Luoluo was once again stunned by the sudden change.
Holding the apple in her hands, she lay under the bed completely confused about what had just happened.
The frantic little turtle had been spinning in circles around the room nonstop, nearly making itself dizzy.
It shouted loudly again,
“Luoluo! He Luoyao! Where are you? At least squeak or something! This turtle is worried to death!”
Its voice even cracked from panic.
“Squeak!” Luoluo finally snapped out of it and answered happily,
“Little Wu Dui, Luoluo’s right here! Squeak—”
“Luoluo?” Hearing her voice coming from beneath the bed, the little turtle almost thought it was hallucinating from anxiety and cautiously tested the waters.
It had just looked under the bed and clearly hadn’t seen Luoluo there. How could her voice suddenly be coming from under it?
“Little Wu Dui…” Luoluo’s voice sounded clearly again.
“Luoluo squeaks here—”
As soon as her voice fell, the chubby little girl rolled out from under the bed clutching an apple, appearing right in front of the turtle.
The little turtle froze once again, staring at her with surprise and confusion.
“Luoluo, I finally found you! You scared this turtle to death! Where did you go just now? Why couldn’t I find you anywhere?”
At the mention of that, Luoluo’s eyes sparkled brightly.
“Little Wu Dui, I went to a super, super beautiful place!”
Happily, she picked up the little turtle and held the apple in front of it.
“Hurry and eat! It’s really yummy.”
“Turtles don’t eat apples!” the little turtle refused with its mouth tightly shut.
“Eat it! This is an apple given by immortals!”
Luoluo’s eyes shone brilliantly.
“The place I went just now must be where immortals live. There was a big house, a big pond, giant fishies, and this biiig apple…”
Gesturing wildly, Luoluo vividly described her magical adventure to the turtle.
“The water in the pond was super sweet. After drinking it, my legs and hands stopped hurting.”
As she spoke, she stretched out her injured leg for the turtle to see.
Neither of them realized anything was strange until they looked.
The wounds that had been swollen and bleeding earlier had already scabbed over completely, as if they’d never been serious at all.
“Little Wu Dui!”
Luoluo became even more excited.
“This apple flew from the tree into my hands all by itself!”
Like pouring beans from a basket, Luoluo told the turtle every single magical thing she had experienced.
The turtle listened, utterly dumbfounded.
“Luoluo, what kind of place did you go to? It’s so magical! Turtle wants to go too!”
Luoluo scrunched up her little face and thought hard.
“Luoluo doesn’t know how to go there either…”
Then suddenly her eyes lit up.
“Ah! Right! It must’ve been the pearl treasure that took Luoluo there!”
The turtle’s tiny green-bean eyes instantly brightened too.
“Yes yes yes, the pearl treasure! Luoluo, where’s the pearl?”
Luoluo held the whole apple in her mouth and spread open her tiny hands.
“The pearl… the pearl is gone!”
Luoluo and the turtle stared at each other, both looking equally disappointed.
Suddenly, Luoluo froze.
Her eyes widened in complete disbelief.
“Little Wu Dui, the pearl said… the pearl said it’s inside Luoluo’s head…”
“Inside your head?”
The little turtle stretched its neck, trying desperately to look at Luoluo’s head. Unfortunately, it was far too small to see anything and could only spin anxiously in circles on the floor.
Worried, it asked,
“Luoluo, does your head hurt? How did the pearl crawl into your head? How do we take it out now?”
“Luoluo’s head doesn’t hurt.”
Luoluo blinked her big eyes innocently.
The little turtle let out a sigh of relief before suddenly realizing something else.
“Luoluo… you can still talk to the pearl?”
Right.
Luoluo could already talk to turtles, so maybe talking to pearls wasn’t actually that strange.
“Not talking…”
Luoluo wrinkled her little face, trying hard to explain properly.
“It’s like… the pearl makes Luoluo understand by herself. It’s not talking like how we talk…”
This question was far beyond the abilities of one little girl and one little turtle, so they both gave up trying to figure it out.
“Ah! I know now!”
Luoluo’s entire face lit up.
“Pearl, can I bring Little Wu Dui back to that beautiful place too?”
The moment her words fell, the little girl and the turtle suddenly found themselves sitting once again beside the pond from before, now staring face-to-face with the two koi fish.
“Little girl, you found the little turtle?” Little Red reacted first and asked curiously.
“Yes, pretty fishy, I found Little Wu Dui.”
Luoluo politely answered first before correcting it seriously.
“And my name is Luoluo, not Little Girl.”
At this moment, the little turtle was so excited it practically wanted to scream.
Everything here smelled amazing. The water in the pond made its blood boil with excitement.
“Luoluo! Quick, quick! Put me in the pond!”
The turtle struggled and squirmed in Luoluo’s hands, stretching its neck desperately toward the water.
Luoluo quickly lowered the turtle into the pond.
The turtle immediately sank into the water and happily swam around, gulping down mouthful after mouthful of pond water.
In only a short while, the turtle—which had originally been no bigger than Luoluo’s palm—visibly grew until it was as large as both her palms together.
Luoluo stared at it with her mouth hanging open.
Then she immediately burst into admiring cheers.
“Little Wu Dui is amazing! You became Big Wu Dui!”
The turtle poked its head above the water and rubbed against Luoluo’s hand.
“Luoluo, thank you.”
After suddenly growing larger, the turtle had clearly become much wiser too. It was no longer the silly little turtle that only argued with Luoluo all day.
Now it understood that this incredible blessing had only happened because of Luoluo.
“You don’t need to thank me. We’re good friends!”
Tilting her head, Luoluo didn’t quite understand what the turtle was thanking her for, but good friends didn’t need to say thank you to each other.
After thinking for a moment, the turtle spoke to her with a seriousness and solemnity it had never shown before.
“Luoluo, you absolutely cannot tell anyone about the pearl treasure. Otherwise, you, Turtle, the pearl, everything here—including Little Red and Little Gold—will all be in danger.”
Hearing that she and all her friends could be in danger, little Luoluo immediately covered her mouth tightly with both hands and shook her head vigorously to show she would never tell anyone.
Luoluo already understood that the pearl was her magical treasure space. As long as she wanted, she could freely enter or leave it, and the things inside would automatically fly into her hands whenever she asked for them.
Even though she was still little, she knew such magical things were extraordinary.
She believed the pearl was a gift from the immortals.
So when the turtle warned her that others might steal it away, she immediately understood how serious it was.
The little girl and the turtle played with Little Red and Little Gold in the pond for a while before wandering all around the fields inside the space.
Luoluo munched on an apple with one hand and held a cucumber in the other, crunching noisily while playing with the turtle.
As they walked, they ate.
By the end, Luoluo’s little belly had become round and bulging.
Only after exploring all the outdoor parts of the space did Luoluo finally lead the turtle to the front of the little wooden house.
“Little Wu Dui, do you think someone lives inside?”
Standing at the door, Luoluo cautiously knocked on it.