Family Deity sighed, “The taste of meat... it doesn’t sound very appetizing.”

Miraculously, Ethan Clark instantly understood what he meant. She recalled the scene she had witnessed that night, and suddenly the delicious meat in her mouth became somewhat nauseating. But she didn’t dare spit it out, so she bravely swallowed it down.

However, she couldn’t bring herself to eat any more meat, no matter what. Fortunately, Family Deity didn’t insist on her eating meat either. He watched the food with great interest, occasionally suggesting she try something, then asking her how it tasted. It was as if he couldn’t eat himself, so he could only watch others eat and imagine the taste through their descriptions.

At his suggestion, she tried a small cat-shaped bun. With her mouth still full, Ethan Clark asked, “You can’t eat any of this?”

Family Deity: “No, I can’t.”

Ethan Clark wanted to ask what would happen if he did, but then she remembered how Guardian Spirit had bitten her that day and ended up vomiting on the ground. She quietly closed her mouth.

After she was full, she grabbed Family Deity’s sleeve and left. When she saw the corridor she had come through, she couldn’t help but glance at it several times and asked, “Can I leave here?”

Family Deity still maintained his peaceful demeanor and replied, “You’ll stay here for a while.”

Ethan Clark understood what he meant, and her eyes lit up. This was already countless times better than what she had expected. Family Deity had no intention of killing her; maybe after some time, she would be able to leave safely. As long as she could leave alive, that was enough—she still had something she absolutely had to do.

Family Deity spent most of his time in the shrine, like a boring statue, while the two shrine maidens came three times a day to offer incense and pray. As for the others, they weren’t allowed near the shrine unless they had business, and they couldn’t even enter the courtyard.

When the two old ladies came to pray, Ethan Clark would hide behind Family Deity. She was actually a bit puzzled: as the god everyone here revered, why didn’t Family Deity just tell them about her presence? Why did it feel like he was secretly keeping a wild animal behind his family’s back?

After the two shrine maidens left, Family Deity would come out of the shrine and go to the cluster of red camellias, smiling quietly as he gazed at the flowers.

Ethan Clark walked over to him and voiced her doubts. Family Deity just smiled without answering, so she didn’t dare ask again.

Seeing him always looking at the red camellias, seemingly fond of them, Ethan Clark went into the shrine, pulled a piece of red paper from the incense wrappers, and deftly folded it into a camellia flower.

Family Deity looked at the paper camellia she offered, glancing at Ethan Clark several times.

Feeling uneasy under his gaze, Ethan Clark asked, “Is something wrong?”

Family Deity picked up the paper flower, pondered for a moment, then smiled. “I’ve never received an offering like this before.”

Ethan Clark: “It’s not an offering, it’s a gift for you.” Although a bit embarrassed, she wanted to please this god, hoping he would let her go sooner.

Family Deity: “I see.”

But no one dared to give a Family Deity a gift—this was probably the courage of the ignorant.

Chapter 6 05 Secret

That red camellia was hung inside the shrine by a red string.

Ethan Clark was sure that Family Deity really did like red camellias, so she collected all the red paper from the incense sticks and folded a large bouquet of camellias, even rolling up paper to make flower stems—this was one of the tricks she used to cheer up her little sister when they were young.

The sisters’ parents had died early. As the older sister, she was several years older than her sibling—her sister was in sixth grade, and she was a college freshman. So back then, she often used little crafts to amuse her sister. For a long time, the vase in her sister’s room was filled with colorful paper flowers she had folded.

The red paper used to wrap incense was of excellent quality, with gold flecks on it, so the camellias she folded looked beautiful. Although presenting such a large bouquet of red paper flowers to Family Deity felt oddly like some old-fashioned courtship scene, Ethan Clark herself didn’t feel anything—after all, she didn’t dare have any thoughts about a god, and of course, the god didn’t feel anything either. Judging by the curve of his smile, he didn’t show any sign of rejection and accepted them gladly.

The bouquet received the same treatment as the previous flower, hung by a red string inside the shrine, and placed even deeper inside than Ethan Clark herself—her own sleeping spot was only at the outermost edge of the shrine at night. Because of this small matter, Ethan Clark strangely found herself no longer afraid of those red strings.

At first, she thought Family Deity only liked red camellias, but after being taken out to eat a few times and seeing Family Deity stop to admire other flowers along the way, it seemed he liked those too.

“You like these flowers? If you do, why not have someone plant them in your courtyard?”

“A Family Deity does not favor any particular thing.” That was Family Deity’s answer.

Ethan Clark didn’t really understand, but she carefully observed Family Deity’s smile, the way his eyes curved, his floating hair, the way he gathered his sleeves—and all she could see were two big words:

—Desire.

On the offering table in the shrine, there was now a small vase with two fresh flowers picked from the roadside outside the courtyard.