Ma Linya smiled and nodded. "Yes, this is my gift to you."
Seeing that he was still so agitated surprised her a little, though she was mostly amused. It was the first time she had seen that expression on his face. He really had been scared out of his wits.
"Don't be scared. Didn't I warn you just now? Besides, who insisted on opening the wooden lid himself?" She spread her hands, looking helpless, as though to say, And that's my fault?
At her response, Zeng Mu's cheeks reddened, as though he regretted raising his voice. His expression soon settled, but his voice still carried traces of lingering fear. "Phew... What exactly is this thing? How could it look like that? I've never seen anything so disgusting."
"Of course you haven't. Otherwise, I wouldn't have kept it so carefully."
Zeng Mu looked at her, his gaze firmer than ever. "Tell me about it."
Ma Linya began her account. "You might find this hard to believe. This embryo dates back five years, when I was only fourteen. My younger brother and I went up the mountain early one morning to play. By around noon, we had climbed halfway up, but we were still young and already exhausted, so we decided to head back down and go home."
"Mm, you were both children then, and the mountain must have been fairly tall," Zeng Mu interjected.
She glanced at him, signaling him not to interrupt. Once he nodded, she continued. "We were so tired that we stopped to rest under a tree. But do you know what strange thing happened?"
"What?" he asked quietly, afraid she would scold him again.
"It suddenly started raining. The sky had been perfectly clear. It sounds unbelievable, but at noon on that sunny day, rain started falling.