Chapter 20: The Second Key

Wang Jiexiang stared blankly at Key.

She watched as its outline deepened, then faded.

She stretched out her arm and forcefully slapped Yin Xian’s chest.

Key disappeared in that moment.

Wang Jiexiang’s hand slapped empty air.

“What are you doing?”

Yin Xian, who had been struck for no reason, looked down and saw her pounding her chest, stomping her feet in frustration.

“Clumsy hands, why are you hesitating? Why are you hesitating!” She slapped her right hand onto her left hand’s back, regretting it deeply: “You should’ve grabbed it right away!”

After venting, Wang Jiexiang asked gloomily, “What were you thinking just now?”

“I was thinking about my future,” Yin Xian looked at the school building ahead: “You said there’s no requirement for teacher training in your school’s teaching program.”

“Your future… a teacher…”

Wang Jiexiang immediately reacted.

“Really? You want to be a teacher?”

Before she could finish, she hurriedly denied it: “That’s so unlike you! It would be so poor. Don’t you always want to be a businessman?”

She had known him for so long, his ambition, his pursuit of money and power, she couldn’t be clearer.

“My grandfather was a teacher. I’ve always admired him.”

Yin Xian scratched his head, unsure of how to continue.

“Actually, I… haven’t decided yet, it’s not certain…”

They were standing in the middle of the road talking.

A bus passed by the school stop, honking at them.

Wang Jiexiang turned back and glanced at the bus, and the destination sign caught her attention.

“This bus goes to our village?”

Hearing her, he hurriedly pulled her onto the bus: “If there’s a bus, we don’t have to walk the mountain road anymore.”

Wang Jiexiang wasn’t very happy: “That’s so strange! There’s no bus to our place.”

They got on the bus and asked the driver.

The driver thought their question was even stranger: “You guys are from out of town, right? This route has been running for years.”

“…” Wang Jiexiang felt uneasy, this was too much like a ghost story.

“Let’s go home,” perhaps mistakenly thinking she was nervous about returning to her hometown, Yin Xian dramatically took her hand: “Don’t be afraid, I’ll be with you.”

Not wanting to spoil his mood, Wang Jiexiang had no choice but to get on the bus.

They sat in the last row, with only the two of them and the driver on the bus.

Wang Jiexiang, who had been lively before, was now silent, staring out the window at the mountains.

Uncomfortable.

The unfamiliar bus, the changed mountain road.

Wang Jiexiang had been away for so long.

Returning here, she felt more discomfort than nostalgia.

Since her mother passed away, the memory of her hometown had only brought pain.

Looking at the long mountain road, a breath stuck in her chest, Wang Jiexiang couldn’t suppress her irritation.

It was a lie, she told herself: Don’t believe everything you see. Once Key appears again, they could leave.

The bus stopped at the village entrance.

As the sunset set, people who had already eaten sat under the old tree at the village entrance, enjoying the cool.

The newly built small shop, the electric poles, made Wang Jiexiang lose her way.

She looked up at the old tree, as a person on a bicycle rode by, ringing their bell.

The sense of discomfort grew stronger, her mind empty, her hands and feet cold.

“Think about the way home slowly, I’ll buy something to eat.” Yin Xian patted her shoulder and entered the small shop.

Wang Jiexiang felt panicked, wanting to follow him inside.

Just then, someone came out of the small shop and their eyes met.

“Grandma.” She instinctively called out.

Wang Jiexiang still spoke in her hometown’s accent, as if she had returned to the night she ran away, trembling with stolen money in her pocket.

Her grandmother looked older than before.

Her face was full of wrinkles, deep and unfillable grooves, small eyes glowing with a fierce light, and her hair was completely white.

“You still know how to come back?”

She grabbed Wang Jiexiang’s braid with a force that seemed to want to twist her head off, just like in Wang Jiexiang’s many nightmares.

And she was just like the poor little chick from the small mountain village who had lost her mother, crying out in distress.

Through blurry tears, she saw Yin Xian running toward them.

