“Brother Miguel—!
Dinner’s ready—!” Ju Fufu’s voice rang out beyond the courtyard gate, full-throated enough to set the leaves in the bamboo grove shivering.
Miguel, sitting on a stone bench in the courtyard chatting idly with Yixuan, let his sentence trail off.
The two of them exchanged a glance and laughed softly.
He had barely risen when a blur of yellow and white came barreling through the gate.
Ju Fufu latched onto his arm and hauled him toward the big square dining table already set up in the yard.
“Come on, come on, the food’ll go cold if we’re late!” Miguel let the girl tow him along, reaching up to ruffle the tiger ears standing tall on her head.
They felt wonderful.
“Brother Miguel, you’re in for a treat tonight!” Ju Fufu tipped her head back, thrilled, her big emerald eyes shining.
“Junior Brother Yinhu is usually such a tightwad — he’ll haggle half the afternoon with the aunties down the mountain over a single head of cabbage.
But today, just to host you properly, he dug out everything he’d been hoarding at the bottom of the storeroom.
Especially that cut of marbled pork.
He’d been sitting on it for days and wouldn’t even let me touch it!” At the kitchen door.
Pan Yinhu stepped out just then carrying a steaming basin of soup.
At her words, a distinct embarrassment spread across his round face.
“Senior Sister!
Leave me a shred of dignity, would you!” He set the soup down squarely in the middle of the table and hurried to play host.
“Mr.
Miguel, please, have a seat!
It’s rough mountain fare, so I hope you won’t hold it against us.” Miguel pulled out a chair, sat, and took an appreciative sniff.
“With cooking like this, Brother Yinhu, you could open a grand restaurant in the middle of New Eridu and still have skill to spare.
Why would I hold anything against it?” Yixuan came over as well, teacup in hand.
Beside her, the plump little Dark Bird had two wooden spoons clutched in its talons, laboring through the air to reach the tabletop, where it laid them out in a neat row.
“Mr.
Miguel, please.” Yixuan raised her cup and inclined her head.
“Thank you for traveling so far to join us today.
All of Yunkui Summit, from top to bottom, is more grateful than we can say.” Ye Shiyuan and Ye Shunguang lifted their cups too.
Miguel raised his own and touched it lightly against theirs.
“All right, that’s enough ceremony from everyone.
Dinner is for eating.
Any more politeness and the food really will go cold.” With that one line, the mood at the table loosened right up.
The Yunkui Summit crowd was clearly starving, Ju Fufu most of all — her chopsticks moved fast enough to leave afterimages.
Pan Yinhu’s cooking was beyond reproach.
The red-braised marbled pork was rich without being greasy and melted on the tongue; even Little Guang, who normally ate like a bird, went back for two extra pieces.
The cups went round, the dishes came and went.
Ju Fufu snatched a fat meat bun off the table and swallowed it in two bites.
Her eyes rolled thoughtfully.
Then she shot to her feet and thumped her chest.
“Brother Miguel, I’m in a great mood tonight, so I’ll perform my specialty for you!” With that, the girl hauled over the entire steamer basket of freshly steamed meat buns sitting beside her.
She drew a deep breath, and both small hands went to work, left and right, grabbing buns and stuffing them into her mouth.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five!
Five whole fist-sized meat buns, forced into her mouth through sheer determination.
Ju Fufu’s pretty little face swelled into a pair of buns of its own, her ears twitching smugly back and forth as she mumbled something no one could make out.
“Bravo!” Miguel gave her the applause she deserved and even threw in a whistle.
Ye Shunguang, sitting beside him, clapped along, her red eyes bright with laughter.
She thoughtfully poured a cup of water and passed it over.
“Slow down, Senior Sister.
Don’t choke.” Pan Yinhu stared at the utterly empty steamer and wrung his hands in anguish.
“Oh, Senior Sister, those were tomorrow’s breakfast…” Across the table from Miguel, Ye Shiyuan watched the whole racket and laughed as well.
Once she had finally worked the buns down, Ju Fufu took the cup, gulped from it, and let out a long belch.
