The Little Nian Beast also sat dumbly on the ground, tugging at a strand of hair, happily watching her.

"What are you laughing at?" Lin Xingshi wiped her eyes that were about to tear up from laughter and asked him.

"If you’re happy, I’m happy." The Little Nian Beast said.

Lin Xingshi paused for a moment, then turned her cheek with a hum and said, "I’ve disliked him for a long time, strutting around at home. Good thing I have you."

"Hmm, I won’t let anyone bully you." The Little Nian Beast stared into her eyes.

"Me too." Lin Xingshi was silent for a moment, then said softly, "I took you away, so I will be responsible for you."

She suddenly stretched out her pinky finger.

The Little Nian Beast tilted its head.

"A pinky promise, you don’t even know that?"

"I know." The Little Nian Beast hurriedly extended its thumb.

"It’s the pinky finger." Lin Xingshi glared at him.

"I know... I just stretched out the wrong one." The Little Nian Beast weakly stretched out its pinky finger.

"Forget it, I won’t make a pinky promise with you."

"Why?"

"You don’t even know what a pinky promise means." Lin Xingshi paused, then suddenly said, "It’d be great if you were a demon."

"Demon?" The Little Nian Beast suddenly widened its eyes, its lips moving, "I... I am not a demon, I’m not a demon!"

"What are you afraid of?" Lin Xingshi said irritably, "I just heard adults say that Exorcists can make a contract with a demon, so that demon will accompany you for life, until death, never to part."

"Really?" The Little Nian Beast retracted its pinky finger, mumbling, "Exorcists are amazing, demons are amazing too."

"It’s the contract that’s amazing." Lin Xingshi said, "When I was young, I flipped through my family’s history books. I saw the stories about demons and Exorcists always fighting each other, and wondered... did the person who invented the ’contract’ hope that everyone could coexist peacefully? Yet Exorcists use the power of contracts to harm demons."

The Little Nian Beast shook its head, "I don’t understand these things."

"You don’t understand anything, what would you do if I weren’t by your side?"

"Then we just won’t be apart." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"You said it." Lin Xingshi said halfway, then suddenly froze for a moment.

She saw the Little Nian Beast cautiously come closer, holding her hand, prying open her pinky, then tugging it, "Pinky promise." He said softly.

Lin Xingshi was silent for a long time, "Hmm, pinky promise."

The moonlight stretched their shadows long, long, on the floor; it was a quiet night.

.....

.....

On the morning of August 19th, above Spirit Heart Lake on Hai Fan Mountain, the Little Nian Beast, lying asleep on the head of the Lotus Leaf Demon, suddenly opened its eyes.

It slowly turned its head and saw a silver cross floating by the lakeside. Hanging from the cross was a skeletal shadow, with hardly an inch of intact skin on its body.

The other seemed to be here to see the scenery of Spirit Heart Lake, standing by the lakeside for quite a while now, with the skeleton’s eyes wide open, staring intently at the Little Nian Beast’s figure.

"You’re the ’Furious Demon’, right?" The Little Nian Beast tilted its head and asked curiously.

"Child of the Year Beast..."

The skull on the cross suddenly trembled, its jaw opening and closing, making a "cackling" sound, producing a hoarse voice from its decayed throat, like a corpse buried underground for decades suddenly opening its mouth to speak.

"Yes, that’s me." The Little Nian Beast said, leaping up from the lotus leaf, with purple-red flames bursting from its hooves, propelling the little lion across the vast Spirit Heart Lake.

He landed beside the skeleton, raising his head, "Make friends with me, skull."

"You, know my identity?"

The Furious Demon opened its mouth, the jaw opening and closing, as the cackling sound and the somber voice came out together, "Don’t think that just because you’re a junior, I will tolerate your choice of words... You should know that even your father wouldn’t dare speak to me like this."

"It’s okay, by tomorrow you will become my Contracted Demon, it’s not too much for an owner to give a pet a nickname, right?" The Little Nian Beast thought to himself, unable to stop the corners of his mouth from curling up.