Chapter 78 Chapter 78 “This is really…

"This is really..." Ye Wan encountered this situation for the first time, feeling confused and surprised: "Then why did it become like this?"

After all, Kiara had been a professional mercenary and had stepped into other people's illusions several times, so she was quite experienced. "This is easy. I once encountered an illusion like this in the dungeon of the Bell Tree. I remember it was a brown fairy. In his illusion, I was a maid. I cleaned the entire villa with a bucket and a broom. He was satisfied and let me go. But I was so tired that I couldn't even straighten my back... No matter. We just need to find the owner of the illusion and let us out."

She habitually reached for the heavy sword at her waist, but found nothing.

Kiara rubbed her nose awkwardly. "Oh, weapons aren't allowed in the healing center. I left them at the front desk when I went in, but I was in a hurry when I left and forgot to take them. It's okay. We can find the owner of the illusion and persuade him with both emotion and reason."

Ye Wan complained, "You originally wanted to put your big knife on his neck and threaten him to let us out, right?"

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Kiara felt even more embarrassed. She turned around and strode up the main road. "Let's go find the owner of the illusion."

After the group finally finished climbing the tall path, Ye Wan was so tired that he was panting. Turning his head, he caught a glimpse of a familiar figure. He was sitting under the corridor, writing something intently with his head down. The tip of the pen quickly moved across the paper, and it was obvious that he was very focused.

"Mr. Leo!" It was Kiara who spoke. She hurried over and said, "How can you run around when you just had surgery? The doctors are going crazy looking for you!"

He looked up at Kiara, his eyes unfamiliar, but his words were as polite as ever, consistent with his elegance and upbringing: "I'm sorry? Did you recognize the wrong person?"

He nodded at Kiara and said, "I'm working on the music for the Festival of Spring. It's my only hope. I can't be distracted."

After saying that, Leo continued to concentrate on his creation.

"It seems that Leo is completely immersed in the illusion." Youan said after observing carefully for a while.

"What should we do then?" Ye Wan asked.

"Knock him out and take him away by force." Youan's answer was simple and rough.

"This isn't a good idea..." Ye Wan was still hesitating, but Qiara rolled up her sleeves and took action directly: "Stop talking nonsense, take him out of the illusion and he will naturally wake up."

A gust of wind mixed with spring cherry blossoms blew over suddenly, blowing Kiara, who was about to take action, to the ground.

Ye Wan quickly bent down to pull her, and a gentle and pleasant voice came from behind: "It's useless."

A girl in a white and red witch costume slowly walked out of the hall. She seemed to be very safe in the illusion she had woven. She didn't even hide the fluffy fox tail behind her and the furry ears standing up among her black hair.

You An came in front of them and looked her over: "Are you the master of this illusion?"

The fox girl's voice was gentle but held a certain cold determination: "Wouldn't it be better to stay here? His life span is set. In this illusion, he will gain eternal life."

......

One spring day about a hundred years ago, the deity Feiying awoke in the warmth of faith and incense. She sat on a cherry tree and watched the people coming and going in the shrine with interest.

Under the vermilion torii, men and women carrying offerings come and go continuously, their wooden clogs making a lively "clacking" sound as they step on the bluestone slabs. Children holding all kinds of fortune sticks crowd in front of the wishing rack to hang them up, and their laughter fills the green mountaintops.

Feiying occasionally folded her fluffy ears and tail, and wandered among the crowd wearing furisode. The food stalls stretched from the torii gate to the foot of the mountain. She liked to scoop goldfish from the wooden basin, turn around and release them into the stream; she also loved fried tofu.

The days passed happily like this. Feiying liked sake and fried tofu, but what she liked most was the light in people's eyes when they made a wish in front of the cash box. That was the warmth condensed by faith, and it was also the reason for her birth.

One year before the Spring Festival, a strange man came to the shrine. Unlike the black hair of the Japanese people, this man had brilliant blond hair and blue eyes. Although he was dressed in tattered clothes, he was as gentle as the spring sunshine. He carried an equally shabby violin case on his back, chose the shade under a cedar tree, sat cross-legged, and then began to write music.

Sometimes he frowned, sometimes laughed out loud, sometimes sighed at the blue sky, and sometimes nodded at the earth.

Feiying sat on the cherry tree above his head, supported her head with her hands, and looked down at this interesting man.

"Where did this foreigner come from? He sits in my shrine without paying his respects." She raised her hand, pointing her pale fingertips at the manuscript in his hand.

A gust of wind blew from the treetops, blowing the music scores on his knees away. The scores flew away like butterflies. Leo grabbed at the air in vain with his hands a few times, then quickly stood up to catch them.

His usually neatly groomed blond hair stood up with his movements.

