CHAPTER 15 – The Birth
261 Words
Their daughter arrived in early spring. Tiny. Pink. Screaming at the top of her lungs.
Wanwan named her Xiao Yue. Moon. Conceived under that autumn full moon.
Jingxing held his daughter for the first time and immediately burst into tears.
"She's perfect," he whispered.
"I know," Wanwan said. "She gets it from me."
"She gets the screaming from you."
"Your Highness!"
He laughed.
"I'm joking. She's beautiful. Like her mother."
Growing Up
Xiao Yue grew into a precocious, mischievous kid.
She inherited her mother's humor. Her father's stubbornness.
By age five, she was trying to invent things. Mixed honey and tea. Called it "bubble tea Junior."
Drew pictures of flying machines. Demanded her father build them.
Jingxing, now thoroughly domesticated, built her a wooden glider. It crashed into a pond.
Yue declared it a "successful test flight."
Wanwan watched them. Her heart full.
"This is it," she said to herself. "This is my happy ending."
The Letter
One day, a mysterious letter arrived.
No sender. No seal.
Inside: a single piece of parchment.
"Dear Host,
If you're reading this, you chose to stay. We're so proud of you. You completed your mission and found love in a world you never belonged to.
But you'll always have a home here. In our hearts. In the bullet-chat.
Live well, Princess-Consort. Make us proud.
— The Viewers"
Wanwan stared at it for a long time.
Then she tucked it into her sleeve.
Smiled.
Went to find her husband.
"Jingxing," she said, "let's go drink bubble tea with our daughter."
He smiled.
"Anything for you."
- Writer
