It turned out that not every monster was as friendly to him as Tiger Cub.
If not for Tiger Cub that time, he would have been in danger.
It was the first time the old man had come so close to death.
He had learned his lesson from it.
He stopped staring at every monster he saw with wide-eyed excitement and curiosity.
He learned to keep his distance from monsters other than Tiger Cub.
From the first time he met Tiger Cub to now, when he was an old man nearing seventy.
It really had been a long time.
The old man suddenly felt a wave of emotion.
He also felt the urge to talk.
And there was someone right in front of him who was perfect for listening.
Someone he didn't need to hold back with, someone he could tell everything about Tiger Cub.
"Xiao Xiao."
The old man looked at Xiao Xiao, his expression relaxing as he spoke in a gentle voice. "Would you be willing to hear my story?"
"Of course."
Xiao Xiao smiled and nodded.
Xiao Xiao's straightforward answer dispelled the last of the old man's uncertainty.
He smiled.
After a few seconds of silence, the old man began to recount his life, bit by bit.
That year, the old man was still just a sixth-grade elementary school student.
He had gone to his maternal grandmother's house for the summer.
One night, he went into the woods on the mountain behind the house by himself to look for fireflies.
He didn't find any fireflies, and without realizing it, he ventured deeper and deeper into the woods.
By the time he came to his senses, he was already lost.
The tall trees' crisscrossing branches obscured what little moonlight there was.
The boy began to