Li Luyou didn’t know how big was a medium-sized province the little girl talked about, or what kind of astonishing number the so-called output was, but it would be too scary if that emerald green precious stone on the little girl’s necklace were a real emerald. Just the value of this emerald would be over seven digits.
No one would connect a necklace taken off the neck of a stranger casually met in the streets with something invaluable, but this little girl’s temperament wouldn’t allow people to treat the present situation as simple mischief or the behavior of a lunatic.
Li Luyou thought that even if she were a patient suffering from serious delusion, she would be a patient suffering from serious delusion from a very wealthy family.
“Attendant? I can make a phone call for you, or I can take you to someone who can help you… Where’s your home at? Your parents?” Li Luyou looked left and right. Except passersby manifesting curiosity for someone dragging a great wooden sword and a little girl dressed in period costumes, there wasn’t anyone suspicious who paid too much attention to them. Obviously this wouldn’t be any kind of variety show. As far as Li Luyou knew, those shows making fun of people in the streets weren’t in vogue in China.
The little girl said with some impatience, “I have no parents. People from the Heavenly Clouds Divine Realm are all plucked down from trees.” It was very obvious she wasn’t used to such exchanges. No matter what she said, the opposite party just wouldn’t latch on the key points, or one could say that the opposite party dared to fundamentally ignore her thoughts.
Li Luyou couldn’t resist laugh out loud. Little kids would all be very persistent about how they came into the world, so their parents had no way but to make up every kinds of stories to explain. Then the kids would ignorantly remember those explanations, and they’d laugh involuntarily when they thought back on it after they grew older… But only little children would believe those after all, how could a normal teenager still believe they were plucked from a tree? Let alone, girls even matured a little earlier.
This little girl in front of him calling herself princess Annan Xiu had a serious expression however, and had spoken as if it were a matter of course.
“Fine, you were picked from a tree. Apart from being your attendant, which I can’t do, what else do you need help with?” Li Luyou wasn’t in a hurry to go back home after meeting such a little girl. After all, you couldn’t ask him to just ignore her and ditch her there.
Li Luyou walked inside the small neighborhood. The little girl followed behind him and exposed an annoyed expression when she saw him laugh out loud.
“I can understand you. As an ordinary person, you can’t accept something that goes beyond the scope of your understanding, and your world’s never even explained the theory behind the different dimensions. Your present reaction is very normal.” The little girl’s picked her eyerbows. “I shall forgive your rudeness.”
“Does everyone in the Heavenly Cloud Divine Realm speak mandarin? Even mandarin with such a standard accent. Chinese hasn’t even become a common international language on Earth, but it’s already spread first to the Heavenly Clouds Divine Realm and Heavenly Clouds Empire area, even the Annan imperial house can speak it.” The little girl’s tone carried some affectation and pretentiousness, but the pronunciation was standard and very articulate. There were very few southerners without any local accent… It was only that she talked a little like a news anchor and not very much the way normal people talked and exchanged. Li Luyou wouldn’t believe any damn talk about what Heavenly Cloud Divine Realm just because of this however. The way he looked at the little girl seemed like he’d found her loopholes. You would expose loopholes in your speech no matter how realistically you acted. Not anyone could invent an elfin language like Tolkien.
“I merely obtained this sort of language ability with a simple divine spell.” The little girl didn’t mind Li Luyou’s sarcasm and said on without paying attention to anything else, “Thought about it? By becoming the attendant of a senior princess with the qualification to succeed the imperial throne, you can obtain a province as fief even if you’re lazy and mediocre. If you’re good with letters and management, then it would be a common thing if you were to climb all the way to a cabinet prime minister. If you’re good in martial arts, you could assemble and command a great army of millions. After all, any emperor would have more trust in a minister who’d served next to them almost all the time. They’re more understanding of what they should do, what they can do.”
It was as if she hadn’t heard Li Luyou already refusing her.
“Fine, I’ll be your servant as long as you can prove you’re Your Imperial Princess Annan Xiu from the Annan imperial clan of the Heavenly Clouds Divine Realm.” The more seriously the little girl acted, the funnier it was for Li Luyou. It was too funny, he even wanted to invite her to the next cosplay convention so she could star in some little show; she was a born actress.
