An hour later, our whole family gathered in the center of the courtyard, silently staring at the gigantic fountain before us.
It indeed looked quite beautiful, as Lin had fashioned it on-site with pure white Star Gold Stone, molding the raw material by hand into a petal-shaped structure—a pool with a diater of over ten ters. At last, the girl’s brute force had co in handy. Around this massive fountain, there was a three-ter-wide water trough, symtrically lined with springs at the bottom. At the center of the fountain was a patch of greenery, where the large tree in our yard—which had long been influenced by a chaotic mix of divine power to the point its species was indiscernible—stood stably in its original spot. Bingdisi had used a solidification divine technique to reinforce the rock column below, as it was almost dug out during the fox’s frenzy earlier.
This made our family’s new fountain look like a peculiar, large flower pot: a ring of water columns along the pot’s edge, with a towering tree that almost covered the sky, and a small circular patch of grass beneath it. Though this odd design ca from the "construction site" left by the fox, Qianqian’s mind played a decisive role.
"Our construction speed was pretty quick." Bingdisi nodded satisfactorily, looking at the beautiful large fountain in the courtyard (perhaps it should be called a fountain, given its natural base and impressive scale). She had participated in the construction, mainly tasked with holding an ice pop and giving nonsensical directions while being dragged away by repeatedly.
Qianqian happily ran around the fountain, as joyful as a little girl, occasionally reaching out to touch the sparkling droplets falling down. The water below the pool now had a filtration layer, purifying the once dirty water mixed with coal and soil from the underground river to a drinkable state. After circling outside the pool for a while, she suddenly ran along the stone bridge towards the center’s open space, spinning under the tree’s shade and inhaling the fresh, moist air. She turned to with a silly smile, "Ah Jun, Ah Jun, it’s cool inside, and it’s much better than before! It feels like being in front of a waterfall!"
I continued staring silently at the pool, pondering how things had developed to this point.
It all started with the fox’s triumphant return from digging clay tablets, followed by her getting a stomach ache and running around the courtyard wildly, eventually digging her way to the underground river. Then Qianqian had an immature idea, leading to the construction of this fountain in our yard...
This kind of routine is impossible to replicate elsewhere! I an, look at the extraordinary group of people surrounding !
"I say, how are we going to explain the house renovation to Sandora when she returns? And also to Lin Xue, considering a day away resulted in this thing popping up. It’s definitely more conspicuous than planting flowers or changing a window pane." I mused to myself.
Bingdisi casually waved her hand, "No worries, we’ll just say Qianqian’s wild ideas weren’t stopped by the whole family, because that’s the actual situation."
Despite her words, I remained conflicted seeing Bingdisi’s self-willed nature: "Well, you know, this is my ho..."
"Don’t sweat the small stuff. With our relationship being so close, why bother with technicalities?" Bingdisi declared grandly, imdiately treating another’s ho as her own with a re gesture, "Besides, your little ones seem quite delighted with the pool, right?"
Indeed, aside from Qianqian, the sudden addition to the courtyard thrilled the kids in the house. Little Baobao was already climbing up the central tree, poking her head through the branches to greet with a gurgling chatter while reaching out to the water droplets nearly touching her. Visca was forcibly dragging Pandora to the poolside to explore how to arm it, and Lilina, being present as always, was planting various flowers and grasses around the pool with her fully developed late-stage generalized OCD. Due to asymtry, she’d replanted them three tis.
The little doll stood at the pool’s edge, hesitant about going under the tree’s shade. I understood her dilemma: she always considered herself a mature, experienced adult (despite being only 92 centiters tall), so mixing with the kids to play in the water would undoubtedly bring pressure. However, I guessed her inner conflict wouldn’t last long, as her eternal rival, Lilina, was nearby, always with countless ways to drag the little doll in.
Soon enough, there’d be one more doll girl among the kids needing a bath...
Oh well, let the little ones play as they wish. Compared to demolishing the house, adding a fountain in the courtyard is really no big deal. With that thought bringing peace to my heart, I turned to find Ji Shanshan to check on her clay tablet analysis, only to see her standing in a corner of the yard, holding two dark clay tablets and gazing absent-mindedly at the new fountain in the center.
I: "..."
Apparently, an additional nanny might be needed among those bathing today.
"Finished sorting the clay tablets?" I waved a hand in front of Ji Shanshan to bring her out of her trance, "By the way, do you also want to play with the little ones in the water? Aren’t you a bit too old for that?"
"No, I just suddenly rembered, there used to be a similar pool in front of my palace," Ji Shanshan pouted, feigning indifference, "but much bigger! And there wasn’t just one tree in the center!"
I was taken aback; she was recalling her old days again. It seed I’d need to check on this silly scapegoat sotis, thinking she had long beco carefree staying with our family.
