Chapter 23 Innocent Us: In our youth, love meant...
When I woke up again, it was just dawn, and I stretched. The gunfire had stopped, and it was quiet outside the castle.
I drew back the curtains and opened the window, intending to take a deep breath of fresh air, but instead I was met with a strong smell of blood.
After the zombie battle in the tower, the battlefield had long been cleaned up, and the smell hadn't been detected for several days.
For a moment I was stunned, a zombie with blood flowing from all seven orifices suddenly pounced on me from the wall outside the window. I screamed and rolled to the ground, avoiding the zombie's attack—if this body hadn't reacted quickly enough, I would have become a zombie too.
Several more zombies, their faces covered in blood, crawled in through the window and surrounded me.
I frantically grabbed my sword and sliced off one of the zombie's arms. It roared and swung its other arm, but I screamed and chopped off its head with all my might...
I scrambled out of the living room and rushed into the corridor, where I saw several familiar maids. Just as I was about to pull them along, they all turned around at the same time, their faces contorted in grotesque expressions and covered in blood—they had all turned into zombies! I almost thought I was dreaming, and I was so shocked that I dropped my sword...
They lunged at me, baring their teeth and claws, but I snapped back to reality, swiftly grabbed my sword from the ground, and hacked them all down...
More familiar faces appeared. The guards, servants, and maids who had turned into zombies all rushed at me fiercely. I initially put up a stubborn resistance, but as more and more zombies poured out from every corner of the corridor, forming a large wave of fighting force, I had no choice but to flee.
I ran as fast as I could, with a huge horde of zombies chasing me.
I rushed out of the corridor and into the garden, where a massive number of zombies surged in, attacking fiercely from all sides. I swung my sword as I ran, but I still couldn't hold off the ever-increasing number of zombies.
The number of zombies seemed to have increased dramatically overnight, forming a circle around me. This circle kept expanding and eventually surrounded me completely.
Just when I was certain of death, at the most critical moment, a strange incantation suddenly popped into my mind. I silently recited it, and the moment the huge wave of zombies rushed towards me, my body suddenly twisted and deformed, and my arms turned into wings, allowing me to fly out through the gaps between the zombies' arms.
Yes, it flew out.
A dozen or so black feathers, torn off by the zombies, scattered as the zombies roared.
I flapped my wings in terror, my soul nearly leaving my body, yet I dared not stop for even a moment.
I had turned into a bird, or more precisely, a giant black raven, exactly like the one I had seen in Black Castle.
I tried to fly as fast as I could, hoping to escape the castle, but for some reason there seemed to be an invisible barrier around the castle’s edge, and every time I reached the edge, I was bounced back.
After several setbacks, I could only fly dejectedly inside the castle when I suddenly saw a familiar figure—myself.
Dressed in a long white dress and wielding a long sword, he nimbly stepped over the heads of zombies, severing several long arms. His swordsmanship was superb, but he was struggling to fight.
I flew over quickly. He caught sight of me, leaped high into the air, grabbed one of my feet, and pulled me down with such force that he almost did.
He nimbly climbed up and sat up.
My body suddenly sank, and I took a deep breath to support my weight.
It's all my fault for not dieting before. I was already over 120 pounds and still eating and drinking excessively. Now I'm in big trouble.
After I turned into a crow, my already light body became even lighter, and I'm afraid it can't bear much weight.
Sure enough, after flying for a while, I could barely lift my wings.
"You idiot, hurry up and find a place to fly down." The man riding on my back noticed something was wrong and shouted angrily.
Who wouldn't want to find a place to fly down? But it just so happens to be quite far from the tops of several fortresses. I wanted to retort, but all I could say was "quack quack."
"Bullshit!" he cursed. "Hurry up!"
I was furious, but helpless. I could only turn my grief and anger into strength, flapping my wings with all my might and desperately flying toward the nearest fortress.
Just as I was getting close, several zombies suddenly jumped up, stretching out their arms to grab me. Of course, they couldn't catch me, but they startled me, causing me to lurch to the side, and tragedy struck—
I had been flying straight ahead and hadn't looked down at all, but when I tilted my head, I happened to see a huge "sea of zombies" below. It was terrifying, and since I have a fear of heights, I screamed.
—It keeps squawking and babbling.
With a thud, I pulled him down like a headfirst...
In the nick of time, he grabbed my wings with both hands and shook them violently from side to side. I felt as if my wings were about to break, and excruciating pain surged through my entire body. However, he successfully prevented me from falling into the "sea of zombies." After grazing past a horde of zombies, I flew at an angle to another spot and fell straight down.
