I was approached by a cat-eared girl.

"Is there something even better?"

As he spoke, Chen Shuo reached out and opened the box, then fell silent.

Chapter 178 You're a Thing [Bonus Chapter for the Alliance Leader]

The box contained a bunch of random little things, which, in Chen Shuo's eyes, were mostly junk.

There were small, round stones that I don't know where they picked up, wooden beads from those bracelets, and a grayish, hollowed-out sphere that I don't know what it was made of, but it felt quite heavy. The most outrageous thing was that there were also a few bottle caps.

What these things have in common is that they are all round.

"This is the good stuff you were talking about?"

Chen Shuo asked the same question again, but his tone was very different this time.

Bai Xiaoqi fiddled with the contents of the box a few times with her fingers. "I used to think these were all very, very good things, but I don't think so anymore."

"Because you were naive before, that's why you thought it was a good thing."

"You're the stupid one."

"I was talking about your past, not your present, but you're a bit silly now too."

As he spoke, Chen Shuo sat down on a tree branch, holding the box. He parted the leaves in front of him, and from this spot, he could see the gently flowing stream and the tent the two of them had pitched.

He turned his gaze back and said again, "But this box of yours is a very good thing; it might really be a treasure."

"Box?"

Bai Xiaoqi sat down next to him, her two long legs dangling in the air, her eyes fixed on the box, which was dark and, although the patterns on it were quite pretty, were not as attractive to her as those round things.

I used to be able to play with round things by poking them with my little paws, but how can I play with boxes?

"Hmm, I have a feeling this box might be an antique. Let's have my dad appraise it when we get back. It might be worth a lot of money."

How much is it worth?

"How can we know without an appraisal? But judging from the workmanship..."

Chen Shuo looked at the cloud pattern decoration carved on it, and then touched the white jade with his hand. It was warm and smooth. "Just based on the workmanship, I feel that even if it is not an antique, it can be worth several thousand, or even tens of thousands."

"Tens of thousands?"

Bai Xiaoqi looked somewhat incredulous. How could such a broken wooden box be worth so much? She pointed to the pile of odds and ends inside the box and asked expectantly, "Do you think there's anything else of value among these things?"

"What do you think a bottle cap is worth?" Chen Shuo asked, glancing at her sideways.

“I didn’t mean the bottle cap, I meant these other things.”

"Everything else is junk too."

"..."

Bai Xiaoqi puffed out her cheeks and stared at him without saying a word. These were all her treasures from the past, but this guy treated them as junk. Didn't she have any dignity?

Chen Shuo pinched her puffed-up little cheeks. "Alright, stop looking at me like that. These things are just junk. It's just that you've never seen anything like this before, so you treat them like treasures."

He paused, then added, "Like you just said, you used to think these were really great things, but you don't anymore. Doesn't that just mean you haven't seen much of the world before?"

Now that you've seen more of the world, you're no longer the ignorant little kitten living in the mountains, so you won't do things like picking up a broken bottle cap and treating it like a treasure anymore.

At this point, Chen Shuo couldn't help but laugh, and images inexplicably began to play in his mind.

A white kitten was wandering in the mountains, patrolling its territory, when it suddenly discovered a bottle cap left behind by a human, which was likely still stuck in the soil.

She leaned closer and carefully sniffed it, then used her little paws to pluck it out, took it to the riverbank to wash it clean, and then carried it in her mouth to hide it in her nest like a treasure. She would take it out to look at it from time to time, and from then on, she discovered even more bottles...

Just then, Chen Shuo suddenly sensed that something was wrong. He turned his head and saw that Bai Xiaoqi was staring at him expressionlessly.

"Is it funny?" she asked.

"..."

Chen Shuo composed himself, remained silent for a moment, and then said, "If I said I wasn't laughing at you, would you believe me?"

"Humph."

Bai Xiaoqi snorted coldly. She would be a fool to believe that. She turned her head to the side and decided not to pay any more attention to this annoying guy.

It's just a few bottle caps I picked up and treated them like treasures. I used to live in the mountains and didn't know that these round things were everywhere in human society.

"Actually, I used to do this kind of thing too. Really, when I was a kid I didn't know any better, and I would often pick up scraps and treat them like treasures."

If someone gets angry because you laugh at her for doing something stupid, the best thing to do is not to apologize, but to tell her about a similar stupid thing you did, showing that you've done it too.

Don't ask who said that; it was Chen Shuo himself who said it, and he personally tested it and found it to be very effective.

As soon as he said that, Bai Xiaoqi turned her head back, stared at him for a moment, and asked, "What kind of junk did you pick up?"

"There are so many: broken faucets, kite sticks picked up from the roadside, steel balls from bicycle chains, screws and nuts, hex wrenches, and those sand discs on cutting machines. I don't know if you've seen them, they're round too, about this big. If you hold them in your hand and throw them, they can fly quite far."

As he spoke, Chen Shuo gestured with his hand and then made a throwing motion. "Really, it flew really far, and I was chasing after it."

"Then you'll pick it up with your mouth?"

"cough cough..."

