The Guide Stone (End)
The witch's body—El mentioned the witch's body again. Mi held up the small stone in his hand and asked, "Is the witch's body also in this forest? Like the guiding stone, do I need to find it in this forest? I've searched for a long time in the forest and haven't found a single one. What does the witch's body look like?" Mi stared at El: "Was what I saw your witch's body?"
Ever since Mi began searching for the witch's body in the forest, the forest has become dark and suspicious. Sometimes she feels that it's not an experimental box, but a murderous monster's game of hiding corpses. Her body is no longer on Earth; it has been dismembered by Frankenstein's monster outside the enclosure, and now it's waiting for her to find each piece.
Mi looked around the forest; the once fresh and bright green had now turned a deep, somber color. In some unknown corner of this forest lay corpses. Mi thought she couldn't be the first person to come to this forest, nor could she be the first to go mad. Mi suppressed the increasingly terrifying fantasies in her mind and stared at El, her guide, before her.
Before Mi's eyes, El transformed into a bright blue cloud of smoke. She said, "The witch's body is not the same as the body you think of. We are witch's bodies shaped with skills. What you see is the image I want to reveal to the world." As soon as she finished speaking, El transformed into a dashing, black-haired Eastern woman, tall, with long, straight black hair, and a cold demeanor.
"Wow!" Mi exclaimed, her mouth agape in surprise. The witch's body wasn't a real body. Mi circled El twice, then looked up at the sky above the riverbank. Was this some kind of light-based imaging technology? Mi remembered a Japanese television station once recreating Teresa Teng's image. She stretched out her hand; in front of her was a mass of air. This was a high-tech space. Was she really inside a television set?
“You can think about what kind of witch body you want, after all, the process of creating a witch body is the process of a witch learning.” El changed his original appearance. “I can only guide you on the path of witchhood. As for what kind of witch you will become and what kind of witch body you will create, that is up to you.”
"Let me think about it." Mi pondered, then lowered her head and walked away. This El spoke so convincingly; did she genuinely believe she was a witch, or was she just acting? Did El and Joe really exist? When Mi was still a tiny ink droplet, she could cling to El or Joe; now she couldn't touch anything. Mi looked up and bumped into a tree; the coated little figure split in two and then reformed behind the tree.
Since acquiring the Ink Droplet, Mi rarely crossed the forest directly. She would carefully step over blades of grass and skirt around the large trees. Just now, Mi had been so focused on thinking that she had overlooked the tree in front of her. Mi crashed straight into the tree again, splitting in two once more. Mi stopped in the middle of the tree, her left half a coated figure, her right half a coated figure. The Guide Stone spun wildly around the tree, spinning incessantly as if it were possessed. Mi thought, if the Guide Stone had a mouth, it would definitely be screaming.
“Joe, she’s so cute.” Al turned to look at Joe, and the two of them looked at Mi, who was struggling with the thought tree: “She’s completely different from you. She doesn’t believe a word I say.”
"Why?" Joe looked at Mi, who always made many strange movements. "She's very wary. Has she been deceived a lot?"
“Yes and no,” El said, turning to look at Mi. She finally left the tree, then stretched out a hand and crashed straight into it again, severing an arm that lay across the other side of the trunk. Mi leaned over to look at her other arm, then reached out and retrieved it. “She can pick up her senses,” El said in surprise.
"She's really good at thinking things through," Qiao exclaimed in amazement. "Is she really not a child? How can she have so many wonderful ideas?"
“She observes everything around her, then constantly ponders and experiments until she discovers the rules, and then makes those rules her survival skills.” Al looked at the constantly splitting and overlapping Mi. “Joe, do you think she might discover the witch’s abilities on her own?”
"Probably not. She doesn't believe this is the Witch's Forest; she's always thinking about running away." Joe was a little troubled. This new witch wasn't a good student; she preferred to figure things out on her own. She sighed and asked, "She's very smart, but why is she so wary?"
“Everyone has different rules for survival, and those conflicting rules have made her this way.” El watched Mi’s retreating figure. “She seems to have no rules of her own, but in reality, she never believes in any rules. She has suffered a lot from the pain of conflicting rules, but she is also very insightful and open-minded. Perhaps she needs to figure out for herself how to be a witch. She is not blindly obedient, nor is she sharp. Her resistance is like a small flame, bringing warmth without stirring up trouble. She is content in her own world, separated from the outside world by a layer. No wonder she came to the Witch Forest. Witches have always observed the world rather than changed it.”
"Wouldn't she be very lonely?" Joe said worriedly.
“No, quite the opposite, she’s very attractive. Her essence is fire, while the essence of man is moth,” El laughed. “Not many people can get into her heart, but many want to.”
“El?” Joe looked at El with a puzzled expression. “Is she attractive? I don’t see it at all. Maybe you’re right, no, you’ve always been right. Even you want to show her your witch’s headband. You must really like her.”
“Joe,” Al chuckled, resting his chin on Joe’s head, “this is the Witch Forest. Relax, we’re back, and no one outside can bother us.”
