The strange bubbles that could display black-and-white images disappeared.
Under the warm sunlight, I stood by a murmuring stream, gazing at the sky where the bubbles had disappeared. One by one, long-sealed memories surfaced in my mind.
“Dummy, want to play Go with me?”
“Big Dummy! Are you in there? I just found a lot of wild strawberries near the secret base south of the village. Want some?”
“My Go set is missing. I asked a lot of classmates, and they all said they didn’t know…”
“Big Dummy, what does marriage mean? On the way back from school just now, I saw a lot of upperclassmen teasing that we’ll get married after we graduate?”
“Oh… Then, then when you grow up, do you want to marry me?”
“…”
When I was very, very young, I had a particularly close childhood sweetheart. Her nickname was Xin Xin.
Back then, we all lived in a small village and walked 5 kilometers every day to the primary and middle school in town. Through those comings and goings, we got to know each other and soon became close friends.
Even now I still remember that it was drizzling the day we first met. Xin Xin was walking in front of me with a worn-out little schoolbag on her back.
The road from the small village to town passed over an old suspension bridge. At that time, Xin Xin reached out her hand to me from the front, looking completely familiar with me-
“Come on, let’s hold hands and walk together.”
After starting middle school, Xin Xin went to the top class because her grades were excellent, while I was assigned to the regular class.
But Xin Xin didn’t look down on me because of that. Whenever class ended or school let out, she would run over to play with me or explain some knowledge points from the textbooks.
As I was in puberty, I would always unconsciously be drawn to Xin Xin during her explanations and end up spacing out. Over time, I earned the nickname “Big Dummy.”
It was precisely because of Xin Xin’s patient tutoring at the time and the resolve I secretly made that my grades quickly recovered later.
I was exceptionally promoted to the top class and became Xin Xin’s deskmate.
‘I can’t let her down.’
That was the only thought in my heart back then.
From childhood to adulthood, Xin Xin always seemed to run ahead of me.
When we went to town together, Xin Xin would always be the first to step onto that old suspension bridge, long out of repair and often creaking “squeak, squeak,” and only after confirming it was safe would she lead me forward by the hand.
After starting middle school, Xin Xin’s grades ranked at the top of the grade. She would always preview the new knowledge points of every subject in advance and then immediately tell me her understanding.
In that era, Go was a board game that all our peers considered “incomprehensible and not fun,” but Xin Xin managed to learn the rules through half an hour of free reading at the town library every day after school, and she taught me the charm of the game.
The relationship between us could be described with the three words “simple love.”
Simply meeting, simply falling in love, simply a life and memories.
Just like the plain sailor uniforms and pleated skirts on campus in that era that symbolized youth—simple and elegant, yet enough to engrave our entire youth.
Yet the girl who had grown up alongside me like that… left me forever in a traffic accident after graduating from university.
Xiao Qing was Xin Xin’s deskmate during middle school, back when I hadn’t yet been promoted to the top class.
Unlike us, who were born in the countryside, Xiao Qing was born in town and had a relatively happy family.
Xin Xin’s first Go set was bought with the pocket change she had saved for several years. Normally, children like us wouldn’t get allowance from adults, but in the countryside, we kids had our own ways to “make money.”
That was to collect discarded junk others didn’t want in the suburbs, like metal bottles and such, and once found, we could sell them to the uncle at the recycling station.
Or we would find some “wild treats” in the woods near the small village and take them to town to sell, such as raspberries or blueberries.
These sweet-and-sour little berries were very popular with city people. On weekends when schoolwork wasn’t heavy, Xin Xin and I often went to gather them together, and a full big bucket could sell for two yuan.
At that time, Xin Xin used the pocket money she had saved for several years to buy a very exquisite Go set in the city.
After that Go set was lost, Xin Xin, who had always been optimistic, was gloomy for several days.
What I hadn’t expected was… that the Go set had actually been taken by her deskmate Xiao Qing.
If the images in those bubbles were real, then what Xiao Qing said when I met her, “One weekend she brought this Go set to my house to play, and forgot to take it when she went back,” was a lie.
Of course, if I hadn’t seen the black-and-white images in the bubbles, I actually wouldn’t remember these old childhood matters anymore, and Xin Xin probably wouldn’t either.
Time can dilute many, many things, and the easiest to forget are the sad memories from childhood.
When we were children, we had many, many beautiful memories worth keeping. There was no need to remember such a small thing for a lifetime.
But… it seemed that for that Xiao Qing, it wasn’t like that.
In the bubble images, although she said, “This is my hang-up,” she never confessed the fact that she stole it to me until the end.
A kind child, if she does something bad, will indeed feel guilty about it for a lifetime.
