As dusk drew near, lights began to twinkle from every household, and wisps of smoke curled upwards from chimneys.
Only a handful of people remained before the bustling ancestral hall, diligently tidying up.
“Guild Master… this is what you meant by ‘a little late’?” Aya Tone mused, holding Aya Jiu and standing not far from Fire Finch.
He had been waiting since the afternoon, and still, the wait continued…
Xuan Yuanhuai, unable to remain long in Huainan City, had departed early, leaving a tipsy Huo Linyun to sort things out at the ancestral home.
Li Jia had initially intended to seize the opportunity to draw closer to Aya Tone, but Wang Simin, unwilling to let her have her way, grabbed her by the pigtail and dragged her into the car.
This earned her a resentful glare from Li Jia, a sight that brought immense satisfaction to Li Huaiming.
‘She abandoned her adorable little brother; serves her right!’
Just as Li Huaiming was about to burst into a triumphant cackle, his movements proved too vigorous, inadvertently pulling a muscle and causing him excruciating pain.
Finally, under Aya Tone’s gaze, which held a certain pity reserved for the intellectually challenged, the Li family drove away from Finch God Village.
“The sky hasn’t even darkened yet! It’s only a billion… tiny bit late~” Fire Finch retorted, entirely unperturbed by the hint of grievance in Aya Tone’s voice.
“Look, isn’t Aya Jiu having a grand time? Right~”
Aya Tone lowered his gaze to the child in his arms. “…”
He couldn’t deny it.
The child truly put her heart and soul into helping with the chores; her tiny body clutching a stool slightly shorter than herself, a sight so endearing that it made Huo Shenming’s eyes go wide.
Moving one wasn’t enough; she insisted on continuing.
Consequently, she was now fast asleep in Aya Tone’s embrace, her small nose emitting soft, even breaths, and a hint of crystalline drool clinging to the corner of her lips.
She seemed to be lost in a beautiful dream.
“Why not stay the night? My house is quite spacious,” Fire Finch offered with a playful smirk.
“No!”
Aya Tone hadn’t forgotten Huo Shenming’s attempts to set them up earlier that day.
If he were to stay even one night, who knew what might transpire…
Besides, this place wasn’t far from Yan’an City center; excluding the winding mountain roads, it was only a thirty-minute drive.
It was better to gather their belongings and head back promptly.
And more importantly—the egg was about to hatch.
It was rather amusing that Huo Wushuang, who appeared indifferent to most things, showed such keen interest in the egg that Big White had become.
She had even secretly taken out her personal stash of savings to ‘feed’ it.
That stockpile made Aya Tone’s eyes widen in disbelief.
He had worked for three years, yet his savings didn’t even amount to that of a high school student; speaking of it only brought tears to his eyes.
He had toiled desperately, only to find that his hard-earned money was less than someone else’s pocket money.
‘His mind was about to explode…’
“No overnight stay, then no overnight stay. Here.”
Fire Finch pursed her lips, then opened her palm to reveal three Ling Crystals resting silently upon it.
‘These are!’
Aya Tone’s eyes lit up; with one hand supporting Aya Jiu’s bottom, his free hand accepted the three Ling Crystals from Fire Finch.
They bore a striking resemblance to the Ling Crystal embedded in his own staff, each emanating a faint magical aura.
However, the difference between them was as vast as that between a brilliant moon and a flickering firefly.
“You know how to use them, right?”
“Yes.”
The Ling Crystals were remarkably intuitive to use; simply by infusing them with magic, they would reveal their true form.
Items designed for children, however, differed from others.
Their invaluable yet rare quality lay in the fact that they could maintain autonomous operation as long as their internal magic wasn’t fully depleted.
No control from the wearer was necessary.
“Thank you, boss! You’re so generous!”
‘Payment received, time to go home.’
“Oh, right.”
Aya Tone suddenly recalled something. “Guild Master, aren’t you coming back with me?”
Having played with Aya Jiu for a month, he felt they had had enough fun.
He planned to finally stay home for a while, a long-awaited respite, and figured bringing Fire Finch along would save him the trouble of returning the car.
‘Perfect time management.’
