Chapter 30 Mountain Cabin 2: The Story
You curl up in bed, the surrounding darkness like a giant net, tightly enveloping you.
They say there's a seal in the bed that repels monsters, but strangely, you don't feel at ease at all.
The room was deathly silent, except for the sound of your rapid breathing, which was particularly clear in the small, stuffy environment under the covers.
Your body stiffens, and you try to tell yourself that nothing has happened. You count your heartbeats, hoping it will calm you down, or at least lessen your fear, but instead, the abnormal heartbeat only intensifies your anxiety.
It's not just fast, it's also noisy and chaotic, like being in a small black box filled with people.
But the calls from outside the blanket and inside the room persisted: "Come on... join my story..."
The sound seemed to come from afar, yet it also seemed to echo in your ears.
It was soft and indistinct, yet carried an irresistible allure. You knew perfectly well that you shouldn't respond, shouldn't pull back the covers, and certainly shouldn't try to find the source of the sound.
But you find your body unable to resist. Your fingers tremble slightly under the covers, and a wave of panic washes over you.
"Come out..." The voice rang out again, this time clearer and closer.
You finally realize that these are whispers coming from your own heart.
No, it's an echo.
You grit your teeth, close your eyes, and try to brainwash yourself into thinking "I can't move" as you do every time a mutation occurs, so you can get through it.
But this time, your body no longer recognizes you as its master.
You watch helplessly as your hand rises and touches the corner of the blanket.
In that instant, the fear reached its peak—you know, you just know, that if you lift the covers, there will be more than just empty space waiting for you.
You feel every muscle in your body tense up, your heart pounding so hard it feels like it might leap out of your chest at any moment. The voice continues to echo, growing more rapid and deeper, like an invisible hand gently patting your soul in the darkness.
"come out…"
Your hand suddenly pulled back the blanket.
There was nothing there.
You might expect to see a terrifying shadow or a bizarre face. Perhaps it's a strangely shaped version of Xiao Fang.
All you see is emptiness, utterly still. You look around, searching desperately in the darkness.
Everything in the room felt both comfortingly familiar and unsettlingly strange.
You can't quite put your finger on what's wrong.
Oh right, where are they? Where are Xiaoming and the others?
Your face is suddenly illuminated.
You notice strange rays of light seeping in through the cracks in the door and window. The light is faint and cold, like flowing water, squeezing and spreading through the thin space from another world, twisting and shimmering, as if it were alive, wandering around you.
In a corner of the room, darkness and light intertwined, creating a blurred and indistinct area.
It was hard to tell whether it was light that was moving, or whether the darkness inside the room was melting away, its contents being poured out by the light.
You stare blankly at the light and shadow until it spreads out in wisps, like tentacles, densely crawling all over the edges of the room.
As if only then realizing you needed to run away, you tried to stand up. You rolled your eyes, perhaps thinking of climbing onto the table? You rolled your other eye, looking at the travel bag that was serving as a small table on the other side.
His legs felt as heavy as if they were filled with lead.
At the same time, your eyes are firmly drawn to that strange light as it rotates around you.
As if sensing your consciousness, the light in the window crack suddenly trembled violently. It's not hard to imagine that the luminous object—perhaps the light itself, or perhaps the back of the light—was dancing wildly like a primitive cave painting.
They're about to break through the door, either from the outside or from the inside.
The inside and outside are separated by a door, but do doors even have any meaning?
"Come out...come out..." The whisper appeared again, this time from all directions at the same time, from the outside in, and then through your blood vessels, muscles, skin, and out through every strand of your hair.
It commands you, urges you to approach that distorted light source.
You feel goosebumps all over your body.
You inappropriately think of a lame joke: What if it were a thread tied to a tiny hair?
You involuntarily take a step forward, even if you try your best to tell yourself you can't continue.
Until you touch the edge of the light.
The “spread” finally stopped, and you felt as if the world had completely lost its balance.
Entirely by your own decision, you reached out and your fingertips touched a corner of the light.
The whispers outside the door ceased, and your world once again fell into a suffocating silence.
You know you have no way out.
The next moment, the light swept into the entire room with unstoppable force.
Upside down—actually, even though your head is facing up, you feel like the top is the bottom.
Your perception is disordered.
----
You open your eyes and find yourself lying in a sea of flowers, surrounded by a rich floral fragrance, with a gentle breeze carrying a soft coolness.
The soft white light shone on your face; everything seemed perfectly ordinary.
But there's a strange emptiness in your heart—you remember that you came here as a traveler, you remember that you are an "outsider," but your experiences, those memories, flash before your eyes like a slideshow, and you can't even empathize with them.
