Emotional Evolution
The agricultural era has never ended, but Xie Jinhui's confiscated imagination is finally gone.
I'm quite worried that the upright and incorruptible Mushroom Guardian will be enraged by our "eye-catching" behavior that reduces our suffering, and will punish us with more time during our 100,000-year mushroom period.
But Grandpa Mushroom only confiscated the items without imposing a fine, saying it was his oversight that he hadn't explained it beforehand.
Our actions did not violate the rules, nor did they extend the time limit.
"The mushrooms of the Mushroom Clan are quite reasonable..."
I propped up the mushroom cap, stood close to Xie Jinhui, and expressed my gratitude.
But I never expected that the price of gratitude would be...
Xie Jinhui may be lost in thought, his soft head filled with mushroom-like wrinkles, but not wisdom.
He thought it took ninety-seven sunrises and sunsets for me to say those words.
Finally, on a night when the stars were drooping in a daze...
The mushroom next to me finally figured it out.
“Yes, Auntie,” he said.
Grandpa Mushroom wasn't without methods; although it didn't seem like he punished us, it was no different than if he had.
Because my chat partner is dumbfounded; it'll probably be another six months before he speaks again.
This was a minor accident. I think Grandpa Mushroom knows that if I ever lose my temper, I'm sure I'll explode.
Before I reached my limit of silently enduring punishment, the old man not only made the silly stars in the sky shatter on the ground, but also made the land where we were rooted crack open and turn upwards.
I know what this is called, a catastrophe of earth-shattering, world-ending scale!
Who's afraid of who? It's all about experience and life, what's the big deal?
After this, will I finally be able to be a quiet mushroom and live a proper life?
By now, death has become the biggest obstacle to experiencing suffering.
Because death numbs you; death is more boring than life.
Just before the cracked, raw soil shattered me, I discovered a surprising phenomenon.
The large, soft tree remained unmoved amidst the cataclysmic upheaval, swaying its branches and beckoning freely.
I suddenly had a feeling.
The giant soft tree is like a monument, recording all the types of mushrooms Xie Jinhui and I grew in all those times and illusions.
I'm angry that it didn't fall down with me, and I'm also angry that it has killed us so many times.
But I also vaguely sensed that it had a purpose.
Soon, Xie Jinhui, who was slow to react, had become the mushroom from his previous life.
His new body and new mind have both returned to normal flow, and communication is no longer difficult.
Xie Jinhui made a judgment about that soft tree as soon as he was born.
He said that during the years he suffered from dementia, he could understand what he heard and saw, but he had difficulty responding verbally.
It's like being submerged in a viscous liquid; thoughts flow, and the mouth struggles to make sounds, finding it difficult to escape.
However, he understood one thing, and looking at the soft tree that had been through a tremendous upheaval and was now far away from us, he said with absolute certainty.
“Yuan’e, every time that tree falls, it takes ten thousand years. It is the yardstick of time in the illusion.”
I stretched out... Oh, I'm a mushroom, I can't stretch out my hand...
So I relied on my memory and roughly counted the number of times the softwood tree fell. It seems like it's been 50,000 years.
Xie Jinhui nodded in agreement.
...
In this lifetime, even though we are a group of bamboo fungus with abundant juice and delicious flesh, we still end up with worms.
Insects danced beneath our skirts and umbrellas, and we, in the dappled shadows on the ground, swayed and teemed with life.
The sun and moon revolve aimlessly.
It has finally lived to the age of becoming a mature mushroom capable of releasing spores.
I held back my urge to spit it out, because I didn't want to get mixed up with Xie Jinhui's abundant spores and become part of a mushroom cloud.
Xie Jinhui comforted me, saying, "Yuanhe, this is the Mushroom Illusion. Only the two of us mushrooms can survive here."
Do not be afraid to unleash your nature, whether it is your spores, my spores, or our spores, they can only float, they cannot land.
We are childless.
His observation was spot on. We sprayed spores until the flesh was brittle and tough, but not a single mushroom sprouted on this dreamlike land.
