"March, are you alright?"
Himeko's gentle voice was laced with warm concern — yet it landed on March 7th like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky.
March 7th's delicate frame shuddered as if she'd been electrocuted, and her long, milky-white legs instinctively snapped together.
"Hss—!"
Caelus sucked in a sharp breath.
Out in the hallway, Stelle — who had been about to intercept everyone before they could go looking for March — felt her own long legs give an involuntary tremble. She bent forward at the waist at an odd angle, as though trying to hide something, frantically suppressing the phantom flag that had begun to rise.
At the same moment, March 7th's knuckles went white where she was gripping the bedsheet.
"N-nothing! Nothing's wrong at all!"
She shouted back in a stuttering rush.
Luckily, March 7th had taken his shoes off earlier. Caelus padded barefoot across the floor, using the footwork technique he'd learned from Li Sushang via Moonscar — Still Water — moving like a stream winding silently over stone, erasing every trace of sound from his steps.
He held his breath. His thumb pressed down on the lock. The click of the deadbolt was so faint it was like a snowflake settling on the ground.
"Are you really alright?"
"Really, I am — Sister Himeko, I'm — I'm perfectly fine! I'm just, just tidying up my room! I accidentally spotted a creepy-crawly slithering out from under the covers and it startled me, that's all!"
Her heart was hammering like a war drum, her throat working in frantic little bobs. The reply March 7th forced out with artificial calm trembled at the edges.
She desperately wanted to close her eyes, but she was terrified that Himeko and the others would burst through the door — so she forced her pink-blue eyes wide open, staring fixedly at the door for any sign of movement.
In doing so, something that Caelus had just withdrawn from between her spotlessly pale, jade-smooth legs naturally came into her line of sight — and her face blazed so hot she thought it might catch fire.
"A creepy-crawly?"
"Yes, yes! We do have an open courtyard, after all, so it's not unusual for the odd insect to wander in."
"Mm, that's fair enough."
Outside the door, Himeko and Dan Heng were, naturally, not buying a single word of it. Little March had never been able to lie — even her voice was cracking and pitching off-key. But then again, didn't everyone have their own small secrets, their own private things they'd rather keep from the world?
Dan Heng understood that better than most. He'd spent years concealing the tangled truth of his Vidyadhara heritage, which meant he understood better than anyone the meaning and importance of respecting a person's secrets and privacy.
Dan Heng, Himeko, and Welt exchanged a look. A silent, mutual understanding passed between them. Unless the situation was genuinely dangerous, the "Family Loving Each Other" household had an unspoken rule: nobody pried into anyone else's private affairs.
Himeko's voice softened to the hush of falling petals: "Then get some rest. Call us if you need anything."
Welt added a quiet agreement: "Mm. Rest for now."
"Okay, okay… Eek!!"
The strained, brittle laugh that suddenly spiked in pitch made all three of them pause mid-step.
Himeko stopped, eyes lingering on the door handle for one uncertain second, then shook her head and asked:
"Little March, did you spot that creepy-crawly again? Do you need us to come help?"
"No, no, no — don't — don't come in!!"
Inside the room, a frantic March 7th was flailing her hands wildly toward the door, pupils shrinking to pinpoints, swallowing hard.
After deadbolting the door, Caelus had turned around — facing March 7th directly.
Earlier, with him turned to the side, she'd only caught an accidental glimpse before forcing her gaze away.
But now — as long as her eyes were open, she was going to see it. There was simply no avoiding it.
The tumultuous pounding inside March 7th's chest roared in her ears.
Caelus spread his hands innocently and gave them a little wave, showing off five completely empty fingers — the spatial ring couldn't be worn in his shrunken state, so he'd left it with Stelle.
He held up two fingers, mimed a quick backward retreat, then pointed at March 7th's covers, then at himself.
As they say: when people are pushed to their limits, they can do anything — except math problems.
And it wasn't just the direct frontal view that had her senses lit up like a flaming lance. If everyone outside came bursting in and saw Caelus without his clothes on — and the two of them in their current state — she would never be able to show her face again!
