“Soft and floppy?” Hearing such a description, Shen Huaiyun’s curiosity was piqued, and his desire to enter Shen Tangmo’s mental landscape grew even stronger. He grabbed Shen Tangmo’s wrist.
“Can I go into your mental landscape to take a look?”
The young man thought for a moment, reconfirmed the state of his spiritual power and mental landscape, then nodded in agreement.
“Come, I’ll take you in.”
Guiding him gently, Shen Tangmo placed one hand on the back of Shen Huaiyun’s head, leaned forward, and pressed their foreheads together.
Their spiritual powers met at this point, with the blue-violet strands hooking onto the dark strands and pulling them toward their source.
Though Shen Huaiyun felt puzzled after all, simply connecting their spiritual powers should have sufficed, so why the need for physical contact? curiosity and the urge to explore prevailed. He brushed aside this small doubt and moved forward.
As he delved deeper, the dark strand was instantly engulfed by the surging blue-violet spiritual power. By the time his senses recovered, he found himself beneath a massive pear blossom tree.
He leaned against the gnarled roots at the base of the trunk, his eyes filled with nothing but snow-white petals drifting in the wind.
A gentle morning glow spread from the horizon, and a large white fox adorned with colorful hues leaped down from the branches. It shook off the petals clinging to its fur, then plucked a pear blossom branch and placed it in Shen Huaiyun’s palm.
“Brother?” Shen Huaiyun grasped the flower branch, but before he could utter another word, the fox coiled around him, burying him entirely in its fluffy, soft fur.
Shen Tangmo’s voice, echoing from far above, drifted down: “It will take you up.”
So it wasn’t Shen Tangmo himself? Could this be a part of his spiritual entity?
Though Shen Huaiyun couldn’t separate a puppy-like spiritual entity on his own, he had heard of such forms. It was said that some people could even manifest them outside their bodies to aid in battle.
The fox whimpered softly, nudging its head forward to lick his face, making him laugh uncontrollably. Unable to withstand such overwhelming affection, he gently pushed it away. “Alright, alright, be good. Let me pet your ears.”
It obediently stopped, flattening its ears into airplane ears, allowing Shen Huaiyun to reach out and rub the tips of its ears. Its large tail wagged joyfully without pause.
The texture felt even better than that of a real fox, and it was three times Shen Huaiyun’s size. The boy couldn’t resist such an enormous temptation and hugged its neck, stroking it vigorously.
Unbeknownst to him, fluffy dog ears and a dog tail instantly materialized on the top of his head and at the base of his spine, the tail wagging so fast it left afterimages. The large fox excitedly used its own tail to hook his, while Shen Huaiyun, lost in the fluffiness, remained oblivious for a moment.
“Ah…” A sigh of resignation drifted over. The fox deftly extricated itself, grabbed Shen Huaiyun’s collar with its teeth, and tossed him onto its back.
The sudden weightlessness made the boy instinctively cling to the fox. It flicked its tail and leaped onto the stone steps of the mountain path, running upward.
Only then did Shen Huaiyun realize that the pear blossom tree grew halfway up the mountain, with a sea of misty clouds below.
Within Shen Tangmo’s mental landscape was actually a small mountain with exquisite scenery.
The fox carried him, climbing and leaping along the stone steps.
They passed through lush bamboo groves, crossed a babbling stream, and traversed an open grassland. Finally, they reached the mountaintop, where a small house with blue tiles and white walls, a simple pavilion, and Shen Tangmo leisurely eating fruit inside the pavilion came into view.
The snow-white fox came to a halt. Shen Huaiyun slid off its back and steadied himself, only to see it leap toward the young man, dissolving into a stream of mental energy that flowed back into his body. Immediately, Shen Tangmo’s spiritual form sprouted fox ears and a fox tail.
He beckoned Shen Huaiyun over and handed him a segment of orange. “The view is quite nice, isn’t it?”
“Of course! But… Brother, why is there a mountain in your mental landscape?” The boy sat down opposite him, his furry ears twitching slightly.
Shen Huaiyun’s own mental landscape had only begun to take shape after Shen Tangmo pieced it together fragment by fragment. For now, it was merely an empty forest clearing, somewhat reminiscent of the site of their wilderness training years ago, though without the cooking stove or tents.
According to what he had been taught in school, the internalized environment of one’s mental landscape was deeply connected to their state of mind and life experiences. His forest clearing stemmed from that unexpected incident years ago, so what had led Shen Tangmo to construct this mountain?
Shen Tangmo gazed into the distance as a fox-shaped silhouette of mental energy rose from his body, taking in the scenery along the way.
“Actually, when I first completed my differentiation, this place was nothing but a barren stone mountain no pear blossom tree, no bamboo grove, no stream.”
As he recalled the past, the silhouette transformed into the image of the rocky mountain.
Shen Huaiyun watched him intently, his ears turning toward him, the tip of his tail lifted.
“I once read a line of poetry: ‘Lofty are the mountains, reaching the heavens.’ Back then, I wanted to help cure your illness, and I also longed for us to stand side by side on the front lines like our parents, fighting bravely and living up to expectations.”