You can only make some rational judgments.
For example, you know that something is definitely wrong with your current situation. Even if you don't feel scared or weird, and you don't want to leave, you can tell from your long experience that something is wrong.
You thought for a while, but couldn't figure out why you were lying here. It was as if a layer of mist shrouded the depths of your memory, something you couldn't penetrate. "Then forget it."
You "saw" that when "you" can't figure something out, you often put it aside first and then come back to think about it carefully.
I don't know what that feeling is like, but since you could do it before, you can do it now.
You sit up and look around.
Before me stretched a vast valley, covered with colorful flowers, but even more abundant were large, silvery-white fluffy blossoms, like moons scattered across the land.
Edelweiss, that ominous flower.
You reach out to touch them, and they gently sway and rub against your palm. You withdraw your hand in a daze, and then you hear what sounds like thousands of tiny lives singing.
Actually, this scene is somewhat beautiful, but you know that it would frighten a normal person.
After sitting there with your knees drawn up to your chest for a while, several small animals that looked like humans standing and walking, and resembled both large rats and rabbits, nudged you, as if urging you to follow them.
Is this a groundhog?
The good thing is, you're not afraid at all now, and you even reach out to touch the fur of these little animals. Contrary to your expectations of a smooth, glossy texture, their fur is sharp and cold, and a few stray hairs growing backwards prick your hand.
The dripping blood didn't fall vertically, but rather drifted precisely into the crevices of the flowers, not a single drop wasted, and was absorbed by the soil.
Looking at all this, you parted the gap in the flowers with some confusion, picked up a stone, and turned it over.
As the soil was turned over, a smell reminiscent of rotting flesh that had been left to decompose for over ten days assaulted your nostrils.
The groundhogs didn't understand your behavior either; they just stood up and stared at you from the outside, looking at you like you were an incompetent, bad employee. After a while, they stopped paying attention to you and hopped on on their way.
Your bewildered and somewhat confused gaze followed the wriggling groundhogs and you actually found Xiaoming and Xiaola.
They were squatting not far away, working alongside many women and men from the Yi Kingdom.
You can spot Xiaoming and Xiaola at a glance, both dressed in traditional clothing and wearing headscarves, because none of their clothes have any prints, and their solid-colored garments don't seem to be ordinary linen, but rather smooth silk with a satin sheen.
You then lowered your head, picked up the skirt with its large hem, and realized that you were wearing the same thing. However, the mountain people didn't notice that you were so different from them, from your race to your clothing.
You, who were "unwilling to work" and arrived last, were left out. Xiaoming and Xiaola, on the other hand, each held a wicker basket and began picking the silvery-white flowers called Edelweiss in the field under the guidance of the mountain people.
The work was slow-paced, and each time a flower was picked, one had to be careful not to break the stem.
You are unwilling to imitate the actions of those laborers, but you feel that it should be fine to imitate Xiaoming's actions.
Carefully pinch the flower stem with your fingers, and with a gentle twist, the pure white flower is successfully decapitated and lies quietly in your basket.
Not far away, Xiao La was also picking flowers slowly. Her movements were a little clumsy, but she was full of energy and trying her best to keep up with the pace. Her basket was already filled with a layer of white flowers.
During this time, the groundhogs scurried about in the flower field. Occasionally, a few would come to bother you, but seeing that you were stubborn, they would quickly leave.
Those ground squirrels were actually overseers watching over the mountain people as they worked. They weren't vicious at all; they just hummed songs in a cute and endearing way to promote the work.
Some older women also hummed along, their voices deep and resonant, like the echo of the earth:
Edelweiss, Edelweiss
Pave the way for her to return to the moonlit night.
The princess travels, the princess returns.
The mountain winds prevented her from retreating.
Pick flowers quickly and pick many flowers.
It covered the mountainside for her.
She went away, she returned.
The flowers sang a hymn in unison.
The melody is melodious and the tone is pleasant, yet it's very catchy, and you'll find yourself swaying to the rhythm.
You resonate with the rhythm of the mountain wind, you vibrate in unison with the amplitude of the flowers, and your skirt—oh, and Xiaoming and Xiaola's skirts too—looks like the biggest and most beautiful edelweiss on the land if viewed from above.
That's not right.
You don't actually think it's wrong.
In my memory, you were always denying, doubting, and running away. Sometimes, you would even drag those around you along to do things that benefited others but didn't harm yourself.
You think that's friendship.
