In the Windmoon Pavilion, Ye Qingge swallowed the pill Huo Ji Yue had given her.

Moments later, the wounds on her back began to heal — visibly, impossibly fast — as if time itself were stitching her flesh back together.

“Didn’t expect you to be hiding medicine this good,”

she murmured, slipping into a new black robe and scooping up Ji Yue in his cat-fox form, rubbing his small head affectionately.

“There are plenty of things on me you don’t know about,”

he replied loftily, his two little paws folded over his chest, looking absurdly cute for someone claiming divine authority.

Ji Yue cast her a subtle sideways glance.

If she ever found out that pill she’d just taken was, technically, his… excretion, would she kill him on the spot?

The mental image of Ye Qingge’s rage sent a shiver racing down his spine. Every strand of fur stood on end.

No — for the sake of survival, that little secret would die with him.

Night deepened. The wind was cold and sharp, slicing through the air like knives.

Ye Qingge leaned lazily over the table, idly poking at Ji Yue with her chopsticks.

“Little Yueyue,” she said with a pout, “I’m starving.”

“Then go eat,”

Ji Yue replied, scratching his ear with a paw.

“But I want fox meat.”

To make her point, she even licked her lips dramatically.

Ji Yue froze mid-scratch.

His fur puffed out instantly, tail bristling like a bottlebrush.

He leapt from her reach in a blur of red, landing atop a wardrobe with an expression of pure horror.

“I suddenly miss the old Ye Qingge,” he said bitterly.

“At least that timid version didn’t threaten to eat me.”

Ye Qingge rose, stretching with an easy grin. She pinched his ear gently as she walked toward the door.

“Come on, let’s go steal dinner.”

“Steal dinner?” Ji Yue blinked his mismatched eyes — one red, one violet. “What does that mean?”

“It means you eat first… and don’t pay later.”

“…”

Ji Yue stared at her in utter disbelief.

What kind of deranged woman had fate saddled me with?

As they passed through the doorway, Ye Qingge grabbed a black mask hanging from the landscape screen.

She slid it over her face.

The mask was etched with swirling mandala patterns, inlaid with glimmering glass beads that caught even the faintest light — a flash of color blooming out of darkness, like a rainbow tearing through the night sky.

The capital of Northern Moon Kingdom pulsed with life.

The streets were crowded and bright, filled with carriages, merchants, and soldiers.

Some mercenaries squatted beside makeshift stalls, selling treasures they’d risked their lives to retrieve from the wilderness.

Mysterious hermits in black cloaks meditated in alleys, their presence humming with quiet danger.

Nobles strutted about in groups, arrogant and loud.

Night in the capital was even livelier than day — a chaotic stage where both the righteous and the wicked came out to play.

A cool breeze whispered through the streets as a young woman stepped from the eastern road.

She wore a flowing robe of midnight silk, its hem embroidered with drifting clouds. Her sleeves overlapped delicately as she walked, each step as graceful as a lotus blooming on dark water — serene, powerful, impossibly beautiful.

The left half of her face was hidden beneath the black mask, its cold surface burning with the faint shimmer of a mandala flame.

In her arms rested a small creature — part cat, part fox — with soft crimson fur like living fire. One of its eyes was blood-red, the other amethyst-purple, giving it an air both noble and dangerous.

The fox-cat lounged lazily against her chest, half-asleep, as if the whole world were too trivial to notice.

Together, they drew every gaze on the street.

People stopped mid-step, entranced — as though they’d walked into a painting, a dream of divine beauty and quiet menace.

“You know,” Ji Yue said smugly, stretching a little,

“back in my prime, I drove countless young maidens mad with adoration.”

Ye Qingge flicked him smartly on the head.

“Be good. Don’t get cocky. When I’ve got money, I’ll buy you a few lady cats and vixens to go mad over. You can charm them all you want.”

Ji Yue’s mouth twitched uncontrollably.

“…”