Chapter 16 Section VII

After I borrowed the bathroom to take a shower, I got into bed, and Mom went downstairs again because Ms. Imasato invited her to have tea.The two of them seemed to hit it off, so Mom might not be back in the room just yet. He should be very tired, but he couldn't sleep.I wasn't so neurotic that I couldn't sleep without changing my pillow, and the room and bed were great.It's really strange that I shouldn't be unable to sleep.Could it be because of Rie? I turned over and closed my eyes, and after a while I changed my position again and sighed.Just as I was tossing and turning, I suddenly heard light footsteps outside.Someone quickly ran down the hallway in front of my room.

After a while, I heard it again.It was not the footsteps of adults, it was the sound of children. Ms. Imazato said that there are three other rooms on this floor, each of which sleeps five children from the Bright House.It may be that someone is still awake and chatting. I slipped out of bed, quietly opened the door and poked my head out.In the corridor illuminated by the moonlight, there was not a single person, nor any sound.I waited for a while, and the wind started to pick up, and I could only hear the sound of the branches of the camphor tree by the window touching the glass. I was feeling bored, and when I wanted to retract my head in disappointment, someone suddenly tapped me on the shoulder from behind.I didn't yell, not because I wasn't frightened, but because I was so frightened that my tongue curled up completely.

When I turned around, a pair of big eyes looked straight at me.In the moonlight, her cheeks were as white as soap, and her hair really smelled of soap. It turned out to be Rie. Her hands were very soft and cold.She was wearing a pink plaid pajamas, barefoot, and holding a strange object in the other hand. It is disposable chopsticks, and it is still a used one. "Please, don't tell the teacher." She said softly.In other words, she thought that I heard footsteps, knew that someone was up, and would report to Ms. Imasato and the others. "Please, don't tell the teacher, okay?" She even folded her hands and begged me.

"Don't worry, I won't." Of course I answered Luo like that. "Great!" she laughed.When she smiled, she could see her irregular teeth, but this made her more endearing and made people think she was cuter. "What are you doing with that?" I asked, pointing to the disposable chopsticks, and she suddenly leaned over to my ear. "We're going to play Pen Fairy." "Pen... Immortal?" I was so nervous that I couldn't even speak clearly.Please don't say she's just a schoolboy because she's just that cute. "Yes. Have you ever played?"

"……No." "Then let's play together. OK?" Rie took my hand and led me to the next door. "Is everyone else there?" "Yeah. We were telling ghost stories just now, and then Ayako said that she knew how to play Bixian. Everyone said they wanted to play, so I went to get disposable chopsticks." The room next door looked much bigger than ours, but with five camp beds there wasn't much room left.There were three girls in the room who were the same age as Rie, and a boy who was about three years old, and they all squeezed into two beds together.There was no light on the ceiling, only a bedside lamp was lit.

Rie happily climbed onto the bed with disposable chopsticks in her hand.I sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at what surrounded them.It was a piece of paper torn from a sketchbook, on which was drawn a grid of fifty syllabaries, and a pattern of stars, drawn in pencil. "Bring the people next door." Rie introduced me to them very simply.The short-haired girl sitting in the middle—she should be Ayako—asked me with a serious expression, "Do you believe in pen fairies?" When Xiao Liu went to teach outdoors, I would see several girls playing this at night.The girls are all together, as if they must tell ghost stories and play with pen fairy.

You can't join them without answering "I believe" when asked this question.So I answered "I believe". "Then it's time to start, everyone please hold hands." The way I knew it was unnecessary to hold hands, but Rie next to me held my hand tightly and I decided not to protest.And this is likely to be a higher-level version. "Ayako, hurry up!" the impatient girl urged her. Ayako, who played the role of a witch, said seriously: "Everyone can't blow your breath to the stars, that's where the pen fairy sits, it would be very rude."

In front of the grid with fifty syllables written, the disposable chopsticks just now are placed at an angle, supported by candy paper. Ayako chanted a mantra vaguely, and said solemnly: "Pen Xian Bi Xian, please come out." Then she gently raised her right hand, and tremblingly placed her index finger on the other end of the disposable chopsticks. "Pen Xian, are you in this room?" The disposable chopsticks vibrated. "Are you in this room?" Ayako asked in a low voice for the second time, and the tip of the disposable chopsticks moved slowly to the grid, first pointing to "yes" and then to "of".

Everyone was too frightened to take a breath. "Here we come." Ayako whispered, "Everyone, don't look behind." , Ayako is quite talented in acting - I can't help but feel a little ridiculous when I think so.Adults always say that "you will lose your innocence when you grow up", but in fact, children's growth is also divided into several stages.Now, I have lost the feeling of believing in and awe of the pen fairy in elementary school, together with my schoolbag, and I don't know where to throw it. "Pen Fairy, Pen Fairy, are you willing to answer our questions?"

The disposable chopsticks vibrated again and pointed out "yes". "Just now we have decided the order by guessing fists, the first one is Rie." Ayako gave the order in a low voice, and Rie held my hand tightly, moved forward on her knees, and put her finger on the end of the disposable chopsticks. "Pen Xian," Rie called out in a trembling voice, and asked, "Will my mother come to see me soon?" This question reminds me of the position that the children of the House of Light are in, and I feel a sudden pang of heartache. The disposable chopsticks did not move immediately, and Rie timidly repeated the same question.

