Your Preference (7)
“Singing all night.”
Since Xu Jiao drew out that golden character, Lilith has been persistently learning this divine art. Although she doesn’t yet feel how powerful this spell is, whenever she imagines turning her two sisters into two little golden pigs, she can’t help but press her lips together and secretly enjoy it.
Initially, she was not very skilled.
She didn’t even know how to harness the insignificant, thin power of the Sun God within her body.
But the saint patiently taught her over and over again.
Lilith gradually discovered that when Xu Jiao was nearby, the unruly light elements within her body and in the air would rush over in a flurry, circling around the saint and then reluctantly benefiting her as well.
When silently reciting the spell’s divine power movement trajectory and the mysterious rhythm of writing that character, Lilith finally no longer felt bewildered, like she had nowhere to start. She slowly realized the mystery within, and gradually, under Xu Jiao’s hand-in-hand guidance, she could persist in writing half of it.
Then…
She saw the column that had previously been turned into a golden pig by Xu Jiao quickly hit again by her spell, but this time, after the spell disappeared, the column did not move a bit—
Only on that simple pattern with plain lines did another pig’s pattern suddenly appear.
Looking closely, that fat pig also had wings, floating on the column and struggling as if it wanted to come out, yet ultimately failing to break free. Lilith and that pig pattern stared at each other for a long time. Her face turned red, feeling that this ridiculous pig seemed to be mocking her clumsiness.
She carefully turned her head to look at Xu Jiao and found that Xu Jiao’s eyes also revealed a faint smile.
Lilith was supposed to feel ashamed for being so clumsy and untalented, but seeing Xu Jiao’s smiling appearance, she unconsciously smiled along.
The system noticed Xu Jiao’s special treatment towards Lilith this time, and when the atmosphere between the two was particularly harmonious, it couldn’t help but ask, “This time, do you seem to really like this protagonist?”
Hearing the system’s question, Xu Jiao’s eyes slightly moved. She smiled at Lilith, raised her hand to touch her head as encouragement, then looked at the golden pig on the column, the smile in her eyes not fading, and only said:
“Not like.”
System: “? But you are completely different towards her compared to the protagonists of the previous worlds.”
Xu Jiao sat cross-legged on the edge of the bed, watching Lilith close her eyes and try again to explore the operational rules of the sun’s divine power, her small face turning very red, as if she were exerting a great effort.
She supported her chin with one hand, staring at Lilith’s appearance. When the system thought she wouldn’t answer this question, Xu Jiao suddenly talked about another matter:
“When I was very young…”
“I can’t quite remember how old I was, but someone once taught me very patiently like this. She told me all the beautiful things in this world. At that time, I didn’t understand many of her words, only clumsily imitated.”
“Later, I slowly understood, but she was no longer there.”
“Initially, I wrote these characters as a kind of obsession, remembrance, and tribute. Their growth experiences carried my imprint, and they all had her face, but as I kept writing, the characters would always lose control…”
“Things that lose control are like defective products eliminated from the production line, only to be thrown into the trash can… I kept writing, kept repeating, yet could never find an identical person.”
“Until Feng Qingyu told me, she is herself, not a substitute for anyone else. I vaguely felt that sentence was not just said to me by her, but something all the protagonists wanted to say—”
“I created them, gave them life and stories, but I should not arrange everything for them. Since they cannot be replicated, I can only learn to be like that person back then, teaching them what I should teach, and the rest they should write themselves.”
At that time, whether it’s a BE or HE, Xu Jiao will gladly accept this ending.
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The system was quiet for a moment, then, with a calm mechanical voice, answered: “Your information has been recorded! It seems the deliberately distorted endings before were due to obsession, but now that you have realized it, I think you are probably not far from successfully leaving. I should wish you all the best in advance.”
As the system said this, Xu Jiao should feel happy, but there was little joy in her eyes, still that plain look, seemingly neither anxious about being thrown into these books nor happy about escaping such fate.
She didn’t respond to the system’s words, just saw Lilith’s rune-writing action tremble, and timely raised her hand to support her elbow, then calmly continued watching beside her.
Xu Jiao was so earnest, like a qualified teacher.
……
Lilith, whether eating or sleeping, was constantly thinking about that spell, almost day and night silently reciting that syllable and copying the writing method in her mind.
But she didn’t neglect what she needed to do.
While practicing spells, she learned from the female officials in the temple how to clean Xu Jiao’s room, and even took it upon herself to plant a cute little plant at the window. The green tree sprout swayed in the wind, looking very cute.
Recently, Xu Jiao was in the temple reading various records related to gods in the history of the Miracle Continent, getting up early every day without fail, then staying in the God Tower until late at night before returning.
That day, when she returned, she saw the small green sprout at the window and raised her hand to lightly touch the freshly emerged green leaf with her fingertip. Then Xu Jiao went to wash up and lay down to sleep on the bed.
Recently, the class hours at the Sun Academy have been very busy, so Grace and Anna have not had time to pick on their messy little sister, Lilith. Fortunately, today is Prayer Day, and the academy gave all the students a holiday, allowing them to go home to visit their relatives or go out for a stroll.
Grace and Anna finally found an opportunity.
They now serve the saintess and have the qualification to enter and exit the temple. Except for Xu Jiao’s room, which they cannot enter, Lilith’s sleeping place is still easy for them to find.
When Lilith was woken up by cold water splashed by the two sisters, she was still a bit dazed. Until the cold water droplets fell from the top of her head, dripping onto her thin nightgown, she was stunned for a second, and the next moment—
Grace and Anna had already each grabbed one of her ears, leaned in with smiling eyes, and said in a synchronized manner:
“Look, our little witch has already become so beautiful.”
