Eleven-year-old Xiaoman never thought that an ordinary move would make her the guardian of the forest. When she discovers the crystal ball with luminous leaves sealed in the cobweb-covered attic, the door to the Moonlight Forest quietly opens - the stream here splashes crescent-shaped water, the five-hundred-year-old Mr. Hedgehog reads the newspaper wearing a maple leaf tie, and the dewdrops of each moonlight rose are frozen with the memories of animals.
But the roar of the bulldozers shattered the dream of the forest. Under the guidance of the silver-eyed owl and the flame-tailed fox, Xiao Man learned to listen to the heartbeat deep in the tree roots and touch the underground telegraph network woven by mycelium. At midnight when the steel behemoth was approaching, she put her palms against the growth rings of the thousand-year-old zelkova tree, awakening the sleeping root guardians. On the trembling ground, the knotted tree roots turned into emerald armor, rusty magic spread along the steel, and the vine patterns drawn by stardust on Xiaoman's wrist resonated with the moonstone to create the melody of the Milky Way.
This summer, a sapling that tells stories grew in the city girl's backyard. Every full moon night, the silver light on the leaves will piece together new riddles - about how to communicate with dandelions, about how to sow starlight in cement cracks, and whether the blue calico box that always shines in the depths of the closet hides more secret telegrams of nature...
Intent: When the heartbeat of the city meets the pulse of the forest - On how modern children become translators of nature