Lily looked at the boy opposite her who was leisurely enjoying her “service” and puffed up her cheeks in dissatisfaction.

Why does it feel like he’s out sightseeing? Someone even prepared lunch for him.

Obviously, she is the minister…but she hasn’t even had lunch yet!

“It’s you who want to go, not me.”

As Xia Zhi spoke, he took out a new rice ball from the girl’s schoolbag and handed it to her.

Lily opened her mouth and took a big bite, as if venting her dissatisfaction

“…According to what you said, if the wall is really completely isolated from the outside world, then how did the surrounding sea not undergo drastic changes?” She asked vaguely while chewing the food in her mouth.

“The power of God can do anything.”

Xia Zhi answered, and then reminded her: “Swallow what’s in your mouth before you speak.”

You control me, but you are not my dad.

Even though she was muttering in her heart, Lily still obediently swallowed the food in her mouth, and then continued, “There’s no difference between this and not explaining at all, right?”

After all, there was nothing to explain.

If I have to expand on this

“To put it simply, the sacred tree uses its power to maintain the ecosystem within the barrier and provides various resources that humans rely on for survival, allowing humans to survive in this small, closed system isolated from the outside world.” After thinking about it, Xia Zhi explained.

“You mean, it built a large eco-bottle?” The girl tilted her head slightly.

Using an eco-bottle to describe it, although some details are not quite appropriate, it is not too far off.

Xia Zhi did not refute, which was considered as his tacit agreement.

After getting his answer, Lily didn’t say anything else. She just remained quiet, rowing the boat silently, not knowing what she was thinking about.

On the vast sea, there were only the sounds of sea breeze and waves.

Although the girl described it as an “eco-bottle”, the size of this eco-bottle is not small at all… at least the distance between the wall and the beach is too far. Although Lily has deliberately found a place as close as possible, it is still too difficult for a girl who has not received relevant training to reach the wall by rowing alone.

Even though there was still some of Xia Zhi’s divine power left in her body, the girl was still essentially an ordinary person. Plus, her health had never been very good to begin with. Even though she kept biting her lips to hold on, it was still obvious that she was struggling from her increasingly rapid breathing and her not-so-good complexion.

In the end, Xia Zhi couldn’t bear it anymore, so he took over with a slight sigh and helped to move to the wall.

…It’s a good thing she chose to take action today.

Without me by her side, these so-called plans she made would probably fail.

“Really…there isn’t even a single gap…”

Lily murmured as she reached out and gently touched the wall, feeling the rough texture that was no different from the surface of a tree trunk.

This was the first time since she was born that she had seen the wall so closely.

It seems to be woven by plant roots, as if it is some kind of organic aggregate, but like a concrete wall, there is no gap running through the entire wall.

Not to mention letting people pass through, even for sea water to flow through seems impossible.

Just like what the boy said, this really is a completely closed world.

“Are we living in a world like this…”

Xia Zhi noticed that her face didn’t look very good.

After thinking about it, he handed over the last rice ball in his hand.

Lily shook her head slightly and didn’t take it. She seemed to want to hold on to the wall and sit down on the boat.

But the next moment

“vomit……”

She suddenly bent over, her face pale as she lay on the side of the boat, retching continuously.

Summer Solstice:…

Even if you don’t want to eat, there’s no need to vomit, right?

“No… I’m just… a little seasick…” Lily shook her head and explained weakly.

…Okay, Xia Zhi knew why she had looked so unhappy until now.

He thought the girl couldn’t accept the fact and that’s why she felt sick.

“There’s nothing… I can’t accept… After all, you’ve already said it… I’m mentally prepared…”

After vomiting out everything she had just eaten, Lily seemed to feel better. She said breathlessly, and sat down on the boat.

“With your physical condition, you always do these dangerous things… If I wasn’t here, you would have drifted on the sea until dark.” Xia Zhi complained.

Even more dangerously, a slightly bigger wave could overturn this inflatable boat, which was originally designed for drifting in the water park.

You know, the girl hasn’t even learned how to swim. She can only splash three or four meters. I guess she can’t hold on and swim back to the shore, right?

“Will not……”

Lily shook her head, curled up and hugged her legs.

“Without you…I wouldn’t have gone out to sea at all.”

Xia Zhi was slightly stunned when he heard this.

The girl hugged her knees while sitting on the boat and continued in a weak voice.

“…Because of you, I dare to do whatever I want…I dare to climb to the top of such a high mountain, and I dare to run into the sea to practice swimming without a swimming ring and a floating board…If you weren’t here, I would definitely not dare to do these things…It’s too scary to go out to sea alone, and it’s definitely not possible…”

It turns out that complaint about “safety measures” was actually serious?

Xia Zhi didn’t know where she got such great trust in him.

“Because you said you would protect me…”

Lily lowered her head and whispered like a child who had made a mistake.

“…”

Xia Zhi sighed slightly, sat down beside her, and gently stroked her hair.

Feeling the warm touch on her head, the girl seemed to relax and her complexion became much better.

“Sorry……”

After a long time, I heard her whispering voice.

“Why are you apologizing suddenly?” Xia Zhi lowered his head and looked at her.

