God's Gift

"Adulthood..." The giant fish under the woman heard her question and replied nonchalantly, "It's still too early."

“How long will it take?” The woman smiled, bent down and stroked the giant fish.

"That depends on her. It could be hundreds of years, thousands of years, or even tens of thousands of years." The giant fish didn't care too much about such things, as if it was very normal.

"So long." The woman sighed. Even a hundred years would be too long for her.

Recalling something, she asked with some interest, "What about you?"

Too much time had passed, and when suddenly asked this question, the giant fish thought for a long time before answering: "I was three thousand years old when I met you."

"You will be three thousand years old by then?" When the woman heard this, her tone raised a few degrees and she shouted in surprise.

asked the giant fish as it slithered through the dark canyons of the deep sea, its glowing eyes illuminating the trench below as pink glowing jellyfish drifted upwards past it.

The woman shook her head, feeling a little surprised when she thought that the strange fish with a boyish voice that she saw when she first came to the sea was actually three thousand years old.

The three thousand year old giant fish is still blowing bubbles and playing with jellyfish in the sea.

As if it had sensed the woman's thoughts, the giant fish suddenly became a little shy, hummed, and swam much faster.

-

In the quiet mountain village, the sleeping puppy twitched and woke up from its dream.

Yu Youyou opened her eyes but did not move and lay quietly for a long time.

Her eyes were like a calm and waveless deep ocean.

The autumn wind blew through the window lattices, causing the window coffin to sway gently. The incense that I smelled in the Buddhist temple during the day appeared and disappeared in the wind and entered my nasal cavity.

The sound of scriptures chanting in the air gradually became intermittent.

Yu Youyou stood up from the bed, ran to the window, and looked at the mountains opposite with her bright eyes.

Under the cover of night, the mountains and forests were hidden in darkness, as dark as an evil ghost with its mouth open, staring at the mountain village motionlessly.

White smoke gradually rose in the mountains, and the thick smoke flowed down from the top of the mountain like a waterfall, and was about to reach the entrance of the village and submerge it.

Yu Youyou's face became serious. She walked to the end of the bed, stepped over the feet of the sleeping Lu Keming, jumped off the bed, and ran out quickly.

At this time, on the top of the mountain, the woods with yellow leaves were covered with a few uneasy and strange bird calls from time to time. Fang Ziang walked to the front of the Buddhist temple, led his black shadow to stand in front of the dark temple door, and waved to him slowly.

Fang Ziang's eyes were blank. He stayed there for a few seconds, then walked stiffly into the Buddhist temple.

The man in black disappeared without a trace.

The temple was completely covered on all sides, and it was pitch dark inside. Thick white smoke was oozing out from the incense altar, falling heavily to the ground and pouring out in all directions.

Soon the white smoke filled the entire Buddhist temple, overflowed from the temple gate, poured into the mountains and forests, and flowed down through the fallen leaves on the ground.

Fang Ziang walked to the bottom of the Ten Thousand Faces Buddha statue, standing there motionless with empty eyes.

A strong wind blew in the mountains and forests. The wind passed through the cracks in the cliffs and the woods, making bursts of strange noises.

At the same time, a dark, skinny hand stretched out from the belly of the Ten Thousand-Faced Buddha statue. The hand grasped the mud niche, and there were cracks under its nails, revealing black and red dirt.

The hand gradually tensed up, and another hand stretched out from the Buddha statue. A naked female ghost crawled out from the belly of the Buddha statue. Her one-meter-long black hair covered her scarlet eyes, and she fell to the ground as she crawled downwards.

A deep black hole was left in the belly of the Ten Thousand-Faced Buddha. There was a lot of noise inside, as if countless people were whispering. From time to time, a black hand stretched out from the darkness, as if trying to crawl out of the hole.

The female ghost crawled on the ground with twisted limbs, came to Fang Ziang, grabbed his clothes and climbed up, and her gray and rotten face pressed against Fang Ziang's face.

Another Bodhisattva statue in the niche outside the Buddhist temple fell down, and the sound of ceramics breaking rang out in the dark night, piercing Fang Ziang's brain.

"Ah..." Fang Ziang's eyes stared straight at the scarlet pupils in front of him. He was slowly waking up, but his body was unable to move. He could only let out a whimper from his throat.

The female ghost grabbed Fang Ziang's neck with her dry and skinny hands.

Fang Ziang's pupils dilated and his body began to tremble.

"Fang Ziang!"

Yu Youyou's voice suddenly came from behind him, and a white pine tree rushed into the temple.

The female ghost turned into green smoke and suddenly disappeared from Fang Ziang's sight, and the hole on the Ten Thousand Faces Buddha's body also closed tightly.

Fang Ziang was finally able to control his body. His legs were weak and he almost fell down. But Fang Ziang was still conscious. He turned around, picked up Yu Youyou, and rushed out of the temple.

Fang Ziang ran a long way with his head covered and nearly fell down several times. He hugged Yu Youyou tightly in his arms, his voice choked with sobs.

"Wu...Yu You...You...Why...am I here..."

"I don't know either." Yu Youyou was held by Fang Ziang. When she heard his question, she replied as a matter of course.

After they ran out of the Buddhist temple, the hole in the belly of the Ten Thousand-Faced Buddha opened again. Countless heads squeezed out of the hole, and countless black shadows emerged from it.

The black shadows merged into a black fog that covered the sky and the earth. Sharp hands stretched out from the net and pressed down on it.

"Yu...Yu Youyou...did they follow us..." Fang Ziang didn't dare to look back, but he knew Yu Youyou was watching behind him, so he asked Yu Youyou fearfully.

Yu Youyou stayed in Fang Ziang's arms, staring at the black fog in the sky with her eyes open. Her eyes were quiet and deep, and she responded calmly.

"No."

"Okay... okay..." Fang Ziang's voice was still shaking as he jumped over a piece of rock on the ground.

The black fog kept approaching, but when the black fog, carrying countless hands, was about to touch the running Fang Ziang, Yu Youyou suddenly bared his teeth, emitted a burst of white light, and stopped those dry black hands.

"Ahhh!"

In a flash, the black fog emitted a noisy and wailing sound. In the black fog, waves of human faces were twisted and torn apart, and they retreated screaming into the deep mountains behind them.

Fang Ziang, who was running away with his head covered, didn't know what had happened. He just hugged Yu Youyou and ran down the mountain quickly, asking Yu Youyou again as he walked.

"How's it going? Are you here?"

Yu Youyou yawned, stepped back from Fang Ziang's shoulder, huddled into his arms, and curled up lazily, "No."

"Really?" The thick smoke in the forest blocked the way down the mountain. Fang Ziang had difficulty walking and asked again uncertainly.

"Really not." Yu Youyou shook her head indifferently.

Fang Ziang finally plucked up the courage to look back while running. The mountains behind him had returned to calm, as if nothing had happened.

His chest heaved violently, drops of sweat on his forehead fell onto the leaves, and he gasped for breath before he relaxed a little.

"No, no more."

His steps were weak, and as soon as he relaxed, he tripped over a stone under his feet and fell straight down.

Fang Ziang widened his eyes, quickly lifted Yu Youyou in his arms up, and dropped his body sideways onto the stone.

The stone under the leaves pierced into the flesh of his arm, cutting a gash from which blood flowed.

Fang Ziang's expression was distorted. He cried out in pain, but he didn't dare to stop. He struggled to get up from the ground holding Yu Youyou, and asked while panting, "Are you okay?"