I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 262
Chapter 262: She is the Sun, I Am the Moon
This is a dense forest. Calling it “dense” might be a bit inaccurate because this forest, in terms of both scale and the variety and height of trees, far exceeds my personal understanding.
Towering trees stretch their branches in all directions from their massive trunks, yet they don’t completely block out the sunlight from above, making the forest bright and elegant, akin to the most sacred of paradises.
On these huge trunks are lush green vines and leaves. Sunlight slants through the gaps in the branches, casting dappled light on these enormous leaves. Several unidentified birds perch on the branches high in the canopy, causing the foliage beneath their feet to sway slightly.
Crystal-clear dewdrops drip from the leaves, falling onto the leaves below, rolling down with a gurgling sound, eventually merging with the small pool of water under the big tree.
“Is this… a dream?”
At this moment, I feel like a little bird in the forest, or perhaps a cloud, floating lightly in the center of this vast forest, able to clearly see the beautiful scenery around me. The verdant canopy, the bright and warm sunlight, the fresh air. Faintly, I can hear a distant ethereal singing—
“La la la, la la la la la…”
“The sun has set, the moon has set, half a season weaves the vicissitudes…”
“Under the starry sky of purple orchids, you weep for the faith you’ve devoted for a thousand years, flames dyeing the hem of your golden gown.”
“Momo, come, let me take you home.”
“Those once promised, anticipated, unseen, forgotten ideals, wither along the path of pain, our remaining years will be spent on the road…”
“Because the road is so so long, for a lifetime…”
“Come, let me take you home.”
“La la la, la la la la…”
The chorus seems to be in the sky thousands of miles away, yet it also feels as if it’s right beside the ear, like elves whispering softly by the bedside in a dream.
Floating in the center of the forest, with a mix of curiosity and confusion, I drift towards the depths of the jungle ahead.
The ethereal singing still lingers in the woods—
“Pandora is an evil witch, revealing humanity’s most fragile desires.”
“The dreaming elves, they place hope at the bottom of the box…”
Bathed in this strange and wonderful song, I ventured deeper into the jungle ahead, step by step. As the sunlight gradually dimmed, more and more small creatures and plants emitting faint light appeared around me.
Moreover, the deeper I went into the forest, the more elusive the singing became. Eventually, it seemed to fade away completely, replaced by a language that felt somewhat unfamiliar yet strangely familiar to me—
“Palateresia, I hope you can find your own long-cherished wish.”
“I am not here today for war, but… for her.”
“Half-elf…?”
“Come in.”
This conversation seemed to come from a huge palace in the forest ahead. I could see the rich vitality and verdant magical energy surrounding it.
“The offspring of the demon and elf tribes, human, do you know what this means?”
“Elf King, forgive my presumption, but Momo… she’s fading fast. I’ve done everything I could, but she…”
“Even the injuries she suffered cannot be healed by the Tree of Life and the Spring of Life.”
“There must be something we can do. The elves symbolize life, you must…”
“The key to healing her lies within you.”
“Me? I… I don’t understand.”
“This is your long-cherished wish. When the sun sets, the moon will cast its brilliant light.”
“……”
When I reopened my eyes, I saw myself curled up, holding the succubus pillow that Xiao Mo had bought, lying in the small bed against the wall. Because almost every night this month I had slept with Xiao Mo, and it was almost always the unscrupulous Grim Reaper holding me, I had developed this habit of curling up for easy cuddling during sleep.
“Ugh…”
Stretching my legs, I glanced at the floor-to-ceiling window behind the bed-desk. Tonight’s moon seemed particularly bright for some reason. Its radiant light slanted through the cracks in the window, some of it falling on Xiao Mo’s sketchbook on the desk, some on the small bed in the room.
As usual, tonight I was only wearing a thin nightgown. Because it was hot, I hadn’t put on a bra on my upper body, and below I only wore a simple blue and white underwear.
The air conditioner was set to silent mode, and it was only on 23 degrees, making the whole room quiet.
The moonlight outside spilled onto half of my lower leg and the entire sole of my foot at the end of the bed, giving these originally fair-skinned little feet an inexplicable sense of “sacredness” and “crystal clarity.”
I reached for my phone on the bedside table, habitually lighting up the screen.
Instantly, the brightness emitted by the phone screen, which seemed almost normal before going to sleep, instinctively made me blink several times, prompting me to subconsciously adjust the brightness, lowering the backlight to its lowest setting.
Glancing at the time in the upper right corner, it was four twenty in the middle of the night.
As far as I remember… this seemed to be the first time I woke up at night after becoming a little girl. When I was still an Uncle, my sleep schedule was irregular.
Even if I forced myself not to close my eyes and stay awake for 30 hours, climbing into bed at night to forcibly reset my biological clock, I’d still wake up in the middle of the night at around four or five without being able to fall back asleep until I went to the bathroom or had a drink of water.
