Waiting

In the core region of the Star Dou Great Forest, at the center of Lake of Life.

The moon had already risen above the treetops.

Su Xuan stood before an ancient tree, passionately and animatedly telling stories.

Gu Yuena and Bibi Dong sat quietly on the ground like two students, watching Su Xuan.

Bibi Dong listened to the stories with a serious expression, occasionally astonished by her son's brilliant and fanciful ideas.

Gu Yuena, meanwhile, had completely turned into a fangirl. Her eyes were filled with little stars as she looked at Su Xuan. As expected, big brothers were the best creatures in the world.

"Back then, when Cowherd and Weaver Girl first met, Cowherd went and stole the clothes of the fairy by the lake. That was the beginning of their fate... From then on, the two who admired each other could only meet once a year."

His mouth was dry, and that was Su Xuan's only feeling. He hurriedly gulped down two mouthfuls of water.

This was already the third story Su Xuan had told.

The first had been Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, and the second Romeo and Juliet.

Gu Yuena raised her hand.

Su Xuan signaled with his eyes for her to hurry up and ask whatever she wanted.

"Brother, why did Cowherd steal her clothes, yet Weaver Girl was a god and didn't kill him? Why did she fall in love with him instead?"

Su Xuan remained perfectly calm and said lightly:

"Probably because love is blind."

Upon hearing those words, Bibi Dong, whose mood had already been saddened by these classic tragic romances, felt even worse. She buried her head in her knees, like a young beast curling up to protect itself.

Gu Yuena was still chattering away as she seriously asked:

"Brother, why are all the stories tragedies? Do you think love is too fake, too easily broken?"

"It's precisely because we've seen so many tragedies that we should cherish the people before us even more."

Su Xuan casually handled little Gu Yuena with ease, then left her to the side. He had noticed Bibi Dong's abnormality as soon as he spoke that sentence.

To Su Xuan, Bibi Dong, who had been hurt and was emotionally sensitive, needed more care than Gu Yuena, who had grown up carefree like a princess. Besides, his little sister had a big heart. At worst, he would just get another beating from her.

Su Xuan stepped forward and opened his arms, embracing the curled-up Bibi Dong. At that moment, Su Xuan felt that his mother seemed so small. Without her imposing crown and scepter, and without her papal robes, Bibi Dong looked like nothing more than a fragile young girl.

Su Xuan softly said into Bibi Dong's ear:

"Mom, isn't that right? Having seen so many tragedies, we should understand even more how important it is to cherish the people before us."

Bibi Dong remained silent, like a statue, but tears had already welled up in her beautiful eyes buried against her knees.

Su Xuan did not care whether she responded. He simply leaned down and gently kissed Bibi Dong's forehead.

Then he softly whispered into Your Eminence the Pontiff's ear:

"Mom, we're family. The future is always meant to be faced head-on.

Besides, in this era, the greatest person of the future—Su Xuan.

He's your most handsome, most dashing, most adorable son, the one who loves Mom the most, isn't he?"

Bibi Dong no longer suppressed her emotions. She was so happy. So the future could be something worth looking forward to. So the future could be filled with light. So someone really could hold the most sincere feelings for another person.

Bibi Dong thought that as long as Xuan'er was there, nothing else mattered. She gently used Soul Power to make the redness and swelling around her eyes disappear.

Bibi Dong raised her head and revealed her brightest smile. In that instant, Su Xuan felt as though everything else had lost its color.

Su Xuan said sincerely:

"Mother, you're really beautiful when you smile. You should smile more. As the old saying goes, one smile makes you ten years younger."

Bibi Dong was delighted and laughingly scolded Su Xuan:

"Are you saying I'm old?"

Su Xuan immediately put on a terrified expression and waved his hands repeatedly.

"No, no, no! Mother is eternally youthful and full of vitality, the number one beauty on the continent."

After finishing his flattery, Su Xuan gave her an approving look and raised a thumbs-up to emphasize it.

Bibi Dong smiled faintly.

"Alright, alright, stop exaggerating. If you keep going, I'll ascend to heaven on the spot."

At this moment, Gu Yuena walked over with a face as black as the bottom of a pot and an incomparably huge baseball bat—Su Xuan's birthday gift to her.

Well then, Su Xuan's punishment for leaving his little sister off to the side had arrived.

Su Xuan hurriedly fled.

Gu Yuena swiftly gave chase.

Bibi Dong watched the two of them chasing each other, but her gaze remained fixed only on Su Xuan.

With a melancholy expression, Bibi Dong spoke in a voice only she could hear:

"How I wish you had been born thirty years later, or I had been born thirty years earlier."

However, Bibi Dong soon regained her happy smile and said cheerfully:

"But Xuan'er is right. People always have to look ahead. Still, Xuan'er, I raised you. You'll be mine for your whole life."

Thinking of this, Bibi Dong smiled, a smile full of happiness and warmth.

"Hey, hey, hey, Na'er! Brother gave that to you so you could beat up perverts, not so you could murder your own brother."

Su Xuan spoke as he ran, his desire to survive at maximum capacity. He hoped his words would help his little sister see reason.

Gu Yuena completely ignored Su Xuan's pleas and coldly said:

"Do you remember what you said this morning?"

Cold sweat ran down Su Xuan's neck as his survival instincts drove him to frantically think of what to do.

Yet even with his brain running at full speed, he still could not come up with any brilliant idea.

Tears welled in Su Xuan's eyes. Did he really have to take a beating from his little sister?

After running for a while, Su Xuan suddenly realized there was no one behind him.

When he turned around, Gu Yuena was leaning against a tree and panting.

It made sense. Chasing down an enemy while carrying such an incomparably huge baseball bat was simply too cruel on a six-year-old girl's stamina.

Seeing his little sister like this, Su Xuan's doting-brother instincts immediately kicked in.

Su Xuan walked straight over. Before Gu Yuena could say anything—

Su Xuan asked worriedly:

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

Gu Yuena let out a huff.

She was not truly an unreasonable little sister who would throw tantrums without cause. Earlier, she had merely been angry that Su Xuan had left her to the side.

Su Xuan laid Gu Yuena sideways against himself, resting her head sideways on his shoulder, and began performing a medical art passed down through five thousand years of Chinese tradition—massage.

"Mm~~ Ah, ah, ah!"

Gu Yuena felt a wave of soreness, but mingled within it was an indescribable comfort.

As Su Xuan massaged her, he thought about how he had never given his mother a massage before. Once they returned, he absolutely had to show his mother just how amazing Su Xuan's ancient massage techniques were!

Gu Yuena felt as though she were floating in the clouds and could no longer speak.

Looking at his little sister, limp as a puddle of mud as she leaned against him, Su Xuan smiled.

"Feeling better?"

Gu Yuena said in her somewhat weak voice:

"Brother, what is this?"

Su Xuan smiled mysteriously.

"This is the legendary art of massage. Brother studied for a long time before learning it."

Gu Yuena's violet eyes lit up as she happily said:

"Brother, teach me this. I'll give you massages every day from now on."

Su Xuan was stunned for a moment, then warmth filled his heart. He softly said:

"Of course."