When the child awoke, Jinghe fed her some porridge, before asking her a couple of questions about her name, her parents, and where she came from. The child replied that her name was A-Liu, that she had no parents, and she came from the wild fields.

"Do you not remember your parents... at all?" Jinghe asked softly.

A-Liu shook her head meekly, then opened her mouth for some porridge. Her eyes opened wide as they stared at Jinghe, a sense of admiration filling them. Yanbo could practically see the stars shining in them. When Yanbo commented so dryly, but quietly so only Jinghe could hear it, Jinghe gave her a roll of the eyes.

"Are you getting jealous of a little child?"

"No." Yanbo raised her chin slightly, and Jinghe scoffed softly to herself. When Jinghe looked back down at the child, Yanbo stopped raising her chin and knelt down next to Jinghe to look at the child.

"Who are you?" A-Liu asked.

"My name is Lin Jinghe." Jinghe answered. "This is Cui Yanbo."

A-Liu looked at Yanbo, not fazed at all by her stone-cold face and intimidating aura. In fact, she reached out and grasped one of the braids hanging down the side of Yanbo's face, and tugged, causing Yanbo to stumble forward. She would've fallen flat on her face if Jinghe hadn't helped support her. Yanbo's eyes widened.

"You-!"

A-Liu seemed rather confused about Yanbo's reaction, but Jinghe let out a small laugh.

"In the future, don't randomly tug at stranger's braids. They won't be very happy." Jinghe told A-Liu, and she nodded, looking thoroughly chastised, bowing her head slightly.

"But... I can tug this jiejie's braids, right?" A-Liu asked. Yanbo was about to say an 'absolutely not!' when Jinghe interjected.

"Of course you can!" Jinghe said with a smile. Yanbo had half a mind to knock her in the head, but then, she saw A-Liu's big, toothy grin, and felt rather reluctant to do so.

"Fine." Yanbo huffed.

***

Jinghe entered the temple with a basket on her back filled with her day's purchases from the market, mostly thinking about the health of the child, and from her hand hung two round bottles of wine. Yanbo looked up at Jinghe with a slight raised brow, and they both knew that they were both remembering what had happened those hundreds of years ago, when Jinghe got drunk.

Jinghe cleared her throat. "I thought you should try some of the wine here. It's very good."

"No, thanks, I don't drink." Yanbo replied.

"You haven't even tried the wine of this town yet! It's definitely comparable to the wine of the heavens!" And a lot stronger. If you still don't get drunk from this wine... when am I ever going to be able to investigate that birthmark on her back?

"No, thanks." Yanbo repeated.

"Just try one cup! I promise you'll like it."

A-Liu scampered up beside Yanbo and tugged at her sleeve. "What is it, what is it? What did Jinghe-jiejie bring back from the markets?"

Jinghe suddenly felt a sense of irony. She was hundreds, probably even thousands of years older than that little child, yet the little child still judged by appearances and called her jiejie.

Yanbo considered this. "Only if you drink with me." She finally answered.

Jinghe thought about the prospect. "Fine!" She knitted the strings of space together to create a squat, wooden table and two drinking cups. They both sat down next to the table and Jinghe poured them each a drink. Just to humor Jinghe, Yanbo decided she would actually drink this first shot, only to find that it was very strong. Shortly after, she began to get a fuzzy head.

Jinghe had also drank as well. She was a relatively bad liar, so she decided it didn't matter if she got drunk, at least, if she still remembered what she needed to do, no harm would be done. A-Liu watched with big eyes as they both drank the cups down.

"Can I try?" A-Liu asked. Her request was promptly denied when Yanbo scooped the bottles of wine closer to her, pouring another cup for Jinghe and pushing it to her with wide, earnest eyes, completely ignoring A-Liu. Jinghe grimaced slightly but drank it down.

It didn't take long for both of them to get drunk. The truth was, both of them were pretty much lightweights who never drank. How could they possibly have good alcohol tolerance?

Yanbo, while drunk, stared intently at Jinghe with devotion and adoration, completely ignoring the little child climbing all over her. Jinghe blabbered on and on to Yanbo when she was drunk, sitting next to her and being overly touchy. If there had been a third person to watch this sight who knew them both in real life, what a comedic show it would've been! Yanbo stared in silence, Jinghe filled up the silence with endless talk about random things, Yanbo didn't move an inch, Jinghe made up for all that movement with being overly touchy, hugging her shoulder, then smoothing back a strand of hair.

