Chapter 95: Exile, Part 2, Episode 37

On the bleak, endless highway, two vehicles tore forward, their bodies festooned with multicolored balloons.

The riot of color stood out vividly between the blue sky above and the crimson earth below, like a procession wagon from a kindergarten outing.

Ye Liuyun was laughing so hard in the car she could hardly breathe. She kept pounding the horn, making the road ring with a constant chorus of beeps and blares.

Shi Xianyu, driving, laughed too and pressed her horn in reply, beeping back at her.

They had prepared several hundred balloons. Each one was filled with chili water and tied to the vehicles with thin cord. Once the cars started moving, the balloons fluttered and danced all around them. The wild dogs, not knowing what they were seeing, lunged in to claw at the balloons, only for the chili water to burst and spray everywhere with astonishing force.

Less than half the balloons were used up before the pack of wild dogs was driven off entirely. A few, their eyes stung blind by the chili water, lay half-dead on the road.

Ye Liuyun brought the car to a stop and looked back at the wild dogs collapsed on the pavement. She almost wanted to plant her hands on her hips and laugh up at the sky.

In the past, whenever she led a team out, all she ever did was flee in embarrassment from those wild dogs. When had she ever felt so vindicated?

It was not that they could not fight them. It was simply that, on missions, their ammunition and supplies had to be reserved for mutated beasts. These wild dogs were skinny and small; killing them served little purpose. Yet if they were ignored, they still came swarming in packs, which was irritating enough.

Now they had defeated them with a few balloons, and Ye Liuyun felt wonderfully triumphant.

"This thing is amazing! Do you have more?" She rubbed her hands together, excited. "Tie some more onto the car. It’ll be safer on the road."

Shi Xianyu parked and called out, "Wait for me. I’ll go get a few more bags!"

The balloons had been bought as an add-on when she picked up the toy gun. After arriving in this world and discovering that the one making the wish was a little girl, she had not taken them out for Lu Li to play with. She had not expected they would come in handy here.

Shi Xianyu and Ye Liuyun worked together, one filling the balloons with chili water and the other inflating them with a pump.

Lin Yuan climbed onto the roof of the vehicle, gun in hand, watching the surroundings warily.

"Agh!" Ye Liuyun suddenly cried out.

Lin Yuan lifted an eyebrow and looked over. "What is it?"

Ye Liuyun was clutching a little rabbit balloon and laughing so hard she could not stop. "Xiaoyu, what on earth have you been hiding in the car? Hahaha, why are there so many strange things!"

Shi Xianyu could not help laughing too. The fresh bag of balloons they had opened was actually an animal series. Once inflated, they turned into little rabbits, ducks, monkeys, tigers, and frogs. That made it seem even more like a kindergarten.

Shi Xianyu picked out a little pink rabbit balloon. She did not fill it with chili water. After inflating it, she took it into the RV and gave it to Lu Li.

Lu Li was leaning against the sofa seat, many places on her body wrapped in bandages, but she did not seem to feel any pain. She stayed quietly in her seat, and no matter how one looked at her, she was as well-behaved a child as could be.

Shi Xianyu handed her the rabbit balloon.

Lu Li seemed to like it very much. She took it, her eyes bright as she stared at it, then touched it carefully and grinned at Shi Xianyu.

Shi Xianyu had once thought her smile was adorable, but now she could not help wondering: why was she smiling? Was she truly happy, or was it only to cloud my eyes and deceive my feelings? How had she learned to do that? Who taught her?

After watching her silently for a while, Shi Xianyu asked, "Xiaoli, the flower inside your body is your true form, isn't it?"

Lu Li hugged the balloon and hesitated before nodding.

Shi Xianyu pressed her lips together. "I want to see it again. Is that all right?"

There was some confusion in Lu Li's eyes, but she still followed Shi Xianyu's meaning. Centered on the mouth, her head split into six petals, revealing the crimson bud and tendrils in her throat. Then the bud bloomed open, exposing organs that resembled stamens.

The sight was far from beautiful, but it was enough to make Shi Xianyu more soberly aware that the little girl before her was indeed not human.

Shi Xianyu drew in a quiet breath, lowered her gaze, and said, "All right. Put it back."

Lu Li closed the outer petals, and her head returned to normal. She looked at Shi Xianyu with a blank, innocent expression.

After thinking for a moment, Shi Xianyu chose her words carefully. "I promised I would help you find your mother, but... things are a little different now, so we won't look for your mother for the time being. First we'll find you a place to stay."

Lu Li nodded lightly.

Then Shi Xianyu murmured to herself, "You turning into this form... maybe Yu Jing can't really count as your true mother. Maybe your mother is Hua Su? You were the seed it sown, the life it carried on..."

She fell into thought.

After a long while, she came back to herself and found Lu Li watching her.

Shi Xianyu smiled softly. "It's fine. Let it take its course. After all, thinking about it won't get us the answer."

Then she stood up, went to the storage cabinet at the back, took out a fresh sketchbook and pen, and placed them in front of Lu Li.

"Take these. When you're bored in the car, you can draw or write."

Lu Li liked drawing. After getting the new sketchbook, she immediately drew a rabbit balloon to show Shi Xianyu, as if afraid she would no longer be liked.

Looking at her drawing, Shi Xianyu felt something stir in her heart. She tested the waters and asked, "Xiaoli, do you still remember how you were parasitized? I mean... do you remember when that flower first grew inside your body?"

A confused look appeared on Lu Li's face.

Shi Xianyu thought she did not remember, and was about to give up asking when Lu Li took the pen and carefully drew an oval shape on the paper.

It looked like some kind of fruit, long and flattened, a little pointed at both ends.

She wrote on the paper: very hungry, wanted to swallow it, got stuck.

Shi Xianyu froze for a moment, then slowly looked at Lu Li and asked softly, "It got stuck in your throat, didn't it?"

Lu Li nodded and continued writing: got stuck, sprouted, could not speak anymore.

"Then where did this thing come from?" Shi Xianyu asked.

Lu Li wrote that it appeared after a sandstorm.

The seeds of Hua Su must have spread with the wind in just this way, landing wherever they pleased and parasitizing whatever animal happened to pass by. Humans were indeed not so easily parasitized; if Lu Li had not been so starving that she ate it by mistake, she would never have ended up like this.

Lu Li wrote on the paper: Was I wrong?

Shi Xianyu felt a pang of emotion. She stroked her head and said, "You were just too hungry. There was nothing to eat at home. It isn't Xiaoli's fault."

Lu Li wrote: After it got stuck, I got even hungrier. I caught mice to eat, and Mother saw me. She scolded me and would not let me eat them, but I was too hungry...

She paused, then wrote the last line: Later, Mother left with my younger brother.

Shi Xianyu asked sadly, "Why didn't you tell me all this at first?"

Lu Li pressed her lips together and wrote: You don't like mice. I was afraid you would hate me too.

Shi Xianyu remembered that when she first entered that apartment building, she had indeed shown disgust and fear toward the mutated rats. Lu Li must have seen her reaction very clearly.

Thinking back now, what was such a thing, really? She was only hungry. She only wanted something to eat. The child merely had something grow inside her, and so she became different from ordinary people.

Why abandon her?

Shi Xianyu forced a smile and said to Lu Li, "I used to be timid, that's all, but I'm improving little by little. I definitely won't be afraid in the future. From now on, Xiaoli can eat whatever you want to eat, and I definitely won't dislike you."

Lu Li tilted her head and looked at her, her eyes flickering as if asking: Really?