“What?”

“She cannot see me anymore, the way she is now.” The youth in white lowered his head and spoke slowly. “My cultivation isn’t enough, so only children and people with strong supernatural senses can sense my existence. After she grew up, she returned to that mountain many times, searching for me and calling my name. I would stand right next to her, but she could not see me at all. So now, letting her think that all those things back then was a lie, that her childhood friend is still doing well even now is the best sort of conclusion possible.”

“Why would..” I mumbled.

“Hehe, to be honest, I hid myself on purpose the last couple of days, so that you couldn’t find me. Sorry about that.” The young man stuck his tongue out at me and scratched his head, embarrassed. “But now that I’ve decided since it’s something I’m determined to do, then I can’t run away.”

“Run away? What are you talking about?” I replied, completely confused.

Wen Jiubo opened his mouth, “If you don’t leave now, then you might not be able to make it.”

The young man nodded. He bowed separately to both Wen Jiubo and myself. “Thank you both. We will meet again.”

“Wait, why are you leaving?” I grabbed the young man instinctively, but his body started to glow with that warm yet strange light again.

“I’m going to save her daughter. If I use the power I’ve cultivated as the price, it’s doable.” The young man smiled.

As he spoke, the wind started to pick up out of the blue and the young man floated up into the air with it. His white clothes fluttered in the air and the light from his body became too bright to look at. In the end, that light exploded in the air, scattering like fireflies dancing in the breeze. It was more beautiful than any fireworks display I had seen in my life.

I stared at the sky blankly, throat tight, unable to make a sound.

“Is he.. dead?”

An overwhelming sense of sadness followed after the initial surprise, sweeping through me like a flood. I suddenly felt as if I couldn’t even breathe as I staggered forward a couple of steps, almost falling to the ground.

“No, not quite dead.”

Wen Jiubo’s words rescued me from the hell I felt my emotions had fallen into.

“He just used all of his cultivated power and it caused his physical body to return its original form. As a demon, this is a particularly shameful thing, but it’s no biggie.” Wen Jiubo said calmly.

I turned around abruptly. “Then what about Grandma Li’s daughter?”

“It should be enough to save her life. After all, that was the ultimate sacrifice of a demon, it doesn’t make sense that it would be utterly useless.” Wen Jiubo told me softly.

I breathed a long sigh of relief, feeling as if all my strength was leaving my body.

“Is that so? That’s really great..”

——————————————————

The second day, Grandma Li arrived as promised, coming straight to the old residence’s front door. However, she was informed by Wen Jiubo that she and Bai had gotten their times mixed up and had just missed each other. In the three days after that, Grandma Li came to the old residence promptly on time, sometimes only staying a few minutes, other times staying for an hour. In the end though, Bai never appeared.

However, as the days moved on, Grandma Li also began to bring us good news.

“Did you know? The doctor said today that the cancer in Jin Ling’s body seems to have stopped spreading. I’m very happy, apparently, this is a very rare occurrence.”

“Aiyah, let me tell you, I have even more good news today! The doctor said the cancer cells in Jin Ling’s body are disappearing, it’s just like a miracle! It’s great, just great! That gold Buddha was very effective after all!”

“Thank you, Buddha! Thank you, God! Thank you, Bodhisattva! Jin Ling is now recovering slowly. I will never forget your kindness and generosity in all my lifetimes.. Jin Ling is about to leave the hospital, even the doctors are calling this a medical miracle!”

In the end, Grandma Li left with a smile, still mumbling about gods and buddhas, and then she never returned to the old residence.

“She’ll gradually forget.” Wen Jiubo leaned against the locust tree in the yard, eyes lowered. “Humans are like this, only remembering when they need to. Even though she had forgotten his name, his voice, and his face, she still stubbornly wanted to find him. But once life returned back to normal, it doesn’t matter how important that person was, she will forget him, push him to the very back of her memories.”

“How is that possible?!” I retorted instinctively. “Grandma Li has thought about him for so many years —”

Wen Jiubo turned around to look at me, replying faintly, “How would one person miss another long-forgotten person?”

At night, I left Wen Jiubo’s shop to return to my dorm.

All three of my dorm mates were there. They greeted me upon my return but now seemed more or less used to me being out of the dorm often. I was going to wash up and sleep, but once in bed, I couldn’t resist opening up ‘Onmyouji’ on my mobile. This game had been recommended to me by Su Xiaoyun, who insisted that I play with her and had nothing but enthused praise for it.

I messed around a bit in the game, took my shikigami and fought a few rounds. Just when I was planning to put down my phone, another player pinged me for a duel.

“What, just one person?” I muttered, thinking that it was a new player without a shikigami. I didn’t hesitate to accept the challenge.

But not even two minutes after the duel began, I almost jumped off my bed.

“W-wait! A level 70 Abe no Seimei?”

Even though it was just one person, they destroyed my entire team of shikigami with effortless skill, leaving me stunned.

Just as I was holding my phone, unable to even swear, the other guy pinged me with a message.

[Abe no Seimei]: Still up?

I felt utterly confused, what sort of situation was this? Why was this guy greeting me after thoroughly wrecking me? I felt like I had to reply as well.

[Minamoto no Hiromasa]: ???

Shortly after, the other guy sent over a private message.

【Private】[Abe no Seimei]: You were busy today, sleep early. Don’t let inconsequential things keep you up.

I started laughing, holding my phone. I realized immediately who my opponent had been.

【Private】[Minamoto no Hiromasa]: Same to you, up so late playing games. You don’t seem to act like a boss.

The reply came swiftly from him.

【Private】[Abe no Seimei]: I’m worried about you.

【Private】[Minamoto no Hiromasa]: Instead of concern, how about some cash in hand?

【Private】[Abe no Seimei]: (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻ [1]

I couldn’t help but cover my mouth and giggle at that. Wen Jiubo was such a calm and collected person in real life, but in the game, he actually used cute emojis. It felt.. kind of adorable.

【Private】[Abe no Seimei]: Oh that’s right, these couple of days, be careful of small animals.

【Private】[Minamoto no Hiromasa]: .. .. ??

【Private】[Abe no Seimei]: Don’t sleep too late. Goodnight.

I didn’t even have a chance to clarify what he meant before the game notified me that Abe no Seimei was now offline.

“That bastard!” I hollered angrily.

A moment later, my bunkmate from below stuck his head out, smirking gleefully. “Gu Yu, what are you doing up there, laughing and yet swearing?”

I rolled around in my bed, wrapping myself up in my blankets. “Leave me alone!”

“It must be a girlfriend right! Why are you still denying it! Hee —”

“Shut up and go to sleep!”

[1] (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻ is an emoji representing a person flipping over a table.