“No, my grandfather asked me to stay. I might not be at the guild for the next month.”
“I see…”
Aya Tone was slightly surprised.
Yet, he didn’t delve too deeply into it; whether Fire Finch returned to the guild or not seemed to make little difference.
****
“They’ve left.”
“Mm…”
“Hm!?”
Fire Finch glanced sideways, realizing Huo Shenming had appeared beside him at some point, his eyes holding an inscrutable expression.
In the fading light, he conveyed reluctance, his words laced with seven parts lament and three parts regret.
“Once they are gone, who knows when we shall meet again? Will my dear Aya be ensnared by the seductive vixen of this world…”
“…”
Fire Finch rolled his eyes. “Grandpa, now that you’re retired, can’t you stop watching those idiotic short dramas…”
The way he spoke carried the distinct cadence of a short drama.
‘Ugh, it didn’t feel like anything when watching them, but once someone spoke in that tone right beside you…’
‘Disgusting!’
****
Fated Apartment
“Aya Jiu, we’re home now.”
Aya Tone, cradling the sleeping little Aya Jiu, spoke out of habit.
He had often heard elders say that when carrying a sleeping child at night, one should always vocalize their actions.
Though he didn’t understand the purpose, he knew that old sayings often held their own wisdom.
Gently placing little Aya Jiu on the bed, Aya Tone softly brushed a strand of hair from her face, then tiptoed out and quietly closed the door.
Upon entering the living room, Aya Tone emitted a faint starlight, and his body rapidly shrank.
In his male form, he couldn’t wield magic or overly potent mental energy; thus, to perceive the state of the white egg, transformation was a natural necessity.
Aya Tone extended a slender finger and flicked the eggshell forcefully, the collision producing a crisp, ringing sound.
The mysterious patterns on the eggshell briefly glowed, then swiftly faded back into dormancy.
It seemed to be complaining about Aya Tone tapping its shell.
“Big White, if you can hear me, please respond!”
“Ma…ster…”
Aya Tone’s mental energy slowly spread towards the white egg, and before long, a faint, intermittent voice echoed in her mind.
—It was Big White’s voice.
Perhaps due to spending a month inside the egg, Big White’s voice had undergone a subtle change.
If Big White’s voice had previously been neutral, it now carried a distinctly feminine quality.
However, Aya Tone was never adept at remembering such trivial details; in other words, she had forgotten what Big White’s voice sounded like a month ago.
Subconsciously, the white egg *was* Big White, so to her, Big White’s voice simply sounded as it did now.
“Big White, can you hatch now? Aya Jiu misses you so much…”
“Ma…ster… magic power…” Big White’s voice held a hint of urgency.
‘Magic power?’
Aya Tone paused, slightly stunned, then immediately recalled how providing external assistance to birds during hatching could increase their chances of breaking free.
‘Big White was at the precipice of hatching; it must be something similar, right…’
With that thought, Aya Tone no longer hesitated.
Starlight gathered in her left hand, radiant sun in her right.
Magic power surged from her body, pouring into the white egg as if it were limitless; under the influence of Aya Tone’s magic, the room was divided into day and night, centered around the chandelier.
Alas, such an extraordinary phenomenon remained contained within the apartment, revealing no outward signs.
‘So much!’
‘It’s overflowing!’
Inside the egg, a snow-white figure’s pretty face flushed, and their toes suddenly splayed open, as if reacting to some immense stimulation.
“Ma…ster… e-enough! Enough!”
A wave of anxious energy from within the white egg traveled through the bridge of magic, landing in Aya Tone’s mind.
“What? Still not enough!?” Aya Tone’s lips curved into a mischievous smile.
‘Enough? No!’
‘Not yet enough!’
“Master! I said *enough*!”
Feeling the relentless magic pouring into her body, an exasperated Big White kicked open the eggshell, determined to teach her disobedient master a lesson.
“Uh… Big White?” Aya Tone asked, her magic power halting as she stared at the figure who had suddenly appeared before her, her voice laced with uncertainty.
‘Wait, buddy.’
‘Where’s my plump Big White?’
‘How did it turn into a little white-haired person!?’
HUh.