It was still drizzling outside when they had dinner, and the sky was as gloomy as a homeroom teacher's face when announcing the start-of-school exam results. Bi Shenghua was still thinking about how to tell the children that they couldn't see the moon. Although these children weren't the kind of unreasonable brats, she was the one who installed the telescope and suggested looking at the moon, so she had to give them an explanation.
Unexpectedly, the rain stopped after dinner. They waited for a while in the glass rooftop, and a faint yellow mist appeared in the clouds. Then, a golden moon peeked out from behind the clouds and hung far in the sky.
Bi Shenghua noticed that the moon seemed a little bigger than usual, and the dark spots on it were more pronounced, as if the legendary cassia tree had grown considerably. She wondered where Wu Gang who chopped down the tree, had gone.
The children clapped their hands excitedly and cheered, "Oh, look at the moon! Look at the moon!"
Bi Shenghua pointed the telescope at the moon and began adjusting the angle and focus. The moon slowly became clearer through the eyepiece, revealing a grayish-white surface covered with countless craters, like an old face covered in pockmarks. She felt a little dizzy, and the beauty of the moon in her memory vanished in an instant. She quickly handed the telescope to Xia Tian next to her.
Xia Tian already had a telescope at home, and the school's interest group also had an astronomical observatory, so he was quite familiar with operating a telescope. However, he preferred using the telescope to observe birds, and he had always dreamed of finding a bird as intelligent as the Boss Coal.
"Wow, the moon is so clear tonight!" he exclaimed, expertly turning the focusing wheel. "What a huge crater! That crater must have been hit by a really, really big meteorite! Wow, look at those mountains, they're so cool, they look just like the castles I built in the game!"
Yu Meiren listened to his enthusiastic explanation and also wanted to watch, but she was too shy to compete with Xia Tian. Xia Chujue, however, didn't care and tugged at Xia Tian's clothes, saying, "Brother Xia Tian, you can't watch alone! We want to watch too!"
She pulled Xia Tian away forcefully and, mimicking Xia Tian, leaned close to the eyepiece to look. "Huh, I can't see anything!"
Xia Tian said, " Meimei, you're so clumsy! You pulled me too hard, and the binoculars shifted!"
Xia Chujue turned her head and looked at him innocently. "Then what should we do?"
Xia Tian looked at her and spread his hands like an older brother, saying, "Okay, okay, I'll help you. Don't touch it again once it's fixed!" As he spoke, he helped Meimei straighten the telescope and taught her how to use the finder scope, adjust the optical axis, and turn the handwheel.
"Wow, I see it! It's huge!" Meimei exclaimed excitedly, then asked in confusion, "Why can't I find the rabbit? Aren't there little white rabbits on the moon?"
Xia Tian laughed, "How could that be! That's just mythology! The moon is a satellite of Earth. All asteroids and meteorites flying from outside the Solar System that are about to collide with Earth are blocked by it, which is why there are so many impact craters on it. Besides, the moon's gravity is only one-sixth that of Earth, and there is almost no air. Therefore, there can't be any life on the moon."
Meimei retorted, "You're lying! I clearly saw a tree! Where there are trees, there are birds; where there are birds, there is life."
"Tch~~, how could that be!" Xia Tian scoffed.
Meimei handed the binoculars to Yu Meiren: "Sister Beauty, you should take a look too."
Although Yu Meiren and Xia Tian went to the same school, it was the first time Yu Meiren had ever used a telescope. She peered expectantly through the eyepiece, and after a while said, "I don't see any trees, but I think I see water, and a waterfall!"
"What are you all talking about? How can there be trees and water?" Xia Tian was both skeptical and curious. She walked over and said, "Let me take another look. You must be mistaken!"
Yu Meiren then gave him her spot.
Xia Tian lay down and looked for a while, then suddenly looked up, rubbed her eyes, and said blankly, "I... I think I saw... a Crow fly by!"
Everyone laughed, even Meimei and Beauty: "You still say we were mistaken? You must be seeing things!"
Meimei pushed him away with a grin, leaned closer to look, and after a while, suddenly called out "Daddy" and started crying.
Bi Shenghua quickly went over and picked her up, asking, "What's wrong Meimei?"
Meimei sobbed, "Godmother! I saw Daddy... Waaah... Daddy went to the moon, it's so far away, how can he come back? Waaah... Brother Xia Tian said it's full of meteorites there..."
This terrified the adults; they had no idea what was going on. How could several children be looking at the moon through a telescope and seeing Crow and their father?
Xia Tian and Yu Meiren were both stunned, too afraid to go over and look through the telescope.
Hu Xing walked over, both surprised and suspicious, looked at the moon through the eyepiece for a while, and said, "It's just a normal moon! There's nothing special about it!"
The weather wasn't very good; it was cold and damp. Shi Dazhuang said, "Alright, alright, everyone go back inside. It's late at night, and it's so cold. Don't let the children catch a cold."
Everyone nodded in agreement. Yao Jingjing, holding Beauty, Hu Xing, holding Xia Tian's hand, Bi Shenghua, carrying Meimei, left the glass roof and prepared to go downstairs.
The thick clouds around the moon began to close, and the moon's color gradually darkened, yet it appeared even larger. Bi Shenghua glanced back and saw the moon emitting a dark red light. A black dot flew past beneath the enormous moon's shadow, resembling a Crow.
As Crow Guagua overhead, Petru felt a surge of joy, thinking they were saved. However, when he saw the enormous, dark red moon, his heart sank again.
It was an incredibly large moon, slowly rising from behind the mountains.
The mountain became a black silhouette in the middle of the moon, with a waterfall flowing backwards up the mountain like a fountain spraying into the heart of the moon. Ripples spread from the top of the fountain, and white mist shot into the sky, blooming on the moon like a mushroom cloud.
The moon continued to grow larger, until it reached its zenith, almost completely obscuring the night sky. The craters on the moon were so clear, like volcanoes seen from an airplane.
An immense sense of oppression washed over me, making me feel suffocated.
Was this a dream?
Petru was puzzled. He didn't know if he counted as one of the Awakened that Su Huilan had mentioned, but at least he wasn't too weak in terms of lucid dreaming, otherwise he wouldn't have been awakened from his dream of the savage wizard by just one sentence from Mrs. Larry.
But the scene before him was beyond his understanding of dreams. This couldn't possibly be his dream; he knew his own limitations, his Mental Power was not yet capable of creating such a magnificent and expansive dream.
The enormous moon and its clearly defined craters made him and the altar he stood on appear as small as grains of sand. Petru had the illusion that he was riding in a spaceship, gliding through the dark void of space, slowly approaching the moon.
If it wasn't his dream, then whose was it? The savage wizard? But where did that Crow come from? It was clearly Qingmu's Boss Coal!
The savages surrounding the altar were all looking up at the sky. After a moment of silence, their chieftain waved his scepter and shouted something towards the heavens. They all knelt down, prostrated themselves on the ground, and began to pray towards the moon.
Despite his trepidation, Petru knew this was a golden opportunity, and he had to try, whether it was a dream or not. This might be their only chance to escape.
"Hurry!" Without saying a word, he picked up Mrs. Larry and ran towards the deserted area above the altar.