Alice in the Land of Steam

The angel girl's scream resounded in the room, and then was blown away by the wind, scaring a butterfly on the window frame to fly up, fly through the slowly turning windmill blades, and disappear in the bright sunshine. There was a faint chirping of insects between the ridges of the field, and on a branch not far away, a gray-necked swallow tilted its neck and looked at the scene between the small window panes with its black eyes, curiously, as if it was looking at an interesting storybook.

"What are you talking about?" Linger glanced at her and said, "It's like I'm bullying you."

"You are bullying me." Yieta muttered, "I don't want to go out. Can't we talk in the room?"

"The weather outside is so nice, why are you still staying at home and getting moldy? Why don't you go out and get some sunshine to avoid mushrooms growing on your head?"

Lingge's words made Yieta touch her head subconsciously, fearing that one or two gray mushrooms would suddenly appear between her hair. Wouldn't that be embarrassing? Fortunately, after a careful search, she didn't find any mushrooms. It seemed that her personal hygiene was not that bad. But no matter what, Lingge's alarmist words still frightened the girl a little. She puffed up her cheeks and the feathers on her wings stood up one by one, like an oversized wind flower ball - or the kind that was being hit around. She said angrily: "Lingge, you scared me again! I won't forgive you this time. I must tell Sister Xiaoxia!"

"Then go tell her." Ling Ge said calmly, "See who she thinks is wrong."

"Ugh! How despicable!"

Yieta knew with her toes that she would be the one who was wrong in the end. She was so angry that she gnashed her teeth. It seemed that she might pounce on Lingge and bite his neck at any time. But that was something that only a little bat would do. As for Yieta, the young man believed that she definitely did not have such courage and boldness, so he turned a blind eye to such threats and only urged: "Okay, if you don't want to be taught a lesson by Saint Xia Liya, then hurry up and go out with me to bask in the sun. Weather like this is the best time to exercise outside. You are still young, don't always think about being lazy, or you will become the kind of useless otaku and social parasite that Alice said!"

Ling Ge, who had just spent half an hour basking in the sun with Princess Haiqi, said so.

“No!” Yieta spread her wings and then folded them up, wrapping herself up, revealing only a pair of large eyes as clear as the sky. She looked at Linger pitifully, and changed from her angry wind flower ball form back to the most familiar quail ball form: “I just want to stay at home, Linger, you stay with me too, we can eat snacks and chat together, isn’t that good?”

She begged and blinked her eyes, trying to seduce Ling Ge. Unfortunately, the young man had a heart of stone and was immune to this level of coquetry and cuteness. He shook his head decisively: "Not good."

"Eh? Why?"

"Because I'm your...well, guardian."

"When did you become my guardian!?"

"Now."

"I don't admit it!"

"I don't acknowledge your denial."

The two of them were bickering like little kids, one after another, tit for tat. But in the end, it was Lingge who lost his patience first. He sighed softly, feeling very disappointed with Yieta's stubbornness: "Since you are so stubborn, don't blame me for using tough measures, Yieta."

“Strong, tough means!? Wow, what are you trying to do, Lingge! Calm down, I, I, I, I, I’m going to call Sister Xiaoxia, okay? Wuuuuu, Shesta, Shelia, save me!”

Unfortunately, no one will come to rescue her.

The young man pressed forward step by step, and Yieta also retreated step by step, until her back touched the solid wall, and she realized that she had been forced into a corner, with no way to retreat. She waved her fists wildly, trying to protect herself from the evil claws, but she closed her eyes because of nervousness, and dared not look directly at the young man who was so close. In her thin chest, a fragile heart was beating, as if there were countless complex emotions that wanted to be vented from inside. Was it the uneasiness of implicit expectation, the quietly blooming shame, or the ignorant and immature longing like the primrose petals outside the window?

Could this be, this is——what Alice meant by wall-dong!?
Clinging to the wall, Miss Angel felt dizzy and powerless. If she hadn't had the willpower to support her, she would have collapsed long ago, right? She closed her eyes not because she was afraid of Lingge, but because she was afraid of seeing herself in his eyes, red from neck to cheeks like a ripe apple.

Wow, how embarrassing!
She shouted loudly in her heart, as if she wanted to let the whole world know that she had fought back desperately, but failed. But the strange thing was that, whether rationally or emotionally, she knew very well that she was not resisting. On the contrary, she was vaguely expecting something. But this expectation could not be expressed out loud, and it even conflicted strongly with her innocent girlish feelings and natural reserved personality, so that Yieta's simple brain circuit had a serious malfunction, and she didn't know what she was thinking.

This guy.

Looking at Yieta, who was cornered and trembling, Lingge couldn't help but twitch his lips: Did she think of me as a villain?

Thinking of this, the young man stretched out his hand unhappily and tapped Miss Angel lightly on the forehead.

"Wow!"

Yieta, who was struggling between resistance and expectation, was suddenly awakened by this. Is this the tough measure that Lingge mentioned? She was confused for a while before she slowly came to her senses. Then a great sense of grievance surged into her heart. The sour feeling from the tip of her nose even made her want to cry like a child. She felt that she was such a fool. She should have known that Lingge would not have such intentions, because he was a fool, a blockhead, a big fool! He was simply the most hateful person in the world. He never cared about her and only bullied others...

I will never believe you again, Lingge!!!
She thought aggrievedly.

