There was a cat's eye bracelet on Bohemia's wrist.
Among the dozens of clanking and complicated accessories, this green bracelet was not eye-catching at all. In fact, even if it was eye-catching, Puppeteer would not pay attention to the ornaments worn by a small fry beside him.
Therefore, he could not tell when the bracelet started to turn red.
It was as if someone had injected fresh blood into the cat's eye bracelet. With each passing day, the red color on the bracelet would spread. Every time the emerald was swallowed, Bohemia's face would turn paler.
Every day, she would use the tip of her pen to draw a thin mark along the border between the blood red and the translucent green. After drawing four to five marks, both Puppeteer and Bohemia could see that the remaining green on the bracelet would be replaced by the red after fifteen days.
That night, they stopped in a patch of sand.
The bonfire flickered as it danced, and the orange sparks floated like a dream in the night, drifting slowly under the dark blue sky. Beside the bonfire, both Puppeteer and Puppeteer were motionless. Only the long shadows of the bonfire swayed gently on the sandy ground.
Bohemia sat on the ground with her legs crossed. Hesitantly, she glanced at Puppeteer.
"Lord Puppeteer, I have something to tell you …" She fiddled with the half-red, half-green bracelet in her hand and said with her head lowered, "This … is something I found in the Endless Forest of Lava …"
Puppeteer did not say a word as if he did not hear her.
He did not respond. As if she had received some kind of permission, Bohemia continued, "I was lucky. This bracelet is perfect for me because one of its functions is to predict the remaining natural lifespan of the wearer …"
After a person's life was divided into five parts, each part became a new natural lifespan. The four parts of her life meant nothing to Bohemia. She did not even think of them as her own. Now, she only had half a month left in her fifth life.
"The end of this life is coming earlier than I expected …" She said softly. She did not sound afraid, but rather confused. "You're right. Even if the upper limit of one's lifespan is more than 200 years, how many people can live that long?"
"Get to the point."
Puppeteer's cold voice startled Bohemia and pulled her out of her trance.
She gripped the bracelet so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
Bohemia took a deep breath, and when she looked up, her eyes were wet and bright, like blood-rubies in water.
The little bit of pink on her lips, the fluffy golden brown hair floating in the air, the embroidery on her sleeves and the hem of her skirt … All of them seemed to be vibrating like a common string, sparkling like water waves.
Once the ripples shattered, she would also shatter.
"My lord, can you keep this bracelet and return it to Lin Sanjiu after 15 days?"
*
Lin Sanjiu had never seen any stone that was as red as blood.
It was hard and cold against her palm, as if it had opened a hole in her palm, and all the blood in her body had poured out and fallen into the stone bracelet, leaving her an empty, dry shell.
No wonder it looked like a piece of coagulated blood.
She wanted to hold the bracelet tightly to protect it, but at the same time, she wanted to crush it until it turned into powder.
Lin Sanjiu pressed the bracelet against her chest, and before she knew it, she was curled up like a prawn on the ground. It was not enough. Even though the stone bracelet was hurting her sternum, she still felt that it was not enough. Would she feel any better if she kept pressing the bracelet against her chest, breaking her skin, crushing her sternum, and pushing the bracelet all the way into her flesh and organs?
"Yes, I will."
From afar, a strange intermittent sound came from the wind. It did not sound like it came from a human, but more like the howling of a wolf.
Amidst the murky haze, a soft object fell on her face. That was the last thing Lin Sanjiu could remember. Before she could realize what had happened, she was plunged into a blissful darkness of relief.
She did not know how much time had passed, but when she opened her eyes, she felt that her eyelashes and eyelids were pressed against each other. Only then did she realize that her eyes were still covered by a soft cloth.
For a few seconds, Lin Sanjiu was in a daze due to the lack of oxygen, but her heart was very calm. She did not remember what she was holding in front of her chest.
She did not have the strength to get up, and she did not want to lift the soft cloth off her face. She felt that the world had melted, and at the same time, she had melted into a shapeless puddle of water on the hard gray floor tiles.
"You're awake?" Puppeteer's voice was flat and cold.
"Bohemia," Lin Sanjiu said softly as she remembered. "Bohemia …"
"If you want to listen to me, then shut up."
Lin Sanjiu did not say another word. Her mind was in a whirl, and she did not know what Puppeteer wanted to say. She did not know what he wanted to say, but since someone had given her an order, she obeyed.
"Use your brain and think about it. If she just left you a memento, she had a lot of trash on her." Through the soft darkness of the cloth, Puppeteer's voice floated in the melted world. "So, I asked her why she left you this bracelet."
"Why?"
"What … What do you mean?" Lin Sanjiu was startled by her own voice. She removed the cloth from her face, but she did not dare to raise her eyes. She stared at the floor tiles and asked, "How did she answer you?"
Puppeteer said in a low voice, "She said that this bracelet is very important to her. She said that you will understand it in the future, and she asked you to keep it safe. "
Lin Sanjiu got up from the floor. When she sat up, she was already panting. "What will I understand? What does it mean to keep it safe? "
"How would I know? Do I look like I'm here to answer your questions?" Puppeteer's eyes flashed. He spoke slowly, "On the 15th day, her clothes, her accessories … They were all piled up on the floor.
Special items, jewelry … they're all piled up on the ground. Only one person is missing. "
Lin Sanjiu was stunned. "She's missing? There's no body? Could she have — maybe she didn't — "
Puppeteer turned his head away and did not say anything.
Lin Sanjiu's voice trailed off. She could not finish her sentence. After all, Bohemia was a life form that had been disturbed by the flood. Lin Sanjiu had no idea what the absence of a body could mean.
She just did not expect that the two months she spent in the lava world, the two months she wanted to satisfy her grand prize's wish and give him some alone time, would drag on for years. Finally, she cut off all hope of seeing Bohemia again.
In the "Playing House" instance, she could still vividly recall the scene where everyone made their beds together in the kitchen. She could almost feel Bohemia's thick hair pressing against her arm if she stretched out her hand.
"Here you go."
Lin Sanjiu did not know how long she had been in a daze until a small object was tossed into her hand.
"All the trash she left on the floor is in here."
After a while, Puppeteer said, "You should recover your strength … Don't keep sitting here and drag me down."
In a daze, Lin Sanjiu turned the bracelet and the storage key into a card. There were only a few lines of words on the card. Apart from the function that Bohemia had mentioned, Lin Sanjiu couldn't figure out anything else. Naturally, she couldn't figure out what important meaning it had to Bohemia. Lin Sanjiu had to keep it safe even after she died.
Lin Sanjiu wanted to have a little hope, but she did not dare to.
She wanted to touch Bohemia's hair again.
"When I was planning the plot, I didn't expect Schrodinger's Bohemia to appear … To be honest, I feel bad writing this chapter …"
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