"Haha... Wuyou, you're here... When did you get here? Oh, you just arrived..."
In the exquisite little courtyard, Xia Ke'an had scrambled up from Xu Shi and become so flustered that she could barely speak. Her cheeks were flushed as red as glowing tomatoes, and she looked like she might burst into tears at any moment.
"..."
Xia Wuyou looked at her own aunt with an odd expression and fell silent for a long while.
She, too, was experiencing an earthquake in her pupils.
To be fair.
In Xia Wuyou's eyes, her aunt had always been a wonderful elder.
When she was little, her parents had been strict, always wearing stern faces as they lectured her. The people around her were either submissive and timid or hypocritical... Only Xia Ke'an was different. Not only had she always treated her kindly, but she had also often taken her to do things her parents forbade. Even now, Xia Wuyou remembered those times fondly. Though she was her aunt, she had felt more like an older sister.
Later, when the family fell on hard times, the two had relied on each other for over ten years. Although Xia Ke'an had been bedridden and unable to do much, she had always kept a smile on her face. She encouraged Xia Wuyou whenever she could and offered all sorts of advice. Little Cat Xia asked herself honestly: if Xia Ke'an had not approached life that way back then, if she had instead been listless and gloomy every day, it would have been hard to say whether Xia Wuyou could have endured those years at all.
Combined with the old lady's formerly high-spirited image in front of others... honestly, if not for the unexpected turn of events, Xia Wuyou felt she would have wanted to become