Chapter 19: The King of Field Mouse
“Xiaoxi—”
The sound of heavy knocking followed by frantic shouting startled Lu Yunxi, snapping her out of her deep reflection. She looked around the room, momentarily panicked, trying to find a place to hide the ancient notebook.
It took her a heartbeat to come to her senses, and she smacked her forehead in frustration. How could I forget about the spatial dimension?!
She tossed the book back into her storage space and hurried to open the door.
“Xiaoxi, you were right!” Daya blurted out, her face glowing with excitement. “I asked the dance master, and she said we could get married. It’s just that the girls in the studio were so focused on learning their craft that no one actually cared about getting married. They just kept putting it off until the ‘prime age’ had already passed.” Daya let out a little sigh for the older dancers. “What a pity. They’re so beautiful, yet they missed their chance.”
Lu Yunxi remained silent, her expression unreadable. She didn’t necessarily think the dancers felt as “sorry” as Daya imagined; they were probably delaying marriage on purpose!
She poured Daya a glass of sugar water but kept her guesses to herself. “So, have you decided? Are you going to continue your studies in town? Grandma Wang said you’ve learned everything she can teach you here.”
Li Daya nodded. Her face was a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. “Yes. Master wants me to go to the town studio because our villagers are there. If I went to a different city, she’s worried no one would be able to look after me.”
Dancing was a unique trade. While most apprenticeships began at eighteen, dancers needed to start much younger to train alongside their peers. The longer a troupe worked together, the better their synchronization would be.
“Grandma already wrote to Mom and Dad to see if they can come back to take me to town,” Daya said, resting her cheek in her hand. Her eyes were full of smiles, radiating hope for her new life. “If they’re too busy, Grandma said she’d check to see which villager is heading that way and ask them to escort me.”
“Then I’ll make you something delicious for the journey!” Lu Yunxi teased, a playful glint in her eyes. “Daya, you’re such a natural. You’re definitely going to be the best dancer in the troupe.”
However, after seeing off an embarrassed Daya and closing the door, Yunxi’s expression darkened instantly. She had zero expectations of Daya’s parents coming to pick her up.
Being neighbors for years, she had seen the truth plainly. Daya had never even seen her parents. Under Grandma Li’s constant “brainwashing,” the girl believed her parents were wonderful people who simply worked hard far away. Every mention of them made her glow with happiness.
But Grandma Li occasionally received letters from town specifically mentioning Li Dabao.
Li Dabao was Daya’s twin brother. He had been taken to town by the parents to live with them years ago. Word was that he had even been enrolled in a private school. One twin lived in town, enjoying fine food and an education; the other lived in the village, eating meat only a few times a year and working the house.
Daya didn’t even know she had a brother.
Lu Yunxi was about six months older than Daya. She vividly remembered when Aunt Li was in labor. Yunxi had been sitting out in the sun near her own front door and saw Uncle Li sitting at the gate next door. Apparently believing it was “unlucky” for a man to be near a birth, Uncle Li refused to enter the courtyard and simply sat at the entrance waiting for news.
He had been ecstatic when the first child was announced as a boy. But when he found out the second was a girl, his face curdled into a look of pure, unconcealed disgust.
Even back when everyone in the village behaved like scripted robots, the Li family’s true nature had bled through during that birth. Yunxi deeply suspected that favoring sons over daughters was simply the Li couple’s core nature. Since the villagers had “awakened,” the parents had never once asked about Daya. It was as if she didn’t exist.
Lu Yunxi shook her head helplessly. Even though she knew the truth, she couldn’t bring herself to tell Daya. How do you tell your best friend her parents don’t want her because she’s a girl?
All she could do was spend this time preparing extra food and supplies for Daya. If the girl really went to town, Yunxi wanted to make sure she didn’t starve while her brother enjoyed a feast.
Lately, Lu Yunxi had been hunting rabbits in the mountains with a quiet frenzy.
She didn’t even bother climbing the peaks this time, sticking to the lower slopes. To her surprise, she found plenty of game right at the foot of the mountain. She decided there was no point in pushing higher; it was physically taxing and far more dangerous. The risk of running into a wild boar at the base was much lower.
She spent her days squatted in the brush, picking off rabbits with cold precision. She didn’t track the time, stopping only when she realized she had about twenty arrows left.
As she turned to head home, she ran into an old “acquaintance.” Or rather, a very familiar type of pest.
A field mouse sat in her path. Yunxi instinctively raised her bow.
This mouse was different from the ones in the farmlands. It was twice their size, with eyes that burned with a fierce, predatory light. A thought flickered through her mind: Could this be the “Vole King” the villagers have been searching for all these years?
It was only a split second of thought. The arrow flew, striking the mouse with a heavy, critical blow.
The vole screeched in fury. A faint red light flashed across its body, and a strange, shimmering halo began to expand from it—but before it could unleash whatever attack it was preparing, a second arrow hissed through the air.
The Vole King’s hind legs gave a final twitch, and it slumped into the dirt.
[Ding! Congratulations on defeating the Vole King and earning the title: “Vole King”!]
Yunxi raised an eyebrow. This “King” was a pushover compared to the Wild Boar King.
“Did I really see a red light, though?” she muttered, walking forward to inspect the corpse. Aside from its size, it looked like any other rodent. “And a halo? I must be seeing things. My eyes are playing tricks on me.”
She casually tossed the Vole King into her spatial dimension and hurried back to the village.
However, the moment she stepped past the village entrance, she was ambushed by a crowd.
“Uncle, Auntie, Grandpa… what’s going on? Why are you all gathered here?” She felt her heart skip a beat as she saw them staring. Did they find out about my space bracelet?
She tensed, her face remaining a cool, expressionless mask.
“You girl!” An old man with a flushed face slammed his cane against the ground.
Yunxi took a step back, her grip tightening on her bow.
But a second later, she was swarmed—not with anger, but with cheers.
“Why didn’t you say anything, Xiaoxi? If a woodcutter hadn’t passed by and seen you take down the Vole King, we wouldn’t have known!”
“Exactly! The Vole King is dangerous! You should have asked us for help. What if you’d been hurt?”
“She’s amazing! She killed it all by herself! That pest has been bullying our village for generations—it’s finally time to settle the score!”
Looking at the radiant, excited faces, Lu Yunxi was stunned. “Huh?!”
The villagers dragged their “hero” to the edge of the farmlands. It wasn’t until she saw the fields that she understood their joy. All the field mice that usually swarmed the crops had vanished, retreating far beyond the village boundaries.
“From now on, our crops won’t be destroyed! Xiaoxi, you are the village’s savior!” The village chief’s hands shook with emotion, his eyes damp. “We’ve searched for that King for years without a trace, and you found him! If not for you, we’d be worrying about our harvest forever.”
He looked at her with profound gravity. “Xiaoxi, you have done a great service for this village. Tell me, what reward do you want?”
Lu Yunxi gave a dry, awkward laugh. “I’m a member of this village too. I’m just happy I could help. As for a reward… really, I don’t need anything!”
