There was still a hint of irritation.
How could this child see Little Auspicious Omen?
Why could this child see Little Auspicious Omen?
Little Auspicious Omen belonged to him alone.
"Little brother!"
The woodcutter raised his voice.
The Young Scholar suddenly came back to himself.
"Huh?"
"What?"
The Young Scholar looked at the woodcutter in confusion.
He looked as if he hadn't heard a word the woodcutter had just said.
The woodcutter furrowed his brows.
"Little brother."
"What this child said..."
"Is it true?"
Everyone looked at the Young Scholar.
The Young Scholar dug his fingernails into his flesh.
"...How could that be?"
"What black little monster?"
The Young Scholar shook his head. "I don't know."
"Older brother, sister-in-law, have you seen one?"
The woodcutter shook his head.
He certainly hadn't seen one.
The woman shook her head too.
This was her first time hearing about... a black monster.
The Young Scholar shrugged slightly.
The meaning was clear enough.
See?
None of them had seen one.
Everyone looked again at the child who claimed to have seen the Black Monster.
He was the only one among them who said he had seen it.
He was a child who still wobbled a little when he ran.
"Really!"
The child shouted.
He was angry that everyone doubted him.
"Mother!"
The child looked at the Woman in Floral Jacket. "You believe me!"
"I really saw the Black Monster!"
"Really!"
"All right, all right."
The Woman in Floral Jacket gently patted the child's back. "Don't get upset."
"Mom believes you."
"Really?"
The child's eyes lit up.
"Mm."
The Woman in Floral Jacket smiled. "Bao Bao, could you have been mistaken?"
Maybe you'd mistaken something black for a monster?
Children, after all.