Then the next moment, she felt her body lighten, and a pair of hands gently passed through her thin back and small legs, and without giving the girl time to react, they picked her up. Yieta exclaimed, subconsciously stretched out her hand, and hugged the only thing that could support her. It was extremely warm, intimate, and like the touch of sunshine. The blood flowing through her fingertips seemed to flow into the blood vessels and pulse of the man through the skin she touched, breathing with him. The girl's heart began to beat non-stop again. She tentatively opened one eye, but happened to meet his close, half-smiley expression. The girl was startled and quickly closed her eyes, as if she could escape reality in this way. But after a while, she couldn't help but quietly open the other eye, as if she had to confirm it with both eyes separately to be sure that the scene in front of her was not an illusion.

"What are you looking at?" The young man was speechless at her thieving behavior.

"Wow!" Yieta was so scared that her eyes opened wide. She twisted her head in panic and looked up, down, left, and right. Even bees or butterflies with compound eyes could not observe the environment as quickly and decisively as she did. After retracting her gaze, Miss Angel was finally sure that her feeling was not wrong. She was indeed held in Linger's arms.

and!

Or in a princess hug style!
She even had her arms around Ling'er's neck and her head on his chest!

Wow, so shy!

Angel's face suddenly became even redder. If it was a ripe apple just now, then now it felt like a... steam engine? And it was running at the highest power. Would it be possible that hot air would come out of its head in the next second? The young man couldn't help but think so.

"Put me down, Lingge..."

Yieta said this in a voice as thin as a mosquito, making people feel that she was acting coquettishly.

"No." Lingge flatly rejected the request, then walked towards the door while holding Yieta in his arms: "I've said before, since you insist on being a good-for-nothing otaku, don't blame me for using tough measures against you. So, the objection is invalid."

Arriving at the door, Lingge kicked the half-open wooden door, reconnecting the outside world with this small room in an almost rough and unquestionable way. The bright and brilliant sunlight suddenly rushed in like a tangible stream, over the steps, over the eaves of the door, and then sprinkled on Yieta's face. The girl screamed softly and covered her cheeks with her hands in panic, as if she was not a feather elf or some other creature, but a snowflake that would melt quickly if exposed to the sun.

But the light still stubbornly squeezed through the fingers, sprinkled into the eyes, and gently caressed the pair of crystal-like pupils. They seemed to have life, whispering in the girl's ears: the outside world is so beautiful, the things under the sun are so prosperous, and even the dust swimming in the light is so full of vitality. So, why lock yourself in a small cage?

Yieta glanced at Lingge through her fingers and found that he was only focused on moving forward, walking down the steps, crossing the ridges, and carefully walking along the path in the flower field to avoid stepping on the fragile but beautiful flowers that had just bloomed. He didn't pay any attention to the movement here. So she spoke softly and answered their question: "Because I'm scared."

Don't be afraid, don't be afraid.

The tiny, warm elves of light that may disappear at any time but reappear at any time, tell the girl: We are by your side, he is also by your side, what do you have to be afraid of?
Yieta looked depressed: "But what if one day I lose him? Just like I lost my other companions?"
At this moment, she couldn't help but think of the girl who cried and said goodbye to them in the distant universe, and the villagers of Avignon. Her memory went back to the whales she met on the beach when she first saw the sea. They all left her in the end, and although everyone told her that this was not the reason for the curse, the girl did not return to the cage out of guilt, but out of fear, so scared that she regarded the past cage as the last protective shell.

Everyone is leaving.

The light elves cheered and jumped for joy, saying to her: Everything in this world will eventually leave you, and we will leave soon. But if this is the case, will you regret meeting them?

I did think about it.

Yieta whispered: Would it be better not to meet everyone at that time?

That's just what you think, why don't you ask everyone else what they think?

But maybe they just want to comfort me? Yieta wanted to ask again, but the elves just laughed and disappeared without any warning or goodbye. Maybe, as they said, everything in this world will eventually leave me. But will they appear again? Will they be the same ones I met today? Just like tomorrow's sunshine, it is no longer the sunshine of today, right?

"arrive."

Ling Ge suddenly stopped and said to Yieta in his arms: "Let's take a rest here."

He gently placed Yieta on a huge tree stump. The flat cross section had countless growth rings. Perhaps each ring of lines recorded the long and lonely years that a girl had spent here. Yieta had not reacted for a while after suddenly leaving the warm embrace of the young man. She stared blankly at the flower field in front of her. It was a coincidence. In fact, she did not deliberately take care of these primroses. Even the first few seedlings were brought down on the corners of her clothes when she locked herself in the valley. They should have flourished in the flower fields of Saria Field for seven centuries, but they could not bear to see the girl leave alone, so they followed here and multiplied into a prosperous and brilliant field today.

Do they ever regret that they can only live quietly in the lonely and deserted canyon, and cannot be praised by the poet Helen and hailed as the "miracle of seven colors" like their peers who grow freely in the wild?

"Linger."

The sunlight was warm on her body, making her want to sleep. The girl suddenly raised her head, looked at the young man beside her with a serious look, and asked word by word: "Have you ever regretted it..."

"No."

The young man seemed to have foreseen the future and gave an answer before she even finished her question. Then he bent down, put his hands on Yieta's shoulders, and gradually moved his cheek closer to the girl, closing the distance between their pupils. With her suddenly rapid breathing and his unwavering eyes, their foreheads gently touched each other, and within audible distance, they sniffed each other's heartbeats, and his words seemed to comfort and promise: "I have never regretted it once."

The young man said so.

He was sure of what the girl was going to ask.

I have never regretted it. (End of this chapter)