After being reborn as “Yin Nuo’er” in this world, such habits basically ceased to exist.
At least this month, every night, I would feel drowsy around eleven thirty at night, and then I would lie down with Xiao Mo, play and wrestle with each other for half an hour, at most dragging it out until twelve thirty before falling asleep unconsciously. Even if occasionally I woke up in the middle of the night, slightly out of breath because of Xiao Mo’s embrace, I would quickly fall back asleep after adjusting my position, and the next day would be full of energy and vitality.
This “instantly replenishing energy after a nap” situation became even more apparent after Xiao Mo and I became more “honest” with each other.
At first, even though I had turned into a little girl, and even though due to my body’s biological clock, I would collapse around ten o’clock every night and sleep until dawn, the mental recovery effect back then wasn’t as pronounced as it is now.
It was just the physical vitality that got restored. The next day, I would still wake up anxious because of poorly written novels, no royalties, no income, but there was a faint sense of “I seem to have a little more fallback” buffer thought.
Now, as my work at the café gradually stabilizes, with a steady income and Xiao Mo’s company, my previous anxieties have basically disappeared. No matter how tired I am the day before, a good night’s sleep turns me back into a lively Yin Nuo’er.
It’s like there’s a feeling in my heart… that from now on, no matter how I fall, I’ll be firmly caught by Xiao Mo, and everything feels so much more relaxed.
But today…
I sat up from the small bed, hugging my knees.
The slender and delicate legs belonging to a girl, especially after this month of continuous “exercise” at the café, my legs no longer feel as chubby as they did at the beginning. Though they’re still somewhat soft, at least when hugging them… it feels really good.
“La la la… la la la la la…”
Wasn’t that the melody the woman’s voice in the forest sang just now in the dream?
I lifted my head and looked out at the silvery sky outside the window.
Tonight, Xiao Mo isn’t on Earth. Usually, if I dream about those things, it’s Xiao Mo creating them with the “Succubus Dream Realm,” deliberately letting me understand the past and present of the heroes. So, the dream I just had… is probably a real one.
In the dream, the “hero” seemed to have taken the barely breathing Momo to the Forest of the Elves.
According to legend, elves don’t understand love, and they rarely reproduce offspring through their bodies like humans. Almost all elves are wandering poets and witnesses of world history.
Some novels also set the Tree of Life in the Forest of the Elves as the “World Tree,” controlling the “origin” of all life in the world. However, according to Xiao Mo’s previous description, the Tree of Life in their world isn’t as “grand.”
By the way, this melody is quite nice.
La la la, la la la la la…
I carefully folded the blanket, put the pillow aside, and changed into rabbit slippers before getting out of bed.
Tomorrow is the last day of leave that Ouyang Xue and I asked for, so it’s okay to be a little indulgent.
Stepping in soft slippers to the living room, amidst the quiet floral scent, I gently opened the door to the kitchen and looked at the several boxes of milk on top of the cupboard.
Those milks were bought earlier as “ingredients” because occasionally at home we would make some fruit smoothies, and since the fridge is in the kitchen, I just kept the milk there so it would be easy to grab when needed.
The only slight inconvenience… at least for me, is that the milk is placed quite high.
Now, with my height of just 1.39 meters, I really am like a child. Calling me a “loli” wouldn’t raise any eyebrows. Compared to the average adult height of around 1.6 meters, I’m more than twenty centimeters shorter, so the kitchen cabinets, designed for adults to easily reach, are a bit high for me.
One, two…
Taking a deep breath in the kitchen, I jumped up, trying to reach the milk on top of the cabinet.
Didn’t reach it.
Let’s try again.
One, two, three… heave-ho!
Nope, looks like I’ll have to go get a stool.
With that thought in mind, I walked out of the kitchen, but before I could find a stool, I heard the sound of a door opening upstairs. Lan Jiajia, wearing pajamas, emerged, clicking on the wall lamp with a surprised look at seeing me.
“Nuo’er? What are you doing here so late?”
“I can’t sleep.”
I grabbed a small stool from the living room. “I want some milk. I heard drinking milk can help you sleep if you’re having trouble.”
“You know, I thought a stray kitten had wandered into our house.”
Lan Jiajia gestured for me to stop moving the stool. “The milk in the kitchen?”
“Yeah, the boxed ones. We bought them earlier for making milkshakes.”
I felt a bit embarrassed. “I can’t reach them.”
“Pfft, milk actually doesn’t help with sleep, but if you want to drink it, go ahead.”
Entering the kitchen, Lan Jiajia effortlessly retrieved a box of milk from the top cabinet.
“How come our energetic Nuo’er has something on their mind too?”
“I don’t have anything on my mind, just simply can’t sleep, I guess.”
