In the modest living room, Yi Lin and the young girls gathered around a somewhat worn wooden table, chatting about recent happenings.
“You all came, and now this living room doesn’t feel so empty anymore.” Yi Lin suddenly let out a sigh of sentiment.
“If we get the chance, Xiao Yao and I will come back to visit more often.”
Yi Shiyue noticed the trace of melancholy in her grandmother’s eyes, and with her keen sensibility, she naturally understood her grandmother’s loneliness.
“Don’t you have your own lives to live? As long as you have that intention, I’m already very happy.”
Yi Lin waved her hand. With the long lifespan of elves, she wasn’t yet so old that she couldn’t take care of herself. In fact, one could say that an elf of her age was still part of the backbone of the elven race.
“This little girl is quite interesting. I really like a child like her. Where did you meet her?”
Earlier, despite Ye Xingyao’s desperate protests, they had discussed how Xingyao became a Star Elf, as well as her crossdressing work as a Midnight-level Hunter, leaving Xiao Yao clutching the little girl in her arms, gritting her teeth and unable to speak.
“Fumier… Fumier snuck over from Xizhou, you see…”
Fumier sat on Ye Xingyao’s lap, shifting her body slightly to get more comfortable, contentedly closing her eyes for a moment as she explained to Yi Lin.
A Blood Elf’s perception wasn’t limited to blood alone; they were also quite sensitive to things like aura. Being completely enveloped in Ye Xingyao’s aura right now was the most comfortable environment for Fumier.
As for why it ended up with Yi Shiyue sitting face-to-face with her grandmother while Xiao Yao was in charge of holding Fumier…
The main reason was, of course, that Yi Lin’s house didn’t have enough chairs.
She didn’t usually have many guests, and she spent most of her life alone, so there wasn’t much need for that much furniture.
“Smuggled in? Whether by aircraft or by boat, from Xizhou to Zhongzhou, the inspections should be very strict, right?”
Yi Lin took a sip of the tea Ye Xingyao had brewed, silently marveling once again at how this young man was progressing more and more toward being a virtuous wife. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, she couldn’t say.
A girl who was well-mannered, knew some housework and common sense—those were still points in her favor, after all.
Yes, even in this era where the vast majority of work could be handled by AI and robots, the people of Zhongzhou still firmly believed that boys and girls should have their respective roles. Compared to other places, the concepts here remained relatively traditional.
It was just that under the currents of the times, not many young people cared about such matters anymore.
“Mhm, but after Fumier learned that the Star Elf big sister would be appearing in the Satellite City, she used Disguise Magic to sneak onto an aircraft and came to the Satellite City like that.” Fumier swayed her body slightly, looking somewhat pleased with herself.
“But afterward, she was tricked by a very, very bad Forest Elf uncle, and almost caused a big mistake. Fortunately, Star Yao big sister and her companions helped, and that was how things got resolved.”
Then, she lowered her head again. The kind-hearted little one always fell into self-blame because of the Blood Demon incident.
At the same time, she adjusted quickly. She knew one lesson well: a lesson wasn’t meant to make her regret, but to be remembered in her heart.
“Little Fumier speaks Mandarin very well.”
Yi Lin stood up and patted the little girl’s head, praising her.
“Mhm mhm, before coming to Zhongzhou, I practiced very, very hard!”
Fumier nodded, the corners of her mouth curling up unconsciously. For her, being praised by others was a very, very happy thing.
“Fumier knows so many things.”
Yi Shiyue chimed in with a smile, and their continuous compliments made Fumier feel a bit shy, shrinking back into Ye Xingyao’s embrace.
“Let me explain this one.”
Ye Xingyao absentmindedly wrapped one arm around Fumier’s little waist to keep her from falling off her lap, while playing with her own hair with the other hand, pulling up the information from that mission from her memory to explain as completely and briefly as possible the cause, course, and outcome of how they had met Fumier.
Of course, what Ye Xingyao told was still a beautified version. If Granny Yi Lin heard that she had been kidnapped by a Forest Elf and gone through a series of dangers, she would probably be very worried.
“That’s… quite miraculous.”
After listening to the whole story from start to finish, Yi Lin gave such a remark.
Suddenly, a few unruly strands from the little girl’s soft golden hair poked out and lightly brushed across Ye Xingyao’s nose. The latter sniffed and casually helped tidy up her hair.
Originally, Ye Xingyao had assumed that a Blood Elf would have a faint scent of blood on her. Of course, it was only just now that she got a definitive answer—
Fumier carried a faint milky fragrance, warm and familiar, yet not like the kind on Xiaoyue—that intoxicating fresh scent that made her swoon. Holding an adorable little girl in her arms, no matter how she thought about it, it was quite a healing experience.
No, no, what was she thinking nonsense about!
“Grandma, this time you asked about the Star Elf—is there something you wanted to tell us?” Ye Xingyao quickly cut off the strange thoughts in her head and forcibly steered the conversation toward “serious matters.”
“News… well, if the Star Elf is you, then of course it’s different from someone else.” Yi Lin also snapped back to attention. They couldn’t just keep chatting about domestic matters here. This time they met, their identities had already undergone earth-shattering changes. The children had matured, and there was always serious business to attend to.
“I once considered that if the Star Elf were a stranger, or perhaps someone with no understanding of this world, I would bring her back to the Elf Settlement and let the elves there teach her.”
“But now, the Star Elf is you, Ye Xingyao. You’ve already lived in the Satellite City for a long time, and you have your own companions and identity. I can no longer ask you to go live among the elven tribes. Have you read the notes your parents left for you?”
Yi Lin’s gaze burned intensely as she looked past Fumier’s little face, locking eyes directly with Ye Xingyao.
“Mhm, I’ve read them. This time, I also intend to push forward with Father’s research. After all, I want to use Starlight Magic to control magic of various attributes. I first need to take the magic in their stable state within Magic Stones and use Elven Language to cast magic, turning them into an excited state.”
Ye Xingyao nodded. Her current main offensive method relied on this. With Starlight Magic, she had gained a brand-new understanding of magic’s release forms and effects, and she had also come to understand the vast difference between Elven Language magics like “Ignite” and “Burst Combustion.”
“That’s good then. What I have here has already been tested with your parents many times, and it’s hard to make further progress. But I can give you a general direction.”