Chapter 38: Unconstrained

The air conditioner was on in the car, but the windows were still wide open. The night wind howled outside the windows, and the neon lights left afterimages.

Jiang Song was enjoying the breeze, seemingly thinking that this would relieve his brain fever symptoms.

After he said that, he covered his face with the pillow, but the girl pulled the pillow off his face without saying a word.

“…”

"Please take me home, Jiang Song." She suddenly said, "I can invite you to my house."

He didn't even blink, and his breathing seemed to stop.

And she continued, "Because I've changed my mind and prepared a gift for you, but it's so heavy it'll need a small truck to carry it."

It turned out that she had already prepared a gift for her.

And he didn't even ask what the sentence just said meant.

When he thought of the second point, Jiang Song couldn't help but feel nervous again. Did she understand?

He still wanted to bury his head, but in the end he got into the same car with the girl and followed her out of the crowded villa.

The wind whistled in his ears, and Jiang Song felt that his brain fever symptoms were improving, but in Xia Cun's eyes, he was still in a trance.

What is Jiang Song thinking about?

If you ask him, he will definitely not tell you the truth.

Xia Cun stared at it for a moment, then lowered her head and turned the small gift box in her hand. This was a gift Jiang Song had given her before leaving the jellyfish house. He had awkwardly thrust it into her, saying, "This is all I have," as if he had originally planned to give her many, many more.

If this is all you have, then you should take it apart at night.

The Rolls-Royce drove to the bottom of the old residential building. After Xia Cun got out of the car, he was stunned at the small truck that arrived before them.

Jiang Song was surprisingly frank when he asked for the gift, but he looked like he wanted to move her house away.

Jiang Song asked nervously, "Will my sudden visit disturb Sister Xia Lan?"

It's easy for him to call me sister.

Xia Cun turned his head to look at the boy and found that he was bending down to adjust his dress. Appearing here in this way, he looked like a prince who had been exiled to the common people.

"have no idea."

"..." Jiang Song was choked by her blunt words and finally complained quietly, "You should have said no."

Xia Cun was puzzled. Could it be that someone like Jiang Song would also have times when he lacked confidence?

Jiang Song felt even more depressed when she looked at him. She had been making him sulk today.

The stairwell was dim, and Jiang Song's expression suddenly became serious as he walked in, as if he was afraid that he would see a slum.

The paint on the walls is peeling, the handrails are mottled. Is this the kind of place she lives in? It doesn't suit her at all. She should live in a colorful world, like... like in Miyazaki-san's movies.

Xia Cun walked in front and finally stopped on the platform above the steps. Jiang Song, who was following behind her, also stopped and looked up at her.

"arrive."

I just walked a few steps and we’re here?

Perhaps noticing his frown, Xia Cun said, "If you don't want to go in—"

"I didn't!" He denied it immediately, interrupting her before she finished speaking.

"...Then you should keep your voice down, because you will disturb others."

As if to confirm her words, the door was suddenly opened from the inside, and a beam of orange light shone from the room. Then Xia Lan, holding Holmes, stuck her head out and said, "Hola kiddos! Wee!"

"Oh, Miss Xia, can you please keep your voice down?" the neighbor aunt said from inside the house.

Xia Lan shrugged and explained to the boy standing on the steps in a low voice: "The soundproofing is not very good. Do you want to come in?"

Jiang Song nodded quickly, and after Xia Cun entered the house, he also followed him up the stairs.

A blinding white light seemed to emanate from within the room. When Jiang Song regained consciousness, he had already been magically transported through the door. The door was tightly closed, and he paused at the entrance, slowly feeling a sense of disbelief.

か…かわいい.

What was it like? It was like stepping into a crude, jewel-studded clam shell, or like entering a tree hole and entering another world. Fortunately, she really lived in a dreamy and colorful world.

Xia Lan put Holmes on the ground, and it immediately ran to the door and hit the two children like a bulldog.

The lights in the restaurant were turned on, and the mosaic tiles seemed to glow. Xia Lan busied herself at the island counter, looking like she was preparing some delicious meal, but in the end, she just came back with two glasses of cola with ice. Seeing the two people and the dog still standing at the door, she asked, "Sit down, what are you doing? Turn off the lights, Xia Zuncheng."

"Oh." Xia Cun turned off the lights in the restaurant, then said to Jiang Song, who was still in a daze, "Surprise."

Her expression was indifferent, her voice was indifferent, and she didn't sound like she was expressing surprise at all. But this was enough to surprise Jiang Song. He followed the girl into the living room and sat down on the sofa.

Xia Lan placed the Coke in front of them and took out a few packets of snacks, completing her hospitality. Then, she sat cross-legged on her private lazy sofa and said to the boy with a smile, "It's an honor, Jiang Song."

Jiang Song was looking at the rabbit decoration on the table. Hearing this, he looked over in confusion. Xia Lan, still smiling, said, "Xia Zuncheng hates having people over to our house the most, but I invited you tonight."