"These are the two clay tablets I found," Ji Shanshan handed over two lumps of clay she was holding, "there are four more, probably in this pile. Who was responsible for managing these precious books originally? Leaving them scattered in the earth cave without even a book chest. In my era, any library custodian doing so would face punishnt by exposure under the scorching sun until death."
"What exactly is written on them?" I asked, curious about the heavy Surian "books" in my hands. The wedge-shaped writing, resembling dried tadpoles, probably ant alien language to , harder to comprehend than even alien text—at least I could recognize Xyrin Language.
"A lot about Sin, the god, and a falling fireball... I’ve got so guesses, but I’ll wait for Sister Sandora to return before discussing it. She might know more. Hmm, I aim to find all seven clay tablets before dinner; I’ve already sorted it out, much easier than I expected." Ji Shanshan said, shooing away before crouching to continue sorting through the "pages."
She had carefully organized the once chaotic pile of clay tablets into several smaller heaps, seemingly attempting to piece together the seven clay tablet books and organize the remaining "books." Seeing this girl, who normally followed instructions seldomly, working so diligently (though perhaps due to her compulsive reading obsession), I was suddenly moved, bending down to pat her hair.
"What are you doing? I’m working, and if you can’t understand, don’t interfere." Ji Shanshan muttered without lifting her head.
"You rember what your palace looked like, right?" I considered for a mont, "Avalon is vast, and many Heroic Spirits have applied to rebuild their forr residences. I thought of reconstructing your forr abode as well: among the Heroic Spirits brought from the Otherworld, you’re the only one without a residence in Avalon."
Jil looked up, initially covering her flat chest from my standing angle pointlessly before breaking into a laugh, "Ha, you think I’m the kind who gets sentintal and nostalgic like those fools because of past regrets? I don’t need that, I’m not that fragile."
I was taken aback: "But you were just..."
"Just a casual remark. Go over there, don’t cause trouble," Jil arrogantly pushed , the head of the family, to the side. Then, after so thought, she smiled and pointed to the large house behind her, "Who says the king has no place to live? Isn’t this the king’s ho?"
Sandora was busy in Shadow City until noon, but she still made it back ho just in ti before lunch. Her biological clock had completely aligned with the family’s al schedule for four years, now she could almost ti it to the minute. While waiting for the al to be served, Sandora took a stroll around the yard, and unsurprisingly saw the magnificent and sudden large fountain—honestly, seeing a fountain in a small courtyard that wouldn’t look out of place at a hotel’s entrance, anyone but Qianqian would find it surprising.
"What did you guys do at ho?" Sandora stared dumbfounded at the now completely transford yard. "Did Little Light and Lilina have another fight and blow a big hole in the yard?"
I thought to myself Sandora’s imagination isn’t bad at all—although it might be because she’s gotten used to a bunch of naughty kids making a ss at ho every day.
"The fox dug a hole in the yard and hit the groundwater, then Qianqian suggested turning it into a fountain," I confessed honestly, "actually, it’s not bad, luckily she didn’t suggest opening a coal mine or sothing."
Sandora: "...Oh."
Just as Bingdisi predicted, every strange phenonon can be explained if it’s blad on Qianqian’s wild imagination. Sandora imdiately said she had nothing to sigh about.
The fox stayed in the bathroom for almost an hour before coming out. I figured it was probably because she was dizzy and couldn’t find the door. After freshening up, the demon fox girl was once again as beautiful as ever, dragging a large bunch of luxurious golden tails to greet everyone. Amazingly, she rembered her previous antics in the yard and felt particularly embarrassed, bowing repeatedly to the TV stand to apologize. In two seconds, my sister and I ca to a conclusion: she was still dizzy.
I intended to call Sister Jier over to explain the clay tablet stuff, but my sister had already called everyone to sit down and eat, so I paused for now. After the family of hungry ghosts noisily sat down, I watched the still dazed fox wobble towards the dining table, holding onto the edge for a long ti before finally sitting on the floor...
Her state was indeed serious because next I saw her picking up a piece of braised pork with chopsticks, comparing and jabbing it on her face six or seven tis before wobbling and feeding it to Little Baobao. She remained curious, wondering why she didn’t eat anything...
I really couldn’t stand it anymore and patted the fox on the head: "Open your mouth!"
Then grabbed so food for her and put it in her mouth: "Eat!"
This finally made the silly fox eat sothing successfully.
But soon I found myself in trouble because Sandora on the opposite side of the table and Qianqian sitting beside both started stabbing with eye knives. Feeding the fox at that mont must have accidentally hit both of their sensitive points: but I really had no ulterior motives, just that the fox’s muddled state was making anxious!
