Chapter 23: "Wild boars, accept my rule..."
twenty three
Li Xiaoqi stopped and stood breathlessly at the edge of the playground, looking for his prey, the wild boar.
This was the first time wild boars appeared, and there were five of them at once.
It's a bit difficult to turn all of them into meat and put them all into the backpack.
Dazai Osamu took out the edgeless sword from his backpack and handed it to Li Xiaoqi, "Get as many as you can."
"That's all we can do."
Li Xiaoqi held the edgeless sword and stared at the wild boar with a fierce look.
While holding his breath, Dazai Osamu rushed out first, followed closely by Li Xiaoqi.
They didn't even have time to change into their cafeteria attire. They just took off their masks and sanitary caps and wore white aprons.
"Wild boars, accept my punishment!"
Suddenly, for some reason, Dazai Osamu got confused and shouted out such a childish thing.
Li Xiaoqi's forehead jumped up, and he said dissatisfiedly: "Mr. Dazai, are you stupid? Are you shouting so loudly to scare them away?"
The wild boars were startled by the noise and began to flee in all directions.
The wild boar at the edge of the playground stepped forward with its hooves and tried its best to run forward, but it did not move forward at all.
It was as if there was an invisible fence surrounding the playground, trapping the wild boars inside.
So, Li Xiaoqi and Dazai Osamu, who were wearing light blue cafeteria uniforms, were like butchers at this moment. Because a customer requested a whole pig banquet, they went to the pigpen with knives to catch the pig.
Dazai Osamu and Li Xiaoqi approached the running wild boars quietly, split into two groups, and walked towards their respective targets.
The sneaky figure moved forward in an unsteady manner, as if he was stealing someone's pig.
At this moment, Gojo Satoru, Geto Suguru and Ieiri Shoko, who had also rushed to the playground, had a sense of déjà vu when they saw them.
Li Xiaoqi held her breath and gradually approached the wild boar in front of her. The audience on the live broadcast interface next to her cheered for her.
She understood that wild boars were dangerous animals and that if one was accidentally hit by their tusks, one's life might be in danger.
But Li Xiaoqi was not afraid. At worst, he could just eat the sunset fruits and apples in his backpack while he was still alive.
The wild boar's wailing sound was heard, and Dazai Osamu stabbed the wild boar with his blunt sword, and the wild boar turned into a point of light and disappeared.
"Beast meat x2."
The system prompt sounded.
In an instant, the wild boars fled even faster. The wild boar in front of Li Xiaoqi seemed to be enraged and turned around and charged towards her.
Li Xiaoqi secretly cried out that something was wrong and quickly ran to the side, barely avoiding the wild boar's attack.
She took advantage of the moment when the wild boar had its back to her and scratched the boar's fur with the sword in her backhand.
The wild boar shook twice and disappeared as a point of light.
"Beast meat x2."
Li Xiaoqi breathed a sigh of relief and looked at the three wild boars left in the field. He then looked at the countdown on their heads with only 30 seconds left and showed a distressed look.
Ieiri Naoko exclaimed in surprise, "It turned into a point of light and disappeared. Is this elemental power?"
Unlike her other two companions, she had more or less witnessed the scene of real objects turning into light points with her own eyes. She had only heard about it from them, and was inevitably surprised when she actually saw it.
Gojo Satoru exclaimed excitedly, "Wait, wait, let's help too!"
After saying that, he pulled Geto Suguru and Nozomi Ieiri into the playground.
In the blink of an eye, Gojo Satoru pulled Ieiri Shoko in front of a wild boar, and he blocked the other one at an extremely fast speed.
Geto Suguru raised his hand and scratched his hair, dodging the wild boar's attack left and right, looking very leisurely.
"Uu ...
Ieiri Shoko was chased by a wild boar and glared at Gojo Satoru.
Li Xiaoqi raised his hand to his forehead and wailed, "It's over. Glass and the others don't have Teyvat's weapons."
"This is easy!"
Gojo Satoru said.
He grabbed the back of a wild boar and instantly flashed behind Jia Ru Nishiko, grabbing the fur of another wild boar to stop it from running around.
Dazai Osamu's eyes flashed, and he rushed forward in two steps with his edgeless sword, killing two pigs with one sword.