So you get up and walk towards Xiaoming and Xiaola. You want to ask them for their opinions; perhaps they share your viewpoint, and then you can determine exactly what happened.
Xiaoming and Xiaola's behavior is more normal than yours—picking flowers, tying them up, tidying them up—just like everyone else, only you are walking around everywhere.
Of course, you will also find some things that you would definitely judge as incorrect in your memory.
Their movements appeared unusually mechanical, as if each action was being controlled by invisible threads.
You crouch down in front of Xiaoming and see yourself through her pupils. Your eyes widen unconsciously, but at least they have a sparkle, while their eyes are empty, as if they are just empty shells.
Looking around, I found that the other laborers were in the same situation. The women and men were like simple replicas of Xiaoming and Xiaola, heads down, focused on the flowers in their hands, their bodies stiff, and everyone's movements were almost exactly the same.
This reminds you of a choreographed dance, repeated endlessly without any variation.
You feel something prickly scratching at your trouser leg; it turns out to be groundhogs circling around these working people.
What's interesting is that their movements, while so lively, also exhibit a strange regularity.
Whenever someone picks a flower, the groundhogs leap up and rush to the person's feet, seemingly urging or monitoring them. You can even see the light gleaming in their eyes, not as simple as that of ordinary animals, but more like the light of some kind of intelligent being.
A goblin? You know, more and more entertainment works are portraying groundhogs as goblins. In this story, it's quite fitting.
You leaned closer to Xiaoming's ear, wanting to call her name. But your voice became nourishment for the flower field, and soon, words exactly like your voice rustled through the valley.
Hehehe
The flowers chuckled, you didn't care, but you still took their heads off.
Hmm.
The flower buds cut down with a hoe are just flower buds, but those picked by hand ooze red sap.
You sniffed it, and realized it was blood.
You looked at the people working, hummed a few lines of the groundhog's work song, and then you looked at Xiaoming and placed your hand on her head.
You gave up. It seems that "you" are not someone who would casually use "companions" for testing purposes; you are actually a united and friendly person.
You randomly approach a villager, greet him briefly, then raise your hand and repeat the same gesture. With a click, you pluck his head off.
Blood gushed out, and the flowers around him instantly grew even more lush, but when you peered through the hole in his neck—his body was empty.
The earthy smell wafted from inside; it wasn't foul, but it wasn't exactly pleasant either. You picked up a random stone and poked around inside.
In the broken soil, there were some red, white, and yellow fragments of tissue. Before long, this empty shell withered and shrank, turning into a withered wildflower.
You sighed, realizing you had indeed guessed correctly.
You put your hands on your shoulders, not with much force, just a slight twist.
It didn't hurt, and you didn't hear any sound.
You crawled out of this body, spitting out mouthfuls of dirt.
I'm going crazy! You're all wrinkled and irritated. You've lost a lot of nutrients and moisture, and your skin is peeling off in patches.
Fortunately, sugar is a nutrient that flowers don't need, so you won't experience low blood sugar.
Kick away the shell that had turned into a headless edelweiss, tear off the broken hair that hadn't been completely transformed, and stagger toward Xiaoming and Xiaola, pulling them out of the body as well.
Let the two of them try to figure out what's going on while they're squinting, when a piercing sound suddenly came from their feet.
You look down and see the groundhogs scurrying around you, jumping around and making low growling noises. They seem unhappy, but they just keep making noises without taking any further action.
You involuntarily step back, staring intently at the groundhog's movements.
The mountain people continued with their work, completely unaware of the changes around them. Xiaoming and Xiaola finally came to their senses, but the scene was clearly thrilling even for Xiaoming.
"Let's go find Xiao Fang." You forced a smile and took Xiao Ming and Xiao La's hands.
When you're buried inside the body, you have a vague feeling that you can do anything, but as long as you're here, things will only get worse.
Xiao Fang will be the one to break the deadlock; at least we need to find her first.
The groundhogs are no longer just warning bystanders; they keep swarming around you, their sharp claws grabbing your trouser legs.
There is no real harm done, and these little creatures cannot stop you if you stride away. However, their bouncy figures, mechanical movements, and eyes that are brighter than a human's all make you feel a deep sense of disgust and unease.
Your heart is pounding, your scalp is tingling, and the fear and anger that have been building up in the confined space are churning inside you.
These little animals seem to sense your anger, and instead surround Xiaoming and Xiaola, jumping, rolling, and making low gurgling sounds.
You can no longer control yourself; in fact, you've never been able to control yourself until now.
An impulse surged through you, and you gripped the hoe tightly beside you. Suddenly, without thinking, you swung it at a groundhog.
