Chapter 187 Under the Moon

Now, all Pipa wants to do is get a good night's sleep.

He was too tired and exhausted.

Pipa had no mind or energy left to think about what had happened tonight, or what might happen next.

Therefore, when Pipa found the cave entrance hidden by grass and trees with exceptional ease, she felt a sense of relief and joy, similar to that of a traveler who has just reached their destination after a long journey.

All I have to do is stay here until dawn, until those people return the statues they took out to the ancestral hall, and then I can go home.

If only everything so far had been a nightmare.

Before closing her eyes, the loquat thought to herself in a daze.

When he wakes up, he will find himself still lying in his little bed at home. The sun is streaming in through the broken windowpane, shining warmly on the head of the bed and onto his forehead, which is damp with cold sweat, dispelling the gloom of the night.

There would be a knocking sound on the door, and through the door he would hear his mother's gentle and caring call.

He opened his sleepy eyes, still immersed in that lazy weariness, too lazy to even move his fingers, and even his tongue seemed too tired to obey him.

Seemingly because there had been no response for a long time, Pipa saw the door being pushed open from the outside, and with a creak, a figure walked in from outside.

That person was naturally my mother.

However, the sunlight behind her was a bit too bright, shining so intensely that Pipa instinctively closed her eyes.

He tried to raise his hand to block it, but his body was incredibly heavy... just like he had said before, he felt sluggish from his tongue to his fingertips, and he couldn't move an inch.

In the swaying light and shadow, Pipa felt his mother approaching. He still couldn't see her face clearly, but he could smell her scent, a fragrance of plants with a hint of fruity sweetness.

It wasn't the usual loquat scent you'd smell on your mother.

He then thought that his mother must have gone to gather herbs again.

Mother would occasionally sneak out to gather herbs, which was a little secret between them that they couldn't tell anyone else, including Pipa's father.

The thought that this was a unique understanding between mother and son made Pipa feel a little happy.

The kind of person who can't help but laugh even in their dreams.

A gentle touch landed on my cheek, cool and soft with a slight roughness.

Pipa knew this was the result of his mother's years of hard work. If it weren't for him, his father's wishful thinking, or the cruel twist of fate—

My mother is probably still living a carefree life at home.

Maybe she got married, maybe she didn't.

In the end, it would be done willingly, instead of like this, like now, burdened by the shackles of emptiness, trapped in this closed and sinful land.

"I'm...I'm sorry...Mother..."

The loquat couldn't help but murmur in its sleep.

He then felt his mother's touch on his cheek seem to pause slightly.

Having grown up by her mother's side, Pipa was acutely aware of even the slightest emotional fluctuations in women. At this moment, she was even more sensitive to the fact that the other woman seemed to be trying to withdraw from her side.

The more exhausted and helpless one's limbs are, the stronger the intense longing in one's heart becomes.

Under normal circumstances, reason can remind me not to show excessive attachment to my mother, and not to use my maternal instincts to coerce her into staying by my side.

But at this moment, lost in his dream, Pipa cared nothing for anything else. All he wanted was for his mother to be by his side, to be gazed upon tenderly by those eyes, to be lovingly caressed by those hands, and to be enveloped in her soft embrace—

Even if it were to die immediately and vanish into nothingness, the loquat would do so willingly.

Compared to a thief who is destined from birth to be unable to sever his blood ties with evil, what's wrong with a child who is truly loved dying peacefully?

With such intense reluctance, Pipa actually raised her hand and grabbed a lock of the other person's long hair, the strands slipping smoothly through her fingers.

Pipa couldn't help but feel strange. When did her mother start wearing her hair down?

And this soft texture...

It doesn't seem to match the slightly yellowish updo of the woman in my memory.

Pipa became suspicious and subconsciously reached out. Instead of the rough fabric she expected, she touched a large area of ​​smooth, soft skin that felt cool and even pleasant to the touch.

It's like... it's like...

Pipa suddenly opened her eyes.

This time I truly woke up from my sleep; a short rest couldn't offer much comfort to my body, which was exhausted to the limit.

Instead, it aggravated her headache and the soreness in her limbs, and her throat felt like it was on fire... But all of this combined was not as frightening as the scene before her eyes.

He was huddled in a corner near the cave entrance. Having heard the rumors of ghosts in the area and considering his less-than-pleasant cave exploration experience last time, he didn't dare to really venture deeper inside.

So after crawling into the cave, Pipa simply chose a nearby spot to rest, ensuring that it couldn't be seen from the outside at a glance, while still being able to observe the outside world directly from inside by the moonlight.

It is convenient to deal with any unexpected situations that may occur.

Pipa never expected that she would sleep so soundly.

Even more unexpectedly, someone would approach silently in my sleep... But was it really a person?

The first thing Pipa did upon waking was to reach for the dagger at his waist, which was supposed to be his greatest source of confidence at that moment, but he found nothing.

—Gone?!

Realizing that the knife she used for self-defense was missing, Pipa immediately felt a sense of panic.

I clearly remember putting it there before I went to bed, how could I suddenly not be able to find it?

Pipa curled up, trying to keep the distance between herself and the other person, while keeping an eye on the movements on the other side and carefully searching under herself, but she found nothing after searching.

The dagger is really gone, could it be...?

Pipa suddenly remembered the dream she had before. In the dream, her mother walked in from outside and gently stroked her. It was so real that it felt as if there really was someone sitting next to her.

In the current situation, the only person capable of doing all this is clearly the guy blocking the entrance to the cave.

The moonlight shone in from behind, creating a hazy white light, but the outline of a child could still be vaguely discerned.

But Pipa did not let his guard down. He did not remember such a person in the village, let alone that he had seen the strange monkey in the flowery clothes not long ago.

Speaking of floral clothes, a few scattered memories flashed through Pipa's mind from a half-dreaming, half-awake state: the smooth touch of her palm at that time, combined with the vague outline that she could not say was very clear now. Pipa suddenly realized something she had overlooked before.

That is, the thing in front of me... let's just call it a person, is not wearing clothes.

After reaching this conclusion, Pipa felt even more panicked—after all, what kind of decent family's child would go out at night with disheveled hair and no clothes on?

So either the other person is mentally ill, or... the other person isn't even human.

In either case, for Pipa, who was alone in the wilderness at this moment and didn't even have a reliable weapon to protect herself, it seemed... extremely bad.