The moon had already climbed to the zenith.
Lu Qianqiao sat on the crude railing, and for some reason, the thought suddenly crossed his mind, stirring a mix of anticipation and longing in his heart.
...She said she would come today. Will she come?
Why was he anticipating it? Why did he feel this flustered? He remembered deeply loving her, but now, looking back at those emotions, they seemed hazy, like a realm he shouldn’t tread into.
His heart didn’t know the concept of "love," yet he knew he loved her—wanted to kill her but couldn’t bring himself to do it.
He was a nearly perfect War Ghost, destined to return to the War Ghost Clan and embrace the glory and responsibilities that awaited him.
But it seemed he just didn’t want to go back. With nowhere else to go, he could only roam the battlefield, whip in hand.
The Celestial Lady’s doll had been meticulously cleaned by him until it sparkled. Noticing some wear on the fingers, he instinctively and skillfully took out a small knife from his Cosmos Sack to carefully repair it.
Why was he doing something so trivial at a time like this?
The cold night wind swirled with remnants of snow, and in the next moment, that sweet and soft voice drifted over with the breeze.
“Lu Qianqiao—! How dare you stand me up—?!”
No! I didn’t stand you up. The knife slipped from his hand as Lu Qianqiao abruptly stood up and strode toward the cliff’s edge.
She stood there at the edge, today clad in a light-red padded jacket with two small pom-poms tied at the collar, her hair adorned with similarly fluffy balls. She looked... she looked—like he wanted to crush her into pieces.
His hand instinctively reached for his waist, searching for his whip out of habit, but found nothing.
He hadn’t brought his whip with him today.
The killing intent, far more restrained than yesterday, surged within him. Lu Qianqiao frowned, unaccustomed to this strange sensation. He longed for her, but it didn’t seem to be for the sake of killing her.
Xin Mei pulled out a majestic-looking doll from her embrace and waved it. “Look! I brought General with me today!”
General... That was another doll he had made for her, wasn’t it? With its overly ornate armor and impractical, exaggerated longsword—it looked utterly ridiculous.
Xin Mei sat cross-legged at the cliff’s edge, holding General up and pointing at the crescent moon in the sky. “General, the moon represents my heart!”
...What did that mean?
She said, “You’ve just changed in temperament, not suffered some cliché amnesia! Stop pretending you don’t understand! Dare you say you don’t remember?”
He remembered. Back then, he had been so lost and weak, unable to see the future, prone to self-deception.
Back then... back then, she had seemed drunk, her soft body pressing close.
The first kiss—suppressed, hidden from the light.
A bizarre feeling, both familiar and unfamiliar, abruptly rose in his heart. His icy eyes finally showed a hint of softening. Hesitating for a moment, he imitated her, sitting cross-legged at the cliff’s edge, cradling the Celestial Lady in his hands.
“Lu Qianqiao, do you remember where we first met and what we were doing then?”
He thought for a moment and answered, “The forest outside the Imperial Mausoleum. I was killing a Tiger demon, and you passed by.”
“Wrong!”
Xin Mei rolled her eyes. “The first time was inside the Imperial Mausoleum! I knocked Tao Guoguo out, and you slapped me!”
Honestly, men! So careless, so forgetful, so rough and inconsiderate! Even with his temperament changed, he hadn’t become a better man."Lu Qianqiao, do you know, I really hated you at first." She stroked the general's clothes, her voice finally softening. "You stole my spirit beast and even hit me. I kindly brought you your money pouch, and you arrested me, so fierce. Back then, I thought even if I married a beggar on the street, I’d never marry you."
Was... that so? Had he really been such a failure at being human back then?
"But these things really make no sense. In the end, we still became husband and wife."
She looked up and smiled at him: "It had nothing to do with the Emperor’s decree. I wanted to marry you myself and even forced you to marry me. Were you angry back then?"
No... The moment he saw her appear in the Imperial Mausoleum in her tattered wedding dress, he had been happy. That was no lie.
"I know you like me." She was so confident, without a trace of shyness. "That’s why I forced you. You won’t blame me, right?"
Silence.
"Speak. Don’t play dumb."
"...Right."
Xin Mei grinned from ear to ear, then, as if remembering something, a rare hint of shyness surfaced on her face. She lowered her head, hesitating for a long while before speaking: "Though we’ve been married for months now, saying this might sound strange... but I haven’t told you yet, have I? Lu Qianqiao, I like you too. I’ve never once thought of marrying anyone else."
He didn’t speak, sitting quietly across from her as the night breeze lifted his long hair, one crimson eye gleaming in the darkness.
She took a deep breath and pulled out the Mirror of United Hearts from her robe—something she’d stolen from Zhao Guanren. Worried something might go wrong, even with the cloud mist array, she felt uneasy without the general around. The demons of the Imperial Mausoleum had retreated into the Underground Palace again.