The moment the hoe struck, time seemed to stand still.
The marmots in that area all let out a short, sharp screech, and then their soft bodies were pinned to the ground by a hoe. Blood splattered on the flowers, the red color intertwining with the vibrant hues of the blossoms, creating a striking contrast.
Everyone stopped, as if a switch had been instantly turned off, and they all stopped what they were doing.
They both turned their heads at the same time, looking at you slowly and stiffly.
They didn't say or do anything, just watched you quietly, as if waiting for something or judging your behavior.
The pressure from this silent gaze is far more suffocating than any words.
Just like you are that oddball. Although you were indeed oddballs to begin with.
"Never mind them, look!" Xiaoming tugged at you, pointing to the snowflakes splattered with blood.
The fleshy petals, splattered with blood, inexplicably resembled, uh, human tissue.
You touched your abdomen and felt something hard lying there.
The insect-proof and heat-insulating outdoor clothing that was specially bought for spending the night in the mountains was not easy to take off. Xiaoming and Xiaola, with trembling hands, helped you pull the clothes apart, and finally managed to take them off layer by layer.
Xiao Ming pinched it between two fingers, and with a not-so-pleasant expression, pulled out that thing to show you.
This is the stem and leaves of an edelweiss plant, coiled around your abdominal cavity like a large intestine.
Seeds were planted in your abdominal cavity at some unknown time, and flowers took root and sprouted before quietly emerging.
Looking at the bloodstains on the petals that resembled intestines, you reached out to pick them off: "Xiaoming, can you just tear the flower off for me and put the leaves inside?"
Xiaoming blocked your hand, then took off her coat and undershirt, letting you and Xiaola see what part of her was missing.
“The hole is in the back of your heart,” you say, peering in with difficulty. “It looks like the heart.”
Xiao Ming nodded, deftly caught and killed another groundhog, and splattered the blood onto the flowers.
Sure enough, the shape of a heart appeared.
"Use me as a test subject, I have an extra life." Xiao Ming grinned and closed his eyes.
You clench your fist, then release it, let out a long breath, and pinch her half-open flower.
With a tug and a pull, Xiaoming just snorted, and you took out the Edelweiss in one piece.
As the last bit of the root system attached to the bone was pulled out, Xiaoming lost his balance and fell to the ground. Luckily, Xiaola, who was stunned, instinctively caught him.
You quickly plucked the petal with the heart pattern and placed it into the blood hole.
Flesh and blood regenerated automatically, and soon you could see a brand new heart beating in Xiaoming's chest cavity from his back. In no time, the wound also healed automatically, and Xiaoming recovered completely.
"Aside from that brief moment of pain, it's actually fine. Let's do it this way." Xiaoming, pale-faced, was being helped to lean to one side by Xiaola, and reached out his hand to you, "I'll do it for you."
Soon, your and Xiao La's organs, which had been parasitized by the flower seeds, recovered.
Throughout the entire process, the workers around you did not move at all; all their heads simply turned in unison toward you.
After you all escaped the "ending" of being parasitized and turned into flower mud, they simply turned their heads away with a slight disappointment and continued with their work.
The groundhog completely ignored you, as if you were no longer part of the game.
But what about Xiao Fang?
This question lingers in your mind, refusing to leave.
You all thought the key lay with Xiao Fang, but now it seems your story has come to an end, while she has yet to appear.
How can you possibly leave this place completely?
Xiao Fang must be inextricably linked to this so-called Moon Princess story. But could it be—could it be that Xiao Fang has already become that so-called "princess"?
But if Xiao Fang is a princess, then what are you?
"What exactly are we?" you asked Xiaoming in a low voice, your voice trembling slightly.
"Background figures? Those citizens who are only briefly mentioned in princess and prince stories? Unlucky souls caught in a curse?" You throw out a series of questions, unaware that your excitement has never been contained from the start.
Xiaoming's brows were furrowed, clearly indicating that she was also pondering these questions.
"No, we should be thinking about where we are," Xiaoming suggested, posing a new question.
“We are in the story,” you said, “which is obvious.”
The discussion yielded no results. The deeper they pondered, the less they could unravel the mystery. Just as they were descending into chaos, suddenly, a scream shattered the silence.
"Look! Up in the sky!" Little La pointed to the sky, trembling all over.
You and Xiaoming quickly looked up.
A huge, full moon hung in the sky, but this was no ordinary moon.
This moon—incredibly huge, seemingly occupying the entire sky. Its light was cold and piercing, a pure, colorless white devoid of any warmth. Even more terrifying, this moon was slowly falling towards the earth.
