PotD 53

Chapter 53: Hei Dan Goes to Town 2
by Yue Xia Sang

The town was a distance away from Bade Town. Ji Huan knew it was there from when he had taken the train the last time. Compared to Bade Town, it was a fairly large city.

It didn’t seem like it’d been affected by the earthquake, that could be seen somewhat by the state of the people there.

To let Hei Dan see more of the outside world, Ji Huan just went to a child and baby store and bought a onesie for Hei Dan. The salesperson obviously didn’t see many half-grown boys coming in to buy things often, and even buying baby clothes, so they considerately asked Ji Huan around how many months old the child was. When Ji Huan told her eight months, she promptly pointed him towards the onesies suitable for eight-month-old babies. At that point, Ji Huan was dumbfounded. They were… obviously too big. In the end, he took small clothes meant for thre- month-old babies. After thinking about it, he also got a hat and a baby sling.

The eight-month-old Hei Dan fit just fine in clothes meant for a three-month-old baby. It was only then that Ji Huan realized that Hei Dan was growing too slowly.

“Hei Dan, I’m sorry, Uncle didn’t even notice.” Ji Huan said a little apologetically after he finished putting the new clothes on Hei Dan.

Hei Dan, however, wasn’t unhappy in the least. He was completely focused on the little hat in Ji Huan’s hand: green! It was green!

Seeing Hei Dan happily wearing the hat, Ji Huan smiled because of him.

Forget it. He liked it just fine.

After dressing him in green clothes, putting on the green hat and wrapping a little scarf around his neck, Ji Huan had covered up Hei Dan’s whole body. He made sure that not even a trace of an abnormality was visible on Hei Dan and he put Hei Dan in the baby sling on his chest.

At the moment, Hei Dan was facing forward and leaning back on his uncle. At first, Hei Dan panicked for a bit because he couldn’t see his uncle’s face, but Ji Huan looked down at him a few times and kept holding his little claws. After this continued for a while, Hei Dan calmed down. He started to relax and look around the world. Although his pair of white-ring eyes didn’t express much emotion, Ji Huan could feel his curiosity from the kicks of his legs.

“Hei Dan, that’s the sun.”

“That’s a tree.”

“Flower.”

What Ji Huan taught was much more accurate than Grandpa.

Every time they saw something, Ji Huan would say its name, and if it was possible, Ji Huan would let him touch it.

Hei Dan listened quietly, his little gloved claws opening, and he seemed very happy. Most of the time, Hei Dan was an especially quiet child and it was only when he was happy that he moved around in such a way.

Infected by Hei Dan’s good mood, the corners of Ji Huan’s mouth relaxed. On the way, someone would occasionally look in Ji Huan’s direction, but after realizing that Ji Huan was talking to a baby in a sling in front of him, their faces usually showed a friendly expression.

It seemed that it was also time to buy Hei Dan some reading books!

With that thought in mind, Ji Huan took Hei Dan to a bookstore. After picking out two brightly colored books for Hei Dan that included sound, his footsteps stopped in front of a bookshelf with tutoring books.

He still had Grandpa’s expectations ingrained in his mind.

But… with how it was, could he still take exams?

When he thought about the future, Ji Huan was honestly at a loss.

He wasn’t the type of person at all who took decisions lightly. Once he set a goal, he would try to accomplish it at any cost, and even if he couldn’t reach his goal, he wouldn’t change it. However, now, it seemed as if his goal was… unrealistic.

If he wanted to live somewhere with Grandpa and Hei Dan, where could the three of them live? Look for another Bade Town? But… was there another Bade Town in this world?

But, if he let Grandpa and Hei Dan leave and left him to live alone…

Ji Huan didn’t continue those thoughts.

The weather that day was nice, and a sudden burst of a child’s laughter came as they turned around the corner. Ji Huan and Hei Dan’s attention were attracted to movement in the distance at the same time: when he saw a ferris wheel hidden from view behind the trees, Ji Huan realized there must’ve been an amusement park there.

Realizing that Hei Dan was looking in the same direction, Ji Huan bought a ticket from the ticket office: he planned to take Hei Dan inside to gain knowledge and experience.

