After helping her into the puppy pajamas and carrying her onto a chair, Hera heard a knock at the door just as the young attendant from the dock arrived with the two dinners they had ordered.
Seeing the little one slumped listlessly over the table, Hera figured she had cried so much she had lost her appetite and intended to have the attendant take the dinners back.
Before she could finish speaking, Li Jia shot up from her chair and carried the trays inside herself.
She lifted the aluminum cover and shoveled big spoonfuls of scallops stewed with seasonal vegetables into her mouth.
"You can still eat after crying like that?"
Hera was exasperated and amused. All that coaxing had been wasted; a good meal had sorted her out faster.
"Crying takes a lot of energy. It's precisely because I cried so much that I'm even hungrier now..."
Li Jia looked up to argue her case. Their eyes met, and as she gazed at Hera's jawline so close to her, her cheeks suddenly burned. Red spread from her cheekbones to her earlobes, and even her fingertips quietly curled inward.
Why had she put on that black set of puppy pajamas?
A mature beauty's face, with gap moe.
She was tall. With the puppy pajamas on her, the light breeze through the window lifted the hem, revealing the lines of her waist and abdomen. There was no excess flesh, and she was slender without being frail. Instead, she resembled a straight, tall stalk of bamboo, with a fresh, clean-cut air.
In girlhood, one would always fall again and again for slender figures who were neither servile nor overbearing, making one blush and one's heart race.
Li Jia felt as though she had a little rabbit blowing sweet bubbles tucked inside her heart. Even her breathing carried a hint of sweetness. Holding the porcelain spoon between her lips, she lowered her eyes, unable to suppress the upturn of her mouth.
Hera sat across from her and pushed her own tray toward Li Jia, smiling at her. "Since you're even hungrier, have some more."
Li Jia really was hungry. Without standing on ceremony, she accepted Hera's tray and tucked in with no table manners whatsoever. Hera simply propped her chin on her hand and silently watched her eat.
By the time Li Jia realized it, she had polished off both meals, and her belly was round and full. She gave an embarrassed burp, feeling rather awkward. "Your Majesty, I was just too hungry."
"It's fine. It's not as if this is the first day you've been like this."
Hera gathered up the trays and put them in the wooden basket outside the fishing boat. Someone would collect them while making the rounds.
After the meal, Hera invited her out for a walk. Li Jia gladly accepted; she had eaten too much and needed to let it digest.
Moonlight spread a veil of gauze over the beach. The breeze swept the scent of the sea past their hair, and even the occasional distant boat horn became the loveliest background sound of the night.
The girl stepped barefoot onto the soft sand, warmth spreading between her toes. Standing on the sand, she gazed at the bright moon hanging over the sea, the lingering glimmers of starlight in her eyes overlapping with the scattered light on the crests of the waves.
Li Jia kicked the damp sand by her feet, her shadow stretching long and slender beneath the moonlight. She said softly, "Your Majesty, would you like to try it too?"
Li Jia pointed at her ankle, dusted with fine sand and white as jade. The woman's throat moved slightly as she swallowed. "All right."
She took off her shoes, walked over to the girl, and held her hand as they strolled along the beach. The sea breeze stirred, and long golden hair brushed against flaxen curls, winding and tangling together.
"Is it comfortable?" Li Jia poked the woman's palm with a fingertip. It tickled, and Hera tightened her grip, holding her fingers captive as she smiled. "Not bad."
"Walking on warm sand is good for you. It stimulates the acupoints on the soles of your feet, boosts blood circulation and metabolism, and strengthens your leg muscles too." Li Jia spouted nonsense with a perfectly straight face.
Hera lowered her eyes to look at her. "Who told you all this?"
"That's what all the village doctors back home say." Oops, I nearly gave myself away. Hera had never been to my hometown anyway, so I'll just blame it all on home.
The world was vast and rich in all sorts of things, after all. It was perfectly normal for there to be things she didn't know.