Ah, no wonder it's so bright here. It's a pity you've never thought to look up at the night sky since you came here.
The moon itself possesses an invisible force unrelated to gravity, giving the air a tremendous sense of oppression and pulling at the entire earth.
You stand at the edge of a sea of flowers, yet you feel the ground beneath your feet begin to tremble gently.
The light of the full moon merged with the pale mountains in the distance—ah, actually not that far, strangely, when did they appear beneath your feet?
The boundary between the mountains and the sky disappeared; the silvery-white mountains were actually just a waterfall of moonlight.
Right before your eyes, the moonlight grew stronger and stronger, deathly white as the end of the world.
No one can say anything. The way you look up at the moon is no different from that of a groundhog.
A sudden gust of cold wind swept in; it was a storm from the moon, engulfing the edelweiss in the sea of flowers.
The petals, carefully collected by the mountain people, were swept up by the wind, creating a path leading to the sky. The mountain people themselves, however, immediately rotted, becoming the mud that protected the flowers.
The silver flowers danced wildly, flashing with countless sparks.
This is the trail in your eyes, but it is a spider's thread held by the moon.
It is the moon's call, guiding a destined person to an unknown shore.
yes---?
Amidst the earth-shaking tremors, the ground suddenly split open.
The ground beneath your feet seemed to be torn apart by an invisible hand, the black cracks like a huge, silent mouth, and from the cracks, a beam of pale light shot straight into the sky, converging with all the light.
You watched as a figure slowly rose from the crack in the ground.
It was a girl, a figure you knew all too well—Xiao Fang.
Her body was as light as a feather, floating in the air, surrounded by countless fluttering snowflakes.
Her face was expressionless, her eyes were closed, and her long hair flowed like a silver river in the moonlight. Her figure was almost completely hidden in the moonlight.
Xiao Fang was getting farther and farther away from the ground. Her body swayed gently, like a piece of paper being blown by the wind, flying step by step towards the moon, getting closer and closer, higher and higher.
"She... really is a princess," Xiaoming murmured to himself, his voice filled with deep fear and helplessness.
No one can face such a moon without fear; it is overwhelming, unbearable to look at, and once you do, your mind seems to twist into a tangled mess of sheen—pure intimidation.
the same as you.
But the moon, which had stopped approaching, started moving again, drawing ever closer, as if the entire sky were tilting. You have no doubt that the world is a box, soon to be crushed.
The moonlight enveloped everything, a blinding white expanse devoid of any life.
You feel an irresistible force permeating the air, making you unable and afraid to think. It comes not only from the moon in the sky, but also from the earth, from the deep darkness seeping out from the cracks.
Darkness flows upwards to the sky, while light penetrates deep into the earth.
The earth and the sky are merging, and the world is crumbling.
Just then, the edelweiss petals suddenly stopped fluttering. They froze in mid-air, as if time had stopped. Xiao Fang's body was suspended in mid-air, bathed in moonlight.
Things have reached a point of no return; Xiao Fang is being completely swallowed by the moon.
Your roles in this story are merely those of us standing on this torn land, seemingly forgotten by the world, witnessing all these irreversible changes.
Just as no readers or viewers would care.
An uncontrollable anger and despair rose from the depths of your heart.
This is your instinctive reaction; even if your brain is dead, it can still find a glimmer of hope.
You can't let her be taken away like this! She didn't do anything wrong! Everyone says that following the rules is enough, and even if she's incredibly unlucky, she shouldn't die in vain!
But what can you do? The scene before you is too vast, too terrifying. What are you? You are nothing but a speck of dust, yet dust in space can cause meteor showers!
Little La finally let out a desperate scream. As if she had been frightened, she squatted on the ground, covered her ears with her hands, and dared not look at the sky anymore.
"Come back!" You shouted these words almost from the bottom of your heart, but your voice did not cause a ripple in the silent valley and the torn earth.
Your gaze is fixed on Xiao Fang; in your field of vision, she has already turned into a tiny black dot, about to disappear into the light.
There's nothing you can do to help her. But she's your partner, even though you haven't known each other for long.
In this bizarre and terrifying world, having companionship and trust is more precious than most so-called friends in the real world.
This connection makes it impossible for you to let go, impossible for you to watch her be taken away.
You feel a connection between your senses and hers; perhaps you're just going crazy. It turns out that the one who has been whispering in your heart, brain, and ears all along is Xiao Fang.
Her voice was so soft, overlapping with the malice in her call for you to "come out": "Don't come... run away... it's hopeless..."
