Meili leaned her body back. After clearly seeing the appearance of the one holding the lantern, a strangely subtle expression appeared on her face.
She did not move, and the swamp monster did not move either. He only extended that lantern wrapped in mud toward her again, as if wanting her to take it.
This simple and easy-to-understand body language suddenly made Meili have a thought—could it be that the swamp monster had been chasing her all this time just to return things?
Those two broken sticks from before, and this lantern lost in the wilderness, as well as… the white mushroom she had thrown at him.
After Meili reached out two fingers to receive the lantern, the tall and thin swamp monster slowly bent down and lowered his head, bringing his head and shoulders close to her. The white mushrooms that were growing well and had made a home on him were now facing her.
If she reached out her hand, she could pick them off.
Because of his bending down and leaning closer, Meili smelled a wet scent of rainwater, and at the same time, she saw his appearance clearly.
The swamp monster actually had a face that… wasn’t considered frightening.
In the past few encounters, she hadn’t dared to look closely. The moment she saw him appear, she ran. She only remembered that he seemed like a strange humanoid statue standing in the water, with skin that had a gray-white stone-like texture. Only now did she realize that his face was equally sculpted and three-dimensional like a statue.
Gray lips and skin, gray pupils, looking somewhat dazed and emotionless, silly even.
And gray hair, covering most of his face, dripping water drop by drop.
Originally, he should have had a melancholic, eerie, and frozen temperament, but those round little white mushrooms ruined that impression.
After a moment of stalemate, Meili finally still moved. She tentatively reached out and plucked a white mushroom from the swamp monster’s head.
He remained motionless.
Meili observed him for a moment and saw that he really had no intention of turning hostile or making a move. Instead, he waited with great patience. So she quickly picked off all those white mushrooms growing on him, gathering them into her skirt.
When the last white mushroom was picked, the swamp monster finally moved slowly. He lifted his head again, turned around, and with the same slow speed as when he came, he walked toward the mud pit, truly preparing to leave just like that.
Seen from behind, the hunched swamp monster was unusually thin. The segment of spine in the center of his back was distinct, his shoulder blades protruding, faint traces of ribs visible, damp gray short hair clinging to the back of his neck.
Looking carefully, aside from being strange, he was actually somewhat… good-looking?
Meili held a skirtful of white mushrooms and placed a lantern beside her hand. She watched helplessly as the swamp monster sank into the mud and disappeared. For a moment, she was a little dazed.
So… he really just came to deliver things? Returning lost items, so well-mannered?
However, if she had been just a little more timid, she would have already been scared to death by this “living Lei Feng” days ago.
Meili had complicated feelings, crying and laughing at the same time. After a long while, she carried her things and the gathered mushrooms back.
Because of this sudden encounter with the swamp monster, she was now not even very afraid of the ghost in her home, Madam Pegg.
Now she only felt that all her fear for so many days had really been too unworthy.
And the more she thought about it, the more inexplicably embarrassed she felt for her past self.
She returned to that silent house and paused for a while in the garden, planning to act as if nothing had happened, pretending she knew nothing.
Using the white mushrooms picked from the swamp monster, she made dinner. When Meili ate it, she felt it tasted different from the previous white mushrooms, with an added fresh grassy fragrance.
After pan-frying with oil, it was quite delicious, with a very refreshing texture.
As usual, she delivered a meal to Madam Pegg.
Stepping upstairs with heavy footsteps, she thought that compared to giving food fit for the living, perhaps it would be better to prepare some joss paper for Madam Pegg, but then she felt that wasn’t very appropriate either. After all, the custom here wasn’t to burn joss paper for the dead.
This time, she no longer presumptuously pulled open the curtains in the room, nor did she speak.
Madam Pegg used that indifferent gaze to stab at her back, until she carried the food out.
The chill standing up on Meili’s back only slowly calmed down when she reached the downstairs kitchen. The black cat on top of the cabinet still refused to let her touch it, but looking at this small creature, Meili still felt greatly comforted.
At least, she wasn’t the only living being in this house.
After the lantern, cleaned of muddy sludge, dried, it was used again.
Under the comfort of this light, Meili finished today’s letter (diary).
“Madam, the ‘horror movie’ life of the past few days suddenly turned into a comedy today. The swamp monster I encountered doesn’t seem to have the intention of hurting me, which surprised me a lot. Perhaps all of this isn’t as terrible as I imagined…”
“Thinking from a positive perspective, since Madam Pegg has already passed away, and the one living with me is only her ghost, then I no longer need to worry that she will die because of severe illness and eating too little…”
There was no rain tonight, but the wind outside was very strong.
