Ame’s peaceful meditation was broken in the early morning hours. The sun had yet to rise over the horizon when loud bellowing could be heard on the grounds. Although trying to ignore the sounds, Ame failed to do so as the clamor grew louder and louder.

“Wha-!” Growling in agitation, Ame opened and walked out of the door of one of the empty rooms with furious steps. However, before she even asks about the ruckus from the servants, she walked straight into soft mounds. Just by the feel of the softness on her face, she instantly knew whose familiar chest this was. Ame retracts her face as the chest almost engulfs her again because of the owner eagerly taking a step forward. Narrowly missing being smooshed again, she glances up at Sada.

 With an excited smile, Sada proclaims joyous news, “My lady, hurry and get dressed! The veneration ceremony for the ancestors will begin before the celebration of the New Year.” Sada effortlessly drags Ame away and dresses the sullen figure.

Ame could only wonder why she never heard about this ceremony beforehand. However, Morph and Kiro sigh with relief in the knowledge that they do not have to attend. With tails curling in the air, they crawl under the bed and hide just to hide from Sada.

The Manor servants are running around finishing preparations for tonight’s celebration. Ame watches all this with dim eyes as she follows Sada towards Lord Min Hee’s quarters. The rest of the family is assembled, except for Ame and the twins. With some relief, Ame finds she is not the last. Taking a cue from the seated figures of HuiFeng and Hong, Ame seats herself directly beside Hong. Hong’s eyes flicker for a moment, but he doesn’t move nor comment on her choice of seating arrangement.

Ame raises her eyes before her to study a bald monk in bright red orange robes. The thin man hums a sutra to himself patiently without embarrassment. Two pretty nursemaids carry the three year olds forward and sit themselves to the side of Ame with the twins in their laps. The twins remain silent and still except for the occasional curious glances sent towards Ame.

 Seeing that all the members of the Min Household are present, the monk begins to chant Buddhist sutras in the intently incensed air. Ame’s nose twitches, but she holds herself back from covering her nose. Not only would her actions be rude, but it would be considered highly disgraceful. Not only would Ame be heavily be reprimanded but so would Sada for failing to teach Ame properly. Despite the itch in her nose, she remains still as her legs grow numb over the passing of time. Clenching her teeth, she wiggles her toes slightly to keep the blood flowing in her legs. With relief, the monk ceases his chants as the members rise to their feet.

Ame struggles for a moment, but to her surprise, a helping hand pulls her up. She glances to the side and is surprised to find the owner is Hong. It would seem that at least superficially, there was sincerity in the formalities to act cordially towards each other.  Hong only holds her for a second more before swiftly letting go. She nods her thanks as she painfully follows until the blood returns to her legs.

 Min Hee and the monk lead the way to a small temple on the manor grounds. The monk leads the way inside to where stone tablets hold thousands of engraved names. The monk steps to the side as Min Hee turns and says, “Honor the ancestors, and thank them for the year’s blessings.”

 He then turns and bows with the rest fellowing sincerely. Soon, everyone closed their eyes and gave prayers to the ancestors. Ame reflexively does so as well, although she only gave a simple “rest in peace” prayer before reopening her eyes. She patiently waits until Min Hee rises and starts rising with the rest. Min Hee lights an incense for the ancestor with one last final bow before retreating. They all copy his actions in a single file one at a time.

Finally, the monk nods with satisfaction and says, “It will be a good year.” Satisfied, Min Hee nods back and leads the monk out before wishing him thanks. Afterwards, the family proceeded back to his quarters to begin the first day of the New Year Feast. The servants anxiously finish setting the table just in time for their lord to return.

Ame’s eyes widen at the feast before her eyes. She reflexively swallows at the outrageously gorgeous meals that she has yet to see in this house and instantly chooses what to pile her dish with. With unusual joy, she seats herself at the table and waits for Min Hee to begin to eat. Of course, that didn’t take long for him. With care, he carefully selects honeyed mystical duck and elegantly places it onto his plate.

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Ame almost lunges herself forward but remembers herself. With glee and great care, she piles her plate as high as she can with food until every corner of her plate is full and almost spilling over. Satisfied, she begins to eat while under the watchful gaze.

