"I think there's something wrong with Xiaohong recently."
As Lin You said, she hopped on tiptoe and threw the sheet she was holding onto the clothes drying pole. Xiao Xiao sat on the porch behind her, holding two stalks of grass in her hands, and replied: "En."
Lin You dried the quilt cover in the same way again: "Right? It's quieter, and I eat less, and..."
"Um?"
"Also," Lin You hopped up a couple more times, and hung up Xiao Xiao's white coat, "Don't you think the clothes rail is too high?"
"high?"
"I think it's too high! Isn't it impossible to reach?"
"No matter how low it is, the bed sheet will be dragged to the ground."
Lin You had thought about it a long time ago: "Use two clothes drying poles to dry them horizontally, so there will be no such problem."
"Trouble. Obviously yes, let me do it." Xiao Xiao focused on the movements of his hands without raising his head, "It's grapefruit, short."
"I'm not short at all." Lin You retorted heavily, "I'm of medium height. When I was in school, I sat in the middle and back."
Xiao Xiao: "Kindergarten?"
Lin You: "...Xiao Xiao, girls who ask questions are not cute."
"Oh... okay."
"What?" Lin You breathed a sigh of relief after drying the clothes with great effort, and sat next to Xiao Xiao, "I wanted to ask just now, what are you doing?"
"award."
Xiao Xiao raised her hand, and she used her index finger and thumb to twist a thin grass stalk, below which was a living grasshopper, which seemed to be dexterously jumping around in the air when shaking.
Lin You was a little surprised: "You can still do this."
She let the straw grasshopper rest in her palm, and couldn't help showing a bright smile: "Thank you. But you said reward, what kind of reward?"
Xiao Xiao pondered for a moment: "The one who hangs the clothes, reward? Thank you for your hard work."
Lin You: "... this, you are making fun of me."
"no."
"Then you turn around and look at me and say..."
After chatting with Xiao Xiao, Lin You leaned in from the window and put the grasshopper on the desk in the bedroom. Before she could retract her body, she heard the sound of something falling from the yard.
Xiao Xiao greeted the big cat who had crossed the courtyard wall: "Fortune."
"Meow~"
Lin You turned around, just in time to see Zhao Cai, who was covered in dust and covered in leaves and weeds, circling around the clothes rail, and pulled the hanging bed sheet with his paws.
Lin You: "..."
Xiao Xiao: "Ah."
On the freshly washed, clean blue and white checkered sheets, there was a black mark.
In this world where fully automatic washing machines are not available, Lin You washes all the clothes by hand every day, including of course the troublesome and laborious bed sheets and quilt covers today.
Lin You let out a deep breath, and smiled kindly at the big cat with an innocent expression: "Don't try to escape today, I still have to hold you in the shower—"
"Meow!"
"Xiao Xiao, close the door!"
Ten minutes later, with Xiao Xiao's help, Lin You finally fulfilled his wish and pressed the big cat into the water basin and rubbed it with acacia. The lucky fur after bathing absorbs moisture and clings tightly to the body, completely losing its plush and cuteness.
Under Lin You's instruction, Xiao Xiao forbade it to shake the water, so it could only sit limply on the porch and let Lin You dry it.
"It'll be fine soon, don't be downcast."
Lin You combed the lucky hair with a needle comb. Probably because of his fire ability, the water on Zhaocai's body evaporated very quickly, and it didn't take long for him to dry up completely.
"Yeah." Xiao Xiao, who was reading next to him, echoed, and handed Zhaocai the dried fish that Lin You had dried before, "reward."
Zhaocai sniffed the small dried fish that was not enough to fit between his teeth, and turned his head uninterestedly. Xiao Xiao held up the dried fish and thought for two seconds, then handed it to Lin You's mouth: "Reward?"
Lin You: "..."
Under Xiao Xiao's encouraging eyes, she still ate it.
After tidying up the lucky and gorgeous fur, it has already relaxed, resting its head on Lin You's lap and taking a nap with its eyes closed, bringing warm heat. Lin You patted its head nonchalantly, and began to care about another family member.
The carnivorous flower in the corner of the yard is quietly bending its branches, the orange-red flowers are half open, and it looks very listless.
"It's really not right."
Lin You brought up the topic of hanging clothes again: "It didn't even laugh at Zhaocai today." If it was the usual Xiaohong, at the moment when Zhaocai turned into a drowned cat, she should pat the leaves and say loudly, "Puff puff!" Poof".
Probably hearing his own name, the sleeping big cat shook its ears.
Xiao Xiao flipped through the "C Traps and Flaws" in his hand, and didn't seem to care much: "Yes. Recently, the food is very good."
Lin You doubted this: "Is the food good?"
Xiaohong basically just followed them to eat, unlike Zhaocai, who went out to hunt on her own, and had been completely domesticated into a houseplant. And Lin You didn't think her food was very good.
Xiao Xiao said: "Crystal, feed it."
"Ah..." Lin You immediately realized that what Xiao Xiao was talking about was the crystals that they took out after catching mutant creatures. Because Lin You didn't need it very much, Xiao Xiao said it was useful, so she gave it to her.
She became interested: "Just like a supernatural person, will you upgrade if you use crystals?"
