The swamp froze.

"How?" I said, "I have always cared for her as a father, and I might as well tell her." ”

"No, I can't. It rejected me outright, "I'm going to let her live like a normal child." ”

"She's not a child anymore, and as she grows up, she'll realize one day she's not an ordinary person," I said, "aren't you afraid she'll blame you for avoiding her all the time?"

"It didn't take long for Zhu to see the youkai after he left me," Marsh said, "and her mother never mentioned it, so she wouldn't find out." ”

"So what are you going to do? Won't you write to her? Aren't you going to give her a birthday present? ”

"This—" it looked embarrassed, "Forget it, the gift... I'll think again. ”

"Then I'll give you this letter," I folded the letter in half, "and you decide where this letter goes." ”

"You can destroy it for me," it said, "I'm afraid I can't help but take the letter to her, don't worry, what I promised you will do." ”

"Okay, it's time for me to go, I've been here for a long time. ”

The next morning, I came to the foot of Fuyu Mountain again, found the B&B next to the bath, and I was still greeted by the crying little girl, this time she looked much happier, and kept telling me how she was pleasantly surprised to see all the missing things in her store restored to their original places overnight, I asked a few more words, and after confirming that the swamp had returned all the things in the B&B, I said goodbye to the girl.

"I wish the swamp would have the courage to tell Zhu that he cares. With that in mind, I walked to my next destination.

"Excuse me... Are you that out-of-towner who specializes in solving strange things?" "About an hour later, I was sitting on the side of the road resting when a girl suddenly popped out of the bushes behind me.

I was startled and made sure that the other party was a human and not some other creature, "Can you not suddenly and quietly come out from behind people, it's scary." ”

"I'm sorry, I'm not trying to scare you. The girl wears a straw hat on her head, her face is full of sweat, and she speaks heartily and generously, if it weren't for her delicate appearance and close-fitting clothes, it would really make people mistake it for a boy, "My sense of smell is very good, and I know that you are a foreigner when I smell it." ”

“... Are you saying I stink...", I sniffed myself sweating all over, "I'm just taking a shower." ”

"Haha, you're really funny, I didn't mean that," she jumped next to me and took off the straw hat as a fan, "I have a more sensitive nose than ordinary people since I was a child, others see the world through their eyes, I know people and things through my nose, especially sensitive to various animals and plants in the mountains and forests, so I can find a lot of treasures that others can't find, and see a lot of things that are not easy to see, no, I just found beautiful flowers from the mountains and forests." ”

"Mean, I smell different from the people here?" I asked.

"It's not just the people here, you're different from everyone I've ever met. The girl sat cross-legged next to me, her skin was wheat-colored, probably because she often ran around in the sun, "You have a very different smell on you, very kind." ”

"It's the first time I've heard someone say that about me. The girl brought up my interest, "Looks like you're looking for me?"

"There's something I really want to ask you," said the girl, "and you helped solve the inexplicable theft of the inn some time ago, right?"

"I just tried to do what I could, and I couldn't solve it. ”

"Now everyone is spreading that you are specialized in helping people solve strange things that don't make sense. "The girl's eyes are big, and they are very beautiful in the blink of an eye.

"Well, so to speak. ”

"I have something here that I can't figure out, can you listen to me?"

"I have a fee," I smiled, "not cheap." ”

"Haha, how about I ask you to eat watermelon in return?" the girl laughed too.

"I think so. I said, "Come, tell me about you." ”

"There are some things I don't understand about my mother," she said, and I remembered the swamp, "You have seen so many strange things, have you ever seen anyone who needs to go to the mountains and forests regularly for a period of time to survive?"

"Well, I've heard that. ”

"Sure enough, you know!" said the girl, "for as long as I can remember, my mother was like that, she would sometimes be very strange, she would say things without a beginning or an end, and she would always be so excited to see something all of a sudden, and every other month she would go to the woods, and I didn't know what she was doing when I was a child, and then I followed her and found out that she was looking for fish in the mountains to eat." ”

"Didn't you ask her why?" I said.

"Yes, my mother told me that she has a very special constitution and needs to rely on the water and life in the mountains to survive. The girl said.

"You don't seem to be surprised by the way you look?"

The girl shook her head, "Of course not, she's the best mom in the world, and my own sense of smell is strange enough, mom must have a reason she can't say." ”

"There will be people who accidentally enter into a relationship with nature and need to rely on some kind of natural supply to survive, and your mother should be like that. I said.

"Well, that's not what I want to know," she said, "I've been very fond of Floating Jade Mountain since I was a child, and there is a smell in it that I know and love, and that makes me feel at ease, but strangely, it's like playing hide and seek with me, I can find all kinds of things, but I can't find the source of this smell." ”

I didn't speak, and continued to listen to her.

"Every time it rains, I can feel that the source of that smell is around me, but I can never see or touch it, and after a long time, I gradually stop looking for it, as long as it has been in the mountains and forests and does not leave," the girl hugged her knees, "Before my mother died, every time I came back from the mountains and forests, I once thought it was the feeling of family, but some time ago I smelled it again," she looked at me. Any B&B that has something missing, there are traces of that smell, and you have some on you. ”

"What do you think?" I asked her.

