Chapter 100 The stench turns to filth (XII)
"Huh?!"
Goose Shifang lowered his head and looked at his chest covered with fluffy white feathers. He then twisted his head with great effort and looked at the wings behind him and his orange-yellow webbed feet.
“Hahahaha?! What the fuck?!”
He blurted out in shock, and then he realized something was wrong. I could actually speak nonsense?
"Ahem! Hello? Can you hear me? Hey! Lin Heng! Brother-in-law! Minmin!"
A clear human voice came out from the round, plump mouth of the big white goose, and the scene was extremely strange for a moment.
Lin Heng held Xie Mian, who had just regained his physical form and fell into a deep sleep, and looked at the goose in front of him who was trying hard to hold his head high and maintain the demeanor of a big boss. The corners of his mouth twitched uncontrollably.
He suppressed a smile and nodded. "I hear you. Are you... okay?"
"No problem!"
Goose Shifang flapped its wings and tried to jump up, but it fell back to the ground with a "thud" just a few centimeters above the ground, splashing a small cloud of dust.
"Gah! This broken body! I've consumed too much energy. Gah! It's okay. Once I chew a few more pieces of insect stone... I'll definitely recover my eight-head body! Gah!"
As he explained, he looked anxiously at Xie Mian in Lin Heng's arms: "How's Mian Mian? Huh? His memory... hasn't returned, right?"
Lin Heng lowered his head to check Xie Mian's steady breathing and peaceful sleeping face, and confirmed, "No. He seems to have fallen asleep due to excessive exhaustion. When he wakes up, he probably only remembers... the events before his fingertips touched the cocoon."
He paused and added, "The children have woken up and their eyes are clear, but..."
Lin Heng's gaze turned towards the tent.
The children had indeed woken up, no longer numb, their eyes filled with the confusion of surviving a disaster and a hint of new life.
However, they did not rush to their relatives or cry loudly like other rescued children. Instead, they spontaneously and quietly formed a circle, holding hands, and looked at Xie Mian in Lin Heng's arms with almost pious eyes.
"Big brother..." Xiaohua took the lead and spoke first. His voice was filled with an extremely strange feeling. "Thank you for saving us."
"Thank you for saving us."
The other children immediately joined in, their voices in unison and their eyes focused a little too much.
Goose Shifang tilted his head, a hint of doubt flashing in his black eyes as big as green beans: "Huh? Isn't this good? Hasn't the obsession changed? 'Accept being rescued'... Isn't this just them thanking Mianmian for saving them? Huh?"
"It's 'accept being rescued,'" Lin Heng frowned slightly, keenly aware that something was wrong, "but their cognition seems to be stuck at a subtle point."
"E Shifang, you changed 'survive = endure pain' to 'survive = accept being rescued', but you didn't specify 'rescued by whom' and 'how to accept'."
Goose Shifang was stunned: "Huh? Do you even need a definition? Isn't it all over if I'm rescued? Huh?"
Lin Heng looked at the children's overly focused eyes, which even showed a hint of dependence and... a sense of belonging, and said in a deep voice:
“That’s the problem.”
"You reversed time, forcibly erasing their painful reincarnation, and imprinted the outcome of 'being saved' directly into their nascent cognition. The only prominent 'savior' figure at the time was the comatose Mianmian. Subconsciously, they equated 'being saved' with 'being saved by Xiemian,' and 'accepting being saved' with... 'belonging to Xiemian.'"
As if to confirm Lin Heng's words, the children sang a tuneless but grateful song in unison:
"The big brother with wings dispelled the darkness and coldness,
He brought light, he brought life,
We belong to the light, we belong to life,
We belong to… Big Brother…”
The singing voice was childish, but the content gave Lin Heng and E Shifang a chill.
This is not normal gratitude, but a sense of belonging that is like a fledgling complex and almost religious.
They no longer see themselves as being “helped” but as being “saved” and “owned.”
"Huh?! What the hell is this bug!" E Shifang was so angry that he flapped his wings on the ground.
"I worked so hard to reverse time and modify my obsessions, only to end up with a bunch of little followers?! Gah! This won't do! What if they think that 'belonging to Big Brother' means they have to follow him around all the time, or that it's blasphemy for anyone else to get close to Big Brother? Gah!"
At this moment, Xie Mian in Lin Heng's arms trembled his eyelashes a few times, let out a slight moan, and slowly opened his eyes.
Those green eyes were a little confused at first, reflecting the faint light of the setting sun.
He moved his fingers subconsciously and felt that his palm was empty, with only a slight, dust-like touch remaining.
"Cocoon..."
He murmured, his voice hoarse from waking up, "I...I think I touched it? And then..."
He tried hard to recall, his brows furrowed, but his memory seemed to be covered by a thick layer of fog. Only the moment when his fingertips touched the cold cocoon was extremely clear, and then there was a blank and a severe headache.
"Hiss... my head hurts... what happened back there?"
He struggled to sit up, and Lin Heng quickly supported him and let him lean on his arms.
Xie Mian glanced around and saw the ruins of the collapsed welfare home, and... the children holding hands in front of the tent, looking at him with extremely eager eyes.
"Are the children awake?"
Xie Mian was a little surprised, but then he felt a little uncomfortable when he saw the children's eyes, "What's wrong with them? Why are they looking at me like that?"
"Gah! Wife! You're awake!"
A sudden, excited voice sounded, accompanied by a burst of rapid "patter" footsteps.
Xie Mian lowered his head following the sound and was surprised to see a... very familiar, plump white goose.
The big white goose was flapping its short wings and struggling with its orange webbed feet, rushing towards him in a clumsy and eager manner.
There was a warmth in the goose's green eyes that was very familiar to Xie Mian.
"Ten... ten directions?"
Xie Mian was completely stunned. "You... turned back into a goose? And... can you speak human language?"
In his last memory, Goose Shifang was clearly still a round egg.
"Gah! It's a long story! Then it suddenly transformed!"
E Shifang rushed to Xie Mian's feet and tried hard to hug his waist with his wings, but unfortunately his wings were too short to reach him, so he could only turn around anxiously.
"That's not the point! Gah! The point is those little brats!"
Xie Mian looked at the children again in confusion.
When the children saw him looking at them, their eyes became brighter, their singing became louder, and they were filled with admiration.
Lin Heng spoke at the right time, his voice low and steady.
He cleverly avoids mentioning anything beyond the cocoon:
"When you touched the cocoon, it seemed to trigger some kind of intense energy shock, causing you to faint. The children...were also affected by this process and shook off their previous numbness, but..."
He chose his words carefully. "They seem to have developed some kind of...over-dependence and gratitude towards you. They think you saved them, and...they belong to you now."
"Mine?"
Xie Mian was even more confused. He looked at the children's pure and stubborn eyes and felt a bit awkward.
This sense of "belonging" is clearly abnormal and must be addressed.
Goose Shifang was quacking anxiously beside him:
"Gah! Wife! Come up with a solution! This bug is driving me crazy! Gah! I finally managed to pull them out of this cycle of suffering, and I don't want them to become your crazy fans! Gah!"
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