Thirteen rabbits

  That's right, what the kid picked up was a rabbit.

  Still only eyes full of hot tears, ears trembling with fear, like a rabbit about to be scared out of its wits.

  Qiu Qiu was surprised for a moment and then let it go. This mountain has plenty of spiritual energy, so even if there are tigers that love to get close to the old monk's father, it's not surprising that rabbits sneak into the temple. The rabbit looks pitiful, really pitiful. If it could speak human language, it would definitely beg for mercy repeatedly.

  What is the rabbit holding in its mouth?

  Qiu Qiu curiously stretched out his hand and pulled it, but the rabbit's two front teeth were biting tightly, and he couldn't pull it off at once.

  The rabbit's sleeve was tightened, and its eyes were about to bulge out, yet it still didn't loosen its grip.

  "Never mind, let it go."

  The little boy stretched out his hand and flicked the rabbit's nose with his finger. As a result, the rabbit that refused to open its mouth involuntarily opened it, and what it was holding in its mouth fell down, which Autumn caught with her hands.

  The rabbit's tears really fell down this time, and its throat made a gurgling sound, as if it was going to take its life.

  Qiu Qiu lowered her head to look at the thing in her hand: "This..." She still thought that the rabbit had bitten so tightly, it was probably a carrot. As a result, the shape was similar, but the texture was quite different, this was clearly half a candle, which had been lit before, with a blackened wick and wax tears.

  Haven't heard of rabbits eating candles?

  "It's a spiritual candle. A high-ranking monk who has attained the Way must have used it to lecture on the Dharma, so the candle became different."

  Qiu Qiu understood.

  It was originally something better than carrots, estimated to be stolen from someone's temple, otherwise why would those monks chase it just now?

  Since it was the first to play the thief, Qiuqiu would no longer scatter sympathy randomly.

  "Should we return this to the temple?"

  The rabbit cried out in a hurry, and big tears fell down with a plop.

  The child said: "It's stealing soul wax for a reason, let's go and see."

  She let go of her hand, the rabbit hopped to the ground, ran two steps forward, and turned back with a spirited look, seemingly waiting for them to catch up.

  "This rabbit is really amazing... can it understand human language?"

  The old man patiently explained: "The spiritual energy on the mountain is very strong, these living creatures have been living with humans for many years and naturally understand human language, they just can't speak."

  Qiu Qiu felt very ashamed, she was a local after all, yet she didn't know the surroundings as well as this guest, Lian Er.

  But shouldn't Xiaoyu be more than just her looks? Like Jingxin, who appears to be a beautiful woman in her early twenties but is actually old enough to be someone's great-great-grandmother. What about Xiaoyu? How old is she really?

  Qiu Qiu asked her softly, and Shi Er looked at her calmly: "I thought you wouldn't ask."

  Ashamed of myself.

  At first, she also wanted to ask, but the child's attitude was really too cold, asking ten sentences without bringing back a single word. As time went on, and with other things distracting her, she couldn't remember to ask about age anymore.

  They followed the rabbit for a while, and the rabbit called out to them twice before darting into a grass hut.

  Qiuqiu and Shi'er exchanged a glance - they couldn't follow him in, even if they could, they wouldn't be able to get in anyway.

  As a result, at this moment, the sound of rustling was heard, very urgent and rapid, like a sudden rain. Qiuqiu looked into the grass, and saw that the rabbit's two front teeth were not white and long, but it was eating the grass as fast as a sickle cutting it, and the tall grass leaves that blocked the view were quickly cut off in rows.

  It's said that rabbits don't eat grass near their burrows, but this rabbit is acting so strangely, it must be an emergency.

  As expected, after the grass was nibbled away, this rabbit pushed from inside out, and what came out was another rabbit.

  This is just a mother's thing, her belly is so big that she can't move anymore and keeps humming.

  It's all clear now, this mother rabbit is about to give birth, but she can't deliver. It seems the situation isn't good. So her husband takes a risk and steals candles from the temple, which is also using dead rabbits as medicine for live ones.

  "Well... just give it to him then."

  She didn't say anything, and Qiuqiu took it as a default agreement.

  That half candle was thrown out, and the rabbit quickly jumped up and caught it. It was so fast and steady that it didn't look like a rabbit at all, but rather a dog catching a flying disc.

