“Wang, it’s your turn.”
Shuo placed his next piece on the board and gestured toward the person sitting opposite him.
The young man had long black hair and a pair of dragon horns resembling Shuo’s own.
Similar markings also covered his arms, although Shuo’s were brown while the young man’s were black.
“…Big Brother, did you steal one of my pieces while I wasn’t paying attention?”
The young man stared at the board before giving Shuo an exasperated look.
“I thought that sort of childish trick was something only Sir would resort to…”
“Ahem!
Ah…
Hahaha…”
Shuo coughed awkwardly before returning the piece he had casually pocketed to its original position.
He muttered under his breath.
“Wang, you never seem to notice when Sir steals your pieces…”
“Speaking of which, where is Sir?”
At the mention of that subject, the young man named Wang looked even more helpless.
“He took little Nian and little Dusk out to fly a kite…”
“It’s just…”
“Just what?”
“The thing attached to the kite is Ling…”
Wang covered his face.
“When Sir woke up this morning, he discovered that Ling had secretly been drinking from the vat of yellow rice wine in the backyard last night.”
“She got so drunk that she passed out inside the vat.”
“So Sir fished her out…”
“Then he announced that he’d thought of a quick way to dry Ling off.”
“And he took little Nian and little Dusk outside, tied Ling to a kite, and started flying it…”
“The worst part is…”
“Ling hasn’t even woken up yet.”
As Wang recalled the scene, he also remembered something Hongyu had said at the time.
“Of course she isn’t waking up anytime soon!
She spent the entire night soaking in that wine vat.
She’s practically turned into a blue tangyuan!
Besides, dragon bubbles are fun to play with…”
The image of Hongyu laughing while fiddling with the kite and a limp, squishy Ling bubble seemed to appear before Wang’s eyes once again.
Hongyu had even teased him for being the only person present who seemed remotely concerned about Ling’s safety.
Wang sighed.
As for the two dragon bubbles perched on Hongyu’s shoulders—one red and one black—they were even worse.
Well, he could understand little Nian.
She had always been the most mischievous one.
But even little Dusk, who was normally the quietest and most reserved of the siblings, had looked unusually excited.
The two little dragons had continuously patted Hongyu’s shoulders with their tiny arms, apparently eager to try sending their eldest sister soaring into the sky.
Hearing all this, Shuo could only press a hand against his forehead.
“Sir…
has always been like that, hasn’t he?”
“How would I know?
Big Brother, aren’t you the one who’s spent the most time with Sir since gaining consciousness?”
Rather than answering directly, Wang looked at Shuo.
“Although, I did hear Sir mention that the two of you didn’t exactly get along when you first met.”
“Ha!
That’s certainly true.”
Shuo gave a rather sharp assessment.
“With a personality like his, I doubt anyone could get along with him particularly well at first.”
“That artificial smile of his, and those lifeless eyes…”
Shuo recalled his first impression of Hongyu.
“Spend enough time around him, and anyone would eventually notice that Sir seems to have some rather serious difficulties when it comes to experiencing emotions.”
unpleasant personality is actually a form of self-defense?”
Wang picked up where Shuo had left off, thoughtfully rubbing his chin.
“Maybe he doesn’t want to form deep connections with too many people, because he wants to avoid becoming emotionally attached to them?”
“Hmm.
Something like that, I suppose.”
“But if Sir dislikes having people discover his emotional difficulties, why did he choose to bring us along and live with us?”
Wang continued.
“After all, we’re giant beasts who neither age nor die.”
“By choosing to live with us, wouldn’t Sir inevitably allow us to discover his condition sooner or later?”
“Who knows?”
Shuo raised his head and looked outside.
The sky was already beginning to darken as evening approached.
“After all, we’ve never really understood the reasons behind most of Sir’s strange behavior, have we?”
Shuo sighed.
When it came to illnesses, there was ultimately very little he understood.
Perhaps one of his younger siblings, who had yet to take human form, would eventually awaken a divine authority related to medicine.
That might be worth looking into.
In the blink of an eye, a year had passed since Hongyu first began wandering aimlessly around Great Yan with Shuo.
During that time, the other Sui fragments had gradually begun awakening one after another.
However, only the second eldest fragment, Wang, had successfully stabilized his identity and taken human form.
The remaining fragments still retained their dragon-bubble appearances.
For reasons Shuo didn’t entirely understand, Wang had developed an extraordinary degree of respect for Hongyu during their year together.
He always addressed him as “Sir.”
Eventually, even Shuo found himself adopting the same form of address without realizing it.
