I sat cross-legged on the floor, letting Little Red Riding Hood sit in the crook of my crossed legs, and reached out to untie the bottom of her braids, spreading her braids little by little, and combing her soft hair with my fingers.

Children's hair is soft, does not have much volume, and is not easy to knot, even without a comb, it can be easily smoothed with just fingers. I gathered Little Red Riding Hood's hair in my hands, and then spread them out so that they would naturally drape over her shoulders.

In fact, I haven't braided my hair for many years, after all, since I became an otaku, I don't go out much, I don't have much contact with people, and I basically wear my hair loose when I'm at home, and I don't need to braid. It's been a few years now, and I don't know if I have a hand.

Picking a strand from the center of her head and dividing it into three strands, I began to weave it up for her little by little.

"Are you braiding a centipede?" Fang Ruoxi's voice came from my ears, and I turned my head to find that she was pulling Liu Chang to stand beside me, bending over to watch the movements in my hands, "It's amazing, I haven't learned it for a long time, and my hair is very long, but it will be scattered and tied in a ponytail." ”

I smiled at Fang Ruoxi, didn't speak, and continued to turn my head to braid the hair in my hand, braiding the strands of hair on both sides together to form a braid.

Fang Ruoxi didn't hate her when she said it, although she questioned me when I warned them of danger, but from the contact during this time, this is just a little innocent and kind, fun-loving little girl. Maybe some blood? In fact, I think Fang Ruoxi is a bit like a person, a person I dare not forget or think about - Mecca.

The same is a little hot-blooded, a little impulsive, a little reckless and a little credulous, but in essence he is not a bad person. It's just that compared to Mecca, Fang Ruoxi gives me the feeling that she seems to be more assertive and braver.

"I'm sorry about what happened before." Fang Ruoxi sat directly beside me, and said with a little embarrassment and shame, "I shouldn't have doubted you like that, you kindly told me the situation here, and I spent the belly of a gentleman with the heart of a villain." ”

I turned my head to look at it, and there was no reluctance on Fang Ruoxi's face, just a pure apology.

"It's fine." I whispered, "That's not important, you understand now, it's not safe here, it's more precise, it's full of danger, be careful." ”

"But I don't understand," Fang Ruoxi frowned, "We really didn't encounter any danger in the last room, Earth Consciousness just let us find a marked building in a city made up of several of us in their respective areas, there was a door in that building, which gave us a hint to find the key, and when we opened the door, we returned to our respective rooms, there was no danger at all." ”

Doesn't this room sound like the room we used to have? And earth consciousness? Fang Ruoxi knows the consciousness of the earth?

I was about to ask a closer question, when I suddenly remembered that Little Red Riding Hood was still next to us, and that I was almost finished braiding my hair, so I spoke.

"Wait a minute, I'm going to finish making it up."

As I spoke, I braided the ends of my braids and retied them with the rope I had just removed, and then I got up with Little Red Riding Hood in my arms, and I got up from the ground.

"How? Do you like it? When Little Red Riding Hood turned around, I bent down slightly to look at her and smiled, "It's beautiful, this hairstyle suits you perfectly." ”

Little Red Riding Hood raised her hand and touched the ends of her hair, revealing a smile, "Thank you, sister, I like it very much." Her research is still red, with traces of crying before, but her smile is still warm.

"By the way, sister, I forgot to tell you before, don't just step into the woods outside the thorn fence, it doesn't matter if you can enter the woods here, but the woods outside the thorn fence, no matter who it is, even the aborigines of the fairy tale forest dare not step there, once you step in, you may be lost in the woods forever and can't get out."

Can't step into the woods next to the thorn fence? I was slightly stunned, haven't those thorny fences already been walked through? Why did Little Red Riding Hood talk about this? Could it be that there is still that kind of fence ahead?

I suddenly remembered the so-called "wall of thorns", maybe the wall of thorns is surrounded by a fence of thorns, right?

"Okay, I see, thank you." I smiled and raised my hand to touch the top of her head, "Thank you for telling me this, thank you for helping us, we should move on, what about you?" Where are you going? ”

"Oh, it's time for me to go home, too. Thank you sister for taking care of Little Red Riding Hood, and "Little Red Riding Bag tilted her head and pointed to her hair, "This hairstyle is very beautiful." ”

"So, I'm going home, goodbye sister."

After Little Red Riding Hood finished speaking, she looked around, found her basket, walked to the basket and picked it up, and looked back at the ruins where the fire was still raging, and seemed to think of something, and walked towards the fire.