Under this immense pressure, March 7th's brain kicked into a gear she'd never used before, running at impossible speed. She actually understood exactly what Caelus was trying to mime. At the same time, a flash of desperate ingenuity struck her:
"Uh — I mean — what if, what if it runs out into the living room when someone opens the door? That'd be terrible! This bug is incredibly fast!"
She grabbed Caelus and shoved him forcefully toward the back of the bed canopy. But she tilted her head up and to the side, not daring to look at his lower half — and her bedside was still covered in all the plushies she'd bought on the Xianzhou.
In the frantic scramble, her foot slipped. The shove became a collapse — March 7th toppled forward, her whole body falling against Caelus's chest, and the two of them went down together onto the cherry-blossom-pink bedsheet.
"..."
With one ear attuned to the trembling in March 7th's voice and the sounds coming from within, Himeko's lashes gave a faint, almost imperceptible flutter.
She exchanged a glance with Dan Heng and Welt. It was painfully obvious: Little March was still lying.
They maintained their stance of respecting personal privacy. But still…
"Is the child alright?" Himeko asked.
The world was spinning. Already in a state of utter flustered panic, her brain freshly blown open from its earlier unprecedented breakthrough, the girl was sent fully offline by this chaotic tumble.
Dazed and dizzy, March 7th opened her eyes — and through the blur she seemed to make out a small arm that looked like Little Caelus's. She reached out for it as she spoke.
"The child… the child's… f-fine…"
"Good."
Himeko's voice faded into the distance along with the sound of everyone's footsteps. March 7th deployed every ounce of her concentration to listen — tracking each retreating footfall with laser focus — until she was absolutely certain everyone had gone, and only then did she let out a long breath of relief.
Then, the moment her attention shifted from the door back to what was directly in front of her, she froze solid.
A small arm…?
No — this — this was—!!
In a single sweeping rush, the flush that had been painted across March 7th's flawless porcelain cheeks spread from her cheekbones all the way to behind her ears — a vivid, burning crimson, like a sky exploding with late-spring cherry blossoms in full bloom.
"Stelle? What's wrong? You've been hunched over like that, all stiff — are you feeling unwell?"
In the hushed stillness of the room, March 7th's five senses seemed amplified by the scorching heat in her hand. She could faintly make out Sister Himeko's concerned voice drifting in from outside.
March 7th just sat there in a daze.
"Ah Qi, if you keep this up, I can't promise I'll be able to hold back much longer."
Caelus was sprawled flat on his back, limbs akimbo, pinned beneath March 7th and a pile of plushies. Aside from him, perhaps only the helpless light-novel protagonist archetype could have endured this scene.
If it weren't for the fact that he'd need to explain things to everyone shortly, with plenty more still to do after that, Caelus absolutely would not have held back.
"I — I didn't mean to…!"
In her flustered panic, March 7th blurted an apology first.
The words had barely left her lips before her hand snapped back like it had touched a hot iron. Her pink-blue eyes filled instantly with flustered, glittering tears — the bright, lively light that usually danced in them shattering into shards of embarrassed mortification.
She wanted to find a crack in the floor and disappear into it.
"No — it's all your fault!"
Catching a glimpse of Caelus's utterly relaxed, savoring expression, she suddenly felt like she was the one getting the short end of the stick. She yanked the sheet over and threw it across his waist and stomach, then hammered her little fists against his chest:
"If it weren't for you — you suddenly growing back to full size — how would any of this have happened?!"
Terrified the others might come back, she kept her voice low — yet stubbornly pitched it as high as she could manage.
"How is this my fault? You're the one who carried me back to your room in the first place. And wasn't it you who pushed me with your eyes closed that caused the fall?"
Her eyes flushed rosy at the corners. March 7th's gaze refused to meet Caelus's directly: "Well, when you put it that way…"
Little March had always been a reasonable person.
The root cause of this whole incident was undeniably that she had carried Caelus back to her room. Without that, none of what followed would have happened.
But — March 7th suddenly found she didn't want to be reasonable with Caelus right now.
"It — it's still your fault! Serves you right for teaming up with Stelle to trick me into calling you 'Mama'!"
