Little Alpaca – Chapter 183
by Little PandaVolume 5: Tribulation of All Beings
A Little Reluctant.
To be able to fall asleep in You Yan’s arms in her human form was truly a first for Yi Qiu.
The You Yan of the past didn’t like, or perhaps wasn’t accustomed to, such intimacy.
After all, for a very long stretch of time, You Yan had always been alone, and she maintained a certain guardedness toward everyone.
In Yi Qiu’s eyes, the fact that she could come to this world and draw closer, step by step, to such a person was like a dream, filled everywhere with a sense of “unreality.”
This unreality had left her feeling dazed and bewildered on more than one occasion. But at this very moment, with her head pillowed on You Yan’s somewhat thin shoulder, so close she could clearly hear every breath and heartbeat, she had a distinct awareness that all of this was real.
She loved this feeling. Loved it so much that she couldn’t fall asleep for a long time. Even just listening to the soft breaths and heartbeats in the quiet night filled her with extraordinary joy.
That night, she herself didn’t even know when she finally drifted into dreams.
When she woke the next day, the moment Yi Qiu opened her eyes, she saw You Yan still lying beside her.
This was the first time she had woken from a dream to find You Yan still there.
She was still pillowed on You Yan’s arm, and one of her non-human legs under the skirt had, at some point, been draped over You Yan’s thigh in an extremely audacious posture.
This sleeping position was very wrong, because it seemed she had been pressing down on You Yan the entire night.
Thinking of this, Yi Qiu couldn’t help but lift her head slightly.
You Yan was clearly already awake. The moment she sensed Yi Qiu’s movement, she opened her eyes and gave her a look that was not quite a smile.
Yi Qiu subconsciously pulled back her small, furry leg, her eyes lowered, not daring to speak.
“Awake?”
“…Mhm!”
Yi Qiu responded softly, her gaze somewhat evasive as she sat up in bed, her eyes filled with boundless shyness.
You Yan also sat up quietly. After smoothing her sleep-mussed hair with her fingers, she casually rubbed her right shoulder, which had been pinned down all night.
Yi Qiu caught the movement out of the corner of her eye and said with a guilty conscience, “Did I hurt you?”
“What do you think?”
“I’m sorry…” Yi Qiu lowered her eyes and pressed her lips together.
That sudden rhetorical question sounded for all the world like a complaint full of dissatisfaction after being pinned down for a night—You Yan, she thought, must not have slept very comfortably.
But just then, the person beside her used her cool fingers to lightly touch her pointed ear.
The sudden contact made the little ear tremble slightly.
Then, those five cool fingers traveled down from her small ear, gently combing through the long hair that cascaded over her shoulders.
You Yan’s movements were very gentle, much more so than the last time she had combed her hair.
“You’re very light,” You Yan said softly, her tone gentle. “I was just teasing you.”
Hearing this, Yi Qiu couldn’t stop the corners of her mouth from turning up.
She sat quietly on the bed, her head lowered slightly, allowing You Yan to sit beside her and braid her long hair bit by bit.
“Why do you like braiding my hair like this so much?” Yi Qiu couldn’t help but ask.
“You don’t like it?” You Yan asked in return.
Yi Qiu quickly shook her head. “No, I’m just curious. You haven’t braided someone else’s hair like this before, have you?”
You Yan chuckled, and after a moment, she replied softly, “Back in Moshui, I saw a little girl on the street with this hairstyle. I thought it looked quite easy, and very well-behaved.”
Yi Qiu: “You see me as a little girl?”
You Yan: “What else?”
Yi Qiu was momentarily speechless. On second thought, it was true.
In terms of age, her twenty-eight years didn’t even amount to a fraction of You Yan’s.
In terms of appearance, her current body was indeed a bit on the young side. In ancient times, she would be of marriageable age, but in the modern era, she’d be a college freshman at most.
Yi Qiu thought for a moment, then pressed, “So you braid my hair like this just because it’s easy?”
“Mhm.” You Yan answered without hesitation. “I don’t know how to do any others.”
Yi Qiu pouted and couldn’t help but bite her lip lightly, thinking to herself that this was far too casual.
She had originally thought this was a unique preference of You Yan’s. Turns out it was just because she’d seen it before and it was simple.
Forget it, forget it. Even if she didn’t braid it like this, I’d only know how to put it in a ponytail anyway. I won’t look down on this bird woman.
With that thought, Yi Qiu couldn’t resist turning back to look at You Yan, asking curiously, “How come you didn’t wake up earlier than me today?”
You Yan replied, “You were leaning on me, and I saw you were sleeping soundly. I was afraid I’d wake you if I got up.”
Hearing this, Yi Qiu’s heart warmed. Her eyes curved into crescents as she lowered her head, secretly delighted.
You Yan put on her shoes and socks and got out of bed. Turning back, she asked, “What do you want to eat?”
Yi Qiu answered in a small voice, “Anything is fine.”
As she spoke, she followed You Yan and hopped off the bed.
The moment her feet touched the floor, she subconsciously curled her toes, then looked down and straightened her skirt, trying her best to cover her non-human feet.
This appearance is really too unsightly.
If that little shimei from Huamo Pavilion comes today, she’ll definitely be scared by me… Maybe I should just turn back into an alpaca then?
“If you’re afraid of being seen, you can try wrapping them with medicinal bandages,” You Yan said softly, standing by the door. “Just say you’re injured.”
“Oh, right!” Yi Qiu came back to her senses and nodded quickly, whispering, “Then, when that little shimei comes to deliver things today, can you help me ask her to send some medicinal bandages over later?”
“Mhm.” You Yan said, then turned and walked towards the kitchen.
Yi Qiu couldn’t help but stare blankly at the half-open door, lost in thought.