The little girl actually nodded.
Li Luyou just waited there for her proof.
The little girl looked strangely at Li Luyou after a while. “Don’t you know that it will often attract a curious crowd if a phenomenon that exceeds the understanding of ordinary people were to happen in a world like this? I don’t have any desire to be looked on by a group of people with that kind of eyes. After all, only a lowly magician would do things just to tease other people’s curiosity.”
“Fine, Your Honored Imperial Princess, may you please follow me and come prove it inside my house.” Li Luyou shook his head. It was a good thing he was a good man, a good thing he wasn’t a harmful queer pedophile or a wretched big brother particularly obsessed with little girls. A patient suffering from such a degree of delusion walking alone in the streets, such a beautiful little girl to boot, it was really too dangerous.
Li Luyou greeted the old grandpas and old grandmas walking their dogs and playing with their birds in the small neighborhood. Old men and old women were always idle and they wouldn’t miss inquiring about the pretty little girl behind him. Li Luyou explained with a smile, saying it was maybe a little girl who’d gotten lost, so he was letting her stay first while he helped her find her family.
Li Luyou wasn’t a dim-witted fool who tried to get on everyone’s good side. Nowadays, doing good deeds was far more of a trial than doing bad things. He was merely trying to establish those old men and old women as witness at this time, just in case a dispute happened. He could prove he brought this little girl back without any evil thought, that he wasn’t trying to hide and did everything in broad daylight.
The little girl seemed to follow fixedly behind Li Luyou. Her gaze moved neither slow nor hurried as she faced the old men and old women’s inquisitive but warm expressions, staying cold and detached just like before. The corner of her mouth slightly pulled in displeasure when someone expressed sympathy and pity. Her smiling yet not smiling appearance couldn’t help make people a little angry. It seemed like she wasn’t any obedient child, she must have learned rebellion from others and fled from home.
Li Luyou lived by himself. The house he rented followed the pattern of two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living, and a bathroom. There weren’t many things inside because he’d just moved in during summer break, so it looked pretty empty, but at least it was clean and tidy, not as messy, dirty, and stinky as an ordinary male’s dwelling.
Li Luyou wasn’t obsessed with cleanliness, and he couldn’t be said to be diligent in tidying and cleaning either. This present bright and clean appearance that wouldn’t displease Her Honorable Imperial Princess was actually due to his younger sister. She was presently a senior in high school, and she’d come once every few days to help him tidy up.
“Want to drink something?” Li Luyou casually threw his bundle and the great wooden sword on the sofa, then opened the fridge. “Carbonated water, cola, orange juice, or coffee?”
The little girl frowned, pondering very hard about what those things Li Luyou talked about looked like. She couldn’t determine what would suit her taste even after quite a while, and said then, “Clean water.”
Li Luyou got her a bottle of yogurt drink. Little girls all liked to drink it. He had a few bottle, it must have been his sister who left them there.
The little girl tossed and turned the grass-green box in her hand while she observed it. She very slowly took the straw, inserted it in, and sipped a mouthful, then put it to the side. “How disgusting. It seems there are several tastes mixed together, what a messy thing.”
“How do you know how to use a drinking straw if you’re someone from antiquity?” Li Luyou laughed. What Annan imperial house, what princess, aren’t they just ancient people? There were actually still some royal families left nowadays, but there was obviously no Annan imperial house the little girl talked about.
The little girl said as if it were beneath her contempt, “I’m not an idiot. It’s a little novel, but it isn’t as if there aren’t things of the same kind in the Heavenly Clouds Divine Realm. I knew at first glance.”
Li Luyou took orange juice for himself and drank it. “Fine, now I somewhat can’t wait to see how you’re going to prove you come from the Heavenly Clouds Divine Realm.”
The little girl took a glance at Li Luyou who was pretending to wait with bated breath. She stood right in front of Li Luyou.