Jiang Song stared at the girl beside him, but Xia Cun seemed to have heard and seen nothing, and was concentrating on drinking Coke.

He pursed his lips, as if secretly delighted. Xia Lan held the tablet and pushed up her glasses, then asked him, "How's it going? Happy birthday?"

"Yeah." Jiang Song replied softly. Although he was very angry and aggrieved at first, it seemed that he was no longer angry after coming here. But it was strange, why was he so shy every time he talked to his aunt?

"What about you? Xia Zuncheng."

Xia Cun was drinking Coke quietly. When asked, he looked at Xia Lan and said, "I'll tell you later."

"Oh~ We can't let Jiang Song know."

Xia Cun: “…”

Even she knew that such words should not be said in front of the real person.

Sure enough, she was being stared at by classmate Jiang Song.

"Ahem," Xia Lan finally stepped in to help, praising him for no apparent reason, "Student Jiang Song really looks like a prince."

Jiang Song's ears turned red again.

Seeing this, Xia Lan became even more unscrupulous, "If you're shy, you'll look even more like her."

"Why?"

How can being shy make you more like a prince?

"Because it fits Xia Zun's aesthetic of a prince."

As soon as these words came out, both teenagers looked at her. Seeing that Xia Cun was also a little confused, Xia Lan asked her, "Did you forget? Well, your memory is so bad, it would be strange if you could remember."

"Forgot what?"

"The prince's virtue."

Xia Cun blinked quietly, and Jiang Song asked curiously, "What are the virtues of a prince?"

Xia Lan corrected him: "You should ask what Xia Zun considers the 'virtues of a prince'."

When Xia Cun was about ten, Xia Lan took her and Ren Yi to watch a few Disney princess movies. She asked the two girls which prince they liked best. Ren Yi said Eugene, because he was humorous, even though he didn't seem to be a prince. Xia Cun, as always, replied dreamily, "I don't remember."

"You watched it for nothing? But that's normal. It's a princess movie after all, and the prince is just an embellishment." She said this, and then, perhaps out of the desire to investigate the two little girls' aesthetic preferences, she asked the two children what virtues they thought a prince should have.

Little Ren Yi searched her vocabulary for a long time and finally gave the following answers: humorous, sensible, and able to cook.

It took Xia Cun Ze a long time to utter a word: beautiful.

"Please, Xia Zunsheng, 'virtue' means 'good character', the emphasis is on 'virtue', not 'beauty'."

And even if "beautiful" is a virtue, compared to the virtue of Ren Yi's pragmatic prince, isn't this guy too superficial!

Then Xia Cun thought about it again and said: Cute and shy.

There must be some other words, because after hearing this, Ren Yi said: "How strange! This doesn't sound like the virtue of a prince."

"That's right." Xia Lan agreed, "But never mind, this is also a good idea."

When Xia Lan mentioned Xia Cun's opinion of the prince again that night, Xia Cun actually recalled a little bit of her own opinion of the prince. Then she stopped Xia Lan from talking about it: "I don't remember it, and I don't want to know."

Xia Lan raised an eyebrow: "Oh? Why?"

“Because I will have new standards.”

She didn't speak seriously, so Xia Lan compromised casually: "Okay."

As the girl wished, Xia Lan didn't say anything else.

Jiang Song's curiosity was aroused but not satisfied, so he hinted and hinted at it.

"But it sounds fun."

"I really want to know."

“…”

Even after the topic had been discussed for a long time, he still cared about it. Unfortunately, no one paid any attention to him except Holmes.

The bubbles in the cola rose to the surface, then shattered like Jiang Song's. The floating ice cubes gradually melted and finally fell to the bottom of the cup. Xia Cun shook the ice cubes at the bottom of the cup that had not yet completely melted, jumped off the sofa, and said to the lost boy, "The gift is in my room, let's go."

Jiang Song couldn't help but be surprised. He glanced at Xia Lan, then asked meaningfully, "Is this your room?"

Xia Lan, who was already drawing on her tablet, jokingly said, "You're so honored, Jiang Song."

“…”

In short, it sounded like she didn't mind a boy entering a girl's bedroom, so Jiang Song followed Xia Cun and left the space where Xia Lan was, as if escaping.

…

How long will it take to count the things in Xia Cun's room?

Countless pillows on the bed, paisley-print hangings on the wall, neatly arranged rubber ducks on the bookshelf, a fabric photo frame decorated with a crocheted black cat, a floor lamp shade covered in McDonald's promotional stickers, a colorful pinwheel on the windowsill, a bedside lamp adorned with a starfish...

Jiang Song was struck by every detail. She was truly suited to "Children's Corner," which felt like a true children's playground.

It was not until Xia Cun walked to the window that he realized there was a large and eye-catching gift box there.

Perhaps the best way to describe this night is to say it was filled with surprises. He thought so, walked over to the gift box, looked at it for a moment, tried to hold it and move it, and then let out an almost reverent exclamation: "Wow, heavy!" (Wow, it's so heavy!)