“This milk-like skin, so white and tender, just from eating and drinking well for a few days beside the saintess, you can actually have such beauty?”
“Lilith, we are one family, such good things cannot be kept private, remember what Mother said? Everything of yours is ours.”
The two of them, one sentence after another, pinched Lilith’s ears red, then grabbed her hair and pulled her back hard, making Lilith have to open her eyes wide to look at them, her eyes filled with terror.
Anna suddenly saw the beautiful white lace dress on her, curled her lips, and said, “This dress of yours is really pretty, sister likes it a lot, why not give it to me now?”
Lilith’s skin’s fine hairs all stood up.
Just as Grace echoed a sentence, wanting to tear her dress together with Anna, the hand Lilith had hidden behind her, continuously waving, finally completed the last stroke—
Suddenly, indoors, golden light burst forth.
Immediately following, those golden characters floated in the air and, according to Lilith’s intention, flew onto Anna. Grace looked in astonishment as the golden light flashed, and the next second, her sister Anna, who had been disciplining the disobedient fellow with her, unexpectedly turned into a brown-haired pig!
And there were two big front teeth beside the nose.
The brown-haired pig’s tail curled, seemingly not reacting to what had happened in front of it, looked up at the suddenly enlarged whole world, opened its mouth wanting to say something, but snorted loudly.
Anna: “!”
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She realized something, looked down at her own body in horror, and after seeing those coarse and sparse hairs and ugly big spotted fat short legs, she suddenly let out an unpleasant pig squeal, then began to rush around the room in chaos. She wanted to ask Lilith what this wicked woman had done to her, but what came out was a series of pig squeals.
Grace was also dumbfounded by this change, her eyes wide open like a goldfish, staring at Anna the pig, who was running wildly around the room, bumping into the bookshelf and then the door, crashing things in the room into disarray. Then she suddenly looked at Lilith as if seeing the devil.
Lilith, fearing Grace would be terrified to the extreme and settle accounts with her, had already started drawing a second spell as soon as she successfully turned Anna into a pig. Now seeing Grace looking, the second golden light had also taken shape, heading in Grace’s direction—
“No!”
……
In a small room where the female officials rest, two small pigs with similar fur color successively broke through the door and fled toward an unknown place. Lilith was still troubled by the broken door, looked up and found, beside the hall door where the saintess was, a delicate figure standing there, staring at her.
She blushed, jogged over, bent down, and said, “I am very sorry to disturb your rest.”
Xu Jiao, thinking of the scene she had just witnessed, with a smile rising in her eyes, muttered, “Seems like there is still one pig missing…” One main character short of completing the story of 《The Three Little Pigs》.
Lilith did not hear clearly, looked up blankly, “What did you say?”
Xu Jiao shook her head, “Nothing, I said… you did well, but tonight it seems like you might have to sleep in the cold wind.”
Lilith shyly smiled at her, “It’s nothing, I’m already used to it.”
She did not tell Xu Jiao that besides the cold wind, her blanket had also been soaked.
Xu Jiao raised her hand, summoned a warm breeze to brush away all the dampness from Lilith’s shoulders, and then said to her, “If you don’t mind, come sleep at my place tonight.”
Lilith: “!”
Her toes curled up nervously, and she shook her head abruptly, “This, this won’t do…”
Xu Jiao saw her nervousness and added, “I didn’t say you have to sleep in the same bed with me, why so nervous?”
Lilith: “Eh?”
She followed Xu Jiao inside and saw the other casually pull towards the outside of the window. Immediately, a black soft bed, completely out of place with the Sun Temple, appeared in front of her. Lilith saw the kind and beautiful saintess raise an eyebrow at her:
“Want to try?”
Lilith: “!”
She climbed up in disbelief, only feeling as if her whole body was in the clouds, light and incredibly soft, yet indeed did not fall off this bed.
Looking closely, there was even a faint silver light flickering on the bed, like stars plucked down with the clouds.
Xu Jiao gently patted her head, “Good night.”
Lilith also carefully said ‘good night’ to the Saintess.
This was the softest bed she had ever slept in. She lay in that softness, not daring to move, fearing her movements might disturb the sleep of the other person in the room, even holding her breath.
She fell asleep nervously yet happily, feeling there had never been a moment in her life better than this.
Vaguely, a thought appeared in her mind. If even the Saintess is so wonderful, what would God be like?
She dismissed the thought before she could find an answer.
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She thought.
Although she had never seen God, the Saintess was her God, an existence she admired more than the Sun God.
With this thought, she fell asleep.
She had another strange dream, in which she seemed to become the small vine on the windowsill, growing continuously in the wind, stretching her body freely into every corner. She was so happy until—
She encountered a soft person.
Lilith couldn’t see the person’s appearance, only instinctively felt she should like them, so she wrapped herself around them, forgetting that her hands and feet were now soft green vines. Thus, the vine with tender green leaves wrapped around that moon-white wrist and ankle, circling upward…
Suddenly, she didn’t know which hot spot she touched, only heard the person below make a nasal sound.
Lilith intuitively learned how to please the other.
The tender newborn vine climbed toward the wild berries in the cliff, encircling them, and then moved slowly toward the warmth. During this, a narrow passage in the mountain ridge broke a part of her, and light-colored sap flowed from the break…
The face of the person on the cloud bed gradually turned rosy, as if having a very good dream, in which someone hummed with nasal sounds, singing all night long.