Bi Shenghua Meimei was sleeping soundly, Bi Shenghua placed Meimei in Qingmu's arms and said, "You hold her, I still need to go cook."
Qingmu said, "There aren't many people, so we can just make a few."
"I understand," Bi Shenghua replied and went off to get busy.
It was nearly noon when Bi Shenghua said the food was ready and asked Qingmu if they could eat. Qingmu woke Meimei up and said it was time to eat. The first thing Meimei asked when she woke up was, "Godfather, have you seen my father?" When Qingmu shook his head, she looked a little disappointed. She then asked, "Godfather, have you seen the mirror?"
Qingmu nodded, recalling the flowing light curtain that had illuminated the void.
Meimei perked up and asked, "What do you look like in the mirror?"
Qingmu countered, " Meimei, you go first."
Meimei said, "I see myself as a butterfly, with a pair of very beautiful wings!"
Qingmu praised, " Meimei is the most beautiful, to begin with."
Meimei smiled a little shyly, revealing her milky white teeth.
Just then Bi Shenghua called for his help, so he went with Bi Shenghua to load the food onto the food cart and deliver it to Xia Xiaoxiao's room. Meimei followed them, forgetting about the question from earlier. She didn't ask, and Qingmu didn't say anything either. He stood in front of the shimmering, iridescent mirror, with Crow perched on his head. The Crow in the mirror was still Crow, but he saw nothing, as if he didn't exist at all.
Xia Xiaoxiao busied herself helping Qingmu and Bi Shenghua place the dishes from the food cart onto the table. Xia Wenyuan remained unmoved, but his complexion was much better than when he arrived, showing how important mood was to the elderly man's health. Wu Lixia was beaming with happiness, though traces of dried tears could still be seen at the corners of her eyes. Upon seeing Meimei, she rushed over and hugged her tightly, showering her with kisses and exclaiming with joy, "My dear granddaughter!"
Xia Wenyuan also said, "Let's just stop calling them maternal grandparents and call them paternal grandparents instead."
Meimei looked at her mother, and seeing her mother nod, she obediently called out to her grandparents. After saying that, she said, "Mom, Mom, I just recognized a godfather and a godmother." As she spoke, she pointed to Qingmu and Bi Shenghua. Qingmu remained calm and composed, but Bi Shenghua's face flushed red.
Xia Xiaoxiao covered her mouth and laughed, "You need to get your grandparents' permission before you can recognize godparents."
Meimei asked, "Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Qingmu, would you all agree to me becoming your godfather and Aunt Hua becoming your godmother?"
Xia Wenyuan and Wu Lixia had already heard from Xia Xiaoxiao about having Qingmu take Meimei as his goddaughter. Now that the little girl brought it up, they readily agreed, though they secretly wondered where another godmother had suddenly appeared from. Afterwards Wu Lixia Xia Wenyuan, "What a pity, what a pity, what a waste of Xing'er!" Xia Wenyuan, however, didn't care, saying, "Young people's affairs are unpredictable, why are you worrying about it!"
During the meal, Bi Shenghua asked, "We've been calling her ' Meimei' Meimei, but we still don't know what her real name is?"
Xia Xiaoxiao said, "She has an English name, Alice, which is convenient since she used to live abroad. At home, she's always been called Meimei; she hasn't had a formal Chinese name yet. Now that she's back, it's time to give her one."
She looked at Xia Wenyuan as she spoke.
Xia Wenyuan said, "Since we've acknowledged him as our godfather, let him take the name."
Everyone looked at Qingmu.
Remembering Meimei's strange behavior in the dream, Qingmu said, "Let's call it ' Chujue '."
Xia Wenyuan savored the name: " Xia Chujue... Summer cicada chirping... Chujue from a dream... Good! What a good name!"
And so the decision was finalized, and Meimei's name was established from that moment on.
As night fell, Qingmu drove Xia Wenyuan and Wu Lixia back to the Xia residence. To avoid arousing suspicion, Xia Chujue first went home with Bi Shenghua and stayed in Liuying Lane for a few days before Qingmu took her to the Xia Family. As for how Xia Wenyuan would explain the sudden appearance of his granddaughter to his family, that was Xia Wenyuan's business, and Qingmu didn't care. Anyway, the little girl was very well-behaved; she even avoided dreaming about her parents because of Situ's instructions. It would be impossible for anyone to get anything out of her, and with Xia Wenyuan around, her safety was guaranteed.
After that, Qingmu's studio indeed became a daycare every few days, and Hu Xing became the daycare's pick-up and Bi Shenghua person. Every time, she would bring Xia Tian, Xia Chujue, and Yu Meiren over. At first, Hu Xing would ask Qingmu about Meimei, trying to get some information from him that Elder Xia wouldn't reveal. But ever since she heard Xia Chujue call Qingmu" godfather" and Bi Shenghua "godmother," while she was just an older sister, she felt very unhappy and simply stopped asking any questions.
With the daycare center opening, besides Hu Xing, the Bi Shenghua was naturally the busiest person. Buying groceries and cooking were her responsibilities, and she also had to oversee the bar's opening. Sometimes Yao Jingjing would come to help. When Yao Jingjing was there, Bi Shenghua was lighter. However, with three children, things got lively. Xia Chujue called Bi Shenghua his godmother, Yu Meiren and Yao Jingjing were the closest, and Xia Tian naturally supported his older sister Hu Xing. So the three children started arguing endlessly about an adult's question, and went to ask Qingmu: If they were to get married, who would they choose?
Annoyed by the children's commotion, Qingmu went to the community's psychological counseling room to find some peace and quiet. Seeing how diligent he was, Director Liu of the community awarded him a plaque recognizing him as an outstanding community volunteer.
When school started, through the Xia Family's connections, the children were all sent to a private school. The community's official psychological counselor also started working. The renovation of the new bar was nearing completion, with only some soft furnishings left. Bi Shenghua, Xiao Qi, Mo Yu were all busy preparing for the opening, while Qingmu finally got some peace and quiet. There was no more hammering and banging during the renovation, no more children making a ruckus, and no more residents from the community coming in for psychological counseling.
He lay peacefully on the new sofa in his Divine Crow Studio, which had been renovated by Bi Shenghua, enjoying a rare moment of leisure that he hadn't had in nearly a month or two.
After Xia Xiaoxiao left, her whereabouts became unknown, and there was no further news about Situ. It's said that Professor Mei and her team have made a breakthrough in the hardware of their Space Box, and the software is under intensive development. Mama Yao's surgery was successful, but she's still in the immunosuppressive phase; a full recovery is estimated to take several more months. The shadow in Xia Wenyuan's dreams has stopped bothering him, and Hong Kui, far away in North America, sent a message saying that his father is doing well and his condition has not worsened.
Everything seemed so peaceful, so peaceful that it felt unreal.
However, Qingmu knew very well that the calm was just a facade, and a truly raging danger was brewing somewhere. Just like right now, as you lay on the sofa watching TV and peeling fruit, a super typhoon named after a fruit was ravaging the south.
Qingmu knew that a great war without gunfire was about to begin. And he didn't know what role he would play in it.
He looked at the Crow dozing on the bird perch and said, "Thinking about it, quite a lot has happened in the last two months!"
The Crow said, "Congratulations!"
Qingmu asked curiously, "What's so great about all these things?"
The Crow said, "Your mind is getting sharper and sharper, congratulations!"