The Flower Guide

Faced with the young lady’s teasing, Shen Jingyi merely pursed her lips, offering no further comment. Yet, a thought lingered: having now signed that peculiar agreement with Bai Muxue, her current predicament, even without being locked away in a dark room, hardly seemed any better.

She glanced at the ornament adorning her neck, then closed her eyes in a moment of self-mockery. ‘So,’ she asked softly, ‘where exactly are you taking me?’

A faint murmur seemed to reach her ears, the young girl apparently muttering to herself. ‘I clearly sensed that fellow’s magic fluctuations just a moment ago… why have they vanished again?’ Shen Jingyi paused, bewildered. ‘Did you just say something?’

‘Ah,’ Kaguya replied, looking up at the sound of her voice, ‘Nothing at all,’ she added with an air of nonchalance.

‘It’s not as if I have a particular destination in mind,’ Kaguya continued. ‘Just a casual stroll, really.’

As Kaguya spoke, she slowly descended from the air, alighting gently within a small pavilion. ‘Let’s go sit over there,’ she suggested.

Watching Kaguya settle her onto a stone bench before casually leaning against a nearby stone pillar, Shen Jingyi secretly exhaled a breath of relief. The preceding experience had been far too exhilarating; she had no desire for a repeat performance.

Shen Jingyi toyed with her fingers, feeling the tumultuous unrest within her gradually subside. While she appeared lost in thought, she was, in fact, subtly observing Kaguya’s every reaction.

Indeed, countless questions swirled within her, yearning to be posed to Kaguya: why, for example, was this girl so terrified of Tang Xingwan? And how, precisely, had she transformed into a magical girl?

But what good would asking do? Given the young Lady Bai’s temperament, she knew she wouldn’t receive any answers.

Upon closer reflection, despite the world being home to numerous magical girls, this was the very first time she had ever personally encountered a ‘kindred spirit’ just like herself.

Regrettably, this so-called ‘kindred spirit’ turned out to be none other than Bai Muxue — the very person who had thrown her life into utter disarray, her most detested foe!

The dramatic irony of fate, she mused, likely amounted to nothing more than this.

The two simply stared at each other in silence; Kaguya seemed to have no inclination to speak, and Shen Jingyi was hardly an effusive conversationalist. Somehow, an eerie atmosphere began to permeate their surroundings.

The profound silence, however, persisted until Kaguya leisurely stretched, breaking the quiet with her own words. ‘How truly quiet it is,’ she remarked.

She gazed out at the lush greenery beyond the pavilion, propping her fair, delicate chin with a small hand. ‘If only it would rain,’ she murmured softly.

Shen Jingyi froze upon hearing this, her brow furrowing instinctively. ‘Didn’t it just rain at noon?’ she questioned.

‘Oh? It seems so,’ Kaguya replied.

Kaguya smiled indifferently, her tone suddenly imbued with a touch of nostalgia. ‘Speaking of which,’ she began, ‘I remember often sneaking away to play here alone in the past.’

‘Here?’

A flicker of surprise crossed Shen Jingyi’s pretty face. This area, bordering the city outskirts, was typically frequented only by those who enjoyed morning exercises or families and friends gathering for camping and picnics…

Could young Lady Bai, with her particular temperament, actually have snuck off to a place like this all by herself?

‘Yes,’ Kaguya confirmed. ‘Back then, I’d bombed a monthly exam and was too scared to go home, so I just wandered aimlessly outside.’

‘And when I eventually arrived here,’ she continued, ‘it just so happened to start raining.’

Kaguya’s voice grew wistful, as if she were recounting a distant memory. ‘At first, I tried to find shelter from the rain,’ she explained, ‘but it just kept falling and falling, for what felt like an eternity, never letting up.’

‘…And then what happened?’

‘Then?’ The young girl spread her hands, a hint of a helpless smile gracing her lips. ‘Then I got lost, of course.’

‘After all, it was already dark then, and with the rain, the surroundings were utterly pitch black,’ she recounted. ‘I couldn’t find my way back at all.’

‘I ran, drenched by the rain, having no idea where I was, and I even took a tumble.’

