If you were to look down from above, in this vast expanse of mountains and plains, clusters of mushrooms were scattered everywhere. Human cities had developed around various types of mushrooms, just like mushroom clusters, haphazardly spread with no rhy or reason, sotis separated by thousands of kiloters of plains or forests.
In the places where neither mushrooms nor humans had ventured, it was the territory of another kind of creature.
i Jia felt an itch on her face and, upon touching it, realized that she was crying. Only now did she begin to feel fear: what if she had run a bit slower, and the falling dirt had struck her directly? She would likely be deep underground now, dragged by the ants.
"Help!" She caught sight of a figure behind the giant ant, knowing it was the man who had caught up with her, so she urgently shouted out towards the tunnel entrance, "Ants, help!"
"Shut up!"
The man erged from behind the ant. The ant was enormous, perfectly blocking the entire tunnel. To escape, the man had to crouch and squeeze between its long legs. The distinct rustling sound as his clothing brushed against the insect's body felt almost as discomforting as if it were crawling under his skin.
"Didn't expect that, did you?" The man pointed to the top of his head, and as he managed to produce a smile, his already crooked face twisted even more. "I specifically told it to dig the entrance vertically. Even if you find the exit, what will you do? How will you climb out?"
Indeed, she couldn't climb out on her own. But all she needed to do was hold on until soone ca to rescue her. Thinking this, i Jia swallowed a mouthful of saliva and felt her calves trembling. She was not only facing an adult male but also a gigantic ant she had only seen on TV. No, wait, if the knowledge from school was accurate, perhaps she only needed to deal with Little Jian, her childhood friend...
The man climbed the dirt mound in several steps, looking down at i Jia from a superior vantage point. Her throat suddenly felt choked, rendering her speechless. With him blocking the light from above, her entire face was obscured in shadows, except for her brightly highlighted hair. The face that lood closer was distorted by the shade.
"Don't co any closer to ," she pulled out the small knife she had acquired earlier, and in the most nacing tone she could muster, she warned, "Back off!"
After all these years, this was the first ti she had ever used the word 'back off.'
"Why is it that people, in monts of desperation, always like to spout this nonsense?" The man gradually descended, getting closer to her. "I've heard these words from over a dozen people. Care to guess what happened to them in the end?"
The giant ant behind him tilted its head slightly, and its long antennae trembled in the air as if it were trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. It didn't seem inclined to help. i Jia rembered that ants rarely participated directly in violent conflicts; those tasks were usually carried out by the humans they nurtured.
"Have you forgotten that your school is on the outskirts?" The man paid no attention to the small knife she was waving in her hand. "There's no one around here. Who do you think you're going to wait for?"
The man's strength and speed, as an adult male, were indeed much greater than her own. This realization flooded her mind as his fist struck her right cheek. The thought mingled with the taste of blood as her cheekbone collided with her teeth. In her fear, i Jia's mind was consud by an odd question: why was he hitting her right side?
They stood face to face, with him striking her right side, indicating he was punching with his left hand. Upon closer inspection, i Jia discovered that most of the punches landing on her body were with his left hand. He wasn't left-handed, so why did he repeatedly use his weaker hand?
"I feel like I've developed a compulsion. I can draw from morning till night, until my wrist aches and swells, and I can't lift it anymore..."
Her body made a series of muffled noises under the continuous assault, but in her pain, she managed to recall the man's earlier words. For as long as she could rember, he had been obsessively drawing, possibly for several years...
Could his right wrist be injured?
Gritting her teeth, i Jia found a gap and suddenly lunged at him. Her vision was mostly obscured by blood, but she managed to grab his right arm. Though she didn't exert much force, the man yelled out in pain as if he were struck by sothing intense. "You little bitch!"
She had guessed correctly!
i Jia had no ti to think, and before his left fist smashed into her waist and eye, she made a break for his wrist - she didn't know what the other man's old problem was all about, and she didn't know if such a break would hurt him or not, and to put it bluntly, it was just taking her chances. But she was clearly not ant to be, and the man let out a sudden cry of pain, interrupting even the movent of hitting her, staggering and falling back two steps.
As soon as her feet hit the ground, i Jia hurriedly felt around on the floor.
The man was breathing heavily, and when he approached behind her again, his right hand was hanging limply at his side, while in his left hand, he had sohow regained a grip on the small knife. "I don't want to help you get out of the brainwashing, I think... I still want to watch the way your body turns into sustenance."
The teeth in her mouth were loose, and her tongue was bitten through, blood constantly gumming up her lips and teeth. But as i Jia turned up, she managed to barely spit out the words, "You're dreaming!"
Along with those three words, the stone she had just found in the dirt pile fell together onto the man's face. She was a good shot-put thrower in school, and the blow caused him to yelp in pain and fall on his back. i Jia darted a quick glance at the giant ant not far away, only to see its antennae twitching and its slender legs and feet swaying back and forth as if it was debating whether or not to intervene - she hurriedly scread towards the broken hole in her head, "I'm here! Co on you guys, there's ants in here!"