Li Luyou was originally laying on his back while nipping the bottle, but he sat up politely when he saw her solemn appearance, as if she were ready to do something mind-boggling. Then the bottle he was biting in his mouth fell down. The orange-colored liquid spread on the floor, and a trail of orange juice also flowed out from the corner of Li Luyou’s wide open mouth. His mouth grew wider and wider, then it couldn’t close back anymore.
The little girl mumbled something to herself. What came through felt like extremely complicated and cryptic sentences to the ears. It wasn’t a news anchor’s mandarin anymore, but a lengthening tune where a syllable seemed to stamp over the next syllable, a distinctively graceful accent that seemed to be singing an opera. One azure rune after another overflowing with an ancient atmosphere drifted around her and revolved slowly along with her chanting. When her slender and fair fingers loosened, that huge cane of hers floated in the air just like that.
“Ding… Ning… Ding… Ning…”
The wind chime sang without any wind. The surrounding space seemed to distort and vacillate under the influence of such sound waves, making people absent-minded. Li Luyou unexpectedly felt as if he were being enlightened by perfect wisdom. Countless magnificent and mystical scenes flashed across his mind.
He saw saw divine sorcerers chanting simple and cryptic incantations, actually exactly the same as the little girl just now. Divine spells of many forms and colors released gorgeous rays of light. He saw sorcerer apprentices use their souls to solidify weapons and armors radiating formidable pressure. He saw gigantic bone dragons spread their bone wings several hundred feet wide in the desert, and blow up yellow sand until it filled the sky.
The great waves from the angry roars of towering yetis transmitted through dense forests on snowy peaks, stirring a vast expanse of avalanche madly pouring down. Tall and luxuriant old trees rose from the ground and stretched high into the sky, becoming treemen wearing armor made of bark. Among the clouds, there were merchant ships with animal head emblems cleaving through huge waves overflowing the sky above the ocean, the sailors standing on the observation decks above thirteen masts as they watched the beautiful women on the coral reefs with their telescopes. Those were mermaids carrying conch shells on their backs and hiding their beautiful bodies inside. The loud shouts and bawls frightened them into plunging inside the water, hiding themselves until they disappeared, leaving only the desolate splashes of water behind…
Li Luyou didn’t know how big was a medium-sized province the little girl talked about, or what kind of astonishing number the so-called output was, but it would be too scary if that emerald green precious stone on the little girl’s necklace were a real emerald. Just the value of this emerald would be over seven digits.
No one would connect a necklace taken off the neck of a stranger casually met in the streets with something invaluable, but this little girl’s temperament wouldn’t allow people to treat the present situation as simple mischief or the behavior of a lunatic.
Li Luyou thought that even if she were a patient suffering from serious delusion, she would be a patient suffering from serious delusion from a very wealthy family.
“Attendant? I can make a phone call for you, or I can take you to someone who can help you… Where’s your home at? Your parents?” Li Luyou looked left and right. Except passersby manifesting curiosity for someone dragging a great wooden sword and a little girl dressed in period costumes, there wasn’t anyone suspicious who paid too much attention to them. Obviously this wouldn’t be any kind of variety show. As far as Li Luyou knew, those shows making fun of people in the streets weren’t in vogue in China.
The little girl said with some impatience, “I have no parents. People from the Heavenly Clouds Divine Realm are all plucked down from trees.” It was very obvious she wasn’t used to such exchanges. No matter what she said, the opposite party just wouldn’t latch on the key points, or one could say that the opposite party dared to fundamentally ignore her thoughts.
Li Luyou couldn’t resist laugh out loud. Little kids would all be very persistent about how they came into the world, so their parents had no way but to make up every kinds of stories to explain. Then the kids would ignorantly remember those explanations, and they’d laugh involuntarily when they thought back on it after they grew older… But only little children would believe those after all, how could a normal teenager still believe they were plucked from a tree? Let alone, girls even matured a little earlier.
This little girl in front of him calling herself princess Annan Xiu had a serious expression however, and had spoken as if it were a matter of course.
“Fine, you were picked from a tree. Apart from being your attendant, which I can’t do, what else do you need help with?” Li Luyou wasn’t in a hurry to go back home after meeting such a little girl. After all, you couldn’t ask him to just ignore her and ditch her there.