"I can't say it well, but there is always a voice in my head telling me that the smell is the reason why my mother went to the mountains and forests. ”

"You've been talking about your mother," I said, "haven't you ever heard your father talk about it?"

"My dad wasn't my biological father," she said, "but he doted on me as much as his own daughter." The girl's face was full of gratitude when she talked about her father.

"Your name is Zhu. I asked directly.

"Huh... You can see that, you're really good!"

"I don't see it," I said, "if you had a father who wasn't human, wouldn't you find it unacceptable, or terrifying?"

Zhu looked at me and laughed out loud, "Haha, it turns out that I'm not a human child, so I can explain what's going on with my nose." ”

"No, no, no," I hurriedly waved my hand to deny, this girl's receptivity and imagination are a little too powerful, "Of course you are a human child, I mean, if for some reason, you have a character similar to your father, who has been silently caring and giving where you can't see, but it belongs to life outside the human world... Or rather, it lives in a completely different way of living than regular life, and you don't find it unacceptable. ”

"Sure enough, it exists, isn't it!" Zhu was stunned for a few seconds, and then danced happily, almost hugging me, "I knew that my feeling would not be wrong, sure enough, it exists, come to my store, I have something to show you." ”

I almost followed her all the way to Zhuyuan, "Let's discuss, can you let me drink saliva and catch my breath first?" This girl's physical strength is so good that she doesn't feel tired at all.

"I'm sorry, I'm so excited. She still said in a hearty tone, "You come to the house to cool off first, there is air conditioning here, I'll go cut watermelon for you first." ”

Sitting in the Zhu Garden, I wiped my sweat while looking at this homestay.

The guest rooms are clean and tidy, and there are a lot of careful settings in the public area, but Zhu doesn't seem to be very good at organizing and storing, just looking for fruit knives for a long time.

"I've been waiting for a long time! "A large plate of watermelons was placed in front of me, but large and small, this knife work was really worrying. "Look at these too. "She put a stack of cards in front of me, big and small.

"This is?" I picked up one of them.

"Zhu, today you are two years old, and you are already walking very steadily. "The handwriting on the card has faded a bit.

"My mother wrote it to me," Zhu said, "and my mother has a habit of writing a lot of words to me, but every time she writes on a card, the words are very different from her usual speaking habits, and it feels like ......."

"It's like two people. I took out the rest of the cards and read them one by one.

"Zhu, you seem to have grown taller again, the mountains and forests are very dangerous, you can't always sneak in alone, although I know that you are a child who is blessed by nature, but what if you naturally take a nap..."

"Zhu, you are such a sensible child, the gift you gave your father today is amazing..."

"Zhu, you seem to have something on your mind lately? Don't you think the little boy who always tugs your braids is not annoying? It doesn't matter, people will experience this, this kind of feeling is called liking..."

"Zhu, tomorrow will officially enter middle school, don't care if others say you're a tomboy, on the premise of not hurting others, you just need to do what you think..."

......

Countless cards, the content is long and short, from life trivialities to life philosophy, I seem to see how the girl in front of me has grown to what she is today.

"This is the latest letter," I handed her the letter I had written for the swamp, "and I think you should want to see it." ”

There was a moment of hesitation when Zhu took it, and she read the letter that the swamp had written to her many times, during which her eyes were red several times, and when she finally put the letter away, she smiled as beautifully as a flower.

"What if you didn't write it?" she said.

"Oh yes, I forgot," I said, "the guy who asked me to write was embarrassed to let me write it, and the payment should have been, the swamp father you accidentally left a mark on in the rain." ”

Later, Zhu told me that her mother had mentioned that she seemed to have been reborn, and Zhu and I told the story I had heard from the swamp, and as soon as she finished speaking, the girl ran directly into the forest to catch the swamp, and I couldn't stop it, and when I brought Zhu to the swamp, it almost didn't eat me, but in the end everything went smoothly.

Later, I asked the swamp if it had a love for Zhu's mother, and it said that it was more of a respect for life for Ling, and a pity for Zhu from the heart.

Later, when I passed by Fuyu Mountain again many years later, people there told me that the proprietress of Zhuyuan always talked to herself and said strange things on rainy days, and some people saw her always running to the swamp in the mountains and forests to talk and laugh, and what was even more strange was that Zhuyuan did not know what kind of spell was cast, colorful flowers bloomed in all seasons, and there were always various small animals appeared here, and the young proprietress was extremely close, although the proprietress was hairy, but because of her hearty personality, she attracted a lot of tourists......

Oh yes, the swamp not only returned all the things in the homestay in the end, but also gave me a few magical mosses in return, this moss is a good medicine for monster diseases, I made a lot of money after selling it to a demon killer, and from then on, the ghostwriter's daytime money-making task has been added to the task, which is to resell all kinds of strange herbs...