Xiao Xiao: "Yes?"
"Why is it an interrogative sentence..." Lin You asked, "What will it look like after upgrading?"
Xiao Xiao shook his head, expressing that he didn't know either.
Lin You looked at Xiaohong, who was listless. Compared to the size that a bucket could hold when Xiao Xiao first dug it back, it seemed to have grown a circle... several times, and a corner of the yard has been completely occupied by it.
If you grow up again...
Lin You imagined a carnivorous flower that was taller than a house, and forked out this picture. It would be better to evolve from other aspects and not grow any longer. In fact, she thinks that Xiaohong is already too smart, and she is about to become a genius. Maybe after upgrading, she will grow eyes, noses, or hands and feet, crawling out of the soil...
…
Actually, it looks pretty good the way it does now.
Lin You erased the imagination in her mind that could make people's San value go crazy.
The spring day is warm, and there are occasional silhouettes of swallows on the clear sky with floating clouds. In the leisurely afternoon, Lin You leaned against the big cat cushion and yawned, feeling a little drowsy, accompanied by Xiao Xiao's sound of turning the pages of the book regularly.
I don't know what happened last night. There were wild beasts howling outside for most of the night, which was extremely disturbing to sleep. She didn't sleep well at night, and woke up early in the morning following the biological clock, and the belated sleepiness almost overwhelmed her.
"I'll take a little sleep and call me later."
"Um."
I don't seem to have any plans for this afternoon...
Lin You recalled a little bit, but didn't resist the drowsiness for too long, adjusted her posture, and fell asleep leaning on Zhao Cai's limp body.
She had a dream.
It seems that before the end of the world, she and her parents went to the famous scenic spots in W City to enjoy the cherry blossoms. Although it was not unexpected, it turned into a head-watching in the end.
Lin You was scattered by the crowd. As she walked, she gradually lost sight of anyone nearby. On the vast plain, there are huge cherry trees, and the white petals are falling down one after another.
The water under her feet was a very shallow, pure blue like a glacier. The strange thing is that it is not cold at all, the blue color gradually fills the world, she floats in it, wrapped in a cool and soft touch like jelly.
When the wind blows, it's a bit cold...
Lin You opened her eyes in a daze, and the gentle sunset on the horizon was reflected in her eyes.
The sun is almost setting.
Did Xiao Xiao not call her? Lin You slowly woke up and felt the weight on her body. Zhao Cai's long tail rested on her arm, flicked it occasionally, and made the two of them pillow on her body in a circled position.
And Xiao Xiao hugged her waist, put his head on her shoulder, and pressed against her side intimately, sleeping more deeply than she did.
A copy of "C Traps and Flaws" was sandwiched between the two, and a bookmark with dried flowers in a corner was exposed between the pages. It was made from the flower that Xiao Xiao gave Lin You the day Xiao Xiao agreed to live with her.
Lin You moved, and Xiao Xiao's snow-colored hair wrapped around her arm. Since the hug that day, Lin You felt that she seemed closer to him than before.
Ah... my hands are numb.
Lin You looked at Xiao Xiao's peaceful sleeping face, and didn't want to let time stop at all, so she woke her up decisively: "It's time to wake up, Xiao Xiao? If you don't wake up, you won't be able to sleep at night."
Under her awakening, Xiao Xiao opened her eyes in a daze, and when her ice blue eyes, which seemed to be dyed with the color of arse, appeared in the setting sun, Lin You suddenly recalled a corner of the dream just now.
"Flowers... ah, let's go enjoy the flowers tomorrow."
Xiao Xiao who had just woken up blinked her eyes, doubts written on her face.
Lin You thought about it carefully: "Yes, you should go out for an outing in spring."
"... outing?"
"Admiring flowers and having a picnic in a place with good scenery... It seems to be similar to what we usually do." Lin You thought about other activities, and caught a glimpse of the birds passing by the sky from the corner of her eye. How about a place to fly a kite?"
Xiao Xiao questioned: "Kite?"
"Well, there are no kites..." Of course they can't be bought now, and Lin You only has vague memories of making kites when she was a child in handicraft classes. She remembered Xiao Xiao's perfect technique for weaving grasshoppers, and asked with a little hope, "Would you like to make kites?" Do it?"
Xiao Xiao turned her head, as if she was flipping through her memory: "...probably."
It seems that she is not much different from her, only theoretical knowledge.
Lin You said: "Try using the bamboo strips left over from last time weaving the basket?"
Xiao Xiao nodded in agreement. She, who had nimble fingers, did all the making of the skeleton by herself. When it was time to attach the fabric, Lin You hesitated in her shirt and short sleeves, and finally Xiao Xiao asked her to remove two umbrellas.
The dark blue and light green umbrella fabrics are spliced together. Although it looks messy, it can fly into the sky even if it is wobbly.
Xiao Xiao looked at the crude kite in midair, her eyes sparkled, she was more interested than Lin You now: "Tomorrow, let's fly it?"
"OK."
Then when they got up the next day, it was raining lightly outside.
The author has something to say:
Zhao Cai didn't want to be a pillow for the two of them at all, it was threatened by Xiao Xiao.