What I understood even less, however, was the relationship between Xiao Qing and the “Shadow Phantom” that stole the “egg.”
Why did the strange bead left behind by the “Shadow Phantom” produce images of Xiao Qing’s memories?
Why did it take me away?
And why did it finally leave…?
This world… just what is going on?
And what is “Teresia,” which has been echoing in my ears for some time now?
“…”
By the river, I tried walking toward the riverbed, my little bare feet stepping on the soft fine sand by the water.
Under the sunlight, the little flowers by the river swayed slightly with the monsoon, spreading a light floral fragrance through the air full of spring.
I bent slightly at the riverside and used the reflection of the river water to examine my current self.
An especially cute girl.
She looked about 12 years old, with a body that had barely developed, snow-white skin, and a slender, petite frame.
Clean white long hair cascaded down naturally like a waterfall, and her sky-blue eyes were full of innocence and confusion.
Her small face still had some baby fat, and overall she looked incredibly cute and dazed.
Is this… me now?
The river before me was very clear. The girl reflected on the water’s surface kept swaying with the stream, making the image somewhat blurry.
Yet even with just this blurry portrait of myself in the river, I was so overwhelmed by how cute it was that I froze in place, not knowing how to react.
So cute…
A plump little face, clean and fresh skin, big dewy eyes, a delicate little nose…
Is this really not a girl who could only appear in a 2D world?
Then, the next second, I reflexively covered my chest with both hands.
No, wait! I’m not wearing any clothes right now!
Ahem, then should I, should I cover the top or the bottom?
Or… or cover my eyes?
“Bokubudin…”
In the confusion, I noticed that the group of “Angora Rabbits” that had helped open the eggshell earlier had somehow already followed me over, a big round flock.
Some of these big furballs came up to my feet, while others hopped around on the lawn not far away, looking anxious.
“Bubudin…”
After noticing my gaze, several white rabbits began repeatedly nudging my heels with their round heads, while the remaining cream-colored rabbits hopped toward the rabbits on the distant lawn, occasionally looking back at me as they hopped.
“Mmm…“
The rabbits’ actions made me stand there dazed for quite a while before I reacted.
-Are they telling me to follow them?
“…”
…
[Erlinni Isha’s Notes]
In Lumina, whether girls or small animals, no one attacks one another.
Everyone’s common enemies are “Monsters” and some “Magical Creatures.”
Research materials from the Grand Library of Ziming City show that “Monsters” only appear at night.
The specific dividing line is half an hour after the sun completely sets.
When the sky is fully dark, “Monsters” run out from dimensional rifts. They are products of negative emotions of Earth humans and will indiscriminately destroy and attack everything around them.
Therefore, the defensive plants of the manor will actively attack Monsters without the owner’s command.
In most cases, Monsters are absolutely harmful.
After a Monster falls, there is a very small chance that items from Earth will drop from the dimensional rift it occupied.
Here, take the Grand Library’s <Monster Sightings Report: Zombie Chapter> as an example.
On December 13, Lan Calendar 1358, a “Ghost Scale Zombie” was defeated by a nearby manor’s city-defense plant, “Blue Enchantress.”
Then an old-fashioned radio fell from the dimensional rift inside the zombie’s body, and the radio was still broadcasting a related news documentary-
-Recently, our city launched a campaign against “ghost scales.” The campaign achieved complete success, confiscating 417 ghost scales and destroying them in a centralized manner…
Currently, some scholars in Lumina believe that every time a “Monster” dies, it means the related dark emotions disappear.
In the above example of the “Ghost Scale Zombie,” the “human” related to the monster was dissatisfied because the ghost scales were investigated and seized, which caused a large amount of dark emotions to spread and generated the “Ghost Scale Zombie.”
When Lumina’s “Ghost Scale Zombie” was defeated, this person’s mind was purified, and they humbly accepted criticism and education.
Unlike “Monsters,” “Magical Creatures” can appear at any time, and their behavior is unpredictable.
Some Magical Creatures are as aggressive as Monsters.
Some are harmless and will even help the manor plant vegetables and water them.
Some Magical Creatures only attack specific items, specific animals, or plants.
For example, the most classic Magical Creature, the “Shadow Phantom,” is also a product of human negative emotions.
Shadow Phantoms have a certain aggressiveness and can perform continuous instant teleportation in a short time.
They behave oddly and love carrying off nearby items that interest them.
If one is not careful, even the “egg” that nurtures Lumina’s life can be stolen by them.
No one knows where they take the things they steal or what their specific purpose is.
PS: Shadow Phantoms seem to fear water.
If you see a Shadow Phantom, please prepare a large amount of clean water to drive them away.