“Hei Dan, this is an amusement park, a place for children to play,” Ji Huan said to Hei Dan as he walked. Hei Dan looked up at his uncle and listened carefully to every word.

“But… this ought to be the first time I’ve visited an amusement park…” Ji Huan said the last part to himself and looked all around. He didn’t know where they should go first in the least.

It was very lively inside the amusement park. There were children of all ages with big smiles. They were running and being noisy, shrieking happily and bouncing around like little rabbits.

Their parents had smiles on their faces too. They were either running wildly with their children or standing to the side, watching their children play with smiles.

Whether it was a child or an adult, they were all happy when they were in the amusement park.

Hei Dan was motionless.

At first, Ji Huan thought that Hei Dan was scared and hurriedly let him out to look at him, only to discover that Hei Dan’s eyes had been staring straight ahead!

When he realized that Hei Dan was trying to twist his little neck to look back, even as he held him up by his arms, Ji Huan had to quickly put him back. Hei Dan, perfectly content, continued to stare straight forward.

Bright balloons being held in children’s hands were what had attracted Hei Dan’s attention. While Ji Huan was looking for a place that sold balloons, he suddenly saw two people standing on the curb wearing clown costumes. Pulling on big balloons in their hands, they were giving them out to passing children with smiles on their face.

Seeing Hei Dan unable to take his eyes off of them, Ji Huan squeezed over as well, preparing to help Hei Dan grab a balloon.

It was already getting a little dark.

A clown wearing heavy makeup and gaudy clothes smiled a little strangely.

“I want a balloon.” By the time it was finally Ji Huan’s turn, Ji Huan almost felt as if he was going to faint from the shrieks of the children around.

“What color?” The green-nosed clown said, smiling broadly. Unexpectedly, the voice was a little bit like a girl’s.

“Green,” Ji Huan said hurriedly, not caring about their gender at all.

“Okay, getting you a green balloon. Green represents energy and vitality. People who like green are very quiet~” The clown was still beaming. Well, because of her makeup, she was always smiling. However, when she passed the balloon over, the clown unexpectedly leaned close to Ji Huan all of a sudden and lowered her voice: “But, it’s said that in medieval times, green also symbolized evil spirits…”

Ji Huan froze for a second.

At just that moment, the clown handed over the balloon, but Ji Huan was in a daze. As she went to tie the balloon to Ji Huan’s hand, Hei Dan suddenly moved.

Little claws suddenly patted the clown’s hand and he lifted his head to look up at her.

The clown who’d been patted seemed stunned and the green balloon in her hand suddenly flew up into the sky.

Heads looked up at the sky simultaneously, and the children let out boos of displeasure.

“Sorry, sorry!” With the people around looking at her strangely, she hastily apologized.

The green-nosed clown, after quickly finding another balloon, had another green one in her hand. After a moment’s hesitation, she lightly tied the balloon’s string around the little claws that Hei Dan was waving around for attention.

Hei Dan’s hands were wrapped in the onesie, so the clown didn’t meet his hand, but despite this, her heart still beat wildly when she tied the string to him.

“Thanks,” Ji Huan just quietly thanked her and pushed Hei Dan’s hat down for him before leaving.

In the slowly darkening night, the teenager’s back was straight and he was wearing all black, so the contrast of the green balloon by his head was especially eye-catching.

The green balloon was soon drowned out by the colorful balloons around it.

The teenager’s slim body also disappeared gradually into the congested crowd of people.

During the brief interlude, few people noticed the child that left perfectly content with the balloon. There were new children arriving to fight over balloons and the green-nosed clown distractedly gave out the rest of the balloons. Her co-worker, the red-nosed clown next to her, also finished giving out balloons. Seeing that she was still standing there foolishly, they moved closer and bumped her shoulder.

“What’s wrong, you?” The clown was also a girl.

“I… I think I just ran into a ghost.” The green-nosed clown was staring blankly in the direction where Ji Huan disappeared.