Lily shook her head gently. “We’ve only known each other for two days, but I’m so willful and dependent on you… I can’t do anything without you by my side… Although I founded the Brave Club, I didn’t accomplish any activities until you joined…”

“…Isn’t it ironic? The club is called the Brave Club, but as the founder, I’m a coward.” A self-deprecating smile appeared on her face.

“Neither the school nor the teachers recognize this club.” Xia Zhi reminded her after thinking about it.

makes sense……

The girl couldn’t help but feel even more depressed.

The boat fell silent again. After a while, there was a crash from the side of the boat. Xia Zhi turned around and saw a dark shadow under the water.

It seemed to be a sea turtle, and I didn’t know if it was lost. It was banging its head against the hull of the inflatable boat, trying to find a way out. It didn’t seem to be very smart.

After thinking about it, Xia Zhi simply fished it out.

“Is it a turtle?”

Seeing the animal being held in the boy’s hands and flapping its limbs, Lily blinked and quickly recognized it.

“Look, does it look like you who was learning to swim just now?” Xia Zhi asked, looking at the flapping turtle.

In your eyes, was this how I was before?

Lily tried to associate it with the subject, but couldn’t help revealing a look of disgust.

As if sensing that the two people had no ill intentions, or simply because it was tired of flapping its wings, the turtle quickly calmed down. You can see that there are still some barnacles on its back, not a lot, but it still looks uncomfortable.

“The sacred tree, even this kind of creature helps maintain the ecology?”

The girl looked like she wanted to help with the cleanup, but she didn’t dare to do anything.

It’s not that she’s afraid of turtles or barnacles, but if she helps clean the barnacles without permission, it may damage the surface of the turtle’s skin and shell, leading to bacterial infection.

Wild animals don’t have wild humans to help them get antibiotics, so once they are infected, the consequences are not far from death.

“In its eyes, all races except humans are actually the same.”

Xia Zhi answered and also helped to provide a solution: “Put it in fresh water for a while, and the barnacles will fall off by themselves.”

As for sea turtles, it is okay to live in fresh water for a while.

“We don’t have fresh water here right now.”

Lily hesitated for a long time, but finally gave up the idea of ​​helping to clean up… It didn’t look like there were that many anyway, so they shouldn’t be able to live normally, right?

She raised her head and looked towards the land in the distance.

At this distance, the city in the distance has become extremely small, and the familiar hustle and bustle of the past can no longer reach this side.

In this vast ocean far away from the coast, there are only her and the boy…

An inexplicable emotion rose in Lily’s heart.

“You know, I… actually hated this wall at first.” After a moment’s silence, the girl opened her mouth slightly and muttered as if talking to herself.

“Because it cuts off your mother’s possibility of returning home?” Xia Zhi asked.

Lily shook her head,

“My mother is a refugee from outside the wall. Refugees from outside the wall have been unwelcome since before I was born, when the wall appeared.”

“After all, the social resources within the wall were limited at the time. In addition, the people from outside the wall seemed to have been stimulated during the escape. The proportion of people with mental illness was very high, which led to more and more exclusion…”

Xia Zhi did not speak any more. He turned the turtle over while listening quietly to the girl’s story.

“It was at that time that my mother fell ill…” the girl continued.

Being sick alone is a terrible thing, but it doesn’t end there.

“Although it was a clear genetic case and the pathological cause was understood, because my mother came from outside the wall, the people around her who didn’t like her in the first place were more willing to believe another rumor… They said it might be Batik’s curse, or it might be the toxins from the monsters brought in from outside the wall, or some other unknown virus…”

She looked at the gently rising and falling sea in front of her and continued

“Compared to scientific explanations, people were more willing to believe these groundless and boring rumors… This was probably because my mother was a refugee from outside. They were immersed in their groundless and self-assured superstitions and spoke ill of my mother… At that time, I was right next to my mother, but I could do nothing about it… Until my mother died of illness, I was unable to change anything…”

She took a deep breath and her eyes became cold.

“So, I hate this wall, I hate Batik and Stardust, I hate people who hurt others without thinking! I also hate the cowardly me who can’t do anything…”

I see……

People who simply believe in superstitious stories based on their imagination hurt Lily and her mother… That’s why the girl hates people who believe in something just because they heard it, right?

At this moment of summer solstice, I can finally understand why the girl is so persistent in finding out the “truth” about the wall.

It should be said that the focus is not on the truth, but on “finding out” the matter itself.

In the absence of any evidence to prove it and without any investigation on her part, the girl believed that whether the amnesty or her own statement was affirmed or denied was actually a form of superstition, so she had to take personal action to deny such superstition.

…Always be at least half skeptical of information that cannot be verified unilaterally. Thinking carefully, I had similar thoughts in the past.

Xia Zhi thought.

At the same time, he also knew why the girl’s health was not good.

Is it because of genetics?

“Don’t worry, I go to the hospital for checkups every once in a while, and nothing bad has been found… maybe I’m not old enough yet.”

As if she had released all the emotions that had been pent up in her heart, Lily heaved a long sigh of relief.

“…let’s go back.”

She threw the turtle back into the sea, stood up and spoke.

This is just a way of throwing away the water. I don’t quite agree with it.

Xia Zhi complained in his heart, raised his head and looked at the sun in the distance which had not yet set. It was obvious that there was still a lot of time.

“Aren’t you going to continue?”

Lily shook her head gently: “I’m not such a stubborn person… What I’ve seen now has confirmed what you said.”