The next day.

Lin Qianxun looked at himself in the dressing mirror.

With a dignified appearance and a kimono made by the finest tailors, the person in the mirror is perfect in every way.

Chihiro stared at her face, suddenly revealing a sentimental smile that didn't fit her usual style.

"After all these years," Chihiro whispered, "my face is still the same, but the changes around me have already taken place, which is really embarrassing." ”

The age of the god is very slow, so she will keep the same face for a long time, and it often makes people feel that time has stood still. But in fact, time is passing rapidly, and this contrast often makes people feel the ruthlessness of time more deeply.

At this time, someone pushed the door in.

"Mom, I'm done with my clothes, it's so hard to put on this dress, I can't wear it alone! And it's super inconvenient to walk after wearing it, so you can only walk in small steps. Can't I tear this hem off? Just like a cheongsam, pull a hole to the base of the thigh, so that it will be much easier to move. ”

"Well, that would be a lot more convenient, but it would lose the charm of the kimono." The fox looked back at her daughter and smiled.

Although Nia has red hair, the color and pattern of her kimono have been carefully screened to match her red hair perfectly, so it looks like there is no sense of disobedience.

"Very beautiful, Nia," the fox stood up as she whispered in admiration, and came to Nia, and helped her adjust the hair ornament on her head, and when she was done, she took her daughter's hand, "Come, let's go." ”

**

"I was weird when I came here to play by myself," Nia asked, pointing to the statues on display next to the steps, "what are these weird stone sculptures?" ”

"This is the Jizo Bodhisattva, in the legend of Yingzhou, it is responsible for extraditing the souls of those who died young, and it is also responsible for protecting the living, protecting farmland and trade routes, so there are a large number of Jizo Bodhisattva statues all over Yingzhou."

"Huh...... So the person who sleeps at the end of this ladder is the one who died young, why do you come to see her every year, Mom? ”

"Because she used to be my mother's best friend."

"Ever?" Although Nia usually looks vulgar and doesn't understand anything, she actually has a very keen sense of words, so she almost immediately grasped the key point in Chihiro's words, "This once meant that she was no longer my mother's best friend when she died?" ”

"I can't say the same, I personally think that best friends are a lifelong thing, and even if they drift apart for one reason or another, it will never change that. However, the other side doesn't seem to think so. ”

"Don't the other party treat my mother as a close friend anymore?" Nia tilted her head, she seemed to have adapted to the shackles of the kimono on action, and now she climbed the stairs quite skillfully, "In other words, she took the initiative to end the relationship with her mother?" ”

Chihiro was silent for a while before she smiled at her daughter and said, "Well, you can't say that." Because first of all, I closed the heart of communication. That was what happened after I traveled abroad, although there were some cognitive differences between me and her, but we got along quite well, but as I traveled abroad, I gradually felt that my knowledge was above her who stayed in China, so when I corresponded, I gradually disdained to have an in-depth discussion with her, and just wrote about what I saw and heard when I studied abroad. Over time, I realized that she and I were on completely different paths. ”

Chihiro looked up at the shattered sky between the branches of the trees that had fallen leaves and only dead branches.

"Looking back now, I did have an over-inflated ego at that time, I thought that I had seen more of the world abroad, so the truth must be in my hands, and I took it for granted that there was no need to communicate with those who were narrow-minded. I found out I was wrong, and that was much later. Nia, this is the advice of my mother as a person who has come over, in this world, everyone has their own way of seeing the world, although there are some ants that don't need to be paid attention to at all, but most people have more or less grasped the fragments of the world that you don't see - the world that everyone knows is fragmented, and we are all blind people who are touching elephants. ”

"Oh, oh, got it." Nia's answer sounded very unassuming.

But Chihiro just smiled and said softly: "It's okay if you don't understand now, one day you will understand the meaning of this, until then, you just need to remember one thing: never inflate yourself, that kind of inflation will often bring not so good results, and even make you regret it for the rest of your life." ”

"So, Mom regrets it now?" Nia decisively and directly grasped the key part of Chihiro's words.

