Gentle Beast

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s head was dizzy, still somewhat drowsy.

The last thing she remembered sitting in a tall tree, looking out at the darkness in the distance, waiting for dawn.

At the time, she had felt so exhausted all she wanted to do was to close her eyes and rest for a while.

But there was a strange force pulling at her, as if to drag her into her space. Just as when she had arrived in this strange continent, her body began to sank, sinking until she finally fainted from exhaustion.

Having lost consciousness, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had no impression of anything wrong.

How did she get here?

Who saved her?

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu wanted to ask someone but she was the only person in the ward, and the next two beds were empty.

The bag at the top of her infusion tube wasn’t finished yet, and aside from the “tick, tock” of the clock the entire ward was silent.

She saw the ward door be pushed open and in walked a schoolboy.

“You’re awake?” the boys stood at the bedside and his handsome features showed a hint of surprise. He quickly asked, “Are you hungry, want to eat something?”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu looked at him and, having not seen him in a long time, his name was a bit jerky, “Lù. . . Qí Chāng?”

The other nodded. “The nurse said that your fever is nearly gone, you can eat some lighter foods.”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was startled, “You, why are you here?”

Lù Qí Chāng was her high school classmate. He sat in front of her in class and was a member of the mathematics committee.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s windbreaker had passed through from the beast world with her.

That wasn’t the point. The point was. . . why had he stayed with her?

Lù Qí Chāng paused, his complexion as usual when he explained, “Yesterday, I happened to pass the mountain where we had the outing, and saw you fainted on the roadside. I brought you back.”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu: “. . .”

Lù Qí Chāng also said, “I’ve already informed your mother and father, and they will come soon.”

The Jǐ father and the Lù father were high school classmates and the two families often came and went, so it wasn’t unusual for Lù Qí Chāng to contact her parents.

Although Lù Qí Chāng had said it casually, that he happened to “pick up” the six month long missing Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu.

After Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s disappearance, the blow to her family was too strong, especially her mother. She had washed her face in tears and had deeply regretted not stopping the trip to such a dangerous place.

In the first three months after Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had vanished, her father and uncle went every day to the cliffs to search for her. They even went to the nearby villages to ask, one by one.

However, there was still no known whereabouts for Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu.

Recently, her father hadn’t gone out as frequently but he still hadn’t given up on finding his daughter. Her father had even gone to a police station and had been waiting for news from the police.

Now, the police had not given him news.

Instead, it arrived from his old friend’s son.

As for that old friend’s son, whether or not he passed that mountain “by chance” was probably only a doubt of his own heart.

When Lù Qí Chāng had found Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu, she was fainted on the side of the road with a high fever. Her clothes and shoes were soaked in dirt as if she had escaped from somewhere, and her entire body was pitiful and miserable.

——Where had she been all this time?

Lù Qí Chāng looked at the girl on the bed and wanted to ask that question, but he was afraid to touch any bad memories. In the end, he asked nothing.

Lù Qí Chāng went to buy preserved egg porridge with bean paste and said, “There is nothing else nearby, eat a little to pad your stomach.”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu nodded. Until now, there had been a feeling of things being surreal, like a dream. After waking up, the two worlds were completely different.

When her porridge was set down, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu held the spoon and brought it to her lips. Her thick lashes fanned and a teardrop rolled over the corner of her eyes.

It would be nice if this was a dream.

The scenes in this dream, she would never forget.

But, those things that hadn’t been experienced couldn’t be forgotten.

. . .

Lù Qí Chāng looked at the girl in front of him crying and took two paper towels from the side table, handing them to her, “It’s over.”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu know that he misunderstood but she couldn’t explain it to him, so she said nothing and silently cried for a long time.

When her father hurriedly came in from the school, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had just finished the porridge and he raised dark eyes to Lù Qí Chāng, “Thank you.”

Lù Qí Chāng shifted out of sight and looked out the window, “You’re welcome.”

“Little Darling,” her father stood in the doorway of the ward and looked at his daughter with yearning, gently calling out to her.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu stiffened and turned around, her nose sour, and the tears that had just stopped nearly started up again as she shouted, “Dad.”

Her father immediately went tot he bed and took a look at Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu. Seeing no traces of injury on her body, he sighed in relief and took her into his arms, repeating to her heartily, “It’s good you came back, it’s good you came back. . .”

*

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s fever had receded and her father went downstairs with the nurse to get her discharged.

After returning, her kept thanking Lù Qí Chāng.

