The shadow in front of her was exactly the sa as the phantom in her mory.
That sumr, in the living room of that old apartnt building, many tis, Li Jing would demand imperiously that the Little Nian transform into the Nian Beast form.
Then she would sit on the sofa holding the little lion, brushing its furry coat while watching TV. The fan blew slowly, and the white curtains fluttered up and down.
Sotis, when she was tired of reading comic books, she would make the Little Nian turn into a little lion and rest her head on its fur to sleep. Whenever she woke up in the middle of the night from a nightmare, Li Jing would hold it tightly, burying her face into its warm fur.
Ten years have passed, she has grown so much, yet the Little Nian Beast is still the sa as in her mory.
Li Jing snapped back from her mories, looked up at the Little Nian Beast's appearance, and confird in her heart once again. She didn't believe in such coincidences in the world, this must be the Little Nian.
"...It's you."
In the midst of the bustling silence, she slightly opened her mouth but couldn't make a sound, just staring dazedly at it, waiting for the Little Nian Beast to look at her.
But it never did, only glancing around the battlefield with the corner of its eye.
After quite a while, the Little Nian Beast finally turned its head and t her eyes.
Li Jing stood there stunned for a long, long ti, tentatively spoke:
"... Little Nian?"
"Who else do you think it could be? The Nian Beasts are nearly extinct, apart from my old man, is there another one like in the world?" Saying this, the Little Nian Beast sighed.
"So it is you..." Li Jing remained silent for a mont, then spoke, murmuring.
She bowed her head slightly, then lifted it again, looking at the Little Nian Beast, at which point a pure smile unexpectedly appeared at the corner of her mouth.
"Long ti no see, Lin Xingshi." The Little Nian Beast curved its lips at her too.
Li Jing was taken aback: "You still rember this na?"
"Yes, it was the na I gave you. Although it's just a homophonic na, for a super illiterate like , it's quite sothing." The Little Nian Beast felt inexplicably proud.
"I really like this na," Li Jing said softly, "I thought you had forgotten."
"Speaking of forgetting..." The Little Nian Beast fell silent for a mont, then suddenly asked, "Aren't you the one who forgot? Didn't you say you would co find , yet you forgot entirely. It's been so many years, and I didn't even catch a glimpse of you."
"I did try to find you," Li Jing hastily said, and emphasized again, "I really did!"
As she spoke, she frowned slightly, a trace of disarray flashing across her pretty and clear face.
"I don't believe you!" The Little Nian Beast snorted coldly, turned its face away from her, and closed its eyes.
"I really tried to find you, many tis... lots of tis."
"Really?"
The Little Nian Beast turned its head sideways and opened one eye to peek at her.
Li Jing nodded, saying softly, "I went to Li Jing to find you. Every ti I took a break, wanting to put everything behind , I would take a boat to Li Jing, go to the apartnt building where we lived... I went there many tis, later even bought that apartnt building."
"No way? You actually bought that haunted place?" The Little Nian Beast was shocked, "It's so noisy and ssy around there, you could even hear the horns from the street in the morning, and the fridge would lose power often in the sumr, making our popsicles lt multiple tis."
It dug its claws into the ground in annoyance: "Lin Xingshi, you big fool, you should have bought a big villa, then I would have definitely rolled back overnight if I heard."
"I didn't have money for a big villa."
"So you really bought that apartnt building?"
"Yes, I used to go back there once a month, each ti I would write your na on the calendar in the living room, hoping you would find if you saw it." Li Jing smiled, "But then you never ca back, so I didn't continue waiting."
"But back then it was you who told to run, to run as far as possible and never co back, otherwise you'd hate forever." The Little Nian Beast pouted, "I didn't want you to hate , so how could you find in Li Jing?"
"That's true..." Li Jing paused for a mont, then self-deprecatingly said, "I was too weak back then, couldn't protect you, so I could only ask you to run far away..."
She paused for a mont, suddenly looked away, "But... you still ca back."
"Yes, I ca back."
The Little Nian Beast looked into her eyes.
Li Jing was silent for a while again.
She lowered her eyes and murmured, "At the ti you should have co back, I couldn't find you; now when you shouldn't have co back, you actually did..."
"What do you an by that?"
"Honestly... I wished you wouldn't appear, but you did anyway, the world is so cruel."
"Why are you feeling sad? You are strong now; you've beco the number one exorcist in the world, you could slap your family's people to death, and you don't have to dress like a boy anymore." The Little Nian Beast said blandly, "Though I've heard from others, you still like to dress as a boy, I really don't get what you're thinking?"
Li Jing was stunned.
"Just a habit." She said, "And... today, I didn't dress as a boy." Saying this, she brushed over her slender, fiery red eyebrows, curving her lips, "I thought you would co back."
She still rembered in her childhood, curling up in the bathtub with reddened eyes, complaining to the Little Nian Beast that she didn't like being raised as a boy by her family.
Back then, the Little Nian Beast told her, in front of , you can always be a girl, thinking of this, a hint of daze flashed across Li Jing's face.
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