"That's enough for today."
After organizing all the dossiers and documents and turning off the last lamp, Fu Xuan tiptoed over to the bed.
She lifted a corner of the blanket with gentle movements, afraid of waking Kiana, who had already fallen asleep beside her.
Seeing that Little Kiana hadn't woken up and seemed to be having a pleasant dream, Fu Xuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She slowly moved closer to the little one and held Kiana in her arms like the doll she usually hugged while sleeping.
After taking a sniff of the faint fragrance from Little Kiana's hair, Fu Xuan leaned down and said to her:
"Good night."
That night, Fu Xuan slept well for the first time in a long while.
Was Kiana really having a beautiful dream, just as Fu Xuan had imagined?
After careful consideration and realizing she had nothing better to do, the author decided to open a bounty event.
Recently, there hadn't been any commissions for the author's main job, so suddenly there was a lot more free time.
After asking some experts for advice, the author decided to try opening a bounty event first.
One chapter for every 150 monthly tickets.
One chapter for every 10,000 cat coins.
One chapter for every 100 blades.
The experts said never to open unlimited recommendation bonuses, or else one would become a writing machine locked in a little dark room to write. But given the author's current situation, that probably wouldn't happen, right?
If something happens, we'll deal with it then.
One chapter for every 4,000 recommendations.
Here's a screenshot of the current stats. For convenience, since there are 104 monthly tickets, the count starts at 100; since there are 3,164 recommendations, that count starts at 3,000. As for blades and rewards, those are the readers' kindness and support, so the count starts at zero because the author is too lazy to calculate them.
But everyone doesn't need to spend money on rewards deliberately. As long as you vote and take a look every day, the author will already be very happy.
Pain, Pain, Fly Away
Kiana wasn't sure whether she was dreaming.
Because rather than being her own dreamscape, this place seemed more like Path Narrow.
But there were no other Aeons here. Only Aha had appeared before her.
"Hahahaha, you look so cute right now!"
"How is it? How does it feel to be held in the arms of a big sister?"
"How does it feel to be treated like a child and even have your advantage taken of?"
"How exciting was it to almost be stuffed into a sack by a former companion!"
"Was it surprising and delightful when Lan went looking for you?"
As Aha bombarded her with questions, Kiana merely crossed her arms and silently watched Aha's performance.
"Aha has no dignity left. Why won't you pay attention to Aha?"
But Kiana remained motionless and didn't say a word.
She even raised an eyebrow.
Her expression clearly said:
Please continue your performance. I'm watching.
Fortunately, there was no one else in this place. Otherwise, if anyone knew that someone had been so rude while facing an Aeon, they would certainly have been shocked.
What? You say she was facing Aha?
Then there was nothing to worry about.
Seeing that Aha had stopped talking but still hadn't left or let her leave, Kiana understood that if she didn't say something, Aha might treat the silence before her as another source of amusement.
"Aha, tell me. Me becoming like this, as well as what happened with Jing Yuan and Lan—is that related to you too?"
"Aha? Exposed?"
Her fists hardened.
For some reason, although Aha's true form was always shrouded in darkness and even its voice gave no indication of gender, with only a pile of clown masks appearing before others,
Kiana seemed to see a certain wind god from Genshin Impact's neighboring set within the shadows.
What? Had the Barbados Virus spread that badly? Even an Aeon had been infected?
"That mask couldn't be—"
"Ehe!"
Damn it!
If Kiana hadn't been certain she couldn't beat Aha, she really would have wanted to punch Aha properly and correct this illness.
But perhaps...
If she really attacked, Aha might be even happier?
Damn it, she couldn't reward Aha!
Seeing that Kiana still wasn't talking to her, Aha stopped keeping her in suspense.
Aha told her everything it had done.
"Your transformation has nothing to do with Aha. Aha merely made a few minor adjustments."
"Such as?"
"Such as extending the duration of the effect, and sealing your spatial ability, turning you into an ordinary little girl. No need to thank Aha. This is what Aha should do."
Listening to Aha's laughter, Kiana seemed to understand why everyone avoided this Aeon of Joy as much as possible.
This fellow really had no sense of proportion when causing trouble.
It was fortunate that even with calamity approaching and various factions gathering behind the scenes, the Luofu still appeared stable and peaceful from the public's perspective.
If this had happened on another planet, Kiana suspected that after being tricked by Aha like this, she might have traveled through worlds yet again.
As for the mask, Aha explained that too.
There was indeed power Aha had left behind on the mask, but this time, Aha's actions were different from what had happened with the Noblesse Worm.
