Lu Xiaoxiao quietly listened to the end of the long, sorrowful story.
To be honest, as an "outsider" who had transmigrated into a novel with a mission of her own, she did not feel the bone-deep anguish rooted in blood ties toward Xie Huaisha and Cheng Miyun, the Original Host's biological parents.
There was sadness, but more than that, she felt deeply awed and moved by their parental love, which had burned fiercely even at the end of their lives, carrying an almost defiant resolve.
She even found herself thinking something a little ill-timed, but utterly sincere: Everything else aside, the Original Host's parents had seriously badass lives!
A dream couple in archaeology, spending their whole lives exploring the unknown and ultimately dying for their ideals-that life story was exciting enough to make a movie out of! It was so much better than the melodramatic feuds and betrayals I'd imagined!
Lu Xiaoxiao even felt a little envious of the Original Host. Though their time together had been brief, the love those parents had given their daughter was so pure and unreserved.
It was not that they did not love her. Rather, in an almost tragically heroic way, they had used their final moments to entrust their daughter's future to what they believed was the safest path. They did not even need her to remember them; they only hoped she could begin a new life.
That love was weighty and unusual, perhaps beyond most people's understanding, yet it shone all the same.
As she listened to Du Cixin describe how they had chosen the character "xiao" for their daughter's name, placing their hopes for her life in that little character meaning slender bamboo, a symbol of resilience and vitality, Lu Xiaoxiao's thoughts drifted a little, turning toward herself.
*What a coincidence,