Then she leaned in close to Miguel, her big eyes blazing with the fire of gossip.
“Brother Miguel, you’ve seen my specialty.
So what about that thing we agreed on at noon?” She dropped her voice, brimming with anticipation.
“Shouldn’t you tell us how you split Hollow Zero open all by yourself back then?
And, and — how did you and Lady Hoshimi Miyabi, the Void Hunter, actually meet?” The moment the words left her mouth, every sound at the table stopped.
Pan Yinhu set down his chopsticks.
Ye Shiyuan set down his teacup.
Even Yixuan, who had been picking at the dishes at her own unhurried pace, went still and lifted her eyes to Miguel.
Ye Shunguang went further, propping her chin in both hands and staring at him without a single blink.
Miguel looked around at all those eyes, hungry for the story, and laughed out loud.
“Fine.
I did promise you, so treat it as an after-dinner tale.” He leaned back into his chair, hands resting loosely on his knees.
“To tell the truth, Miyabi and I met earlier than any of you would guess.” “The day of the Fall of Old Eridu, to be exact.” His voice wasn’t loud, yet it carried clearly across the courtyard.
“Everything was in chaos.
The whole city was coming apart.
Miyabi was still small then — she and her mother were trapped on a long street that had caved in.” Miguel left out the part about the Source of Creation being what had delivered him there.
In a flat, even tone, he recounted the disaster that had come close to annihilating New Eridu.
“By the time I reached them, the Ethereals already had them surrounded.
I got the two of them out first, then cleaned up the trouble in the area.” “After that the Hollow began to expand, and the situation kept getting more desperate.
There wasn’t much choice.
I simply did what I could.” He made it sound like nothing at all.
But everyone at that table understood what kind of hopeless carnage lay hidden behind those few offhand sentences.
Ye Shiyuan’s grip tightened on his cup before he knew he was doing it.
Thirteen years ago.
That year he had been nine, and Little Guang had only just turned six.
Their parents had hidden them in a cellar in the Waifei Peninsula mining district, and while the roaring and the screaming rolled in from outside, all the two of them could do was shake.
Ye Shunguang lowered her eyes, her expression dimming.
Her memories of that time were hazy.
She only remembered the confusion, her parents pushing her into her brother’s arms and then turning to run back toward the mines.
That was the last she ever saw of them.
Yixuan sat there quietly, something stirring behind her eyes.
She thought of the fellow disciples who had marched to the front lines alongside her and her sister without a moment’s hesitation.
And… of her own sister, Yijiang.
That slender figure who had stepped in front of her and forced the Azure Empyrean Sword to full power.
In the end, the violent energy had recoiled on her and very nearly scattered her soul to nothing.
If she had possessed power like Mr.
Miguel’s back then, would her sister have had to pay so cruel a price?
A heaviness settled slowly over the courtyard.
“And then?” Ju Fufu swallowed nervously and pressed him in a small voice; even the thick tail that never stopped swishing behind her had gone rigid.
“And then?” Miguel spread his hands.
“Then I split the Hollow open, fished the people inside back out, and picked up a few fatal wounds of my own along the way.” “I found a place to hide and spent ten years recovering.
It’s only in the last few years that I’ve come back out and started moving around again.” It was a perfectly reasonable explanation, and it filled the ten-year blank in the Savior’s disappearance flawlessly.
Understanding dawned around the table.
So the Savior of those days hadn’t vanished after all.
He had been gravely wounded, healing somewhere out of sight.
“That is truly… staggering.” “It was Hollow Zero, after all!
And Mr.
Miguel really did force it to a halt with nothing but his own strength.” Pan Yinhu let out a long breath.
“It’s hard to believe.” Ye Shiyuan looked at Miguel for a long moment.
“Mr.
Miguel, your righteousness humbles us.
Had you not been there that year, New Eridu would surely have ceased to exist long ago.” Miguel waved the words away.
“Not necessarily.
And in any case, there’s little point in talking about it now.
People have to look forward, don’t they?” ____ 👻🔥Heey!
Walnut-chan for more chapters!🔥👻 🔥 New history: Zenless Zone Zero: