Yan Jingxing watched the captain and classmate disappear into the crowd.
"...Chun Zao, she's gone."
He said to the girl who was still holding on to his clothes from behind.
"Can you stop hiding?"
"..."
Ji Chunzao moved his feet and stood side by side with him.
She stared at the crowds of people in front of the shopping mall, her tense little face and lips finally relaxed, and she sighed softly.
Yan Jingxing couldn't help but touch his chin.
From his perspective as an onlooker, the relationship between the two girls seemed a bit strange, not like ordinary roommates.
"Spring algae?"
"Um?"
"Are you going home alone later?"
"Um."
"Then wait a minute. There's still some time, let's talk about it."
"ah?"
The long-haired girl looked at him confused.
"Don't act stupid, of course it's about you and Xie Yuzhi. What happened between you two before?"
To be honest, he felt that there was no reason to hide this kind of thing.
"Well... it happened before, and I don't know how to face her."
Ji Chunzao has always been frank, or in other words, apart from being embarrassed by the "girly feelings" that occasionally pop up, she doesn't know how to hide herself; it is precisely because of this personality that she attracts the rejection of others.
"We have been roommates since we were in the first year of junior high school. She seems to be unkind and has no friends like me."
"Being like you, that's quite rare." Yan Jingxing nodded, "Wolong and Phoenix chicks have gathered together in a dormitory."
Ji Chunzao decided to pretend not to hear and continued:
"Then, there is a person in the dormitory who always likes to say bad things about people behind their backs. In fact, she said bad things about Xie Yuzhi to us, but she didn't dare to say it in person. But it's different for me. She's not afraid of offending I."
"During that time, I could hear her being mean to me every day when I went back to the dormitory. It was really annoying." The little girl sighed, "But I couldn't hit her. She didn't do it after all. If I did it first, it would be unreasonable. "
...So you were planning to hit her?
"One day, she deliberately took away my clothes and said that I always wore the same undershirt every day and refused to change. I only wore my school uniform on weekends..."
"You, you don't want to change your clothes?"
Yan Jingxing's eyes widened.
"No, that person is framing me!" Ji Chunzao explained hurriedly, "I change and wash frequently every day! The kind of person who buys a lot of clothes but doesn't wash them is not as clean as me."
"...Just treat it like this."
"It's not 'as if', it's the fact!"
"But your hair is a mess, do you really take care of it?"
"My hair is naturally curly!"
The girl scratched the hair that fell on her shoulders, with a little annoyance in her tone. But she quickly reacted and changed the topic back.
"I won't make trouble with you. In short, the person who stood up to teach her a lesson for me at that time was Xie Yuzhi."
"I see. Then she's really nice to you."
"Yeah, but on the same day, she and I had a big fight." Ji Chunzao said, "I originally planned to say thank you to her, but she pulled me and said seriously that she wanted me 'Give up the alien thing' and let me 'face reality with a positive and healthy attitude' and so on..."
"Then you got into a fight with her? It sounds like it was your problem."
"I was just insisting on my opinion and she started getting angry."
"Chun Zao, I don't mean to let you give up."
Yan Jingxing sighed.
"But she is different from me. Since she can't see aliens, she is unlikely to believe what you say. She has always taken care of you. If you want to learn how to maintain this relationship, you have to choose a more tactful way..."
"Of course I know about this kind of thing," she began to mumble again, "but Yuzhi's expression was so serious at that time, which made me become serious too, so the two people's opinions became tit for tat."
"Of course, I regretted it soon and wanted to talk to her to make it clear...but she no longer wanted to talk to me, and she always seemed to be walking around me when I saw her."
"Oh, I don't want to talk to you. I'm disappointed in you." Yan Jingxing nodded, "That's her problem."
"well……"
Ji Chunzao began to sigh.
The two of them had now reached the river flowing through the center of the town. There was a stone bridge on the river. Below the bridge hole was the turbulent river surface and the river bottom covered with pebbles.
Along the hillside, shrubs and grass blades grow and spread in disorder; from time to time, tricycles and motorcycles drive over the bridge, and the crushed stone slabs make a "rattling" sound. Rusty metal railing.
Ji Chunzao leaned against the railing behind her, her childish face showing a sadness that did not suit her age.
