Chapter 34:
“Big brother, you can even sew a cotton-padded coat!”

After Manman proposed to make a hot pot, the ingredients for hot pot naturally became a new problem.

Sure enough, the next second, Manman said, “It’s not the New Year or the festival. Maybe the surrounding farmers have stored chicken, duck, and fish meat.”

Yan Hong took advantage of the situation and said, “First, let’s go to the surrounding neighbors’ homes and ask. If it’s not possible, let’s go outside the village. Maybe we can meet people from the neighboring village who are coming back from the market!”

Manman also smiled and agreed, “I remember there is a river on the mountain, maybe we can catch fish. It’s actually good to make a fish hot pot, it’s very fresh.”

Jing Qizhen thought to himself, ‘When Manman proposed to make a hot pot, she was actually aiming for this.’

It was past two o’clock in the afternoon, and the sunshine looked pretty good.

After Jing Qizhen, Manman, and Yan Hong came out of the house, they told everyone their next plan.

Little Lu raised the cotton in his hand, and then pointed in the direction of the back room—where Jin Guijuan and Xu Siya were currently—indicating that he would stay back as a bodyguard. With him protecting Jin Guijuan and Xu Siya, he would be able to handle anything that happened.

Jing Qizhen nodded and gave him a thumbs-up.

Grandma Fang said with a smile, “Old Xiao and I will go around the village and chat with the villagers!”

To find out more information, they needed to be comprehensive. Everyone had been keeping silent on the fact that Daya, Erya, and Sanya, the three other daughters of the Xu family, did not show up earlier.

After all, that topic was a bit sensitive, and Grandma Fang felt that instead of asking Xu Siya, who seemed to know little, it would be better to ask the other villagers for some clues. After all, no matter how pitiful Xu Siya behaved, the peculiarity regarding her identity was always present.

Yan Hong: “Little Jing, Manman, and I will go outside to look for hot pot ingredients.” To be truthful, their main purpose was to seize the time to go into the mountains and explore in daylight.

Lu Lingxi pointed to his earpiece and mouthed silently, “Keep in touch.”

Everyone nodded.

After everyone had a discussion, they quickly took action separately.

Grandma Fang and Old Xiao made a point to bid goodbye to Jin Guijuan and Xu Siya before they headed out to chat with their neighbors.

Little Lu who was staying at home concentrated on mending Xu Siya’s cotton-padded coat.

Jing Qizhen, Manman, and Yan Hong seemed to be traveling lightly, but in fact, they were equipped with telescopes, weapons, and simple digging tools tucked into their clothes full of hidden pockets. Even the ‘Journey to Hell’ was taken along.

When they met the villagers on the road, they actually asked about various seasonings, fresh meat, and vegetables, and then walked directly towards the mountain under the guise of looking around the village.

Unlike the dim light when they hurried down the mountain last night, the sunshine during the day was very bright. As soon as they walked into the mountain, Jing Qizhen suddenly realized something.

“The sunshine in the village is very good, but the trees and plants in the mountains are all thin and small, while the leaves are wilted. They look like they lack vitality.”

Yan Hong couldn’t help but frown. He raised his head and looked carefully at the mountain forest that seemed to have its energy drained.

Manman: “I also remember Grandma Fang said that the plants on the mountain seem to lack sunlight.”

Jing Qizhen fell into deep thought. “But the sunshine today is clearly very good. There are probably other problems in this mountain. It’s just that we haven’t discovered them yet.”

Manman also reminded them, “There is also the background music ‘Jingle Bells’. After we entered the mountain, the music stopped.”

Jing Qizhen was slightly startled, and then his face suddenly changed. “That’s right! The music of the nursery rhymes only appeared in the village. The first time we were at the Xu family’s house, the music disappeared. But when we went to the Xu family’s house for the second time, I remember the nursery rhymes did not disappear.”

Manman’s expression also changed.

In less than a day, the nursery rhyme ‘Jingle Bells’ had been echoing in their ears until they gradually and subconsciously ignored the music’s existence.

Manman’s expression became more solemn. “I remember before we left the house, we didn’t seem to hear any music.”

Jing Qizhen: “The changes in the music ‘Jingle Bells’ must have followed Xu Siya. The background music only disappears around her.”

Manman: “But when we were with Xu Siya, although there was no background music, we saw the projection of oil pan hell.”

Jing Qizhen frowned as he said, “It seems that Xu Siya stands at the junction of illusion and reality. However, we still can’t judge what those images mean. It could just be that the projection was caused by the instinctive desire from a very hungry little girl.”

Yan Hong: “We haven’t found any clues related to ‘Jingle Bells’ either.”

The three of them looked at each other with thoughtful expressions on their faces.

The background story of the erosion area seemed to revolve around Xu Siya, but she was only a child after all. A child’s idea might be very simple, but it might also be extraordinarily crazy. It caused Jing Qizhen and the others to fall into a confusing situation where they seemed to have found a bunch of clues, but were unable to connect them all.

Jing Qizhen took a deep breath. “Don’t worry, we can think about it later. Let’s search in the mountains first, maybe we will find something unexpected!”

Manman and Yan Hong nodded.

Time crawled along.

When Jing Qizhen, Manman, and Yan Hong were aimlessly searching for clues in the mountains, in their residence, Jin Guijuan had been teaching Xu Siya how to read using her mobile phone.

The sunshine outside the window was just right, and through the somewhat worn window lattice, the little girl’s thin body leaned against Jin Guijuan. She then fell asleep without realizing it.

