The Fall
Xu Hao looked up at the sky.
A raindrop fell into his eye.
He blinked sharply.
Xu Hao started moving.
He waded straight through the river.
In the deepest part, in the middle, Xu Hao began to swim.
Soon, Xu Hao reached the other bank.
When he got out of the river, Xu Hao shook himself all over.
Water immediately sprayed in every direction.
Rain fell in sparse drops.
Before long, Xu Hao was damp again.
Xu Hao walked over to the suit jacket the man had left behind.
He looked up and glanced around.
The place had been deserted to begin with, and the rain made it even quieter.
Xu Hao frowned.
After a long pause, he bent down and picked up the suit jacket.
Xu Hao nodded with satisfaction.
Ahead of him, the suit jacket hung from a tree trunk.
Above it, a huge, densely woven canopy of interlaced branches resembled an upside-down bird's nest.
Long vines hung down around the edge of the nest.
Leaves crisscrossed along the vines.
They shielded the suit jacket below from the wind and rain.
There.
Xu Hao took one last look at his handiwork, then turned and left.
He peeled open a Candy Wrapper and popped a piece of candy into his mouth.
He had worked hard.
He deserved a little reward.
Xu Hao stopped in the middle of the river.
The larger raindrops fell into the water, turning the river, which had been calm, somewhat turbulent.
Xu Hao remembered...
There really was something he had meant to try bringing up with that human who had a monster with him...
Panda Goldfish...
He'd first heard about it from a child...
Xu Hao didn't know what a panda was.