She was bluffing, but she didn't expect that this scream would actually call in a bunch of footsteps from outside. The giant ant seed to have quickly made up its mind, its antennae slightly trembled, and its body rapidly retreated backward into the darkness - the crypt was its world, no one would dare to rashly chase an ant into the underground without all the preparations.
"i Jia!"
A familiar voice rang out sharply from overhead. She looked up just in ti to see a figure probing down, blocking the light of the sky, looking vaguely like her mother, "i Jia, we're here, I'm here, are you alright?"
"Ants!" Seeing that rescue arrived, i Jia cried. Cold sweat and tears together crawled in her mouth, making her words incomplete: "also, and its walkers... is a brother Little Jian- "
At the ti when the man climbed up and seed to be about to rush up towards her, a shadow jumped down from the broken hole in his head, and almost with a wave of his arm, he was brought down again. The man was tall and broad-shouldered, and a thorn fence icon on the back of his uniform was particularly conspicuous; a mber of the Defense Force.
After being fished out of the crypt by the Defense Force, i Jia was wrapped in a blanket and held in her mother's arms for a few monts as she cried, still in disbelief that she had actually been saved. She had indeed been taken to a very remote place; if it wasn't for the fact that her teacher had called ho to ask about her when she was late for school, and her mother had realized sothing was wrong, she would have had a very bad day.
After i Jia was kidnapped, it seed like there had been a rainstorm. i Jia walked past a puddle of water, lowered her head to take a look, and found that her face was bruised and swollen, oozing blood from various places, which looked rather frightening.
Over the next few days, she naturally didn't have to go to school anymore and just rested at ho. However, after narrowly escaping from a life-threatening situation, the anxiety and depression that had plagued her before dissipated like a wisp of smoke.
i Jia found her "lampstand."
Despite her pitiful appearance, the man left her with only superficial injuries. Once her injuries had completely healed, in August of the sa year, she beca one of fifty new recruits, joining the Defense Corps. As taught in school, the creatures that dwelled between the mushroom cities and towns were always one of the greatest threats to the fungal society. They kidnapped and manipulated humans, using them to infiltrate the mushroom society to achieve their own goals. The only barrier standing between the citizens and the ants was the Defense Corps, which i Jia was now a part of.
"Amazing,"
After i Jia's first day of military training, Bohemia couldn't help but tear up. "That girl is so strong... Can you feel it? After joining the military, she suddenly beca so happy, even though the training was so tough on her. She didn't complain at all..."
If Lin Sanjiu didn't know her, she might have thought Bohemia was i Jia's mother.
"The experience you've chosen is also my personal favorite,"
The receptionist's deanor had changed from the usual gentle expression, and they sighed repeatedly, appearing quite moved. "Many people choose experiences that seem the most comfortable and satisfying, even though those aren't bad... but I believe that what's most important in a person's life is what goals they've pursued and what accomplishnts they've achieved. i Jia is truly remarkable. She chose to use her lifeti to protect all of us."
Bohemia nodded for quite a while, and then asked, "How is i Jia doing now? Has she adapted to the military?"
The receptionist chuckled and answered, "The mories she provided took place fourteen years ago. She's now thirty, and the last ti she visited us, she had already been promoted to captain. I've seen photos of her daughter, and she's very cute."
"Good,"
Bohemia buried her face in her large sleeve, only her wavy golden-brown hair trembling. "That's really good..."
"Thank you,"
Lin Sanjiu stood up. Under her bandages, her expression looked composed. "Can we leave now?"
The receptionist showed no intention of keeping them any longer. They didn't even ask, "Would you like to convert?" Instead, they led them back out the door. Puppeteer had disappeared sowhere, but his puppet was still standing obediently in place. Dr. Hu, on the other hand, was sitting on the divan. As soon as he saw the two won erge, he hopped off the divan using Puppeteer's shoulder as a stepping stone.
"How authoritative you look up there, it really suits you," Bohemia couldn't help but be humble and respectful again.
"How was the experience?" Dr. Hu asked, then rembered to instruct Bohemia, "Oh, please help clean the cat hair off the divan. How about it, Lin Sanjiu? Do you want to be a servant of the Truth?"
"What about Puppeteer?"
Lin Sanjiu didn't answer imdiately; instead, she glanced around.
"He said that the things you might say when you co out would make people feel nauseous, so he went to get so fresh air first," Dr. Hu didn't think he should sugarcoat the matter.
"Well, he can relax,"
Lin Sanjiu smiled faintly. "I... I don't want to convert."
Raising herself up on her tiptoes, Bohemia, who was dusting the cat hair off the divan with her sleeve, turned her head abruptly. "But I do."
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