Mom's Anniversary 14

The Ghost Infant stared straight toward Lu Mi with its hollow eyes, silently considering.

Meanwhile, Lu Mi quietly reached out with his senses, hoping to find something around him that would respond to him, something he could use like fire and water.

Underground, the most abundant thing was earth.

His nerves taut, Lu Mi slowly began to feel that familiar sensation again.

Just as a small patch of earth beside his feet began to tremble, the Ghost Infant spoke:

"Flowers. I have lots of beautiful flowers. Mommy planted them all for me."

"They're beautiful, but they're also very dangerous. If you win this game, I'll give you a hundred of the prettiest ones."

Ning Zhuangzhuang was still marveling at how Lu Mi had befriended the Ghost Infant with a nursery rhyme. Hearing them negotiate now, her eyes widened even further in astonishment.

Having settled the deal, Lu Mi turned to her. "Come on. Let's play this jigsaw puzzle game with it. We might get a clue."

The Ghost Infant led them back to where it had first appeared.

Behind the stone bed, a moss-covered stone door sat quietly embedded in the earthen wall.

The Ghost Infant crawled over and murmured a few words. The stone door slowly swung inward. "Go inside."

Lu Mi nodded to Ning Zhuangzhuang and went in first.

Zhang Mei had recovered somewhat from the shock by now. She stared at the Ghost Infant with resentment and fear, clinging to Ning Zhuangzhuang from behind as she followed her inside.

The Ghost Infant crawled slowly in, and the stone door gradually closed behind them.

Ning Zhuangzhuang swept her flashlight around. The space was cramped, with toy parts scattered across the dirt floor. Building blocks and dolls lay beneath thick layers of dust.

A small, locked wooden box sat in the middle.

"Open the box. The puzzle is inside."

As it spoke, the Ghost Infant felt around on the floor and picked something up-a filthy stuffed rabbit with its stuffing exposed.

Lu Mi walked over, broke the rusty lock by brute force, and rummaged through the box for the puzzle pieces. Ning Zhuangzhuang stood beside him, holding the flashlight.

Along with the puzzle pieces, the box contained some yellowed letters and black-and-white photographs.

Lu Mi slipped them into his coat pocket without drawing attention.

The Ghost Infant kept rambling. "I slept here for a long, long time, because being awake was just too boring."

With all the puzzle pieces out, Lu Mi turned them faceup and studied them closely.

The puzzle was made of cardboard, and its picture was barely discernible.

"These pieces... look like some animal's tail. Ning, bring the flashlight closer."

He tried arranging a few pieces whose edges seemed to fit together.

"It's a snake's tail."

Ning Zhuangzhuang picked up another piece and examined it. "This looks like the outer corner of a human eye. Judging by the style, it seems to be a puzzle of an ancient-style painting."

In a corner they couldn't see, the Ghost Infant giggled. "So if you lose, you can stay here and keep me company forever."

"Keep it down," Lu Mi said.

Once they had more or less sorted the pieces, the two of them began assembling the puzzle.

Zhang Mei stayed pressed close to them without speaking.

After a while, the puzzle was nearly complete, but two pieces were still missing from the top.

Lu Mi stared at it for a moment.

In the picture, two snakes intertwined, one on the left and one on the right, their faces blurred beyond recognition.

The two remaining pieces both depicted round objects, and their edges fit either empty space. The only difference was that one had cool tones and the other warm tones.

"This looks familiar. I think I've seen it somewhere..."

He struggled to remember, but his memories were hazy, as though shrouded in mist.

He was looking up at a painting on a wall. Beside it, a stooped old person reached a hand toward him. "You're here, Mi..."

He was about to delve further into the memory when pain struck for the first time in a long while, cutting him off.

Ning Zhuangzhuang steadied his forehead, her voice worried. "Are you okay? Why did you suddenly go so pale?"

Lu Mi shook his head.

Something was still preventing him from remembering, but its effect had clearly weakened. At least he could see something now.

In that painting, the male snake was on the left, and the female snake was on the right.

One male, one female, two intertwined snakes...

Something gradually became clear. He picked up the warm-toned piece and placed it where the snake on the left held something in its hands.

Watching him, Ning Zhuangzhuang immediately caught on. "I get it!"

Excitedly, she slotted in the final piece. "It's the Nuwa and Fuxi Intertwined Serpents Painting! The male on the left, the female on the right, one holding the sun and the other the moon!"

The instant the puzzle was completed, they all felt movement overhead. Dust showered down, and they covered their mouths and noses, coughing a few times. Then a faint light shone down.

Zhang Mei rubbed her eyes in disbelief, so excited she could barely speak. "An exit. It's an exit...!"

Ning Zhuangzhuang stood on tiptoe to take a closer look. "It's a trapdoor."

Lu Mi stepped onto the wooden box and pushed the trapdoor fully open. Something fuzzy blocked the opening. He reached out to feel it. "It's the living room rug."

After moving the rug aside, he could see a corner of the sofa-and a woman's deathly pale face that suddenly poked into view.

It stared at Lu Mi and tilted its head. "Where are the flowers?"

Lu Mi exhaled, silently closed the trapdoor, and turned to the Ghost Infant. "We won. Where are the flowers?"

Without wasting words, the Ghost Infant opened the stone door and murmured a few things.

A sound like slithering snakes approached. One branch after another, covered in Demon Flowers, reached inside, nearly filling the entire space.

With hardly any time left, none of them held back. Each picked dozens of flowers and passed them through the trapdoor, piling them onto the living room floor.

Having been entangled while picking these flowers before, Zhang Mei was still traumatized. But when she saw the branches bowing meekly and letting them pick freely, she gathered the courage to help.

Once he reckoned they had enough, Lu Mi clapped his hands, signaling for the other two to go up.

He looked at the Ghost Infant.

The little creature huddled in the corner, gazing longingly at the trapdoor.

He heard it murmur in its smoke-rasped voice, "Mommy..."

After helping push Zhang Mei up, Lu Mi asked, "Aren't you going to see her?"

The Ghost Infant shook its head, its voice full of loneliness. "I can't leave the underground. Besides, Mommy seems to have forgotten me. No matter how much noise I make, she can't hear me."

Lu Mi was puzzled. "But didn't you say she planted these flowers for you?"

"That was a long time ago." The Ghost Infant smiled. "She only remembers to fertilize and water the flowers over and over, but she's forgotten why she does it."

Ning Zhuangzhuang called down from above, "Lu Mi, hurry! Two minutes left!"

Lu Mi answered and gripped the edge of the trapdoor, ready to climb up, but felt something tugging at the hem of his clothes.

The Ghost Infant held on to him with one hand and used the other to undo the jade Buddha pendant around its neck. "Mommy said this was a protective charm that would keep me safe as I grew up. But I won't grow up anymore."

Lu Mi turned and looked down at it.

With the light shining down from above, he could finally see that it wore a little black dress, tattered and torn.

"Since you're Mommy's friend... you can have it. Remember, show it to her at the right time."

Ning Zhuangzhuang was so anxious she was ready to step on his hand. Lu Mi hurriedly accepted the jade pendant, slipped it into his pocket, and climbed up to the floor above.

The trapdoor closed again, and he watched that small, lifeless face sink back into the darkness.