In a private room inside the orphanage, the two sat quietly.

At such close range, their eyes kept meeting whenever one stole a glance at the other. Then they'd pull back at once, as if even the air around them was heating up.

Even now, Ye Shixia still dabbed at her tears with a silk handkerchief from time to time. The skin around her eyes was red, yet her expression was full of contentment and joy.

The smile at the corner of her lips hadn't faded since earlier.

As for Ye Chang'an, he was caught between regret and unease. He regretted missing those five years with everyone, and he was uneasy about what Shi Xia thought of him.

Because it was strange...

Back then, she'd at least called him Big Brother Director, or even Dad sometimes, secretly, in private.

And now that they'd met again, that sensible, gentle big sister from years ago had become a true big sister to the other children...

And even to Ye Chang'an.

Five years ago, Ye Chang'an was nearly seventeen, and Ye Shixia was fourteen.

Five years later, Ye Chang'an was seventeen, and Ye Shixia was nineteen.

It was already hard to ignore the mature aura coming from her.

Ye Chang'an didn't know what everyone had gone through over the years, but this change alone was enough to make him incredibly stiff and awkward.

Five years was enough to turn someone once close to you into a stranger who no longer matched your memories at all.

And when a cute otaku had to talk to a stranger, especially a strange woman, or rather, a strange goddess, of course he'd feel awkward.

Very awkward.

The current Ye Shixia had both a young girl's purity and a grown woman's maturity. Her face, one that looked very much like a wife's, wore only light makeup.

Her long dress was exquisitely made. Even with Ye Chang'an's decent eye, he could tell it had to be from an expensive brand. Her black heels and the pale bare skin of her ankles were especially alluring.

In fact, even if Ye Shixia were still wearing cheap clothes, the grace and composure that radiated from her, inside and out, would keep anyone from daring to look down on her.

It had been said before that even at first sight, Shi Xia gave people the impression of a kind, optimistic girl from a well-off family, someone who had never worried about food or clothing.

But when he truly learned about Shi Xia's past family, and the tragedy that had happened to her, he finally understood that this aura hadn't been cultivated by her family.

It came from her bones, from her soul.

A nobility that belonged to her alone.

Maybe you'd think, how could a poor family raise a girl who naturally carried that kind of noble grace?

And yet Shi Xia was exactly that kind of girl. No matter how much suffering her family had brought her, it still couldn't hide the nobility on her.

Ye Chang'an didn't know whether people had past lives. But if they did, then the Ye Shixia of those years had probably been a young lady from a great house, one no less prestigious than the four great clans of Xue, Wang, Jia, and Shi.

And then there was that description...

A face that looked like a wife's.

That phrase had suddenly popped into Ye Chang'an's mind.

"Wife."

And once it appeared, it spiraled completely out of control. Setting aside that noble air of hers, every time Ye Shixia lifted her eyes and met his gaze, every smile and frown, every faint curve of expression, the blush on her cheeks, that gentle obedience, and those bright eyes that always seemed to hold starlight—

Every bit of it gave Ye Chang'an the feeling that he was a husband who had finally come home, while Ye Shixia was the wife who had waited for him all this time.

But she wouldn't complain to him.

Instead, she'd gently wash away the weariness from his body, and even tend to him.

Married woman. Good wife. Yamato Nadeshiko...

Words like these suddenly flooded Ye Chang'an's mind and refused to leave.

"Do you still remember this room, Dad?" Ye Shixia wiped the tears from the corner of her eye again with her finger and smiled.

"Ahem, that way of calling me..."

"You don't like it, Dad?"

"It's not that... it's just, times have changed, people have changed, and before I can even speak, the tears come first... ah, ah, what am I even saying..."

Ye Shixia looked at Chang'an like that with a doting expression, making him blush furiously.

"Anyway... you don't hate it, right, Dad?"

"...Yeah. Being called Dad by a young, beautiful girl or something... no man can refuse that."

"No man?" Ye Shixia licked her rosy lips and looked at Chang'an with playful amusement.

"Ahem. If you keep teasing Dad, I'll put you in confinement again!"

"So you recognized it, Dad." Ye Shixia stuck out her tongue and laughed.

Honestly, how could he not?

The layout of this room was almost no different from back then, including the meditation cushion over there.

This room had originally been a study room, and back then, Shi Xia and Ye Chang'an had shared a rather ambiguous experience here.