Miss Zashiki

After returning to Pinggong Mansion from Jagged City, Fu Xiaoyue kept himself stuffed in the room, didn't go out for a step, and didn't even eat dinner.

Inugami Nine Lives, Cat Yaodao Ji Kidomaru and others couldn't let go of calling her over and over again, and finally had to put the meal in the room, telling her to remember to eat Yunyun.

After going out, a group of monsters couldn't help but began to fight and fight, and the mood of Miss Nine-Life Cat was the most serious. After all, she knew that Fu Xiaoyue had good food and drink the day before, but today she was caught by these people. The guy went out for a whole day, and when he came back, he came back like this - she, Uncle Miao, wanted to slap her paws on these faces that were so unpleasant to look at.

Fu Xiaoyue didn't know much about the movement outside, except that when a few monsters crawled beside her bed trying to coax her to get up to eat, she answered in a daze, and slept like a monster the rest of the time.

Throughout the afternoon, she received too much information in her head, and she felt dizzy all over, and she covered herself under the blanket as soon as she got back to the house, and fell into a dark sleep.

Woke up in the middle of the night.

Grabbing a few snacks casually to satisfy her hunger, wandering around the room for a while, doing enough psychological homework for herself, and then she went out—carefully bypassing the cat and dog sleeping by the door, and went straight to the room not far away away from the garden.

She had discovered before that the arrangement of the utensils and scenery in the Heimiya Mansion was almost the same as the Zashiki home she had seen in the flower and bird illusion mirror, and the room she lived in was the same as the Zashiki room at that time.

So, she pressed "memory" and found what she was looking for in a short while.

It is said that after getting acquainted with Shonen Araki, Ms. Zashiki had a new hobby of climbing roofs, so she added a rope ladder in the garden of her home.

With an indescribable sense of solemnity, Fu Xiaoyao grabbed the rope ladder and carefully climbed up step by step. During the process, he didn't dare to stop for half a second, and didn't dare to look down at his feet.

Climbing all the way to the top and sitting down tremblingly on the roof, she was free to hold her thumping chest, opened her eyes slightly and let out a sigh of relief.

Then, facing the silence of the courtyard and the light of the moon, she called softly: "Mr. Yue... have you slept yet?"

-

Looking at the tall figure in front of him, Fu Xiaoyue smiled shyly, and pointed to the seat beside him: "Mr. Yue, sit down."

"What's the matter." Huang's expression was calm, no emotion could be seen, and his tone was also grave.

"It's nothing, it's just..." She muttered slightly, "What happened to Ara and Zashiki later?"

Huang saw the shyness in the eyes of the girl in front of him, so he didn't make a sound for a while.

Fu Xiaoyue was indeed a little guilty.

When she was hit in the fantasy world of flowers and birds, she couldn't help but feel evasive, but after struggling, now she decided to come to him and ask him for clarification.

In fact, there is no other reason, but I just feel that there are some things that she should at least know—or in other words, should remember for Zashiki.It is too selfish to put all her past on others despite bearing such a name.

When Huang finally turned around and sat down next to her, Fu Xiaoyue seemed to hear a slight sigh in a trance, and before he had time to study it, he heard the other party's low and deep voice, "In your understanding, what will happen next? "

Fu Xiaoyue was stunned for a moment before realizing that he was referring to the game setting, what will happen to the subsequent plot.

So, she suddenly didn't know how to answer - in the setting of the plot, Arara and Zashiki don't know each other at all...

She could only think hard and answer: "Afterwards, there seemed to be a problem with Huang's predictive ability. He made many wrong predictions and angered the local villagers. Then...then the villagers sacrificed him to the Sea God."

She spoke very anxiously, while paying attention to his reaction, for fear of poking at the sad past of the other party.

Huang listened silently, his expression didn't change much, and finally nodded his head slightly: "I did have a prediction error," he turned his head to look at her, "but it's not because of a problem with my ability."

"What's that for?"

