Daylight gradually dimmed. The autumn wind swept through the courtyard's osmanthus tree, scattering the last few petals among its branches like yellow snow.
Lin Wanyi lay slumped over the round table. Beneath her gold-rimmed glasses, her eyes reflected the branches swaying gently outside the window, while her mind returned to when the osmanthus had first bloomed.
It had been the night of the tenth day of the eighth month. Zisu had made trouble at the Academy again. After finishing her work at the clinic, she had taken a carriage to collect her. On their way back, the two powerful horses had lost control for some reason and plunged toward the Inner River.
Not daring to expose her Witch Cult background, and unable to rein in the maddened horses, she could only pull Zisu out of the carriage with her. Yet halfway through, her vision had begun to whirl, just like the osmanthus petals spinning through the autumn wind outside her window...
The first time she saw those eyes, she had thought them like a cold spring and a chilly moon. They held little warmth, yet lacked neither water's gentleness nor the moon's radiance.
She had never expected those eyes to remain beside her day and night, from their first acquaintance to their first embrace, from embracing to falling in love...
Even now, recalling how everyone had mistaken her for his confidante, and how the Two-Headed Dragon's plans had forced her to play along and compete for his affection, still made her cheeks burn a little. Back then, waking from dreams at midnight, she had kept wondering foolishly:
Could I, his aunt, have fallen for that boy...?
As it turned out, the threads of affection had indeed stirred back then. She simply had not realized it.
But after they came to