Flipping swiftly to the section on "Tree Yaokais," my gaze nded on the final few lines—

  ′Ginkgo Seeds: A spiritual medicine, born from the celestial ginkgo tree. Four seeds manifest in the mortal realm every thousand years. Upon touching the earth, they take human form, all appearing as young girls with rounded features and pure hearts, free from evil thoughts. Wherever they are, withered trees come back to life, and winter bears abundant fruit. On the day of the Heavenly Tribution, harvesting its heart, combined with the ingredients listed above, creates the Elixir of Longevity Life for tree yaokai. Consuming it ensures the tree yaokai's soul remains intact and their true form indestructible, granting untroubled immortality.

  (T/N: 天劫: Tiān jié, or ′Heavenly Tribution, is a term used in Taoism, a native religion of China.) It is a disaster. Because the Taoists vioted the ws of nature in their cultivation of immortality, heaven would punish them or bring disaster upon them. Just as the cultivators went against heaven and attempted to cultivate immortality with a mortal body, heaven would send down heavenly tribution. The sound of spring thunder shook the sky, and thunder nurtured life in destruction. Thunder was praised as a symbol of hope. The arrival of spring was accompanied by the sound of spring thunder. A spring thunder awakened the earth and all hibernating creatures. It revitalized the natural world, and it began to grow and reproduce. It′s called the ′Circle of Life′.)

  "It′s really quite easy to fool her.” I chuckled softly, closed the booklet, and headed toward the backyard.

  "Huh? The boss dy has that book too?” Pàng Zǐ and Shòu Zi rushed over, gawking at the booklet in my hand like it was a treasure.

  "Better give up on peeking,” I said with a raised brow, casting them a sidelong gnce.

  "Or I might just follow my kind's example and slip a forgetfulness spell into your food, so you stay illiterate for life.”

  The two exchanged a gnce and muttered, “I think we already don’t know many characters…”

  The moon hung in the sky, a slender white crescent, casting a cool silver glow over the quiet courtyard.

  "I feel like this ginkgo tree suddenly looks so much better! It has so many more leaves, and it′s so much greener. It was practically dying during the day,” Pàng Zǐ said, pointing at the previously drooping ginkgo tree.

  "It really does..." Shòu Zi wandered around the tree for a while, then suddenly pointed up and shouted, “Look over there! It actually has fruit! Isn’t it still too early for that?”

  "So… can we start making ginkgo chicken soup early?” Pàng Zǐ started drooling.

  "That woman really is like a ginkgo seed! She’s only been in our shop for half a day, and this old tree is already bearing fruit.”

  "I′ll go get a stick to knock down the ginkgo!” Shòu Zi dashed off.

  I stood under the tree, patting its rough trunk, and muttered to myself, “Killing her for medicine… that so-called immortality would only become an endless solitude and sorrow, wouldn’t it?”

  If there′s someone who truly cares for you by your side, that moment can also be a form of immortality.

  To be held in someone′s heart, never to be forgotten, even passing away can be a kind of immortality.

  Liang Yudong must have thought the same way in the end.

  "Boss dy, will we have to face a heavenly tribution one day too?” Pàng Zǐ sneaked up behind me, eyeing the booklet in my hand greedily. “That… there must be a way for our kind to survive the tribution, right?”

  "You′re still a long way off from that,” I gnced at him, “But I suggest you lose some weight, so you can run faster when the ′Thunder god′ comes for you.”

  "Picking on people’s physical fws..." Pàng Zǐ bit his finger, sulking as he crouched in the corner, feeling sorry for himself.

  Pàng Zǐ's expression suddenly reminded me of Mo Bai's cat. She was probably the smartest one, much smarter than Liang Yudong. At least she knew from the start to make herself dislike A-Liao, rejecting all her kindness. That way, when it came time to eat the ginkgo seeds, she wouldn′t feel guilty.

  But in the end, she couldn′t bring herself to do it.

  She had hundreds, even thousands, of chances to kill A-Liao.

  Liang Yudong and Mo Bai, neither of them achieved immortality.

  But they lived on longer than anyone else—deep inside the heart of a somewhat naive, illiterate woman named A-Liao.