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The kids imdiately began moving in exaggerated gestures. So tried handstands, others sniffed trees, or shouted at mushrooms.
One girl poked a fat caterpillar on a leaf. The caterpillar scread and exploded into glitter.
"Oh my god.." Mora choked, wheezing with laughter. "I am never leaving this jungle."
Qingran sighed and turned slowly, scanning the trees. "Lingquan, what’s the goal here?"
"aning?" Yu Song asked warily.
"Good to know."
Qingran crouched next to a softly glowing plant. It released a low hum as she touched it, and for a second, her bracer blinked.
She stood. "Let’s move."
They ventured deeper into the Garden, stepping carefully over strange roots that pulsed with warmth. Sounds echoed faintly chirps, hoots, distant gurgles but nothing threatening.
They passed a glade where the air shimred pink, and Mora’s bracer suddenly lit up.
With a pop and a yelp, leathery wings unfurled from her arms. She shrieked not in fear, but in pure delight.
"I have wings?? Huh..I guess I have wings.."
She leapt off a boulder, caught a breeze, and glided ten ters before tumbling into a bush.
Yu Song muttered, "If I turn into sothing stupid I’m uninstalling this AI."
"Too late.." Qingran said, grinning as she stepped into a clearing with a large, stone-faced creature blocking the path forward.
It snorted and spoke in a deep, gravelly voice. "To pass, one of you must give sothing sweet, sothing clever, and sothing brave."
They blinked.
Mora was still tangled in ferns as Yu Song sniggered before helping her.
One of the little boys shyly stepped forward and handed over his lollipop. "It’s strawberry..."
The creature took it gently and nodded.
Xu Tianming stepped up next. "I know how to solve a Rubik’s cube blindfolded."
He conjured one from the vines behind the stone face using the simulation’s context chanics and solved it in thirty seconds.
fɾēewebnσveℓ
The creature rumbled in amusent.
Then all eyes turned to Qingran.
"What’s sothing brave?" a kid whispered.
"..."
So that’s why, they turned to her.
Qingran didn’t hesitate either.
She stepped forward and said, voice low but steady, "I’ve died once. Ca back. I still chose to fight again."
The creature’s eyes glowed faintly.
It bowed. "I don’t need to question you to see if you’re lying. I can see it in your eyes and your countenance.
"Pass. Brave and strong Gu Qingran."
The mont the stone creature spoke her full na, a ripple of golden light swept through the clearing.
Vines that had previously ford an archway above them slithered aside, revealing a narrow path lined with tall, translucent flowers that pulsed in ti with unseen heartbeats.
Everyone fell silent for a mont.
Not just because of the awe-inspiring transformation of the terrain, but because the creature had said her na. And not just her na, her true na.
Not the alias she’d occasionally used in front of survivors. Not the clipped tone she’d given over the walkie. But Gu Qingran, in full, spoken with reverence.
She didn’t flinch, but Yu Song stepped subtly closer to her, his eyes flicking between her and the creature. "Is that normal?" he muttered.
"Do I look like I’ve done this before?"
"You kind of do," Mora chid in, wings twitching as she extricated herself from the bush. "What even is this place?"
Qingran exhaled. "Eyes open. We don’t know what’s coming."
They walked.
The deeper they went, the more surreal the Garden beca.
Sowhere along the path, gravity began to curve not violently, but subtly. The air grew thick with golden pollen.
The ground beneath their feet wasn’t exactly earth anymore, but a kind of soft, mossy mbrane that shifted as they moved.
And then, out of nowhere:
A massive butterfly the size of a glider swooped low overhead. It glittered with jewel-toned wings and left a trail of silver spores that shimred like stardust.
The kids squealed and ran after it.
"Mora—don’t encourage them—" Qingran began, but she was already chasing the group.
Yu Song gave her a helpless look. "What’s the worst that could happen in a place where caterpillars explode into glitter?"
The chase led them to a luminous grove where the trees ford a natural amphitheater.
In the center, an enormous flower stood shut tight, its petals shivering. As the group entered, the bracers on their arms all pulsed at once.
Mora flapped her arms. "What does that an? Do we... sing?"
"No, wait." Xu Tianming pointed at the glowing bracers. "Look. They’re reacting to motion. And sound. Try this.."
He clapped once, then twice, then stomped a foot.
One bracer lit up brighter.
Another kid followed. Then Mora. Then all of them.
Soon, they were forming a rhythm, claps, steps, twirls, shouts, a kind of weird, chaotic jungle beat, but it was working. The flower began to unfurl.
A petal opened. Then another.
Another kid followed. Then Mora. Then all of them.
A petal opened. Then another.
When the last petal unfolded, the interior glowed and each of them saw sothing different inside.
To one kid, it was a little glowing fox. To another, a baby bird. To Yu Song, it was a dragon no bigger than his palm.
To Qingran...
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