Then he turned to the girl and said, "どうもありがと." (Thank you very much.)

It was as if he had already decided that he would like this gift.

Then, he walked around the room curiously, first touching the shells hanging next to the gifts, and exclaimed: "Kirei Dana (How beautiful)." Then, seeing the honor wall, he said, "Kawaii!" Then he knelt in front of the handmade works in the corner and continued to admire, "Yume Mitai Da (Like a dream)...Did you make all these?"

In short, he looked around and admired everything, as if he had never seen the world before.

Xia Cun also went there and turned on a lamp on the work shelf. The watermelon-red glass lampshade emitted pink light, and the whole corner looked like a candy house.

"At first, Xiaolan and I did it together, but later I did it alone."

Jiang Song picked up a palm-length fabric saury from one of the layers, squeezed it, and put it back where it belonged. He then picked up a bus made of different packaging boxes and stared at it for a long time, muttering, "Sugene, existence..."

After admiring it, he found that there was also a little rubber duck here, so he picked up the duck and squeezed it.

Xia Cun said for no reason at this time: "Waking up at sea feels like a little yellow duck."

"Because it's floating?"

"Because my mother once told me a story about a duck fleet."

Xia Cun thought of Xia Qing after a long time. In fact, her memory of Xia Qing had long been vague, but she remembered that when she was a child, after hearing this old news, she pestered her mother to buy her a lot of little yellow ducks, because she believed that the little yellow ducks in the old news were the bravest creatures in the world. These little yellow ducks were bought at that time and have been kept until today.

"Ah! Wakatata! It's the toy cargo ship that encountered a storm in the Pacific Ocean, right?" Jiang Song asked excitedly.

It turned out that Jiang Song also knew about this. Xia Cun stared at him and suddenly called him, "Jiang Song."

"はい?"

"Can you promise me something?"

"What's up?"

"Anything. Okay?"

"Are you talking about a condition?" The boy, who was extremely sensitive to "conditions", pointed out directly.

“…”

Discovered. Xia Cun blinked, nodded almost as if it was a matter of course, and asked again: "Is it okay?"

"All right."

For the sake of these surprises, for the sake of her cuteness. Just thinking about this, Jiang Song's face blended into the watermelon-red light.

They talked boringly for a long time, and finally, before the end of the day, they worked together to push the gift box to the living room, and then the porters on the pickup truck took it back to the Jiang family.

After Jiang Song said goodbye, Xia Cun went into Xia Lan's room. She returned to the bedroom around the time Jiang Song arrived home.

The window is empty, I'm not used to it.

What should I do? I just gave it away and I feel reluctant to part with it.

Xia Cun thought about throwing herself on the bed and opening the gift box that Jiang Song had given her.

Two wind chimes lay quietly in the box, both in the shape of jellyfish, but one was made of blue glass, iridescent glass. She picked up one of them, lay on her back, raised her arms and held the jellyfish wind chime.

The lines are smooth and the texture is transparent. When the light shines on it, it reflects the color of the sea. The glass bars make a ding-dong sound when they are gently shaken, which is crisp and fine...

At the same time, a large gift box was carried to Jiang Song's room. He had it placed in the middle of the room, regardless of whether it blocked the way or destroyed the harmony in the room, and then drove away all those who wanted to help, even Ms. Tanaka.

Because it was his gift.

After everyone left, he brought a stool, stepped on it, untied the ribbon on the top of the gift box, and then opened the gift box that looked like a cake box.

Like a wall collapsing, the other three thick cardboard walls fell to the ground, and he was hit on the head by a cardboard. He jumped off the stool, moved it away, and then put down the last cardboard wall -

A horse.

Or a horse.

An abandoned carousel, one that will never spin again. The horse's white paint has faded to ivory yellow, with tiny cracks showing in places. Its mane and tail are adorned with gold dust and blue outlines, and its eyes are made of blue glass, now somewhat gray. The saddle is embossed with a rose and vine pattern that has not yet faded. The metal studs on its flanks still gleam with a faint patina. The golden spiral handle still firmly penetrates the wooden horse, reaching to the ceiling, so it requires a very tall gift box to hold it.

The limbs that were once galloping in the air landed steadily on the ground, still carrying the sense of power of running.

Jiang Song stared at the horse, almost holding his breath.

Without having to imagine it deliberately, his mind immediately emerged with the scene when the wooden horse was still in Xia Cun's room. She placed it by the window and would sit on it and daydream when she was bored. As she thought, the horse would carry her to the sky...

He realized that this was the Pegasus, the glowing Pegasus that the little black cat in the comics saw in the puddle.

That cat is Xia Cun, and this is her horse.

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

The author has something to say: I finally wrote this gift [poor][poor][poor]

Is it surprising enough? Is it cute enough? I just said it was a horse, and it was written on the copy. The answer is right on the puzzle [pat]

When I was writing this chapter, I asked Jiang Song to return the gift to Bao Cun. If he heard me, he would probably cry again (.