‘Time really does pass quickly…’
Watching the fiery orange clouds surrounding the setting sun in the distance, Shuo couldn’t help feeling a little sentimental.
“SHUOOOOO!!!!!”
Hongyu’s voice suddenly thundered into his ears, instantly shattering the peaceful atmosphere.
“NIAN SENT LING FLYING INTO A MOUNTAIN RAVINE!!!!!”
“HURRY UP AND BRING WANG!
WE NEED TO GO FIND HER!!!”
An indescribable mixture of resignation and helplessness welled up in Shuo’s heart.
He smiled bitterly.
Then he grabbed Wang, whose face had already taken on the exact expression of the famous sweating soybean meme, and hurried toward the mountain behind their residence.
“Coming!”
“By the way…”
Wang scratched his cheek as Shuo dragged him along.
“Didn’t they go out to fly that ‘kite’ this morning?”
“Yeah, but…”
Shuo suddenly realized something.
“The sun’s almost setting, and Sir just said Nian sent Ling flying into the mountains…”
His eyes widened.
“Don’t tell me Ling’s been floating around in the sky for the entire day?!”
Shuo fell silent.
Then he immediately quickened his pace.
‘You’ve really had a rough day, Ling.’
“Sir!
Which direction did she go?!”
“NO IDEA!”
At the Sui family’s once-a-decade reunion dinner…
“That old man?”
Ling accepted the rice wine Shu had brought for her and looked at her younger sister curiously.
“You want to hear about what happened between us and the old man before you took human form?”
“Mm.”
Shu nodded.
She opened the rice wine she had brought and took a small sip before continuing. Read this novel at g.com for the best experience.
“I’m simply a little curious.
We rarely have opportunities to gather together, so I thought I’d take advantage of this reunion to ask about some amusing stories involving Sir that I might not know.”
“Ah, that old geezer…”
Ling waved a hand dismissively.
“There’s honestly not much to talk about.
You and I probably already know most of the interesting things he’s done.”
“Actually, I might even know less than you.”
“After all, according to that old geezer, I’m apparently some kind of delinquent girl who never comes home at night…”
Ling began pouring wine down her throat in enormous gulps, almost as though she were deliberately trying to get herself drunk.
“Seriously, that old geezer…”
“Sister Ling, drinking like that isn’t good for your stomach.”
Shu tried to persuade her eldest sister to drink a little more moderately.
Of course, she had been trying to do so for many years without a single successful attempt.
“Oh!
Right, right!
I just remembered something!”
Ling suddenly stopped drinking and turned toward Shu with a grin.
“There’s actually one incident I witnessed after you left for Dahuang City and I happened to return from my travels.”
She pointed toward a bottle of chili sauce sitting on the dining table.
It was the kind of sauce that almost nobody except Nian ever ate.
“See that?
That kind of chili sauce.”
“Little Nian once managed to pull off a successful prank with it.”
“Oh?
What happened?”
Shu followed Ling’s finger and looked toward the dining table.
The other ten Sui siblings were seated around it.
Meanwhile, Nian was secretly pouring more and more chili sauce into Dusk’s bowl whenever the latter wasn’t looking.
‘If I remember correctly…’
‘Isn’t Sir the only person who knows how to make that particular chili sauce?’
‘Did he teach Nian how to make it?
Or was it our youngest brother?’
As Shu’s thoughts began wandering, Ling started telling her story.
“Well, you know how much that old geezer loves those tanghulu skewers he buys from street vendors, right?”
“One day, little Nian took some of the tanghulu he’d bought and, while he wasn’t paying attention, coated the whole thing in chili oil!”
“Heh!
And wouldn’t you know it, that happened to be the one day the old geezer wasn’t paying much attention!”
“So he took a bite!”
“And then he just kept coughing and coughing…”
“Hahahaha!
Isn’t that hilarious?”
Ling burst into laughter before taking another swig of wine.
After hearing the story, Shu merely smiled softly without saying anything.
However, her thoughts were rather different.
‘Yu…
probably did that on purpose, didn’t he?’
‘After all, it was such a crude prank that anyone could have discovered it simply by smelling the tanghulu.’
‘Did he deliberately play along just to make little Nian happy?’
‘Still, Sister Ling seems so delighted by the memory.’
‘I can practically feel how much resentment she still holds toward Yu…’
‘Although, to be fair, I have a few grievances with him myself…’
Shu’s expression suddenly darkened.
A faintly dangerous look appeared in her eyes.
‘After all, someone who disappears without a single word of farewell really deserves to be…’