After that day, Guan Yueyue went up the mountain alone.
She grew up in the mountains. To her, the forest, which seemed dangerous and hidden to ordinary people, was just like returning home. Every blade of grass and every tree was so familiar to her that she missed it.
She found an empty space and started digging bamboo shoots with a shovel. Halfway through she heard someone calling her.
Xu Zhukong ran all the way to her, barely catching his breath: "Why are you here again?"
Guan Yueyue didn't expect him to appear here: "I want to make it up to you."
"What compensation?"
"It was because of me that you became like that."
Guan Yueyue didn't live in the world for a long time, and repaying kindness was the rule she remembered most clearly. Just like every year in the past, when the people in the village offered her offerings, she would repay them with good weather and good harvests in the coming year.
When she touched the bamboo shoots on the ground, they would be contaminated with the breath of the mountain gods. Eating them would be good for the health of humans, so she had to compensate him with something.
Xu Zhu was so angry that he almost died: "Don't you know it's dangerous for you to come up here alone? Will you die if you call one more person to accompany you?!"
Guan Yueyue pursed her lips: "I won't be in danger."
How could she, a deer, be in any danger in the mountains?
Xu Zhukong was about to say something, but when he saw her fawn-like eyes, he swallowed it back silently: "Forget it, I'll help you."
Guan Yueyue actually didn't want him to interfere.
It's not that she felt embarrassed, but mainly because the other party had fainted from the beating yesterday. She really doubted whether he could beat her with his recovered strength now. But considering his self-esteem, she didn't say anything.
Five minutes later, she and Xu Zhukong looked at each other in bewilderment across the bamboo shoot that was half cut off by a shovel.
Guan Yueyue said: "Brother Xu, how about letting me do it?"
Xu Zhukong felt very depressed, and he opened his mouth and said, "Oh."
Guan Yueyue shoveled the dirt twice, but couldn't ignore the gaze beside him: "Why don't you go down and find a shovel to help me?"
Xu Zhukong did not respond, but shook his head and said, "Forget it, I'm of no use anyway."
"It won't be useless." Guan Yueyue used her fingers to push away the mud next to the bamboo shoots. "Even if you sing a song for me now, it will make me happier."
Xu Zhukong was stunned.
She had just said it casually, but she didn't expect the other party to actually sing it.
It was a folk song that was popular all over the country a few years ago. Even in a closed village like theirs, it could often be heard on the radio and television.
"I can't bear to let you see my tears, so I can only say to you, look, the face of the moon is secretly changing, the face of the moon is secretly changing..."
Moon, moon, moon.
Every word is like reciting a gentle name.
Guan Yueyue listened quietly and asked, "Why do you say the face of the moon is changing?"
Xu Zhukong seemed to hesitate for a few seconds before answering: "Because time will change."
"Just like I can still see you here today, but something unexpected might happen tomorrow and I won't be able to see you again." He paused, his ears reddened, and he said shamelessly, "Otherwise, why would I come to find you now?"
※
Guan Yueyue and Xu Zhukong fell in love.
People in the village said that Xu Zhukong was really lucky, otherwise why would such a clean and beautiful girl like Guan Yueyue fall in love with him? Don’t you see how many boys’ eyes turned red with anger when they heard the news?
Xu Zhukong laughed and said, "Let them continue to be angry. The moon is mine anyway."
People in the village also said that Guan Yueyue was really lucky. She had no parents and could do nothing. When she first came, she didn't even know common sense such as plowing. If it weren't for her face, how could any man be interested in her.
Xu Zhukong glared at them and said that she didn't know at first but she knew now. Besides, it didn't matter if she didn't understand. Her presence was enough. He didn't want her to know how to farm.
People in the village also said that they fell in love soon after spending a night in a hunting cave. When they were found, it was dark and they were alone. Maybe something shameful happened that night, otherwise how could it be such a coincidence.
Xu Zhukong didn't say anything to them at all. He just punched them and fought hard until his hands and face were covered in blood, but he refused to let go. Fire was almost spitting out of his eyes.
In the end, it was Guan Yueyue who went out and pulled him back.
Everyone said that Xu Zhukong was stubborn, especially when he met Guan Yueyue, he was as stubborn as a bull and refused to give in even a little bit; they said that he loved Guan Yueyue like the apple of his eye and was afraid that she would ride on his head; they said that he and Guan Yueyue had such a good relationship and they would definitely live a very, very happy life in the future.
Xu Zhukong accepted everything and then relayed it to Guan Yueyue: "Look, Moon, everyone says we will always be together."
At that time, Guan Yueyue also thought that they could be together forever.
At least until her identity was revealed.
※
The accident came suddenly.
That day, Guan Yueyue went to the river to dig lotus roots when it suddenly rained heavily. She hid in the shade for the whole afternoon and did not return until the evening. Unexpectedly, she saw Xu Zhukong's father at the door of her house.
Father Xu grabbed her arm fiercely: "Yueyue? How are you okay? What about Zhu Kongren?!"
Guan Yueyue didn't care about the bruises on her hands, and even forgot to dodge: "What's wrong with him?"
Father Xu's voice was filled with anxiety: "He saw that you hadn't come back by the time it got dark and thought something had happened to you again, so he went up the mountain to look for you just now, and you haven't come back yet!"
The bamboo basket was thrown on the ground.
Guan Yueyue broke free from his hand, turned around and ran towards the mountain, leaving behind Xu's father's words "You're back, what are you doing here? It's almost dark"
The mountain forest in the rainstorm seemed to be coated with a thick layer of frosted glass, and everything in sight became blurry and distant.