Aha hadn't bestowed much power upon Kiana. Instead, it had placed something resembling a concealment barrier on the mask.
As long as the mask remained near Kiana, the other Aeons wouldn't detect her location.
"So you're saying you gave the mask this ability to protect me, but why do I feel like you only did it for fun? You simply wanted to watch the other Aeons search for me without being able to find me, right?"
"Hahahaha."
Kiana wanted to continue, but Aha's figure gradually faded away.
Kiana also felt as though someone was shaking her body.
When she opened her eyes, she saw Fu Xuan, already fully dressed, calling her to wake up. Only then did Kiana realize that it was morning.
"Time to get up. Eat some breakfast first, then I'll take you to buy some clothes and daily necessities."
Although Kiana was still reluctant to leave the warm bed, she nevertheless broke free of its seal, crawled out from under the covers, and put on the new clothes Fu Xuan had brought her.
It was a very cute little princess dress.
On Kiana, it made her look like a little princess born into nobility.
Even Fu Xuan, who had seen countless people, couldn't help nodding when she saw Kiana after changing clothes.
"As expected of my choice. It fits perfectly."
After Kiana had changed and washed up, Fu Xuan led the slightly dazed Kiana—still foggy from Aha's mischief in last night's dream—to the dining table.
Two simple breakfasts had already been placed on the table.
Fu Xuan pulled out a chair for Kiana. After watching her sit down, she moved another chair beside her and began enjoying breakfast with Kiana.
"What is it? Why are you looking at me like that?"
Kiana hadn't meant to.
Her own breakfast looked fairly normal, but Fu Xuan's breakfast was somewhat too strange.
In front of Kiana was a small dish of vegetable salad, a fried egg, a bowl of rice porridge, and a glass of milk.
It was perfectly normal and reasonably nutritious.
But what about Fu Xuan?
If milk tea counted as milk, cake counted as eggs, and sweet porridge with so much sugar that it had crystallized counted as porridge,
then Kiana really couldn't understand how Fu Xuan could enjoy this sugar-loaded breakfast so much.
And the most outrageous part was, with how much sugar Fu Xuan ate, how did she keep her figure from changing?
Kiana could only be thankful that Fu Xuan knew her diet was unusual. Otherwise, if Kiana had eaten the same breakfast, she might have exploded.
But in response to Fu Xuan's question, Kiana still gave her a sweet smile and said in a childish voice:
"Nothing, Sister Fu Xuan. I just saw that you got up so early to make breakfast. Thank you for your hard work."
After hearing Kiana's words, Fu Xuan suddenly felt that the little one was truly adorable.
She finally understood why so many people had been arrested for carrying out the Light Source Project.
If all children were as obedient and cute as Kiana,
and sleeping while hugging her was more comfortable than any pillow Fu Xuan had ever bought,
then Fu Xuan could understand those people.
Fu Xuan's thoughts began to run wild.
Her gaze at Kiana even became somewhat...
"No, no. I must have been under too much pressure lately. What am I thinking?"
Fu Xuan lightly bit her thin lip. The slight pain brought her back to her senses.
Seeing Fu Xuan suddenly shake her head to herself and bite her lip with her pearly teeth, Kiana somehow got the urge to do something strange. She kicked her shoes aside, placed her little feet in white stockings—the same kind Fu Xuan wore—on the chair, and began gently stroking Fu Xuan's head with her small hands.
"It doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt. Pain, pain, fly away."
March 7th: Oh No, Someone's Raiding the Home!
Fu Xuan and Kiana both froze in place.
Fu Xuan hadn't expected that the mischief caused by her wicked thoughts just now would make this little one, whom she had only met yesterday, worry about her.
The child had even come over to comfort her.
Fu Xuan felt as if she had found her own sun, a ray of light amid endless work and a life filled with unreliable superiors and subordinates.
As for Kiana, she didn't know why she had suddenly moved so naturally, like a child, and actually done something like that.
Damn it, this must be Aha's fault.
In any case, no matter what happened, she would pin the blame on Aha first.
Fu Xuan rubbed Little Kiana's head, feeling that the little one was simply too adorable. Her position in Fu Xuan's heart had already surpassed that of a taro boba milk tea with extra sugar.
After seeing Kiana sit back down, Fu Xuan noticed that perhaps because she was embarrassed or had just finished breakfast, her body temperature had risen slightly.
Her chubby little cheeks slowly became flushed.
Her two little feet, unable to reach the ground, swung back and forth.
Fu Xuan felt her thoughts stall for a moment. When they returned, she realized that she had somehow already leaned close to Kiana.
Her own pink lips had just happened to touch Kiana's cheek.
Before you continue