“Huh? Isn’t it day? Uh… even if it’s getting late now, it isn’t completely dark! Tell me, what’s the matter?” Obviously, the red-nosed clown wasn’t convinced. They had just been giving out balloons together and although they were close, she didn’t see what had happened to her co-worker because of the throng of people surrounding them.

“I… just saw a handsome boy. He came over to get a balloon, and I think… I wanted to chat, and I was putting the balloon in his hand, and then…” The green-nosed clown was in a daze.

“Haha!” The red-nosed clown burst into loud laughter. “So, it turns out that you ran into a handsome guy and wanted to hit on him? What happened then? The handsome guy was a ghost? He suddenly disappeared? Impossible, if that had happened, the people around would’ve been scared off.”

Hearing the words “handsome guy”, the red-nosed clown was finally interested.

Young girls of that age were always interested in good-looking boys. If anything happened with a handsome guy, even if it was a simple, trivial situation, they were very happy to gossip about it.

Up until that moment, she had still been treating this matter as her co-worker’s first romantic encounter.

However —

The green-nosed clown’s expression suddenly turned very frightening.

The corners of her mouth lifted into a smile, but the look in her eyes was strangely panicked. The expressions on either side of her face were completely different, making her features seem very uncoordinated.

“… When I reached over, a hand suddenly touched my hand.”

“I followed that hand over and there were swaddling clothes on that handsome guy’s chest. I originally thought that there was a baby inside, but it turned out…”

Her eyes opened wide and she looked even more eccentric.

“I saw an unimaginable face.”

“… It looked like a cloud of black fog. That thing that grabbed me… was a cloud of black fog!”

“Then, I quickly realized that it wasn’t a cloud of black fog. It was just a face, because —”

“In the instant it grabbed me, a red mouth suddenly opened in that cloud of black fog.”

“That thing… smiled at me…”

Her own frightened face mirrored the terror in her co-worker’s eyes. The red-nosed clown suddenly shivered all over.

---

“Hei Dan, what were up to just now?” Ji Huan patted the top of Hei Dan’s hat.

“Xiu xiu~” Hei Dan didn’t raise his head, but a xiu xiu sound came from under the hat: Hei Dan laughed.

Did the other person see Hei Dan’s face? Ji Huan thought back: they shouldn’t… have seen it? Hei Dan’s face was mostly covered by the hat and there was even a small scarf around his chest.

Seeing Hei Dan’s happy appearance and the balloon that’d been tied around Hei Dan’s wrist by the other person, Ji Huan felt uncommonly optimistic: the other person shouldn’t have seen Hei Dan’s face.

“…” Hei Dan was clearly this cute…

Looking down at the little claws that kept waving for attention, Ji Huan touched the top of Hei Dan’s head again.

During the following time, Ji Huan took Hei Dan on the merry-go-round and bumper cars.

Hei Dan really liked the game of turning around in circles. When Ji Huan had been leaving the bumper cars, he stretched out his little claws and tugged on Ji Huan’s clothes. The little claws stretched and stretched. The meaning was ‘I want to play again.’

But Hei Dan’s dreams were destined to be shattered. A nearby staff member discovered the baby sling on Ji Huan’s chest and shouted at him to stop.

“It’s dangerous to play on this carrying such a small child. It’d be a problem if you bump and hit things, how can you do that?” Probably because he saw that Ji Huan wasn’t very old, the man’s tone grew a little nicer and he pointed in a direction: “Go over there to play with bubble balls. We have a bubble ball pit for young children under two-years-old. It’s very soft and it can simulate a child’s senses without hurting the child. Moreover, children over two years are prohibited, so you don’t have to worry about older children bullying the child.”

The person had good intentions, so Ji Huan didn’t refuse.

Hei Dan’s grabbing little claws were no use and Ji Huan ruthlessly carried him away from the bumper cars.

But the bubble ball pit wasn’t too bad. There were bubble balls of every color inside and a lot of them were even green!

After being held up in the bubble ball pit by his uncle for a while, it didn’t take long for most of Hei Dan’s attention to be focused on all of the bubble balls in the pit.

The rest of his attention was given to the children in the ball pit.

