God's Gift

The smile on Ning Yue's face remained unchanged, without any sense of crisis at all. He half-knelt in front of Yu Youyou and looked at her with trusting eyes.

Yu Youyou took the inkstone and thought for a while before starting to write, but no idea came to her mind. So she put aside all unnecessary considerations and started to draw Ning Yue's eyebrows.

Ning Yue didn't feel anything wrong at first, but the feeling between his eyebrows made him feel a little uneasy, and his eyes gradually became serious.

"Yuzu...are you okay?"

Yu Youyou thought that this was just the beginning, so how could she know if it would work or not, so she imitated the way Ning Jin drew her eyebrows, glared at Ning Yue seriously, and said:

"Of course, just don't move."

Ning Yue forced a smile and said, "Okay."

The actors on the stage were still singing, and no one dared to look at what the general and the young lady were doing below the stage.

Just a short distance away, on the eaves, a red fox was sitting on the tiles like a stone sculpture, its golden eyes fixedly staring at the courtyard.

Ning Yue struggled for a while, the fear of becoming ugly overcame his love for his master, and he asked cautiously: "Youyou, how long will it take?"

"It will be done in a moment." Yu Youyou's eyes were particularly serious, and her movements were very realistic. While painting, she asked casually, "How long do you have left? Will it be possible after Ajin and Fang Ling get married?"

Ning Yue's eyes froze, and after a while, he chuckled and replied: "It doesn't take that long, Ah Jin should not want me to appear at her wedding banquet again."

Yu Youyou and Ning Yue looked at each other for a second, then looked away as if nothing had happened, without stopping their hands.

"So what else is there for you to stay here?"

Ning Yue lowered his eyes and stretched out his hand to fiddle with the tassels on Yu Youyou's waist. "Let me prepare everything for Ajin, and then I can leave with the gods."

"I just need to become the eyes of God again, and all my memories of my life as a human will disappear along with them."

Yu Youyou responded naturally: "Don't worry about that, I will remember it for you."

"God is so kind." Ning Yue leaned lovingly in Yu Youyou's arms, muttering softly.

"Then I will tell the gods about these things, and hope that the gods will help me remember."

His voice paused, and he wanted to speak but found that there were too many things he wanted to say, but it seemed that there was nothing specific. All he had to remember were some trivial things.

Then let’s talk about some small things.

Ning Yue smiled, and the past events came to his mind like a wave, bringing him back to a hundred years ago.

"The first thing is...I met Ajin on the winter solstice of the twenty-fourth year of Yongqing. It snowed heavily that day."

"I was walking alone in the deserted streets, and the little girl who kept following me was actually not annoying at all."

He seemed to have thought of something again, and his voice became low.

"The second thing is that human children cannot eat leaves or wild flowers, nor can they drink rainwater or river water, or they will get sick."

"If you are sick, don't panic and remember to go to the doctor. They are a blessing to mankind and can help humans recover from illnesses."

After saying this, Ning Yue's eyes lit up with a smile, and he said:

"The third thing is that Ajin is the most lovable child in the world."

"No matter where she is, as long as I shout when I'm going home, she will run towards me from under the bridge, in the trees, by the river... from everywhere."

"At that time, I ran as fast as a rabbit, ran to you with a smile of pure joy, and called you brother with my toothless mouth."

"When I asked her what she was doing today, she said she was waiting for her brother to come home."

"That feeling was really..." Ning Yue seemed to see again the child with unstable legs, running towards him with all his might when he returned home.

"It's like I've become everything to her."

Ning Yue sighed and said, "But humans really grow up too fast. It seems that she grew up in an instant."

"God, do you know how I discovered that Jin was growing up?"

Yu Youyou frowned, thinking about how she would grow up, and said seriously: "Growing up means that everything around you becomes smaller."

"That's not the case." Ning Yue shook his head and said, "It started when she was able to touch the cloth bag around my waist without standing on tiptoe."

"When she was little, she was always interested in the bag and would stare at it as she walked."

"But she was only taller than my knees at that time, so I could only watch."

"Later, she found that she could reach the bag by standing on tiptoe. From then on, she would stand on tiptoe to pull the bag whenever she had time. She did this over and over again, and the bag would come loose again and again, and I would have to tie it up again and again."

"But one day I suddenly realized that she no longer needed to stand on tiptoe and could touch the bag just by standing."

"After a while, she will only need to raise her hand to pull the bag."

"It was then that I suddenly realized that human children grow so fast."

Ning Yue chuckled, "After I found out about this, even when I held her to look at the flowers, I felt that she was heavier than before. The child who I could lift lightly before, now needs to use force to lift up."

"She grew up without even noticing."

Speaking of growing up, Ning Yue fell silent again, and spoke after a long time:

"But growing up doesn't seem to be that happy."

"When I sent her back to the Su Mansion, she seemed to realize that I was going to abandon her again and she didn't say a word the whole way."

"Such a good boy, Jin... I thought he would come back to me like he did when I abandoned him as a child."

"But this time it just won't work."

Ning Yue's gaze fell behind Yu Youyou. A lost white dove flew across the blue sky, looking small and lonely.

"When I sent her to the Su Mansion, she finally realized that something was wrong, and she kept grabbing my hand. She was so scared that her hands were shaking, but she held back her tears and said to me..."

The sound of Ning Yue's voice was like a stretched silk thread that was about to break.

He seemed to have returned to that day and repeated word for word what Ning Jin had said to her.

"Brother must have something to do, so he can't take Ajin with him."

"Ajin understands everything. Ajin will wait for brother here obediently. When brother finishes what he needs to do, he will come to take Ajin home."

"Brother must come back to look for Ah Jin."

"She knew clearly that I was going to abandon her, but she still wanted me to go back and pick her up, as if that would make me really go back."

Clearly a hundred years have passed, but those scenes seem like they happened just yesterday.

"But I don't know if I can go back."

"I shook her hand off, and she was completely panicked, chasing after me like when she was a kid. She fell to the ground in a hurry, grabbed the corner of my clothes and begged me not to leave her. She said all kinds of things in a daze..."

"She said that she would eat less in the future, would not eat meat or chestnut cakes, would not wear nice clothes, and would learn to earn money."

"In the end, seeing that I didn't turn back no matter what she said, she could only helplessly repeat that she would wait for me here and asked me to come back."

"She must have thought I could give her some hope, but I didn't."

Yu Youyou was still drawing Ning Yue's eyebrows, but when she saw his face trembling constantly, she stopped.

Ning Yue smiled and said as if nothing had happened:

"She used to cry a lot. She would cry for a long time when she got hurt. It must have been very painful for her to fall this time."

"But I was busy saying goodbye to her and didn't help her up from the ground."