Before long, the group arrived at Peach Blossom Village.
Night was beginning to fall. The last traces of sunlight had yet to fully fade, but plenty of stalls had already been set up throughout the Moonlit Night Festival market.
Brilliant neon lights mingled with the glow of the sunset, illuminating smiling faces one after another.
Even though the actual Moon-Chasing Festival hadn't arrived yet, the air already carried the feeling of celebration.
Standing a short distance away, Rover watched as the Doctor enthusiastically dragged Granny Heying from stall to stall, while Stelle had also come running over after hearing the commotion.
One of them had never physically grown up, while the other had never mentally grown up.
"So what's your plan?"
Rover knew perfectly well that what Zane said earlier had only been an excuse. His real goal had simply been to let the old woman experience the atmosphere of the festival.
Even so, she still had some concerns.
"One family's joy can be another family's sorrow. If Granny comes to the festival and sees other families happy together, it might backfire instead."
But Zane wasn't worried in the slightest.
The reason he deliberately brought Granny Heying here at this hour was precisely because it wasn't the actual festival day yet.
There weren't many visitors around. Most of the people here were travelers from other lands or festival staff.
There were very few family groups.
"You probably noticed too. Her son's promise to her was never about seeing the day his wish came true himself. It was about wanting his mother to keep living well."
After thinking it through, Rover immediately realized that the pain of losing her son had caused the old woman to overlook his true intentions.
"So what her son truly wanted her to witness was everyone's efforts to defeat the Tacet Discords, along with everything he protected.
And all of those little things are what he left behind for her. They can become the courage she needs to keep living."
Zane nodded. As expected, his Rover really was smart.
"So what did you secretly send Xiangli Yao off to do earlier?"
In response to the question, Zane merely smiled mysteriously.
"You'll find out soon enough."
Before Rover could object, he grabbed her hand and ran toward the old woman.
"Granny, Granny, look, a mochi stall! You probably haven't had dinner yet, right? Let's get a bowl and try some, okay?"
Faced with the Doctor acting so spoiled, Granny Heying couldn't bring herself to refuse no matter how much she wanted to. She could only chuckle and nod.
"Yay!" Before the Doctor could even react, Stelle shouted excitedly and skipped over to the stall.
This kind of soft, sweet-looking food was exactly the sort of thing that appealed to her.
"Boss, three bowls of mochi!"
Seeing two adorable girls dressed unlike locals from Jinzhou buying mochi, the stall owner immediately beamed and agreed enthusiastically. Before long, three steaming bowls of mochi were served.
Compared to Stelle, however, the Doctor had thought much further ahead.
She quickly walked over and redistributed the mochi among the three bowls before casually paying the owner. Only then did she carry one bowl back to Granny Heying.
"Granny, I really like mochi, so I took a few from your bowl. You're not mad, right?"
Granny Heying smiled and waved her hand to show she didn't mind at all. She accepted the bowl from the Doctor, now mostly filled with soup, with four crystal-clear mochi floating inside and reflecting the Doctor's tiny face.
"Huh? You like sweet food? Since when?" Stelle leaned over in confusion, only to have the Doctor secretly stomp on her foot.
As Stelle sucked in a sharp breath, several mochi were dumped into her bowl.
"If I'm not eating them, you are."
After glaring fiercely at her, the Doctor immediately put her smile back on and scooted close to Granny Heying, carefully watching her reaction as she ate the mochi.
mochi were best eaten at lunch. People's digestive systems were weak in the morning, while eating them at night increased the burden on digestion.
For those with poor digestion, eating too many mochi at night could easily cause indigestion or heartburn. Besides, such high-sugar food wasn't suitable as a main meal for elderly people.
While Granny Heying slowly chewed her mochi one bite at a time, the Doctor had already begun scanning the surrounding stalls for foods that could aid digestion, like hawthorn, dried tangerine peel tea, or high-fiber vegetables.
After eating and drinking their fill, Granny Heying followed the Doctor's lead and looked around the festival grounds. By chance, she spotted a shooting game stall.
A woman in Midnight Rangers uniform stood beneath the lights, adjusting a newly designed shooting machine.
The moment she saw the shooting stall, a trace of nostalgia flashed through Granny Heying's slightly clouded eyes.
"A shooting game? Hahaha, that child was always the best at this. Back when we visited the Moonlit Night Festival, he'd always insist on playing. Though… I don't think I've seen this kind of machine before…"
Just then, the stall owner happened to notice them and waved enthusiastically.