A-Liu scrambled over curiously and sat down between them. Yanbo frowned, and gently moved A-Liu aside. Jinghe grinned a little dumbly and patted A-Liu's head.

"Go and play outside, alright?" Jinghe told A-Liu. A-Liu looked outside. It was almost dark. Yesterday, they hadn't let her go outside and play when it was dark, even when she asked, but this time, they were allowing her to do it without her asking first?

A-Liu skipped excitedly outside and left Jinghe and Yanbo in the big temple. Yanbo was thinking a million things at the moment, but she said none of them. Jinghe blabbered on even faster than her mind went. While drunk, she became even more quiet and wordless. Jinghe suddenly stood up and tugged Yanbo by the arm. When Yanbo didn't move, Jinghe suddenly picked her up by the waist and put her on her feet.

"Let's play a game!" Jinghe said with a grin. Yanbo tilted her head to the side, still staring at Jinghe wordlessly.

"See if you can catch me!" Jinghe said with a laugh, and then she began dashing away. Yanbo caught on pretty quickly, and she cleverly backed Jinghe into a corner after only a few minutes. Yanbo stared at Jinghe, and Jinghe stared back, and they stood like that in silence for a few moments.

Then, Jinghe smiled in a very honest and pure way. "You caught me! Now, I'll chase you!" Yanbo stared at Jinghe for another few moments before she got the message and began running away from Jinghe. Jinghe completely disregarded the fact that Yanbo wasn't a goddess anymore, just a powerful cultivator, and pulled a couple of tricks out of her sleeve to catch up to Yanbo in just a few steps. Then, because she wanted to, Jinghe gave Yanbo a shove and she ended up on the ground. Even while lying on the ground, Yanbo stared up at Jinghe with just as much admiration and devotion as she had been the entire time. Jinghe leaned over her, then stroked Yanbo's cheeks, neck, chin, finally touching her lips.

This got a reaction out of Yanbo. She turned her head away and then curled up, almost as if she'd been wronged. But after a few moments, she seemed to completely forget about it and stared back up at Jinghe with the same dumb expression.

Jinghe began scheming silently. She poked at Yanbo's lips again, and this time, Yanbo bit down on her finger, and then slowly, carefully, licked. Jinghe widened her eyes slightly, and then pulled her finger out of Yanbo's mouth. She looked down at her finger curiously.

Finally, she leaned closer and gave Yanbo's lips a light peck. Yanbo blinked and stared up at Jinghe, then grabbed Jinghe's neck, pulling her back down and then rolling over so she was on top of Jinghe. Yanbo kissed Jinghe, lingering and sweet, and pulled back after a light lick. Jinghe rolled them over again so she was on top of Yanbo, and was a little more aggressive, pressing her entire body on top of her and keeping her trapped with Jinghe's two hands by her head.

It was at this moment when A-Liu walked back in. A-Liu peeked a little closer at the two people lying on top of each other, but afterwards, she guessed most of the situation. With a giggle, she skipped back outside.

A-Liu's little giggle seemed to wake Yanbo up from the wine, and she suddenly pushed Jinghe off. Jinghe, losing all of her previous intimidation when she'd been holding Yanbo down, sat up and stared at Yanbo, looking like she'd been wronged.

"Why... why did you kiss me?" Yanbo asked, pulling her robes together, retying her belt more securely. She'd only asked the question to fill in the silence which Jinghe was content with keeping but Yanbo was not. Jinghe tilted her head to the side.

"Because I like you."

Yanbo's hands slipped on her belt, and it tumbled to the floor.

"I've always liked you." Jinghe continued. Then, she looked away and wore a slight pout on her face, seeming rather upset. She looked rather like a child whose parents had denied buying her a toy that she'd really wanted.

Yanbo felt like her lungs and her chest was being squeezed tightly, and she breathed shallowly. She shook her head.

"You're drunk." Yanbo said. "You don't know what you're saying."

Yanbo made to leave, but Jinghe's clingy drunk-personality emerged, and she clung onto Yanbo's sleeve with a slight frown.

"Why are you leaving? You're always leaving. Don't you know how hard it's been for me, looking for you all these years." Jinghe frowned even deeper. Yanbo slowly pried Jinghe's hands off her sleeve.

"You're drunk." Yanbo repeated. "Go to sleep."

Jinghe was surprisingly compliant, and she climbed into her makeshift bed and lay on her back. She even didn't forget to fold her hands over her stomach before she shut her eyes gently.