She hadn’t entered the Underground Palace, just quietly taken a few things and left a note for Zhao Guanren and Si Lan, telling them not to worry.
Holding up the mirror, she asked, "Remember this? Two people reflected in the Mirror of United Hearts are destined to be together. We’ve been reflected in it before. If you don’t believe me, let’s try again."
Under the bright little moon overhead, she aimed the mirror at him and bent down to join him in its reflection—but the surface remained blurry, pitch-black, showing no reaction at all.
"Uh..." Xin Mei felt awkward and tapped the mirror. "Is it broken? Or did I not aim it right?"
Lu Qianqiao suddenly stood up.
"It’s late. I’m leaving."
He turned to go.
"Then I’ll come see you again in a couple of days!"
Xin Mei gave the useless mirror a hard slap, and it tearfully got stuffed back into her bag.
"You..." He stopped and looked back at her. "I don’t want to..."
"Don’t want to what?" She jumped up, eyes wide as she glared at him. "You dare say it? You dare repeat it?"
[You think I’m so easy to fool?! I’ve seen this act in operatic scripts countless times! You dare say you don’t like me again?! You dare?!]
Her fierce voice echoed in his mind.
That day, she had said: [I just wanted to marry you so badly!]
Lu Qianqiao lowered his lashes, feeling his body tremble slightly—not from instinct, not from killing intent.
"Look up at me. Lu Qianqiao, I’m right in front of you. Look at me!"
His mismatched eyes—one red, one black—met hers.
"Alright, now, what did you want to say?" Xin Mei blinked and asked.He remained silent for a long time, the butterfly hidden deep within his heart, buried in a cocoon, stirring restlessly.
He said, "Next time... come earlier."
Xin Mei grinned, her smile anything but demure. "Mm, I got it."
Suddenly, with a flick of his long sleeve, he lightly tossed something toward her. It hit the barrier at the cliff's edge, but since he hadn't thrown it hard, the object didn't bounce far. Xin Mei stepped forward and caught it effortlessly.
It was trauma medicine from their Sinister Clan—something he always carried with him.
"...Remember to treat your wounds."
He recalled whipping her with his long whip two days prior. Though the barrier had lessened the impact, preventing serious injury, broken skin and bleeding were inevitable.
Xin Mei nodded. "Alright. You should also eat and rest on time. Don’t overwork yourself."
Lu Qianqiao glanced toward the dense forest behind her. Though well-hidden, an aura he found deeply unpleasant emanated from the trees. His instincts as a War Ghost screamed at him to tear through the barrier and reduce that person to dust. But Xin Mei was here. For some reason, he didn’t want her to see him kill.
He left.
Xin Mei skipped back cheerfully, cradling the bottle of common trauma medicine as if it were a treasure.
The High Priest was slumped drowsily by the Long Carriage, rubbing his temples. "Finished talking?" he asked listlessly.
"Mm. I’ll come earlier the day after tomorrow." She hopped onto the carriage, still treating the medicine like a prized possession, its bitter, pungent scent somehow more fragrant than any delicacy.
She’s coming again—?! The High Priest silently wailed.
"These are dangerous times, yet you keep running back and forth between these two perilous places. Do you have a death wish?"
She blinked in surprise. "What dangerous times?"
"Isn’t Li Chao Yang sending War Ghosts to hunt you down?"
Xin Mei thought for a moment. "I haven’t seen any of them lately. And this whole 'she’s hunting me' thing is just what you said."
Over the past few days, aside from Lu Qianqiao, she hadn’t encountered a single War Ghost—not even a trace of one. Now that she thought about it, the War Ghost she’d met that day might not have been after her. Maybe they were chasing this faceless fake priest instead. Weren’t the Youhu Clan and the War Ghost Clan at odds?
The High Priest stared at her with an odd expression before muttering, "How unappreciative..."
"Enough chatter. Let’s head back to the Imperial Mausoleum."
Xin Mei lay down, holding the medicine bottle to her nose—as if she could catch a whiff of Lu Qianqiao’s scent. Though they hadn’t been apart for long, it already felt like an eternity.
—Was she treating him like some errand-running carriage driver? And an unpaid one at that! She was, wasn’t she?! Wasn’t she?!
The High Priest gazed up at the fragmented crescent moon, overwhelmed with melancholy, on the verge of tears. In just a few short days, this girl had tormented him to the point of heartache.
How he missed the Youhu Clan—the clear, sparkling springs, the ever-blooming gardens, and those beautiful, devout, gentle, and lovely maidens.
Oh, maidens! Your beloved and revered High Priest is now suffering such inhuman torment—for what reason, oh for what reason?!
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