Skadi, My Wife

She hated her uncle, Wei Yenwu, but she felt differently about her aunt.

Wei Wen-yue had treated her like her own child. Having been an orphan since childhood, Ch'en had always regarded Wei Wen-yue as her mother.

But because of Wei Yenwu, she rarely expressed those feelings. She did not even call her Aunt; she only called her Auntie.

"She told me a lot about you. She said she was deeply worried about your future and asked me to talk to you when I had the chance. Your uncle, Old Wei, had his reasons for what he did in the past."

"Wh—"

"Whether those reasons were valid or not, go hear Boss Lin out yourself."

Cutting off Ch'en's emerging sneer in an unquestionable tone, Chen An said calmly, "Madam Wei told me many things, but I think she should tell you those things herself. I'm only telling you this so you know she has a lot she wants to say to you. When you get the chance, you should have a proper talk with her. Even if you refuse to accept what she says, comforting an elder is something the younger generation ought to do."

"And also..."

"When you have time, go see Boss Lin in the Lower District. I know you know who he is. You think he's a gang boss, naturally standing on the opposite side of someone like you. So even though he's Yu Xia's father, you don't like him."

"But you probably don't know that he used to be like you. He was also an officer in the Lungmen Guard Department. Haven't you always found it strange? Boss Lin is clearly a gang boss, yet the people of the Lower District only respect him, rather than fear him."

"The reason is simple. He became a gang boss not because he craved power or money, but for Lungmen, for the people of the Lower District. The Lower District was able to change so quickly without encountering any trouble because he quietly put in effort behind the scenes. Did you think having a rich woman alone would make changing that mixed-up Lower District so easy?"

"Because they both care about Lungmen, he and Old Wei became good friends. Even now that Old Wei is Lungmen's Governor, their friendship has never soured or faded."

"I'm not telling you this to excuse Boss Lin. I'm telling you that, to you, Boss Lin is also an elder. And like Old Wei, he has been quietly watching over you. He has no grudge against you. You should listen to what he has to say."

"So, when you have time, go meet Boss Lin in the Lower District."

"He knows many things you don't. Lungmen's past, Old Wei's reasons, how this uncle you see as heartless truly views you, and how he felt after losing his family... Ah, we're at your home."

Chen An stopped walking and shook his head.

"Actually, there are still some things I wanted to tell you. But thinking about it, you should hear those things from Boss Lin, Madam Wei, and Old Wei instead. I'm just an outsider. Even if I know some things, I'm not really qualified to advise you."

"This is my final advice to you. Family may not always be important, but family who loves you certainly is. Don't hurt them, and don't hurt yourself."

"One more thing..."

"Eh~ I thought you would tell me. I often treat people with Oripathy in the Lower District, after all. Yet even now, you still haven't told me you have Oripathy. I really don't know what you're being so stubborn about."

With a helpless sigh, Chen An pulled a porcelain bottle from his sleeve—a bottle identical to the one he had once given Lappland.

He took Ch'en's hand as she listened in a daze, placed the bottle in her palm, then folded her five fingers around it and said, "This is medicine for Oripathy. It can't completely cure it, but it can spare you the pain when it flares up. Remember this from now on: when you have problems, tell your friends. Don't carry everything alone. Some things you can't solve by yourself can be solved by someone else."

"If you carry everything yourself and hide it from your friends, they'll be sad when they find out. If Hoshiguma found out about this, she'd probably drink herself miserable all night."

"...All right, I've said what needed to be said and given what needed to be given. Go back and rest properly. Oh, and don't forget to take your medicine before resting. If you refuse to take it and insist on toughing it out alone, don't blame me for telling Hoshiguma and having her tie you up and tickle you until you cry."

After nagging Ch'en a few more times about taking care of herself, Chen An turned and left with a carefree wave.

Standing there, watching Chen An walk away with mixed feelings, Ch'en unconsciously tightened her grip around the porcelain bottle.

Swire: Ch'en, You Shameless Bitch!

Two days passed.

On this day, Ch'en, who had not been heard from for two days, suddenly came to visit.

"Ha! You damn Street Dragon, coming to my—what are you doing!?"

"Move aside. I need to talk to Chen An. Don't get in my way, you Char Siu Cat."

With one kick, Ch'en sent Swire flying aside. Swire had looked displeased the moment she saw her and came over looking for trouble. Ch'en then dragged Chen An to a corner of the courtyard and immediately demanded angrily, "Why didn't you tell me about these things sooner!?"