Guan Yueyue's hearing is much better than that of humans. Along the way, she passed the villagers who came up the mountain to help look for people, passed the caves, passed the cliffs, and finally heard a familiar voice on the side of a very steep slope.
Without hesitation, she jumped down the slope and found the person she was looking for in the mud.
Xu Zhukong broke his leg and his clothes were soaked by the heavy rain. His first reaction when he saw her was to wipe the dirty water off his face: "Why are you here? Did you fall down too?"
Guan Yueyue walked up to him and said, "I jumped down by myself."
Xu Zhukong: "Are you crazy? Why did you jump down?!"
Guan Yueyue just lowered her eyes to check his injury. She was born with a pair of round deer eyes, and the heavy rain slid down the corners of her eyes, leaving cold water marks, and then fell silently into the muddy ground.
Xu Zhukong had never seen her like this before, and he hurriedly apologized and tried to comfort her, but he saw the person in front of him suddenly lowered his body and lifted up his arm: "I'll take you upstairs."
"This slope is so steep and I'm so heavy, how can you carry me up?" He pushed her, "You go up by yourself and find someone else to come. Remember to change your clothes first to avoid catching a cold..."
The remaining words disappeared in the soft white light.
The snow-white deer carried him on its back and said, "Hold me tight."
He was stunned and asked: "...The moon?"
The white deer stepped on the rocks on the slope with its nimble limbs, jumped up the hillside in a few steps, and finally changed back into a human form with deer eyes, carrying him step by step out of the forest.
None of them took the initiative to mention what happened that day, but no one thought that they did not avoid the eyes of the villagers who came to look for them.
No one knew who spread the story of Guan Yueyue, and at the same time, all kinds of rumors were spreading in the village.
——Have you heard that the little girl from another place is not a human being, but a monster!
——Who else is from outside our village who settled there? Isn’t it the girl called Guan Yueyue at the end of the village? I used to think it was strange that her face looked like a vixen, and it turned out that she was really in the same group as the vixen!
——Speaking of which, I just lost a silver ring two days ago and couldn’t find it anywhere. Could it be…
——Of course it is! Otherwise, how could it grow legs and run away?!
——I was wondering why the food in my house is getting less and less every day. Could it be her fault?
——The clothes hanging outside in my house have several holes every day, and I always wonder who is so tasteless.
——Oh, you still don’t believe it? Someone saw it with their own eyes! She turns into a monster with two legs and four feet at night! Does she eat people? You tell me, do monsters eat people?
——What do you think she is doing here? She didn't say anything and lied to us that she was a human being. Who knows what she is up to? She doesn't have good intentions anyway. She must be thinking about how to hurt people all day long! Let's go, stay away from her!
——In my opinion, we should catch it and burn it as soon as possible. Why keep a monster? Are we really going to let it run around in our village?
Guan Yueyue didn't know whether the thing would grow legs, but rumors really spread faster than legs.
During those days, whenever she appeared in public, she would be greeted by a cloud of leftover vegetable leaves and garbage. When she walked on the street, someone would throw acid water on her. Discarded paint and mud ash turned into the most vicious curse and covered every corner outside her house.
It only took one night for her to go from being the "Sister Moon" that everyone admired to being hated and criticized by everyone.
She had never encountered such a situation before, and could only retreat into the hut, helpless and bewildered.
The only one who accompanied her was Xu Zhukong, the man who jumped down the hunting cave despite being afraid of the dark, the man who sang to her in the bamboo forest, and the man who broke his leg in the heavy rain while looking for her, a man so stupid as to die.
The people outside said, "Why keep a monster around? Tie her up and burn her! Otherwise, are we going to wait for her to continue to cause trouble for everyone?!"
But Xu Zhukong said: "How long have you been here? Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? Do you want me to make you something to eat? Don't listen to them, they are all fools, they are all blind, you are the moon, no matter what, you are my moon."
Guan Yueyue was pulled out of the dark corner by him and finally accompanied him to the grave.
He said: "I will take you to the wedding hall now. I will take you to my mother's tombstone to pay respect. We will kneel before heaven and earth and before our parents, and then you will be mine."
Then, the man who said he would take her to the wedding hall pushed her onto a high cliff in front of the villagers who were hiding and watching in the woods, in front of his father, and in front of her.
The wind was very strong on the cliff. She asked him why in a trance and heard him clearly say, "Guan Yueyue, you are a demon and I am a human. Why do you think I will marry you?"
"I was so blind to like you in the beginning! How dare you lie to me for so long? Why didn't you die when you were born? How can you, a monster, have the nerve to live?!"
The hands of the villagers and Xu's father blocked all her escape routes, and the arm of the man in front of her was even more powerful. He pushed her into the abyss fiercely, without hesitation, and in an irresistible manner: "Go to hell!"
She really fell into the wind on the cliff, died among the rocks, and never lived again.
When he first changed into a human form and went down the mountain, the small animals in the forest said, "Yueyue, don't go down the mountain casually. Even if you go down the mountain, don't get too close to humans. Even if you become friends with humans, don't be too serious."
Guan Yueyue asked why.
The little animals said, "Because you are not human. If they find out your identity and you develop feelings for them, you will definitely get hurt in the future."
Guan Yueyue still asked why.
The little animals said, "Because there is an old saying among humans, which has been passed down since long ago when they first had emperors, and then when the emperor disappeared and the president came into being, and is still being passed down today, which is 'not of my kind'."
His heart must be different.
But she didn't listen.
Later, Xu Zhukong said to her, "We will be together forever."
She listened.
Until she finally realized that what she thought was just what she thought.
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