And so, Xie Jinhui and I, dressed in white fairy dresses with mushroom mycelium netting, supported each other and freely released spores.
Looking at the sky full of spores, they drifted into a cloud of smoke that seemed to shake off dust as the stars blinked.
We smiled at each other.
As the mushroom foliage gradually dries up, we'll grow old together like white mushrooms, eventually dying of old age.
In this life, we actually have an unexpected gain.
It is like this: among the white worms thriving inside the mushroom, an anomaly appears.
This insect doesn't eat the mushroom flesh, but instead greedily sucks up the floating spores.
It is growing, white and fluffy.
But I think that once Xie Jinhui and I die, it probably won't survive either.
Reincarnated, we landed among the tall grasses and muddy beaches.
I saw the soft tree in the distance fall into a drunken stupor, but soon sobered up and stood up again.
Yes, this is the sixth time, representing 60,000 years.
I thought to myself.
Something was trembling in the grass.
Soon, the white caterpillar that eats spores excitedly crawled towards me and Xie Jinhui, who were still spores.
Only the promise of the guardian mushroom that it would not let us be eaten again did I manage to suppress my trembling body.
I'm really afraid that these insects, which I don't know how they survived, will eat us.
The insect sniffed at us, then suddenly became excited and started circling around. Instead of biting us, it used its slender body to protect this perfect spot for mushrooms.
I poked my head out and stared into the insect's tiny black eyes, and I could actually see the meaning in its gaze.
"Xie Jinhui, does it look like anyone?" I asked.
Xie Jinhui was snuggling up to the little bug, his face ticklish with a smile.
"Like a ravine."
Yes, like the fervor with which Jianyuan called me "Mother" and Xie Jinhui "Father".
The insect is not a ravine; it survives by feeding on the spores we left behind.
The sky was also cleared up, and it was no longer shrouded in mist.
The existence of the little insect is a miracle, and it is even more difficult for it to generate obvious emotions in a dream world.
As I watched the insect's shadow constantly radiating affection, a feeling of compassion welled up within me.
“We’ve all opened our umbrellas, but this little bug still doesn’t have a name,” I said.
Xie Jinhui pondered for a moment and then asked, "What do people call fruits that are infested with insects?"
"Insect bag," I replied.
So, the little bug got a name: Bug Bun.
As I grow taller, the insects climb up my mushroom stem.
It found its way to my heart, bit down hard, and made a hole in itself.
Of course, it didn't spare Xie Jinhui's heart either, throwing its soft, white other half into Xie Jinhui's mushroom flesh.
Even in this state, Xie Jinhui still praised the bug-shaped bun.
"Oh my, what a filial son! He uses his body as a rope to tie his parents' hearts together!"
I just chuckled. Heart to heart, okay? When I miss you, even if you sense it, can you stretch out a pair of mushroom-shaped claws and hug me?
"Hey, Xie Jinhui, I seem to have sensed all your complicated thoughts through the bug bag."
For some reason, ever since the bugs started attaching themselves to us, our bodies have not only grown faster, but we also don't look old at all.
The head of the worm spore resides in whose heart it resides in; it grows larger and larger the more spores it eats.
My mushroom body continued to grow taller and rounder, and gradually Xie Jinhui and I became increasingly close.
The amazing thing is that the hole the insect made in the heart also rises along with the position of our heart.
The feeling of growing younger with age gave Xie Jinhui and me confidence to survive the next tens of thousands of years in this body.
We huddled together, counting stars in our younger days, until the stars kept giving birth to babies, who jumped around in the sky like monkeys, teasing us.
Then we listened to the wind, but the wind said, "If you want to hear clearly, close your eyes."
Mushrooms have no eyes, but closing them is a matter of the heart, so we close them.
"Yuan'e, do you want to be with me for all eternity?" Dongfeng asked.
"I think so," the south wind replied, bumping into the east wind.
"Xie Jinhui, do you like me?" Nanfeng asked shyly in Dongfeng's arms.
"I like it!" Dongfeng replied affectionately.
Is that the sound of the wind?
