Chapter 33 [Silas Saves the Beauty]...
After his sixty-seventh near-failure, Silas did consider giving up.
Helpless, seeing the white figure startled from the tree branch in the distance, and its frantic turn of its head as if chased by villains, Silas felt his heart break.
Like the glass that Mela once accidentally broke, which shattered into countless pieces of varying sizes on the ground, its sharp edges gleaming with a cold light that stung the eyes.
Silas rubbed his sore eyes, dragged his droopy body, and left the place dejectedly.
However, for the sake of his unspeakable pride, Silas chose to stay outside for a few days and never return to the cabin except for mealtimes.
Sure enough, after Silas deliberately played the victim, Mela began to feel sorry for it.
To persuade Silas to stay a little longer in the cabin after dinner, Mela even brought over a plate of sweet apricots that Lex had just cut, warmly inviting him, "Silas, come and try these apricots, they're so sweet."
"Really? Let me try it—" Silas's eyes lit up instinctively, and it took two steps forward with its paw. Fortunately, the next second, it immediately realized that its attitude was wrong and that it should not have acted so impatiently and carelessly.
Silas paused, quickly coughed twice in a mock manner, flapped his wings, and declined Mela's offer. "Never mind, I'm not in the mood for this right now. Sigh... the color of these apricots is so beautiful, they look just like the bunch of wildflowers I picked for Miss Lily back then..."
"Come on, open your mouth."
Mela personally used a small fork to pick up a piece of apricot and held it to Silas's lips.
Silas opened his mouth without hesitation and ate it, afraid that if he hesitated for even a second, Mela would take her hand back.
It chews and chews.
Yes, Mela is right, these apricots are really sweet.
Silas's mouth watered as he stared longingly at the golden-yellow food on the plate, wanting another piece.
Mela suppressed a laugh and granted its wish.
Lex, who was hanging up a dishcloth nearby, glanced over. He dropped the act so quickly. It's only because Mela didn't want to expose him that Silas's acting skills were completely inadequate.
After eating about half a plate of apricots, Silas felt his stomach was bloated, and the feeling of fullness was almost reaching his throat, so he reluctantly refused the dried fruit that Mela continued to offer.
"I should go now," it said.
Then, with a flap of its wings, it flew out the window.
They seemed to leave without any regrets.
As night fell and the lights in the cabin went out, assuming that Mela and Lex were probably asleep, Silas stealthily flew back and landed on the roof of the cabin.
There is a nest here specifically for storing its favorite sparkly little things.
However, Silas used to prefer spending time with Mela, and would rather sleep on the perch in the house, so the nest was left vacant.
However, for now, although Silas has to pretend to be sad, it is absolutely impossible for him to sleep alone outside, constantly on guard against potential enemies and flying insects, and to be woken up in the middle of the night by noises from unknown wild animals.
Therefore, Silas picked up the nest again, nestled comfortably inside, and closed his eyes.
Wait until the sun rises above the horizon, then slowly and deliberately leave, avoiding being discovered by Mela or Lex.
However, Silas didn't wake up until the sun was almost directly overhead.
Startled, it flapped its wings twice, looked down at the cabin, and was relieved to find that Lex, who was always an early riser, was not there. It then hurriedly took flight.
Inside the cabin, Lex, standing by the window, witnessed this scene: "..."
He turned and looked at Mela, who was also lying in the rocking chair with a dazed look in her eyes because she had also slept in, and once again sighed that the owner and the pet really were a pair that looked more and more alike.
*
Halfway there, Silas was suddenly drawn to a small, shiny object on the ground.
It lowered its body, landed on the ground, and saw that it was a small button.
Silas couldn't identify what the button was made of; he only thought it looked like a seashell, milky white, with a wavy curve.
Occasionally, a ray of sunlight would manage to pierce through the gaps in the lush foliage, illuminating the button and giving it a cold, white sheen. No wonder it caught Silas's eye; it's in the nature of crows to love anything shiny.
Strange, the Dark Forest is rarely visited by people, who would have dropped a button here?
Silas tilted his head, unable to figure it out.
If Lex were here right now, he would definitely recognize that this button is a style that was very popular in the royal city eight years ago.
Unfortunately, the only one here is Silas, who knows nothing about this.
Its mind was filled with the smug satisfaction of getting something for nothing.
Since it fell to the ground and happened to be found by it, the button rightfully belongs to it.
Silas happily picked up the button.
It originally intended to take the button back and keep it as a souvenir, but Silas suddenly realized that although it had made up its mind to give up pursuing Miss Lily, it still lacked a proper farewell gift.