Hera brushed the stray hair from her forehead. "If we have the chance someday, could you take me to see your hometown?"
So she could find out where she had actually come from.
Li Jia nodded. "Of course. As long as you're willing to go, Your Majesty, no matter how far away it is or how long it takes, I'll be waiting to welcome your esteemed arrival."
They were not even beings from the same spacetime. With promises, it was enough if agreeing to them brought a moment of happiness. As for whether she could fulfill one, Li Jia certainly dared not guarantee it.
After all, one had to accept the diversity of things. It was only natural for plans to fall behind changes.
"Even if you won't let me come, I'll still drag you back." Hera stroked her little hand a couple more times and gave a cold laugh.
Those lines sounded so strange. Wasn't her storyline just to protect the flower bud and stop Hera from marrying a scumbag?
What was going on now? For some reason, it felt as though a sinister female ghost had latched onto her.
Still, Li Jia could understand. Perhaps possessiveness was at work now. Hera had kept her for so long, and over all these years, she had had no contact with women other than Winslow and Doreen.
She was only a passing novelty to Hera. Perhaps by the time she finished her mission and had to return, Hera would forget her. At the thought, Li Jia felt a sour ache in her heart and inwardly cursed women as all being no good.
"What are you saying, Your Majesty? Why would I run? I can't get close enough to you as it is."
Li Jia's survival instinct was still very strong. Seeing that her boss was unhappy, she immediately said whatever sounded pleasing.
"That would be best," Hera said hoarsely.
Li Jia hurriedly changed the subject. She hardly dared keep discussing such a serious topic with her. Playfully, she kicked up some sand onto Hera's instep and said, "But Your Majesty, why did you suddenly bring me out for a vacation? Is there a difficult fate record to deal with?"
Sand splashed onto Hera's instep, and Li Jia's little foot brushed against it now and then, a tentative touch that tickled slightly.
"You've gotten smarter."
Li Jia thought Hera might as well not have praised her. It made her sound like an idiot the rest of the time. -_-
In fact, many fate records were delivered every day, and Hera generally finished each day's work that same day, dealing with them very quickly. It was just that the little one had been gloomy lately. She had asked Winslow, and Winslow had sounded Li Jia out indirectly.
Li Jia said women always had a few days like that.
Hormones affected moods. It was a hormone problem.
Well, Hera had a divine body and none of the troubles of ordinary women, so she could not understand what hormones were.
After picking through the records, she had found one submitted by Eastern Lake. Eastern Lake was near the coast; perhaps Li Jia would like it.
Having learned her lesson from bringing two third wheels along before, she had left the pair at home to watch the house this time.
"Then whose fate record are we resolving this time?"
Li Jia pulled her hand free and rummaged through Hera's sleeve, searching and searching for ages without finding anything.
Oh, she had forgotten. Hera was wearing puppy pajamas now, not her usual dress. She probably did not have the fate record on her.
Finding nothing, Li Jia felt a little deflated. She quite liked reading fate records. Whenever Hera brought her to the Temple of the Goddess of Marriage, aside from going out to play in Fragrant City Spring Capital, she spent the rest of her time holed up in the temple.
There was a Divine Tree of Fate Records in the Temple of the Goddess of Marriage. Every completed volume of fate records would be gathered, sorted, and placed upon the divine tree.
The Divine Tree of Fate Records was laden with fruit, all of it Hera's achievements. Li Jia had asked Doreen whether everything hanging there was a success story.
Doreen had replied, "There has yet to be a fate record Her Majesty could not resolve."
Li Jia had immediately joined the fan club, giving a thumbs-up. "Awesome!"
She liked reading every story in order.
It felt like a story collection and was wonderfully entertaining.
As time passed, Li Jia had made herself a duplicate set of the blanket and little sofa in the Deep Hall.
During the day, while Hera worked on fate records at her desk, Li Jia sat with her little blanket right beside it, reading the fate records Hera had finished. Sometimes she became so engrossed that she would even join Hera in making a few snarky comments.