"Now is not the time to dwell on 'whose problem' it is, but that we both can't understand each other."
"If you don't understand, just don't understand."
Yan Jingxing followed her example and leaned on the railing beside the bridge. He soon discovered that the support behind him was not stable and the railing was swaying, as if it might fall down at any time. So he quickly got up and pulled Ji Chunzao up. .
"It's her business that she doesn't want to hear from me. I have to convince her!"
The girl clenched her fists, her eyes sparkling, as if she had found a new goal.
"You mean captain?" He frowned slightly, "She doesn't want to be friends with you, how can you force her to do it?"
"This reaction... Yan Jingxing, don't you want me to make new friends?" Ji Chunzao laughed "hehehehe" and said, "Don't be jealous, you are the first, she is the latter."
"...How come you have such a big face?"
Yan Jingxing retorted angrily:
"I have no objection, I just think you can't do it."
"How could it be possible? Don't forget, the 'method' I originally planned to use to convince you hasn't been used yet. If you're lucky, maybe she, like you, will suddenly be able to see alien creatures. ?”
The "method" mentioned by Ji Chunzao is to first point out the victims who were attacked by spiritual leeches, and then let people see their fate, so as to win people's trust.
"But the spiritual leech has disappeared, right? No, it was killed by the 'astronaut' I saw..."
"Just wait until they come again next time."
Ji Chunzao replied nonchalantly.
"Do they come often?"
"No, actually including this time, it's only three times. But it will come in these two years, right?"
"...It's too long!"
"Before graduation, just let me put this worry aside."
The little girl stretched herself and seemed ready to leave.
"Jing Xing, I haven't been able to overcome the 'summoning' thing yet. You can wait a little longer, right?"
"Well, it doesn't matter to me."
"That's good. If nothing happens, I'll leave first?"
This guy is so generous...
Yan Jingxing hesitated for a moment, then asked:
"The matter between you and your aunt..."
"Don't worry, I understand her character. She's embarrassed today, but she also knows that I know other friends and classmates, so she won't do anything to me. How can I put it, my aunt is more face-friendly."
That's right, Yan Jingxing thought to himself.
When she saw Chun Zao, she knew it well, so he said no more and waved goodbye to her.
"goodbye."
"Well, see you at school."
*
That night, Yan Jingxing had a long and strange dream.
Because he came back late, he was interrogated by his uncle for a long time. In addition, today's experience was so rich that it was jaw-dropping. Before going to bed, it was inevitable to have confused thoughts and random thoughts; it was not uncommon to have a few dreams after falling asleep.
Every day since he met Ji Chunzao, he felt something new and strange as never before.
Having said that, the dream I had that night was definitely the strangest one I have ever had in my life——
…
From the first moment Yan Jingxing opened his eyes in his dream, he was shocked by the grand scene in front of him:
A huge white figure was standing quietly in front of him.
"He" had his back turned to him, and his body in a space suit stretched upward infinitely tall as if it was about to break through the dome.
How high is this...?
It was simply taller than any building he had ever seen, one hundred meters, two hundred meters... or even more than five hundred meters?
Yan Jingxing stood at the feet of this towering giant. He raised his head and looked up as hard as he could, but he still couldn't see his head clearly. He could only see an arc as dark as night.
...Strange, why is it even bigger than when we met in the cinema?
But after all, he was dreaming, which was normal, he comforted himself in his heart.
Yes, Yan Jingxing realized that he was in a dream the moment he opened his eyes.
Because there is no such scenery on earth——
The vast plains stretch as far as the eye can see, the mountains rise and fall like the spines of monsters, and the gray mist lingers between the sky and the earth.
Looking far into the distance, there are dark clouds like swarms of crows; and among the clouds, bright red lightning is scurrying around, leaving traces of branches that look like blood.
The giant stood in the center of this boundless world, with his arms spread out as if to protect the insignificant little man below.
Yan Jingxing realized that now he finally had the opportunity to communicate with the other party one-on-one.
"You have something to say to me, don't you?"
This was the question he wanted to ask the most, regardless of whether the other party could hear it or not, Yan Jingxing raised his head and shouted.
"I want to find you-"
As he spoke, he stretched out his hand, trying to touch the giant's heel.
But Yan Jingxing quickly stopped moving.