The children there weren’t very big and many could only crawl like Hei Dan. Just one or two girls could walk, but it wasn’t very stable and they fell into the pit from time to time. They weren’t worried about falling; the pit was particularly soft and the balls were also very soft. The children who fell would even deliberately keep to the ground and not walk. The little kids crawling in and out of the ball pit… seemed to be particularly interesting.

Looking at those soft bubbles, Ji Huan suddenly froze. In that moment, he had the urge to jump into the pit.

No way?

After pursing his lips, Ji Huan felt something tug his sleeve twice: it was Hei Dan. Hei Dan was asking his uncle to put him in to play.

Looking at the shapes of the children in the pit, Ji Huan thought for a second before untying Hei Dan from him. He didn’t put Hei Dan in immediately, but went over to a place without people with Hei Dan and carefully pulled down his hat. After making sure that the little hat wouldn’t come off easily and covering half of his little face with the scarf, he put Hei Dan down in the remote corner.

Hei Dan was very obedient. He discovered that his uncle hadn’t gone in with him and he stayed in one place without moving for most of the time. Occasionally, he’d turn back to glance at Ji Huan. After making sure that Ji Huan was always nearby, he then bowed his head and started to play with the balls.

His little claws were somewhat stronger nowadays and he could more accurately grab the objects he wanted.

While the other kids crawled around in the balls, Hei Dan was solely picking out green balls with a whole-hearted devotion. He wasn’t fast, but he wasn’t slow either. Soon, there were all green balls surrounding Hei Dan.

After turning his head and glancing up at his uncle and making sure that his uncle was in the same place watching him, Hei Dan happily rolled around the ground.

The smooth, soft bubble balls stimulated Hei Dan’s little body. It seemed like his ticklish flesh had been stimulated, too. Hei Dan laughed out a “xiu xiu” alone in his corner.

The corners of Ji Huan’s mouth lifted into a smile.

“That child is very clever! He can already recognize the color green at such a young age.” A female voice suddenly came from next to him and Ji Huan quickly turned his head, only to discover that a lady had come over next to him at some point.

She looked around forty years old and was wearing leisurely clothes. At first glance, she was likely the mother of a child who’d come to play.

“Our family’s little girl likes green too. Look, she’s coming over to play with your family’s child,” she said to Ji Huan with a smile, pointing at a chubby little baby in the pit. “But, is that your child? You look… like you’re still a student.”

Ji Huan just smiled. Then, his eyes fell on the little baby girl that was relentlessly getting closer to Hei Dan.

The child was also very small with a wispy layer of yellow hair on her head. If it wasn’t for the woman introducing her, Ji Huan wouldn’t have thought that she was a girl at all. The little baby girl didn’t look very big, she should’ve been less than a year old. She couldn’t walk, but she crawled very nimbly and after a while, she had crawled up to Hei Dan.

Suddenly, Ji Huan was a little nervous.

He suddenly wanted to hold Hei Dan, but…

When he saw Hei Dan turn his head and look at her with curiosity, he held back.

The other child was still small and wouldn’t see much. And Hei Dan’s hat was pushed down so low that the little girl might not be able to see anything at all…

Consoling himself like that on the inside, Ji Huan watched Hei Dan’s activity closely.

It was the first time Hei Dan had come in close contact with children that were close to his age, and he was curious.

The ones in the cages didn’t count. Hei Dan didn’t consider them to be his own kind.

In Hei Dan’s mind, he looked like his uncle. Maybe when he was a little older, he’d look like Grandpa, but he wasn’t a little black monster.

Don’t ask him why he thought that way. The thoughts of babies had always been strange.

In his mind, the ones that cried until they were little watering cans after enduring a vaccination were his own kind. He would grow up to be like that.

So, when the little fat, white girl crawled up to him, Hei Dan wasn’t opposed in the least.

Even though Hei Dan wasn’t a bold child, his courage swelled up a little when he realized that she wasn’t acting like she was going to hurt him. After looking back at his uncle and receiving encouragement, he picked up a green ball and gave it to the other child.

