"Come down quickly, and I'll take you to Mother and Son Lake, okay?"

Finally, she put away her strangeness and looked at me with concern, as if she were a caring older sister.

When I landed, I tried my best not to look at her subtly moving belly. I followed her for a while, still feeling frightened.

"You look familiar. Have you been to the village before?"

"I remember, aren't you acquainted with a little girl with long hair?"

"Are you engaged to someone? But it's okay. If I have a boy in this pregnancy, you'll definitely be a child bride."

Wait, isn't this a question?

I observed her expression and tentatively spoke. Let's take a gamble! If worse comes to worst, I'll just continue climbing trees!

"What if it's a daughter?"

"Then I hope she looks just like you. Maybe one day she can leave the village."

At that moment, I felt a shiver run down my spine, and I was horrified and terrified. Being a child bride or having a daughter who looked like me didn't sound good at all.

"My previous child was a girl. My man consulted the ancestral hall and had an abortion at five months. In our village, when women conceive a girl, they have to come to Mother and Son Lake to drink water until they give birth to a son. We have no choice. If you study well, maybe you can escape."

It's truly ridiculous.

What kind of son can those parasite eggs produce? They might as well give birth to worms!

But in this moment, amidst my anger, I felt a sense of sadness, and a lot of the horror dissipated.

What does it matter if I can leave? Can I really escape this village forever? This suffering will only torment my mind every night.

I didn't know how to comfort her. All I could tell her was that from a biological perspective, the sex of a child is determined by the sperm's genes, and it's definitely not the woman's fault.

She didn't quite understand. With a waxen, swollen face and sunken eyes, she walked numbly towards Mother and Son Lake.

The lake surface was calm. I scooped up a little water with a water bottle, but I saw her heading straight for Mother and Son Lake, muttering:

"Isn't it our fault?"

For the first time, I saw someone in this village truly laughing.

No.

I wanted to say, but as soon as I made a sound, I realized something was wrong.

I couldn't move. Countless bugs swam from under my feet to my belly, entwining and biting, trying to burrow inside.

Not far away, Sister Carnivorous Flower's body weakened, shrinking like a deflated plastic bag, with only a layer of skin floating on the lake's surface, faintly carrying the final smile.

Is my revenge about to end here?

"Didn't I tell you not to do anything dangerous?"

A black shadow flashed before my eyes, engulfing my body, and I felt as if the scenes before me were rapidly receding like a movie plot.

When I regained my senses, we were already on the main road.

I looked at her, she looked at me, and in the end, I couldn't help but speak.

"How did you know I was here?" I brushed off the sticky bug eggs from my body and asked in a muffled voice.

She didn't answer.

I didn't dare to raise my head, my nose and eye sockets were incredibly sore.

I didn't dare to speak, holding my breath, afraid of showing any weakness.

This is a reunion I never dreamed of.