The blanket slipped quietly from her shoulders. Clarisse touched it, feeling its warmth, and something gentle flickered in her eyes.
"Awake? Don't sleep at the table next time."
"…I know~"
Even though it wasn't the first time, Clarisse still felt herself liking Mr. Qi more.
Strictly speaking, they were "patient's family" and "doctor."
But his care far exceeded that boundary.
He didn't need to do so much.
Why did he?
After washing up, Clarisse sat at the table and ate breakfast obediently, chewing in small, slow bites.
It wasn't that she didn't eat—she could always hear him say, Skipping breakfast is bad for your health.
She just didn't want that kind of "engineered concern."
Mr. Qi's home held many strange, wonderful things.
Like this dining table.
Hot food left upon it stayed warm for a day and a night; even apple slices wouldn't oxidize.
After breakfast, Clarisse checked the time.
Her mother's session still had a few hours to go.
She glanced at the table "swallowing" the dishes to clean and sterilize them, then at the spotless bamboo cottage.
Her desire to help—just a little, in any way she could—had nowhere to land.
Except for one thing.
One thing Mr. Qi always did by himself.
She had been curious for years.
A battle raged between two little voices in her mind, and Clarisse finally asked.
She approached, standing neatly at his side like a proper lady.
"Mr. Qi, there's something… I've wanted to ask you for a long time."
"Ask."
"That house not far away—does it belong to you?"
Over the past five years, she'd often seen him going to clean it, or returning afterward.
Sometimes she saw him trimming the thick greenery along the path.
That path also led to the bamboo cottage.
Qi Zhimu fell silent for a moment, then shook his head.
"…It isn't my home."
Clarisse wasn't surprised. If it were his, why live in a bamboo cottage?
"Then… why do you clean it so often?"
"That's my teacher's home. Long ago, she used special means to move it here. Now… she forgot to take it with her." Qi Zhimu explained softly.
Clarisse only then realized his gaze had been fixed on that place all along.
Yet forgot to take it with her didn't quite make sense—like moving an entire house as easily as furniture.
"And trimming the path… why do you do that?"
It couldn't be to make it easy for people to find the cottage. Mr. Qi was a recluse—she knew that.
"So my teacher won't forget the way home," Qi Zhimu said.
Clarisse froze.
In that single sentence, she heard sorrow—clear, unmistakable.
Why sorrow?
Had his teacher already died—?
No. No—
Before she could shake her thoughts away, Qi Zhimu's hand settled gently atop her head.
"My teacher… lost and forgot many things on her way toward a certain endpoint. Perhaps that includes her home."
"I believe that if one day she reaches that endpoint—if she gets what she wants—she will remember many things she forgot."
"And she will come home."
"I can't help her. The only thing I can do… is watch her home for her."
Warmth spread from his palm into Clarisse's scalp.
And for no reason she could name, jealousy rose in her chest.
Jealousy toward Mr. Qi's teacher.
But then she thought: someone he cherished so deeply… of course he cared for her home.
"Your teacher must be very important to you," Clarisse said.
"Of course. Without her, I'd have died in a pile of corpses."
That explained it.
Clarisse's strange jealousy vanished.
A teacher who could raise a student like Mr. Qi had to be extraordinary.
"Then where is your homeworld, Mr. Qi?"
"It became cosmic dust long ago. Wherever my heart belongs—that is my home."
"So that's why you were happy yesterday, when you said Mother and I could go home?"
"Something like that."
Clarisse's heart sighed.
Mr. Qi… my heart has chosen this place as home, not the cold 'homeland' I came from.
But you don't know that.
"Let's stop here." Qi Zhimu checked the time. "I need to go to the back mountain."
He left instructions behind.
"If anything happens before Mrs. Durand's session ends, notify me immediately. I'll return at once."
Clarisse startled, then nodded.
Every year around this season, Mr. Qi went to the back mountain to tend the plum grove—mounding soil, pruning branches.
When a day came—the one he called Major Cold—he would harvest the blooming plum blossoms to brew wine.
She'd tasted it countless times. Every time, it was enough to make her forget her troubles for a while.
If she had to name the most unforgettable drink of her life, it would be Mr. Qi's plum-blossom wine.
Oh—and Major Cold was also Mr. Qi's birthday.
"Let me help you, Mr. Qi."
"No need." Qi Zhimu smiled and declined gently. "That dress isn't suited for the back mountain. Stay here and watch over your mother."
Clarisse could only nod helplessly.
Her mother's symptoms had flared yesterday—she could remember no one but her daughter.
They'd left in a rush; there was no time to change into practical clothes.
Qi Zhimu took off his lab coat and hung it on the rack.
He glanced at the forecasted temperature, then turned his head in habit and reminded her softly:
"The temperature is dropping. In a few days, it won't be suitable to wear such a thin dress. You'll catch a cold."
"I know." Clarisse swallowed the rest of what she wanted to say. "…Be careful. I'll wait for you to come back."
Qi Zhimu inclined his head and left for the back mountain.
As she watched his tall figure disappear, Clarisse's thoughts tangled again.
She didn't know why Mr. Qi never wore more layers in winter—at most, the lab coat or a jacket.
At first she thought he was simply resistant to cold.
Later she learned that when it snowed, his hands were ice-cold—like actual ice.
So he was affected.
With that in mind, Clarisse made a decision.
She would take a handicraft class and knit him warm clothing as a birthday gift this year.
A sweater. A scarf.
-------
My : pat*eon*com/RuneA
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