"You mean...?"

"Wei Yenwu, and everything that happened in Lungmen's past."

"Oh, that."

Chen An wiped imaginary sweat from his brow as though feeling guilty. "I thought you found out I read that doujin a rich woman commissioned someone to draw of you. You scared me."

"...A doujin?"

Ch'en's anger vanished, and a question mark seemed to appear above her head.

If she had understood correctly, did he mean that kind of doujin?

"Yeah. Since you're her superior and she can never win when you argue, the rich woman was annoyed. So she specially hired an artist to draw a doujin about her bullying and lecturing you. The plot doesn't make much sense, but it's pretty entertaining."

Ch'en: "..."

"—How can you say that out loud!? I'll smash your head in with a chain hammer!"

"Calm down, calm down."

"Officer Swire, Chen An and Sir Ch'en have something to discuss. Don't disturb them."

Ch'en glanced at Swire, who had jumped out from behind a tree in furious outrage and started cursing, only to be forcibly dragged back by Exusiai and Texas. After a moment of silence, Ch'en decided to ignore that matter for now.

When she spoke again, her tone was still unfriendly, but much less angry. "You said you had known about those things for a long time. Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Because you wouldn't have listened. The old you was always full of anger—at yourself, at Old Wei, at everyone and everything you disagreed with. In that state, what would have changed even if I told you? You would only have become angrier, wouldn't you?"

"...Then why tell me now?"

After falling silent for a moment, Ch'en asked this question with an inexplicable emotion in her heart.

"Because I think you can probably listen now."

Chen An's attitude remained gentle throughout Ch'en's questioning. He said, "Your sister was taken away right in front of you. You believed Old Wei had the ability to save her, but he didn't. So you came to hate him. You thought he was heartless and unworthy of being an uncle. At the same time, you hated yourself for your own helplessness."

"Madam Wei said that when you were little, you were a very cheerful child. You were as wild as a boy. But after that incident, you became quiet, started demanding more of yourself, and even began learning swordsmanship from Old Wei."

"Aunt... Auntie Wen Yue even told you that?"

Ch'en's feelings grew increasingly complicated. The more Chen An revealed things about her that outsiders could not possibly know, the more she felt like someone had sold her out.

At the same time, she felt somewhat indignant. Her aunt claimed to treat her as her own child, yet without even saying a word to her, she had sold all her secrets to someone else. Wasn't that going too far?

"Didn't I say Madam Wei told me a lot about you?"

Chen An smiled and winked at Ch'en teasingly. "If I hadn't said I didn't dare listen because you would kill me if you found out, Madam Wei nearly told me how many times you wet the bed as a child."

Ch'en: "..."

Her face instantly flushed bright red with embarrassment and anger.

She could even tell him something like that? This was no longer merely too much—it was absurd!

Chen An had wanted to tell her more embarrassing stories Madam Wei had shared about Ch'en's childhood, just to see her amusingly flustered expression. But seeing how overwhelmed she was with shame and anger, he thought it over and wisely abandoned that idea. If he continued, Ch'en would probably pull Chi Xiao from her waist and slash him with it.

He liked courting death, but he did not like seeking death.

After clearing his throat, Chen An returned to the subject. "You developed resentment and anger toward yourself because you lost your sister. Now that you've found your lost sister, even if those emotions won't disappear completely, they will diminish considerably."

"Talulah."

He looked at Ch'en gently and said softly, "Chernobog. Your older sister, whom you lost many years ago—you found her not long ago, didn't you?"

Ch'en said nothing. As though remembering something, her gaze softened.

"Talulah?"

Exusiai, who had been eavesdropping, raised an eyebrow and looked at Texas, whose expression was thoughtful. "That name sounds kind of familiar. Texas, haven't we heard that name somewhere before?"

"The Mayor of Chernobog. Dawn's leader." Texas's answer was brief and to the point.

Chen An and Ch'en were not speaking loudly. Even though Swire held her breath and strained to listen, she still could not make out much of their conversation. Like Exusiai and Texas, she had only heard Chen An exposing her at the beginning and the part about Talulah at the end.

She frowned, finding it hard to believe.

She knew Talulah. Talulah had been a close friend when Swire was young, but one day, she had suddenly vanished.

She also knew Talulah was Ch'en's older sister.

