Lilith sat clutching her bowl, eyes fixed on her stepmother and Grace, wearing an expression of pure, simmering agony.
Her junior schoolmate had been coming to her house every single day — snuggling up to her own mother, even plotting to give her a little sister — fine, fine! But now she'd gone and brought another junior schoolmate to her family's dinner table!
And they were making eyes at each other!
Did she think Lilith was blind?
This was absolutely unacceptable!
Nearby, Mrs. Annie was bustling back and forth, helping her daughter pack while keeping up a steady stream of reminders:
"It gets cold at night — make sure you wear more layers."
"Isn't this nightgown getting a little small?"
"Take the milk too... oh, and this — in case you get hungry at night."
Li Fei finished off the last of her rice in two or three quick scoops, then strolled up behind Mrs. Annie with a smile and snapped the bag shut.
"Don't worry — I'll take good care of Lilith," she said soothingly. "Besides, she's a grown girl. It's not like she's going to starve herself. And we're not far away — if you're still worried, Mrs. Annie, I'll bring her back every day to check in."
"I suppose that's true..."
Mrs. Annie reached out and gently took Li Fei's hand. A warmth tinged with bittersweetness welled up in her chest, and her eyes grew a little hot.
She realized, in that moment, that she would no longer be raising her daughter alone.
Grace finished off the last of her food with quiet efficiency, set down her chopsticks, and spoke without any inflection whatsoever:
"Thank you for the meal."
On the way over from the mine, Li Fei had already filled her in on the details of this teacher-student entanglement. The courtesan queen had told Grace plainly that it wasn't until the third day after returning from the Folded Space that she had finally crossed the line.
It was the truth — but delivered with masterful editorial selection. What Grace's imagination constructed from it was an entirely different story: Li Fei, struggling valiantly against the pull of her Witch bloodline, falling into despair after betrayal and heartbreak, only to be gently healed by a tender, older married woman.
Grace could not bring herself to reproach Li Fei. She could only reproach herself.
"Mrs. Annie's cooking is wonderful, isn't it," Li Fei said, her tone unmistakably smug — and she reached out to wipe a smear of salad dressing from the corner of Grace's mouth with the pad of her thumb.
"Had enough? Have a bit more soup."
Faced with her daughter's schoolmate and her girlfriend's classmate, Mrs. Annie found herself bringing out a gentle, maternal warmth for this quiet, beautiful young girl. She ladled a bowl of cream soup herself — thick with mushrooms — and carried it over to her with a soft smile.
What a kind woman.
Grace's expression went slightly distant, as though she were seeing the ghost of her late foster mother.
From the orphanage at the very beginning, through being taken in by the Yarman family, she had always been treated as a tool for reviving the clan's fortunes. The one exception was her foster mother — who had taken her own life just days ago — the one person who had ever held even a small measure of genuine care and guilt toward Grace, offering this expressionless girl the occasional, fragile flicker of warmth.
Mrs. Annie's soft, gentle smile made Grace think of the birthday cake her foster mother had given her on her eighth birthday. In the candlelight, that face and Mrs. Annie's face overlapped into one.
"Thank you."
Grace surfaced from her reverie a moment later, accepted the bowl with both hands, and took a small, careful sip.
The soup was warm. It wasn't as bitter as she had imagined.
— Hm?
Li Fei had expected to catch a flicker of wistfulness on Grace's face. Instead, something shifted in her understanding.
Naturally, the women who had captured her heart were all exceptional — each with a character and charm entirely her own. Which meant that, rivalry aside, they were also women who could genuinely appreciate one another's merits. Perhaps even become close friends and mentors.
Good. The path ahead will be far smoother than I'd feared.
Li Fei smiled with visible satisfaction. Once Grace had finished her soup, she pressed her palms together, tilted her head, and announced:
"Well then — pack up your things. Time to head out."
And with that, she cheerfully collected the bowls and chopsticks from the table and carried them into the kitchen.
"I'll handle this — it's getting late, you two should head over."
