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Hongbao yawned.
“Are you two quite done yet?” she drawled, boredom dripping out of her words.
A crash.
“Almost! Dammit, where did I put the rest of the gifts?! Fa Hua—”
“I have them with me. Let’s go.”
The two of them emerged from the room with handfuls of boxes, so much so that it hid them from view. Lan Ge let out a sigh of relief as he dropped them carefully on the table, wiping his forehead before turning to face Fa Hua.
“Okay, so we’re dividing them per City right?”
“En.”
Reaching towards his space bracelet, Lan Ge took out even more space bracelets with different colored gems.
“Time to sort them out now, I guess.”
Hongbao pushed the boxes of snacks and cookies in front of her across the table their way. “Here. They’re all sorted and labeled, and I even wrote the…tiny notes you asked me to make. You two better be thankful.”
“Really?” beamed Lan Ge. “Oh, oh. Can I see them? Pleaseee~?”
“No.”
“Aw…”
“Thank you,” nodded Fa Hua, sitting on the middle chair so he’d have more space to organize them. “We really appreciate your help.”
They clearly could have done this faster if Fa Hua had used his abilities, but for some reason the stubborn human refused to, saying how “the manual labor reminds me of my humanity, and I want to retain it as long as possible”.
Hongbao had clicked her tongue. As much as she’d been human long enough now to have experienced many things she never had before as a monster…some things still elude her. Why make things more difficult for you when you have a shortcut right in front of you?
“…Perhaps it’s because you were used to doing things easier before being turned, that you see the struggle us humans do as something unnecessary,” Fa Hua had replied all of a sudden.
Ah, she forgot to keep her thoughts hidden again. With an annoyed flick of her finger, she sent a cookie (the bad one, mind you) flying towards him at lightning speed, the man nimbly dodging it with a small twist.
She could hear Lan Ge laughing in their shared mind and rolled her eyes. No one can blame her for forgetting—it had been ages since she was anywhere in their vicinity, and she couldn’t help but miss the given privacy she was used to having.
Idiots.
But…he did have a point in a way.
She shook her head—it didn’t matter anyway. What matters was that she was here now, about to—
“Are you really going to visit every single orphanage in the Three Domains?”
Lan Ge hummed. “Yeah, but like I said, you don’t have to come to all of them. We’ll most likely just spend a few hours on each before going to Yongxian, so you can meet us there instead in two days.”
Hongbao grew silent, then exhaled. “No, I’ll come with you. Wouldn’t want to let those poor children be too spoiled by you brats.”
Ignoring the indignant gasp as she stood up from her chair, she then said: “I’ll let you two deal with this. Don’t call for me until we actually need to go.”
Without waiting for them to reply, Hongbao disappeared down the hallway, missing the understanding look exchanged between the two men.
She kept walking and walking till she reached the untouched building she had taken up residence in within their abode, on the rare instances she would actually come by and visit. Both Lan Ge and Fa Hua had promised to never trespass it and it was located quite farther away from where they actually lived, beyond the radius of the Wushuang Bead, so it was perfect for when she needed some solitude and time away for herself.
Her own private residence wasn’t located that far from theirs, but she would usually still need to use a teleportation point to get there, so they thought it would just be better for her to have her own space here when she needed to stay longer.
“Besides, not only are you our guardian, but you’re also a cherished friend of ours,” said Lan Ge when he and Fa Hua offered her that day. “You’re practically family now—this is the least we could do.”
She had replied with a dry: “I guess I’m now morally obligated not to let you two sleep out in the cold too,” but her chest had felt warm and snug, and she was suddenly reminded of the hug Aunt Xiangyun had given her all those years ago.
After being turned into a human, it took her a while before reaching anything that resembled an adult. The two brats had said her growth spurt was actually quicker than most humans, but it still felt far too long for her. Her hair had lost its original bright red luster, instead taking on a more muted tone, and the distinct markings from her royal Ant-Swallowing lineage were also washed away from her rebirth, replaced by new markings she could only guess had something to do with the Wushuang Bead.
Although everything else about her was the same, every time she looked in the mirror and saw her own reflection…she couldn’t help but silently reminisce about all that she had lost, and the sacrifices she had to make. Maybe it was a human trait, or maybe she was influenced by her two wards, because she could hardly recall doing this when she was a non-human—looking back at her past, that is.
Sitting on her armchair, she quietly sipped the newly-brewed tea as she let her mind wander, thinking of how she got here in the first place.
Earlier that week after the regular briefing between all the Guardians and Masters of the Seven God Beads, Lan Ge had walked up to her with a happy sway, Fa Hua naturally in tow, asking if she would be interested to join them again to visit the children in the Home of Hope.
“We’ll be staying permanently at our residency in the God Realm soon, so we wanted to say our farewell to the kids because…well, time passes differently here.”
Fa Hua nodded and continued, “We’ll still visit often, but this will be the last time we have a direct hand on the management of the orphanage. It’s time we let the younger generation take the lead.”
She knew the reason they offered was because she had been to the Home of Hope several times, either to accompany the two idiots or simply because she had nothing else to do. And though the loudness and touchiness of the kids bothered her a bit, it would be a lie to say that it didn’t lift her lips in a proud smile when they gawked at the little half-hearted performances she put out for them in pure, unadulterated awe.
“…Fine. I’ll come with you.”
That morning, she had gone to their residency as agreed and was met with a view she had never seen before. Sacks of flours and sugar filled the entire kitchen, along with finished dough that was in the process of being kneaded and shaped by Fa Hua. Lan Ge lifted his head from where he was closely piping some sort of coloring onto what seems to be a cookie, splashes of cream smearing his apologetic face.
“Sorry for the mess, and er, not inviting you in properly, but as you can see…we’re kinda in the middle of something, so…”
She shook her head.
“Carry on.”
She then sat there as the two conversed, piping in every now and again, not even realizing how she had grown used to this comfortable lull whenever she spent time with them.
“Wanna try one?” offered Lan Ge, holding out one of the undecorated cookies with a smile.
Hongbao stared at it quietly before shrugging, letting the cookie float over to her open palm. Sniffing it lightly, she then bit into the warm pastry, absently aware of the two pairs of eyes staring intently at her.
“…Not too bad. Soft yet crumbly, not as sweet as I would’ve liked, but that’s probably for the best. I heard human children’s teeth can rot away and fall out from too much sweet. Their loss.”
Lan Ge visibly beamed, while Fa Hua’s smile was faint but clearly satisfied.
“It’s certainly better that what Lan Ge tried to poison me with last time,” she rolled her eyes, smirking at the ‘Hey! That was my first try!’ he let out.
“And blame Fa-duidui for that! He was the one who intentionally didn’t stop me from sharing it with you,” huffed Lan Ge.
Fa Hua just calmly said, “I didn’t want to deprive Hongbao of your delicious cookies after all. It would’ve been unfair if I was the only one to try it.”
“You…!”
As the two started to bicker again in the background, Hongbao rolled her eyes in disbelief. These two idiots…how she could have put up with them for so long still evades her. If a fleeting smile passed by briefly on her lips, it was only hers to know.