Chapter Twenty-Eight: Poetry and Zither

Early the next morning, everyone saw Xiu, her face aglow, and Lily, looking somewhat weary, descending the spiral staircase to the public area on the third floor. Considering that Lily had invited Xiu to sleep with her in front of others the previous night, the sight of the two now inevitably sparked... a cascade of suggestive thoughts.

In truth, things weren’t quite as they seemed. After Lily had pulled Xiu into her room, she had Xiu help with some small tests—such as experimenting with her passive ability resembling a charm, and her struggle to understand her power to distort “basic cognition.”

After listening to Lily’s explanation, Xiu suggested, “Let’s try distorting a basic cognition. Hmm... how about sexual orientation? Change it from ‘I only like boys’ to ‘I like both men and women.’ According to what you’ve described, this modification shouldn’t last long, so there’s not much to worry about. And even if it becomes permanent, I don’t think it would be a problem.”

Lily pondered for a few seconds, then nodded. She stood, moved opposite Xiu, raised her hand, and extended her forefinger toward Xiu, making a grasping gesture.

In that instant, Lily felt something materialize in her grasp, then travel up her arm to her chest, finally vanishing into the area where the Coin of Fate rested.

When she looked again at Xiu, she found her cheeks flushed, gazing back at Lily. Before Lily could ask how she felt, Xiu pulled her onto the bed...

The night passed in silence.

Had Lily not suddenly remembered something and slapped the Coin of Fate onto Xiu’s forehead, Xiu might never have made it out of the room the next morning.

Beautiful young women truly are the world’s greatest treasures, are they not?

Before heading to the third-floor common area, Lily pretended to issue a stern warning to Xiu, forbidding her from doing anything strange to the other girls in the orphanage. Xiu was so amused she nearly collapsed in laughter, pounding the floor—and thus, everyone witnessed Xiu’s radiant complexion and Lily’s exhausted appearance.

Once everyone was seated, Aiden took out a dossier from behind, placed it on the table, and pushed it toward Lily, explaining simply, “The archive... has our... detailed... records.”

Lily nodded; this did seem faster. She leafed through it, then suddenly asked, “What about the children whose birthdays are unknown, and whose entry date into the orphanage is recorded as their birthday? Ariel, I recall you’re one of them.” Lily looked at Ariel.

Ariel nodded gently. When she was brought to the orphanage, nothing was left behind—not even a scrap of paper. So the teachers had no way to record her exact age or birthday; they followed orphanage custom and marked her entry date as her birthday. In other words, she might be older or younger than her true age. On the records, she was listed as fourteen.

“We still don’t know what criteria or purpose the Mist uses to ‘take away’ children over the age of fifteen,” Xiu spoke slowly. “All we can do is warn those like Ariel—roughly thirteen or fourteen, but unsure of their real age and birthday—to be mentally prepared.”

“Is that all we can do?” Lily sighed.

“Lily, the day you were ‘taken’... what... did you see... is it really... impossible to talk about?” Aiden asked abruptly.

“Ah?... I...” Lily began to stammer.

“It’s alright, you don’t have to say if you can’t. I just want to know your reason for not saying it,” Xiu interjected, preventing Aiden from pressing further, and shifted the focus. The others immediately perked up, eager for Lily’s answer.

“As I’ve said before, I have a strong intuition: If I truly tell you what I saw and experienced over there, it will bring disastrous consequences.”

“Over there...?” Xiu repeated the phrase, “over there.”

“So mysterious?” Dunn couldn’t help but remark.

“I believe Lily. Remember on the way to Piccadilly Square, Lily warned us about something watching us? Her intuitions must be well-founded,” Camille defended Lily.

Lily offered a wry smile; the sense of being watched and this unspeakable intuition were entirely different mechanisms and feelings, but she couldn’t explain in detail.

“Lily, Aiden, the black-haired sister is awake!” Suddenly, two youthful voices sounded from the spiral staircase. Lily recognized Natasha and Natashia’s voices, and swiftly stood, heading toward the stairs. Aiden and Xiu followed, while the others stayed behind—too many people might frighten the black-haired girl.

At the door, Lily took a deep breath, ignored Aiden and Xiu behind her, and knocked.

A voice from inside called, “Come in,” leaving Xiu and Aiden puzzled—what language was that? It sounded like Xia language.

Lily pushed open the door and saw the black-haired girl half-sitting on the bed.

For some reason, Lily felt she could understand the girl’s Xia language.

The two locked eyes for a moment. Lily smiled, pulled a stool to the bedside, and sat, considering how to begin.

“Thank you for saving me. When I woke up, two little girls were chattering away, gesturing. I mostly understood,” the girl spoke first, in somewhat awkward English.

Xiu and Aiden lingered near the entrance, choosing not to enter further.

Lily sensed a faint connection and tried speaking: “No need... to thank us. We... found you... unconscious in a room in the abandoned district and brought you back. Although... the way we found you was rather strange. Oh... right, I’m Lily—just Lily, no surname. And you?”

The black-haired girl was surprised; she could tell she wasn’t in Xia anymore, and the girl before her was clearly a foreigner. Yet here was a foreigner speaking Xia with odd pauses but nearly flawless pronunciation. Naturally, she was amazed.

Even more astonished were Xiu and Aiden behind Lily.

Borrowed her a dictionary for a day, and now she’s fluent? And all while sharing a bed with Xiu?

After her surprise faded, the girl smiled and spoke in Xia language, “I didn’t expect your Xia to be so good. Hello, my surname is Liu, given name Shiqin—‘Shi’ as in Tang poetry, ‘Qin’ as in zither, chess, calligraphy, painting.”