Can the sadness that magic cannot take away be offset by love?

After that, whenever Iris had nothing to do, she would still enter the girl's dream, playing in the water, admiring the flowers, and swinging on the swing, but she would never pay any attention to the little girl.

Alexia often watched longingly as the other person played in the water, admired flowers, and swung on a swing in her dreams. Even though the other person refused to communicate with her, she maintained a very high frequency of speaking up, hoping that one day she could move this taciturn new friend.

Subsequent events proved that young Iris not only overestimated her own stubbornness but also underestimated Alexia's enthusiasm—besides, the two lonely children spent every night together and often found themselves in dreams complete with amusement parks, gardens, and other play facilities, so it was only a matter of time before they started playing together again.

Perhaps it was Alexia's sincere heart and bright, expectant eyes that finally melted Iris's frozen heart, or perhaps it was because Iris, like Alexia, had a ready-made playmate and a ready-made playground by her side, and could no longer resist—the two girls finally began a formal two-way communication.

"Can you do me a favor? Can you carry me to the carousel? I want this little blue pony. It's about to start, and I can't climb on it yet. Please, please!"

That night's dream was a sunny amusement park, filled with the sounds of music and crowds. Iris was happily munching on a chocolate ice cream when she heard Alexia's request. Iris, who usually ignored her, for some reason, casually tossed her half-eaten ice cream to Alexia, bent down, reached out and scooped her up onto a pink carousel, then deftly took the ice cream from Alexia's arms and stood calmly watching the carousel slowly turn, carrying the dazed black-haired girl.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Just when Iris thought everything was alright, she suddenly heard a piercing wail:

"I want a blue one! I want a blue pony! I don't want pink, I don't want pink—Wa ...

The earth-shattering cry made Iris's ice cream scoop, which she had in her mouth, tremble. She stared in disbelief at the little girl who had burst into tears in a second, and felt extremely regretful.

I shouldn't have paid any attention to her. She's such a pushover, such a never-ending little thing!

Even after the carousel stopped, Iris didn't help her again, and Alexia's crying didn't stop.

When the rocking horse stopped spinning, the little girl stopped crying and then started looking at her longingly again.

When their eyes met, Iris wiped her hands, which were a little dirty from eating ice cream, and stared at her expressionlessly.

"Sister, lift me down."

"..."

Having lived for a full ten years, and never before had anyone called her "sister" with such wet, teary eyes, Iris finally gave in. She lifted the girl off the rocking horse and watched as she darted off like a slippery eel towards another ride as soon as she landed.

"I want to play this! I want to play this! Sister, come here quickly, let's play this together!"

Take measures!

Iris cursed under her breath as she followed behind her.

*

The increasingly frequent interactions between the two girls naturally followed. For Alexia, this playmate who appeared out of nowhere, although always with a cold face, almost always granted her requests. For Iris, having a way to relax after the daily fighting was a good thing, as long as she could ignore the annoying little bird that was always chirping beside her.

However, Alexia's dreams were not all peaceful and serene. Like other children neglected by their families, she would have nightmares on quiet nights, seeing the curtains in her room fluttering wildly in the dark wind, like grotesque demons. Strange and terrifying laughter came from behind the fragile window frames, as if a giant beast lurking in the night was about to rush in and devour her.

In her nightmare, Alexia was huddled in a corner of the big bed, staring in terror out the window. Then a pale, cold hand reached in from outside and expertly turned on the light in her room.

With a "snap," the room was illuminated as if it were daytime. Alexia, upon seeing Iris's face outside the window, which was raising an eyebrow at her, immediately screamed:

"Iris! Iris! Waa ...

Outside the window, there was a moon hiding behind the clouds. After Iris climbed through the window into the girl's bedroom, the moon also broke through the fog, revealing a clear and beautiful face, quietly gazing at the two children on the other side of the window.

The gray-haired archmage patted the girl's back casually, lamenting that tonight's dream would be in the girl's bedroom, and there probably wouldn't be anything fun to do.

And Alexia? She knew nothing; she only cared about herself. All she knew was that if someone came to comfort her, she could cry as much as she wanted.

As the girl continued crying, Iris's ears couldn't take it anymore, and she tried to interrupt her sobbing:

"Don't cry, with that much energy you could learn to sing several songs!"

As they were talking, Iris suddenly had a bright idea: "Oh, right, can you sing? Do you want me to teach you? My mom taught me a song that a lot of people like..."

Alexia, who was still sobbing, suddenly stopped crying.

"The water lily sways in the rain..."

"The wind knocked down the pure white petals..."

Our reflections were mirrored on the lake...

"The floral water is entangled with us..."

In the stillness of the night, the two girls' songs nestled within this small space. Little did Iris know that this song, so familiar to her at that moment, would gradually sink into the deepest recesses of her memory with the passage of time, only to be completely buried by the ever-accumulating silt of reality, never to see the light of day again.

"Sister, I like you so much."

The girl in my arms had increasingly heavy eyelids, and whether she was consciously or unconsciously uttering this sound, I don't know.

Once her breathing became even, Iris's incredibly dark blue eyes gazed at the girl's peaceful sleeping face in the darkness. After a while, she turned her head to look at the photo of the girl and her family on the table, closed her eyes, and whispered:

"But I hate you, and I'm jealous of you."

*

As they spent more and more time together, they came to understand each other better.

For example, Alexia knows that her sister Iris likes to eat fried eggs, drink yogurt, play with dolls, and brew potions.

Her older sister likes to recommend things she likes to her, and she thinks that everything her sister likes is great, so she decides that she should like those things too.

She demanded that the servants prepare fried eggs every morning, keep yogurt at home at all times, and even told her brother that she wanted to learn potions.

My sister Iris knows a lot about potions and often tells her interesting stories about them.

Her brother said she was too young to learn anything too complicated, so he only gave her a book called "Potion Primer".

She would sit alone in the garden every day with this thick book, "The Enlightenment of Magic Potions," reading it with great interest, and often placing a beautiful doll next to her.

The adults all say that little Alexia has calmed down a lot, has developed her own hobbies, and has even started to enjoy learning.

Only she knew that at night, Iris would quietly enter her dreams, change the dolls' clothes with her, play games with her, and teach her to sing. She reserved almost all her liveliness and energy for every night she spent with Iris.

Her older sister never let her tell her brothers about this, because her sister said she found her through magic, and if her brothers knew, they would erase the magic from her, so they would never see each other in their dreams again. Besides, it was their little secret; girls should have little secrets, after all.

When her sister was chatting with her, she mentioned that her sister's family used to have a very cute cat named Lulu, so Alexia always wanted a kitten and named it "Zhuzhu".

"Why is she called Zhuzhu? Does this name have any meaning?"

At that moment, Alexia broke the chocolate in half and gave her half, while firmly replying:

"Because when you put them together, it says 'dewdrop'! It's the pretty dewdrop in the garden every morning—"

*

The two, who often ate chocolate together, eventually even started to bite into the chocolate at the exact same angle.

Later, Alexia shared this most convenient angle for eating chocolate with another friend of hers, Charles Unsett.

Little Alexia has very high standards for her friends, and it was quite a journey for little Oncetin to catch her eye.