"I didn't have anything wrong with me to begin with."
The child instinctively retorted.
"Didn't you twist your ankle?"
"And you still say nothing's wrong?"
The old woman's words left the child speechless for a moment.
He always felt that Grandma didn't mean it that way.
But he couldn't quite say what she meant.
The child's fine eyebrows knitted together in confusion.
"All right."
The old woman took the child's hand. "Come on, let's go home."
All she wanted now was to get the child away from here as soon as possible.
This forest wasn't safe. She'd better not bring him here again.
"Huh?"
The grip on his hand was a little too tight.
The child winced. "Grandma, that hurts."
He instinctively tried to pull his hand free from the old woman's almost imprisoning grip.
"Huh?"
The old woman reacted at once and hurriedly loosened her hold. "Sorry, Lei Lei. Did Grandma hurt you?"
"Grandma wasn't paying attention. I held on too tight..."
"Grandma, what's wrong?"
The child thought Grandma was acting a little strange.
This version of Grandma felt unfamiliar to him, and a little scary.
The child's faintly timid expression made the old woman freeze.
The wrinkles at the corners of her eyes relaxed. "Grandma might be a little tired."
"It's very late."
"Lei Lei, shall we go home and get some rest?"
"...Okay."
Was Grandma tired?
The child looked up at the sky through the crisscrossing branches overhead.
The thick darkness had nearly swallowed up what little starlight there was.
The moonlight was faint, too.
It was very late.
When Mom had brought him here, she'd said Grandma was old and couldn't stay up late. She'd told him to go to bed early and not keep Grandma up too late...
He remembered all of