Hei Dan was a child that loved to share.

The little girl, unsurprisingly, was very happy and she grabbed Hei Dan’s ball.

The two children played with balls together.

Hei Dan was happy.

After having a joyful time for a while, the little girl suddenly saw the green balloon tied to Hei Dan’s wrist and said “ah ah.” She wanted that ball.

Hei Dan froze. Unconsciously, he pulled back his claws.

But the little girl was overbearing, and in a single pounce, she actually overpowered Hei Dan!

Compared to the petite Hei Dan, the young lady was fat and robust. She quickly pressed Hei Dan down and started to grab at the string around Hei Dan’s wrist.

“Hei Dan!” After discovering the situation, Ji Huan immediately stood up.

“Ah! I’m sorry! Our family’s child is spoiled…” Beside him, the girl’s mother realized something wasn’t right and immediately stood up to apologize. While she spoke, she discreetly blocked Ji Huan: this young man wasn’t light nor heavy, and if he happened to rush over in anger, he might hurt the girl and that wouldn’t be good.

The two children did need to be separated, but she couldn’t let the boy rush past.

With her intentionally blocking him, Ji Huan couldn’t immediately rush to the pit. By the time he had rushed past the woman, Hei Dan and the little girl had rolled into a pile of balls. The green balls that Hei Dan had so carefully selected were all scattered, and the green balloon flew up to the sky.

The little green hat was laying by itself in the colorful balls — when he saw the hat, Ji Huan’s eyes instantly narrowed.

“Oh my god! Monster!” Accompanied by the little baby girl’s earth shattering wails, Ji Huan heard the woman howl mournfully.

She was one step ahead of Ji Huan and had separated the children. When he saw Hei Dan’s face, the woman let out a loud scream. The scream itself wasn’t important. What was important was that while she was screaming, she actually took a hold of Hei Dan and threw him away!

His heart tense, Ji Huan immediately jumped in and hurriedly caught Hei Dan before he hit the ground. After picking up Hei Dan’s hat and putting it in the right place, he dashed away while ignoring the woman behind him.

Hei Dan was crying too, crying until he was out of breath. What the woman had done just now had scared him.

He wasn’t brave at all now after just having experienced such a scary adventure. A little bit of wind rustling some grass would scare him. With his little claws clinging to his uncle’s clothes, Hei Dan buried his head inside.

“Hei Dan, don’t cry, be good.” Ji Huan comforted him by just saying those few words, saying them over and over again. Hei Dan’s crying eventually subsided into sobbing. Lifting his head, Hei Dan looked at his uncle with his eyes squeezed shut, a big snot bubble hanging from his nose.

Ji Huan gently cleaned his nose for him and wiped his eyes. After putting the little green hat on his little bald head again, Hei Dan slowly grasped the wrinkles in Ji Huan’s close, slowly becoming happy again.

After a moment, he suddenly remembered something and stretched his little claws behind him again.

Okay. After a while, he had actually forgotten what had just happened and now, he wanted to go back and keep playing.

For Hei Dan, the memories just now had their bad moments, but they also had their good. Playing with a “playmate” had been a very good memory for Hei Dan.

Hei Dan just wanted to go back to the playmate he just met.

He might be bullied, but he still wanted to go back and play.

But —

Ji Huan’s gloomy expression was scary!

He held Hei Dan while swiftly walking through the amusement park. When he finally stopped after walking for a while, Ji Huan saw the ferris wheel ahead.

The sky had already gotten dark and the decorative lights on the ferris wheel were all lit up, flashing gorgeously.

Both Ji Huan and Hei Dan’s attention was attracted to the ferris wheel at the same time.

“Hei Dan, Uncle’s going to take you to the ferris wheel,” Ji Huan said to Hei Dan, lowering his head.

His white-ring eyes widened and he tugged on his uncle’s clothes. Hei Dan had a bit of an expression like he was impatient.

The corners of Ji Huan’s mouth lifted reluctantly before quickly shifting back into a straight line.

Eventually, they were sitting down in the ferris wheel. As soon as they got in, Hei Dan immediately stuck his little body on the glass. While holding Hei Dan’s little body up, Ji Huan looked out as well.

