Longhorn Beetle and Flower

...

Walking side by side with the young girl beside him, seeing Bai Yuyou's cute appearance carrying a small backpack, Ye Shuang couldn't help but feel in a good mood. It seemed they hadn't walked around alone together like this for a long time.

The weather today was quite nice, neither hot nor cold, and the faint fragrance from Bai Yuyou occasionally drifted to the tip of his nose.

At this time, the sunlight was cut by the leaves, falling on the ground like swimming fish. The touch coming from his arm made Ye Shuang pause slightly, his gaze falling on the girl beside him.

"Ye Shuang, bug," Bai Yuyou pointed with her finger.

Ye Shuang looked in the direction she was pointing and found a black arthropod bug clinging to the tree trunk, its two antennae long and curved.

"Cockroach," Bai Yuyou said.

"Although it looks a bit similar, that's a longhorn beetle," Ye Shuang said. "A type of pest. The larvae like to bore holes in trees and often kill them."

Seeing Bai Yuyou looking a bit curious, Ye Shuang reached out and plucked the longhorn beetle off. The next second, the pinched beetle made a sound, similar to rubbing rubber, which left Bai Yuyou staring blankly.

"A bug that can cry out."

"There were quite a lot of these things when I was a kid, but I haven't seen one in over ten years," Ye Shuang said. With urbanization, more and more animals and insects were becoming hard to find.

"Ye Shuang."

"Hmm?"

"What is the definition of a pest?" Bai Yuyou asked. "If it's just trying to survive, why is it called a pest?"

"Because we can't understand the world from a bug's perspective," Ye Shuang said.

"To humans, things that destroy the environment and are harmful are simply harmful. We can't empathize with them."

Then he smiled, "Otherwise, you'd find that the ones who destroy the environment the most are actually us humans."

Saying that, Ye Shuang put the longhorn beetle back on the tree.

"The pest, you put it back," Bai Yuyou tilted her head up.

"After all, it's also a part of the ecological environment. Every living thing in this world has a meaning for its existence," Ye Shuang said, pausing before adding,

"Except mosquitoes."

Sure enough, Ye Shuang still couldn't accept the existence of mosquitoes in this world.

"Ye Shuang, can I take it home as a pet?" Bai Yuyou suddenly asked.

Ye Shuang was stunned for a moment, "Why?"

"It's quite cute."

Ye Shuang: "..."

"I didn't expect you to be interested in this..." Ye Shuang hadn't expected Bai Yuyou to have any thoughts about bugs. Although Ye Shuang had caught longhorn beetles when he was young, he had never kept one as a pet.

If there was one bug he had ever kept, it was a praying mantis Ye Shuang had caught in elementary school. Because he thought mantises ate grass at the time, he locked it in a Poké Ball—of course, the so-called Poké Ball was just a childhood toy, a transparent plastic ball that could be opened, with some grass stuffed inside.

The result, naturally, was that it starved to death.

At that time, Ye Shuang had naively named that mantis Scyther.

"Ah, it flew away." At this time, Bai Yuyou noticed that the longhorn beetle had flown away.

"Even if you brought it home, it would probably be played to death by Yi Wan," Ye Shuang said. After all, cats loved playing with these little bugs the most.

However, he also noticed Bai Yuyou looking a bit disappointed.

"Well, how about I buy you a rhinoceros beetle?"

"A rhinoceros beetle."

"Right." Ye Shuang took out his phone, then searched for an image of a rhinoceros beetle to show Bai Yuyou. Seeing the girl's cowlick perk up high, he understood that Yuyou really did like bugs.

Generally speaking, girls would be afraid of bugs, but this child was a bit different.

"Why do you like bugs?" Ye Shuang asked.

"In the past, when I had nothing to do, I could occasionally see cockroaches playing," Bai Yuyou said.

Was that when she was locked up?

Ye Shuang rubbed her head. No matter what, treating cockroaches as friends was a bit too pitiful.

After the brief interlude, the two continued walking forward. Because of the cloud path, the entire journey was a gradual incline, with no steep sections. When they reached the first rest area, there was a beautiful sea of flowers outside the guardrail.

Spring happened to be the season when flowers first began to bloom, and Bai Yuyou was quickly attracted by those flowers.

"Do you want to sketch here?" Ye Shuang asked, since Yuyou had brought her drawing board along.

Bai Yuyou turned her head, her beautiful eyes looking over. "Ye Shuang doesn't like me drawing."

"I don't."

"If Ye Shuang doesn't like it, I can stop drawing," Bai Yuyou said.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with drawing, or drawing manga for that matter." Ye Shuang pinched the girl's small cheek and then said,

"Having a goal is actually a good thing. If a ship doesn't know which port to go to, then no wind from any direction will be a tailwind."

"But I hope your goal is the right one. Although my thoughts may not all be correct, I want to try my best to help you go further and swim further."

"As for drawing adult comics, given current social values, it's not suitable to be brought out into the open, and I also think it's not something you should strive for."

Pausing, Ye Shuang said, "Of course, I'm not saying this to force your will, but just to guide you. If you really want to go down that path... I won't actually stop you."

Bai Yuyou listened for a good while, then obediently nodded,

"I understand."

"I won't draw it anymore," Bai Yuyou said softly. Although this would be letting Keke down, since she had promised to help her draw the characters.

Ye Shuang rubbed her head.

Sitting on a small stool, Ye Shuang watched as Bai Yuyou's pen landed on the drawing paper stroke by stroke. The wind blew through the gorgeous flowers and also fluttered the girl's long hair, which gave off a floral scent.

However, after a while, Bai Yuyou hadn't drawn much of anything, and there were only a few sparse strokes on the paper.

"What's wrong?" Ye Shuang asked.

"I haven't practiced scenery," Bai Yuyou said, and then her fingers skillfully left a smooth, bun-like curve on the drawing paper.

"Slime."

Ye Shuang: "..."

Seeing the fleshy curves outlined with a simple stroke, Ye Shuang felt helpless. Did you spend all your time on this sort of thing?

It seemed she would have to start practicing from scratch.

"Can Ye Shuang draw?" Bai Yuyou asked.

"Not really," Ye Shuang said. "My level is probably just the equivalent of having taken a few art classes."

"I want to see Ye Shuang draw."

"Is that so?" Seeing Bai Yuyou looking like a curious baby, Ye Shuang took her drawing pen. Bai Yuyou simply rested her cheek on Ye Shuang's shoulder, her eyes looking over—

Although his cheek felt itchy from her hair, accompanied by rustling sounds, Ye Shuang also left a sketched flower on the drawing paper.

Ye Shuang said he couldn't draw well, but the flower he actually drew was remarkably lifelike.

"Ye Shuang, is a liar." Bai Yuyou's review.

"Huh?"