  She put the candle to the mother rabbit's mouth, and the mother rabbit nibbled at it weakly, took a breath, hummed, and then nibbled again.

  Qiu Qiu hastily swept away the dust from one side of the bluestone and pulled Xi'er down to sit.

  Is there a necessary connection between eating candles and rabbits giving birth? In the past, Qiuqiu would not have thought so, but the facts she saw overturned all her previous common sense! The mother rabbit gnawed on the candle and then gave birth to one after another, like she had been injected with chicken blood. Qiuqiu stared with wide eyes as she counted - a full eight of them!

  What a heroic mother rabbit!

  Rabbits usually give birth to three or five babies at most, so it's no wonder she had a hard time giving birth with this many.

  Alright, the whole story is clear now. Although stealing is not right, it was done to save lives. Don't monks always say that saving one life is better than building a seven-story pagoda? This time, nine lives were saved, from the old to the young... aren't rabbit lives also lives? All living beings are equal! I believe the monks won't mind losing this piece of candle.

  "Then let's go back too." Qiuqiu stood up and pulled Xi'er's hand.

  They walked for a while, and when they turned their heads back, the big rabbit was still following behind them. They walked some more, and when they turned their heads again, they could still see the rabbit hastily hiding behind the tree, but its fat buttocks and short fluffy tail were still exposed outside.

  "What's it following us for?"

  The child didn't say anything, and the two of them continued walking back and forth.

  The rabbit stopped following them just as they were about to enter the gate.

  Maybe it's to show gratitude? Qiuqiu feels pretty good about herself. No wonder the foreigners' gods say, giving is more blessed than receiving. Helping people... well, helping rabbits, in any case, saving a few lives, the mood is indeed quite good.

  Qiuqiu's good mood lasted for a night, but early the next morning, Lu aunt came to find her, and Qiuqiu couldn't smile anymore.

  Aunt Lu said that before dawn, a group of rabbits came to their door, with their families in tow, and were digging holes under their wall.

  "If it were something else, that would be fine, but rabbits are the best at digging holes. I'm afraid that in a few days' time, our place will be turned into a big rabbit burrow. People like peace and quiet, but not these things."

  Qiuqiu finally understood why the rabbit followed them yesterday.

  KAO, is this what happens when you look at them and they start talking nonsense?

  This matter will be known to everyone who should know it in half a day. Jing Yi looked at her with a smile that was not quite a smile, obviously wanting to see her make a fool of herself. Jing Xin Shifu didn't say anything, as for Shifu... Qiuqiu didn't dare to guess her mood.

  The most urgent task is to take advantage of the rabbit hole's scale before it expands, and to drive them away first.

  But as soon as Qiuqiu arrived at the entrance of the rabbit cave, two big rabbits led out a newborn rabbit together. Although they couldn't speak, they were really human-like, especially the two big ones, standing on their hind legs, bowing to her with their red eyes shining and their long ears drooping, it was so pitiful. Not to mention the eight little ones, plump and cute, with their eyes still closed, although the weather wasn't cool now, but being blown by the wind outside made them look even more pitiful.

  Although the other party is very unreasonable, Qiuqiu really can't drive them away. The big ones are easy to say, what about the small ones? It's also unknown how these two rabbits brought the children here, and their speed of settling down is as fast as lightning.

  At the critical moment, Qiuqiu's heart softened.

  The rabbits sang triumphantly as they marched forward, treading on the autumnal baseline. In short, the rabbit hole was well-connected and accessible everywhere, except for the place of Yu Xiang Zhen Ren, where they didn't dare to offend. Otherwise, they could be seen jumping in and out of the white fluffy balls at any time, adding a lot of vitality to the quiet courtyard. One morning, Autumn woke up, yawning and sitting up to put on her shoes, but her feet rubbed against the furry slippers for a while without finding the shoe opening, unable to get in.

  She lowered her head and took a look, suddenly letting out a strange cry of "Ah".

  What she had been stepping on for half a day was not slippers but a rabbit!

  Qiuqiu had been having terrible nightmares for several days, and the scenes in her dreams were all the same - she trampled a rabbit into a flat meat pie, with blood and flesh flying everywhere, it was really too horrible to look at.

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  Today I walked a lot and my knees and calves are sore.