I took the milk. “Thanks.”
“We’re family, no need to thank me. But, if you can’t reach something, don’t keep everyday items so high.”
She ruffled my hair as if comforting a child, then glanced towards Xiao Mo and Gabriel’s room. “Did that miss angel sleep tonight?”
“Um… I don’t know.”
I used the moonlight filtering into the kitchen to locate the straw hole on the milk carton and inserted the straw.
“Can’t sleep either, Sister Jiajia?”
“I just have poor sleep quality. I tend to wake up at the slightest noise, and if I drink too much water before bed, I’ll have to get up to use the bathroom at night.”
Lan Jiajia chuckled. “After drinking milk, Nuo’er, you should go back to sleep soon. Kids who don’t sleep well won’t grow big chests, you know!”
“I don’t care about having a big chest!”
As I spoke, I unconsciously glanced at Lan Jiajia. “Um… Sister Lan Jiajia, I… I have a question about writing a book, can I ask you?”
“A question about writing a book?”
Lan Jiajia was taken aback for a moment, then nodded. “Sure, go ahead. Although I’m no longer your editor, I can still offer some advice.”
“Well… If there’s a novel where the hero rescues the princess from the demon king, but then the hero… gets cursed by the demon king, and reincarnates on Earth. The princess, in her grief and anger, inherits the hero’s will, kills the demon king, and follows to Earth. Because the princess is very powerful, the reincarnated hero is just an ordinary person. The princess asks the hero to live a life of comfort in this lifetime, what… what kind of choice should the hero make?”
“Hmm?”
Lan Jiajia listened with some surprise. “Is this your new novel, Nuo’er? What about the one about the transformation into a yuri?”
“No, it’s not. It’s just suddenly… suddenly had this idea. I guess tonight’s insomnia is probably because of this sudden idea. As soon as I think about it, I can’t sleep.”
I hesitated for a moment. “So… with this kind of beginning, how should I continue writing?”
“With this setup, it’s very suitable for a slice-of-life novel.”
Almost instinctively, Lan Jiajia continued, “There are many similar novels or anime, like ‘Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid.’ Although it’s not exactly the same as your setup, it’s similar—a person from another world and an Earthling living together on Earth. You just need to write steadily according to the rhythm of a slice-of-life novel.”
“Write steadily?”
I fell silent for a moment. “Don’t I need to write about the hero’s great deeds? Or… the hero is the main character after all, won’t being pampered by the princess give readers the impression of weakness?”
“No, no, no. If that impression arises, it’s probably because you wrote scenes where the hero is bullied and makes readers angry, or the novel itself has that… soldier king, son-in-law style. You know? Those novels focus on conflicts and deliberately amplify the conflicts and psychology between people in ordinary life.”
Lan Jiajia explained, “Nuo’er, think about it. We’ve had quite a few customers at the café this month. Although there were a very few with terrible attitudes, getting angry if their food wasn’t good, we always resolved the disputes easily, right?”
“But if such customers were in those kinds of novels, it would be an endless situation, causing a scene, escalating to the manager stepping in, threatening to harm the protagonist, and ultimately leading to the protagonist being fired by the manager—well, it’s not that exaggerated in real life.”
“Our relationship with Sister Ouyang is very good, and even if there were unruly customers, it would just be a matter of a phone call to the police.”
“In most cases, reality is quite mundane. There’s no wife slapping her husband followed by the mother-in-law slapping him again, and then the husband enduring it. According to the setup you just described, there’s no need to take that relatively worldly route, focusing on everyday life is enough.”
I pondered for a moment. “So, you mean the hero should just accept the princess’s care without any qualms, play the role of a mascot every day, and let the princess handle everything?”
“What’s wrong with being a mascot? I think I can still be one. Just like Nuo’er is the mascot of the café.”
Lan Jiajia said with certainty, “People are tired nowadays. Not everyone likes plots full of intrigue and violence in novels. Keeping it simple is better. This way, after a tiring day of work or school, people can come home, read an update, see the hero and princess being affectionate, feel sweet, then put down their phones, go to bed and have sweet dreams, and continue with life and work the next day. Isn’t that nice?”
Hmm, it aligns with the Fei Luosophy of slice-of-life novels I’ve written before, but… that’s not what I wanted to ask.
“If, I mean if…”
I gathered my courage. “If this wasn’t a novel but a real-life situation, would Sister Lan Jiajia still advise that hero to obediently become the princess’s mascot?”
“In the context of a novel, I can speak from an editor’s perspective, but… if, Nuo’er, you assume this story is real, I might not be able to answer from the perspective of the general public. I can only speak for myself.”
This time, Lan Jiajia hesitated. She stood at the kitchen door, with her back to the warm-colored light on the staircase wall, pausing for several seconds.
“At least, I would do that.”
“Huh?”
