Shenhe froze for a moment at his words, then a happy smile spread across her face once more.
Tears streaming down her face, she smiled with pure joy and threw her arms around Xiu Yuan.
"I love you too."
"Thank you for choosing me."
Xiu Yuan stroked her soft hair and said gently, "We chose each other."
"Mm." She nodded against his chest, feeling that familiar, wonderful warmth.
After twenty-seven years apart, even the closest family would feel a little like strangers when they met again.
Now, every faint, lingering trace of that unfamiliarity vanished.
Shenhe felt as though they had returned to the old days. She held Xiu Yuan tightly, savoring the first warmth she had felt in twenty-seven years.
"This feels so good. I love being in your arms," she said, wheedling like a child.
"There, there." Xiu Yuan was more than happy to hold her like this.
"There's only one thing I regret a little in this life," she said.
"What is it?"
"Having a child."
"..." Xiu Yuan fell silent.
"Then we could have gone from a world for just the two of us to a family of three."
"But it's all right. Didn't Hu Tao, the director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, say there was reincarnation? Let's have a child in our next life."
"I've already been so happy in this life. A little regret is only natural. After all, no one lives a life without regrets."
"When I'm with you, I feel like the happiest person in the whole world."
They sat at the edge of Celestia, Shenhe resting her head on Xiu Yuan's shoulder as they watched the morning sun slowly rise from that abyssal sea.
She slowly turned to look at Xiu Yuan, and he instinctively looked back at her.
"My husband,