Yanbo didn't sleep at all that night, sitting at the entrance of the temple, braving the cool night wind in order to calm her burning body temperature down. She kept replaying that kiss in her mind, over and over again, the aggressive lips, the cool, lingering kiss, and the words afterwards. They were all words said in the heat of the moment, things done under the influence of alcohol, couldn't be counted as anything serious, much less anything truthful or real. Yanbo wanted to knock herself out, but she also wanted to rush back inside and question Jinghe until she got the answers she wanted from her mouth.

Yanbo's fingers touched her lips. They lingered with the taste of Jinghe on them. She closed her eyes. It would all be solved by tomorrow morning.

***

Jinghe opened her eyes and the first thing she felt was gentle comfort and relaxation as she recalled their childish behavior from last night, but then the scene played on in her mind, and that comfortable and relaxed mood quickly went away.

She sat up immediately. The sounds of her rustling blankets did not slip past Yanbo, still sitting outside, unmoving and still as a rock. Judging by the sudden noise and then the panicked way Jinghe scrambled up, Yanbo was able to deduce that she did, indeed, remember.

Jinghe stood there, in her inner robes, her hair in disarray, and her mind in absolute panic. The secret that she'd hidden for hundreds of years, how had she let it slip so easily?

"You're awake?" Yanbo walked in calmly. "Good. Have some hangover soup." She took a still-warm bowl that had been sitting on the squat table they'd been drinking at yesterday night and extended it towards Jinghe, who was still staring at her dumbly.

"I..." Jinghe started, her usual composure thoroughly ruined.

"Drink it first." Yanbo said, but a waver in her calm demeanor also showed through. Jinghe stared at Yanbo, wordless emotions crisscrossing her face, but she took the bowl and drank it all down in one gulp.

Yanbo sat down at the table, and Jinghe sat down across her. With a wave of her hand, she cleared the mess on the table they'd left behind from last night, leaving her with a clear line of sight towards Yanbo. However, with the easy way that Yanbo could watch Jinghe, Jinghe felt nervous instead. She turned her head slightly away and played with the hem of her robes. She was unaware that she was still in her inner robes.

"I... last night..." Jinghe started.

Yanbo looked the other way and her jaw visibly tightened, and her previously calm appearance was quickly showing holes and falling away.

"What you remember is indeed what happened." Yanbo answered her silent question.

Jinghe felt a tension unfold in the air, holding them both in check on their ends of the table, with the distance of a feet between them.

Yanbo finally offered a small smile. "Your actions while you were drunk, I won't hold you to them." She said. "But..."

All of Jinghe's hopes were hooked on that 'but', and she unconsciously leaned a little closer to Yanbo.

"But what?" Jinghe asked.

"Forgive me for being too curious, but..." Yanbo swallowed with difficulty. "How much... how much of it was true?"

Jinghe knew, since the moment she'd woken up, that this was a question she was going to have to answer sooner or later, and she hadn't decided how to answer it yet. She opened and closed her mouth, yet no words came out. In fact, the answer felt like it was stuck in her throat, unable to come out and unable to go back down into her stomach, but the longer she couldn't force it out, the harder it became to force out, drawing out the tension even longer.

Yanbo stood up abruptly and gave a forced smile. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have assumed or... asked you such a question. It's okay. I understand."

"What do you understand?" Jinghe desperately clutched to her sleeve, forcing her to stay in place. Yanbo's feet came to a halt, then she slowly turned around to face Jinghe.

"You didn't mean any of it." Yanbo said slowly. "Right?"

Jinghe made an impulsive decision and shook her head, shook her head continuously. "No, that's not what I meant. I... I actually did mean it. Everything I said, everything I did." She blurted. Moments later, she herself was shocked by her own boldness, much less to say Yanbo. Yanbo felt like she'd been hit with the force of a truck, and then happiness stirred in her stomach, seeping into her blood and spreading out to her entire body, so much so that she involuntarily grinned widely. Jinghe had never seen such an expression on Yanbo's face, but at the next moment, when Yanbo pulled her into a crushing hug, Jinghe finally understood.

Jinghe did not need Yanbo to tell her to knowthat her feelings had not gone unreciprocated, and all of a sudden, it was likethe weight of a million years had been lifted from her shoulders, and sherelaxed in Yanbo's embrace, taking in a shuddering breath, and then letting itall out.