Little Alpaca – Chapter 118

Volume 3: Old Tales of Kunlun

Really? I Don’t Believe You.

Regarding the matter of You Yan’s fall into demonhood back then, Yi Qiu had wanted to learn more about the situation from the System. But after asking again and again, she discovered the System was still the same old system; even though it had been updated and upgraded, it was still just an encyclopedia missing chapters and pages, and wasn’t much more useful than before.

For example, when was the Queen Mother of the West’s¹ birthday celebration? What the hell was that mirror You Yan mentioned? What happened to You Yan’s father later on? And was Little Red Flower² still alive?

Faced with this series of questions, the System only gave two types of answers.

【Sorry, no relevant information could be retrieved.】

【Side quest plot. Host, please explore on your own.】

“What use are you?” Although Yi Qiu said this, she no longer felt angry in her heart because of such a response.

After all, in the past, she had always felt this System was utterly useless. It wasn’t until she was truly disconnected from it that she discovered that no matter how useless the System was, it was still an illustrated guide and could give her a hint at critical moments.

This was so much better than her running around like a headless fly.

As Yi Qiu thought this, she lay on the table and pondered for a moment, and suddenly thought of a question.

“I want to know, You Yan and I were sucked into the Floating Dream Pearl together. You could even say my consciousness dissipated earlier, so I entered the Floating Dream Pearl before You Yan. Then why was it that I ultimately entered her dream, and not she mine?” Yi Qiu said, frowning, “Or, why weren’t we separated?”

If entering the Floating Dream Pearl’s illusion realm was equivalent to falling into a nightmare, then since she had entered, why didn’t she enter her own nightmare?

And don’t even try to tell her it was all because she was big-hearted³, that big-hearted people usually don’t have any nightmares with killing power—she would never believe such a perfunctory answer.

She knew better than anyone that she had plenty of nightmares. If she were to live in her nightmares forever, then in the end, if she wasn’t crushed to the point of collapse by the pressure from her family and what was behind her, she would definitely be slaughtered and cooked in different ways by the various characters in 《Thin, Withered Branch》.

Just thinking about it was terrifying!

【This is all because of a spiritual power barrier.】

“What’s a spiritual power barrier?”

【Before the Host entered the Floating Dream Pearl’s illusion realm, You Yan had already used powerful spiritual energy to protect your entire body. Because of this, the Floating Dream Pearl did not detect the Host’s existence, and thus treated the Host as a part of You Yan’s consciousness, throwing you both into this dreamscape together.】

So that’s how it was…

So on that night, not only did You Yan not abandon her, she even expended her own spiritual energy to protect her from that damn pearl. It was because of this that she was able to remain conscious and arrive here, instead of drifting alone in her own nightmares until her soul was damaged and her consciousness dissipated.

Before danger arrived, if You Yan could protect an alpaca, she shouldn’t have been unable to protect herself.

But in the end, You Yan still failed to protect herself, only because her injuries had not yet healed, and she used all her remaining strength to protect that weak little alpaca.

When Yi Qiu thought of this, the corners of her eyes couldn’t help but sting.

You Yan treated her like this, yet at the beginning, she had actually misunderstood You Yan in her heart, thinking You Yan had really abandoned her and run off on her own.

In the past, no matter what happened, it was always You Yan silently protecting her by her side. This time, she decided, no matter what she had to face, she had to find a way to wake You Yan up.

If this was an endlessly cycling nightmare, she would try again and again. She refused to believe that she couldn’t wake that bird woman up.

The little alpaca closed her eyes and took a long, deep breath.

Following the “creak” of a door, light suddenly shone from behind her, spilling over the little alpaca’s soft, white fur.

Yi Qiu squinted and looked back at You Yan standing in the doorway. She saw her raise an eyebrow and say to her with a soft laugh, “Shall we go find Little Red Flower?”

After a moment of staring blankly, the little alpaca grunted “en,” hopped up from the ground, and trotted gleefully to You Yan’s side.

She tilted her fluffy head up and gently nuzzled You Yan’s waist. You Yan seemed to feel a bit ticklish, shrinking back a little while laughingly ruffling Yi Qiu’s head and asking curiously, “What’s gotten into you?”

Yi Qiu shook her head and didn’t answer.

She didn’t know what was wrong with her; she just suddenly really wanted to hug her bird woman. But she didn’t have human hands and couldn’t embrace anyone. She could only, like this, nuzzle against You Yan a few times.

This was fine too. Between people, a sudden hug is always likely to startle someone.

But for a small animal to nuzzle a human it likes is a very common thing——perhaps this was animal etiquette.

As Yi Qiu thought this, she saw You Yan crouch down in front of her and instantly pounced onto her thin shoulders and back.

“You Yan!” the little alpaca called the young woman’s name softly.

She tried her best to bend her neck down, letting her fluffy head hang, and managed to bring her mouth close to You Yan’s ear.

“En?” the young woman also responded softly.

She unconsciously shrank her neck, as if the fluff by her ear was tickling her, but her eyes were filled with laughter.

“I was wrong,” Yi Qiu said in a small voice.

“Why the sudden apology?” You Yan couldn’t help but lift her lips into a smile.

“That bowl that fell in the courtyard, I didn’t do it on purpose. I definitely didn’t do it because I was throwing a tantrum…” Yi Qiu said with a serious expression. “I was trying to help, but I don’t have hands, do I? I can only bite it with my mouth, but I’m not a dog. Halfway through, my teeth started to hurt, and the bowl fell. Real—” Before she could finish, she saw You Yan’s eyebrows curve as she laughed out loud. It seemed she really didn’t mind anymore.