After a day of twists and turns, where darkness gave way to light, Meili had already grown calm toward the non-human beings around her. She began to busy herself with life using a more positive attitude.
For example, she connected a pipe from a nearby river into the house, completely solving the need for washing and watering the garden.
And for example, she made a simple hand-pushed small lawn mower, used to trim the wildly growing weeds around the house.
Although she did not have all the materials and tools, it was still successfully made.
Having lived independently for more than ten years, her hands-on ability surpassed most people her age.
Pushing her homemade mower to cut weeds, Meili wondered whether she had transmigrated just to promote agricultural development in this world? Relying on handmade tools of various kinds?
The range she cleared was very large. Because the house was close to the forest, this time her clearing work almost extended to the edge of the forest.
Coming close to this big forest for the first time, Meili unexpectedly found that on a small sunny hillside, the area covered by weeds had many small stones placed there.
Palm-sized round stones, one after another, forming circles throughout the small hillside.
Only after Meili cleared away the weeds did she see these stone circles.
This was obviously man-made. The townspeople hardly came near here, so it was very likely these were placed by the original Meili.
She had no companions, so perhaps in the past she secretly played with stones here by herself, amusing herself.
She had done similar things before, and suddenly seeing this now gave her a sense of familiarity.
Looking at the stone she had accidentally kicked out of place, Meili gathered her skirt and squatted down, picking them up one by one, rearranging them into a huge flower pattern.
The messy circles turned into a complete flower — a flower core, six petals — exceptionally eye-catching on the weed-cleared hillside.
After casually finishing the pattern, Meili carried her mower and returned home. After a day’s use, the crude hand-pushed mower already needed repairs.
Night fell. A round moon appeared in the sky. Bright moonlight shone over the forest and that hillside. The ordinary white stones, inconspicuous during the day, emitted a luminous white glow under the moonlight.
“Ding-ling—”
“Ding-ling—”
From within the forest came soft playful voices, as if a group of tiny people were whispering.
In the bent grass, a tiny white footprint suddenly appeared. Then, more and more footprints showed up. When those footprints extended to the edge of the stone flower pattern, a tiny little head appeared out of thin air within the area encircled by the stone flower.
It was palm-sized, with a body like a lily of the valley, slender limbs, and eyes that occupied half its face.
It stood on a glowing round stone, turned around, and waved to the rear. In just a moment, several other little creatures with similar appearances also appeared in the middle of the stone flower.
They circled around the stone flower pattern.
“What a beautiful flower~”
“Is this a gift for us~”
“Hahaha~”
“Who used the fairies’ stones to make this for us?”
“I like this pattern, I want to bring her back to the forest~”
The tiny moonlit night fairies spun around in the glowing stone circle, laughing and playing. After one of the moonlit night fairies said that sentence, they gathered together, letting out soft laughter.
Meili kept hearing the delicate laughter in her dream. The laughter was crisp and pleasant. She felt a great sense of happiness, as if she had many companions, singing and dancing with her, everyone so joyful.
In the silent room, the girl sleeping on the bed suddenly lifted the quilt and sat up. She closed her eyes, a smile on her face, left the room, walked downstairs, and headed toward the hillside in the night.
Step by step, until her toes kicked a stone, she suddenly jolted and opened her eyes.
The moon above was large and round. The nearby forest was shrouded in a faint halo. The night wind was gentle, and she smelled an unknown floral scent at the tip of her nose.
She stood before the hillside where she had cleared weeds during the day. In front of her was the stone flower pattern she had arranged.
Meili was confused for a moment. She remembered she had been sleeping well—how did she wake up and end up here?
Feeling her nightdress being tugged, Meili looked down and saw several strange little creatures pulling at the hem of her nightdress, trying to drag her into the stone flower circle.
Their tiny voices said:
“Come, become our companion~”
“Come, enter the forest, become one of us~”
What on earth was this?
Meili was startled. She grabbed her nightdress and took a big step back.
Whatever they were, her appearing here in the middle of the night was definitely their doing.
However, after the baptism of the swamp monster and Madam Pegg, she was no longer someone who could be frightened by a few little creatures.
“No thanks, you play by yourselves. I’m going back to sleep.” she said calmly, turning to walk back toward the house.
“No, you cannot refuse the invitation of the moonlit night fairies!”
Those tiny voices seemed a little angry. Meili only felt her arms and legs moving on their own, guided by the tugging of the little creatures, slowly stepping into the middle of the stone flower.
At that moment, the forest not far away rustled. The few moonlit night fairies who had been pulling Meili and happily dancing suddenly froze in place and let out a few sharp screams.
