Thumbelina
This time, He Ruge’s livestream was set in the living room. He wore casual clothes with a wide neckline, exposing the kiss marks on his neck and collarbone, yet He Ruge seemed completely unaware of this.
He lowered his head, fingers lightly touching the white pouch hanging on his neck, the angle accentuating his long, drooping eyelashes. When He Ruge lifted his head, the young man on the livestream appeared rosy-cheeked. Far from looking exhausted from recovering from a serious illness, his features instead exuded a lazy charm.
“Long time no see.”
His usually clear and gentle voice was now slightly husky, a huskiness that could make one blush.
The barrage of comments exploded instantly:
“Ah ah ah what am I seeing?! Is that the living male god?! Male god, I miss you so much! Without your livestream, I wouldn’t have the motivation to game tomorrow!”
“…Strawberries?”
“Male god, are you recovered? How’s your body? Is your spirit feeling uncomfortable?”
“Oh my god, why do I have to see this?!?”
“I don’t believe those are kiss marks, it must be ringworm, right?”
“Let’s draw lots to see who jumps off the building, I’m odd, you guys are even, don’t burden hell with your registrations.”
“I really want to interview Marshal, what does mermaid taste like ahhh!”
“This voice, ah I’m dead, one person vows to die for Little Yellow Song!”
“Two people vow to die!”
“Three people vow to die!”
…
It was only when He Ruge saw the barrage that he realized. He quickly found a jacket to cover the kiss marks, which somehow gave off an air of “no silver here.”
Luckily, Egg couldn’t see anything. He Ruge breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.
He set the filter words to “kiss marks,” “strawberries,” “Little Yellow Song,” and so on, so that he wouldn’t see most of the discussions about the train wreck. Acting oblivious gave He Ruge the courage to continue the livestream.
“Thank you all for your concern, my illness has improved…”
“It’s been a long time since I’ve told stories to everyone. Today, I want to share with you the fairy tale of ‘Thumbelina.'”
“Once upon a time, there was a woman who gave a witch three silver coins in exchange for a magical seed. The seed sprouted, and the flower buds were about to bloom. The woman kissed the flower bud, and as she kissed it, the flower bloomed.”
“In the center of this flower, on top of the green pistil, sat a petite girl. She looked so fair and lovely, not even half the length of a thumb, so people called her Thumbelina…”
As He Ruge narrated this fairy tale, he involuntarily touched the little pouch hanging on his neck. Egg was smaller than Thumbelina.
If he were to write a fairy tale with Egg as the protagonist, the title could be “Pearl Egg” or “Nail Cap Egg.”
He Ruge wanted twins. Although “I’ve Become Stronger” was still being serialized and only had a beginning, with no end in sight, there were no strict rules on updates for interstellar novel websites. He could write another book without any problem.
After finishing the story, He Ruge intended to end the livestream, but he was captivated by one comment:
“I’ve been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Before I die, can I get noticed by the male god?”
Without much thought, He Ruge read the username aloud and softly said, “Hang in there.”
This was He Ruge’s first time flipping a fan’s card, and in an instant, many others followed suit: “I have a terminal illness, male god please flip the card.”
Watching the screen flood with these comments, He Ruge remained calm, his gaze distant.
“Having good health is truly wonderful,” he thought.
After the livestream ended, He Ruge placed Egg on the handmade little bed, ensuring the pillow and blanket were neatly arranged. Although he couldn’t tell if an egg had a head or a tail.
At this moment, Egg was peacefully white. It seemed slightly larger compared to the morning, yet maybe not. He Ruge gently stroked the eggshell, causing pink ripples wherever his fingertips touched, trying to avoid feeling uncertain.
He touched Egg all over, from end to end.
As he did so, He Ruge thought, “This is truly miraculous. Inside an egg no bigger than a thumb lies a life that carries both mine and Xi Guican’s blood. So, will it resemble me more? Or will it resemble Xi Guican more?”
He Ruge planned to make an agreement with Xi Guican in the future: they would take turns caring for Egg every day, ensuring that Egg spent an equal amount of time with each of them.
While waiting for Xi Guican to return home, He Ruge fell asleep and had another dream. Since having this egg by his side, his frequency of dreaming had increased sharply.
This dream was related to the fairy tale he had told during the livestream.
He Ruge dreamt that he received a seed that required his tears to water it. Tears, not pearls.
However, He Ruge had now become a mermaid, and no matter how he cried, when tears rolled down his cheeks, they turned into pearls.
What should he do?
Therefore, he decided to go back in time to collect the tears shed by He Ruge before he transformed into a mermaid.
He Ruge returned to a time long, long ago. He saw a woman going to the temple to burn incense and pray. The woman said she couldn’t conceive and expressed her desire for a child.
Amidst swirling smoke, the solemn statue of the Buddha appeared with a compassionate expression. Its gaze pierced through the courtyard walls and trees, falling upon a koi fish in the wishing pond behind the mountain.