"Come back! Don't go! Things aren't that bad, they shouldn't be that bad!" you shout again and again, but the moment you utter that call, an unbearable burning sensation suddenly strikes you from the top of your head.
The cool, soft, white moonlight, which falls equally on everyone, becomes scorching, intensely hot, and full of life only for you, to the point that all life would die instantly.
You let out a short groan, then curled up on the ground in agony, as if that would lessen the torment. The burning sensation intensified; your limbs stiffened, and your skin began to turn bright red, as if it were about to burst open.
The scene before your eyes begins to distort, your vision blurs, and your breathing becomes rapid and difficult.
"It hurts! Mom, it hurts so much!" You barely managed to squeeze out the words, your voice distorted by the excruciating pain. You didn't have the energy to ask for any help; you just wanted to make a sound.
Little La was drawn to your movement and glanced up. Seeing your body contorted in the scorching moonlight, she cried out your name in terror, instinctively wanting to rush to your aid, but utterly clueless about what to do. Her hands trembled as she paced back and forth beside you, as if trying to rescue you from your agony, but she was at a loss, so anxious she almost cried.
"Xiaoming! What should we do!" Xiaola screamed, her eyes filled with tears.
Xiaoming tried to remain calm, but her situation wasn't much better than Xiaola's.
Her eyes held even more pain and struggle than Xiao La's. She wanted to help you, but she didn't know how. Perhaps she knew, but she didn't know if it was the right thing to do.
Her hand lightly touched your arm, then immediately withdrew. Your skin was radiating a burning heat, which stung her as well.
Her hand paused in mid-air for a moment, then gripped your shoulder tightly, trying to pull you back to safety, but to no avail.
Under the moonlight, people on the ground had nowhere to hide.
While looking at you with pain, Xiaoming also stole glances at the full moon in the sky.
Her gaze darted back and forth between you and the moon. At one point, she gripped your shoulders tightly again, her expression turning completely cold. Even with tears still glistening in her eyes, her voice was choked with sobs: "Don't be foolish. This is a trap specifically set for Xiao Fang, understand? We don't belong in this game. We're just passersby in the story, barely mentioned! Do you understand? Stop adding drama to your life. This isn't our script! There's nothing we can do!"
"Xiao Fang, she's just unlucky! She gets carsick, she's not feeling well, her willpower has weakened, so she caught the virus. She can't escape now, she's destined for the moon!"
Xiaoming's voice was sharp and trembling. Her hands dared not shake you, but instead dug them almost into your flesh: "Do you understand? At least we have to leave, leave this damn place! As long as we stop interfering, Xiaola, you, and me, we can all walk out safely! As long as we stop interfering and stop trying to change this story, we'll be fine!"
"We just need to watch and wait for the princess to meet her end and the prince to get his comeuppance!"
Every word Xiaoming uttered was sharpened, piercing your heart.
Xiao Fang is a companion to you, and so are you to Xiao Ming.
Xiaoming once said that she had helped many newcomers, but few people would be as grateful as you are, and at the same time, rely on themselves to get through life and death challenges step by step.
Even though she had already cleared four dungeons, she couldn't say for sure that she would survive to the end. But she hoped that you would survive, at least as a projection of her expectations of you, which also gave her a sense of hope: these dungeon worlds were not hopeless, and that with caution, wisdom, unity, and mutual assistance, one could return home.
but.
The irresistible, cold logic in Xiaoming's words also makes you feel deeply powerless.
Yes, this story has no rules; its only rule is the fate of its characters. Xiao Fang is the protagonist, the "Moon Princess" destined to be chosen, while you—you are merely supporting characters in this game of fate, the mountain people who pick flowers, the mountain people who become flower mud, and those who slip through the net and don't even become flower mud.
"Xiaoming!" you called out with your last breath. Tears welled up in her eyes; she really couldn't bear to watch you die.
“Either you…” A hint of ruthlessness flashed across Xiaoming’s face, but she ultimately didn’t say it aloud.
The excruciating pain relentlessly slices through your consciousness, swallowing your reason. You want to give in, to stop it all, to stop struggling, just like Xiaoming said.
Xiaoming's voice still echoes in your ears; her persuasion shaped your thinking.
But the resistance in my heart sparked new inspiration.
This whole arrangement was not merely a coincidence.
The passersby are here, the princess is here, but the story is not complete.
You suddenly realize why you were being targeted and punished in this way.
You became the character who tried to keep the "princess" with you; you were the "prince" in the story, the prince who painted the mountains white to try and keep her.