Nonetheless, she at least ate with her manners, and it is not like she can help herself. She painfully came to realize that her cultivation method seems to demand for lots of nutrients whenever possible.  As such, she could ignore everyone’s awestruck expressions, including those from HuiFeng and Hong. The twins don’t even try to hide their amazement at seeing the amount of food on Ame’s plate.

With a snort, Hong starts to elegantly pile up his plate, but as though not secretly not wanting to lose, Ame notices that it was twice as much as food on his plates than their last family dinner. Eating was not a contest but life. You have to eat to live, and once you enjoy the true luxuries of food, it is hard to go back…… Then again, such logic is kinda undermined by the path of cultivation, but she won’t really have to worry about that until she reach the [Spirit] realm.

Ignoring Hong’s purposeful movements, Ame eats rapidly and enjoys every bite. Of course, she is still keeping her manners in check despite her rapid consumption of food.With the amount of food she was eating, you will think that she will be the last to finish, but Ame surprisingly manages to be the fourth to finish.  She even manages to finish a third round of plates before stopping.

Hong eyes her warily, while HuiFeng rolls her eyes in exasperation. The twins’ eyes are as wide as saucers by the time they saw her eat a second round. With slight dismay at any future stomach problems or whether she left a bad impression onto her parents, Ame tries to stay calm while leaning back with her swelling stomach. Hong openly eyes her with a confused expression, seemingly trying to figure out how such a small female body managed to eat so much.

When everyone finished, Min Hee leads the family outside to watch the fireworks as red packets are passed out to the eager manor servants. Luckily, it seemed that everyone glossed over her eating frenzy as something childish, and Nuo even had a servant retrieve a pill that should help with future stomach problems.

For now, they walked among the New Year's Festival celebrations and enjoyed the festivities in the surroundings. After enough time, the family walked onto high grounds near a old tree. The booming sounds of fireworks soon fill the sky as Ame watches in fascination. At the same time, her siblings and she awaits to receive their red envelope each. She is handed a small envelope with a bit of gold coins, but after eyeing HuiFeng and the rest of her siblings’ gift money, she notices the large disparity.

Shrugging her shoulders, she stuffs the envelope into her coat pocket and continues watching the fireworks. However, as she loses herself in the brilliant light shown, two tugs cause her to glance at her waist. The twins each hold out one gold coin to give her.

Startled at the sight, Ame stares for a moment and then glances around until she finds Nuo. Nuo smiles shyly and nods in approval. Moving her eyes back to the twins, Ame receives the coins with a stoic expression. She solemnly says, “Thank you, Dai and Cho.”

The twins smile sweetly up at her, causing Ame’s lips to twitch before giving them a rare genuine smile.  Then, Ame walked beneath the tree and sat to watch the fireworks, and following behind her, the twins sat near her and chattered as they pointed to the colorful lights. ‘Well, I guess this isn’t bad occasionally,’ She thought. They remain standing there in the cold, but despite the cold, Ame feels quite warm.

As the night ended, the nursemaids finally grab the sleeping twins who were faintly protesting. Ame watched them silently as she broke out of her absentminded reverie and was beginning to get up herself.

‘Time sure flies, huh?’ She thought rhetorically, everyone was already walking back towards the mansion to call it a day. Meanwhile, Nuo moves over to her children to give them a kiss goodnight, and the rest of the family says their goodnights as well. Of course, during this time, they fail to notice the figure of Ame slip silently away and return to her quarters.

After returning, Sada changed her into her sleeping wear in preparation for her the night, but instead of allowing her to continue serving herself, Ame ordered Sada to continue celebrating with the other servants. She also gave a coin of her own to Sada before allowing her to leave.

Morph and Kiro were already snoozing on the bed with full bellies and crumbs on their mouths. Ame smiles and climbs into bed with them. With a yawn, she closes her eyes and remembers those two small pairs of eyes before falling asleep.

In that night, she dreamt about various memories and fun times, but it wasn’t from her time as Ame. She dreamt of her sweet and fun times from her past life. She reminisced about her friends and family. They were truly bittersweet yet beautiful dreams…...