Love That Took the Long Way Around, What a Beautiful Sky

The moment he heard the question, Huang Tao's mind settled on an answer—

His late wife, who had died sixteen years ago.

Beside him, Huang Zixuan's heart tightened. Only one answer came to his mind—

His mother, whom he had never met, who had died after giving birth to him sixteen years ago.

But this was a family matter, a subject father and son had rarely touched on in those sixteen years. It seemed to have become taboo.

Huang Zixuan knew it was a painful wound in his father's life.

Even now, he felt that his father had always blamed him—blamed his birth for killing his mother. That was why his father had always been so strict with him.

"You two talk. I'm going out for some fresh air." Huang Tao pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and left without looking back.

Lin Yuan felt helpless again.

He had tried to phrase his question as gently as he could, but today he had first upset a dog, and now he seemed to have struck Huang Tao where it hurt.

Yet that gave Lin Yuan a hint of what lay beneath it all. Fortune Dog's heartache might not be the dog's obsession alone.

Huang Tao went out the door.

Only then did Huang Zixuan say, "Brother Yuan, if you put it that way, the only person Fortune Dog could be waiting for is my mom."

"I don't know much about my mom, actually. She passed away after giving birth to me." Huang Zixuan's voice was calm. "Most of what I know about her came from asking our old butler."

"We couldn't mention her in front of my dad. When I was little, I'd ask him why I didn't have a mom when all my classmates did. All I ever got was a long silence."

"My dad never hit me, but sometimes it was even scarier when he said nothing."

"As for Fortune Dog, my mom and dad raised it together twenty years ago. According to the old butler, their shop had just opened, and they liked the words 'fortune attraction' in the name 'Fortune Dog.' They thought it was a good omen."

"The old butler said my mom had trouble conceiving, and she wasn't a Beast Tamer. Before she became pregnant with me, she treated Fortune Dog wonderfully. She raised it like a child."

"Then Fortune Dog lost my mom and got me."

"It's always been good to me. The old butler says I look a lot like my mom."

"Fortune Dog is smart. It knows my dad can't bear to hear anything about my mom, so it's always just sat there quietly."

"The old butler told me that for the first seven days after it realized my mom wasn't coming home, Fortune Dog kept howling in our courtyard. Then, for some reason, it stopped."

"It just watched the sky and the distance, every morning, noon, evening, and night."

"Later, it only watched in the mornings and at night."

"Now it's old. It watches for a little while at night, then comes to find me, like it always does."

"My father was right about one thing. Fortune Dog has a strong will to live. Every time an evolution failed, it took whatever medicine it was given and let them draw its blood. No amount of pain frightened it."

"It's just that it seems to have taken after my dad. Most of the time, it stays silent."

Huang Zixuan told Fortune Dog's story quietly, sharing what he had seen and heard.

Lin Yuan did not know why, but his heart felt heavy.

Canine pet beasts were loyal to their owners. Loyalty was written into their genes.

Talking about Huang Zixuan's mother was a taboo in their home, and Fortune Dog knew it. Huang Tao was its other longtime owner. It did not want its own longing to hurt him.

Perhaps that wall was what had sealed Fortune Dog's heart away.

It hid its feelings from Huang Tao not out of selfishness, but because it was trying, in its own way, not to hurt him.

Lin Yuan had only one question now—

Did Fortune Dog know that Huang Zixuan's mother had died?

He doubted Huang Tao would give him the answer.

After all, Huang Tao had kept silent for more than a decade. He would not bare his heart to someone he had only just met.

The answer might have to come from Fortune Dog itself.

Several minutes passed before Huang Tao returned.

"Sorry. Fortune Dog and I both lost our composure today. Little Yuan, did you finish reading the contract? What do you think?" Huang Tao had returned to his usual self, his voice steady and his face giving nothing away.

Just as Lin Yuan had expected, Huang Tao deftly sidestepped his question and changed the subject.

It was the same habit he had followed for more than a decade. The moment a certain subject came up, his practiced defenses took over.

Fortune Dog had reacted the same way when it barked earlier. As soon as it sensed someone might uncover what it wanted to hide, it grew hostile.

"Uncle Huang, the contract is excellent. I can tell you've offered me better terms because I'm Zixuan's classmate."

"Spirit Dew really is a good product for soothing Fortune Dog's injuries after ten failed evolutions. And Zilan's level and special effects haven't improved yet. The quality of what she produces will only rise from here."

"Zixuan just told me Fortune Dog wants to live longer."

"Spirit Dew won't help it do that, but evolution can."

"Uncle Huang, I know this is presumptuous, but could you summon Fortune Dog again? I won't say anything to upset it this time."

He silently added, And I won't say anything to upset you, either.

Huang Tao knew Lin Yuan had not given up.

But Lin Yuan's tone had changed. Earlier, Huang Tao could tell he had been asking about Fortune Dog to gain more leverage.