"Want to try Moon Pot Shooting? There are great prizes if you clear the challenge!"
The moment that was mentioned, even Rover, who had been silent the whole time, became interested.
Though her primary weapon was the Swiftblade, she was also an expert marksman. From the Black Shores' coastal artillery to ordinary sidearms, she could use all of them with perfect accuracy... especially when aiming at Zane's head.
Seeing the malicious grin on Rover's face, Zane suddenly shivered.
He had a bad feeling that one careless move and he'd end up sitting at Louis XVI's table.
Fortunately, Rover didn't stare at him for long. Instead, she picked up a handgun nearby and activated the target machine.
With a burst of mechanical humming, quite a few tourists stopped to watch.
"Look, someone's challenging Moon Pot Shooting again."
"Honestly, this little machine from Jinzhou is amazing. Launching three drones as targets with something this simple? You'd never see that elsewhere."
"Exactly! Other places just use balloons or wooden targets. Flying drones are way more fun."
Listening to the crowd's chatter, Rover quietly shot Zane a glance.
After all, he was the one who pushed her out here to shoot.
Three gunshots rang out in succession.
Bullets carved faint streaks through the night sky. In the blink of an eye, all three target drones dropped from the air.
The crowd immediately erupted into cheers.
"What amazing marksmanship!"
Qingshi, the stall owner, clapped her hands together. Looking at Rover glowing brilliantly beneath the spotlight, she suddenly understood why Senior Zane liked her so much.
"Your shooting skills are incredible. Here's your prize, please take it."
Rover accepted the prize Qingshi handed over and casually passed it to Granny Heying.
Looking at the small drone toy in her hands, surprise spread through the wrinkles on the old woman's face. A strange familiarity quietly rose from deep within her heart.
"These things… did you make them yourselves?"
Qingshi nodded, "The one who taught us how to make these drones was a Midnight Rangers instructor."
"Even though he's no longer with us, the manuals and methods he left behind still influence us. They continue influencing generation after generation of new Midnight Rangers recruits."
"They may just be tiny little gadgets, but they helped us tremendously when we first joined Midnight Rangers. So we modified them and wanted to use them to help even more people."
Granny Heying tightly gripped the small drone in her hands. That sense of familiarity was now impossible to ignore.
Confused, she lifted her head, only to meet Qingshi's clear eyes.
"Granny Heying, keep them safe. These are things Instructor Xiuyuan left behind for us."
'Xiuyuan…'
'Such a familiar yet distant name.'
It had been many years since Granny Heying had heard someone else speak it aloud.
And today, she finally encountered him once more.
Grief and joy flooded her heart together, making her stumble slightly before the sharp-eyed Doctor and Stelle quickly caught her.
"You are…"
Qingshi also stepped out from behind the stall and helped support Granny Heying together with them.
"Grandma, you probably don't remember me anymore. After Instructor Xiuyuan passed away, I visited you once. But you never wanted to see me. It wasn't until today that I finally met you here."
As soon as Qingshi finished speaking, several young Midnight Rangers soldiers walked over as well.
"Hello, Auntie Heying. My name's Wenyu. If Instructor Xiuyuan hadn't guided me, I probably still wouldn't even dare pick up a weapon."
"I heard the methods he taught us were things you taught him. He said he was terrified of water as a child, and it was your methods that helped him overcome that fear."
"Granny Heying, my name's Ruming. Instructor Xiuyuan taught me how to become a soldier, how to use the weapon in my hands to protect the people behind me."
———
More than a dozen Midnight Rangers soldiers had appeared here at the same time.
There was no need to think about it. This had to be someone's handiwork.
Rover set down the handgun and returned to Zane's side together with the Doctor and Stelle, who had finally escaped the Midnight Rangers soldiers surrounding them.
Looking at the smile on Granny Heying's face in the distance, Rover knew that the old woman had found her purpose once more.
The child she taught had used the methods she taught him to raise even more outstanding warriors.
And Xiuyuan's name would continue on like this, passed down generation after generation.
As long as people still remembered him, he wasn't truly gone.
Just like countless other heroes.
Perhaps the masses would never remember their names, but the land would remember them, the rivers would remember them, and the nation would remember them.
She wanted to hear more stories about her son during his time in the Midnight Rangers…
The Midnight Rangers soldiers sat down on the ground around Granny Heying and began telling stories about the warrior named Xiuyuan.