In my impression, the game setting doesn't seem to have explained in detail, the problem that Shenshihuang's predictive ability made a mistake when he was young.

"... There is an invisible long river of time in this world, which determines how everything in the world will work, and how every living being will be born, old, sick and die. My ability to predict is based on knowing when and where every drop of water will be. Where, what kind of flow or stop.”

Seeing her nodding half-understanding, Huang turned his eyes back to look forward again, and said in a deep voice: "But at that time, an outsider who did not belong to this world came here through the cracks in time and space, disrupting the long river of time. flow—a minor effect, but a disturbance nonetheless.”

Fu Xiaoyue's eyes widened instantly, and he blurted out in surprise, "You mean, that 'Ping Gong' Onmyoji!?"

Seeing him nodding, she couldn't help but stare straight, not knowing what to do for a moment.

- God!It turned out to be because of this!It turned out to be because of the time traveler!

With the power of "Pinggong" alone, it may only change the flow of a drop of water, but for Huang, who has mastered the movement of billions of water droplets in the entire time-long river, no matter how subtle the change is, it will be reflected in his prediction , will also cause considerable error.

After finally recovering, and thinking of something again, Fu Xiaoyue's tone became a little cautious: "But I heard that in the same year he came to this world, Zashiki--"

This time, Huang was silent for a long time before speaking again: "The initial prediction was wrong, and they were not too harsh, but later, as the number of mistakes increased, there were gossip... They sent more people to guard the Next to that room, and then, caught Zashiki."

"..."

Thinking of what the villagers did to Huang in the game, Fu Xiaoyue felt a palpitation in his chest, and then heard him continue:

"I explained to them that my prediction error had nothing to do with Zashiki, and they certainly wouldn't believe it. Because that means that my prediction ability may indeed have a problem—maybe it has been taken back by the gods, or the gods may have abandoned it. This village — that's unacceptable to them."

"Compared to this, they are more willing to believe that it is the monster who tempted the child given to them by the gods, led him astray, tricked him into deliberately lying, deliberately gave wrong predictions, and deliberately led the entire village to perish..."

Fu Xiaoyue opened his mouth slightly, his throat was tight and astringent, seeing him closing his eyes silently, his voice was almost inaudible——

"So, it wasn't me who was sacrificed to the Sea God."

"..."

For a long time, Fu Xiaoyue couldn't speak, his head was bombarded with messy blood and buzzed.

...God.

...In this world, it was Zashiki who was sunk into the bottom of the sea?

...Zashiki is so dead?

Seeing the desert in front of her, and the dark shadows projected by the quietly closed eyelashes at the corners of her eyes, she only felt a tightness in her chest, and racked her brains but couldn't think of how to comfort her.

What can she say?The dead are gone?I am sorry for your loss?

——No matter how you say it, there seems to be a perfunctory feeling of standing and talking without back pain.

Just as she was struggling with distress, she suddenly heard the other party's low voice: "Xing Xing..."

Looking up again, I found that the other party had opened his eyes again, his eyes were cold, and he was looking at the scattered stars in the night, with an unspeakable self-mockery in his expression:

"Sure enough, from the very beginning, she should be allowed to stay in the sky well. If I take her off without authorization, I will have to pay the price of losing her forever."

Fu Xiao was speechless yesterday, and could only listen to him silently, "No matter how long the shining starlight is wrapped in the icy sea water, it can only be extinguished."

"..."

Seeing this Huang, Fu Xiaoyue suddenly came to a vague realization: she is not qualified to comfort him.

Hearing the heavy past of the other party, she did feel pity and regret for him from the bottom of her heart, but in the final analysis, she was not deeply sad.

— After all, it is impossible to empathize.

She remembered what Huang said in the game: The most touching story is always the one that can't be told - the reason is the same as expected.

The only thing that is gratifying is that he survived the hundreds of years without zashiki.Now he has grown strong enough and stood at a high enough position, no one can bully him anymore.

"... Mr. Yue, do you know?"

