CH 118

After He Sinian listened to Madame Moon’s emotionless declaration, he remained silent for a long time.

All the pieces started to fall into place; the misgivings that had bogged him for years had finally led to an answer.

“The person who saved me at the alley back then….was also you.”

He clasped Chu Jiao and looked at her in the eye.

Chu Jiao blinked. Seeing that she couldn’t evade his gaze, she could only timidly nod her head.

“At that time, I didn’t have enough spiritual power, so…. I was the reason why you got heavily beaten up by those thugs….”

Chu Jiao placed the blame on He Sinian’s injuries from back then, all to herself, having completely forgotten that at that time, she was also just a tiny little being.

“You…..you…..”

He Sinian rested his head against Chu Jiao’s, feeling his throat close up slightly. The tremor in his heart rendered him speechless. In response, he could only kiss his little cat and thank her for doing so many things for him which he was unaware of.

“Meow~” Chu Jiao stuck her tongue out and licked the tip of the man’s nose. She didn’t feel the need to specially explain the things she had done for him. Even if He Sinian wasn’t the male lead, he had picked her up, taken care of her, and accompanied her through her childhood. These feelings were worth her doing these actions.

The feelings between people have always been a two-way street.

Mutual Trust. Mutual Tolerance. Mutual Concern. And, Mutual Redemption.

Ah Nian. I saved you once but how many times have you saved me?

The warm and affectionate atmosphere between man and cat had not lasted long for Madame Moon had interrupted them.

“The feelings between humans and demons never last long.”

It felt as though the sentence she spoke were for the two people in front of her. Yet at the same time, it also felt as if she were speaking to herself.

Once again, He Sinian took Chu Jiao into his arms as he fearlessly looked straight at the woman in black. “What lasts long was never about the relationships between human to human nor demon to demon.”

“It’s these feelings.”

“I love Chu Jiao, regardless of whether or not she’s a human or a demon.”

“In my eyes, Chu Jiao will always be Chu Jiao. I love her no matter what she looks like, along with her little temper and her little claws…..Everything about her makes my heart beat wildly.

“When I was younger, I firmly believed that she was the redemption the world had given me because she was able to pull me out of the dark abyss.”

“She is the one and only person who belongs to me.”

“I’ve already lost her once. So this time, I’m going to hold onto her tightly to make sure nobody can keep us apart again.”

“That….would also include you.”

The original traces of contempt on Madame Moon’s face had already vanished and were replaced with a complex and disbelieving look. She asked, “If she hadn’t come to find you….or say, even if you both got together now….”

“Don’t you also want to get married and have kids? When all is said and done…there’s no way for demons and humans to have offsprings together…”

He Sinian chuckled, shaking his head, “As long as I have Jiao Jiao, it’s already enough.”

“Sons or whatever, I don’t mind not having any.”

“Ha! Humans. You always say one thing but your actions say another.” Madame Moon bitterly recalled the time when somebody had told her the same thing. Look at what had resulted from it?

She continued to press harder.

“Even if she’s a demon? Even if she will live decades longer than you would?”

“Have you ever thought about what it would be like when you slowly grow old yet she remains young?”

“Would your feelings continue to be the same as before?”

In the eyes of the cat demon clan, the lifespan of a human was indeed extremely brief. It was so insignificant that it could pass in a blink of an eye. So short, yet after nearly a century had passed, it was still impossible for the Madame Moon herself to forget the feelings she once had.

He Sinian had yet to respond when Chu Jiao seized the opportunity to speak out first.

“Ah Nian will still look cute even when he’s old!”

“And…And I can also grow old together with him!”

Don’t you worry about getting older because you’ll still look cute even when you’re old.

He Sinian smiled, rubbing Chu Jiao’s little head affectionately. Then, he gathered his thoughts and continued to answer Madame Moon’s questions.

“The older we age, the more forgetful we become, but one thing will endure, and that is our yearning for each other.”

“In the last few years of his life, my grandfather couldn’t recognize anyone. Yet, his mouth continuously called out for the name of the only person whom he couldn’t forget, my grandmother’s.”

“Genuine feelings wouldn’t dissipate over time; it would only be more deeply carved in our heart and more deeply etched in our memories.”

“When my mother gave birth to me, grandfather gave me the name ‘He Sinian.’ Sinian stands for yearning my grandmother(1), Nian Yue.

斯年(Sinian) is the original characters for He Sinian’s name. 思年(Sinian): Short for 思念年月 (Sinian Nian Yue), which means to yearn for Nian Yue.

“Come to think of it…..it’s a coincidence that my grandmother also shared a ‘Moon’ (月) character in her name.”

Madame Moon’s body stiffened.

She became disturbed. “Your…..last name is He? He Sinian?”

Chu Jiao often harped the name ‘Ah Nian’ in her ears but she didn’t know his complete name. Even if she knew, she didn’t care for it at that time.

“No wonder…..no wonder you look so similar…..”

Madame Moon suddenly started laughing in mockery. “You said your grandma was called ‘Nian Yue’? Hehe, what a coincidence. I’m also called ‘Nian Yue.’”

He Sinian finally knew the reason why he felt that Madame Moon seemed so familiar.

He stood up and retrieved something from the bedroom.

“This is a remnant that my grandfather had left.” He Sinian spread out his hand, revealing a bronze-colored pocket watch. “Inside….is a picture of my grandmother.”

Pressing the button on the side, the cover opened up to reveal two faded pictures. Although it was in black and white and looked extremely blurry, one could still see the man’s photograph who shared an extremely similar silhouette to He Sinian, while the girl ‘s appearance looked to be the same as the girl in front of him if the unique hairstyle of that era were to be covered.

Nian Yue glanced at the photo and scrunched her brows. “I’ve never given birth to a child, and I don’t have a nephew as old as you.”

“My grandfather didn’t have a son. My father was given to my grandfather by his younger brother to adopt.” He Sinian closed the pocket watch. “So if we were to speak in terms of bloodline, I should be referring to my grandfather as ‘Great Uncle.'”

At this, Nian Yue’s calm facade had finally crumbled. “H-He didn’t have any sons!?”

“Di-didn’t he have a childhood sweetheart as a fiancee!?”

Nian Yue could never forget the day she escaped the clan while fighting her sorrows. And when she had finally found that person, she saw him holding a child and standing next to a beautiful girl, painting an intimate and cheerful picture.

The affection he promised her, and the future he promised her, had collapsed at that very moment.

Nian Yue fled in defeat, putting up walls around her heart from that moment forward.

“At that time, my grandfather had gone to war and hadn’t returned for many years. His fiancee already had another in her heart.” He Sinian saw Nian Yue quietly losing control and gradually came to an assumption in his heart. “When he came back, he annulled the engagement.”

“He told them that he already had someone else he liked, but he had carelessly lost her. He didn’t know where grandmother went but he had always been waiting for her.”

“Just like that…he waited and waited….he waited until his head of hair turned white, and his memories deteriorated, but sadly, he couldn’t wait any longer.”

He Sinian placed the pocket watch into the teary-eyed Nian Yue’s hand.

“He never married in his lifetime, but he had always told us to call the person in the picture ‘grandmother’.”

“He had always been waiting for you.”