Li Luyou walked inside the small neighborhood. The little girl followed behind him and exposed an annoyed expression when she saw him laugh out loud.
“I can understand you. As an ordinary person, you can’t accept something that goes beyond the scope of your understanding, and your world’s never even explained the theory behind the different dimensions. Your present reaction is very normal.” The little girl’s picked her eyerbows. “I shall forgive your rudeness.”
“Does everyone in the Heavenly Cloud Divine Realm speak mandarin? Even mandarin with such a standard accent. Chinese hasn’t even become a common international language on Earth, but it’s already spread first to the Heavenly Clouds Divine Realm and Heavenly Clouds Empire area, even the Annan imperial house can speak it.” The little girl’s tone carried some affectation and pretentiousness, but the pronunciation was standard and very articulate. There were very few southerners without any local accent… It was only that she talked a little like a news anchor and not very much the way normal people talked and exchanged. Li Luyou wouldn’t believe any damn talk about what Heavenly Cloud Divine Realm just because of this however. The way he looked at the little girl seemed like he’d found her loopholes. You would expose loopholes in your speech no matter how realistically you acted. Not anyone could invent an elfin language like Tolkien.
“I merely obtained this sort of language ability with a simple divine spell.” The little girl didn’t mind Li Luyou’s sarcasm and said on without paying attention to anything else, “Thought about it? By becoming the attendant of a senior princess with the qualification to succeed the imperial throne, you can obtain a province as fief even if you’re lazy and mediocre. If you’re good with letters and management, then it would be a common thing if you were to climb all the way to a cabinet prime minister. If you’re good in martial arts, you could assemble and command a great army of millions. After all, any emperor would have more trust in a minister who’d served next to them almost all the time. They’re more understanding of what they should do, what they can do.”
It was as if she hadn’t heard Li Luyou already refusing her.
“Fine, I’ll be your servant as long as you can prove you’re Your Imperial Princess Annan Xiu from the Annan imperial clan of the Heavenly Clouds Divine Realm.” The more seriously the little girl acted, the funnier it was for Li Luyou. It was too funny, he even wanted to invite her to the next cosplay convention so she could star in some little show; she was a born actress.
The little girl actually nodded.
Li Luyou just waited there for her proof.
The little girl looked strangely at Li Luyou after a while. “Don’t you know that it will often attract a curious crowd if a phenomenon that exceeds the understanding of ordinary people were to happen in a world like this? I don’t have any desire to be looked on by a group of people with that kind of eyes. After all, only a lowly magician would do things just to tease other people’s curiosity.”
“Fine, Your Honored Imperial Princess, may you please follow me and come prove it inside my house.” Li Luyou shook his head. It was a good thing he was a good man, a good thing he wasn’t a harmful queer pedophile or a wretched big brother particularly obsessed with little girls. A patient suffering from such a degree of delusion walking alone in the streets, such a beautiful little girl to boot, it was really too dangerous.
Li Luyou greeted the old grandpas and old grandmas walking their dogs and playing with their birds in the small neighborhood. Old men and old women were always idle and they wouldn’t miss inquiring about the pretty little girl behind him. Li Luyou explained with a smile, saying it was maybe a little girl who’d gotten lost, so he was letting her stay first while he helped her find her family.
Li Luyou wasn’t a dim-witted fool who tried to get on everyone’s good side. Nowadays, doing good deeds was far more of a trial than doing bad things. He was merely trying to establish those old men and old women as witness at this time, just in case a dispute happened. He could prove he brought this little girl back without any evil thought, that he wasn’t trying to hide and did everything in broad daylight.
The little girl seemed to follow fixedly behind Li Luyou. Her gaze moved neither slow nor hurried as she faced the old men and old women’s inquisitive but warm expressions, staying cold and detached just like before. The corner of her mouth slightly pulled in displeasure when someone expressed sympathy and pity. Her smiling yet not smiling appearance couldn’t help make people a little angry. It seemed like she wasn’t any obedient child, she must have learned rebellion from others and fled from home.