When she spoke again, her tone was inexplicably lighter, and there was a faint smile in her dark eyes, looking at him as if she was looking at a very beautiful scenery.

She said softly: "She is not a star."

Huang silently turned his eyes back to her and didn't answer, so she smiled again, raised her head to look at the sky, and sighed, "Huang...Huang himself is the one."

——beautiful, proud, silent, cold, and distant.

——Desolate like a star.

Huang stared at the surprisingly gentle expression on the side face of the other party, and then followed him to look at the night sky.There were faint strands of hair on his forehead that were blown up by the breeze, but there was still no ripple in his beautiful eyes like a deep pool.

He didn't comment on the second half of her sentence, he was silent for a long time, and finally he just responded in a low voice:

"Fine. You're not."

The stars also fall, or become ashes, leaving no dust.

Those who do not fall are naturally not stars.

……

When Huang got up and was about to leave, Fu Xiaoyue called him in a low voice, and told him as sincerely as possible: "Mr. Yue, I hope you will be happy in the future."

After thinking about it, she smiled shyly again, "Goodbye."

-

The surrounding has been empty and silent for a long time, but Fu Xiaoyue still hugged his knees and curled up there in a daze, his head was a little blank, and he didn't know what to think.

It wasn't until a cool night wind blew past that she inadvertently shivered all over, regained consciousness in a trance, looked away from the night above her head, and looked down at the courtyard below.

The night is already very deep.The courtyard was very quiet and empty, and every corner in the night was covered with a layer of deep darkness—and so on.

what……?

Fu Xiaoyue's aimless gaze paused for a moment, blinked suspiciously, and then stared up again at a certain corner of his field of vision that was so bright compared to his surroundings.

ice blue.

Then, she met a pair of extremely familiar, calm and cool eyes impartially.

"..."

Fu Xiao doubted his eyes for a moment yesterday, couldn't help stretching out his hands to rub them, and then looked over - the figure who was lazily folding his arms and leaning quietly on the side of a rockery was still in the original Location.

"...Mr. Yakuro?"

Fu Xiaoyester subconsciously wanted to ask him—why are you here, why haven’t you slept, how long have you been there—but then suddenly realized that even if you ask him at such a distance, he can’t hear you.

They just stared at each other for a while, neither of them spoke, and the distance between them didn't shorten.

But the strange thing is that Fu Xiaoyue suddenly felt that his previously empty and dazed heart became much more stable.She pursed her lips, and said in a soft voice: "Mr. Yaolang... Can you hear me clearly when I speak like this?"

Across the distance from the courtyard to the roof, the drug seller stared at her and nodded silently.

Fu Xiaoyue couldn't help laughing, but he didn't know what he was laughing at, but suddenly felt that he didn't want to ask those questions before.

She thought of one thing for no reason.

At that time, Ms. Zashiki climbed up to the roof every three days, but she didn't have the habit of being in a daze. What she liked to do was to jump down from the roof with arrogance under the terrified gaze of all her subordinates and monsters. , in order to exercise the flying skills of the big tengu.

But right now, she carefully suppressed the smile on the corner of her mouth, looked at the drug seller below and asked softly: "Mr. Yao Lang...I jump from here, can you handle it?"

The drug seller raised her eyebrows noncommittally, but before she responded, she said again, "You're just kidding, I dare not jump... Actually, my legs are so weak that I can't move now, can I trouble you to come up and pick me up? "

Under the gaze of those shining eyes, the medicine seller waved one hand and two fingers at his side at will, then picked up the medicine box beside him with one hand, and stepped on the falling talisman paper, his whole body lightly He jumped up and landed on the exact position beside her in an instant.

But he didn't immediately "pick her up" as she said, instead he put the medicine box down again, sat down with him, and then stretched out his hand to hug her from the cool stone eaves to his lap.

Fu Xiaoyue obediently sat in his arms, she breathed a sigh of relief, her nose was filled with the faint and cool scent of medicine, she couldn't help turning her head and buried her face on his shoulder.

The voice of the drug seller was also faint: "Are you afraid?"

