God's Gift

As the voice faded, the man's body transformed into specks of light, eventually coalescing back into a single blue dot that returned to Youyou's body.

Xiao Ou opened her eyes wide, staring blankly at the spot where the man had disappeared, not understanding what the stranger meant.

The wind was getting a bit chilly, and Xiao Ou came to her senses, her gaze falling on Yu Youyou, who was still lying prone on the ground not far away.

The surrounding crowd remained motionless like statues, and no one could stop Youyou anymore.

Yu Youyou clenched her fists and continued to support her broken body as she crawled toward Xiao Ou.

Like a little fish longing to return to its nest, it eagerly and intently swims towards its only harbor.

But her body was so heavy, and moving around was so difficult.

Although the two were only ten steps apart, it felt as if thousands of years had passed between them.

The nameless, dull pain in Xiao'ou's heart spread again. Her eyes reddened, and a suffocating feeling gripped her throat as if a hand was choking her. Moisture condensed on her corneas and turned into tears that rolled down her cheeks.

She ran towards Yu Youyou with unsteady steps, her pace quickening until she finally reached Yu Youyou's side.

She staggered and knelt before Yu Youyou, raising her hands to embrace her. But her hands remained suspended in mid-air, unsure how to touch this scarred body.

Yu Youyou's eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and her vision became increasingly blurry.

The little gull's small figure gradually overlapped with her mother's figure. Following the source of warmth, she habitually climbed into the little gull's arms and curled up like a baby.

"Give me a hug, Mom."

She nestled in Xiao Ou's warm embrace, like a fetus nestled in its mother's warm womb.

"It hurts so much, Mom."

Her consciousness gradually faded, but she continued to mutter repeatedly, like a child crying to her mother after being injured, incessantly recounting her pain.

Xiao Ou didn't understand why Yu Youyou called her that. Yu Youyou had forced her to play house before, and in the game, Yu Youyou insisted on playing her mother.

Perhaps Yu Youyou was in so much pain that she lost her mind and was still treating the game as reality.

She was so disoriented that she forgot she was playing the role of a mother and mistook herself for a child.

More likely, however, it is possible that a person's consciousness becomes disordered before death.

Xiao Ou thought that Yu Youyou must be dying too, which was why she was unconscious.

Pain surged like a tidal wave, as if a knife had been plunged into Xiao'ou's chest, churning inside and causing her to bend over in agony.

Xiao Ou's tears kept falling, though she cried far less than the other children. But in that moment, she shed almost all the tears she had in her entire life.

Hot tears fell onto Yu Youyou's face. She opened her eyes, slowly raised her hand, and touched Xiao Ou's cheek with her bare hand bones.

"Don't cry, Mom."

Yu Youyou's thoughts continued to sink, and in the midst of the chaos, she vaguely thought:

Mom, why are you always crying for me?

Is it true, as you say, that children are a disaster born from a mother's love?

That's why the disaster returns to your body, and that's why you always shed tears for me.

Xiao Ou looked at Yu Youyou, who was gradually closing her eyes, and called out helplessly:

"Don't sleep, or you won't wake up."

"You're going to die."

"I won't die." Yu Youyou said weakly, in a voice that Xiao Ou could only hear when she was close enough:

"I'm just too tired, let me get some sleep."

"No...you can't sleep." Xiao Ou held Yu Youyou's cheeks, supporting her body, and stared blankly at the silent world.

"Save her..."

Was that man who just appeared also a god? Why couldn't he come and save Yu Youyou one more time?

"Who can save her..."

Why is her only divine power to bring disaster? Why does she only bring calamity? Why can't she save Yu Youyou?

Xiao Ou choked back tears as she hugged Yu Youyou's head, her brows furrowed with sobs, tears streaming down Yu Youyou's cheeks.

"Who can save her?"

As Xiao Ou kept asking the sky and the earth in a daze, the old scar on her wrist suddenly split open, and blood flowed from the wound, falling onto Yu Youyou's body.

"It can't fall on her..." Xiao Ou hurriedly reached out to catch the falling blood, "Don't bring disaster to her."

But the blood couldn't be stopped from seeping through Xiao Ou's fingers and dripping onto the horrifying hole in Yu Youyou's chest.

Miraculously, the moment these scattered drops of blood touched Yu Youyou's flesh, they awakened Yu Youyou's own blood.

Yu Youyou's blood twisted into a single strand, extending upwards along with Xiao Ou's blood, eventually intertwining with the blood flowing from Xiao Ou.

Their blood flows together, like streams reunited after a long separation, constantly converging and merging.

As the blood merged, Yu Youyou's incomplete body grew new flesh and blood at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Xiao Ou stared blankly at the blood connecting her wrist to Yu Youyou's chest in disbelief, then looked at Yu Youyou's body where new flesh had grown.

This blood, which should only bring disaster, is actually repairing Yu Youyou's body.

A hint of joy appeared in Xiao Ou's eyes. Without hesitation, she took out a knife and made several new cuts on her wrist to speed up the mixing of blood.

As she watched Yu Youyou gradually grow new limbs, she finally stopped crying.

In the silence, Yu Youyou slowly opened her eyes and saw the blood connecting the two of them.

The blood, connected like ropes, is like an umbilical cord that has never been cut, reconnecting them.

She was like an embryo still developing in the womb, her mother's blood flowing to her through the umbilical cord, nourishing her flesh and blood, her body.

Yu Youyou's head rested on Xiao Ou's chest.

She listened to the heartbeat in Xiao Ou's chest, a "thump," a "thump-thump." The sound seemed to come from her own chest, as if a heart had grown again in the empty space of her chest—they were sharing a heartbeat.

Yu Youyou slowly turned her eyes and looked up at Xiao Ou's focused face.

Oh, I see, Mom.

My blood comes from your blood.

And the calamity will return to my body in the same way.

Yu Youyou hugged Xiao Ou with her newly grown hands, a tear sliding down her cheek.

Mom, hold me tight.

Wrap your body around me, just like when I was still in your womb, hold me tight.

Mom, you brought me back into the world with your blood.

I will grow flesh and blood again, grow bones, grow skin, and be reborn.