Caelus watched March 7th pout and mumble with her face turned away, and felt a mischievous impulse stir in him. He opened his mouth and called out:
"Mama~ Mama~ Hug~!"
The first "Mama" he delivered in a pitch-perfect imitation of a toddler's lisping, guileless voice. The second "Mama" and the "Hug~" he rendered in the exaggeratedly coy, saccharine tone Stelle had used on purpose when she'd put on that act.
"Ugh!"
When he'd been tiny it was one thing — but hearing Caelus call her that now that he was back to his full size felt deeply, profoundly wrong!
And the layers of sarcasm were cranked all the way up to maximum!
So infuriating!
"Don't go talking like a little kid!"
The tips of her ears turned a vivid, translucent coral. Every last bit of her earlier forced retort dissolved into a huff of air, and March 7th drove her fist hard into Caelus's chest.
Not that it carried much force, given the state she was in.
"Didn't you enjoy hearing it before? You even made me call you 'big sis.'"
Back when they'd been changing into the children's clothes at the clothing shop, Stelle had appointed herself his mother, while everyone else had claimed the role of big sister — and that treacherous little disciple Little Gui had apparently been plotting to leverage his photos to open up a female fanbase market!
March 7th sat in a duck-squat on Caelus's lap, her cherry-pink hair swaying like a small waterfall with each movement. Her fingertip prodded lightly at his cheek — not hard, not soft — as her pink-blue eyes shone bright as stars.
"Then call me 'big sis'!"
The end of the sentence tilted upward; she propped her chin up with hard-won bravado, the corner of her lips quirking into a pert little crescent moon.
"Calling you 'big sis' requires compensation."
"This young lady hereby absolves you of all responsibility for sneaking bites of the half-finished ice cream."
"Does that count as compensation? …Now this counts."
Caelus sat up. March 7th, caught off guard by the sudden movement, lurched and tipped backward.
"What are you suddenly doing — mmph!"
Caelus's palm cupped the small of March 7th's back, drawing the girl into his arms. He dipped his head and kissed those cherry-soft lips.
March 7th's eyes were like a lake nestled within a cherry blossom forest — they had been reflecting the clear blue of the open sky, but now countless spring petals came drifting down to rest on the water's surface, stirring endless ripples that refused to still.
...
"Sister Himeko, don't worry — I'm fine."
The phantom-limb synesthesia had been making Stelle feel miserable, but sitting down had helped considerably — right up until a sensation reached her through the shared link: lips, a tongue, touch. Her expression shifted. She switched over to her most withering, half-dead-fish-eyed look of supreme disdain.
Not that she was jealous or anything of the sort.
After all, they were originally one and the same person. March 7th was Caelus-cub's March-wife — and that made her March-wife too.
Triangles are the most structurally stable shape, after all!
Stack more triangles together and the whole thing only gets sturdier!
"Stelle — those two children… what exactly is going on?"
Back in the main sitting room, Welt lifted his teacup, took a sip, and noticed the room was empty of small presences. He tilted his fingers toward the spot where the Little Haxxor Bunny had been sitting, one eyebrow raised:
"Where did that little girl go just now?"
"She probably headed back to her own room."
Stelle endured the phantom-induced heat, letting out a long, slow breath.
"Back to her own room — so she really is Bronya, then?"
Hearing Stelle say it that way, the few who had been only half-convinced by the whole 'daughter' story quickly pieced together the little gray-haired girl's identity.
"What happened out there? Why did she end up as a child?"
Dan Heng asked.
"Ahem — well, it all started with Guinaifen's livestream last night."
That insufferable Caelus-cub!
She cursed 'herself' silently, then launched into a full account of everything that had happened from last night up to now — buying time and drawing everyone's attention away from Caelus and March 7th.
As for the Haxxor Bunny: once Caelus had grown back to his normal size, Bronya had immediately reminded Haxxor Bunny that she had eaten slightly more of the candy than Caelus had, so she should recover a bit later than him. To prevent a situation like Caelus's from occurring, Haxxor Bunny had promptly retreated to her own room to prepare a change of clothes in her normal size.
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