He didn't ask exactly what he was afraid of, but Fu Xiaoyue nodded honestly, and said in a muffled voice, "Yes."

Before entering the fantasy land of flowers and birds, she felt an indescribable fear, "It's as if... felt that everything around her would be different." She couldn't even explain the origin of this feeling clearly.

The drug seller's voice rang in her ears along the chest, with a slight vibration: "I will not change."

Fu Xiaoyue was silent for a while, and then smiled silently: "Mr. Yaolang really hasn't changed at all, I saw you in the Flower and Bird Fantasy... To be honest, did you think I was very annoying at that time?" ?”

The drug seller didn't answer, and turned his eyes silently.

Fingers circled the long hair scattered on his shoulders one after another, Fu Xiaoyue's tone was a little more emotional, and he said intermittently: "But I really didn't expect it, it turns out that Ara has such emotions for Zashiki... It's God's will What a fool... The two of them are like this, so it's not a coincidence..."

After talking about it for a long time, it suddenly occurred to him that he hadn't answered. He straightened up a little and looked up, and found that he was silently looking at the medicine box beside him, with a somewhat unclear expression in his eyebrows and eyes:

"Mr. Yaolang? Selling medicine?"

Seeing that he finally came back to look over, Fu Xiaoyue blinked and said, "What are you thinking? There is no response to talking to you."

The drug seller frowned faintly, and looked at her with a slight seriousness.

think……

"Want to lock up."

"what?"

Puzzled for a few seconds, remembering that his gaze was on the big medicine box next to him, Fu Xiaoyue couldn't help but feel a little uncertain, pointing at it: "You mean... do you want to lock this thing up?"

……Why?

Isn't it full of fake medicines, and it's not worth a lot of money...

"Ah."

... locked up.

I can't go anywhere.

Nobody can see it.

——It would be nice to lock it up.

The drug seller rested his chin on the head of the man in his arms, and sighed slightly with regret, almost imperceptibly.

-

It's been a long time since the roof was lowered.

The drug seller carried her to the room, and the Inugami and Jiuming Mao at the door were still soundly asleep.

He put her under the quilt before letting go: "It's time to sleep."

I fell asleep for a long time...

Fu Xiaoyue couldn't help but flattened her lips, slightly protracted her tone and whispered coquettishly: "I can't sleep..."

The drug seller looked at her thoughtfully: "Do you need me to count sheep for you?"

"..."

Fu Xiaoyue was speechless for a while, silently stretched out his hand to pull the quilt over his head, and replied in a low voice:

"You count, I'm listening."

So, in the middle of the night, the lonely man and widow, the drug seller counted the sheep for her in such a serious manner, from the beginning to the end, without even the slightest change in tone of voice.

When he counted to a hundred, he stopped, stretched out his hand and pushed aside a ball of quilt that was trembling slightly in front of him, revealing Fu Xiaoyao who was blushing and teary inside whether it was from laughing or being suppressed.

Fu Xiaoyue was panting with a smile. Seeing that the fruits of her labor had been let down, and she was facing her expressionless face, she simply turned her head:

"Don't blame me...the drug seller counted sheep for me...it's so funny..."

After a long silence in front of her, she couldn't help turning her eyes to look at him cautiously: "Why don't you keep counting?"

The drug seller looked down at her with an unclear expression, and shook his head slightly: "It's useless."

As he said that, he lowered his head, cupped her cheeks with both hands, and with a slight sense of punishment, bit the corner of her mouth lightly, speaking in a low and slow voice:

"Let's change the method."

-

According to the boss Huang's instructions, for the next three days, Fu Xiaoyue stayed in the Pinggong mansion, not going out for a single step, and just waited for Abe Seimei to return.

But what she didn't expect was that in the short three days, an unexpected and "not big or small" thing happened in the whole Pinggong Mansion.

——The "Ping Gong" Yin Yang teacher died.

It is said that it was due to the relapse of an old illness. Just the night before Abe Seimei returned, he died silently in his room.