Chapter 32: I can’t give up all my wings just for her, right?

Liang Lai glanced down at the child cradled in her arms.

If she didn’t get treatment soon, the poor thing would likely die right there in her hold.

“Step aside.”

Her voice came out icy cold as she raised a hand and shoved hard at the man in front of her—only for him to stand firm as a rock.

“Third Saintess, this puts us in a real bind…”

The fatty priest’s face twisted into a mask of distress.

Liang Lai spared another look at the child in her arms.

“You have no idea, do you? I’m planning to adopt her—raise her up as one of the papal candidates. I’ve had my eye on her for days now, just couldn’t find the time to come fetch her. And today, when I finally show up to do just that, I catch you lot bullying her…”

Liang Lai lied through her teeth with the utmost sincerity.

“Or is it… that you’re deliberately crossing me? Defying the church itself? Are you unhappy with the task the church gave us spinsters—to select candidates from the ranks?”

At those words, the three green-robed priests went sheet-white; the lanky one behind the fatty tugged urgently at his sleeve and whispered a few frantic words, and just like that, the trio plastered on fawning smiles and parted to clear her path.

“Third Saintess, that’s not what we meant at all—we had no clue at first… But now that you’ve explained, we’re right on board! Take your time, take your time…”

Their sycophantic groveling gave Liang Lai a surreal dizzy spell, like she was truly on the verge of playing local tyrant in some isekai tale.

She didn’t dare linger, terrified the priests might change their minds and start haggling again, delaying her from saving the girl—so once she was out of their sight, Liang Lai bolted like the wind, saintess dignity be damned.

On the way back, Liang Lai felt a dull ache in her molars.

She stroked the child’s face ever so gently, and the girl let out a couple of faint, muffled responses—but her eyes never fluttered open to meet Liang Lai’s, lost deep in a haze of semi-consciousness.

“How am I supposed to explain this to the three at home…?”

Just picturing Duoluosa’s jealous pout made her wince.

Truth be told, Asteris and Delucia would probably take it fine—the pair were such good girls, not the type to squabble over affections.

But Duoluosa… she seemed plagued by insecurity, always fretting over something or other.

That must be the elder daughter’s curse; Liang Lai got it, after all those videos she’d binged—how the oldest kid always ended up bending over backward, making do.

‘Mm, but I’m not that kind of parent anyway, so little Duo should ease up in time.’

It sounded like self-soothing, sure, but it did lighten the knot in her chest a fair bit.

The moment she stepped into the Immaculate Courtyard, Duoluosa, Asteris, and Delucia rushed out to meet her en masse—they’d clearly been camped in the parlor for ages.

But all three smiles froze solid the instant their eyes landed on the bundle in Liang Lai’s arms, snuffed out cold.

“Liang Lai, who’s that in your arms…?”

Duoluosa’s eyes went wide as saucers.

In that heartbeat, Liang Lai couldn’t bear to meet her gaze; she hurried onward into the hall, hollering for a nun all the while, and blurted an explanation to Duoluosa:

“This child was on the brink of being beaten to death—if I hadn’t stepped in, she’d have bled out right there by the roadside.”

Duoluosa fell silent for a beat, waiting until Liang Lai had handed the girl off to the nun before she spoke again:

“So, Liang Lai… are you going to adopt her too?”

The words hung in the air, and silence crashed down like a curtain.

Asteris and Delucia held their breaths, watching Liang Lai with rapt attention.

They weren’t the fiercely possessive yandere sort, no—but that didn’t mean they relished sharing her with yet another soul.

It was a tough admission, but Liang Lai nodded all the same.

“Mm,” her voice dropped to a near-whisper, “if I don’t adopt her, she’ll just die out there anyway. Even if I patch her up and cut her loose, she won’t last long… She’s still so young; she needs to go back to her parents. Except her parents… they’ve been abusing her all along.”

With that out, the corridor plunged into stillness once more.

Duoluosa pressed her lips into a tight line, gazing steadily at Liang Lai; after a long pause, she couldn’t hold back any longer.

“But can you save everyone? There are so many suffering in this world—can you rescue them all?”

The second the words escaped, she regretted them bitterly.

She knew full well it would wound Liang Lai like a gut punch; she scanned her face anxiously, bracing to apologize on the spot—swear it was just a heat-of-the-moment slip, that she hadn’t meant it like that.

But Liang Lai’s expression didn’t shift a fraction; she merely let out a soft sigh.

“I know I can’t save the whole world, but I want to do right by what’s right in front of me—the things I see, the things I live through. We can’t just throw up our hands because we can’t fix everything, stand by and watch people die, watch them struggle—that’s nothing but an excuse for our own failings, or our cruelty.”

She reached out and gently tousled Duoluosa’s hair, those violet eyes brimming with tender compassion for the child.

“If someone dies right in front of me, I couldn’t live with that. I may not save everyone, but I can tackle the suffering staring me in the face—and that’s enough.”

“Sometimes I might fail even then, sure—but at least I’d have tried, and I wouldn’t beat myself up with regrets~”

Liang Lai fished the human skin she’d bought for Duoluosa from her pocket.

“Little Duo, you’ll get it when you’re older~ Right now, it might not click, but that’s okay—we’ll take it step by step… Here, this is the skin I got for you. Slip it on and give it a go; it’ll fool them right through the assessment~”

Duoluosa stared at Liang Lai in a daze.

She truly couldn’t wrap her head around it—couldn’t grasp Liang Lai’s boundless kindness.

For a moment, she even shrank from facing her.

“I get it.”

She snatched the skin and whipped around, fleeing in a hasty scramble.

“Hey?!”

Liang Lai reached out to snag her, but her fingers only grazed Duoluosa’s hem, watching helpless as the girl bolted away.

“Sigh.”

She heaved a heavy breath.

“I knew it’d go like this.”

But what could she do? She couldn’t just sacrifice another child’s life to spare Duoluosa’s feelings, could she?

Asteris and Delucia, though, chose that moment to flank her, each latching onto one of her hands with faces wreathed in sweet smiles.

“It’s okay, Mom—we get it~” Asteris pressed Liang Lai’s palm flush against her silken cheek.

“Yeah, Mom—we’ll back you all the way~” Delucia chimed in. “After all… Mom’s our savior too!”

Liang Lai couldn’t shake the nagging sense that something was off about these two, but before she could dwell, a voice rang out from the room.

“Third Saintess, she’s awake.”

It was the nun.