Chapter 3: Carrot Juice

The sky outside was dark, where had the sun gone that she had seen earlier?

Even sleepwalking couldn’t explain the strange experiences she had before. The shattered window in the bedroom, the bed that vanished, the midnight flight, and everything about Little Rabbit Island—the sensations and memories were incredibly clear.

Suddenly, Wang Jiexiang thought of something.

“Yin Xian!”

She picked up her phone and dialed the familiar number.

As with every previous time, the line was busy, indicating it was out of service.

So, his disappearance wasn’t because he was avoiding her—he had been taken to some strange island and turned into a rabbit.

“How do smart female protagonists in TV dramas handle supernatural phenomena?”

Wang Jiexiang’s head hurt.

“Should I call the police? How do I explain his situation to them?”

Before she could figure it out, something shifted outside the broken window.

Wang Jiexiang went over to look and was startled.

The Paper Crane was back! Facing her, it was flapping its wings outside the window.

“Are you coming back?” After all, it had been her bed before it mutated, so Wang Jiexiang stepped aside to make room for it.

The Paper Crane turned around, its tail facing her, and its wings flapped harder.

It seemed to be asking… “Are you going to carry me away?”

Wang Jiexiang waved her hands repeatedly. “I just got back. I’m not leaving.”

Her refusal caused the Paper Crane’s wings to stop. It floated in the air, its long tail began to lower, flattening, and it was gradually returning to its original form as a bed.

Actually, she could just refuse to go, as long as she didn’t want to.

But what then? Yin Xian was still missing from her world, and she couldn’t go to the island where he was trapped.

Wang Jiexiang felt frustrated and shouted at the Paper Crane, “Don’t change!”

“Wait for me a minute, at least let me change into some warm clothes.”

She opened the wardrobe and took out the warmest down jacket. She quickly put it on and zipped it up. Thinking about Little Rabbit Island, she ran to the storage room and grabbed a hammer from the toolbox.

The Paper Crane had transformed, leaving only half of the wing, the one that said “Come to my island.”

Wang Jiexiang tucked the hammer into her pocket, closed her eyes, and jumped out of the window onto the floating bed. The bed sank slightly under her weight, and the bedboard quickly collapsed, reassembling into the Paper Crane.

“Let’s go, to your island.”

But the second time, she was already quite familiar with it. She wrapped her arms around the Paper Crane’s neck, knowing exactly where to place her feet and where to sit comfortably.

Her mind was full of things she wanted to say to Yin Xian, thinking and thinking, until she quietly closed her eyes.

The lights of the earth were off, and the night sky was calm.

No one in the city was awake, and the moon was asleep.

The Paper Crane once again descended on Little Rabbit Island. It fluttered down from its wings, and Wang Jiexiang yawned loudly.

Looking around, she didn’t see any rabbits.

She noticed that the grass on the island seemed to have grown quite a bit. Also, when she left Little Rabbit Island earlier, she clearly saw the sun rising, so why was it dark again now? It hadn’t been long since she left the island and returned, and she had been taken right out as soon as she got home.

Endless questions, and no one to answer them. Wang Jiexiang sighed: The fantasy novels she had read all had a system to help the protagonist with answers and tasks. She wished she had that service too.

Better go find Yin Xian.

As soon as she turned around, she didn’t need to look for him—he was standing behind her.

A small rabbit, holding a jar almost as tall as itself. Keeping a distance, he looked at her seriously.

“Your current appearance isn’t suitable for frowning.”

Wang Jiexiang bent down and scratched his nose. “Don’t tell me you don’t recognize me again.”

The rabbit remembered her. “Actually, I had a feeling you’d come tonight.”

Looking around at the surroundings, she asked, “Have you been waiting for me here for long?”

“Not long,” he said, “Four days.”

He handed her the jar, relaxing his brow as she had told him. “For you.”

Wang Jiexiang took it and smelled the familiar scent.

The jar contained Carrot Juice.

She pouted and looked a bit strange. “You remembered?”

“Remembered what?”