The only place without zombies.
A huge pit—a cesspool.
I let out a terrible scream.
Then, darkness fell...
After the absolute darkness, a sudden burst of light shone so brightly that I couldn't open my eyes.
"Achoo!" I sneezed loudly.
I expected to smell a strong stench of feces, but instead, a fresh and pleasant aroma wafted over.
"Hey, you dropped something." A familiar boy's voice rang in my ears.
Who is it? I rubbed my eyes, trying to adjust to the light, and it took me a long time to dare to open them.
Suddenly, I was stunned in disbelief—
Jet-black, slightly wavy hair, big eyes, a high nose, and bright red lips—my class monitor, whom I had a crush on in elementary school.
I opened my mouth wide. What is he doing here?
Did I go back to elementary school and not fall into a cesspool?
He looked at me with a silly grin, picked up the tissue pack from the ground and handed it to me—or rather, to another version of myself, the one who was still in elementary school.
I saw myself at that moment, head bowed, happily accepting the tissue pack, and replying in a voice barely above a whisper, "Thank you."
Oh My God!
That cute girl with big eyes and two little braids was me in elementary school.
"Who is he? And where is this place?" someone next to me asked.
I turned to look and was surprised again—wait, what's he doing here too?
He was looking at my class monitor with curious eyes, at the classroom with peeling paint, the neat brown desks, the tall black podium, and a group of children coming and going, laughing and playing.
"How did we get here?" I didn't answer, but asked anxiously.
“Ancient books record that illusions or strange phenomena may appear when one is on the verge of life or death, especially in people of mixed race.” His voice remained cold and hard.
Hybrid? Isn't that him? He's a hybrid of elf and spirit beast.
"Who is he?" he asked again.
I replied, "He was my elementary school classmate." I added, "This is my elementary school classroom." I didn't care whether he knew what elementary school was or not.
He slightly twitched the corners of his mouth, a half-smile playing on his lips, and then remained silent.
Under the bright and warm spring sunshine, I saw myself then, hunched over my desk, secretly writing down the class monitor's name. No one would believe that I, in third grade, had a crush on a boy back then.
His name was written on the sandy riverbank, on the mottled walls, and on his cold palms.
As I graduated from elementary school, clutching my graduation photo, I frantically searched for his face, wanting nothing more than to see him—
A soft laugh came from beside me; it was him who couldn't help but laugh out loud, and he laughed uncontrollably.
"What are you laughing at?" I said angrily.
But he laughed even harder.
Suddenly, the scene shifts, and we find ourselves back in my junior high school.
The verdant campus, the blue school uniforms—it's so familiar it brings tears to my eyes.
In junior high, I changed my lazy ways and studied hard, determined to become a top student like my crush.
Just then, a boy came into my view; he was my deskmate.
In most people's eyes, I'm a top student, and he's a poor student.
We talked about everything under the sun, from the highest to the lowest, and had a great time.
I have read many books and traveled to many places, and he often listened with rapt attention.
Slowly, he began to look at me with a deep gaze.
But deep down I don't want to accept him.
He was far inferior to my elementary school classmate and academic star whom I had a crush on, so I slowly began to distance myself from him.
He noticed this, and later hated me, mocking and ridiculing me, even speaking to me in a slightly angry tone.
I simply turned my head and silently left.
Later, we graduated, and we never saw each other again...
I expected to hear another snicker beside me, but there was none. I peeked over, but couldn't make out his expression in the dim light.
The scenes from high school come even faster, so fast that the distance between junior high and high school seems to be only a second.
That year, the sweltering air felt suffocating, and then he appeared before my eyes.
He asked my name, and I answered softly. That day was registration day; he was my teacher, and he was 27 years old that year.
In class, our eyes occasionally met, but quickly looked away. Often we would look at each other, but rarely did we actually make eye contact.
That summer, we called each other, but we never spoke for a moment after the call connected.
There was a long silence on the other end of the microphone.
Night after night, I confided in my best friend, whose name appeared on the phone a thousand times, ten thousand times.
Even her best friend's father was astonished. What kind of person could make her so infatuated?
They will never understand that, when a girl is young, love is her whole world.
Three years have passed. He got married, I graduated, and it was all over.
Just as I was feeling sentimental, I suddenly heard him say, "Boring, why don't you have any real talent?"
"What do you mean?" I asked, dissatisfied.
He smiled faintly, and I suddenly understood. I spat out, "Why do you men always think about such filthy things?"
"If it were me, I would have gone straight for it."
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