Mrs. Annie followed quickly, taking the dishes from Li Fei's hands and washing them with practiced ease.
Li Fei — who under normal circumstances never lifted a finger around the house beyond making performative offers to share the chores — obediently let go. Then she lazily leaned against Mrs. Annie's back, pressing against her like a warm, flowing weight; her softness spilled over against the curve of her collarbone. Her hands threaded through from either side of Mrs. Annie's waist, lightly stroking the back of those fair, delicate hands.
What wonderful hands.
Nimble, gentle, patient — it was a shame to waste them on dishwashing.
There was something impossibly alluring about watching an older married woman do housework — she had the air of a devoted, perfect wife. But Li Fei's instinct was to give her something far more comfortable and pampered.
She needs to move into the villa sooner rather than later.
Of course, the wedding portrait will need to come too. Hang it up properly. Heh.
"Stop that."
Mrs. Annie gave Li Fei's hand a light pat and cast a nervous glance toward the kitchen doorway, her voice a gentle scold. "There are people around."
"It's fine."
Li Fei rested her chin on her shoulder, nudged her knee lightly upward, and then dropped a deliberately loaded remark in a breezy tone: "They're all family, after all."
Mrs. Annie's hands stilled. She caught the peculiarity in those words immediately.
That strange girl... how exactly was she 'family'?
Then she felt the hair at the nape of her neck being brushed aside — and Li Fei bit down with a soft "mm."
Li Fei had no marking ability to speak of, but a pale, elegant nape really was irresistible — it had a delicate, distinctly feminine beauty all its own.
Mrs. Annie pressed a hand over her mouth, leaned forward slightly at the waist, and shot an anxious glance at the kitchen doorway. Seeing that the view was blocked, the usually reserved and thin-skinned woman let out a self-deceiving breath of relief.
"Mm-hmm."
Li Fei surveyed the ring of tooth marks on the nape of that neck with quiet satisfaction — then got a light foot on hers from a blushing Mrs. Annie, and dutifully bowed her head in a performance of sincere contrition.
A few minutes later, the three of them took their leave. The moment the door closed, the house fell silent.
Mrs. Annie walked slowly into the bedroom and opened the window, watching the three figures recede into the distance.
The room had grown lonely, but the heat Li Fei had stirred in her showed no sign of fading — it had simply been too long. And yet that curious remark kept circling in her mind, refusing to settle.
Before the three figures disappeared from view, Mrs. Annie clearly saw Li Fei reach out and take Grace's hand.
The lovely golden-haired wife pressed a hand to her chest, brow furrowed faintly, a look of quiet, compelling anguish softening her features.
Her thoughts spiraled: from they're just friends, don't read into it — to even if she... finds someone her own age, that's not necessarily a bad thing...
Worse still, the anxious, uncertain worry did nothing to cool the warmth inside her. If anything, it added something else — something different, forbidden, maddening, and utterly impossible to shake.
In the end, her thoughts settled on Li Fei's low, suggestive whisper:
— At worst, we'll both be your wives.
Without realizing it, this reserved, faithful, conservative wife had grown ever more deeply entangled in the web that her young student had so carefully woven — and there was no pulling free.
Mrs. Annie bit her lip, drew the curtains, and walked slowly to the wardrobe. Once again, she took out the nightgown that had been worn by both her wife and her girlfriend.
"Just... one last time."
But when she turned, the wedding portrait on the headboard caught her eye all the same. The two brides' sweet, radiant smiles felt somehow sharp at this moment.
Mrs. Annie laughed at herself softly. She realized, all at once, that she could no longer return to the woman she had once been — the one who had waited faithfully for her beloved for ten long years.
She looked directly at the familiar silver-haired bride, and right in front of her, slowly pulled the ribbon from her hair:
"I really am a terrible person..."
...
Leading a yellow hound on the left, holding a grey falcon on the right.
The line surfaced unbidden in Li Fei's mind.
With thoroughly indecent amusement, she glanced at Lilith's gleaming golden ponytail on her left, then at Grace's pale blue-grey eyes on her right, and the corners of her mouth curved up.