A ripple bloomed in the air and spread in circles. His fingers were blocked by an invisible wall that separated the two worlds.
"...Can't you go there?"
Yan Jingxing stared at the wall and found that it was like a mirror, reflecting scenes that were not here before.
The reflection on the mirror was still blurry at first. When he tried to open his eyes wide and looked at it driven by curiosity, the shadows on the mirror began to become richer and richer, and connected into strange images——
A staircase spiraling upwards, seemingly endless at the end, is swallowed up by darkness; and in this world where only upwards and downwards can only exist, a woman with thick long hair is holding a candlestick in her hand, slightly dispelling the surrounding darkness, Walk up the stairs step by step.
This woman is——
"Spring algae..."
Yan Jingxing murmured in surprise.
It was indeed a familiar figure, but the woman in the mirror was obviously more mature than the current Ji Chunzao. She had become taller and her hair had grown so long that it almost reached the ground.
At the same time, she was walking in a white robe. Although she couldn't see her face clearly and could only catch a glimpse of the smile on her lips, her whole person had an elusive and mysterious feeling. Her temperament was the same as that of the innocent one whom she had just met today. The little girl is very different...
What exactly is going on?
The huge shadow behind the woman flows like a substance, changing into countless ferocious shapes like monsters in the dim light. However, they have no intention of harming the woman walking in front. Instead, they follow obediently. Behind her, like a group of loyal guards or pets.
"Is it really Chunzao...?"
While he was confused, the picture on the mirror had changed.
A woman with long black hair was sitting lazily on a high chair with her chin propped up and her legs crossed.
Her eyes were lowered, as if she was falling asleep.
The place where the woman was was a huge hall, empty; only the chair was placed at the highest point, like a throne standing in the void.
This person was relatively unfamiliar, but he recognized it quickly. After all, he was also someone he had just met today...
"Uh, classmate, captain?"
It also looks like what she will look like when she grows up.
so weird.
Yan Jingxing touched his chin.
If he dreamed of spring algae, he still felt it made sense, but he and Xie Yuzhi were really not familiar with each other? The two of them only exchanged a few words...
At this time, he heard the shouts of landslides and tsunamis from the screen, full of fanatical, inhuman screams and roars. Although there was nothing in the hall, there seemed to be an army of countless unknown creatures gathered outside the hall. Legion, the whole hall trembled in this wave.
Finally, as if someone had awakened her from a good dream, the woman on the throne frowned dissatisfied with her slender eyebrows and opened her pupils like cold stars.
Then--
She opened her eyes slightly.
"Huh?"
Yan Jingxing subconsciously took a step back.
The woman's gaze was scorching, and in an instant she crossed the chasm of time and space and landed on herself...
"She's looking at me?"
He felt panicked for no reason, and subconsciously wanted to look away, but found that "Ji Chunzao" on the first picture suddenly stopped and also turned his head and looked in his direction.
"...!"
The strange feeling only lasted for a brief moment. The picture in Yan Jingxing's eyes was quickly moving away. His field of vision was like being dragged back by his collar. The picture became wider and the proportions of things became smaller and larger. Small--
The scene is finally fixed.
Yan Jingxing saw a black tower towering high in the wilderness.
Whether it is a long staircase or a huge hall, they are all in this high tower;
There is a bright beam of light on the tower that rotates once every once in a while; the light penetrates the dark sky like a dim yellow eye.
"Is it right there..."
Yan Jingxing finally looked away from the picture, and then he was surprised to find that the giant in front of him had disappeared at some point. When he looked around again, he found that "he" had shrunk to the size of a normal human.
The silent astronaut slowly raised his arm, and the direction "he" pointed to was the black tower on the screen.
"You want me to go to this place? What is there? What are those pictures I just saw..."
Before he finished speaking, the world in front of him began to change and distort. He realized that he would wake up soon, so he couldn't help shouting:
"etc--!"
…
Yan Jingxing opened his eyes suddenly.
His breathing has not yet calmed down, and his clothes are already soaked with sweat.
He stood up and glanced at the sky outside the window. The sky was indigo, the clouds were flowing darkly in the distance, and dawn had not yet broken in the east.
It was still early for school, but he couldn't sleep no matter what. He sat in front of the cool window and began to plan for his future...
