Chapter 4

By the time the hour of Xu arrived, Shen Qing hadn’t eaten much at Youjian Restaurant. Naturally, when dinnertime came, she joined her parents for the evening meal.
In her previous life, her mother died when Shen Qing was seventeen. Shen Qing herself died at nineteen.
Which meant it had been nearly two full years since she’d last seen them. Now, on the verge of seeing her parents again, she felt a strange, rare tightness in her chest.
The servants had already set the table. Warm lamplight filled the room, and the dishes, an abundant spread, had been prepared specially to welcome Shen Qing home. Her parents sat chatting at the table.
At some amusing point in the story, her father burst into hearty laughter, voice full and strong, his face bright with energy.
Her mother hid a smile behind her hand, chuckling along. Seeing this, her father picked up his chopsticks and placed a morsel into her bowl.
They looked so vividly alive, their faces ruddy and full of color, nothing like the waxen, lifeless masks they’d worn in death.
Shen Qing stopped in the doorway, staring at them, tears filling her eyes before she even noticed.
These were her parents, the ones who had spoiled her, cherished her, watered her life with love day after day. How could they possibly be “side characters” whose deaths were summarized in a few lines of a book?
The smile had barely faded from Madam Shen’s eyes when she caught sight of her daughter from the corner of her vision. She nudged her husband. “Look who’s here. Take a good look, isn’t this the precious girl you’ve been pining over for months?”
General Shen stroked his beard and squinted toward the door. Spotting Shen Qing standing there motionless, he sprang to his feet. Madam Shen rose as well.
“Hahaha! My little Yuan is back!” he boomed. “Why are you just standing there? Come in, sit down!”
Shen Qing’s nose stung. Tears spilled over.
“Father…” she choked, flinging herself into his arms and sobbing uncontrollably.
Her father’s expression changed at once. He rubbed her head anxiously, soothing her in a low voice. “Don’t cry, don’t cry. Did someone bully you at Xuanji Pavilion? Tell father who it was, I’ll teach them a lesson for you.”
Her mother panicked too. In all these years, she had never seen her daughter cry this hard. To run into her father’s arms looking so aggrieved, had something truly awful happened?
She cupped Shen Qing’s face in both hands, gently wiping away the tears. “Yuan, your father is right. Tell Mother, who wronged you? With us here, we’ll stand up for you.”
Seeing how distressed they were, Shen Qing hurriedly scrubbed away her tears. “No one. It’s just… it’s been so long since I saw you. I missed you.”
They still looked unconvinced. Shen Qing spent half the meal coaxing and reassuring them before their worry finally eased.
Once the three of them sat down, her parents began piling food into her bowl nonstop. The table was filled with all her favorite dishes.
Her eyes, still red from crying, made her look like a little rabbit. As she ate, she asked, “Wasn’t Senior Brother supposed to visit the estate today? Why isn’t he here yet?”
Her father replied, “I went to court today to meet with His Majesty, and on the way, I happened to see your senior brother. He asked me to tell you there was something urgent at Xuanji Pavilion, so he might be late.”
Reminded by her father, Shen Qing finally remembered.
In her previous life, she had returned home in early May. At that time, her parents were still away. The border situation had turned urgent, and her father had led the troops to war for several months. Her mother had accompanied him. Only around mid-May did he finally repel the barbarians and triumphantly return.
Today was precisely the day her parents came home, and Shen Qing had gone off to Youjian Restaurant, missing their return entirely. The thought brought a faint pang of regret.
As for Liu Jiyue, he had run into an unexpected situation that kept him occupied until late at night, so he only came to the Shen estate the following day.
Madam Shen teased, “You’ve only just returned and already you’re pining for your senior brother. I don’t hear you talking half as much about your parents.”
Shen Qing bit into a chicken leg and narrowed her eyes in a smile. “Your daughter thinks of Senior Brother at home, and of you at Xuanji Pavilion as well. If you don’t believe me, ask him when he arrives.”
They spent the meal wrapped in warmth and laughter.
After dinner, Shen Qing lingered with her parents for a long while. By the time she finally returned to her own courtyard, the moon was already high in the sky.
Only Cuizhi trailed at her side. As they stepped into the courtyard, Shen Qing noticed the place was completely dark. No lamps were lit.
That wasn’t right.
At this hour, servants should have been waiting with lanterns for her to return. Yet not only was the courtyard unlit, even the rooms were pitch-black. The silence was eerie, like no one else existed.
Like no one existed at all.
Shen Qing suddenly turned back. At some point, Cuizhi had vanished. Only she remained.
Bang!
The door slammed shut behind her as if pushed by unseen hands.
She hurried to the windows, but the shutters snapped closed one by one along the wall.
“Cuizhi?” Shen Qing called softly.
No one answered. The lack of response was answer enough, she was alone.
Ding-ding,
The little bells on her hair ornaments chimed faintly. A thin gust of cold wind slipped in from nowhere, brushing her skin with a chill that felt like whips lashing her exposed flesh. Even through the thin fabric of her upper robe, a biting frost seeped in, making her skin prickle with pain.
Her pampered, delicate body quickly reddened beneath the onslaught.
If she let that unnatural wind whip her much longer, she’d soon be covered in bloody welts.
Shen Qing simply reached into her sleeve for talisman paper, ready to repeat her earlier trick, set up a formation around herself and figure out an escape afterward.