What makes the disposable chopsticks of Pen Fairy move is the inner power of the interrogator. When the wish is unconsciously conveyed to the fingertips, the answer that the interrogator desires will appear.When the girls in my class ask questions like "Does Tanaka-san like me?", the answer they want will appear every time. However, Rie's chopsticks did not move.It can be seen that she has complicated emotions in her heart.Her mother probably rarely came to see her, and there might be some reason why she couldn't.Although Rie knew it well, she still missed her mother very much, so she asked. Finally, the chopsticks moved slowly, answering "yes" and "of".A smile crept up Rie's cheeks. The next person and the next person are asking similar questions.When can I go home?When will my mother get better?Where is dad now? Bright House should have the best environment among such institutions, but everyone still misses home very much. "Aren't you playing?" When Rie touched me, I came back to my senses and saw Ayako glaring at me. "It's impossible not to ask questions. If everyone doesn't ask questions, everyone thank you together, it would be very rude to Bixian." This girl can't be too much.No way, I thought about it, and then... I want to determine what is really on my mind.I put my fingers on the chopsticks, took a breath, and asked quietly, "Is my father Yukio Ogata?" Rie tilted her head slightly, as if she wanted to say something.I moved the corners of my mouth and smiled. "Don't laugh! You're not serious!" Ayako scolded. The chopsticks don't move.Haven't my subconscious minds found the answer yet?Can't tell right away which side you want? Yukio Ogata?Or Naoki Sawamura? At this moment, I obviously didn't want to move at all, but the chopsticks slid up, and then spelled out: "no", "yes". no. I felt as if something had changed inside of me.It's as if the blood flow has changed direction, the heart has changed places, and the face has become hot. I couldn't help blurting out: "Then who is my father?" As soon as I finished speaking, Ayako pushed me away with such force that it almost knocked me down. "You can't ask two questions at once! Apologize! Apologize quickly!" Everyone was so scared that it ended in a panic.Ayako apologized respectfully to Bixian and asked me to apologize too. When she went on to say "Thank you, please go back to the pen fairy", footsteps came from down the corridor, this time it was an adult's footsteps. All the kids got into the bed together, I had nowhere to go and I had to hide under the bed.Just after hiding, the door of the room opened, and Ms. Imasato's voice came. "Is everyone still awake? Who was talking just now?" No one answered, only a chorus of feigned snorts. Soon, the door closed quietly.I crawled out from under the bed and heard Ayako say to me: "Whoever tells you to mess around, you will be cursed." I stood up and smoothed out the wrinkles in my pajamas. "Maybe. What if I'm cursed?" "As long as you apologize properly, you'll be fine bye." "thanks.". But maybe I've already been cursed. I suddenly felt very thirsty and wanted to drink water.I went downstairs along the stairs, just in time to meet my mother coming up. "Oh, you haven't slept yet? It's already past one and a half." "I'm so thirsty and I want to go to the toilet." "It's on the right when you go down the stairs." Only small night lights were lit in some places on the first floor, and no one could be seen.After I went to the toilet and drank the water, I didn't want to go back to the room right away, so I walked to the window of the living room and looked outside through the gap in the curtain. The lights of the lanterns were turned off, and the whole villa fell into a deep sleep, only the lights of the front gate glowed faintly.The forest looked deep and dark, seemingly endless in the night. I looked outside for a while and felt a little cold. When I was about to go upstairs after sneezing, I suddenly noticed something. There's a phone here, on a table in the corner of the living room. I suddenly wanted to hear Dad's voice, to apologize to him, to complain to him, and to ask him why things turned out like this! I went to the phone, picked up the receiver and dialed my home number.The bell rang.Even if it's just a "Hello?", I just hang up when I hear it.No matter what, I want to hear Dad's voice. No one answered, the phone kept ringing.Five, seven, ten... Finally, there was a click, and someone picked it up. However, what came was a completely unfamiliar voice.A man who wasn't Dad said in a low voice, "Hello, this is Ogata's house." I put down the receiver reflexively.who?Who is that person answering the phone? The absurd imagination that I had forgotten until this moment suddenly flew straight back towards me like a boomerang thrown with all my strength. Who was that just now?Did Dad really do something to that shepherdess?That's why the criminal police are keeping an eye on our house?Was that the policeman's voice just now?Why didn't dad pick it up? Out of breath, I ran to the window and opened it.The cold air of the night came in and made me shiver from inside my body. Do you want to call again?But... What if it was someone else's voice? Something must have happened in Tokyo, and the police were having a headache because they couldn't find us.Get in touch tomorrow and the rising sun will crack and fall directly over our heads... I was suddenly startled by something outside the window.The blood that had changed direction just now returned to its original state. I saw.I didn't look at it deliberately, but when I looked at the big camphor tree in the courtyard at random, I caught a glimpse of a stranger standing under the tree.A dark figure was facing me sideways. No, that's not a stranger.Because I knew right away who it was. It was Naoaki Sawamura. That slender figure, with one hand in his pocket, his head slightly lowered, was exactly the same as the one in the magazine. Zhao Chuan Li blinked, and jumped onto the balcony in the next second.Because I rushed too hard, my knee hit the railing, and I couldn't even cry out in pain. There is no one left under the big camphor tree, only the sound of my panting disturbing the sleeping night... I went back to my room and didn't sleep all night.Since sleep dreams are as ominous as waking hallucinations, there is no point in sleeping.