Chihiro was silent for a few seconds, then replied, "yes, I regret it. If I had communicated with her more at the time, maybe things wouldn't have turned out like this. Of course, with her personality, we will definitely have a fierce quarrel, and maybe she will not be satisfied with the exchange of letters, and will come directly from Yingzhou to the country where I am studying to debate with me. As a dog, she is a bit of a mobile person, and from time to time she will go her own way like a feline. ”

"Dogs?"

"yes, dog. Nia, you don't know yet, the person who sleeps at the end of this staircase is a goddess, with two pairs of ears like my mother and me, and one of them is also on the top of my head. But my mother is a fox fairy, and she is a dog god. The fox fairy and the dog god are not the same in many myths and legends of Yingzhou, and she and I also have some differences in personality, but as the only two beings in Yingzhou Shenji who have external physical characteristics, we still became close friends. ”

At this time, Nia showed a look of sudden realization.

"So, the one who sleeps here is ...... by me."

"yes, that's her." Chihiro squinted, her expression calm and sentimental, "My former best friend, and sworn enemy. ”

"This ...... I ......" Nia was embarrassed, "I ......"

"Tell me beforehand, Mom, I never blamed Nia for my thoughts," the fox turned to her daughter and smiled, "Actually, looking back at that time, Mom, I blamed myself more. That was the only time I've experienced despair so far. Before that, I had been injured in a battle with Viola, but instead of despairing, I didn't think I would die, but tried to use my broken body to deal with the enemy's subsequent attacks.

"After that, it wasn't my mom who boasted, after that, I faced all the situations and never had the slightest bit of timidity, I was always very sure that I was going to win, and most of the time I did. Only that time, in the face of my angry best friend, I deeply felt my powerlessness and despair from the heart. At that time, I really felt like I was dead, and, if it weren't for your fire, Nia, my mother's hunch would have really come true. So, Nia, you don't have to feel guilty at all, you saved Mom, I owe you a life. ”

"What's the matter, all of a sudden," Nia turned her head embarrassedly, "I'm ...... Don't talk about this, I'll just blame myself! ”

Chihiro smiled, and she turned her gaze to the end of the stairs again.

"If I hadn't been so useless at the time, and had the courage to talk to her, maybe things would have been different. If I had been able to talk to her earlier and try to convey my inner thoughts, it might have been different. Chihiro paused, "Besides, if I hadn't had the strange mentality of voting for your dad that night, then maybe there would be room for salvation." ”

"Vote?" Nia cast a curious look at Chihiro again, "What's going on?" ”

"A kind of self-satisfaction. I, ah, used to be a bad woman with impure motives, and I used my relationship with your father to steal a lot of information for Yingzhou, who was independent at that time. In retrospect, I was a hopelessly stupid fellow, and if I had been aware of my feelings in the first place, I wouldn't have developed like this. But at that time, not only did I not realize my feelings, but I also deceived myself into thinking that I would never really fall in love with your father, and then I naturally became a bad woman who betrayed my hue, and finally found out that I was sincere, and the strong guilt almost completely swallowed my reason.

"So, I talked to myself about the long-distance magic communication device of Tongguò Yingzhou, attacked the puppy who used it, and took my best friend as a vote for your father. Of course your dad still doesn't know about it, it's just my stupid self-satisfaction. ”

Nia looked at Chihiro dumbfounded, and was stunned for a while before commenting: "I don't know whether to sigh at my father's awesomeness, or at my mother, you have such a time." I thought mom you've always been ......."

"Always a shrewd and capable strong woman? Maybe it is now, but I was in my early twenties, and it was the time to be stupid, so I paid the price for my stupidity that I can't pay for in my life. ”

"Is that the price of coming every year to sweep the graves of those who are buried here?"

"Yes," Chihiro sighed softly, "Actually, we living people are self-satisfied with the memorial and everything, and I came to sweep the grave to keep myself introspecting and constantly reviewing my current behavior to avoid making the same mistake again." ”

"I see."

As they spoke, the two had walked all the steps, and a lone tombstone appeared in the clearing surrounded by pines and cypresses at the end of the steps.

"Oh," Chihiro greeted the tombstone, "I'm coming to see you again, puppy." This time, I'm bringing my daughter here, don't worry, she won't breathe fire on you again. ”