The koi fish transformed into a streak of light, entering the woman’s abdomen as she knelt in worship.
The woman did not notice anything unusual. She left the temple and returned home, where her husband, dissatisfied with her inability to conceive, demanded a divorce.
She cried and pleaded desperately to stay, even kneeling in anguish. She had once knelt before gods and Buddhas, praying fervently for a child, and now she used the same posture to beg her husband.
However, her husband remained unmoved. He was an outstanding man in every way except for being too cold, viewing women merely as tools for procreation. Perhaps it was this that made the woman unable to accept the divorce.
Nevertheless, they eventually divorced. The husband gave the woman a considerable amount of property and remarried within less than a month. The woman, however, could not escape the shadow of divorce.
She often visited an orphanage, hoping to adopt a child from there, and wished to tell her ex-husband that they could adopt a child together.
She seemed somewhat deranged. After the divorce, she became noticeably thin, but her belly gradually swelled. In the first few months, her belly wasn’t very noticeable, and she firmly believed she couldn’t be pregnant, so she never associated her swollen belly with pregnancy.
At this time, she was trying to move on from the shadow. When her belly finally grew too large to ignore, she began to suspect she had some strange illness. When the doctor told her she was pregnant, the woman was overjoyed. She called her ex-husband to tell him she was pregnant.
However, his new wife was also pregnant.
Many things happened afterwards. The woman was slandered as unchaste, accused of infidelity during her marriage…
Because of her pregnancy, she quit her job to take care of the baby. She couldn’t bear to abort the child and thought it would be fine to raise the child alone.
The new wife feared that the woman’s child would compete with hers for family inheritance, so she orchestrated a car accident.
In this dream, the woman’s face was always obscured by a misty veil, unclear. He Ruge couldn’t see the woman’s pained expression clearly, but he could see her hands trembling as she protected her abdomen.
Blood soaked everything, so much blood, as if it would stain the entire dream red.
The woman murmured, “Child, my child…”
The woman, seven months pregnant, died in the car accident, but the child fortunately survived.
The new wife sent the child to an orphanage.
It was an orphanage familiar to He Ruge, and he was stunned. The infant’s cries never ceased, tears constantly streaming.
He Ruge blankly used a flowerpot to catch the tears, drop by drop falling onto a seed. The seed sprouted and grew roots, quickly blossoming into a red bud.
Just like the fairy tales he read today, He Ruge gently kissed the bud. The bud quietly bloomed, and in the center of the flower, there was a pearl-sized pink egg.
He Ruge gazed down at this egg with eyes filled with sadness and tenderness, not knowing who he was saying to, “So this is how it is…”
He Ruge was awakened by Xi Guican. As soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Xi Guican’s anxious gaze.
“What’s wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”
Xi Guican returned and noticed He Ruge furrowing his brows and silently shedding tears, golden pearls continuously falling on the bed.
“It’s nothing, just dreamed about past events. Is the matter regarding Taotie resolved?” He Ruge changed the subject.
Xi Guican nodded. He didn’t tell He Ruge how he tortured Taotie, making the evil spirit unable to live or die, and only killed it after venting his frustrations.
He Ruge didn’t need to know these things.
He Ruge lifted the blanket and pulled Xi Guican into bed.
“You should know what the golden pearls are used for, right?”
“A golden pearl can bring the holder good luck once.”
Xi Guican noticed that He Ruge didn’t intend to confide or inquire further.
He Ruge picked up all the golden pearls.
“That’s great, I want to give each baby a golden pearl.”
“What about me?”
Xi Guican asked somewhat unhappily, wanting a golden pearl too.
He Ruge quickly picked out a golden pearl for his jealous lover, but Xi Guican wasn’t satisfied.
“One is not enough, I want two.”
“Here you go, here you go.” He Ruge complied with Xi Guican’s request.
Xi Guican nodded satisfactorily, accepting the pearls.
As he took off his coat, he said, “When do you want to go to Seventeen Stars? Fu Xi and I discussed it, and Zhi Zhi really wants to see you and misses the little friends on Seventeen Stars. If we set off for Seventeen Stars, Zhi Zhi wants to go with us.”
“Then let’s go tomorrow. I really want to see Ruanruan and the others.”
He Ruge lay on his side, looking at the man’s sturdy chest. The pale body, like a marble statue, had several red marks that were left by Xi Guican on him yesterday, just as Xi Guican had left marks on him.
“Are you staring at me?”
Xi Guican seemed to have eyes on his back.
He suddenly turned around after pulling out his belt and asked.
He Ruge made a silent gesture, quietly pointing to the small bed on the bedside table. The small bed was palm-sized. Xi Guican initially thought it was a bowl filled with cotton, but when He Ruge pointed it out, he realized that Egg Egg was listening to them in the corner.
“…Troublesome.”
Xi Guican muttered and used a silencing spell to envelop Egg Egg, then turned back with a smile, “Now no one will disturb us.”
So, they rolled in the red waves.
