our secret base

Chapter 3 "UFO Exploration"

"Hi, I'm Yan Jingxing."

Seeing the girl in front of him staring at him with wide black eyes, Yan Jingxing thought she didn't know who he was, so he introduced himself again.

I know, she thought, just heard you introduce it in class.

"I am...Ji Chunzao. The spring of spring, the algae of the seaweed..."

"Well, I heard it from my classmates."

The early summer breeze blows across the roof, gently blowing the hair and clothes of the boys and girls.

After introducing themselves to each other, the two fell silent at the same time, and the atmosphere became awkward for a while.

Yan Jingxing scratched the back of his head, pointed at the magazine in the girl's hand and said.

""UFO Exploration", I have a stack at home, and I liked watching this the most when I was in elementary school."

"..."

"This magazine was circulated by the boys in my class before, but I didn't expect girls to read it too. Can I sit down?"

"...Okay." Ji Chunzao nodded.Judging from the slightly stiff expression on the girl's face, she is obviously feeling nervous now.

Yan Jingxing sat down beside Ji Chunzao.

The two sat side by side in the center of the small "secret base", she subconsciously curled up her shoulders.

"Can you lend me a look?"

Ji Chunzao silently handed him the magazine.

Yan Jingxing just lowered his head and began to read seriously like this, as if he really just came to read the book.

Seeing that he was engrossed in watching and did not speak for a while, Ji Chunzao's tense emotions gradually relaxed.

She didn't expect that the boy she met by chance when she slipped out of the house alone to go swimming in the beach two days ago suddenly became her classmate today.

This is...a coincidence, right?In any case, since you are a new acquaintance, you will not have prejudice against yourself.Now I still take the initiative to ask myself to borrow magazines...

Maybe he will listen to me.

Ji Chunzao's heart skipped a beat, and she couldn't help but move her knees, getting closer to the boy, and asked cautiously:

"You, do you like watching this because you believe in aliens?"

"Ok?"

Yan Jingxing replied without raising his head.

"I liked to read it for a while, but it was all in the past. It was probably in the fourth grade of elementary school? Later, these books were confiscated by the teacher, and they were no longer popular in the class. After a while, I also Not interested anymore."

"……Oh."

Ji Chunzao was a little disappointed, and shrank back.

"Maybe, tomorrow we will be one step closer to the answers to these questions..."

After a while, Yan Jingxing finished reading the first article "Do UFOs Really Exist? Flying Saucers in the Eyes of Ancient People" and read out the last paragraph of the article.

"Are there any aliens? Let's continue exploring."

He put down the magazine and couldn't help laughing.

"It's so familiar. I suddenly feel that the things written in this magazine, whether it's aliens or flying saucers, are always repeated over and over again, and have never changed."

"Yes."

Ji Chunzao nodded in agreement,

"Indeed it is."

Sure enough, you still understand, right?Hearing her answer, Yan Jingxing realized that this girl was actually the same as himself, she just liked weird things, and she was not "out of the ordinary" as the class said.

This kind of prejudice is really too much. He recalled that when he was in elementary school, he was despised by some boys as a "sissy" because he liked to stay in the classroom and read a few words with the female students in the class. Feel.

"The content in this book seems to be largely fictional."

The other party nodded solemnly again.

"I know it's fake."

Yan Jingxing smiled.Yes, after all, we are all junior high school students, and we are not children...

"—Because, I've seen real aliens, and I know they don't look like they're written in magazines."

The smile on Yan Jingxing's face froze.

"However, even if it's fake, it still has reference value. I won't be the only one who sees them in this world. One day..."

"Wait a minute, you said you saw it with your own eyes?"

"Ok!"

"..."

She looked at her for granted, she didn't look like she was joking, and she didn't seem to feel that she was lying.

Yan Jingxing was still in a daze, so he heard her speak again.

"By the way, have we met before? I thought you were a tourist."

He came back to his senses and quickly took out shells and pebbles from his pocket.It was something she stuffed into herself before she left, and it stayed with her ever since.

Seeing his movements, Ji Chunzao tentatively said:
"Aren't you angry?"

"Why should I be angry?" Yan Jingxing grabbed the shiny "baby" in his hand, a little strangely, "You are giving me something."

"I went to the beach to look for shells and pebbles that day. I picked up a lot by accident, but it was too heavy to carry all of them on my body. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to swim back halfway. Then, I happened to see you. So..."