As the small room they were in got higher and higher up, Ji Huan realized that the scene in front of him had become more familiar.

He suddenly realized that this wasn’t his first visit to the amusement park.

A long time ago, when he still couldn’t talk, when he was still Xiao Hua, Grandpa took him here.

Because he accidentally saw a picture of the amusement park on TV, Xiao Hua had dreamed of the amusement park, and after a few days of the same dream, he finally told Grandpa about the dream.

After that, Grandpa actually took him to the amusement park!

At the time, Grandpa couldn’t successfully disguise himself as a human. So Xiao Hua, who was clearly being held in Grandpa’s arms while sitting in the carousel, was seen as sitting alone on the wooden horse. He was clearly piling up sand with Grandpa, but he was seen as playing in the sand alone.

The former brought panic in the packed area while the latter brought bullying.

Of course, there was no need to be afraid when he had Grandpa. The people in the packed area were scared away by Grandpa. Then, the entire amusement park became just his and Grandpa’s!

Lastly, Grandpa took Xiao Hua to the ride the ferris wheel.

It was the same one they were riding now.

Grandpa hadn’t understood Xiao Hua’s excitement at all, but he still happily sat with Xiao Hua.

The grinning, horned devil was actually very scary, but in Xiao Hua’s eyes, he was the most dependable.

Yes, Grandpa couldn’t turn into a human at the time.

At the time, what did Xiao Hua think?

“If I can be together with Grandpa, it’s fine.” When the ferris wheel reached the top, Ji Huan suddenly remembered the wish that Xiao Hua had made all that time ago.

In the distance, there were fireworks blossoming.

All the city lights were in full view. The city in front of his eyes was brightly colored.

A balloon slowly rose up from below and Hei Dan looked at it seriously, as if he was trying to decide if it was the one he had lost.

When he realized that it really was a green balloon, the little guy’s white-ring eyes widened all at once.

Then, the green balloon flew up into the huge fireworks and Hei Dan’s mouth opened wide!

The fireworks bloomed the largest when they reached their pinnacle, completely overwhelming Ji Huan and Hei Dan’s gaze. The fireworks were so large and dazzling that when they felt, Ji Huan felt as if his entire body had been penetrated, then submerged —

He squinted his eyes.

Yes, living with Grandpa, living with his family, that had been his wish.

And that was his wish now.

At the boundary between time and space, the past Xiao Hua and the present Ji Huan overlapped for a split second.

Hanging his head, Ji Huan said to Hei Dan in a soft voice:

“Maybe you don’t care that they think they’re heroes, but I don’t want you to become a little monster in their eyes.”

So —

He thought he knew what he was going to do next.

The decision might be difficult, maybe it would always be difficult, maybe it would lead to death.

But he wasn’t afraid.

The fireworks in the sky fell, passing through Ji Huan’s eyes and falling into Hei Dan’s.

Gleaming, Hei Dan looked at his uncle with fixed eyes, his soft little body pressed against his uncle’s palm, depending on him without bounds.

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long time no see! i hope this extra long chapter makes up for the wait. if school doesn’t get in the way, i should hopefully have the next one up by this weekend and we can finish up the first arc pretty soon.

ALSO, check out this art that lizonka drew of hei dan!!! it’s adorable! 😭https://twitter.com/lizzieonka/status/1291098237777059842

for anyone confused about what the ball pit is, it’s this thing on a much larger scale:

TL Notes

none!

Author Comments

“Finally finished writing Ji Huan’s emotional transformation. He isn’t the kind of person to make decisions lightly and needs a sequence of events (to do so.)
I couldn’t separate these events, so I wrote them in one breath. This is the longest draft in history, 18cm, don’t you think?
You can think of it as compensation for the unstable updates the past few days. ^^
Smooch!

Country Bumpkin Hei Dan, nervous about going to be a big city for the first time
by | He Xiao Xian | 2by2ing

I always feel like Xiao Hei would definitely be looking at Hei Dan from someplace
by Yu Shixuan”