Interlude

December 6, 2013, 4:05 p.m.

After the last customer left, Kiana flipped the "Open" sign around. Since the café had only recently begun operating steadily, the number of customers actually hadn't matched its online popularity.

That was also fortunate. Otherwise, Su Qing'an would have had to consider hiring another barista and server.

He had deliberately incorporated Sword Heart Technique cultivation into every movement of his daily life. For the current Su Qing'an, tempering his sword heart while expending mental energy was still a difficult form of training.

The reason he had started closing early was that he had initially been unaccustomed to operating on two fronts at once. On top of that, his obsessive-compulsive tendencies wouldn't allow him to make coffee carelessly. His pursuit of perfection only made things even more difficult.

So sometimes, he simply closed early.

What a perfectly legitimate reason to slack off.

Kiana untied her brown apron and placed it on the table, revealing the same Senba Uniform as Satou Yunona's. She let out a long breath, her chest rising and falling, then stretched. Her graceful curves were laid bare, and as her collar lifted, the snow-white skin at her waist was faintly revealed, catching the eye.

To be honest, even during her years of wandering, she had rarely held down a proper job. How carefree.

A server's work was simple, but talking to strangers was always troublesome.

The habit of facing others with a shell had developed during her years of wandering.

In Su Qing'an's eyes, Kiana's inner self was complicated when fully dissected. Whether she was the bright girl who acted like an idiot, the cold girl with an expressionless face, or the sensitive and lonely girl, all of them were her.

Human beings were complex and colorful. Having multiple sides was the norm. Could an idiot who charged ahead recklessly really have only one hot-blooded, carefree side?

Su Qing'an tried to understand Kiana, not through the game he knew or the little bit of manga he had read.

Instead, he used these eyes to witness her, gathering the pieces belonging to Kiana bit by bit through daily life, then assembling them piece by piece until he reached a conclusion.

Only then could he confidently say, I understand you, Kiana.

"If you have time, Kiana, go out and buy me a bottle of soy sauce and some rice. You've eaten all the rice we had stored at home."

"Su Qing'an, do you really have the heart to make a delicate girl like me carry a bag of rice home at dusk? What if I run into a pervert? Besides, haven't they been saying on television lately that there's a serial killer?" Kiana lay across the table and complained indignantly.

"This country's public security is more or less normal. Besides, who was it that broke a delinquent's left leg last time? What are you talking about?"

Remembering the stupefied look on the boy's parents' faces when they saw Kiana wearing an innocent expression, Su Qing'an really wanted to complain. In the end, the parent hadn't even had the nerve to ask for medical expenses, but a trace of cold laughter and fury had appeared in his eyes as he looked at his own son. His treatment when he got home probably wouldn't be pleasant.

"Wh-Who knew such an arrogant guy would have such fragile bones! How could you blame me? I'm obviously just an ordinary pretty girl!" Kiana retorted guiltily, but the more she spoke, the softer her voice became, clearly lacking confidence.

You didn't use Honkai Beast-level force on an ordinary delinquent, did you? If you did, then you really worked hard to restrain your strength at the end. Su Qing'an rubbed his forehead helplessly.

Actually, what had happened was quite simple. Kiana had rarely gone out, only to be accosted by a delinquent demanding her phone number and email address.

It was more or less like asking a pretty girl for her WeChat in the world he had once lived in, except this person had been excessively persistent and had even intended to get handsy. In the end, Kiana, unable to bear it any longer, had kicked him in the leg with her slender, harmless-looking leg and fractured it.

Afterward, the person involved had left with an utterly emotionless expression and a complete lack of common sense, totally ignoring the person howling in agony on the ground. That white-haired bundle probably hadn't even realized she had fractured someone's leg.

As Satou Yunona had said, being good-looking came with its own troubles. Su Qing'an had encountered similar incidents as well, but he had handled them more smoothly than Kiana, and the people he met hadn't been nearly so overbearing.

"So are you going or not?" Su Qing'an asked with an amiable smile.

"I'm going, all right? I'll go. It's such a simple thing—I'll have it done in no time. Hmph, Su Qing'an is an idiot." Kiana straightened her back and spoke haughtily. Incidentally, she said the last sentence extremely quietly.

The girl went to her room and put on a hoodie. The autumn evening was getting chilly, so she picked up a shoulder bag and hung it over her shoulder before preparing to leave.

Kiana was cold and perfunctory toward Satou Yunona most of the time, but toward Su Qing'an, she tended to be tsundere and timid.

The young man watched Kiana's back as she walked toward the door and couldn't help laughing. Although Kiana had said it incredibly quietly, he had still heard her.

How should he put it? Her timid little manner was strangely cute. He would add a little more chili to tonight's dishes. Imagining Kiana's pitiful face flushed bright red, the petty Su Qing'an's lips curved upward slightly, and his smile grew even happier.

But tomorrow was December 7, wasn't it? What should he prepare?