Chapter 231 - Ling vs Long, Path Crossed! Part 2 (1/2)

“Big Brother, look, look…” San San wove the tri-colored dandelion excitedly in front of Tang Ling.

It was early autumn, and the morning wind felt chilly and was rather strong. The wind blew the tri-colored dandelion, scattering its petals into the air like tiny floating umbrellas.

Tang Ling laughed mirthfully.

San San pouted while her googly eyes became teary. She had spent quite some time finding the pretty little ball of fluff. Why did the wind blow it all away?

“Bad Brother!” San San stomped her feet as her tears threatened to roll down her cheeks.

Tang Ling gently carried her up and placed her over his shoulder.

“Come on. I’ll bring you to find more.” Making San San happy was not difficult at all because she would always be happy about little things and forget about her sadness in an instant.

“Really?” She tousled Tang Ling’s hair and messed it up.

“Of course, actually the tri-colored dandelion is very common. You should be looking for a quad-colored one since it’s a lot rarer.” Tang Ling simply made up a story even though he himself had never seen a quad-colored dandelion.

The real dandelion in the era only had three colors: white, purple and green.

“Huh? Four colors? What will happen if I find it?” San San hugged Tang Ling’s head.

“Hmm, I heard it will make kids happy for a week.” He continued his made-up story. All he wanted to do was accompany San San to do something fun.

After breakfast, he would be venturing into the forest for days. The hunters in the settlement had said that a herd of short Kewa white-tailed goats had appeared, which would be a good hunt.

“Happy for a week? Can I eat meat every day for a week?”

“Yeah, something like that.”

“Big Brother, take me with you! I want to find the quad-colored dandelion!”

“Sure, but you must promise me that even if it flies away in little umbrellas, you cannot be sad.”

“Why?”

“Because the little umbrellas are actually little kids. They need the wind to carry them home. They will settle down and become a new ball of fluff. That’s their purpose of life.”

San San tilted her head sideways. She really did not understand it, but when she heard that the little dandelions were looking for their home, she felt like she should help them. “Okay, I got it. If there’s no wind, I’ll blow it as hard as I can like this. Fuuuu fuuuuu…”

Tang Ling chuckled again. What else was cuter than his little sister? No one and nothing at all!

For a whole 20 minutes, all they found were three tri-colored dandelions and not single quad-colored one.

San San blew as hard as she could and scattered the three dandelions into the wind. Then, she looked at Tang Ling in anticipation. “Brother, can we find a quad-colored one today?”

She acted like she was a mature girl, but she could not hide her disappointment. “If we can’t find it today, it’s fine. It may be hiding, but I’ll find it next time.”

Tang Ling rubbed her hair with one hand while his other hand quietly crushed several red sage seeds and he said seriously, “Of course, we can find it today, but it’s very shy. It’ll only appear when we close our eyes. Why don’t we try closing our eyes?”

San San quickly closed her eyes.

He quickly walked forward and dripped the sap from the crushed seeds in his hand on a tri-colored dandelion that he had found earlier. He was very careful in the process. All he needed was a drop of sap, so he was afraid that excessive sap would dye the tri-colored dandelion completely red. Fortunately, he made it. The strong dyeing capability of the sap added a little red to the ball of fluff.

“Wow! San San, come here quickly. A quad-colored dandelion!” Tang Ling feigned excitement and called the little girl who ran over, giggling.

“Come on. Let’s count how many colors it has.”

“One, two, three, four…”

“Ahhh! There are four colors, Big Brother! I want to blow it and send it home!” She blew the makeshift quad-colored dandelion as hard as she could, her eyes shining with happiness.

When the dandelion floated away in the sky, San San leaned on Tang Ling’s arm.

“Big Brother, how far they can fly?”

“Hmm, very far I guess. They are traveling with the wind after all.”

“No, Big Brother, you lie to me!” San San suddenly glared at Tang Ling, her petite face seeming pale and sad as she stood up and faltered backward.

Tremendous anxiety rose in Tang Ling’s heart all of a sudden. He wanted to hold her back, but he realized that he could not move.

“They won’t fly that far. They are too weak just like me. I can never walk out of this place. Am I going to stay in the settlement forever?” San San suddenly smiled bleakly, hurting Tang Ling as though his heart was being ground by blades.

He tried to say something, but San San started to float away like the dandelion. She went far and high in an instant. Abruptly, the wind stopped. Her eyes were fixed on Tang Ling when she fell to the ground.

“Big…Brother,” she whimpered softly, her gaze as dull as that night when she had been surrounded by the zombies. Even the words she uttered were the same. She missed being alive despite the emptiness in her eyes…

“No!” Tang Ling’s heart was about to explode when he shouted out.

“No, no, no!” He bolted up all of a sudden to see the darkest night before dawn above him and the wind was comfortable, but the stars were not so bright anymore. His heart wrenched in pain. The torture could last for a hundred or even a thousand years.

Tang Ling placed his hand over his chest tightly as he sweated profusely. His breaths were heavy after waking up from the nightmare.

Suddenly, gallops were heard from afar.

Even with the fire put out, with the misty moonbeam from the Purple Moon, Tang Ling was able to faintly make out a wide wagon sprinting quickly towards the north. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and forced himself to calm down.