Before Su Qing could speak, terror flashed in the man's eyes again as he struggled to shrink back. "Don't... don't grab me. I... I want to go home."
"Don't worry, no one's here to grab you." Seeing his reaction, Su Qing knew he must have had a terrible experience. She immediately comforted him in a soft voice, "Relax. You're safe now."
Hearing the man speak, Su Qing became even more certain that he was speaking the local dialect.
"Really?" The man looked at Su Qing hesitantly, then his eyes fell on the gray squirrel on her shoulder. He took a closer look and said uncertainly, "Xiao Hui?"
"This is the gray squirrel that led me to you," Su Qing said when she saw him notice it.
Xiao Hui, perched on Su Qing's shoulder, saw that the man was awake. It brushed its large tail against Su Qing's face and chittered a few times, but neither Su Qing nor the man understood what it meant.
