Qing-er (Bai Ye's Memory)

For a long, wordless moment, Bai Ye just looked at her. The face in front of him was an unfamiliar one of a six-year-old girl, but he knew that when he looked into her eyes, he was seeing the sword spirit. He was seeing the person he'd been waiting for, for two hundred and sixty years.

He didn't know what to expect. He didn't know if she would wake up with any memories of him. He searched the girl's face for any signs of recognition, but he found none. The girl blinked, and then looked past him toward her parents.

"Mommy?" she called, her voice hoarse from the sickness but filled with life. "Daddy?"

The parents burst into tears. They rushed over to the bed, hugging her and crying with all the grief and fear they'd been holding for the past few days. Bai Ye didn't want to intrude upon this precious family reunion. He took another lingering look at the girl, and he quietly stepped out of the door.

He didn't have the courage to face her anyway.