The stranger a thing is, the stranger the use it turns out to have. Never mind this odd gourd — by one coincidence on top of another, Ye Tianxie had run into the name “Red Goat” a second time. Grey Goat did exist, and had already died at his hands. So this Red Goat ought to be really and truly out there somewhere too. Where was she now, and what sort of part did she play in this world?

He had gotten Red Goat’s frying pan, and now her lost gourd — and a fairly powerful gourd at that. Could it be that he and this Red Goat had some connection?

Ye Tianxie was not fool enough to throw the gourd away. He put it back in his pack.

The upper limit on his pack was 200, and in no time at all he had begun to feel that the space in it was nowhere near enough.

Walking out of the Phantom Beast Ruins, now reduced to rubble, Ye Tianxie looked back once… The wrecking of it had a great deal to do with him — you could say it was entirely his doing. To tell the truth, having destroyed the last trace the Phantom Beast race left behind, he felt a certain amount of guilt.

At the same time, it occurred to him that with all that commotion here, the City of Heaven’s Sun must have noticed long ago.

He walked out through the barrier with nothing standing in his way once more, exactly as if a transparent wall not even the Blue Soul could break simply were not there. He checked the time, called out his Blood-Sweating Steed, and headed straight south; in less than ten minutes he was at the City of Heaven’s Sun.

It was not as splendid as the City of Stars, but “beautiful and imposing” would still do it justice. And it had one obvious feature: it was plainly far hotter here than there.

He had not been walking through the city long before a line of sweat came out on him. He found an item shop in a hurry, bought a dozen Town Portal Scrolls keyed to the city, and logged out at once.

He opened his eyes. Xiaoxi lay pressed close against him, fast asleep. Outside the door, the familiar smell of cooking came faintly through. Ye Tianxie sat up in bed, carefully lifted Xiaoxi onto his knees, and rocked her as he spoke. “Xiaoxi, time to get up and eat.”

At the sound of Ye Tianxie’s voice, Xiaoxi’s eyelashes moved a little. She let out a soft, drowsy “mm,” curled herself into a more comfortable shape in his arms, and went back to sleep against his shoulder.

Ever since the day Xiaoxi had suddenly appeared in the game world and vanished again, she had been like this. Apart from three meals a day, she spent essentially all her time asleep. It left both Ye Tianxie and Su Feifei endlessly baffled. Guoguo seemed to know something, but her posture on it was invariably I know and I’m not telling you.

Xiaoxi was very light, very soft — like holding a quiet, beautiful doll. Ye Tianxie picked her up, stood, and walked out to the living room.

Su Feifei was sitting there with a lollipop in her mouth, cheeks puffed out, waiting for him. When he appeared she took it out and said, with a pretense of anger, “Tianxie, you’re a full twenty-seven minutes and fifty-three seconds late again this time!”

“Ah… a lollipop! That’s my lollipop… that’s my candy, she’s eating my lollipop!”

Ye Tianxie had barely opened his mouth when Guoguo suddenly started shrieking. One finger pointed at the lollipop in Su Feifei’s hand, as urgent as if someone had made off with the most important thing she owned. Guoguo’s craving for lollipops was beyond Ye Tianxie’s understanding, and her urge to guard her own things was stronger still.

“Letting your sister Feifei have a few won’t kill you. She’s the one who cooks you good things to eat every single day, you little glutton.” Ye Tianxie said it in a low voice only Guoguo could hear.

“Wuu wuu… you can’t, you can’t, those are Guoguo’s.”

“I’ll go and buy you more of them later.”

Guoguo stopped making a fuss on the spot.

Sitting down at the dining table with Xiaoxi in his arms, Ye Tianxie felt his way, an odd look on his face. “Feifei, do you like lollipops too?”

Su Feifei rolled her eyes at him lightly, the corners of her lips lifting. “No I don’t. It’s only that every time I tidy your room I find a whole lot of lollipop wrappers… Tianxie, I’ve told you so many times, you can’t eat candy after you’ve brushed your teeth at night, it’s very, very bad for them. Consider this lollipop me eating one on your behalf. Hee. It does taste all right, though — but you’ve still never told me why you like lollipops so much.”

Ye Tianxie: “……”

I’d like to say they aren’t mine… but would you believe me…

Because Ye Tianxie had come a little late, the food on the table had cooled to exactly the right temperature. He tested the heat of the bowl of congee in front of him, then lifted a spoonful and rocked Xiaoxi gently. “Xiaoxi, time to eat.”

“…Mm… Brother…”

Xiaoxi answered Ye Tianxie fuzzily, and when the little spoon in his hand touched her lips, they opened slightly and she drank down the congee he had brought her. Then they parted quietly again and she murmured, small-voiced, “Brother… hungry…”

“If you’re hungry then eat more. There’s plenty left.” Ye Tianxie said it with a smile, feeding Xiaoxi as gently and carefully as ever.

Ever since Xiaoxi had appeared in the house, this scene had played out every day. But every time, Su Feifei felt a small envy, a small jealousy, and wished she could be Xiaoxi herself. Without meaning to, she held the lollipop lightly in her mouth, feeling the strange atmosphere between Ye Tianxie and Xiaoxi. A hazy something she could not have named or explained rose suddenly in her heart and left her staring for a moment.

“Feifei, aren’t you eating?” Ye Tianxie looked up and asked.

Su Feifei pulled her gaze back and shook her head. “I have to finish the lollipop first… Tianxie, Xiaoxi’s condition has been too strange all along. Is she ill? Shall we take her to the hospital later to have her looked at?”

This was not the first time Su Feifei had said something of the kind. Except at mealtimes she was asleep the whole day round, and even when she did wake now and then it was in a sickly, drained sort of state. Anyone would think she had fallen ill.

Ye Tianxie shook his head and said with a smile, “There’s no need. Xiaoxi is just fond of her sleep, that’s all. She’ll be fine after a while. Here, Xiaoxi, open your mouth.”

“……” The same answer again. Su Feifei did not press it any further, and went back to eating her lollipop in silence. Xiaoxi was a very strange little girl, and Su Feifei had known it from the first day they met. One thing after another that ordinary sense could not account for had happened around Xiaoxi — for instance, she still could not touch her at all, and had no idea why.

Su Feifei’s way of eating a lollipop was very unpracticed, nothing like Guoguo’s easy, natural handling of one. Perhaps because she was staring absently at Ye Tianxie and Xiaoxi, she only held it in her mouth, sucking and biting at it lightly, and now and then putting out a pink tongue to curl and lick at it for a while.

Certain things a girl does while eating a lollipop can one-shot a man without any trouble at all. All through feeding Xiaoxi, Ye Tianxie could not stop himself watching Su Feifei eat hers… and any normal man, at a moment like that, would be picturing something very wicked.

“If that lollipop were me…” The corner of his mouth moved, and he said it out loud without meaning to.

Crunch! Su Feifei bit the lollipop to pieces in one go. She tossed the plastic stick away, and asked with a questioning look while she chewed, “Tianxie, what did you just say?”

“Nothing… nothing at all.”

(End of Chapter 255)