Geto Suguru seemed to have had enough fun, so he stopped and faced the wild boar that was rushing towards him. He raised his right hand and pressed down on the wild boar's head.
There are only 10 seconds left in the countdown.
"Don't worry, Miss Nana. The wild boar won't run around with me here."
As he said, the wild boar ran with all its might, but failed to knock Geto Suguru away.
Li Xiaoqi ran over and turned the last wild boar into a spot of light at the critical moment of the last three seconds.
"Beast meat x6."
As the sound of harvest rang out, she wiped the sweat from her forehead and smiled brightly.
"Thank you, Geto-kun."
A few strands of hair fell from her temples, a healthy blush appeared on her cheeks, and the midday sun penetrated into her pupils, making her eyes unusually dazzling.
Dazai Osamu was stunned and looked away as if he was pierced by the light.
He lowered his eyes and slowly smiled.
"No...it's just a small effort."
Geto Suguru laughed, and his words were unusually hesitant.
Li Xiaoqi waved his hands and thanked him again, "No, no, no, Xia Yu-kun is really amazing. This is the first time I've seen such a scene. A wild boar with its head pinned down and unable to move. If it were a human... it seems possible. It turns out that the scenes in anime are possible..."
As she spoke, her thoughts began to wander.
Xia Yujie blinked, a little confused by Li Xiaoqi's mumbling.
"ha?"
Ieiri Shoko noticed Dazai Osamu's expression, but she couldn't tell whether the smile was one of loss or helplessness, but it had nothing to do with happiness.
"Mr. Dazai, what's wrong?"
Ieiri Glass asked curiously.
Dazai Osamu shook his head slightly and said, "I just think that Xiaoqi's smile is so dazzling..."
He paused, and his expression became one of deep sorrow.
"I'm so jealous thinking about my lovely sister getting married to someone else - why does the term 'brother-in-law' exist? That guy should just die, hehe..."
Dazai Osamu's face was full of resentment, his eyes were dark and there was no sign of improvement, and a dark aura continued to flow out of him.
Ieiri Naoko twitched her lips and advised, "Mr. Dazai, such thoughts are very dangerous. Miss Nana will think you are a pervert. After all, you are still a brother. You should set a good example."
Gojo Satoru stroked his chin, slyly leaned close to Geto's ear, and whispered, "Geto, you really are..."
"no!"
Geto Suguru denied loudly, his ears turning slightly red.
"I'm going back."
He turned and walked out of the playground in a hurry.
Gojo Satoru was stunned, and suddenly he clenched his left fist and hit the palm of his right hand. A light bulb seemed to flash above his head.
Ieiri Naoko looked over and asked, "Satoru, what's wrong?"
Gojo Satoru stretched out his thumbs and index fingers with both hands, made an inverted "7" gesture, shook it left and right twice, and finally raised his thumbs.
Ieiri Naoko was stunned at first, then suddenly opened her eyes wide, and in a trance a light bulb lit up above her head.
So she stretched out her hand and gave a thumbs-up in understanding.
Li Xiaoqi's mouth twitched. Looking at the two men playing dumb, he asked, "Are you communicating secretly?"
Gojo Satoru and Ieiri Nozomi shook their heads in unison, "No, no."
Then, they turned around in unison and ran towards Geto Suguru.
"Jay!"
"Jay—wait for us!"
Gojo Satoru hooked his arm around Geto Suguru's neck and walked next to him.
Ieiri Shoko jumped up, hooked her hands around his neck like Gojo Satoru did, and punched his arm with her right fist.
"Don't walk so fast."
Geto Suguru was sandwiched between the two of them, and a helpless voice was heard.
"Who told Wu to talk nonsense?"
"Oh, such a big reaction must be true~"
“That’s right—”
"Glass, do you think so too?"
The backs of the three people walking side by side were getting farther and farther away, and the sunlight stretched their shadows very long.
Li Xiaoqi looked at them and suddenly his eyes turned red with emotion.
When everything was happening right before her eyes, it was hard for her to treat it as just a story.
The bond between the three of them is real, and the bitter summer that will soon arrive will also be real.
"Xiao Qi."
Dazai Osamu stood beside her without her knowing when.
The heat of the sun brought the breath of summer. Li Xiaoqi felt that the sunlight was getting hotter and hotter, even burning her eyes.
Just like that, a pair of eyes not only turned red, but also shed crystal tears.