After a struggle, Wang Jiexiang was shielded behind him, her hair loose.

Her grandmother continued to pull at her, kicking and hitting Yin Xian.

Wang Jiexiang grabbed the corner of his shirt, reaching out for him to hold her.

“Good-for-nothing, dog bastard.”

The old woman supported her waist and spat on the ground.

“I was wondering where you’d gone, turns out you ran off with a man.”

Wang Jiexiang trembled, clutching Yin Xian’s collar, wanting to end this nightmare.

“Please save me, okay?”

Her hand touched his neck, where there had once hung a blurry Key.

“I want to leave.”

The cold hand brushed over warm skin, and a thin string of outline appeared in the air, Key reappearing in Xian’s form.

“Okay,” he said, “Let’s go.”

The old woman chased them, cursing loudly.

“So I kept telling your mother, you have to have a son, sons are better. Having a daughter, she doesn’t learn anything, just learns to seduce men outside, cheap thing.”

Wang Jiexiang withdrew her hand from Key, easily angered by her words.

“You can’t talk about my mom!”

“Spit,” she laughed triumphantly, “Your mom was made to be talked about by me, not only do I talk about her, I’ll call her to talk about you too.”

Wang Jiexiang felt like her heart was hit heavily.

Her ears buzzed, her mouth moved, saying things she couldn’t even believe herself.

“Is my mom still alive?”

“Oh? You’re hoping your mom is dead, right? That’s perfect, now you can mess around with wild men.”

Wang Jiexiang jumped out of Yin Xian’s arms.

She ran with all her might, rushing toward her home.

The old tree from her childhood, the difficult dirt road, the creek she loved, the flowers and plants she had named in the mountains.

She ran desperately, stepping over the changed scenery.

Gradually, she recognized them, remembered their original forms.

She pushed open the wooden door of her old house.

Without a glance at her father, who was dozing off, she went straight to the kitchen.

Someone was cooking noodles.

The aroma wafted in the air, and the usually quiet woman, wearing a tattered apron, held a spoon and was tasting the soup.

“Mom.”

Wang Jiexiang ran over and hugged her back, holding her frail waist.

“Mom.”

Her mother turned, her gentle hand brushed her head, untangling her messy hair.

She lifted her head, wanting to see her face clearly.

“Mom.”

Wang Jiexiang couldn’t see her.

Her mother’s face was hidden in a mist, and she couldn’t hear her voice.

The closer she got, the farther she felt.

Tears soaked her face, and Wang Jiexiang desperately tried, calling out to her again and again.

Her mother gently comforted her child, took something from her apron, and placed it in her hand.

Key?

Wang Jiexiang froze for a moment.

Barrier, Another World, Paper Crane, Little Rabbit Island, Yin Xian turned into a rabbit…

The appearance of Key caused everything to unexpectedly return to Wang Jiexiang’s mind.

Holding the Key, Wang Jiexiang didn’t feel as excited as before, and a tear fell.

Leaving the illusion also meant leaving her mother…

Then, upon taking a second look at the Key, she recognized it.

It was not the same one she had seen with Yin Xian earlier…

The rabbit-shaped Key, the single silver Key.

Wang Jiexiang was struck as if by lightning: That was the key to her and Yin Xian’s rental house.

At this moment, Yin Xian arrived a step late and reached her home: “Are you okay?”

Wang Jiexiang stared blankly at Yin Xian.

Around his neck was another Key.

Wang Jiexiang looked at the Key in her hand, then up at her mother hidden in the mist.

She was so foolish.

How could she forget where she was?

How could she have thought she could really see her mom?

Yin Xian knelt down, wiping away the tears from the dazed Wang Jiexiang.

“Let’s go,” he said to her.

She looked at him deeply.

He gently urged, “Let’s go quickly.”

Wang Jiexiang sniffed, holding onto the Key around his chest.

The light of the world was captured in her hands.

Home, the kitchen, her mother, Yin Xian, all faded from view.

She collapsed on the floor, closing her eyes.