Li Luyou lived by himself. The house he rented followed the pattern of two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living, and a bathroom. There weren’t many things inside because he’d just moved in during summer break, so it looked pretty empty, but at least it was clean and tidy, not as messy, dirty, and stinky as an ordinary male’s dwelling.
Li Luyou wasn’t obsessed with cleanliness, and he couldn’t be said to be diligent in tidying and cleaning either. This present bright and clean appearance that wouldn’t displease Her Honorable Imperial Princess was actually due to his younger sister. She was presently a senior in high school, and she’d come once every few days to help him tidy up.
“Want to drink something?” Li Luyou casually threw his bundle and the great wooden sword on the sofa, then opened the fridge. “Carbonated water, cola, orange juice, or coffee?”
The little girl frowned, pondering very hard about what those things Li Luyou talked about looked like. She couldn’t determine what would suit her taste even after quite a while, and said then, “Clean water.”
Li Luyou got her a bottle of yogurt drink. Little girls all liked to drink it. He had a few bottle, it must have been his sister who left them there.
The little girl tossed and turned the grass-green box in her hand while she observed it. She very slowly took the straw, inserted it in, and sipped a mouthful, then put it to the side. “How disgusting. It seems there are several tastes mixed together, what a messy thing.”
“How do you know how to use a drinking straw if you’re someone from antiquity?” Li Luyou laughed. What Annan imperial house, what princess, aren’t they just ancient people? There were actually still some royal families left nowadays, but there was obviously no Annan imperial house the little girl talked about.
The little girl said as if it were beneath her contempt, “I’m not an idiot. It’s a little novel, but it isn’t as if there aren’t things of the same kind in the Heavenly Clouds Divine Realm. I knew at first glance.”
Li Luyou took orange juice for himself and drank it. “Fine, now I somewhat can’t wait to see how you’re going to prove you come from the Heavenly Clouds Divine Realm.”
The little girl took a glance at Li Luyou who was pretending to wait with bated breath. She stood right in front of Li Luyou.
Li Luyou was originally laying on his back while nipping the bottle, but he sat up politely when he saw her solemn appearance, as if she were ready to do something mind-boggling. Then the bottle he was biting in his mouth fell down. The orange-colored liquid spread on the floor, and a trail of orange juice also flowed out from the corner of Li Luyou’s wide open mouth. His mouth grew wider and wider, then it couldn’t close back anymore.
The little girl mumbled something to herself. What came through felt like extremely complicated and cryptic sentences to the ears. It wasn’t a news anchor’s mandarin anymore, but a lengthening tune where a syllable seemed to stamp over the next syllable, a distinctively graceful accent that seemed to be singing an opera. One azure rune after another overflowing with an ancient atmosphere drifted around her and revolved slowly along with her chanting. When her slender and fair fingers loosened, that huge cane of hers floated in the air just like that.
“Ding… Ning… Ding… Ning…”
The wind chime sang without any wind. The surrounding space seemed to distort and vacillate under the influence of such sound waves, making people absent-minded. Li Luyou unexpectedly felt as if he were being enlightened by perfect wisdom. Countless magnificent and mystical scenes flashed across his mind.
He saw saw divine sorcerers chanting simple and cryptic incantations, actually exactly the same as the little girl just now. Divine spells of many forms and colors released gorgeous rays of light. He saw sorcerer apprentices use their souls to solidify weapons and armors radiating formidable pressure. He saw gigantic bone dragons spread their bone wings several hundred feet wide in the desert, and blow up yellow sand until it filled the sky.
The great waves from the angry roars of towering yetis transmitted through dense forests on snowy peaks, stirring a vast expanse of avalanche madly pouring down. Tall and luxuriant old trees rose from the ground and stretched high into the sky, becoming treemen wearing armor made of bark. Among the clouds, there were merchant ships with animal head emblems cleaving through huge waves overflowing the sky above the ocean, the sailors standing on the observation decks above thirteen masts as they watched the beautiful women on the coral reefs with their telescopes. Those were mermaids carrying conch shells on their backs and hiding their beautiful bodies inside. The loud shouts and bawls frightened them into plunging inside the water, hiding themselves until they disappeared, leaving only the desolate splashes of water behind…