Lù Qí Chāng said, “It’s what I should I do.”

In any case, the Jǐ family owed a lot to the Lù’s.

On the way back, Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu sat in the passenger seat and looked at the crowd, in a trance.

Tall buildings, shopping malls, streets. . . it had been a long time since she had seen these things. They were both familiar and unfamiliar.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s father held the steering wheel and waited for the gap between traffic lights to ask her, “Hey, do you want to go home and rest or go to the hospital to see your mother?”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu remembered the phone call that had connected that day and immediately turned back, asking nervously, “What happened to mom?”

He sighed then told Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu the story.

Just a few days ago, her mother had walked along the road and saw a girl that looked like Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu. She had gotten excited and quickly followed her.

After passing through a junction, she hadn’t paid attention to the red light and was hit by a car. Her right leg was broken and she had a concussion, it was a slightly serious injury.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu listened and sniffled, saying, “I want to see mom.”

So her father drove too another hospital in center city and took Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu to the sixth floor of the inpatient department.

Her mother was in ward 608. There were only two beds in the room and the other was an old lady.

When the old lady walked down the stairs, she had fallen and broken her bones.

When Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu walked to the door, she heard the old lady on the other bed talking to her mother:

“Teacher Hé, what are you looking at?” Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s mother’s surname and what she was called a professor, but that was what the old lady knew her as.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s mother sat in the bed and held a photo in her hand. She smiled a little and said gently, “Look at my daughter.”

The old lady was inquisitive and came over to look.

The photo was of Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu from last year. She was wearing a fiery red, horse-riding outfit and wore a kirin helmet, and a bridle in her hands. She was riding horseback and smiling back at the camera.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s eyes were very bright and her smile curved like a crescent moon, making her entire face bright.

The old lady looked and good not help but praise, “She’s so beautiful!”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s mother smiled and graciously confessed, “Well, a lot like her father.”

Outside, the sun poured in through the ward and struck against Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s mother’s head, recealing a few silvery hairs.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu shifted forward a step and sobbed, “Mom.”

Her mother stopped and slowly looked up. When she saw Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu at the door, her eyes quickly went red, “Darling. . .”

As soon as Lù Qí Chāng found out and told her husband, she wanted to go along.

Only her leg was in a plaster cast and the doctor ordered that she couldn’t go out into the fields.

Now, seeing her daughter standing before her, her tears couldn’t stop rolling down.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu quickly flew into her mother’s arms like a child, cheek resting on her shoulder. Over and over, she called, “Mother, mother, I missed you. . .”

Her mother’s hands were shaking on her body and she cried a few words, “Mother also missed you, little darling. . . mother missed you.”

“I’m sorry, I worried you. . .” Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu buried herself in her mother’s shoulders and the tears couldn’t endure.

The two, mother and daughter, cried together for a long time. The old lady in the next bed thought that Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu had been worried about her mother’s illness, comforted, “Hey, good girl, quit the weeking, your mother’s matter. . .”

At noon, the mother and daughter’s tears gradually stopped.

Her father looked at his wristwatch and said, “It’s noon. What do you want to eat? Father will go and buy it for you.”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu sniffled and wiped her tears with her fingers, thinking for a while. Then she said, “Braised eel.”

Her father disagreed, “Not so soon after your fever. Eat something lighter.”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu wasn’t very insistent and quickly changed her words, “Then father look and buy something for me. I could eat anything.”

After her father left, the old lady in the next bed went to the bathroom and Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was pulled onto the bed by her mother.

“Darling, tell mother, what happened to you all this time?”

Her mother could see that her daughter wasn’t the same in some places. As for where she was different, she couldn’t say. But in front of her husband and an outsider, she couldn’t ask. Now there were only the two of them in the room.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s eyelids drooped and she was silent for a long time then slowly said, “I went to a very far away place. . .”

This sentence she had said on the phone too, and her mother asked, “How far was it? What did you pass?”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu opened her mother, “I don’t know what I passed. I woke up in that place.”

Her mother tightly squeezed her hand and thought she was under duress, “Then, this period of time. . . who were you with?”

In Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu’s mind, a strong and profound figure flashed.

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu shook her head, voice faint, “I don’t want to say, mom, I can’t. . .”

Her mother’s heart was in even more pain. She carefully pulled her into her arms and coaxed, “Alright, alright. If you don’t want to say, don’t say. As long as you are good in the future and always stay by mother and father’s side, we’ll be content.”

Jǐ Xiǎo Ōu was a bit stiff, but she said very lightly, “Ok.”