Now, he seemed to want only one thing... to know the truth.

Huang Tao thought for a moment.

Then he nodded and summoned Fortune Dog.

After some time to calm down in the Beast-Taming Space, Fortune Dog no longer barked.

It looked at itself, then at the sky beyond the window. Once it saw that nothing had changed, it slowly walked to Huang Zixuan's feet, curled up as though it belonged there, and wrapped itself around the Wonderstar Grass.

As for Lin Yuan, Fortune Dog no longer sensed that spiritual-attribute fluctuation from him. They could each leave the other alone.

"Zixuan, you just told me a story. Let me tell you one about my family." Lin Yuan had lived two lives. He knew that complicated feelings could not be forced into the open. Only by seeing things from another's perspective and finding common ground could he reach the truth beneath them.

"You know my parents passed away two years ago."

"My family has a Purple Ghost Orchid. She was once my mother's contracted beast and the economic backbone of our pet food shop."

"My mother tried to evolve her twice, but both attempts failed because neither led to the form she wanted. After my mother died, she felt guilty. She blamed herself for not cherishing those chances and for letting my mother down."

"Zilan is sensitive. The slightest stir of wind or grass can bring back memories of my mother."

"A few days ago, she underwent a mutated evolution because she found a form that suited her. She was so happy afterward. She wished my mother could have been there."

"But her feelings toward my father were entirely different."

"My father's love was reserved, always held back."

"He couldn't bear the heat, so he spent nearly all his time in rooms with the air conditioning turned down low."

"Perhaps he knew he would leave us one day. Most of the time, he didn't express his love for us outright."

"Only now and then would my mother mention the plans he had made in private and the thought he had put into things for me, for Zilan, for everything in our home."

"Zilan saw my father as family too. The Purple Dew she used to produce had a cooling effect, which suited him. When she was little, the moment she produced any, she always wanted him to drink it."

"But he would scold her for it. Eventually, she got used to that."

"It's only in the last two years that I've slowly come to understand my father's restrained love for us. But Zilan is different. She is a pet beast. In her eyes, my mother, my father, this little pet food shop, and I were everything—her home, her world."

"The way love is given and expressed can shape how a pet beast responds."

"With my father, all she knew was that loving him meant not giving him Purple Dew anymore, not clinging to him, and doing as he wished."

"The love pet beasts need is more direct. It shouldn't take a winding path."

"Zilan has been in a good mood these past few days. She knows that after evolving, she can stay with me, the only family she has left, for longer. My parents are gone, but she still has me."

"Yet sometimes she still looks toward the sun, as if she can see my mother singing to her there, and my father's stern gaze with its faint trace of warmth."

"I'm telling you all this because I want to ask: do you think Fortune Dog and Zilan are alike?"

Lin Yuan spoke from the heart.

If he had not lived two lives, at sixteen he might still have believed that his father had given him far less attention than his mother had throughout those years.

"They are," Huang Zixuan said. It was the first time he had heard Lin Yuan talk about his own life and felt the emotion behind his words. Until now, Lin Yuan had been an unfeeling question-solving machine to him, the one who could put an end to any difficult problem.

But with the little life experience he had, Huang Zixuan could not fully grasp what Lin Yuan was trying to say.

Huang Tao and Fortune Dog felt it more deeply. Neither could help seeing themselves in the story.

When Lin Yuan spoke of Zilan looking toward the sun, Fortune Dog rose without realizing it. It turned its back on everyone and gazed at the sky outside the window.

Its eyes were full of tears. It did not want Huang Tao or Huang Zixuan to see.

It was lost in its own world. Even when Lin Yuan looked its way again, it did not notice.

New information appeared on Fortune Dog's panel.

[Status]: It knew its mistress had died. She had not truly abandoned it.

But on the seventh day after she left, Huang Tao had told it that Mom had only gone somewhere very, very far away. She was in the sky, in the clouds, in the moon and the sun, and she was always watching over them.

So it did not want to change. It could not change. It knew what a Fortune Dog looked like after evolving.

After evolving, it would no longer look like itself. If Mom did not recognize it, would she still watch it from the sky?

What if... she really came back one day? Would she still recognize it?

The sky was so beautiful. If Mom lived up there, she must be happy.

Sunlight spilled over Fortune Dog, lending it a touch of sanctity and a touch of sorrow.

That latest status confirmed Lin Yuan's suspicions.

Pet beasts could be so simple. They acted on what they believed love meant in all kinds of ways, but sometimes they hurt themselves doing it.

"Uncle Huang, Zixuan, I once read a paper about Fortune Dogs. Some of them are very unusual. They can live for a very, very long time without their appearance ever changing."

"It's as though they keep watch over something in the same form, living with the same heart and the same appearance from beginning to end—loyal and free."