reciting his blessings, and the mermaid can only watch from the sidelines."

"The mermaid, dressed in silk and adorned with gold, can only drag the bride's wedding dress along."

"The blind and deaf mermaid can only dance for the prince and princess's wedding."

Painful memories are like having just lost a tooth, leaving your gums bare.

Not touching it leaves an empty sense of loss.

To even try to touch it is excruciating.

She plunged the knife in her hand into the prince's heart.

The sharp blade pierced through the expensive clothes inch by inch, sliced ​​through the fair skin, and plunged into the heart.

With each inch forward, the little mermaid's heart seemed to ache a little more.

Fresh blood gushed out.

Unlike the cold seawater, the blood that reached above the ankles was warm.

It wrapped around the mermaid's wounded feet little by little.

Dark mist rose up, and she could feel her legs closing together. In a few minutes, she would regain her fishtail and become a mermaid again.

My heart is trembling.

Drip, drip, it sounds like some liquid is sliding down.

After regaining my senses, I realized that everything I had just experienced was just my imagination.

But I was the one who saved you, and I should be the one you love.

The mermaid's hands trembled so badly she could barely hold the knife, which clattered to the ground.

All you need to do is plunge a knife into the heart of this man who betrayed you, then walk out of this room and jump into the sea.

She will once again have a long lifespan of three hundred years, and reunite with her loving sister and relatives.

Hiyori Shiina took a step forward.

One step, two steps, three steps, only three steps away.