The novels Mela bought described how men who were rejected in confessing their love would invariably give the woman something as a keepsake to show their chivalry. It might be a brooch, a necklace, or even the most down-on-his-luck man would pick a bunch of beautiful wildflowers and send them over.
Silas, believing himself to possess wisdom no less than that of humans, naturally wanted to do his best in saying goodbye, just like humans do.
Perfect, this one is just right.
From now on, whenever Miss Lily sees this button, she'll surely think of Silas. Silas thought to himself with delight.
The bird flapped its wings even faster, and flew rapidly in one direction like an arrow.
Then, Silas witnessed a scene that made its beady black eyes widen involuntarily.
"A wretched crow was chasing after Miss Lily, its beak open, and it was just a hair's breadth away from succeeding!"
When the topic came up, Silas still spoke with righteous indignation, his wings clenching unconsciously.
Mela hadn't had a chance to remind it yet.
The next moment, "Hiss, it hurts, it hurts so much!"
Silas immediately changed his expression, not only gasping wildly but also nearly jumping up and down on Mela's knee in pain.
Fortunately, Mela reacted quickly and caught it.
Otherwise, if Silas had actually jumped up, Mela would be the one gasping for breath right now.
"So, you rushed in to be a hero and save the damsel in distress."
Mela used an affirmative sentence.
Otherwise, Sylas wouldn't have so many wounds on his body.
The damage was so severe that in some places, pink flesh could be faintly seen peeking out.
Mela was truly heartbroken.
Hearing Silas cry out "It hurts!", he immediately loosened his grip on it, coaxing it, "Okay, okay, don't move. Let me wrap it with gauze quickly. I promise, it won't hurt anymore once it's wrapped."
Upon hearing this, Silas stopped his commotion and gritted his teeth to quiet down.
And Mela kept her word; in no time at all, she had bandaged Silas and placed him on the table.
The claws landed firmly, and Silas scurried back and forth on the table, finding that the wound did indeed hurt less.
With practice comes familiarity, and after one experience, Silas adapted well to being wrapped up and no longer found the gauze on his body bothersome.
However, it didn't forget to answer Mela's question.
To be precise, Silas had long planned to publicize his glorious deeds extensively, letting Mela know what a formidable enemy he was facing:
"That's right! Brave Silas saw that stinky crow that was bigger than him, but he still chose to charge at it and smash it aside! Then Silas had a fierce fight with that wretched crow!"
In truth, if it were Silas, who had never fought against his own kind before, he would almost certainly have lost.
However, having learned from his previous experience, Silas successfully mastered the technique of dodging vital points while delivering a powerful blow to his enemy, and then applied this technique with unparalleled skill in this fight.
"Don't let all these wounds fool you, I managed to scare that stinky crow away in the end."
Silas was absolutely thrilled.
For a moment, it felt as if the wounds on its body no longer hurt; these were its medals of honor!
"Oh right, what about Miss Lily?" Mela suddenly remembered that Silas hadn't mentioned the heroine in the damsel-in-distress story at all.
What happened next?
“Of course they escaped successfully,” Silas said.
With its enemies finally distracted by Silas, it seized the opportunity to fly into another forest and hide.
As for where it had gone, Silas had no idea, since he was focused on getting back to the cabin to find Mela after being injured.
"However, I left the button behind. Although I didn't say goodbye properly in person, as 'Night at the Manor' says, leaving a gift and leaving quietly is a thoughtful and elegant way to go."
Silas puffed out his chest, casually fiddling with the feathers not covered by the gauze, feeling undoubtedly the most dashing crow in the world.
Upon hearing the somewhat familiar book title, Mela took a while to realize that this was the novel that was all overly literary and that she had only skimmed through once before putting it away.
I never expected Silas to like this kind of thing.
It's quite different from her taste as the owner.
However, Mela subtly took a few steps back and moved closer to Lex. "It seems that what you're worried about won't happen for the time being."
As for what it was, Lex knew perfectly well. It was nothing more than what the two of them had discussed behind the house that afternoon. Lex believed that if Silas continued to insist, he would only suffer more serious harm.
Mela's stance, which she didn't have time to express at the time, is now very clear: she disagrees with Lex's idea.
“You see, many things may not go that far, so there’s no need to worry about the future.” Mela patted Lex’s shoulder lightly, chuckled, and turned to leave.
Is there really no need to worry about the future?
Lex pondered the words repeatedly in his mind, his eyes gradually becoming deep.
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