Shuyu hurriedly said, "Grandma! It's okay if you can't remember. Don't force yourself! I don't want to see you in pain..."
Xianyun looked at Yuandai and asked, "Does Mt. Aocang feel familiar to you?"
"Yes. But I... I can't go back..."
Yuandai still looked pained, but her words were clear.
"You can't go back? Why not?" Furina frowned. "Could it be that Madame Yuandai used to live on Mt. Aocang?"
"I... I don't remember," Yuandai said, shaking her head.
"Then let's go there," Xianyun said gently.
When Shuyu heard that, she frowned. "But... Grandma said she can't go back..."
Xianyun sighed and comforted her. "It's all right. Mt. Aocang is my domain. If I say she can go, then she can go. And with Lora here, nothing will happen to her."
Only then did Shuyu relax a little.
She had already realized that Lora and the others were not ordinary people. Besides, they almost never avoided speaking in front of her. Sometimes, they even told her things directly.
With Xianyun leading the way, the group arrived at Mt. Aocang, on the small island in the middle of the lake outside her abode.
The moment Yuandai stood there, she fell silent and did not speak for a long time.
Furina and the others stood behind her, watching in confusion.
"Did she really live here?" Furina looked around curiously, then whispered to Focalors, "Isn't this the adeptus's home?"
Hearing that, Xianyun frowned. "Young people these days truly have no manners."
"Sorry!" Furina immediately apologized, then slipped behind Lora in one smooth motion.
Xianyun sighed and chose not to argue with her. Instead, she turned to Lora and said, "I'll have to trouble you. Help me settle Yuandai's mind. Your ability to soothe and purify the soul is far stronger than ours."
Originally, Xianyun had planned to ask Ping to play a soothing melody for her, but with Lora, this walking miracle of purification, right beside her, there was no need to trouble Ping.
When it came to purification, if Lora claimed second place in Teyvat, no one would dare claim first.
Lora waved her hands, and ripples of water flowed from her palms, surrounding Yuandai and gently soothing her heart.
Her tangled thoughts gradually calmed, allowing her to quietly recall everything from the past.
Lora watched her settle down, then turned back to Xianyun and said, "Once this is over, you'll have to give me a red envelope! Not much. Half your family fortune will do."
"And you call that not much?" Xianyun was somewhat speechless, though she knew Lora was joking.
Under the comfort of Lora's power, Yuandai gradually remembered everything.
She remembered the drought, her identity, and why she had left Mt. Aocang and become what she was now.
After a long while, Yuandai suddenly grew emotional.
"Grandma!" Shuyu hurried over and looked at her worriedly. "Are you all right?"
"Madame Yuandai, are you okay?" Furina also asked with concern, but as soon as the words left her mouth, Lora lightly smacked her on the head.
"I'm right here. How could anything happen?"
Yuandai let out a long breath, turned to look at Xianyun, and said softly, "Cloud Retainer..."
Hearing that name, Furina looked at Xianyun, then at Lora, before quietly asking Focalors, "Did we ever mention in front of Madame Yuandai that Xianyun is Cloud Retainer?"
"I don't think... we did?" Focalors frowned in thought.
Furina looked at Yuandai, then suddenly understood. "Oh! I get it. She isn't human!"
"She... was never human to begin with," Focalors sighed.
"All right, just watch from the side. Don't disturb them," Lora said, glancing back at the two of them.
Both obediently shut their mouths.
Xianyun looked at Yuandai and sighed. "Have you remembered everything?"
Yuandai nodded. "Yes. I remember everything. My identity, and why I fled this place... I'm sorry, Cloud Retainer. I made a mistake. I failed to live up to your expectations."
"What exactly is going on, Grandma?" Shuyu looked between the two of them in complete confusion.
Xianyun said, "Let me explain everything."
She then told Shuyu Yuandai's true identity. When she learned that her grandmother had originally been a white crane living on Mt. Aocang, Furina's eyes widened in disbelief.
"Madame Yuandai is a crane?" Furina looked at her, feeling as though it was all unreal.
Fontaine did not have beings capable of transforming like this. Or perhaps Furina had simply never encountered any. But Yuandai, who had transformed from a crane into a human, was standing right in front of her.
It was simply unbelievable.
Yuandai lowered her gaze and said regretfully, "In the end, I still failed to live up to your expectations. I fell in love with a human. He was not especially outstanding, but while we were helping with the drought, I fell hopelessly in love with him."
"But I was afraid, so I didn't dare tell you in person. I asked someone to deliver a letter to the entrance of your abode, then fled far away from Mt. Aocang and hid myself."
"But later, because of the Human Mimicry Potion, your body grew weaker by the day," Lora continued. "If not for those pills, you would have become something neither human, beast, nor adeptus long ago."
"Yes... Those pills truly saved my life..." Yuandai nodded, but then she suddenly realized something. "Wait... By chance... adeptus blood? No... How could there be such a coincidence?"
At this point, she raised her head in shock and looked at Xianyun. "Cloud Retainer, that merchant back then... it couldn't have been..."
"I once heard that when humans marry, the elders of the family are expected to prepare gifts," Xianyun said softly. "Consider those pills a small token of my goodwill."
"So that was how it was..."
Yuandai sighed with emotion. "I thought I had fled far enough, but I never imagined you had been watching over me the entire time."
"You silly child." Xianyun looked at her and grumbled, "Honestly, what did you see in him? That young man had poor natural talent. He could hardly compare to the thaumaturges of Mt. Tianheng! Haah... But you were the one who fell in love with him."