Chapter 40: Sketching a World Part 2

Yet she was sharing all this with her friend. Their topics gradually shifted from this little storybook to exposing each other’s embarrassing moments, and they laughed more and more happily.

Occasionally, Liu Wen would glance at the storybook and get thunderstruck by the stories, losing control of her expression.

But her eyes held not disgust, but gentleness.

As if she were laughing at the tiny girl who once wrote those childish stories, laughing at her fantasies that seemed too absurd to adults.

They talked for a long time. Finally, they hung up, and Liu Wen’s hand gently stroked the not-so-pretty words on the page.

It was as if across time, when the ink hadn’t yet dried, she was gently stroking the self that wrote those words.

Those little troubles from before, she could now solve easily.

Those tiny pains could no longer make her break down. Her friendship with her friend would no longer crack over something so symbolic.

Those worries of a junior high student were now nothing to her.

If the child who wrote this story knew that one day in the future, the person opening this notebook would be such a strong “big sister,” would she feel the security of a tight hug?

Liu Wen felt a bit sentimental. She closed the notebook and put it into her bag.

Liu Wen stood up, and the fantasy creatures stood up too. The tiny fantasy creatures ran after her.

When they reached the door of the room, Sophia turned to face Tao Fangyi: “We’re about to be taken away.”

“Are you going to disappear?” Tao Fangyi asked.

Sophia thought for a moment, then shook her head: “As long as she still likes herself, we won’t disappear.”

“Just that you won’t be able to see us with your eyes anymore.”

Liu Wen kept walking forward, and the fantasy creatures tried hard to keep up.

Liu Wen went to the Backyard. She walked down the steps, sunlight spilling onto her.

The figures of the fantasy creatures running behind her became blurrier and blurrier. They hurried down the steps, finally melting into the sunlight.

Liu Wen looked at the large eco-fish pond converted from a swimming pool, with lotus leaves planted inside to shade the fish.

Liu Wen smiled, then noticed the sunlight falling on the ripples of the water.

“So beautiful,” she said.

Tao Fangyi watched for a while. He could no longer see those fantasy creatures, but he felt they were still there.

They definitely were still there.

Tao Fangyi turned and went back to the Toy Room, finding Wang already waiting there.

The fantasy creatures of the older boy cousin hadn’t returned either.

The once lively Toy Room felt a bit empty.

“Morning Star?” Tao Fangyi called.

“He’s given up on changing his little master,” Blade Spirit said.

“Oh.” Tao Fangyi’s two front claws pressed together. “So they’ve all left?”

“Or rather, they’ve always been there,” Blade Spirit explained.

Tao Fangyi silently ran to Blazing Flame’s box. He opened the lid, took out Blazing Flame, and pressed Blazing Flame’s switch again, listening to that cringey one-liner.

Blade Spirit reminded him: “I’m about to dissipate too.”

Tao Fangyi quickly put down Blazing Flame: “Actually, there’s no rush. I could treat you to a cup of tea. I could invite you to visit The Nineteenth Level. I’ve recently planted sunflowers.”

“I’m not a real blade spirit, you know that.” Blade Spirit smiled somewhat helplessly. “Seems you miss old friends, only you don’t know it.”

Tao Fangyi didn’t know, and he couldn’t answer that.

Blade Spirit’s body had already begun to dissipate. He slowly turned into a cloud of black mist. The mist gathered together, its color gradually growing lighter, becoming a gray infinitely close to white.

The part that was Blade Spirit’s obsession completely vanished.

Finally, that last wisp of gray slowly solidified, turning into a tiny piece of wood.

The wood seemed to be shaped like a heart, with deep black paint on it.

Tao Fangyi stretched out his two claws and caught the wood that was about to fall to the ground. He held the wood and stood there for a long time.

“I might be a little…” Tao Fangyi spoke uncertainly, “regretful.”

“Can this wood be used to awaken your body?” Wang asked.

“It should… Huh?” Tao Fangyi discovered that the wood was once again becoming insubstantial, turning into mist and beginning to merge into Tao Fangyi’s dinosaur body.

Wang panicked: “What the hell?! Is that a trap set by the Blade Spirit?! Is he trying to resurrect the dinosaur?!”

He knew that guy was no good!

“No, it’s integrating into my soul.” Tao Fangyi felt a coolness inside his body.

“So how do you feel? Any dizziness?” Wang remembered that when Tao Fangyi had first gained this body, he had been dizzy for a short while.

Tao Fangyi felt his condition was wonderful: “No! I’m perfectly fine!”

He tried hard to give Wang a thumbs-up with two fingers, but before Wang could sigh in relief, Tao Fangyi plopped down on the ground and passed out.

“Tao Fangyi!!!” Wang cried out in terror.

At the same time, in his own dreamscape, Tao Fangyi opened his eyes.

His vision was 360 degrees with no blind spots. Tao Fangyi was stunned. His cauldron legs scratched at his cauldron body.

Wait, cauldron legs?