The tension that "Lady Zhihua being home tonight" had planted in her eased considerably — even the dull ache at her pressure point quieted down.
They walked past weathered stones and ancient trees, past pavilions and ornamental bridges, until the brightly lit villa emerged from the night. Maids moved within it, their long-haired silhouettes swaying across the windows.
Li Fei released their hands and declared with forced composure: "From now on, this is our home base."
At the moment she let go, Lilith curled her fingers inward, as though trying to hold onto the lingering warmth.
Grace, for her part, drew a rare, deep breath — visibly steeling herself — though her small face was pulled even tighter than usual. Li Fei understood completely. The 'yellow-haired interloper' was about to move into the aggrieved party's home, and she was thoroughly outmatched in combat power. Anyone would be nervous in her shoes.
"Lilith — whatever happens in a moment, stay calm," Li Fei said meaningfully, just before pushing open the door.
Lilith had been curiously eyeing the grand house when the abrupt, contextless remark reached her, and a look of bewildered suspicion crept into her blue eyes.
"Welcome home, my lady."
The next second, the maids' greeting reached Lilith's ears.
My lady? Which one of them is 'my lady'?
Then she watched Li Fei wave cheerfully at the maids, call back "You've worked hard," and immediately get surrounded by a swarm of descending fairies.
"Huh?"
The light went out of Lilith's eyes.
In those dimmed pupils, the reflections of two women walking toward them took shape.
The woman behind wore an elegant eastern-style dress in soft yellow, her dark brownish-black hair done up in two neat buns — bright, pretty, and charming. The woman in front wore a dress white as snow, with jet-black hair cascading like a waterfall; her beauty was transcendent. Every expression, every movement carried an ancient elegance, as though she had stepped straight out of an ink painting.
"Ling'er sister."
Li Fei called out and flung herself forward like a bird freed from its cage, linking arms with the dark-haired woman with a bright smile. "This is Qin Zhihua — my fiancée."
"Huh?"
Lilith shattered.
"Miss Grace, it has been some time — you look as striking as ever."
Qin Zhihua turned to address Grace first.
"Mm... you too."
Grace — who had once spent her Fortune shooting a decisive arrow at a sea serpent without a second thought — now felt a wave of guilt and flustered uncertainty. She dropped her gaze to avoid Qin Zhihua's eyes.
"And this must be Miss Lilith?"
Grace's unusual reaction made something flicker in Qin Zhihua's eyes. Without betraying a thing, she shifted her attention to Lilith, her manner graceful and composed. "It's a pleasure to meet you..."
"Oh, no need for formalities — they all go to the same school, they're already close friends," the courtesan queen announced in a sweet, coaxing voice, already tugging Qin Zhihua toward the interior. "I'll show them to their rooms first — they'll all be fast friends in a couple of days."
The truth was, Li Fei had noticed that whenever Lady Zhihua had a free moment, she would go around asking the fairies caring questions — how old is your little sister, has she been to school — in a way that, frankly, reminded Li Fei of an empress from a palace drama.
Grace would be fine, but Lilith still needed a moment to process all of this. If she accidentally let something slip about Mrs. Annie... getting a needle jabbed into her sternum truly did hurt.
Li Fei parked Lady Zhihua on the sofa, grabbed Lilith by the wrist, and led the two of them upstairs.
"Ta-da~"
Li Fei pushed open a door. The room inside was spacious — most of the furniture, even the soft bed, had been moved out in advance on the courtesan queen's orders, replaced with floor mats laid side by side.
"A proper sleepover has to have communal floor beds," Li Fei declared, planting her hands on her hips as she kicked the door shut. "The bathroom is also enormous — we can bathe together. It's the single most reliable method for building team chemistry."
Grace was still coiled in anxiety, her feet — wrapped in pure white lace-trimmed knee socks — fidgeting against the floor.
"Abababa..."