At this point, the demon fox girl seed to just realize sothing, chewing food while seriously addressing the teapot not far away: "You must remain respectful, I am Lord Fox Fairy, I am not a fox, although you are feeding food, it is not giving food, you understand?"
Then my sister casually patted the fox’s head, and the latter obediently opened her mouth again...
"She’s lost the ability to care for herself," Bingdisi didn’t feel the surrounding atmosphere at all, mainly comnting on the fox’s ntal state, "It may not just be because she went in circles, the divine power in her hasn’t completely dissipated, and that power is now blinding her perception and thinking ability."
Sister Bing’s analysis was clear and orderly, but it did nothing to relieve from the eye daggers of Qianqian and Sandora, so I began to serve Qianqian so food as a kind of atonent. Of course, Sandora also happily suggested that soone should feed her as well, but I thought of the Queen’s appetite and dared not agree...
After finishing the al, Ji Shanshan moved the seven clay tablets she organized and other valuable scattered "pages" to the living room, where half of the family imdiately curiously surrounded them.
"First organize them in order, then fill in the missing text, and then I’ll translate them for you," Ji Shanshan said solemnly as she arranged the seven clay tablets on the coffee table in order, while temporarily placing the unused "pages" aside. Only the first and another of the seven clay tablets were reasonably intact, the rest had considerable damage. So Ji Shanshan tore a few small pieces of paper from Little Baobao’s workbook, wrote cuneiform script, and placed them on the missing areas. Her supplents filled almost a quarter of the "book," and I was amazed: "So much is missing? How did you fill it in?"
I thought Ji Shanshan was an unexpected genius, but she smugly shook her head at : "Brain supplent..."
Then I instantly felt a deep sense of despair, the secrets these seven clay tablets could reveal were imdiately downgraded from a historical topic to a fantasy novel, my only comfort now that it wasn’t Qianqian who supplented this...
"The first clay tablet tells of a god nad ’Sin’ coming to Earth from the southwestern sky, accompanied by a blazing fireball," Ji Shanshan ignored our bizarre expressions, translating on her own, "Here, there should have been an additional character, the recorder of this conversation with the god, but that part is unfortunately erased, so we don’t know who the original narrator of these texts was, but that’s not important. The god nad ’Sin’ is not a local Surian god, nor even a god from the Two River Regions: in the clay tablet, this is recorded as ’a god from outside the world,’ but considering the world in the eyes of people at that ti was no larger than the sopotamian Plain, it’s likely Sin’s original words were that he ca from another part of Earth, which can be inferred from later texts."
"The second and third clay tablets mainly record the customs and practices of the ti, which aren’t very important, so we’ll skip them."
"The fourth and fifth clay tablets record so things ’Sin’ told a mortal, which are quite interesting," Ji Shanshan’s tone lowered slightly, successfully capturing everyone’s attention. Seeing us all focused on her, she nodded and continued, "’Sin’ told the mortal how far the edge of the sopotamian Plain was, the length and starting and ending points of the Two Rivers, and also told the locals that the world they lived in was actually a massive rock ball. ’Sin’ attempted to teach the locals a script from the ’Divine Country,’ hoping they would pass it down, but this attempt seed to fail. ’Sin’ told the mortal gods don’t reside on clouds, nor on the high mountain tops or in the mists on the lake surface. He seed to be trying to tell the local natives where gods actually live, but on the tablet, concerning this question, they used a word denoting the unknown—no one understood. The mortal ’Sin’ chose for communication was the smartest among humans, but he still couldn’t understand most of Sin’s speech."
"There are many records of similar attempts, ’Sin’ trying to make the locals understand things, but almost no one could comprehend, and those who did, found them entirely beyond their worldview, resulting in complete distortion or dismissal. ntioned are sentences like the Earth being spherical; the sky being composed of gases although this gas layer was very thin; the stars in the sky are not dwellings or avatars of gods; the Sun setting daily actually rises on the other side of the world. And so on, with many such examples. However, it’s evident the recorder of the clay tablet was just chanically transcribing these words, without attempting to understand them, even daring not to comprehend it, and because of the limited vocabulary of Surian ancient texts, many sentences couldn’t even be repeated, much of what ’Sin’ told the mortal couldn’t be conveyed in human language, so they used so inexplicable vocabulary to record these warnings: therefore, their original aning can only be filled in by the king’s imagination."
"The last two clay tablets describe ’Sin’s power and his weapon," Ji deliberately paused for a second allowing us to freely connect previous content, then mysteriously gazed at and Sandora, "You might find this familiar—staffs emitting blue beams, the shimring energy shields, heavenly chariots summoned out of thin air that can fly, and floating, lightning-discharging canons eliminating fierce beasts... Floating Cannon!"
(To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (qidian) to cast your recomndation and monthly votes. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian to read.)
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