Chapter 44 · Sugar Paintings in Memory

When Tokyo's autumn sun poured through the window with osmanthus scent, the entryway doorbell suddenly rang.

Little Peach stood on tiptoe to reach the doorknob, golden powder from her hair falling into the sandalwood box on the shoe cabinet's top shelf—the letter box delivered by Yuekui in a dream, now gently shaking in time with the bell.

"Who is it?" Su Qinghuan peeked from the kitchen, holding freshly steamed osmanthus cakes. Pumpkin seeds on her apron glowed honey-colored in the sun. "Didn't you say you'd take Coalball to the vet today?"

Lin Ye wiped his Reverse Scale Core and approached, warm light flowing in his palm. When the door opened, he paused—an elderly woman in an ink-green kimono stood outside, silver hair neatly combed, a faded red string tied around her wrist. Hanging from it was a half-piece of stardust meteorite, identical to the "Little Peach's collar fragment" described in Yuekui's letter.

"Excuse me…" The woman's voice trembled. "Is this the home of the Levithan Squad?"

Soon the living room coffee table was laden with tea and snacks. The elderly woman held a celadon cup, fingertips tracing the ice-crack patterns on its rim. Her gaze swept over the family photo on the wall, the dozing murder of crows on the sofa, and finally landed on Lin Ye's Reverse Scale Core.

"Three hundred years…" she murmured. "I thought all this should lie buried in the dust of Locking Dragon Abyss."

"Who are you?" Asagao offered an osmanthus cake, her spirit pattern core warming slightly as if sensing something.

The woman removed her sunglasses. A deep scar ran diagonally from her brow to her jaw, but above it, an inlaid tiny stardust meteorite matched exactly the color of Yuekui's shattered core when sealing the pollution.

"I am Chizuru," her voice suddenly clear. "Adjutant to General Yuekui three hundred years ago."

Memories surged like a tide.

Lin Ye's Reverse Scale Core trembled violently, golden light patterns bursting from its core to weave a scene in mid-air: Locking Dragon Abyss in a torrential rain, an armored general (Yuekui) carrying a wounded girl (Chizuru) on her back, black mist roiling behind them. Yuekui's armor was corroded by black mist, yet she shielded Chizuru with her body: "Chizuru, hold on! I'll take you to the Reverse Scale Core!"

"That was the last time I saw her." Chizuru's fingers touched the scar by her eye. "The black mist swallowed her armor. I only managed to grab a half-piece of stardust meteorite—she'd broken it from her own core, saying to keep it until I returned."

Su Li's spatial spirit pattern suddenly lit up. An old photo appeared in her palm: a double-bunned girl (Chizuru) stood before a shrine, holding a flower-winged black cat (exactly like the collar-stealing crow in Little Peach's murder), with Yuekui in general's armor behind her, smiling as she handed over a sugar painting.

"This is…" Little Peach leaned in as Coalball meowed onto her lap. "A sugar painting? I was telling Coalball yesterday I wanted to learn to make them for Mom!"

Chizuru's eyes reddened. She took an oil-paper package from her sleeve, revealing a half-piece of brittle sugar painting—a butterfly-shaped sugar shell with scattered sugar crystals: "I hid this in my bosom when I escaped. Yuekui said when the war ended, she'd make me a phoenix sugar painting herself."

At dusk, everyone gathered under the Spirit Pattern Tree. Chizuru's murder of crows (now in translucent spirit form) perched on her shoulder, preening each other with Jiu's crows. Sakura held a tablet, projecting Chizuru's memory shards onto the tree: Yuekui teaching her to hold a sword, their smiles sharing sugar paintings at a supply station, and the half-piece of stardust meteorite Yuekui pressed into her hand at their final parting.

"So your memories were hidden in the sugar painting." Asagao whispered. Her spirit pattern core resonated with Chizuru's stardust meteorite; when light patterns touched the sugar painting, the brittle shell regained its clarity, and the butterfly's wings began to flutter, casting a pale golden shadow in mid-air.

"Yuekui said love should be 'hidden, waiting for the right person to find'." Chizuru took out a wooden box from her waist, containing twelve half-pieces of stardust meteorite. "These were left by the twelve spirit pattern envoys who fought alongside her. We vowed that when the pollution cleared, we'd piece these fragments into a complete star map to show her—we all survived, all carried her sugar paintings, and lived well."

Lin Ye's Reverse Scale Core suddenly warmed. He took out Yuekui's letter box and found new characters engraved on the jade plaque inside:

"Reunion isn't a single person's destination—it's where all who wait for reunion can find each other."

Late at night, Lin Ye sat on Tokyo Tower's observation deck. The Reverse Scale Core hovered over his knees, starlight flowing with Chizuru's memory shards: the sweetness of sugar paintings, the coldness of armor, the warmth of Yuekui's fingertips as she handed over the sugar art.

"Captain." Little Peach's voice came from the stairwell. She held Coalball and a half-eaten osmanthus cake. "Grandma Chizuru said she'll teach us to make sugar paintings tomorrow. She also said…" She stood on tiptoe to put the cake in Lin Ye's hand, "to add three spoons of honey, because General Yuekui always said, 'Enough sweetness, and the bitterness fades'."

Lin Ye took a bite of the osmanthus cake, the sweet taste spreading. Looking at the city lights, he remembered Yuekui's words: "Love is reaching out knowing it will hurt." Now holding Little Peach's hand, the warmth through the sugar crystals made him understand another kind of love—someone willing to wait three hundred years just to make the sweetest sugar painting with you, turning past regrets into joy.

Wind swept over the tower, lifting an osmanthus petal that floated into the sky, melting into the Reverse Scale Core's starlight to become a sugar-coated star.

Somewhere far away, a healed soul watched, smiling softly. It was Yuekui, and every "Reunion Knot" once wrapped in love.