William Carter glanced to the side and saw that Ethan Miller was listening attentively. The classroom was rather quiet at the moment, so it wasn’t appropriate to talk. He picked up his pen, signaled to Ethan Miller, and wrote on the test paper—

“Have you heard of these people?”

“Sounds a bit familiar.” Ethan Miller thought for a moment. “But I don’t really remember.”

William Carter put his pen down on the desk.

In the afternoon, there were physics and chemistry classes, which were even more incomprehensible to Ethan Miller. He sat next to William Carter with a completely bewildered expression the whole time, occasionally turning to look at the others in the classroom, but all he saw were faces focused on the lesson.

Not long after, he chose to go out and face San Zheng.

Hearing Ethan Miller say he had scared San Zheng, William Carter went to the track for a walk after dinner, testing the waters.

After walking half a lap, when he saw San Zheng sitting by the small pond looking thoroughly entertained, William Carter finally let out a sigh of relief, put on his Bluetooth earphones, and listened to music on his sports watch.

After last night’s rain, the weather had turned completely hot. The afternoon sun was scorching, but now it had cooled down a bit, and the sky was gradually tinged with red. A breeze made the willow branches by the pond sway gently, the sound of basketballs hitting the ground echoed continuously, two girls walked ahead of William Carter arm in arm, laughing as they went, and someone ran quickly past William Carter, bringing a gust of warm air.

It had been a long time since William Carter had taken a walk on the track.

Suddenly, the sound of footsteps approached. William Carter felt a tap on his shoulder, and a handsome young guy holding a badminton racket appeared in front of him. He was very good-looking, though a bit feminine, like a pop idol on TV.

“Bro, are you out for a walk!?”

“Yeah, just walking after dinner.”

“Wanna play badminton?”

“No, I’ll just walk a bit and head back to the classroom.”

“Alright, I’m off then!” Helen Reed waved at William Carter and jogged off in the direction he’d come from.

“Is that your brother?” Ethan Miller asked, holding up a willow branch.

“Yeah.” William Carter nodded. “I still have another question I haven’t asked you.”

“What is it?”

“You all seem to be afraid of people. I’ve noticed that a lot of yaos consciously avoid humans and rarely go to crowded places.” William Carter pondered. “But you don’t seem to be afraid of people. Why is that?”

“Oh, that… I think I’ve noticed that too.”

“You don’t know either?”

“I’ll go ask a little yao and get back to you.” Ethan Miller seemed to have gotten curious as well.

Chapter 7 Cicada Song

Eleven o’clock at night.

A pigeon flew past the window, its wings beating heavily.

William Carter placed the test paper on the stack of books to his left and patiently wrote today’s diary. Suddenly, a voice came from outside the window—

“Why don’t you close your window?”

“Ah!”

William Carter was startled.

Ethan Miller had both hands on the window frame, propping himself up. The twenty-fifth floor meant nothing to him. He stared unblinkingly at William Carter: “Are you writing a weekly journal?”

“A diary.”

“Oh, so in high school you switch to writing a diary?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s tough.”

“You startled me, showing up so suddenly.”

“Sorry, I thought you were brave.” With that, Ethan Miller freed one hand and knocked on the window.

“Come in quickly!” William Carter suddenly noticed a wound on Ethan Miller’s arm and asked, “What happened to your hand?”

“Bitten by a little yao.” Ethan Miller came inside.

“How did you get bitten?”

“I asked him a question, but he didn’t want to answer, so he bit me. Luckily, my skin is thick. He even said I was bullying him and threatened to go complain to someone or other.” Ethan Miller didn’t seem to care much. “I wasn’t.”

“If you can’t get an answer, just let it go,” William Carter said.

“I did get an answer,” Ethan Miller said. “Apparently, a long time ago, yaos and humans made an agreement: yaos must not appear before ordinary people, can’t interact with them, can’t interfere with their lives, and definitely can’t do bad things… There’s a whole bunch of rules.”

“That strict? What if they break them?”

“It was a direct order from the Yao King. Generally, no yao would break it—they’re all very stubborn.”

“What about you?”

“Me? I didn’t know before, I forgot.” Ethan Miller thought for a moment. “Looks like I’ll have to be more careful from now on. And I’ve noticed something else: if I do nothing all day, I can’t remember anything, but if I keep busy, it’s different. See, I’ve only spent one day with you and already a lot of memories are coming back.”

“Are there still Yao Kings among the yaos?”

“Yes, supposedly it’s a fish, and it hasn’t appeared in hundreds of years.”

“A fish?”

“Yeah, they call it the Fish King. But that’s a name humans gave it—we just use human language. Maybe it’s just a highly respected old yao, and ancient people gave it a name that fit their own ideas. If you’re not used to it, you can call it the Yao Emperor, Yao Sovereign, or Yao President, Yao Chairman, Yao General Secre—”

“Achoo!”

“Are you sick?”

“The flowers smell a bit strong.” William Carter moved the hyacinth closer to the window.

“They’re about to wilt, looking all droopy.” Ethan Miller looked at the flowers, frowning slightly. “I think I’ve heard of a kind of yao that can make flowers bloom forever.”