Luo Yu'an finally got back to her old house before the sun set. As the car entered the forest, she saw the red-pillared gatehouse and lanterns on the mountain road from afar, and she suddenly felt like she was home. Since her sister, who depended on her for everything, left, she had lost her home, but now, she has a new home.
Even if thousands of years have passed and many people and things have changed drastically, Shishen will still be here. Compared with the short and impermanent life of human beings, he is like eternity. As long as he thinks of this, Luo Yu'an feels extremely relieved.
The guest from the Liang family had already left. After saying something that was ambiguous and meaningful, he saw that she didn't respond and left with a snort of laughter. She seemed to be just coming to see her casually, and besides her, no one from other clans came. Luo Yu'an guessed that there were probably many complicated relationships between clans. Being friendly was not necessarily true, and being unfriendly was not necessarily true.
She got off the car at the gate of the old house, and the bodyguard in a suit who went out with her carefully unloaded the rose from the car. In order to make it survive better after transplantation, the branches, leaves and flower buds were trimmed a lot, and it didn't look very good when it was bare.
Luo Yu'an picked out the rose branches with full and beautiful flowers from the many branches she trimmed, and tied them all together to make a bouquet. Holding it in her arms, the huge bouquet almost covered her face. It was well preserved along the way, and the bouquet looked as tender as if it had just been cut from the branches.
She held the flowers and went to see the clan god, like a newlywed husband who went out to work and brought flowers to his wife to please her. Her steps were so brisk that the clan girl holding an umbrella for her could hardly keep up.
"The sun has set. There's no need to hold an umbrella for me." Luo Yu'an saw the setting sun, smiled at the old lady beside him, ran a few steps with the flowers in his arms, and stepped into the courtyard of the shrine.
The courtyard belonging to the clan god divides the inner and outer worlds, like an invisible barrier. Inside, the air is quieter, time passes more slowly, and the faint fragrance of flowers and the scent of incense burned over the years are mixed together. The top of the gorgeous shrine, which is intricately carved, reflects the last bit of sunlight from the horizon, shining brightly with gold. After a moment, the light dissipates and returns to darkness and silence.
Luo Yu'an's steps became more steady unconsciously. It was strange that in front of Shi Shen, she wanted to show her steady and mature side, but her heart seemed to have suddenly regressed into a little girl, always frivolous and impulsive, wanting to act coquettishly to him.
"Ujigami... I'm back." She walked into the shrine holding the flowers, and saw a little red light slowly lit up in the originally dark shrine, instantly illuminating the entire shrine.
Ujigami sat on the altar, still in the same posture, but - his expression and appearance had changed!
The young man looked like a sculpture of ice and snow, with black hair and white clothes. The blacker the white, the whiter the whiter. He had lost the gentleness of the spring breeze that he used to have. Instead, he had only the harshness of wind and frost and the hardness of mountain jade.
Luo Yu'an stopped and stared at the cold Shi Shen in front of her. The rumors she had heard before suddenly flooded her mind. Shi Shen's personality was different every time he woke up from his sleep. She knew this and had asked Shi Shen for confirmation.
Calculating the time, the clan god should have woken up from his deep sleep during her death, but the clan god she saw yesterday morning was still the gentle one. Why did he change when he came back today? The clan goddesses behind her had the same expression as usual, and were as respectful as usual. They had long been accustomed to the changes in the clan god.
Putting down the flower tree that Luo Yu'an had someone bring back, the two of them naturally retreated.
Luo Yu'an stood in the shrine holding the flower, and suddenly felt that the night wind was a little cold, which shouldn't be so cold at this time. She trembled slightly, but still walked slowly towards the clan god holding the flower, holding the flower in front of him, just like she had given him the paper camellia before.
"Here are... the flowers I wanted to give you."
The voice was a little hesitant when it came out of his mouth. The impatience and joy that he could not conceal before were like flowers encountered by cold rain, which were beaten to pieces. There was an inexplicable slight discomfort in his heart.
This is the clan god, the clan god I am familiar with and like, although with a different expression, it is still him, the one he remembers. Luo Yu'an emphasized again and again in his heart, not wanting to show any rejection of this slightly unfamiliar clan god.
Ujigami looked at her coldly for a long time, finally stretched his hand out from his sleeve and took her bouquet.
Luo Yu'an relaxed his tense shoulders imperceptibly, exhaled slowly, and looked a little helpless as if he didn't know what to do.
At this moment, Ujigami stretched out his other hand from his sleeve, clenched it into a fist and placed it in front of her. Under her puzzled gaze, he turned it over and opened it, revealing a red camellia in the palm of his hand.
A few thin, bright red petals surround and protect the golden pistil in the center.
Looking at the red camellia in the palm of the God's hand, Luo Yu'an was stunned for a while, and suddenly she felt a kind of joy as if she had survived a disaster. The anxiety and discomfort in her heart were instantly taken away by the flower. She reached out her hand to take the camellia, raised her head and showed a friendly smile, and said what she wanted to say on the way:
"I saw a beautiful rose tree over there and wanted to transplant it here, but the gardener said that if it wanted to survive, all the branches and leaves had to be pruned off. I thought it was a pity, and I really wanted you to see it in bloom, so I brought all the cut flowers back."
