That night, I returned to my childhood in a dream. In the thick layers of fog, it seemed that I saw myself again, who was lonely but didn't know what sorrow was.
Since then, I often talked to him. Whether he paid attention to me or not didn't matter. As long as there was someone who could listen to me, it was okay. Sometimes, I would tell him about my experiences. When I mentioned those interesting stories from my childhood, I couldn't help laughing out loud. When I casually glanced at him, I found that his brows had relaxed a little.
Occasionally, when I couldn't fall asleep in the middle of the night and saw that he was also awake, I would tell him stories, including Chinese myths and legends as well as foreign fairy tales. I told these stories one by one carefully as if I were counting my own treasures. Before I knew it, it was already dawn when I finished telling the stories.
I was quite good at telling stories. When I worked as a part-time teacher in a kindergarten, I often told stories to the children. They were always so fascinated by the stories that they wouldn't go to have meals until they heard the endings.
In the hot spring room, when I was too lazy to tell stories, I would take out a charcoal pencil and several pieces of white paper and draw on them. Two hours later, I showed him the drawings and said, "Look, see? These drawings are like a diary. In the future, when you recall this period of time and see these drawings, you will surely feel a sense of familiarity."
I had been taking elective sketch courses since high school. Although my drawing skills were not excellent, I still had the ability to scribble casually.
I showed him the drawings one by one. There were five drawings in total, and all of them were of the cute version of him. Almost every drawing had a little boy who looked simple and honest, just like Nobita in "Doraemon". I proudly said to him, "This is you. What do you think? Does it look like you?"
The first drawing showed the cute version of him sitting alone in the hot spring, often looking up at the sky, as if thinking about something that no one knew.
I thought I had drawn his inner world, but after looking at it, he frowned slightly and didn't say a word. There was no emotion shown in his gloomy eyes.
The second drawing was also of the cute version of him hiding under the hot spring. His long hair was floating on the water surface, so his face couldn't be seen clearly. However, through the clear hot spring water, one could see that his perfect body was filled with endless loneliness.
His eyes only stayed on the drawing for three seconds.
In the third drawing, he was walking in the woods, with his eyes full of vigilance, gloomy and cold. But in order to enhance the effect of the cute version, I deliberately drew his expression in a humorous and interesting way, making his vigilant look like a child who was afraid of being caught by his mother after making a mistake, looking around nervously in the woods, fearing that his mother would catch up.
I couldn't help laughing out loud.
As for the fourth drawing, I smiled and said to him, "Didn't expect this, did you? This drawing shows a little boy who looks like six or seven-year-old Nobita. This is you." This six or seven-year-old child was him in his childhood, rolling and playing on the grass without a care, playing with little animals, and the warm sunlight shining on him.
The fifth drawing depicted a little baby still in swaddling clothes, which was him when he was just born. It seemed that time was going backwards. He became so tiny and pitiful. I drew the little baby extremely cute, with a small milk bottle in his mouth, and a pair of innocent big eyes wide open. A kind-hearted mother was gently holding him and kissing him on the cheek.
"Didn't expect that I drew you so cute..." Before I could finish my words, he suddenly snatched the drawing away, tore it into pieces casually, and then threw it aside. The pieces of paper fell from the air and fluttered through the thick white mist.
I was instantly furious and said, "Hey! Why are you so fierce? If you don't like it, just leave it alone. Why did you tear it up?"
He in the hot spring ignored me completely, and his gloomy eyes were still full of coldness and indifference.
"Just kidding..." I muttered in a low voice. Then I got up to pick up the torn pieces of paper. What bad luck! I had to clean up this big pile of torn paper by myself.
After that, we didn't say a word to each other all day. At midnight, I was in a deep sleep. Just as I turned over, a man's painful roar woke me up. I opened my eyes and was so frightened by the sound that without thinking much, I quickly jumped off the hammock and rushed straight to the hot spring.
When I got close, the scene in front of me shocked me.
The man's whole body was black, and his face was distorted because of pain. His brows were tightly wrinkled together, and his expression was extremely painful. His whole body quickly slid down along a tree beside the hot spring. The trunk was already covered with bloody palm prints. Obviously, he had endured for a long time before he roared out in pain and punched the trunk to relieve another kind of pain.
"What's wrong with you?" I rushed over and quickly held him up. I had wanted to run out to call for help, but his body was weak and getting blacker, and his breathing became rapid and difficult. His life seemed to be in danger. I didn't dare to leave because I was afraid that he would die as soon as I left.
