Parasol Tree had already cleverly fetched clean clothes, but you had just changed, and your whole body was already soaked through.
That large celadon vat had been completely claimed by Madam Ruan, with several green lotus leaves of unknown origin floating on the surface.
You shook your head helplessly and could only tell Parasol Tree to prepare another vat.
You could hardly brew tea with Madam Ruan's bathwater—though she protested that she washed herself properly every day.
Walking over to the vat, you curled a finger and lightly tapped its wall. "There is usually nothing I need you to do."
"If there is need, I will send them to find you."
"This sword intent will disperse on its own after three years. Or if I die, it will be gone as well."
A clear cry rang out from the canopy as the two Radiant Luans shook loose specks of golden radiance.
Madam Ruan tilted her head back, her eyes shining strangely—she had raised Sow Dragons and tamed Ironhead Catfish in her lifetime, but she had never encountered divine birds like these.
The meaning behind your words could not have been clearer: she did not need to remain trapped in this tiny courtyard.
Yet Madam Ruan rested her chin on the rim of the vat. "The Sow Dragon is dead, and I can't go back to Yan Prince's Manor. I-I have nowhere left to go."
Her voice grew softer and softer. "Can I stay here?"
The excruciating backlash from her tinkering with the sword pellet last night was still vivid in her mind. That pain, as though her meridians had been torn apart inch by inch, was something she no longer dared endure.
She had not lived long enough yet. She did not want to die so early!
You waved a