Time slipped by in the blink of an eye.
The fields of Buena Village, once blanketed in snow, had long since turned green again.
Then came the lush growth of midsummer and the golden harvest of autumn.
The seasons had completed two full cycles, and the wind carried the scent of earth and ears of wheat.
Before anyone knew it, more than two years had passed since Norn and Aisha, those two new lives, had come into the world.
Life in the village remained as peaceful as ever.
Cooking smoke curled into the sky, accompanied by the calls of chickens and dogs.
Cui Ciyou, Roxy, Lilia, and Aisha, who was now nearly two, toddling about and babbling her first words,
still lived in that cozy little wooden house.
Those two years and more had been enough for many things to settle, and for new bonds to grow quietly.
Lilia had come to regard this little house as the most important haven in her life.
She kept everything in the home spotless and perfectly organized.
Nor had her "care" for her "master," Cui Ciyou, diminished in the slightest.
Although Cui Ciyou felt embarrassed by Lilia's attempts to dress him and attend to his personal chores, and often refused,
when he saw the quiet contentment on her face, and the faint smile that occasionally flashed in her eyes when she successfully teased him,
he gradually grew accustomed to this peculiar "master and servant" relationship.
Aisha was a healthy, lively child, with dazzling red hair just like her mother Lilia's.
She seemed especially attached to Cui Ciyou, always babbling as she reached out her little hands for him to hold her.
Roxy, meanwhile, continued diligently carrying out her role as their teacher every day.
She poured her heart and soul into her two