Chen Shuo almost choked on his own saliva, coughing several times before turning to look at her with a deep gaze.

"......"

Bai Xiaoqi guiltily turned her gaze away, avoiding his eyes, but she felt that what she said was true.

As soon as this guy described it, I felt that his way of playing frisbee was very familiar, as if I had seen it somewhere before, and then I quickly remembered.

Many dog ​​owners in the neighborhood play this game, except that it's the person throwing the object and the dog chasing after it. When the dog is about to catch up, it jumps up and catches the object in mid-air with its mouth, then brings it back.

This guy throws and chases the dog all by himself; he does the game of man and dog all by himself. No wonder he's such a dog.

Bai Xiaoqi felt like she had found the reason why Chen Shuo was so dog-like; the nickname "Agou" really suited him.

The air was heavy for a moment before Chen Shuo broke the silence, "What I really want to say is that many people are very foolish and ignorant before they have seen much of the world, and they will treat things that nobody wants as treasures."

But when they grow up, or when they see a wider world, they will realize that what they once treasured is actually just so-so.

It looks like growth, but... no, it is growth. There's a saying that the more you grow, the less happy you become. But it's not that you're unhappy; it's that the cost of happiness has increased.

The more you know, the more you see, the more you want. You can never go back to that age when a single pinball or a card could bring you joy for a long time.

“It’s also possible that they’ve found something even better,” Bai Xiaoqi added.

"So, have you found something even better?"

"Found it."

"What is it?"

"You thing."

"I?"

Chen Shuo pointed at himself with his hand, overjoyed, and asked reflexively, "What am I?"

"You're a piece of trash."

Chapter 179 I Can't Sleep

July and August are the rainy season. On the sixth day of their trip into the mountains, they encountered a heavy rain that started in the middle of the night and showed no signs of stopping the next morning. The two of them had dug drainage ditches beforehand and had also bought good quality tents, so no rainwater seeped in.

But the torrential rain pounded on the tent, making a loud crackling sound, as if the tent was about to be smashed through.

Moreover, the heavy rain was accompanied by strong winds, which caused the tent walls to shake violently. Combined, it made one feel that the tent was at risk of collapsing at any moment.

It was raining heavily, and the tent was already damp and cold. Bai Xiaoqi was also visiting by her relatives, so she couldn't even get a sip of hot water. She huddled in the blankets, her eyes showing weakness and dejection.

Chen Shuo lay on his side, rubbed his palms together to warm them, and then reached inside her clothes to gently massage her soft belly. Watching her whimpering, his fondness for camping in the mountains a few days ago was largely washed away by this heavy rain. It's better to be at home; at least he can boil water anytime, anywhere.

"Are you scared?" Bai Xiaoqi asked weakly.

"Huh?" Chen Shuo was taken aback by the question, his hands continuing their work. "What are you afraid of?"

"It's windy and rainy outside, with lightning and thunder. Aren't you afraid?"

"Are you afraid?"

"Yes, a little."

Chen Shuo didn't quite understand. "You've lived in the mountains for decades, and you've never encountered this kind of weather before?"

"I've experienced it before, but I wasn't scared then." Bai Xiaoqi snuggled closer to him, feeling much warmer that way, and tilted her head up to ask softly, "Do you think I've become more timid?"

is it?

Chen Shuo was a little insecure. After thinking about it, she realized that neither twisting the rabbit's neck with a snap nor smashing the fish to death with two punches seemed like the behavior a timid girl should exhibit.

"Maybe," he replied somewhat perfunctorily.

"It's not a possibility, it's just that I've become smaller. I used to be so brave." Bai Xiaoqi nestled in his arms, her voice soft. "It's only since I met you that my courage has gradually shrunk."

"You're trying to pin this on me?"

"That's how it is. No matter what, you take care of everything for me. I don't have to worry about anything. So I've become more and more dependent on you. And you're so good to me. I'm always worried that one day you won't like me anymore and won't want me anymore. I get really scared when I think about it. That's why I've become timid."

Just as Chen Shuo was about to speak, he suddenly noticed, by the dim light of the kerosene lamp, that her eyes were red-rimmed and glistening with tears, as if they would fall at any moment.

"No, what are you doing again... Stop, don't cry, hold back your tears."

"No, if one day you don't want me anymore, I will be very, very sad, really, extremely sad, and I won't want to live anymore. I will jump into the river and drown myself, and I will take you with me."

As Bai Xiaoqi spoke, tears streamed down her face, her voice choked with emotion. She wiped away her tears haphazardly, then stared at him intently and added, "I'm telling the truth, don't you believe me?"

“I didn’t say I didn’t believe it.”

Chen Shuo smiled bitterly and wiped away the tears on her face with his hand, "But what makes you think that one day I will not like you, that I will not want you?"

"It was my own idea."

"Then can't you just not want to?"

"No, I have to think about it." Bai Xiaoqi buried her face in Chen Shuo's chest and rubbed it against his clothes to wipe away her tears. Then she sniffed and said timidly, "But I know you won't abandon me, right?"

"Correct."

"You won't dislike me either, you'll always like me a lot, right?"