“Mountains are solid, unwavering for millennia. I hoped I could become a mountain reliable and steadfast.”
“But later…” Thinking back to those days, he lowered his eyes with a bitter smile. “When you lay unconscious in the hospital bed, all I wished for was your safety and peace for a lifetime.”
Cool fingertips were enveloped by another hand. Shen Huaiyun’s expression reflected in his eyes, and he couldn’t help but freeze for a moment.
“Brother, I can protect myself now, and I can protect you too.”
That was what the boy had intended to say, but as he met those eyes, the words that came out were: “Brother, in the future, let’s find a house with a pear blossom tree in the yard and live there together, okay?”
Hearing this, the young man smiled softly and reached out with his other hand to ruffle Shen Huaiyun’s ears. “Alright. I hadn’t finished earlier the reason it became what it is now is precisely because I want to live a peaceful and stable life with you in the future.”
“Enough about me. It’s rare for you to come in. Let’s take a walk together.”
“But remember, don’t ask to enter others’ mental landscapes in the future. Only guides and sentinels who are close and trust each other can freely enter each other’s mental landscapes.”
Shen Huaiyun asked curiously, “Then when guides perform treatments, they don’t enter the mental landscape either?”
“When guides perform treatments, they usually observe from the outside, repairing the entire mental landscape without entering it.”
“I see. But you used to.”
“Ahem. That was different.”
The two walked together in the mountains for a long time, even picking a few pear blossom branches to bring back to the mountaintop cabin and arrange in a vase as decoration. It wasn’t until Shen Tangmo reminded him that it was time to leave that Shen Huaiyun reluctantly exited Shen Tangmo’s mental landscape.
Picking up his phone to check the time, he noticed two missed calls from Zhu Ji.
He called back. “Zhu Ji? What’s up? Sorry, we were busy earlier and didn’t catch your calls.”
The voice on the other end still sounded as usual, light and relaxed: “It’s nothing, nothing. I just wanted to tell you that I’m leaving for the watchtower earlier than planned.”
“Earlier? Did you request it yourself?” Shen Tangmo asked.
Zhu Ji fiddled with the trinket in his hand: “Yeah, my part-time job ended, and I’ve got nothing else going on. Might as well head to the watchtower sooner saves me from staying at home and getting nagged.”
“I’m leaving next Tuesday. You said you’d see me off don’t you dare stand me up!”
“Of course not.”
Everything continued as usual, the calendar pages turning one after another, and soon it was time for Zhu Ji to leave for the Mengzhou Tower. Although they had originally agreed to meet at the high-speed rail station, Shen Huaiyun and Shen Tangmo arrived early with gifts, waiting outside his door. As soon as Zhu Ji stepped out, he saw them standing by the car, waving at him.
“Let’s go, we’ll take you to the station.”
Zhu Ji was momentarily stunned, then pulled his suitcase over and slung an arm around Shen Tangmo’s shoulder: “You two should’ve told me earlier! I already booked a ride!”
Even as he said this, the smile on his face never faded.
Once in the car, Shen Huaiyun handed him a gift box from the passenger seat. Muttering, “You didn’t have to bring anything,” he deftly unwrapped it. Inside was a Gundam model he loved, along with a notebook Shen Huaiyun had compiled with tips for dealing with anomalies.
“Take the Gundam to the watchtower, and you won’t have to worry about some kid breaking it at home,” Shen Tangmo teased.
Uncharacteristically, Zhu Ji, the chatterbox, didn’t respond with a witty retort. Instead, he carefully rewrapped the gift and tucked it into his backpack, wiping his face in a spot hidden from the rearview mirror.
It wasn’t as if they’d never see each other again, but his heart felt heavy yet strangely light. He found crying too sentimental and embarrassing, so he told himself it was just excitement just a few drops of physiological saline.
Twenty-one years old he was a man now. Men don’t cry easily. How could he cry just because his friends were seeing him off and giving him gifts? Physiological saline, definitely just physiological saline, Zhu Ji thought to himself.
He quickly lifted his head again, composed and cheerful, chatting and laughing with the two of them. They talked about everything, from the ridiculous customers he’d encountered during his part-time job to the mysterious bugs and heart-wrenching plot twists in the latest game he’d been playing.
The high-speed rail station soon came into view. The two helped him unload his luggage and pass through security, accompanying him all the way to the waiting hall. The timing was perfect just over ten minutes after they arrived, the announcement came that Zhu Ji’s train was boarding.
“Have a safe trip! You can read that notebook of tips on the way!”
Zhu Ji hurried toward the ticket gate, dragging his luggage behind him. The voices of the two calling after him cut through the crowd and reached his ears.
He pulled out his ID card, scanned his face to enter the station, raised his arm in a wave, and headed toward the platform. He knew they could see him.
As the familiar figure grew distant, Shen Tangmo tugged on the arm of the young man beside him: “Let’s go. He’s on his way.”