"Do you like this flower?" She stared at Ujigami's cold expression while she spoke. Although he looked cold, he answered her question.
“This flower blooms very enthusiastically.”
That means love. Luo Yu'an carefully discerned Shi Shen's mood, tightened his grip on Hong Shancha's hand, and then tentatively stretched out his hand to touch the back of his cold white hand.
Ujigami had no intention of pushing her away or rejecting her, and continued to let her touch him.
Luo Yu'an's heart was like a flower, which had shrunk into a bud before, but slowly relaxed and blossomed in this slight test.
She rested her head on the lap of this cold god, unable to hold back her disappointment, "... You have become a different person."
"Um."
The roses she brought back were very fragrant, much stronger than the faint fragrance of camellia. There was such a large bunch of roses beside Shi Shen, and his body was also stained with the fragrance. The strange fragrance seemed to add a bit of strangeness. Luo Yu'an felt a little confused in his heart, and unconsciously held his cold and fragrant hand tighter.
"how?"
Luo Yu'an struggled to hear the concern in these two words. She shook her head, her hair swaying on Shi Shen's knees.
"No, I just missed you." If I had known that he would become a different person so quickly, I should not have left in such a hurry yesterday morning.
In the shrine illuminated by red light, the god had an indifferent expression on his face like a painted mask, and even his eyes were staring blankly at his wife on his lap, "Are you not used to my appearance?"
Luo Yu'an seemed to have done something wrong, lowered his head and pursed his lips, "I'll get used to it soon."
"Well, I understand." He pulled Luo Yu'an up.
Luo Yu'an was slightly dazed as he pulled her towards him. She felt her eyes go dark and suddenly appeared in the surging sticky black. That was the place where she came in her wedding dress two days ago.
Ujigami was immersed in darkness just like that day. When he saw her, he opened his eyes and smiled at her, "Come here."
When Luo Yu'an saw his smile, her eyes lit up instantly, and all the reserve she had in mind before leaving was thrown away in an instant, and she only felt the joy of regaining what she had lost.
She rushed over, hugged tightly this god who would smile at her gently, and tried hard to sniff his scent.
Ujigami sighed in annoyance, "It's me, why are the reactions so different?"
Luo Yu'an hugged his neck, a little embarrassed, "You, why are you like this here, and you were like another way just now?"
Ujigami smoothed her messy hair and said slowly, "It's just a mask. Fair and strict, cold and selfless, kind and benevolent... These are all masks given to me by my tribe. Only here, I am my true self."
Luo Yu'an seemed to be thinking about something, because this was actually where the power of the clan god resided. Was it the world inside his ceramic statue
"Don't be afraid, it's just a different mask, the essence is still me."
Comforted by his attitude, Luo Yu'an finally felt completely relaxed. She touched Shi Shen's hand and grabbed his thumb. "Well, I'm not afraid. There is still a long time to go. I will definitely get used to every aspect of you."
Similar words, when spoken for the first time, were nervous assurances, but when spoken the second time, they were full of the meaning of making people happy.
Shishen said with a smile: "You suddenly came back and saw me just now, and you looked frightened. It was quite cute." Especially those little actions of carefully testing whether he would be angry or not, it was interesting, interesting. If she hadn't been frightened, he wouldn't have brought her here to comfort her. It would be good to see her more.
The sudden teasing of the clan god made Luo Yu'an's heart stir. She raised her head, looked straight at the clan god, and said the words she had been thinking all the way, "Can I give you a separate name?"
Ujigami tilted his head: "Hmm?"
Luo Yu'an: "You are their clan god, an image that all Qin family members revere. But to me, you are different. You are a specific person that I can see and touch. When you are by my side, I can't just regard you as a god, so I don't want to call you clan god."
Ujigami listened quietly to her bold and unreserved speech, and the light in his dark eyes was like the bright moon reflected in the lake, rippling the waves slightly.
He asked, "What do you want to call me?"
Luo Yu'an took a breath and said, "I want to call... Second Brother."
Seeing that Shishen had no intention of objecting, she explained nervously and embarrassedly, "In my hometown, wives sometimes call their husbands "brother". When I was a child, my mother called my father "big brother" because he was the eldest child in the family."
When Shishen was still a divine fetus, the custom of their Qin family was to sort boys and girls separately. He was ranked second, so he was the second brother.
In her hometown, this is a very intimate way of addressing each other between husband and wife, and is usually only used when they have a very good relationship.
"I want to call you second brother, is that ok?"
"Okay." Ujigami stared at her eager face and said softly, "You can call me second brother."
This was a very new name for him. In that era thousands of years ago, everyone was used to calling him by his name. Even his younger brothers and sisters did not call him "Second Brother", but the more solemn "Elder Brother".
When she called him "Second Brother", there was an inexplicable sense of tenderness and intimacy in her voice, just like the arm she had wrapped around his neck at that moment, apparently delicate and soft, yet firm and stubborn.
Luo Yu'an licked his dry lips and said, "You can call me Yu'an. My parents and friends used to call me that."
But Ujigami smiled and called her, "An."
"I was born from a human. An is both me and not me. I acknowledge this name, but it has long been forgotten. Now I give this name to you. From now on, you are also my An."