The girl pursed her lips in embarrassment.

"I'll give you the ones I don't want."

Hearing these words, Yan Jingxing felt complicated.

How should I put it, on the day when he met her, the sun was just right and the sea was blue, and seeing her wet and glowing under the blue sky and white clouds, at that moment, he felt that he was the legendary human male chosen by the mermaid.

The age of dreaming and fairy tales has passed, but it is inevitable that he will still have thoughts and fantasies about the outside world.

As a result, such subtle thoughts and ideas were shattered by the person concerned after a few days.

The strange sense of excitement and joy that drove him to run wildly by the beach after getting off the car that day, and the urge to look for the girl on campus after class, subconsciously faded away.

It turned out that everything was just a coincidence.

"I have other books here. Would you like to read them?"

Yan Jingxing's eyes fell on the stacked books and magazines, and he knew the contents just by looking at the titles on the covers.

Things that were fun and passionate a few years ago now seem childish and boring.

He is still some distance away from becoming a real adult, but he has been told by the people around him and the social reality that aliens do not exist in this world, just like mermaids do not exist.

"Thank you, but forget it."

Neither of them spoke again.

After talking about this, it seems that there is nothing else to say.

Yan Jingxing stood up, ready to say goodbye to her.

……

Ji Chunzao secretly looked at the profile of the boy beside him, knowing that he was just like everyone else he had met.

No one would believe that she had actually seen an alien.

When she was young, this kind of words could still be regarded as "children's words without restraint"; but as she grew older, her insistence on her own opinion all the time seemed more and more strange and out of gregarious.

If one day, I become an adult and I don't want to hide myself, I will become a lunatic and a fool in people's eyes.

The girl's eyelids drooped, and her thick eyelashes trembled slightly.

"I'm going back to the classroom first."

"See you."

Ji Chunzao watched his back disappear around the corner, and picked up the magazine at hand again.

Sad thoughts flowed in her heart for a while, and soon disappeared.The girl's mind is once again thrown into the magazines she is interested in, and she is immersed in her own world.

After all, she was someone who had only met two sides, so she had no reason to care too much about it.As for not being trusted and being alienated by peers, I have long been used to it.

until--

"By the way, classmate..."

"Wow!"

There was another sudden sound from behind, which startled her again.

Ji Chunzao turned his head tremblingly, and it was his face that came into view again.

Now, she began to have a little emotion in her heart, and stared at the other party dissatisfied.

"You, what's the matter with you?"

"Sorry, I seem to have scared you."

Yan Jingxing scratched his hair and smiled a little embarrassedly.He hesitated to speak:
"You said you've seen aliens, where did you see them? What do they look like?"

Ji Chunzao turned her head angrily, not wanting to look at his face again.

"You don't believe me, why should I tell you this?"

"I don't believe it..."

"Isn't that all right?"

"—But, can't you find a way to convince me?"

The girl still didn't turn around, but her ears were quietly pricked up, and she heard the boy behind her continue talking.

"If I could see the evidence, maybe I would believe it."

Evidence...

Ji Chunzao blinked.

It's not that she hasn't thought of ways to collect information, and her efforts over the past few years have not been in vain.But if you can't see it with your own eyes like yourself, you will always be dubious.

"Also, I heard from other students that you used to catch people talking about aliens every day, which annoyed them, and ended up being alienated by others."

Hearing the embarrassing things he did before from others, Ji Chunzao's face turned rosy.

"But I don't seem to have this kind of treatment. Is it because I'm from the city?"

"...That was all when I was just in junior high school."

The little girl grumbled with shame.

Since no one is willing to recognize me, it is better to give up from the beginning.So as not to make others look at you differently, and embarrass yourself.

Yan Jingxing nodded.

That's why she avoided me after class. It turned out that she had given up her plan to persuade others.

"However, if what you said is true, but you are regarded as a liar, don't you feel reconciled?"

Of course not reconciled -!She cried out in her heart.

Ji Chunzao finally turned his head around and looked at him seriously.

"If you see the evidence, will you really believe it?"

"The premise is the evidence that can convince me."

"Okay, then it's settled."

She stood up, with her hands on her hips, and she was full of air.

"That's a deal"?
Yan Jingxing was a little confused.

"What's settled? I asked you to show me the evidence..."

"—You follow me, let's find aliens together!"

(End of this chapter)