This time, however, there was no one helping restrain the monster. Whatever lurked in the shadows seemed to sense her intent. With a shriek, it hurled itself toward her.
But Shen Qing seemed to have anticipated this. The talisman in her hand flipped midair to face the thing head-on. It lunged too fast to stop, crashing straight into the charm, and its entire body went rigid.
The strange wind stopped at once. The suffocating darkness thinned as moonlight pierced the paper windows, laying a pale silver sheen across the room.
In that faint light, she could at least see, enough not to stumble blindly.
While the creature remained frozen, Shen Qing darted to her dressing table. She yanked open the mirror chest, rummaged inside, pulled out an item, clutched it to her chest, and bolted.
The tightly shut door flew open at her first tug. She had barely made it outside when the talisman on the monster’s head flared and burned to ash in an instant. As the last speck of gray drifted away, its eyes snapped open, and the flare in Shen Qing’s hand went off at the same time.
A huge golden blossom exploded above the Shen estate, bathing half the grounds in radiant light.
And the monster charged after her.
Shen Qing ducked behind a tree and flung another talisman.
The creature clearly feared the charms in her hand. Even while attacking, it twisted and dodged away from the slips of paper.
Her swordsmanship was abysmal even at the best of times. Now, at seventeen, before she had ever forced herself to improve, her soft, pampered limbs could barely exert any strength at all. She didn’t even have a sword on her.
All she could do was burn through her remaining talismans, dragging things out.
When she threw the last one, the monster finally closed in. Its reeking maw gaped just in front of her, rank fangs and thick stench so close they nearly made her vomit.
Its teeth drew within two fingers of her nose.
At the last possible instant, the creature was yanked violently backward.
The stench receded. Shen Qing saw the newcomer and blurted out a title: “Senior Brother!”
A young man in green stepped through the moonlight, pale hair tips lifting in the wind, the light laying a frosty edge over them. In that moment, he looked like an immortal descending from the ninth heaven.
His fine features were iced over with anger, yet even so, it was easy to picture the gentle, refined gentleman he usually was. Only tonight had this demon crossed a line, and darkened his face.
Liu Jiyue wasted no words. The unfamiliar blade in his hands flashed, hooking the creature’s tail and dragging it away from Shen Qing’s face. The monster howled, body curling as it snapped back at him, but Liu Jiyue slipped past the bite as lightly as drifting mist and engaged it in close combat.
Even while fighting, he found breath to say, “Raise the array. Protect yourself.” His voice was like jade striking ice, crisp and beautiful.
Shen Qing sprinted back into the room, grabbed blank yellow talismans, and bit her fingertip, scrawling out more than a dozen charms in one go. She kept five for herself and folded the remaining ten into a stack, waiting for her chance before tossing them to Liu Jiyue.
“Senior Brother! Catch!”
He snagged them in one hand. Seeing the fresh blood still glistening on them, his expression darkened. He said nothing more, only murmured an incantation to activate the talismans.
He had left in a rush tonight, carrying nothing but his usual blade. If he relied on martial skill alone to subdue the creature, the commotion would be enormous. With talismans, the job became much simpler.
Safely inside her array, Shen Qing watched him exorcise the demon.
In her previous life, the last time they met had ended in a dreadful quarrel. She had clung to him, demanding that Liu Jiyue reject the imperial marriage decree, because the betrothed was Shen Ling.
She’d made such a fuss that everyone knew she liked her senior brother, hated Shen Ling, and practically wished Shen Ling dead.
In front of all those watching eyes, he scolded her for her nonsense. It was the worst argument they’d ever had.
After that, Liu Jiyue seized on demon-hunting as an excuse to leave, vanishing from Xuanji Pavilion for months and never returning. Shen Ling, meanwhile, had wept miserably after Shen Qing stole the Glass Heart.
Satisfying as it had been in the moment, she had paid for it with her life.
Those memories flickered through her mind like lantern slides. While she stared, Liu Jiyue brought his blade down in a final stroke and ended the monster.
By moonlight, she could see it clearly now, a yellow weasel the size of a wolf. Its eyes glowed blood-red, its jaws gaping, strings of viscous saliva dripping to form a slick puddle on the ground.
Liu Jiyue slid the blade back to his waist and strode toward the courtyard. The array at the yard’s edge was nothing to him; he passed through it as though it weren’t there, stepping easily up to Shen Qing.
She continued to stare, murmuring, “Senior Brother…”
His face was still dark, but he couldn’t bring himself to truly be angry with her. His lips pressed into a thin line. “Mm.”
“I’m sorry.”
He thought she was apologizing for using her blood to draw talismans. The last trace of irritation vanished, leaving only weary resignation. He pulled a small medicine bottle from his sleeve and handed it to her.
“Treat your wounds first.”
Shen Qing bit her lip and took it, catching sight of the weasel’s corpse out of the corner of her eye. Only then did the delayed terror set in.
This hadn’t happened in her previous life. This whole incident existed only because she’d been reborn, and the karma that came with it.
From now on, more monsters and trouble would inevitably find her. Liu Jiyue couldn’t keep her by his side at all times, and everyone in the estate, her parents included, would be dragged into the danger, likely attacked sooner or later.
She needed a long-term bodyguard. One reliable. One powerful.
Through her clothes, her fingers brushed the Twin Fish jade pendant at her waist, and the image of an almost unbearably handsome youth flashed through her mind.
Looks like she’d have to speed things up.