Swire had not recalled Talulah's other identity at first, but Texas's words immediately brought it back to her—Talulah, the Mayor of Chernobog who would soon come to Lungmen to discuss cooperation, the leader of Dawn Medical, a rare Dragon like Ch'en.

She had always assumed the matching names were a coincidence. After all, the Talulah she knew was an idiotically passionate, naive sweetheart, carefree to the extreme, and a citizen of Yan Nation. Chernobog was an Ursus city—though it no longer was—and no matter how she looked at it, it was too absurd for that passionate idiot who vanished as a child to suddenly reappear as an adult and become the Mayor of a massive mobile city, one she had seized from another country.

So even though she had long suspected the two might actually be the same person, she had never dared to be sure.

But now, it seemed they were not.

Because if they were, Chen An could not possibly have brought up Chernobog when speaking of Talulah.

And then—

Swire clenched her teeth so hard that her tail whipped through the air with a hiss.

Weren't Chen An and Ch'en friends? Why did he seem to know so many of Ch'en's secrets? He even knew that she had an older sister who had been missing for years, and that she had found that sister again?

She only knew half of that!

And why had Ch'en come looking for Chen An today? What exactly had they talked about?

Weren't they friends? Weren't they friends!? Weren't they friends!?

Why was it that, even though they were both friends, that damn Street Dragon got to be different? Swire had known him first, okay!

The more she thought about it, the angrier she became. Swire jumped out from behind the tree again, furious and baring her claws like a tigress catching adulterers in the act as she shouted, "Broad daylight, and what are you two sneaking around talking about!? Skadi is right there, yet you dragged Chen An aside to whisper secrets! Street Dragon, you shameless bitch!"

Ch'en rolled her eyes and ignored Swire.

"Come with me and say hello to Skadi. There's somewhere you need to go with me."

As she spoke, she dragged Chen An away.

Swire stomped her feet in rage. "Why are you holding his hand!? You shameless Street Dragon, let go of him right now!!!"

He's a Good Man, Shame He Can Talk

The wilderness.

Somewhere dozens of kilometers off Lungmen's course.

There was a grave here, and the gravestone bore the names Edward Yatrias and his wife, whose name was unknown.

It was late in the day, and the sunset clouds glowed brilliantly.

The faintly red evening glow fell upon the grave in the wilderness, bathing it in a soft light.

After pulling Chen An away from the villa, driving out of Lungmen, and traveling all the way here, Ch'en had finally arrived.

Standing before the grave with its offerings of fruit, her expression complicated, Ch'en said softly, "Before the day before yesterday, I had always thought my mother's grave was in Yan Nation."

Chen An stood beside her. "Old Wei never told you about this place?"

"No. Before I learned the truth about the past from Uncle Lin the day before yesterday and went to find him, Uncle... Wei Yenwu had never told me about this place. Neither had Auntie Wen Yue."

She looked at the gravestone and softly read the name inscribed on it. "Edward Yatrias... Is this the name of the man my mother deeply loved? The father of my sister Talulah, whom she had never met, who died for her?"

"You should add one more thing. He was also your uncle, and Old Wei's like-minded brother."

Chen An paused, then asked in surprise, "Old Wei never told you this name either?"

"Before I followed your advice and went to find Uncle Lin, I only knew Talulah's father was named Edward."

Ch'en's voice grew softer and softer, tears welling in her eyes. "I only knew Talulah and I had different fathers but the same mother. I only knew my father's name. I only knew her father's name was Edward. I only knew Wei Yenwu had abandoned Talulah and forced my mother to marry someone she did not love."

"I only knew these things. Only these things."

"I didn't know Talulah's father had already died. I didn't know why my mother married my father despite not loving him. I didn't know why, soon after I was born, my mother took me from Yan Nation to Lungmen and never returned to Yan Nation even once before she died. I didn't know why my father cut ties with me and never spoke to me again until his death."

"I knew even less about why my uncle let Talulah be taken away and did nothing, why he let me stay in Lungmen even though he knew I hated him, why he taught me swordsmanship, trained me, gave me Chi Xiao, and made me the head of the Lungmen Guard Department's Inspection Team."

Ch'en's voice choked up. Her shoulders trembled, and tears covered her face.

Beneath the setting sun, the woman who had always been strong and resolute now seemed as fragile as a helpless little girl.

"I thought I knew everything, but it turns out I knew nothing. Why was it like this? Everything was different from what I thought. All these years, what were all my actions, all my efforts, and all my persistence even for?"

Chen An hugged her... No, he did not.