“Mother, are you leaving?”
Mida raised her small head, looking up at Aina and asking.
“Yes, I’m going for a walk with your father,” Aina replied.
“Then when will you be back?”
“Maybe in a year, or maybe in ten years.” Aina spoke as if she had said nothing at all.
“Oh, what about me?”
“You stay here and look after the house. Snow Territory also needs your care.” Aina patted Mida’s head. “If you miss us, you can come find us occasionally… just remember not to cause too much of a stir.”
Joking aside, how could she bring this child along for a honeymoon with Xia Lun?
Mida nodded obediently. She knew she wasn't her mother's biological child.
But even if she were, she’d probably receive the same treatment.
Xia Lun pushed open the wooden door, and the biting wind and snow greeted him.
“Mida,” Aina called softly.
Mida scurried out the door, leaped into the air, and transformed into a Frost Dragon. Accompanied by a clear dragon’s roar, the wind and snow dispersed, and the thick dark clouds in the sky parted like theater curtains, revealing a brilliant sun.
Sunlight cast upon the snowfield, shimmering with dazzling silver light like diamonds.
Xia Lun stood atop the towering Snow Territory Sacred Peak, looking at the scenery before him, and stretched with a big yawn.
This… was the world a thousand years later.
The passion that had long dissipated in Xia Lun’s heart began to re-coalesce, and Xia Lun unexpectedly felt a long-lost sense of anticipation.
Aina took Xia Lun’s hand: “Let’s go.”
Mida waved her small hand expressionlessly from behind: “Have a safe journey… Father, Mother.”
…
Around them was a vast, white snowfield. Aina held Xia Lun’s hand, humming a simple melody, as happy as a little girl on her first spring outing.
“Aina… there’s actually something I’ve wanted to ask for a long time.”
“Oh? Go ahead and ask. I’ll answer any question you have,” Aina leaned closer.
“Uh… it’s not a big deal, actually. It’s about my body.” Xia Lun looked at his hands.
“Xia Lun… excessive indulgence is not a good thing.” Aina shook her head gently. “It’s not convenient for us here. We should find a town, and then tonight, we can…”
“Cough, cough.” Xia Lun gently patted Aina’s back.
After so much time, Aina had truly changed a great deal.
She was… simply wonderful.
“You misunderstood, Aina. What I wanted to ask is, what’s going on with my middle fingers?”
Xia Lun presented his ten fingers to Aina. The other fingers were normal, but only his two middle fingers had a luster even smoother than jade, as if they had been meticulously polished.
“Is there a problem?” Aina’s face flushed with an intoxicating blush.
“Ah… my two fingers are clearly different, aren’t they?” Xia Lun argued.
His current body had been personally remade by Aina, so logically, there shouldn’t be such a flaw…
“Xia Lun… do you know, I had already prepared this body for you over nine hundred ninety years ago.”
Within ten years of his death, Aina had already helped him construct this body?
Xia Lun felt a surge of emotion, but he wasn’t sure what Aina was trying to convey.
“Thank you,” Xia Lun sincerely thanked her.
“Idiot…” Aina’s voice was as faint as a mosquito’s buzz.
Xia Lun seemed not to have heard what Aina was saying: “Uh, Aina?”
“Blockhead, pervert,” Aina gently scolded.
“Did I say something wrong?” Xia Lun chuckled awkwardly, somewhat puzzled, but also catching a glimpse of her past self from Aina.
“Listen carefully, Xia Lun.” Aina cupped Xia Lun’s cheeks, showing a hint of her domineering nature as a Demon King. “I am a complete woman, and you are my husband… If you still don’t understand what has happened in this thousand years and keep pestering me with questions, I’ll dig out your brain, wash it thoroughly, and put it back.”
Xia Lun stared blankly at his two smooth middle fingers, the pads of which still had slight white wrinkles, like they did after a long hot bath.
Suddenly, Xia Lun felt a rush of blood to his head, and then, nosebleed gushed out, causing him to fall stiffly onto the snow like a rigid corpse.
Pff, pff, pff —
The nosebleed sprayed like a fountain of blood.
Aina squatted down in front of Xia Lun, poking his cheek with her slender finger, “I gave you your second life; this is a kindness you can never repay… My Brave One.”
“I seem to hear the seduction of the Demon King.” Xia Lun wiped the blood from his face and slowly got up from the ground.
“Oh? Will you refuse me, Mr. Brave One?”
“Heh.” Xia Lun grasped Aina’s hand. “As a Brave One… I will face any challenge.”
…
Lake Village.
“The blizzard has stopped!”
“It’s cleared up!”
“Praise the Snow God!”
People excitedly emerged from their snow houses. Adults began to busy themselves, while children frolicked freely in the snow.
An Anna had already sensibly started helping her parents.
Her father was processing the ice wolves and snow rabbits he had hunted earlier, her mother was boiling water and treating the fur with special medicine, while An Anna placed the treated furs by the fire, spreading them out to dry.
Once dried, these furs would be transported by Lake Village’s merchant caravan to the Alan Empire, selling for a good price.
The caravan would then bring back spices, rice and flour, flint, and other daily necessities.
And any leftover meat would be made into sausages and jerky by her mother.
“An Anna… you don’t need to do all this. Go, go to the schoolhouse and learn to read,” her father said, wiping the blood splattered on his forehead with the back of his hand, “I’ll be done with these chores very soon.”
“I understand…”
An Anna scurried towards the schoolhouse.
The schoolhouse was near the entrance of Lake Village, where there was a tall lookout tower used to guard against attacks from wild beasts and monsters.
“Hmm?”
An Anna suddenly looked at the vast, white ice plain outside the village, narrowing her eyes.
Two small black dots suddenly appeared in the distance.
They seemed to be two travelers.
This was truly rare… guests rarely came to such an icy, snowy place.
The last time An Anna saw visitors was… last time.
Well, actually, it was just yesterday, when Warren De left and even gave her a gem. Her mother had helped her turn the gem into a necklace, which she now wore around her neck, making her feel warm all over.
An Anna was still lost in thought when she snapped back to reality, only to find that the two individuals had already reached the entrance of Lake Village.
Had she really been spacing out for that long? An Anna felt a slight surprise in her heart.
The next moment, the two people were standing in front of her.