Tao Fangyi looked at himself, then let out an “Ah!” and used his front two cauldron legs to hug himself: “Why am I not wearing any clothes?!”

He anxiously searched for something to cover up, but soon he noticed an even more crucial problem: “Ah!! How did I become a cauldron?!”

The panicked big wooden cauldron ran all over the place, then stepped on something slippery and crashed onto his back with a bang.

Tao Fangyi tried to adapt to his previous body. He flailed and climbed up, then looked at the small thing that had tripped him.

It was a smooth pebble.

The big wooden cauldron walked forward, gently picked up the pebble with a cauldron leg, and shook it.

He seemed to have seen this little stone before.

Just as he thought that, he heard a clattering sound.

Tao Fangyi turned his head and saw it was a small wooden stick.

Tao Fangyi widened his gaze. Around him were countless small wooden sticks, small leaves, and small stones.

These were all the little things Tao Fangyi had collected while exploring and getting to know the world.

That blade spirit said these were all his “toys.”

Was he dreaming of his toys?

Tao Fangyi tentatively raised a cauldron leg and greeted these little toys: “Hello~”

The toys suddenly moved a bit.

Then they all “came to life.”

The small branches he’d picked up while observing trees suddenly turned into towering trees, with thick roots digging into the ground.

A small handful of soil spread and spread until it filled the entire dream.

The water from a tiny jar became a stream, and stones of different shapes transformed into different things: houses, little people, butterflies.

This place seemed to be filled by toys, becoming a real world.

Tao Fangyi felt a bit out of place.

Had he also once entrusted his observations to these inanimate objects?

These little toys unfolded into a real world. Tao Fangyi wandered through the forest, admiring the world he had perceived in the past.

Then, on a branch of a tree, he spotted a stone bird.

Tao Fangyi remembered it.

“Hello,” Tao Fangyi greeted it.

Sunlight shone through the layers of leaves, casting light spots on its body.

Tao Fangyi noticed that the light on the stone bird seemed to scatter slightly.

Tao Fangyi wanted to rub his eyes, but he couldn’t find where his eyes were right now.

He looked at the stone bird. Indeed, it was glowing. Translucent specks of light broke free from the stone bird’s shell.

It was a bird with wings, one that could fly, composed entirely of light.

Tao Fangyi had taken a long time to get to know birds. He had observed this creature’s form, then tried to understand why it flew, its calls, its warmth.

And the stone bird was an important tool for Tao Fangyi to get to know this type of creature.

That translucent bird was like the stone bird’s soul. It hopped among the branches, then flapped its wings and flew, flying to Tao Fangyi’s side.

It circled around Tao Fangyi’s chest.

For some reason, Tao Fangyi recalled the last time he had seen a bird.

Actually, it was just earlier, in the Backyard, when a little bird had been watching the small fish in the pond made from the swimming pool.

Further back, he had seen a flock of birds fly across the sky.

There were pigeons eating breadcrumbs on the ground, and turtledoves building nests.

Constantly going back, constantly going back.

Countless birds flew before his eyes.

Further back…

…………

A stone bird was grasped by a round cauldron leg.

The cauldron leg lifted the stone bird high, then lowered it.

The wooden cauldron mimicked the calls of birds, sneaking around in the temporarily unsupervised main hall.

…

The glowing bird flew into his body.

He gradually constructed a real world himself, and then this real world returned to him once more.

Tao Fangyi’s dream ended. He slowly sat up. Upon seeing the triangular armrest beside him, he propped himself up with a paw, then began gasping for breath.

“Did you have a nightmare?” Wang asked him.

“It wasn’t a nightmare.” Only then did Tao Fangyi realize that the triangular armrest was one of Wang’s teeth.

For some reason, Wang had opened his mouth at him, looking like he was about to eat him: “What were you doing just now?”

“If you hadn’t woken up, I was prepared to eat you,” Wang said. “I was grieving and building up mental preparation, bidding you farewell in my heart.”

Tao Fangyi: …

So Wang really had intended to eat him.

Tao Fangyi pulled his emotions back: “I dreamed about the past.”

“Did you discover that you actually love that Blade Spirit?” Wang’s lips curved downwards.

“No, I just discovered… I’ve always had feelings. They weren’t very deep, so I couldn’t see them,” Tao Fangyi said. “I like trees, I like sunlight, I like birds, fish.”

“I’m a bit slow, but I like them. I’ve always been observing them.” Tao Fangyi placed a hand over his chest. “I have feelings.”

Wang didn’t react much, not because he didn’t want to, but purely because he couldn’t empathize.

He didn’t like anything and wished he could tear everything apart.

“Now I like them too, very, very much. And like those children, I like myself!” As Tao Fangyi spoke, his little paw suddenly rested on Wang’s hand. “And you.”

Wang froze.

Tao Fangyi said, “I think one day I will understand you very well, and I will like you too.”

On the other side, Wenren Fu stood frozen in place.

His hand slowly relaxed, and the pen in his hand dropped to the floor.