In her younger years, Wang Jiexiang had occasional night blindness. It wasn’t severe, just temporary, and at night she couldn’t see things clearly. In the past, Yin Xian used to squeeze Carrot Juice for her, but she hated it and didn’t want to drink it, yet he always insisted she did. It was really annoying.

“Nothing,” Wang Jiexiang closed the jar and asked curiously, “Where did the Carrot Juice come from?”

He answered naturally, “There are carrots on the island, and the rabbit den has a juice maker.”

Wang Jiexiang couldn’t help but imagine the process of Carrot Juice production: The chubby rabbit pulling up carrots, carrying them back to the den, then putting on an apron and squeezing juice from one carrot after another. Wasn’t that too bizarre?

Shaking her head to chase away the images, she picked up on a question she hadn’t finished asking last time.

“Why is your den called Feifei’s Home?”

“Who knows,” Yin Xian’s answer was vague, “It was called that when I arrived.”

Wang Jiexiang wanted to shout at him: “Feifei is me!”

But he didn’t remember her, didn’t remember anything about her, so she had no reason to get mad at him. That would only be strange.

“I’m going to make you remember me,” Wang Jiexiang muttered to herself, tightening her grip on the jar. Carrot Juice, still as annoying as ever.

Her expression made the rabbit surprised. “Is my memory that important to you?”

“Not important!”

She huffed loudly and turned, walking toward the house on the island.

The house closest to the wooden sign was at the start of the stone path. It was a gray mud house, and Yin Xian had mentioned it before: That was his father’s old home, where he was born.

The main body of the house was made of brick, the window frames yellowed and worn, but the glass was pure white. Wang Jiexiang reached the door, and the rusty iron door was opened with a key, but the doorknob wouldn’t budge on its own.

She kicked the door hard twice. The door was rusty but sturdy.

She could only try using the hammer to smash the window. Wang Jiexiang reached into her pocket and pulled out the tool she had brought.

Seeing what she was about to do, Yin Xian, who had always been uncomfortable with these houses, tried to stop her. “What if there’s a monster inside? What if smashing the window lets it out?”

Wang Jiexiang searched for the best angle to strike, not even turning her head as she replied.

“If there’s a monster, just fight it.”

As the hammer hit with a series of “thunks,” she confidently explained her reasoning.

“You always think about making money and never read novels or play games. If you think this house is strange, it’s obvious that it has hidden messages, waiting for us to interact with.”

The window glass wasn’t normal at all. After several blows, it didn’t break. Wang Jiexiang tapped at the corner of the window, trying each piece of glass one by one.

The rabbit sighed repeatedly.

“Don’t be scared. If there’s a monster, that’s perfect. If you defeat it, you’ll get your memory back. This is the typical pattern in games and movies. If there’s no monster, breaking the window doesn’t matter. Who knows, there might be food or something fun inside. I could add a meat grinder, egg beater, or bread maker to your rabbit den, and your trapped life would have a better quality.”

Wang Jiexiang spoke to lighten the mood, but Yin Xian couldn’t be comforted.

The more she hit, the more his body trembled.

She stopped hammering and walked over to him, picked him up, and stuffed him into the deep pocket of her thick down jacket. The pocket was deep, and the rabbit pawed at the edge of the pocket, with only its eyes and ears sticking out.

She said, “I’m strong, I’m good at running, and if something bad happens, I can run fast.”

True to her words, with a “crack,” she smashed the sturdy window with her strength, breaking a small corner.

Now she could see inside the house, though it was dark, likely because the lights were off.

“Wow!” The broken window corner was right next to the iron door. Wang Jiexiang excitedly rolled up her sleeves and reached her arm through the hole.

After a brief search, she found the handle inside.

She pressed down, and the iron door creaked open.

“Shall we go in and take a look?” Wang Jiexiang asked, looking at Yin Xian for his opinion.

He grunted softly, “Hmm.”

She pushed open the rusty door leading to Yin Xian’s childhood home.

She took him inside, back into the ink-black darkness.