I raised stunning young ladies, but they all wanted to possess me.

Gu Yan went through all this information in her mind.

Elena was severely injured by some force in the secret realm of the South China Sea.

The spiritual energy dissipated and transformed into swans.

Later, he stayed in the Sakura Kingdom to recover from his injuries while helping the Chiyomiya family maintain the seal.

The haughty goose he found in the forest.

It was no ordinary goose from beginning to end.

"So, what Ya-song meant when she said you owed her a favor because you saved me?"

Yuzuru nodded slightly.

"In order to ask Lady Elena to save you, I used the Chiyomiya family's ancestral contract technique to obtain her help. The price is that all the spiritual power I have left for the rest of my life will be used to strengthen the seal on Mount Fuji."

She said this in a calm tone, as if she were describing the weather outside the window.

But Gu Yan understood.

She staked the rest of her life on a seal that no one would ever know about.

Why didn't you say so sooner?

Gu Yan's voice was a little strained.

"Don't worry about it."

Yuzuru gently shook his head.

She picked up her teacup and took a sip; the steam from the jade dew condensed into a very faint mist on her eyelashes.

She put the teacup back on the coffee table and placed her hands back on her knees.

Those deep brown eyes looked quietly at Gu Yan, and the corners of her mouth curved slightly.

"Because I trust Mr. Gu."

"You won't let me give my all for nothing."

She spoke in a very light and indifferent tone, as if stating something that had already happened.

Gu Yan gently circled her fingers along the rim of the teacup, the bone china making a very subtle sound as it rubbed against her fingertips.

"What if?"

"What if I don't have the chance to repay you in the future?"

"You staked the rest of your spiritual power on a seal that no one knows about."

"If I can't give you anything, then you've got nothing at all."

Yuzuru remained silent for a long while.

The branches and leaves of the old maple tree outside the window swayed gently in the night breeze, and the shadow of the tree was reflected through the paper door onto her plain white kimono, as if something invisible was slowly flowing through it.

She lowered her eyes, her eyelashes casting two small, faint shadows on her face.

"If that really happens."

She lifted her hand from her knees and touched the hilt of the pheasant sword at her waist with her fingertips very lightly.

"Then I'll accept it."

Her voice was very soft, but every word seemed to have been dug out from some long, long night.

Gu Yan didn't speak, she just looked at her.

She looked at him too, with a glass of cold jade dew between them.

Then she spoke, her voice not trembling, but Gu Yan could hear something heavy pressing beneath that calm.

"Mr. Gu, would you like to hear about my story?"

Gu Yan nodded.

"My mother was the previous chief priestess."

She took the pheasant sword from her waist and placed it next to the coffee table; the dark red runes on the scabbard gleamed faintly under the lamplight.

"When she was pregnant with me, the seal on Mount Fuji experienced a large-scale disturbance."

"She went to reinforce the sealing array while eight months pregnant, and the backlash of spiritual energy damaged the fetus."

"So I was premature, and I only weighed 3.2 pounds at birth."

"The midwife said I was too small, small enough to fit in a lunchbox."

As she said this, the corners of her mouth curved slightly, as if she were talking about something that had nothing to do with her.

"My father was a son-in-law of the Chiyomiya family, and he had no talent for spiritual power."

"He was originally an apprentice at a wagashi (Japanese sweets) shop in Kyoto, but my mother took a liking to him because of his good looks."

"After marrying into the Chiyomiya family, he couldn't stand the atmosphere there."

"It's too quiet here. There are no convenience stores, no arcades, and you can't even speak loudly."

He left a letter and left when I was three years old.

The letter contained only four words: "I'm sorry, take care."

"My mother burned the letter and poured the ashes into the dry landscape garden in the yard."

"I've never seen her mention her father again since then."

"Didn't you try to contact him?"

Gu Yan asked.

"I've looked for it."

"I secretly went to Kyoto when I was sixteen."

"The wagashi shop is still there, but the owner is no longer him."

"The old lady next door who sells dumplings said he moved away many years ago, I think she went to Hokkaido, but I don't think so."

She didn't say anything more, but just handed me a box of freshly steamed dumplings and said, "Girl, you're so pretty, just like your mother when she was young."

Yuzuru picked up the pheasant sword again and placed it on his knee, his fingers stroking the scabbard very lightly.

"I stood on the streets of Kyoto for a long time."

"I don't know where to find him, and I don't know what to say when I find him."

"Later I came back by myself and finished the box of dumplings."

"The dumplings are cold, but the filling is still sweet."

The room remained quiet for a while.

The sound of Elena turning pages came from the wicker chair, so soft and delicate, like the pages breathing.

"I started practicing swordsmanship when I was five years old."

"My mother said this was the first time I had ever held a sword, and I held it very well."

She looked down at the calluses on her palms, which had been worn down and healed countless times.

"While other children were flying kites outside the shrine, I was wielding a sword against a wooden stake in the backyard."

"Three thousand times a day, I can only eat after I've finished."

"In the summer, the calluses on my hands soften from the sweat, and they break when I rub them against the handle of the knife. When they break, I just put on some tape, and then I keep swinging."

"In winter, the wooden stakes freeze solid, and when you chop them with a knife, your hand hurts from the impact, but you still have to swing it."

"Because my mother was watching right there; she didn't say anything, she just watched."

"Her eyes are the same as mine, dark brown."

"I later learned that after the backlash from the spiritual energy, she had very short lifespan left. She wanted to teach me everything she could before she passed away."

She turned her hand over and looked at her palm.

There are some scars from the past, but her hands are still beautiful.

"But I didn't know that at the time."

"I thought she was just being strict with me."

"I even secretly hated her."

"I first saw Mr. Gu on the news when I was twelve years old."

She turned her head to look at the television screen.

The television had already been turned off, and the black screen reflected her and Gu Yan's images.

"That year, my spiritual energy went berserk for the first time. It was very painful, so painful that I couldn't sleep all night."

"I wrapped myself in the blanket and bit my pillow, afraid that my mother in the next room would hear me."

"She still heard it eventually."

"She sat on the edge of the bed and held my hand, saying that every chief priestess of the Chiyomiya family had to go through this ordeal, and that she had gone through it when she was young."

"But I wasn't crying, I was just in pain and tears came out."

"At that time, the name of the Imperial Wall had already spread to Japan. Senior Sister Lin's bipolar disorder had improved a lot, and she mentioned it several times in public interviews."

"It was Mr. Gu who saved her. It was Mr. Gu who used the Mirror Flower Imperial Seal to pull her out of that boundless hell of anxiety."

She paused, her deep brown pupils reflecting Gu Yan's face.

"I just wish Mr. Gu could come to Japan, the land of cherry blossoms, at least once."

"Even if you only come for one day, just to help me regulate my spiritual energy once."

"I even asked my mother to ask someone at Daxia."

"The waiting list for home visits has stretched to three years."