Lilith appeared to have been struck by a dual curse of Petrification and Stupefaction simultaneously, robbing her of the power of speech entirely.
"What's the matter?"
The courtesan queen leaned in close and asked the question she already knew the answer to.
The faint scent that drifted into Lilith's nose — the one with the slim but non-negligible chance of triggering Witch Sickness — snapped her back to her senses. Her twin tails rose with the surge of rampaging magic power:
"You — you!"
Li Fei pressed a hand over her mouth and breathed into her ear:
"Shh. Keep it down."
"You already have a fiancée?!"
Lilith struggled, the words muffled against Li Fei's palm.
"Mm."
Li Fei looked genuinely contrite. "You know how it was — I was homeless and alone back then... and Zhihua sister was so good to me."
"Then why did you..."
"With Zhihua sister, it's mutual admiration. With Mrs. Annie, it was something I couldn't control. With..." Li Fei coughed. "Feelings aren't something you can manage. I can only take each one seriously... Besides, a household with multiple wives is quite common in Loxibrook, isn't it?"
"That doesn't make it okay... I never thought you were this fickle."
Lilith glared at her.
Fickle? Who exactly are you looking down on here?
Li Fei shook her head gently in the face of that stare:
"I'm not fickle. It's just that my heart... shattered into many pieces, and each piece fell in love with someone different."
"I'm telling Mother!"
Lilith sank her teeth into Li Fei's finger and tried to break free.
"I was never planning to hide it from her. I'm just waiting for the right moment."
Li Fei seemed impervious to the pain, her lips almost brushing Lilith's ear as she breathed the words out:
"Mrs. Annie has raised you on her own all these years. That hasn't been easy... Do you really want to drive me away, and have her go back to being lonely the way she was before?"
"I think... you don't want to make your mother sad, do you, Lilith?"
Lilith went still at those words — her frantic struggling stopped all at once. The pale, delicate curve of her earlobe flushed red under the warmth of each soft, rhythmic breath.
Li Fei slowly released her, and held out the finger that was now seeping blood toward Grace.
Since reaching Sequence 8, even a modest wound like this visibly closed at a speed the naked eye could track.
Miss Throat-Stab — who had convinced herself that she was the cause of this whole romantic tangle — said nothing, and simply took out a wound salve, sealing the injury shut.
"You... you fickle, awful woman."
Lilith's rebuke came out barely above a whisper.
If I weren't fickle, what chance would you ever have, dear stepdaughter? I'm rather curious just how long you'll hold out before you take the initiative yourself.
"Just give me a little more time," Li Fei promised, her tone sincere and remorseful. "No matter what happens — I won't leave you or Mrs. Annie."
...
"Zhihua sister — I'm counting on you."
Li Fei smiled sweetly, staff Quietsong in hand.
The first night of the group training camp — Lady Zhihua herself would take the field, as a welcoming gift for their guests.
Though alchemy was her preeminent talent, her martial aptitude was extraordinary as well — Li Fei knew exactly what it meant to self-develop a cultivation technique, having asked both Nicole and Chloe. By current combat standards, Qin Zhihua putting three low-Sequence spell-casters in their place could be described not as effortless — only as requiring less than the effort of blowing dust off a shelf.
"Go easy on them, won't you...?"
Li Fei's sentence was cut short, because Qin Zhihua had suddenly caught her by the wrist and, without any fuss, sniffed out the residual scent of wound salve that still clung despite being washed.
"Were you injured just now?"
"Mm... just an accident."
Li Fei's smile stiffened, and she held her ground with breezy confidence.
But a Sequence 8 mage inexplicably sustaining an injury severe enough to require wound salve — that excuse could only satisfy someone willing to be satisfied.
"Such carelessness won't do. You'll need to work on that."
Qin Zhihua rested her hand slowly on the hilt of her sword, the faintest hint of a smile on her lips. "I'm quite fond of that line you once said."
"Uncut jade cannot become a vessel."
A gaze cool and luminous as moonlight traced a slow circuit around every pressure point on the courtesan queen's body.
____
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