“Isn’t it romantic?”
The girl in pajamas, with a smile like a mother’s, continued, “In the previous life, the hero died for the princess. In this life, the princess avenges the hero and returns to repay the favor. If I were the hero, knowing this, I would choose to follow the princess’s arrangements, because I cannot deprive others of the right to repay kindness.”
“The opportunity to repay the favor?”
“Yes, it’s the same with novels. When I used to work at Honeydew, authors often reported that their books had been pirated on certain websites. Many people read the pirated versions, which were full of errors and advertisements. They would then track down the author through the provided reader group number and scold them.”
“But there were also many readers who, after reading the pirated version, thought the book was good and worth supporting. They would specifically find the official version of the novel to subscribe and donate. You can’t really say you’re prohibiting others from donating, right?”
Lan Jiajia gestured towards the beautiful moonlight outside the window.
“Just like this moon. From an astronomical perspective, it’s just reflecting the sunlight. The moon itself doesn’t emit light. The sun provides energy to the earth, bringing light to the world. The moon is like a mascot, only able to shine at night with the brilliance of the sun. But you can’t say that the moon in this world only has the identity of a ‘mascot’. The world is so vast. At least I quite like the moon, even if it only illuminates everything with the light of the sun.”
Huh?
At Lan Jiajia’s gesture, I looked towards the night sky outside the living room balcony. The moonlight was bright, and the stars were shining. Moonlight shining because of the sun… Everything illuminated by the willful sunlight…
“Anyway, that’s roughly the idea.”
Lan Jiajia gently patted my head.
“Nuo’er, you’re a lot like me when I was younger, always lost in thought. But in reality, the world isn’t that complicated. Instead of overthinking every day, it’s better to live each day well, make yourself happy, be silly, and live a healthy and long life.”
“Uh…”
“After you finish the milk, go to bed. Look at you, your hair is all messed up from sleeping. Xiao Mo probably tortured you all night.”
Finally, she patted my shoulder, turned and headed upstairs, casually turning off the small light next to the stairs.
“Goodnight.”
“Goodnight.”
I waved towards Lan Jiajia’s direction, then tore open the milk carton, which had a perforated opening, tilted my head back, and drank the milk in one go.
“……”
……
The next day, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, I woke up to the melodious ringtone of my phone.
There was still a lingering taste of milk in my mouth, and my hair was still messy at the back, but my body felt very comfortable, and my energy was fully restored.
“Time to get up!”
I silenced the phone alarm and, as usual, went to the bathroom. After washing up, I hopped over to the top of the vanity table and grabbed a few bottles of skincare products. After a simple facial care routine, I put them back.
As Xiao Mo had mentioned, my body didn’t actually need the skincare products from Earth, but since I was already used to washing my face, brushing my teeth, and applying some fragrance every morning, I didn’t deliberately change this habit.
Besides, these skincare products smelled quite nice, and their scent could bring about a sense of happiness. Once you get used to something, it becomes a habit.
Xiao Mo didn’t need to sleep, but wasn’t she still cuddling with me and falling asleep in my arms every night?
After finishing my simple morning routine, I tidied up the trash in the room, took the garbage bag downstairs to throw it away, and then went to the noodle roll shop to buy some dough and filling. I also bought some classic breakfast items like shumai (Chinese dumpling), meat buns, and roujiamo (meat sandwich) from another store, carrying the bags back home.
I put the shumai, meat buns, and other items in the steamer to keep them warm, while I reheated the filling for the noodle rolls as it had cooled down a bit.
Thirty minutes later, I returned to the living room with the steaming hot fillings of leek and cabbage, ready to start rolling the noodles.
For the sake of the appearance of the noodle rolls, I deliberately went to the “River Noodle Specialty Shop” at the entrance of the neighborhood to buy a package of “vegetable noodles”. This kind of “vegetable noodles” looked green and oily on the outside, and they were very resilient. As long as they weren’t cooked to be extremely soft, they wouldn’t break no matter how you handled them.
Wearing gloves, I spread out the dough for the noodle rolls, evenly sprinkled the vegetable meat filling in the middle, added some sauce, carefully rolled up the dough, and finally pinched the end of the noodle rolls to ensure that it could wrap the filling inside well. I took a cooked vegetable noodle, tied up the two ends of the noodle rolls, and made a bow. Then, a cute and fragrant noodle roll was ready.
*Snap.*
As I repeated the above steps and made more than ten beautiful and cute noodle rolls, filling the dining table with plates full of them, the door to the living room opened.
Xiao Mo walked in from outside with her travel bag on her back. Seeing me, the Miss Grim Reaper seemed a bit surprised.
“Did you really get up this early to make breakfast for me?” she asked.
“Yeah.”
I stood up and pulled out a chair next to the dining table.
“Welcome home, Princess.”
“……”
……
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