I have to say, little You Yan was really easy to coax, so easy to coax that she was just like her former self—angry one second, and the next, able to reconcile with that outrageous bird woman for a bit of food.

Sometimes she would even wonder, why was she so easy to coax? Clearly, she wasn’t like this when she used to argue with people online.

Now, she more or less understood.

It turned out, it wasn’t that she was easy to coax, it was just that the person coaxing her was You Yan.

If a person’s joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness could be so easily dominated by another person again and again, then that person must be very special and very important to her.

As Yi Qiu thought this, she couldn’t help but nuzzle You Yan’s slightly blushing cheek. After she was done, her long neck was bent so uncomfortably that she rested it back on top of You Yan’s head.

Kunlun Mountain was very large. Even for You Yan, running from home to the base of that large, dead tree would take at least more than half a shichen⁴.

Yi Qiu and Little Red Flower had been “roommates” for two months, after all. After not seeing each other for one night, she actually missed her a little.

Holding onto this feeling of longing, she lay on You Yan’s back and urged her on for a long time, “Hurry up, You Yan, I miss Little Red Flower, and Little Red Flower must miss me too!”

You Yan didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. After a long while, she said aggrievedly, “Before, you didn’t see me every night, and I never saw you miss me the way you miss Little Red Flower…”

“Nonsense! Didn’t Little Red Flower say it? I often have nightmares and call out your name!” the little alpaca said, pressing her chin firmly on top of You Yan’s head and adding with dissatisfaction, “And you call that not missing you?”

“I was wrong, I was wrong!” You Yan said, her tone becoming much happier. “Speaking of which, you slept very peacefully last night and didn’t have any nightmares. Little Red Flower wasn’t wrong; as long as I bring you home, you won’t have nightmares anymore.”

“Oh! Yesterday you said you’d been thinking about it for a long time, and today it’s become something Little Red Flower said?” Yi Qiu said, unable to resist pulling her two front hooves together to lightly squeeze You Yan’s neck, and added, feigning anger, “So, you suddenly decided to bring me home all because Little Red Flower suggested it?”

“No, not entirely. I really did think about it for a long time too. I was afraid you wouldn’t be willing…”

“I knew it, Little Red Flower has wanted to drive me away for a long time, and you didn’t sincerely want to bring me home either!” Yi Qiu shouted huffily, but there wasn’t a trace of anger in her eyes. She just stretched her neck forward with great interest, her gaze following the movement to glance down at You Yan. Seeing her flustered expression, she couldn’t hold it in and couldn’t help but snicker.

The moment the laughter reached her ears, You Yan was stunned for a moment. When she came to her senses, she frowned and said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, “Yi Qiu! Are you messing with me?”

“How could I?”

“You scared me! I thought you were angry again!”

“What do you mean, ‘again’? Are you saying I have a bad temper?” What’s with this “again”? The little alpaca doesn’t get angry that easily!

“No ‘again’, no ‘again’…”

“You think I’m always getting angry!”

“No, absolutely not!”

Seeing You Yan deny it so readily, Yi Qiu laughed out loud——the bird woman from before would never have spoken to her so nicely. If she could really get out of this illusion realm, the little alpaca was afraid she would miss the treatment and status she enjoyed here.

Hearing this, You Yan couldn’t help but follow her laughter and look up at the sky.

She ran through the mountains with a big white furball on her back, her steps still light and nimble.

Lying on You Yan’s back, Yi Qiu found it hard to imagine that such an innocent and kind child would one day in the near future, because of some damn mirror, be sentenced to death by the Celestial Realm, flee all the way to the Demon Realm, and ultimately become a generation’s cold-blooded and ruthless Demon Venerable.

The moment she thought of this, she couldn’t help but use her two front legs to hug You Yan a little tighter.

Before she knew it, the surrounding scenery became familiar. Not long after, Yi Qiu saw the tall, withered tree.

After getting close to the large tree, You Yan placed the little alpaca on the ground. The little alpaca stretched her body a bit and hopped toward the tree hollow.

But the next second, just as she pushed aside the “door curtain” and charged in, she quickly backed out of it again.

“What’s wrong?” You Yan asked, hurrying to catch up.

She lifted a corner of the curtain and glanced inside the hollow. Unable to hold it in, she let out a “pfft” of laughter.

When they left yesterday afternoon, there was only a small web in the far corner of this tree hollow.

But at this moment, the hollow looked as if no one had lived in it for decades. On the table, on the stool, on the bed—cobwebs spun by Little Red Flower hung everywhere.

It was clear that in order to redecorate her “home,” Little Red Flower had toiled all night and was even now still hanging in mid-air, pulling a strand of silk and struggling hard.

The little alpaca, however, felt her heart stop. She instantly shrank into the clean kitchen to the side, hugging a beam to calm her nerves.

Soon, Little Red Flower came pattering out of the tree hollow, stood between You Yan and Yi Qiu and spun in a circle, then stuck out a little leg and began to write.

——Yi Qiu, you’re here. You weren’t here last night, I was a little unused to it!

Yi Qiu glanced at Little Red Flower, her expression somewhat twisted.

After a brief silence, she also stuck out her hoof and carved a line of words into the ground with her toes.

——Really? I don’t believe you.

---

---