Bounded || (Albedo x Reader)

|| 24 ||

"Li Xiu is a women of virtue. The kind one, but has the soul of a tiger and flames which burn in the depths of her eyes whenever she holds a brush, and paints so fluently like it's second nature for her."
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The only thing that filled her ears, were the laughs of the children in the backyard. Which danced like any kind of music.

There sat Li Xiu next to her foster father, Zhang Lim. Who she was an apprentice for. The man was going on and on about the god that resides in the mountain they live on. Of Xiwangmu.

The apprentice of a shut-in artist, and lived with his family. His wife was ill, but his two children were happy as ever. And as well as his mother-in-law.

There were three children.

Li Hua.

The older brother.

And "Alatus."

"Zhang Lim, why did you take me in?"

"Why do you ask this now?"

"It never crossed my mind."

There was silence, but he just chuckled gently. "You just reminded me of someone."

"Would that be Zhang Xia?"

"Who knows. Even I don't know who you remind me of. My vision of that person is hazy, distorted I can't even tell anymore."

"That makes me curious now."

"Don't push an old man to think, Li Xiu. Once his memory is forgotten, it's forgotten. There's nothing to be done." He moved his eyes towards his wife who laid in her bed, sleeping.

"Big sis Li Xiu! Come join us! Alatus says he won't play our next game unless you join!" The youngest girl jumped up and down. While her light brown hair bounced with joy, just like how she was.

The older brother being a bit more mature than his younger sibling, coughed into his fist to try and stop her from embarrassing Alatus any further.

"What's the next game you plan on playing?" Li Xiu calmly asked.

"It's just hide and seek! Big brother and Alatus always team up secretly and gang up on me! It's no fair!"

"That's because I always manage to find him first, because he can't find such good places to hide." The elder brother retorted.

"What do you mean I can't find good places to hide?!" Alatus argued.

"We can split up into teams. I'll hide with Alatus, while you two are the seekers." Li Xiu quickly summed up the argument.

She held out a hand as the boy shyly put his smaller hand in hers.

"What?! Lucky! I want to be on the same team as big sis!" Li Hua whined again.

"Li Hua, if all you do is complain, I'll just have to play seeker by myself." She looked back at his older brother, and hung her head low.

When the two siblings looked back at the hiding pair, they had already gone off to hide.
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In their game of hide and seek, the two had to split up and disperse into different directions.

Alatus was too quick, as he went past the normal limit of Xiwangmu's mountain. And blindly went in. He didn't know much about the god. Nor would he have expected to even meet her.

It took about an hour to find him again. And the group were all worried about the said kid.

Li Hua teared up, her brother shook his shoulder violently asking questions, and Li Xiu kept asking questions as well. Mostly the same ones the other boy was asking.