‘I just stayed there, crying and crying.’

Shen Jingyi, who had initially assumed Kaguya was merely reminiscing about her childhood, felt her expression stiffen slightly at these words. ‘So how did you… finally get home?’ she prompted.

The outskirts at night, devoid of streetlights and drenched in rain, presented a truly perilous situation for a small girl. This was especially true for a child as pampered as young Lady Bai.

Upon hearing this, Kaguya slowly turned her head, her gaze fixed on Shen Jingyi as the corners of her lips curled into a subtle, enigmatic smile:

‘Speaking of which, Teacher Shen, you mustn’t disbelieve me,’ Kaguya began. ‘I was crying and running, calling out my family’s names, but no one ever answered.’

‘And as I kept running, I fell once more.’

‘I was completely sprawled on the ground then, and it felt as if all light had vanished from the world,’ she recalled. ‘I was so, so terrified.’

It had to be said, Kaguya possessed a remarkable talent for storytelling.

The young girl’s vivid storytelling, coupled with the slightly wistful expression on her pretty face, tugged at Shen Jingyi’s heartstrings. Though inherently reserved, a sudden surge of concern welled within her, an urgent desire to know what transpired next.

‘And so, I don’t know how long I cried…’

As if oblivious to Shen Jingyi’s shifting expression, Kaguya continued her narrative, ‘It was only when I had cried myself weary, and my entire vision blurred…’

‘…that a light suddenly appeared.’

‘A light?’

Shen Jingyi’s brows furrowed, a flicker of astonishment surfacing in her gaze.

‘Yes, light,’ Kaguya affirmed. ‘That beam of light wasn’t dazzling in the slightest; it was incredibly gentle, almost as if it were stroking my hair.’

Kaguya looked up, her gaze fixed on the lingering crimson of the setting sun on the horizon, and continued, her eyes narrowing slightly:

‘In a daze, I seemed to hear that light speak to me,’ she recounted. ”Don’t cry. Just follow the direction where these red irises bloom, and you can go home…’

‘I looked up, and indeed, along the previously barren sides of the road, red irises had truly bloomed everywhere.’

‘I walked alone, guided by that beam of light, silently following the flowers that lined both sides of the path. Strangely enough, even though it was still raining, I didn’t get wet in the slightest.’

‘Ultimately, guided by those very flowers, I managed to walk out of the city outskirts all by myself!’

The young girl’s voice carried a hint of excitement as she extended a hand, as if reaching out to touch the lingering sunset on the horizon. Beside her, Shen Jingyi sat quietly, listening intently.

Kaguya’s tale was undeniably fantastical, akin to a dream spun by a child half-asleep; under ordinary circumstances, few would likely credit it.

However, in this era teeming with disaster beasts and monstrous anomalies, encountering a manifesting flower spirit no longer seemed particularly extraordinary.

Moreover, listening to Kaguya’s tone, so imbued with nostalgia, stirred an indefinable tremor within Shen Jingyi’s heart. It felt as though she had transcended time, witnessing the young Bai Muxue crying alone in the rain.

This was, indeed, a very subtle sensation…

‘If I had been there then, I surely wouldn’t have just watched her cry,’ Shen Jingyi thought. ‘I would have definitely taken her home.’

Yet, even amidst this surge of emotion, Shen Jingyi carefully replayed the young girl’s words, and the more she pondered, the stranger it all seemed. Her delicate brows furrowed even deeper.

Hesitating for a moment, Shen Jingyi spoke with a serious demeanor:

‘If… what you’re saying wasn’t a hallucination, then what you encountered back then could have been a disaster beast or some kind of monster. Your ability to return home safely only means you were lucky.’

‘Ugh…’ Kaguya’s lips twitched involuntarily upon hearing these words, and lines of exasperation seemed to appear on her forehead.

‘I’m telling you a heartwarming and romantic old story, and you’re seriously telling me there might have been an ugly disaster beast or monster at play behind it?’ Kaguya thought. ‘Miss Shen Jingyi, no one can match her talent for spoiling the mood!’