She had merely stood up and stomped her feet, yet You Yan knew what she was thinking. Were her thoughts that easy to read?
As she thought this, Yi Qiu’s pointed little ears drooped unconsciously.
After breakfast, she sat by the stove in the room and began to cultivate peacefully, just like any other day.
After her recent training, her control over her spiritual power was much better than before. She no longer needed You Yan to give her any “silence packages.”
All she wanted to do now was cultivate. She wanted to quickly hide these ears, this tail, and these hoof-like legs and feet—this appearance was just too strange. She didn’t even dare to go out for a walk anymore.
Not long after noon, the little shimei from Huamo Pavilion hurried over with a roll of medicinal bandages. She had also kindly brought some topical ointments and powders, and stood outside the house to inquire solicitously about their well-being for a while.1
Unfortunately, You Yan wasn’t having any of it. After a couple of perfunctory “mhm”s, she coldly sent the enthusiastic girl away.
Before long, You Yan had wrapped both of Yi Qiu’s little hooves. They looked round and plump, like two little zongzi.2
When she was done, Yi Qiu looked down at her feet and muttered, “They still look weird.”
“It’s fine,” You Yan said. “When you were recovering in Xi City, your feet were wrapped like this too.”
“They weren’t this round…” Yi Qiu frowned.
“You can’t tell,” You Yan said flatly.
Since You Yan said you couldn’t tell, Yi Qiu didn’t dwell on it any longer.
The idle little days on the mountain passed by, one after another.
On the night of the Winter Solstice, a disciple from the Xianlu Sect specially delivered two large bowls of steaming hot dumplings.
It had been a very, very long time since Yi Qiu had eaten them. She devoured one bowl in one go, and it still wasn’t enough. Seeing that You Yan didn’t seem to like them much, she brazenly “helped” her eat some more.
“You like these a lot?”
“Mhm! Where I’m from, everyone eats dumplings on the Winter Solstice. There’s a saying—” Yi Qiu’s eyes crinkled into a smile as she casually recited, “If you don’t eat a bowl of dumplings on the Winter Solstice, your ears will freeze off and no one will care.”3
Hearing this, You Yan nodded thoughtfully.
“But I haven’t eaten them in a long time,” Yi Qiu added. “Last year’s Winter Solstice, I was working overtime. I didn’t get to eat any at the company, and I didn’t get to eat any when I got home… I never thought I’d get to eat them here.”
“Company? Overtime?”
“It means it’s time to rest, but you’re still working on the boss’s turf.”
“Can’t you just not do it?”
“Of course not!” Yi Qiu shook her head and smiled. “But I can now.”
Because in my boss’s eyes, I’ll soon be a corpse…
Once the mission in this world was over and time in that world began to flow again, in just a few days, she would go from being a corpse to a box of ashes, buried in a cemetery plot, with a tombstone erected over it.
Everyone would surely be puzzled. How could a person who was usually in decent health suddenly die in her rented apartment?
She wondered how many days would pass before someone discovered she was dead.
She didn’t keep in close contact with her family, so they probably wouldn’t call her. Maybe only the people at her company would notice she was gone… She hoped that by the time she was found, she hadn’t started to stink yet.
At this thought, Yi Qiu couldn’t help but let out a long sigh.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing…” Yi Qiu thought for a moment, then asked, “You Yan, I’ve never seen you make dumplings. Do you not know how?”
“I don’t,” You Yan shook her head.
Hearing this, Yi Qiu couldn’t help but raise her eyebrows. “So there’s something you don’t know how to do.”
“Mhm.” You Yan didn’t deny it.
“I do! I can teach you!” Yi Qiu said, patting her left shoulder proudly. “How about it, want to learn?”
“Alright,” You Yan agreed, reaching out to ruffle Yi Qiu’s hair.
Yi Qiu ducked her head to the side and looked up in surprise. “You actually agreed? I thought you wouldn’t want to learn from me.”
You Yan couldn’t help but smile. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Yi Qiu thought for a moment and said seriously, “Last time, when I said I’d teach you to sing ‘Catching Loaches,’4 you didn’t want to learn.”
You Yan just shook her head. “I can’t sing well.”
“True.” Yi Qiu nodded, ate the last dumpling in her bowl, and stretched languidly with a long, contented sigh. She exclaimed loudly, “Your singing is truly awful.”
“You’re probably the only one who dares to say that,” You Yan said with a smile.
Yi Qiu giggled, then got up and walked to the window, gazing at the night sky outside.
“You Yan.”
“Hm?”
“Winter is half over,” Yi Qiu said in a low voice.
The wind howled outside. If one weren’t listening carefully, such a faint sound would have been swept away by the gale.
But You Yan heard it. She stood up and walked over to Yi Qiu, gently wrapping her in an embrace from behind.
“Don’t be afraid.” You Yan whispered into Yi Qiu’s ear, “I’m here.”
“I’m not afraid,” Yi Qiu said, then fell into a brief silence.
She trusted You Yan, so she wasn’t afraid of the dangers they were about to face, nor was she afraid that she wouldn’t be able to complete the System’s mission.
She was just a little dazed, finding it a little hard to believe that this was the final plot node.
She was just… suddenly a little reluctant to let this go.
Footnotes
- A Chinese idiom, xūhánwènnuǎn, meaning to inquire solicitously about someone’s well-being; literally “to ask about the cold and the warmth.”
- Zongzi are traditional Chinese rice dumplings made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. They are typically pyramid-shaped.
- A popular folk saying in Northern China. Eating dumplings, which are shaped like ears, on the Winter Solstice is believed to prevent one’s ears from getting frostbitten.
- “Catching Loaches” (Zhuō Níqiū) is a popular Chinese children’s song from the 1980s, often associated with childhood nostalgia and simpler rural life.
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