"Little Yu, good morning! These flowers of yours are looking truly beautiful. How should I put it... they're just so much better than the ones sold elsewhere. Ah, they look so much more vibrant."
"Not at all. It's probably just because you've been in a good mood these past two days, so you find the flowers especially beautiful."
"Oh, you're just too honest. You should be saying your flowers are better than anyone else's, otherwise how will you sell them?"
Xin Yu smiled and bid farewell to the housewife with her grocery basket, then continued using the small watering can in his hand to water his flowers and plants.
Two days had passed since he returned to this point in ti. Xin Yu wasn't in a frantic hurry to see Kiana and Raiden i. He had returned to a slightly earlier point, a ti when Cocolia had not yet frad—oh, no, that's not right—or rather, exposed Raiden Ryoma.
Having completely recovered his mories after resolving his Heart-Demon, Xin Yu now possessed his full knowledge of the Honkai world's plot. This let him know many things, including the fact that Raiden Ryoma wasn't entirely blaless. He had indeed embezzled public funds. It was just that he originally planned to patch up all these loopholes, but Cocolia seized the opportunity to bring him down.
Xin Yu also understood that Raiden Ryoma's actions were for the sake of his own daughter. Having already lost his wife, all he could do was give everything to his child. Xin Yu had witnessed the man's devastation after losing his wife, so he knew this man was deeply devoted and loyal.
Xin Yu set down the watering can and looked up at the sun hanging high in the sky. He then lowered his gaze to the blooming flowers beside him, his face still wearing that gentle smile. To anyone who saw him, he looked like a kind, warm, and sunny young man.
"Hello, could you wrap up a few carnations for ?"
Hearing soone approach, Xin Yu lifted his head to see a purple-haired young woman standing before him.
The young woman projected a sense of nobility amidst her calmness. This was clearly the daughter of a wealthy family, one that had provided her with an excellent upbringing.
"Of course. What color would you like?"
"Please wrap up so red and pink carnations for . I'll take 11 of them."
The young woman frowned slightly as she looked at the young man before her. For so reason, she felt that he was incredibly familiar, as if he were soone of great importance to her, yet she couldn't recall who he was.
"Excuse , may I know your na?"
To resolve the doubt in her heart, the young woman asked, a bit presumptuously, for the na of the flower shop clerk.
"Of course, no problem. My na is Xin Yu. Here are your carnations, please take them."
Xin Yu smiled as he introduced himself, handing the already wrapped carnations to the young woman.
"...Xin Yu."
The young woman took the flowers, softly repeating the na. She felt that it was indeed the na of soone very familiar, but why couldn't she rember?
"Hello, my na is Raiden i... Have we t sowhere before?"
As she said this, Raiden i's cheeks flushed slightly. She felt like she was hitting on him, but that intense feeling of familiarity compelled her to ask. Tʜe source of this ᴄontent ɪs nοvelfire
"Perhaps in a future that no longer exists. Perhaps in a divergent worldline. Or perhaps it was a dream, another parallel world where we knew each other."
Hearing the clerk's words, a bystander might think he was spouting nonsense or trying to change the subject. But for so reason, Raiden i felt as if his words were true.
However, she couldn't keep her driver waiting for too long, and her family would worry if she was gone for too long. After paying, Raiden i hurried away, clutching the neatly wrapped carnations.
Xin Yu simply watched her departing figure with a faint smile, making no move to follow.
After returning ho, Raiden i saw her father already sitting on the sofa, on the phone. From his words, it seed he was discussing business matters.
"I'm ho."
Raiden i announced.
"Welco back, i."
A woman in a kimono, her face radiating a gentle, maternal glow and her temperant the very picture of a Yamato nadeshiko, walked out.
"Mother, these flowers are for you."
"Thank you, i. This is the most beautiful flower I've ever received."
Mrs. Raiden accepted the carnations with delight, her smile growing even more brilliant.
"Hmph?"
Raiden Ryoma, having hung up the phone, raised his head. What did she an, the most beautiful flower? Weren't the roses he used to woo her back then the most beautiful?
"Alright, alright, you're a grown man. Why are you still getting jealous of your own daughter?"
Mrs. Raiden looked helplessly at her husband. After all these years, even at his age, he could still be as childish as a little boy.
Raiden i simply smiled as she watched the scene. She had seen countless tis how much her father and mother loved each other.
She rembered when she was little, her mother had fallen gravely ill. She could still recall how her father had been a complete nervous wreck at the ti. Fortunately, their luck was exceptionally good. That very year, a doctor developed a miracle drug that could target cancer.
That special drug only required a few courses of treatnt to stabilize the patient's life, and after six months of continued dication, the cancer could be completely cured.
Her mother had successfully recovered with the help of this miracle drug. Raiden i still rembered the sight of her father holding her mother, weeping uncontrollably. That was the first ti she had ever seen him cry like that, completely disregarding his dignity and composure, clinging to her mother like a child.
In that situation, if her mother had truly died, Raiden i couldn't dare to imagine how devastated her father would have been.
Co to think of it, she seed to have t the doctor who developed that miracle drug once before.
Raiden i's entire body stiffened slightly. Then, from the blurry depths of her mories, a face erged—it was the face of the clerk from the flower shop where she had just bought flowers.
"Xin Yu..."
Other images flashed through Raiden i's mind, and in all of them, the young man nad Xin Yu seed to be present.
Suddenly, a flash of purple, streaked with silver lightning, shot through the young woman's eyes and the tips of her hair.
"Xin Yu."
Lightning began to gradually converge around Raiden i's body. This strange phenonon naturally caught the attention of Raiden Ryoma and Mrs. Raiden. The couple stared in shock at their daughter, who was now wreathed in electricity, montarily stunned.
"I rember now!"
After the lightning around her subsided, Raiden i looked at her mother, who was alive and well, and at her father, who was much gentler and more compassionate than she rembered. She took a deep breath, then bowed deeply and said, "I'm sorry, Dad, Mom. There is soone I must see, so I have to leave for a mont."
"i!"
An intense sense of unease pulsed through Raiden Ryoma as he watched his daughter rush out of the house. Putting aside the earlier strange phenonon for a mont, the way his daughter was frantically rushing to et soone... Could it be? Could it be that his family's finest cabbage was about to be rooted up by so pig?!
This thought made Raiden Ryoma hastily grab his things. He then pulled his wife's hand, preparing to follow her.
At the flower shop, Xin Yu had moved all the flowers from outside back into the store and was about to close the door and leave. Suddenly, he heard the sound of hurried footsteps running towards him from behind. He turned around and saw a disheveled Raiden i standing before him.
The two looked at each other, and with just that one glance, Xin Yu knew that the Raiden i before him had recovered her mories of the past, or perhaps, the future.
"I'm back, i."
Xin Yu said with a smile.
"Welco back, Xin Yu."
Raiden i replied, smiling as well.
Reviews
All reviews (0)