No, you are not that prince.
"This is not fair!"
You shouted with your last ounce of strength.
Compared to the cries of pleading and pleas, this hoarse cry resonated powerfully and forcefully through the empty valley.
"In the story, the prince tried to keep the princess from leaving, and he deserved to be punished for it! But what about you? You're just taking Xiao Fang away like this, isn't that also disregarding her wishes?"
These words pierced the moon's silence. You saw Xiao Fang's ascent suddenly stop. She slowly turned around, still hovering in mid-air. Her eyes were not empty and numb after all; instead, two snowflakes bloomed in them.
“Let her decide for herself!” you continued, your voice trembling with anger and resolve. “Let Xiao Fang decide for herself! Her fate should be chosen by her own body! Not by you, not by me!”
You shouted these words with almost all your might.
The moment you finished speaking, you felt the intense pain pressing down on you suddenly disappear. The air seemed lighter, and the burning sensation subsided, but an even more terrifying sound took its place—countless fragmented, obscure, and incomprehensible murmurs wrapped tightly around you like octopuses.
You feel like your genitals are another layer of shell, and you really want to tear it off and release your true self from within.
It's so itchy, so uncomfortable, I want to hatch, I want to...
"Stop grabbing me!" Xiaoming had already reacted and pounced on you to grab your hand.
She doesn't care about your blood and the bits of flesh torn off her hands; she can't let you tear your own flesh off alive.
Calm down.
Nodding to Xiaoming to indicate that he was alright, she turned her head away, forced herself to open her lips and clench her teeth, and repeated: "Let Xiaofang decide for herself! She should have her own choice!"
The tiny square, about the size of a dot, didn't approach you, but her figure became clearer.
Although she remained suspended helplessly in the air, her expression seemed to have changed slightly.
The flowers in his eyes were withering petal by petal, and his brows were slightly furrowed, as if he was struggling with something deep inside.
"She's fighting back!" Xiaoming said to you with surprise, then turned to Xiaola and said as well. She held your hand the whole time, to prevent you from losing control again.
"Yes." You were also delighted.
In that very instant, in that single moment, the world underwent another dramatic change.
The earth trembled repeatedly, and the rocky mountains and earthen mounds condensed millions of years of movement into these few seconds. You rode on the crest of the rocky waves, infinitely approaching the void of the universe.
The pale moon, which had been silent and shining, slowly opened a huge eye.
That eye was cold and deep, carrying a wisdom and power that transcended human comprehension.
Your past, present, and future are nothing more than randomly placed pebbles before these eyes; a slightly heavier step can overturn the whole picture.
You stand upright, glaring angrily, simply because you are utterly terrified. You are unable to move, but even if you could run, where could you run to?
The moon didn't look at you, or Xiaoming, or Xiaola right away.
In its eyes, there is indeed no difference between you.
It simply opens its eyes casually from bottom to top, first taking back the soil and water from the earth from those "people" in the valley—those women and men who once worked in the sea of flowers, those rotten mud whose bodies have long since disintegrated—to mold new bodies made of flesh and skin.
Then it's you guys.
Being looked at by such eyes, your hearts actually calm down.
—You are still breathing, but death has already taken hold of you.
The moon's eyeballs continued to move, finally settling on the little square nestled in its embrace.
Xiao Fang was cradled in the moon's hands and held in its arms. Her expression was even more conflicted than before, but her pain made her human soul incredibly vivid.
The moon's gaze returned, fixed on you.
I'm only looking at you.
Your bones feel as if they are being pierced by the cold, and your soul is trembling.
However, you know you can't back down, you can't give in.
Every word you force out draws blood as your bones resist: "I will not use love as an excuse to build a cage; freedom is the only eternal existence!"
“I disdain to imprison her will, and I am ashamed of you tearing heaven and earth apart. Only by letting her choose willingly can her soul coexist with the heavens.”
Your blood flowed down your tattered body, your words reverberated in the compressed, almost seamless space between heaven and earth, the sound waves whipped up by the mountain wind that passed through the cave, playing an off-key organ tune.
But each word seemed to carry some kind of sacred power, striking directly at that huge full moon.
You know, this isn't just about expressing your wishes or simply trying to get Xiao Fang to stay. It's about declaring a principle to this world, a freedom that belongs to humankind.
Xiao Fang's fingers trembled. She slowly raised her hand and ripped off the two flowers. It turned out they were just placed on her eyes, temporarily blocking out her world.
She struggled wildly for a few moments in a panic, then her vision gradually cleared, and she saw you all, waving frantically at you.