Feiying laughed heartily, swinging her legs in the tree. Leo retrieved the music manuscript, but he wasn't angry. He just sighed and said, "The gods saw that I've been sitting for too long, so they let me stretch my legs."

Sometimes he took out his violin and tried to play it. Feiying thought it sounded unpleasant and let the shrine's bronze bells ring to disturb him, but he didn't get angry and just played it over and over again.

Feiying thought this stranger was really interesting.

Finally, when the Spring Festival was about to approach, the gentle Mr. Leo still couldn't get any inspiration and sat under the tree sadly. Feiying tilted her head and thought for a while, then lightly tapped the sky with her fingertips.

Fine raindrops immediately fell from the sky, washing away the cherry blossoms on the ground. Leo was soaked and looked very embarrassed, but he was very happy: "I know! My inspiration is back!"

He spun around in the rain with his arms outstretched, grinning like a child: "I can now compose music that everyone will love."

He shook the rain off his head, hid in the corridor and began to write furiously on paper.

Feiying suddenly wanted to meet him, so she appeared in the rain and couldn't help but remind him as she passed by him:

"The rain is about to stop and the sun is about to come out."

The Spring Festival that year was a great success. Feiying sat high up in a tree, listening to the drum beats and the shamisen playing graceful and light tunes. The music was very moving, as if infinite vitality was appearing before her.

But after the spring festival that year, the Fuso people built a new shrine in the city.

"This place is too remote and there is no direct transportation." They prayed and apologized to the shrine for the last time, and then left without looking back.

The new shrine is more magnificent and the torii gate is taller. I think the Japanese paid a lot of taxes to the city hall, and there are many public carriages that can go directly there.

Feiying sat on a tree branch, watching the believers walk away silently. The food stalls in the shrine were removed, the sticks on the wishing stand faded to gray, and finally the sound of the bell stopped.

Feiying sighed. From then on, she was only accompanied by the cherry blossoms all over the mountain, the streams and the birds.

Mr. Tanuki poked her arm.

"Oh, I'm sorry I forgot about you." She patted the raccoon cat's head: "From now on, we will depend on each other."

But there is one person who comes every week.

He came here by train from the royal capital, and after reaching the platform he had to walk back a long way, then climb a long, long slope, and finally arrived at the shrine, panting.

Leo was already a famous composer in Wangdu, but he was still very simple. He wore the tattered clothes of the time, rented a house in a small hotel, and whenever he saved money, he would deposit it in the bank vault.

But every time he came to the shrine, he would stuff silver coins into the abandoned money box, and sometimes he would bring some food offerings, such as tsukimi dango, sake, and fried tofu.

Feiying sat on the tree and listened to him mumbling to himself. For a while, he liked to talk about the Song and Dance Troupe of the Dead. The members of the troupe he met there were like his family.

You can tell that Leo is very happy to be a composer in this group.

After a while, he came back and said sadly that the Soul Dance Company had caught fire and Mr. Hans's face was burned...

He sat on the stone steps, buried his face in his hands, and cried softly.

Feiying was also very sad and a little embarrassed. She happened to have a box of cherry cakes newly made by the raccoon cat. She summoned a gust of wind and handed it to Leo.

Leo was stunned for a moment when he saw the food box, and then he picked up the box. It was full of pink sakura cakes, with salted cherry blossoms piled on the pink and white crust.

He picked up a piece and ate it. The glutinous rice crust melted on his tongue, and the red bean paste was sweet and smooth, like a gentle spring breeze gently wrapping around his tongue. It was spring in one bite.

Leo looked up, his eyes settling on the dense branches where Feiying was hiding. With a gentle understanding, he seemed to really see Feiying hiding in the shadows through the layers of green leaves: "Thank you."

One day later, Leo came to the shrine happily and told her that the Soul Dance Troupe had been reorganized and Mr. Hans had recovered. He brought a box of delicious tempura.

"This little tavern hidden in Honey Lane is very cozy and lively, the food is delicious, and it has a charming magic." He said, his eyes gently cast towards the tree where Feiying sat:

"If there's a chance, it would be great to go with you."

After Leo left, Feiying came down from the tree and went with the raccoon cat to share the box of tempura, which was full of shrimp, white fish, green peppers, asparagus, pumpkin...

An hour had passed since the box of tempura came out of the frying pan. It had already become soft and cold, and tasted greasy.

But Feiying ate them all.

"Idiot," she thought.

Then he didn't come for two weeks.

"Why hasn't he come yet?" Feiying thought.

She was squatting by the stream to fish when she suddenly discovered that the part of her arm had turned transparent.

She knew what this meant.

The life of the last believer she had in this world was slipping away, and soon when this only believer left, she would also leave.

Feiying has lived in this world for more than a hundred years, but she couldn't accept watching her only believer die with her own eyes.

The only way is to trap him in his own illusion so that the god of death can never find him.