The little girl was not very old. Because she never received good care at home, she was much thinner and weaker than her peers.

By Jin Guijuan’s side, Xu Siya gained an unprecedented sense of security. When she fell asleep, she was like a well-behaved little rabbit, her body curled up slightly because of her uneasiness, but she didn’t make any sound.

Seeing this, Jin Guijuan gently laid the sleeping little girl down on the bed and covered her with a quilt.

Lu Lingxi, who had been carefully repairing the cotton-padded coat, was actually quite efficient even though he rarely did needlework.

He cut off all the unsalvageable fabrics from Xu Siya’s old cotton-padded coat and replaced them with clean new ones. For aesthetic reasons, he tried to use only two colors of clothes. The new cotton-padded coat he repaired still had the same style, but in terms of color matching, it had the splicing design that was popular in the new era.

Although Lu Lingxi’s needlework skills were pretty good, making fine and regular stitches was his limit. When it came to the more professional aspect of how much cotton should be added to a child’s cotton-padded coat, Lu Lingxi was at a loss.

He took out the old cotton batting that had turned black and stuck in Xu Siya’s old cotton-padded coat, as well as some newspapers and other debris that the little girl might have stuffed inside to keep warm. Then, he simply took out the stuffing wool. Like filling a stuffed toy, the new cotton was flattened, compacted, and finely sewn into the cotton-padded coat.

By the time he was almost done, the little girl’s patchwork-colored cotton-padded coat was a whole lot fluffier than before.

The coat was originally a bit too big for Xu Siya. Now that Lu Lingxi had used cotton to fill up the fabric, it might be a little inconvenient for the little girl to wear it. On the bright side, however, it was really warm, and it might even fit her better than before!

Lu Lingxi comforted himself while inspecting the fruits of his labor.

He was still holding the needle in his hand, and was about to wrap the thread around a button to tie the stitching tightly before returning the cotton-padded coat to Xu Siya, when suddenly a very familiar girl’s voice rang in his ears.

“Big brother, you can even sew a cotton-padded coat!”

Lu Lingxi stiffened at the abrupt presence.

The last time he was holding a sniper rifle and could only tighten his grip subconsciously when he was frightened. But this time, he was holding a needle and directly pricked his finger at the fright.

Lu Lingxi ‘ouch-ed’ at the sudden pain.

Last night, the little girl was standing behind him, smiling and asking him ‘Big brother, why do you live in a tree?’ Now, she was stunned by Lu Lingxi’s whimper, rendering her silent.

Jin Guijuan, who was still in the back room, didn’t hear the weird little girl’s voice, and only heard Lu Lingxi’s. She quickly opened the door curtain and walked out, asking with concern, “What—”

Jin Guijuan saw the weird little girl at a glance, standing next to Lu Lingxi. She looked exactly like Xu Siya but had dark pupils and an extraordinarily bright smile. Halfway through her words, she subconsciously swallowed them back.

Lu Lingxi took a deep breath and recalled how Jing Qizhen communicated with the little girl last night. He calmed himself down, turned around, and followed Jing Qizhen’s example of holding the little girl immobilized in front of him and stared into her eyes carefully. He warned, “Little sister, you can’t appear suddenly and scare people like that. If you scare them, they will be frightened to death!”

In the earpieces worn by Jing Qizhen and the others currently on the mountain, Lu Lingxi’s slightly disturbing words were suddenly heard.

The three people looked at each other, and Jing Qizhen immediately made a pause gesture.

The next second, Jing Qizhen directly turned on his earpiece and reminded Lu Lingxi, “Sew clothes for her! You are good at this!”

Jing Qizhen’s calm reminder suddenly rang in Lu Lingxi’s ears. He breathed a sigh of relief. Although he couldn’t help but curse in his heart, he didn’t have a better idea.

After receiving the reminder, Lu Lingxi, who was not good at making nonsensical moves, finally made up his mind. Following Jing Qizhen’s logic, he grabbed the patchwork cotton-padded coat with contrasting colors that he had just sewn and pushed it directly into the little girl’s arms. Then he turned his back on his own initiative and said in a flurry of words, “You put on that cotton-padded coat first, and let big brother mend the one you are wearing!”

Jin Guijuan: …

She couldn’t help but look back into the back room where Xu Siya was still sleeping and had no sign of waking up.

The weird little girl touched the particularly fluffy and soft cotton clothes that Lu Lingxi had stuffed with her thin and slender fingers. She said ‘Oh’ happily and quickly put on the clothes.

“Big brother, I’ve changed!”

Lu Lingxi took a deep breath before he turned around. He took the cotton-padded coat that the weird little girl had taken off, sat down again, and began to sew and mend it.

The weird little girl wearing a contrasting patchwork fluffy cotton-padded coat rested her hands on top of each other. She opened her eyes which were completely dark and obviously abnormal as she lay on top of the desk next to Lu Lingxi, very interested in watching him work.

Lu Lingxi was indeed an elite sniper. When he calmed down, his concentration on whatever he was doing became absolutely extraordinary.

With the weird little girl supervising his work, he didn’t seem to notice anything else.

Practice makes perfect. He already sewed a cotton-padded coat in the morning. When he picked up the pieces of cloth and spliced them together this time, his aesthetics and efficiency improved a lot.

The weird little girl didn’t feel the silence was boring at all. She even happily hummed a song.

When Lu Lingxi heard the tune ‘Jingle Bells’ that had almost completely brainwashed him, he pricked his finger with a needle again.

After another round of ‘Ouch’, Lu Lingxi asked casually without even moving, “Where did you learn that song?”