When Xiao Se once again saw the towering shade before him, he unconsciously blinked.
"...Xiao Se? Are you back from outside already?"
By chance, he heard a slightly surprised murmur beside his ear. Xiao Se instinctively turned his head, only to see someone sitting in a wheelchair by the roadside, looking at him.
"Aunt Nalan?"
Xiao Se murmured softly. His impression of this stern and serious elder still remained at the time before the Maha Gu Clan's invasion, when everyone had been braced for battle.
Yet he had never expected that, when they met again, she would be like this.
Although there were few visible injuries on her body, her aura had inevitably grown far more listless.
Seeing that Xiao Se had returned, Nalan Yanran slowly wheeled herself over to the boy.
"Looks like you didn't get hurt much out there. Not bad. You've got a bit of your father and mother's thick skin."
Nalan Yanran said with some satisfaction.
"What happened to you, Aunt Nalan? Your aura is so much weaker..."
"Nothing. I just took too many pills to fight more efficiently, and the side effects haven't been completely cleared away yet."
Nalan Yanran shrugged. "Of course, walking and moving around normally wouldn't be a problem... or at least, that should have been the case. But your mother pulled one over on me. She said I'd ruin my body sooner or later if this went on, so she stuck me in this thing. Now I have to let her treat and examine me whenever she wants during this period. What a pain."
"—Mother was probably only concerned about your health..."
Listening to Nalan Yanran's stream of complaints, Xiao Se felt somewhat embarrassed.
"You don't need to apologize to me. I've known about your mother's unconventional ways for decades now.