"Do you remember what the wind god Barbatos said to you, the traveler, at the end of the chapter about the original god Mondstadt?"
Dazai Osamu said softly.
Li Xiaoqi was stunned and recalled the conversation in the game.
That was a sentence that impressed her deeply.
“When you set out on your journey again, remember the meaning of the journey itself.” {1}
Dazai Osamu nodded slightly and asked, "Anything else?"
Li Xiaoqi turned his head and saw Dazai Osamu's expression at the moment reflected in his eyes.
He looked at her seriously, his eyes were not sharp, and the deep darkness that had made her uncomfortable had faded away.
Li Xiaoqi shook his head silently, "I don't remember the rest very clearly."
Dazai's expression softened as he said, "Traveler, when you embark on your journey again, remember the meaning of the journey itself. Teyvat's birds, poetry, and city-states, its queen, fools, and monsters, are all part of your journey."
He recounted the sentences he saw in the game. Under his gentle description, Li Xiaoqi seemed to see himself still in that world, sitting in front of the computer playing games.
"Xiao Qi, we are travelers, travelers of the world. After completing the map exploration mission, we will leave this world."
“Everything that has happened or will happen in this world, whether you know it or not, even if you know it in your heart, is just a story that happened during the journey.”
“A traveler’s duty is to record everything that happens on the journey, to record the changes in the scenery along the way, but never to change it.”
There was only patience and gentleness in the exposed iris-colored eye, just like a dark land where one should not be able to see one's hand in front of one's face, but when one looks down, one sees that one is the only source of light in the darkness.
He was like a beacon, guiding her where to go.
Li Xiaoqi frowned slightly and looked into Dazai Osamu's eyes intently and sincerely.
"Mr. Dazai, as you said, it is the duty of a traveler, but—"
"The Traveler in the game is so cool! He quelled the Wind Dragon Rebellion with the Wind God, saved Liyue Harbor with the immortals, bravely faced the might of thunder in Inazuma, and challenged the Thunder General with the wishes of thousands of people. These deeds... The Traveler not only records everything that happens on the journey, but also participates in it, creating many stories of his own, and building a bright future with the companions he meets."
She smiled slightly and said softly, "We are on a journey. We are travelers. Just standing here is a story that has already happened and has been created by us."
"It's like us catching wild boars with Gojo-kun and the others. This shouldn't have happened, but we created it, didn't we?"
Li Xiaoqi put his hands behind his back and smiled with his eyes curved.
Dazai Osamu stared at her in a daze, speechless. He turned his head to look at the blue sky, and a flying bird was reflected in his eyes, drawing an arc.
Suddenly, he chuckled and said, "I'm talking about the easiest way."
Li Xiaoqi walked side by side with him and looked towards the blue sky along his line of sight.
She squinted her eyes, unable to open them because of the glare of the sunlight, and she didn't know why Dazai Osamu could keep his eyes open.
“Whether it is easy or not is not determined by us, but by the journey itself.”
Dazai Osamu widened his eyes slightly and deepened the smile on his lips.
"Hahahahaha——Xiaoqi, you are very funny, really."
He smiled, and perhaps because the sunlight was too glaring, his eyes became a little red.
“Then let me ask you, is it possible to create a story where everyone on the journey is happy?”
Li Xiaoqi's eyes softened as he said, "It must be difficult to make everyone happy."
She looked at Dazai again, her tone serious.
“So, as long as the important people can be happy, then this journey will be complete.”
Dazai Osamu didn't say anything. The smile on his lips faded and he looked back at her quietly.
Li Xiaoqi suddenly felt that she was no longer afraid of Dazai Osamu's eyes that seemed to swallow people into darkness.
"The important people I mentioned also include my partner on this journey."
"Right? My dear partner, Mr. Dazai."
As she spoke, her eyes were full of smiles.
Dazai Osamu took a step back suddenly, a look of panic in his eyes.
Suddenly, a snow-white butterfly flew past my eyes.
The butterfly flapped its wings, and he felt that the frequency of the flapping was a little too fast.
When Dazai Osamu recovered and recalled the moment when the butterfly flew by, he realized that it was not that the butterfly's wings flapped faster, but that his own heartbeat seemed to be faster.
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The sentences marked with {1}{2} at the end of the text are from the plot dialogue in the game Genshin Impact.
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