"Hey"

I grabbed Fang Ruoxi, who wanted to ask, and shook my head when I looked at her with a puzzled look. She is an earthling, everything she does is set, and we should not interfere with it, because we are powerless to change it.

For a moment all the conversation and movements stopped, and the eight of us all stopped moving, just standing quietly watching Little Red Riding Hood's movements.

The little girl walked to the edge of the fire and stood there for a few seconds, then put down the basket and folded her hands in front of her chest and bowed her head slightly, as if in mourning, and after a moment of silence she opened her eyes, crouched down and took out all the wild flowers from the basket, and threw them into the fire, which she had been picking when we first met her, and had meant to bring them to her sick grandmother.

The flowers burned in the flames, turning to ashes little by little, and Little Red Riding Hood's figure became transparent little by little, until it was completely disappeared in the form of small fragments of light.

She went home.

The shock in my heart was overwhelming, and it was not because a little girl had become transparent and disappeared before my eyes, but because of the memorial behavior of Little Red Riding Hood. Is this really an "earthling" created by the earth consciousness? Is such a vivid life, such a genuine feeling, false? Did what she did really have to be predetermined?

Who am I, are my joys and sorrows real, are my existence real I can't help but question my own existence, because I can't see any difference between the little girl who disappeared and myself other than that sign. Maybe that little girl was even more real than I was emotionally.

After Little Red Riding Hood disappeared, the still burning fire gradually became transparent until it disappeared without a trace, and for a while, no one spoke.

I looked at the red cloak in my hand, it was the only proof that the little girl ever existed, and other than that, she only existed in our memories.

"It's time for us to go, there's no need to stay here."

I broke the silence first, and without waiting for them to say anything, I walked back on the road. Standing on the road, I looked back at the huge black tree still standing, as if it was still the size I saw last time, as if it was an eternal tombstone, unchanged.

Empty my brain and take the lead in moving forward, now I don't dare to think or communicate.

Even if reason tells me that now I should go and find out about the situation in Fang Ruoxi's last room, even if reason tells me that I should go and plan with Wolf Tooth, Lin Ya and Yu Pu about the next way to deal with it, even if reason tells me that I shouldn't go to the front alone, this is likely to be dangerous.

Even though there are so many evens, my emotions still make me want to be more willful, just walk alone, be quiet alone. If you don't think about anything, you won't have so much confusion and trouble.

There was a sound of footsteps behind me, and I knew that someone was catching up with me, but I didn't know who it was, after all, I was not familiar with them, and I could tell who it was just by the sound of footsteps. But I really don't want to talk to anyone right now, I don't want to talk to anyone, so I don't look back, I just keep walking.

I thought that it would be Brother Lin Ya who would catch up with me, after all, only his character would come to comfort me, but I didn't expect to hear an unexpected voice.

"Those earthlings are not real people, don't be too sad."

I looked back in disbelief, and then I confirmed that I hadn't heard me wrong, and that it was really the wolf's fang standing next to me.

"Are you comforting me?" I asked softly.

The wolf tooth seemed to be a little embarrassed, and his dark face showed a dark flush, and he turned his head to look ahead as if he was escaping, and no longer looked at me, "Don't have feelings for those earthlings, it's even more terrible than your excessive kindness." ”

"Why do you say that?" I sighed and turned my head away from him, and we didn't look at each other, just communicating in our voices, "Why do you say that?" In fact, I don't understand how those earthlings are different from us, flesh and blood, family members, and their own experiences, so vivid. Are such earthlings really created by the earth? How can we assume that such people who are no different from us are not real? ”

"Memory." The voice of the wolf's tooth came from the side, seemingly with helplessness and sadness under strong pressure, without ups and downs and waves, "The memories of those earthlings are fake, the things in their memories may not exist at all, and those things they think they have experienced may be fictional." That's the memory that Earth consciousness gave them, not their real past. They exist only to fulfill the assumptions given by Earth Consciousness, and nothing else. ”

"But even if those memories are false, at least their emotions are real." I shook my head, "That kind of real emotion is definitely not fake. ”

Wolf Fang paused and was silent for several seconds, until I turned my head to look at him strangely, only to see him say faintly: "Yes, that emotion is real, but because of this, having feelings for those earthlings is the most terrible thing." Your excessive kindness may sometimes be able to save someone's life. ”

"And no matter how hard you try, you can't change the fate they have been set."

"No one can do anything."