For tens of thousands of years, with the winds blowing from all directions, have they been rehearsing this play?
I heard the westerly wind, who was in control of the stage, calling for the southeast wind to come on stage. The southeast wind's lines were: "Father and mother, I am Bug Bao, I am your only son..."
I shook the umbrella and silently withdrew from this grand spectacle of the wind.
It turns out that all our thoughts and feelings have been simmered into a rich and fragrant soup of mushroom emotions in the Mushroom Illusion.
Xie Jinhui's umbrella curved, as if resting against my shoulder.
"Yuan'e, I'm tired of those sweet words and vows of eternal love. Can you decipher them for me?"
My mushroom-shaped haircut gently touched his.
"Xie Jinhui, ten thousand years is too short. I will never get tired of you if you stay with me."
Perhaps Xie Jinhui wanted to say something more, but our bug bag was terrified!
Because the big softwood tree on our side of the river collapsed with a whoosh.
This collapse was unusual; the insect bag suddenly detached itself from my and Xie Jinhui's heart meridians and flew out.
Thick clouds suddenly covered the sky, and darkness descended abruptly, blotting out the sun.
The soft tree couldn't stand up in time, as if it was also stunned by the scene before it.
We insects were lifted into the air amidst lightning and thunder.
Its soft fur reflects the bright white light emanating from within, condensing into solid, shimmering silver scales.
Layer upon layer of scales rapidly covered the insect's body, which stretched and bent continuously.
A figure, whose head is nowhere to be seen, moves between the dark clouds and thunderous thunder, amidst the crisscrossing drumbeats of the sky and sea.
If mushrooms had mouths, I would definitely cheer loudly.
Has anyone ever seen a soft, white worm born from a mushroom one day soar through the heavens and transform into a dragon?
shock!
The scales of the insect's shell are like peach bells, tinkling and ringing, the sound that teaches the stars how to blink.
A colossal silver dragon stretched across the sky, its claws swirling like flowing clouds, and its horns, as white as solidified jade, extending outwards.
It is majestic and awe-inspiring, as if sculpted from ice and frost, with a pair of bright dragon eyes filled with tenderness.
As the dragon passed by, the illusion was filled with silver light, bestowing a spirit upon everything.
The soft tree stood up, like a reverent old man, and bowed to it.
Immediately afterwards, grass, small animals, wind, stars—all things in the illusion—were paying homage to the insect bag.
I was inexplicably moved to tears; I felt that the original name of the dragon son was unworthy of it.
Xie Jinhui looked at Jackie Chan's insect and said calmly, "Then let's call it Dragon Spore..."
I said, "Isn't this name a bit crippled?" Xie Jinhui chuckled.
Just then, the silver dragon returned the greeting to all things, unleashing an unrestrained dragon roar.
The shock caused the beings in the illusion to cover their ears and their illusory senses.
I shouted loudly into the sky, "Bao Bao, can we keep it down?"
The baby silver dragon's eyes were blank as it looked at me, as if it had heard something or sensed something.
In short, his answer was, "Okay!"
Even more deafening than the dragon's roar just now...
It seems like it can't hear!
I admit Xie Jinhui has a knack for naming things; our Bug Buns are now officially renamed Dragon Spores.
The silver dragon appeared abruptly in the Mushroom Illusion.
It sheltered Xie Jinhui and me from the wind and rain, allowing us to avoid all dangers.
The dragon spores also continuously bestow upon us dragon energy, so that the mushrooms, which should have been suffering in the illusion, not only no longer suffer, but also gain immortality.
I'm terrified that the old man guarding the border will suddenly appear and kill Long Zibao.
It's not because it brings us any benefit.
Rather, it is our baby.
The voice of the guardian mushroom elder did indeed come through, and he spoke respectfully.
"The transformation of insects into dragons is unheard of; this is a creation bestowed upon the Guming Illusionary Realm by two supreme gods."
Admirable yet lamentable.
Your future is of your own making; what right does this old man have to interfere?
May the two supreme deities, the Dragon Ancestor of the Netherworld, be well.
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