The Pain of Longing
"Yangyang, what are you doing on the roof again?"
A snow-white kitten had been sleeping, still hugging a glittering crystal ball in her arms. Startled by the sudden sound below, she jolted all over and nearly dropped the crystal ball.
"Meow."
[I-I wasn't doing anything. I was just sleeping on the roof.]
"Really, just sleeping?"
"Mother isn't deaf. I heard you muttering to yourself just now. You muttered for a whole quarter of an hour at least..."
Ye Qixin smiled awkwardly.
She couldn't exactly say that she had just been standing on top of the crystal ball.
Cosplaying the future Eldest Princess on the roof, could she?
If anyone found out that the illusory yet imposing figure in the image was merely a little girl standing atop a crystal ball, with a blurry frontal portrait refracted through magic, she would be so embarrassed she'd want to crawl into an underworld that didn't even exist.
I stood barefoot on one foot, then sprang up nimbly. The hem of my skirt did not so much as sway before I landed on the roof, lifted the sleeping Yang Xiaomao up, and casually took the crystal ball she was clutching into my other hand. "It's not that Mother wants to lecture you, but what kitten is like you? All day long, you're either sound asleep or sound asleep. Fine, sleep if you want to sleep—but why are you hugging this crystal ball? Doesn't that feel horribly uncomfortable?"
"I just picked it up and forgot about it." Yang Xiaomao did not struggle after being lifted up, instead dangling obediently beneath her mother's hand.
"Stop sleeping. Come take a couple of laps outside with me."
"Going for a walk? Yay!"
With a flicker of white light, a pretty little girl appeared in