“But you are her guide now.” Joe was silent for a moment. “El, will you also take her out to travel the world, just like you took me out back then?”
“Joe, we can’t abandon a novice witch,” El said, unable to explain the faint expectation in his heart. “She’s special, Joe, all I can say is that she’s special.”
"El, please don't treat me like this," Joe pleaded.
“Joe, we’re still together,” Al stroked Joe’s hair. “You can stay young forever, and I’ll take care of you until the day you want to leave.”
“No, I will never leave you,” Joe murmured.
“Joe, I’m too old, too old to believe in forever, while you stubbornly believe you can keep your promise.” El lowered his head and kissed the tip of Joe’s hair. “Joe, you know everything I’m thinking.” El felt that witches had lost the ability to love; they were simply wallowing in an emotion called love.
"Who told you to always be so charming?" Joe muttered. "Who told you to want to marry me off to someone else?"
“I’m not as charming as you, and I’m not betrothed to anyone,” El chuckled. “That’s your romantic entanglement, the kind you brought upon yourself. We can never go to the Sea Kingdom again; the King of the Sea Kingdom is searching everywhere for his runaway bride.”
"No, I didn't. I didn't have any engagement with him," Qiao said angrily. "Don't say it! You're not allowed to say it!"
Hahaha, El's hearty laughter and Joe's exasperated shouts echoed through the forest, startling Mi, who was wandering aimlessly: "Are they really witches who are hundreds of years old?"
Mi had a strange intuition that El genuinely believed she was a witch, as she skillfully demonstrated witchcraft to Mi. Joe, standing beside her, trusted her almost unconditionally, always adding to whatever El said, like a competent teaching assistant.
What about those elders, those witches who couldn't find the guiding stone? Didn't they want to leave? Even if the First, Second, and Third Elders didn't want to go back, what about the Sixth Elder? Didn't she want to go back and see the planet her children ruled? How could a mother leave her children? Mi couldn't even remember what the Sixth Elder looked like, only her gentle lullabies; she was a gentle mother.
The Sixth Elder was more like a queen; she had no desire for children to surround her, and she did everything in her power to place her children at the pinnacle of authority. Mi didn't understand why this forest provided so many samples. Was it to help her better understand the world? And then it confined her in this transparent cage, a place full of mysteries. If witches were strange and incomprehensible, then this forest certainly was.
Mi didn't know what to do. She couldn't believe anything El said. She couldn't concentrate on her studies, and she couldn't even pretend. If El had fallen asleep after telling her story like the elders, Mi could have repeated the act of breaking the dome a thousand times over. But what about El's story? Where did El come from? El said she came from the Sea Kingdom. Was she really from the Sea Kingdom? What was the Sea Kingdom like? Were its inhabitants sea creatures? Mi imagined countless Patrick Stars and Crab Generals roaming the streets. That must be very interesting.
Mi felt increasingly monitored, and she desperately wanted to leave. But where could she go? Mi hesitated again. It seemed she didn't really want to go back. If the outside world was as El had described, Mi wanted to see it. Mi knew she was being lured step by step by El, following the path designated by the observers outside. They had brought El in, and El had successfully captivated her.
Mi released the small stone again, and it spun around twice, its tiny pointed tip still pointing towards the clouds: "You want to go out too, don't you?"
Mi pointed to the small stone, which might be a surveillance camera. Mi tried everything, but she couldn't get rid of the stone. She couldn't even tell if she regretted trying so hard to get it, but now she couldn't get rid of it.
"Who are you? Who are you?" Mi tapped the little stone again and again. This little stone was like a child she had given birth to. It would never leave her before the little stone grew up. Mi didn't know if this little stone would grow up or eventually leave her.
Why don't those elders go and search for their little stones? They are all heartless people. No, the guiding stone is the heart of the witch. They are all heartless witches. Would they not suffer that way?
If a person had no heart, there would be no pain, right? But they still have brains, still have memories—memories that haven't disappeared with time and space. Why not go back and face it all? Escaping won't solve anything. Mi slumped down, the grass forming a tiny swing, swaying her body. Escaping won't solve anything; time will solve everything. As long as the elders stay in this so-called forest long enough, all problems will be resolved by time, including the planet they once inhabited.
"Can this grant immortality? What's the point of such a life?" Mi stared at the perpetually unchanging forest. The liveliness brought by El and Joe's return lasted only an afternoon before the forest returned to its original state. Would El and Joe leave again? Joe said they were going to the Edge of the Stars—what kind of place was that? The edge of the universe?
Who created all of this? Did he think he was some kind of savior, or just a mad scientist full of wild ideas? Mi stared at the gray clouds, asking again and again, "Who are you? Who are you all? What do you want?"
"I'm leaving here"—Mi stood up. No matter which direction El led her, she had to leave. Only by leaving could she, only then could she look back at all of this. Even if she was an experimental subject, she couldn't be locked in this cage. Mi looked at the little stone: "Are you a monitor? Are you a camera? If so, please come with me. Please lead me to your master."
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