Even with all his strength, Meng Qiuzhen's voice remained faint and weak.
"Who's calling for help?" A mortal girl pushed aside the thorny brambles and arrived here.
"Over here — look down…" Meng Qiuzhen spoke, his voice so feeble it was practically a whisper.
The mortal girl didn't hear him, murmuring to herself, "Did I hear wrong? Sigh, it's getting late. I need to hurry up and gather these mushrooms so I can go sell them at Tujia Village. Huh? There are so many mushrooms here!"
The mortal girl discovered Meng Qiuzhen.
But by now, mushrooms had already sprouted all over his body, completely obscuring his features.
The girl crouched down and began plucking the mushrooms from his body one handful at a time.
Every mushroom she removed closed off one more channel through which Meng Qiuzhen's life force was draining away.
His condition rapidly improved, and strength gradually returned to his limbs.
"That's right — the actual day of my flare-up is still two days away. At the very least, right now, I'm not meant to die!"
Meng Qiuzhen suddenly understood.
Then he spoke up: "Little girl, the mushrooms on my body are perfectly delicious. It's fine if you take them all."
The mortal girl nearly jumped in shock.
Meng Qiuzhen said, "Don't be afraid. I'm human too. I was the one calling for help just now. Thank you, kind miss — you saved me."
"But I didn't do anything."
Meng Qiuzhen managed a pained smile: "You picked all the mushrooms off my body — that's saving me. These mushrooms are only harmful to Mushroom People like me. They're completely harmless to other races, and actually quite beneficial."
After her initial shock, the girl immediately broke into a smile: "So you're a Mushroom Person! I've heard stories about you ever since I was little — they say you're gentle-natured and never harm anyone. Before today, I'd never actually seen a living Mushroom Person."
Meng Qiuzhen hurriedly said, "Please pick the mushrooms off me quickly — I can't hold on much longer."
The girl was remarkably deft with her hands, plucking away in rapid succession. The mushrooms on Meng Qiuzhen's body were pulled out at a swift pace.
He was pulled back from the brink of death, rescued from the very edge of oblivion.
"One last mushroom remains!" The girl was very serious.
"Wait." Meng Qiuzhen's face changed. "That one doesn't need to be pulled — ah!"
The girl blinked her innocent, wide eyes, her cheeks flushing slightly: "It won't budge! Did I hurt you?"
Meng Qiuzhen's face turned pale, and he sucked in a sharp breath, struggling to speak: "Stop pulling."
But the girl shook her head, saying stubbornly: "That won't do, Mr. Mushroom Big Brother — you just said yourself that I have to pull out all the mushrooms from your body before you'll be cured."
"No, no, no… ow!"
The girl rolled up her sleeves, wearing an expression of adorable determination: "Hmph, it hasn't come out yet — I don't believe it!"
Meng Qiuzhen: "Aaargh—!"
…
Amid Meng Qiuzhen's screams of agony, the second act of the dream realm was finally conquered.
His vision gradually shifted, emerging from a chaotic swirl of colors into clarity.
He found himself in a bustling marketplace, surrounded by crowds of people milling about.
"Is this Tujia Village?" Behind Meng Qiuzhen, the Mushroom Person Huang Xiaomi — bundled up tightly — spoke in a soft voice.
Meng Qiuzhen glanced back, a slight tremor passing through his heart.
In the first two acts, he had been playing the role of Huang Xiaomi the Mushroom Person. He hadn't expected that in the third act of the dream, his identity would switch.
This kind of thing didn't happen often.
Meng Qiuzhen hurriedly examined himself.
"Well now — I've become that little human girl." Meng Qiuzhen sighed inwardly.
Huang Xiaomi's strength had already been barely adequate, and now Meng Qiuzhen had been reduced to a mere mortal — and a young girl at that.
The shift in identity planted a seed of doubt in Meng Qiuzhen's mind.
This blissful dream realm — what exactly was its main storyline?
Originally, in the first two acts, he had been Huang Xiaomi, and he'd tentatively guessed that the dream's main plot involved saving the Mushroom Person tribe and curing the plague.
But now, with this sudden change in identity, that guess was violently shaken.
"No matter what — since Huang Xiaomi has tagged along with this little human girl into Tujia Village, I should still put in the effort to help Huang Xiaomi find the Shaman Woman of the Mushroom Person tribe."
Meng Qiuzhen decided to continue following the trail he'd established earlier.
"Fang Tu, you're here! Come quick — Uncle's spot next door has a great position too. Go claim it before someone else does. The evening market isn't like the morning market — it only lasts a short while." A middle-aged man called out to Meng Qiuzhen of his own accord.
"Thank you, Uncle." After a moment's thought, Meng Qiuzhen set up his wares on the stall beside the man — a full basket's worth of mushrooms.
Huang Xiaomi silently helped Meng Qiuzhen arrange the display.
The middle-aged man glanced over and let out an appreciative whistle: "These mushrooms are wonderfully fresh."
"Of course they are," Huang Xiaomi said proudly.
The man's gaze lingered on him: "And who might this be?"
"He's a distant relative, here to lend me a hand," Meng Qiuzhen answered quickly.
The middle-aged man didn't press further. The evening market had begun — the crowd surged, and everyone was busy.
Some were busy buying, some were busy selling.