Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Let’s go.” Tian Miao got up. She smiled at Xiao Anning and said, “We’ll go fulfill your wish.”
Xiao Anning also got to his feet and followed behind Tian Miao. He looked around himself again, as if he were savoring the wonderful feeling of being able to see.
Kong Hou and Dong Xiao also stood to follow Tian Miao, but Tian Miao waved her hand at them and said, “There’s no need to follow now. You guys can come when we need to collect things.”
“Noted.” Kong Hou and Dong Xiao took their leave. Naturally, they understood what their master meant by “collecting things.” Every time they visited a world, their master would collect all the world’s delectable food and fine wine. Food and wine made up the largest percentage of what she took back with her from a world. The next greatest would be fine jewelry of excellent quality, like jade and the like. This was their boss’s greatest hobby.
Tian Miao walked out of the door with Xiao Anning, and the two of them disappeared from view.
Kong Hou and Dong Xiao turned around and went back inside. Kong Hou was still thinking about it and couldn’t restrain herself any longer. She asked Dong Xiao, who was putting away the tea set, the question that was lingering in her mind. “Dong Xiao, in your opinion, why do you think that human didn’t wish to be able to see again? Why did he wish for his family’s happiness and health? Being blind must be agonizing, right?”
Dong Xiao didn’t stop cleaning up and putting away the tea set, but smiled and said, “This is precisely why our master loves and cherishes humans.”
“Huh?” Dong Xiao froze, somewhat confused.
But Dong Xiao didn’t say anything more. He walked to the kitchen instead.
Kong Hou caught up with him and started rattling on incessantly. “Wait for me,” she said. “Is it possible to make stew with that epiphyllum we collected previously? What ingredients can I add to make the stew tastier? Let’s try first, and when Master comes back, we’ll make the stew for her.”
When the two weren’t with Tian Miao, they would address her as Master. Only when they were face-to-face with her would they accede to Tian Miao’s request and address her as Boss.
…
The moment Xiao Anning followed Tian Miao and stepped out of the entrance of the shop, he fell into darkness again.
Sure enough, the store was the reason for it. It was only when he was in this shop that he could see things. So, everything that had happened just now, had it all been an illusion?
“Young Marquis, you’re not thinking about reneging on your debt, are you?” Suddenly, Tian Miao’s lazy voice sounded in his ears, proving his doubts wrong.
“No, I haven’t thought about going back on my word,” Xiao Anning said, feeling somewhat embarrassed. Such a thing as reneging on a debt had never happened in his world before. It seemed that this wasn’t an illusion, and that he truly had seen things. He had, indeed, walked into a magical shop, and even purchased a wish while in it. Now that he had stepped out of the shop, he was entirely clueless about the price that the boss of the shop would ask for.
“All right. Let’s go. Your family’s probably worried sick.” Tian Miao reached out her hand and suddenly tugged at Xiao Anning’s sleeve.
Xiao Anning only felt a moment of dizziness, and the next moment, his ears were filled with various noisy voices.
He heard his mother’s sobs, his father’s comforting voice, and his grandfather giving orders on how to search for him.
“I’m here,” Xiao Anning called out in a loud voice.
The noisy voices all came to an abrupt end.
“Anning!”
“My son!”
“Young Marquis!”
A series of voices filled with worry and surprise assaulted his ears, and Xiao Anning felt his eardrums start to hurt. And then he fell into a warm embrace. That embrace belonged to his mother, Princess Yong An.
“So long as you’re okay. So long as you’re okay.” Princess Yong An held Xiao Anning tightly in her arms, as if she had recovered a lost treasure, and continuously repeated the same line over and over again.
“Mother, I’m fine. This lady is the one who saved me.” Xiao Anning heard Princess Yong An’s choked voice and felt warm inside, but he also felt grief. How could he bear to see someone he loved so much feel so sad on his account?
“Ah?” It was only then that Princess Yong An recovered her senses. She saw a lady smiling while standing by her son’s side, and the lady was like a flower basking in the cool moonlight, positioned somewhere so distant that it was seemingly beyond anyone’s reach.