gentle beast

62

She’d come back?

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.

T

he 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.