"I'm... okay..." He said with great difficulty, biting his teeth. This was the first time he had spoken to me.
"I'll go and find someone. Can you hold on?" I asked anxiously.
"Help me... to the hall..." He almost squeezed these words out between his teeth.
I gritted my teeth and held him firmly, making his whole body almost lean on me. I tried my best to steady him and staggered forward. After a lot of trouble, I finally helped him to the entrance of the passage. Opening that door, one could enter the dark hall of the hot spring room. This journey usually took only three minutes, but it took me and him a full fifteen minutes.
His face became more and more distorted and blacker, and it was hard to recognize his original appearance.
I didn't know what kind of poison he had been poisoned with, and I became more and more flustered. Although I didn't like him, I didn't want to see a living person die in front of me like this.
We struggled to come to the hall inside the house. The hall was silent. The dim fire was burning brightly in the huge fireplace, illuminating the round dark carpet on the ground and the strange tall elf sculptures around.
I helped him sit and lean against a thick stone pillar. He let out a heavy breath and then covered his chest and said, "Now, take out your knife, cut the tip of your little finger, and smear the blood on the fifth statue."
"Why?"
"Go quickly!" He roared angrily, and then there was a violent cough, and blood kept flowing out from the corner of his mouth.
I quickly rushed to the elf statues, looked carefully, turned around, and asked with sweat all over my face, "Which one is the first? Where should I start counting from?"
He leaned against the pillar, covered his chest, with an angry look on his face, as if he was very dissatisfied with me. Enduring the pain, he said word by word, "Count from the left side of the stone steps."
"Oh," I quickly counted, "One, two, three..." When I counted to the fifth one, I breathed a sigh of relief. It was a tall and thin elf statue with goat horns. I took out my knife, closed my eyes, endured the pain and cut the tip of my little finger, and then smeared the blood on the statue.
"Your blood is not enough. Cut it again..." He said with difficulty. His face was so black that his facial features could hardly be seen.
I became even more flustered. My hand shook, and accidentally I cut my whole little finger. The cut extended all the way to my wrist, and blood kept dripping down. I cried out in pain and put my whole hand on the elf sculpture, letting the blood flow on it. I closed my eyes tightly, not daring to look at my wound. The pain of the wound rushed towards me like a surging tide. The burning pain made me moan. Gradually, I felt that the statue under my finger became hot, and I couldn't help but open my eyes.
A strange scene came into view. The elf sculpture carved out of gray-white stone emitted layers of soft yellow halos. The halos kept expanding until they covered the entire empty and strange hall.
I turned my head and saw the haggard and painful man beside the stone pillar. At this time, he slowly raised his arm, and then I noticed that there was a delicate ruby chain on his arm. Against the yellow halo, the ruby suddenly burst out dazzling red light. The light was so bright that it almost made me unable to open my eyes, but it was so beautiful that even though my eyes were sore and teary, I couldn't bear to close them completely.
I had never seen such a gorgeous red light. The light slowly gathered and formed a column of light with twinkling stars, which rushed straight towards the elf statue with goat horns. Soon, the column of light merged with the elf statue. The red light and the yellow halo blended with each other and formed an orange-red column of light, which rushed straight towards the man beside the stone pillar. Before I could blink my eyes, I saw that he was instantly surrounded by an orange-red light circle. His whole body was shining. Slowly, the black on his face gradually faded away, and his complexion gradually returned to normal.
The light circle surrounded him for about three minutes and then suddenly disappeared. He weakly leaned against the stone pillar, closed his eyes, and his breathing became steady.
I slowly walked towards him. Blood was still dripping from my wrist. Enduring the pain, I called out, "Hey! How are you?"
He opened his eyes, slowly turned his head, slightly raised his chin, looked at me, and then turned back and closed his eyes again. Just as I was about to approach him, suddenly I heard a cry of surprise: "Aarond..."
A figure in a blue dress rushed over, ran straight to the stone pillar, quickly squatted down, and took him into her arms. "Aarond, how are you..." Her voice was full of panic, and tears streamed down her face. "Why is it like this? Isn't it supposed to happen only once every three months?"
He had already opened his eyes and saw her, but his expression was still cold and he didn't say a word.
Xuedaire? I stood aside and looked at this girl with short blue hair and big eyes. She looked so panicked that it was obvious that she was really worried about him.
Then, with her small body, she helped him up, used her weak shoulders as his support, and helped him walk forward with difficulty step by step. I walked over and offered to help, but she politely refused me and helped him walk up the wide stone steps leading to the hot spring by herself.