"I want to stay! No, no, I mean I want to stay in the normal world with my friends." Xiao Fang's eyes darted around, and she made her words sound more elegant.
Just then, a tear slid down Xiao Fang's cheek. The tear was crystal clear, sparkling in the moonlight, like a fragment of the moon, carrying a gentle glow.
It flew into the moon.
The moon remained silent, its large eye slowly turning before finally closing.
You were blown back to the ground by a gust of wind, and the moment you landed, you were back in your little house.
The air was filled with the faint scent of wood, and someone had lit a few pieces of dry firewood in the old fireplace, providing warmth for you in the windy and dewy mountains at night.
Xiao Fang and Xiao Ming both rushed towards you first, checking you over from head to toe.
You reluctantly took off your clothes so they could see them clearly.
"Thank goodness, those were all illusions." Xiaoming breathed a sigh of relief, slumped onto the low table in the room, and let out a soft sigh, as if she had finally put down a huge weight on her heart. Her arms were still trembling slightly, clearly she was just putting on a brave face.
"Hmm." You nodded casually, unwilling to elaborate on how you felt at the time.
Xiao La silently closed the door, looking as if she had just woken up from a nightmare. She found a corner, sat there in a daze, and tried to relieve the pressure on her brain.
You stand in the center of the room, looking around. The familiar surroundings bring you a long-lost sense of security. Everyone's experiences are slightly different, but the suffering you've endured is truly much greater.
After checking your injuries, Xiao Fang has been sticking to the middle of you and Xiao Ming.
Although there were still tear stains on her face, her eyes had softened considerably, and she had probably fully recovered from the moon's control.
"Thank you..." Xiao Fang's voice was a little hoarse, and every word was full of genuine emotion. "If it weren't for you, I... I might really not have been able to come back."
You looked at each other and smiled. Although you had just experienced unspeakable fear, your smiles now carried a deeper emotion—the tacit understanding and trust that came from sharing life and death.
"It's nothing, we'll continue to move forward together." You grabbed Xiao Fang's hand, then Xiao Ming's hand, ignoring the latter's slight resistance, and insisted on pulling the three of you together.
"Okay!" Xiao Fang was in high spirits. She hugged you and Xiao Ming tightly. At first, their heartbeats were slightly different, but in the end they were synchronized.
"Oh right, haven't we done that mutual contempt thing we did today?" Xiao Fang's words woke her up from her reverie, and Xiao La slowly walked over and sat down.
"We were already affected during the day, but we never expected this to happen. Luckily, it's not too late yet, otherwise we would be really doomed." You patted your forehead, feeling utterly exhausted.
Xiaoming remained restless. She gave you a wink, and you understood. You said, "I'm going to the restroom. Xiaoming, will you come with me?"
There is a washroom inside the cabin, but the toilet for personal hygiene is located outside in a separate small room.
"You're such a busybody, hurry up and come back!" Xiao Fang said, pretending to be annoyed but actually being coquettish.
"Okay, okay."
Stepping out of the cabin, the night breeze was still quite chilly. You pulled up your collar, tucked your head inside, and, without a care for appearances, led Xiaoming a little further away under the clear starry sky.
"What's wrong?" you ask.
"I just wanted to explain..." Xiaoming started to say, but then didn't know how to continue.
You look at her quietly; her usually gentle and reserved face is now filled with embarrassment and awkwardness.
“At that time, I actually…” Xiaoming smiled bitterly, “I felt like I didn’t know how to face Xiaofang anymore.”
You thought for a moment, then gently hugged Xiaoming: "It's okay, I understand how you feel. Your choice is definitely the best course of action. After all, who knows if we'll ultimately survive?" You smiled and winked at Xiaoming: "I think Xiaofang will understand too, but let's keep this as our little secret."
Xiao Ming smiled, but quickly lowered his eyes: "Later, what I said to you was just to scare you."
"What did you say?" You punched Xiaoming lightly, your eyes bright with a smile. "To tell you the truth, I was in a lot of pain at the time, and I couldn't hear every word clearly."
"Ah, oh." Xiao Ming was stunned.
"But judging from your reaction, tell me, what bad things did you secretly say?" You put your arm around Xiaoming's shoulder and acted like a spoiled child.
"I didn't say anything, just some of my secrets, but it's okay if you didn't hear them." Xiaoming finally relaxed, pushed your hand away, and ran two steps forward for you to chase after him. "Alright, let's go back and continue to despise each other."
Tell me!
"I won't tell! I won't tell!"
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Author's note: Tiger is about to fall asleep. Good afternoon!
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