"Good thing Sister Ling'er didn't get caught up in it..."
Even after arriving at Lady Annie's home, Li Fei still felt a lingering dread about last night's events.
The young madam always liked to recite lines like "Ahh—I'm about to faint," but mostly just for fun; Su Ling'er, however, genuinely didn't even last half an hour before her eyes rolled back and she passed out cold.
And that was with Li Fei holding back, not daring to use [Bliss].
A succubus's tail—truly terrifying!
But what truly gave Li Fei the chills in hindsight wasn't this; it was that she only later recalled she had already ascended to Sequence 7, yet her Witch Sickness suppression ritual was still the Sequence 8 version.
Fortunately, it hadn't triggered any irreversible consequences.
At some point Lady Annie had come to stand before her, rising slightly on her toes to cup Li Fei's cheeks, whispering with tender, water-soft affection: "I'll wait for you to come back."
Evidently, she thought her little girlfriend was nervous about the upcoming trip to the Folded Space.
"Mm, I'll take good care of Lilith."
Li Fei broke into a smile.
The Spatial Wonderstone she'd won at auction held 207 marks of energy—enough to support the teleportation of two Sequence 7 and two Sequence 9 Transcendents.
Miss Grace had set off for [Remish] two days prior to begin her own inheritance; but no sooner had Grace left than the stepdaughter who'd been missing for half a month returned.
So Li Fei extended her a party invitation.
For venturing out to explore a Folded Space, there was no more reliable teammate than a priest; on top of that, traveling alongside Lilith might lead to some delightful developments.
"In all things... caution comes first."
Lady Annie toyed with Li Fei's ear, her water-blue eyes carrying reluctance, yet in the end she did not speak the words to make her stay.
Her wife had once left and never returned, leaving Lady Annie with a shadow she could not shake.
If she could, she would rather Li Fei never leave Loxibrook—to stay obediently at home, letting her spend five minutes each day coaxing her awake, preparing delicious meals for her, having her dutifully attend Common Tongue lessons, and snuggling at the bedside before sleep to chat and read.
But she knew just how outstanding Li Fei's talent was, which made it impossible for Lady Annie to utter such selfish words.
"Then when I'm back... how about we give Lilith a little sister?"
The married woman's gentle, affectionate gaze made Li Fei's head go hot, and she planted a flag.
"If you want, any time at all."
Lady Annie murmured.
In her view, a child was the crystallization of love, and she looked forward to giving Li Fei a daughter—a pity her lover was too young and busy with study, cultivation, and charity work...
"Hey, are you two going to eat or not!"
From outside the kitchen came the sound of Lilith irritably banging on the table.
Evidently, since the door wasn't closed, the two's words had reached the stepdaughter's ears clearly.
"Coming, coming."
Li Fei took Lady Annie's hand and walked into the living room, then sat down snug against the stepdaughter, lifting one of her ponytails in her palm and bouncing it like a ball, asking with a beaming smile:
"Where'd you go a while back?"
"Not telling you."
Lilith didn't give her a pleasant look, but she didn't turn her head away either, lest she interrupt Li Fei's ball-bouncing.
"But I feel like... you've changed somehow."
Li Fei sized her up suspiciously.
This petite, lovely girl with twin ponytails before her—whose eyes inherited her mother's iris color—still carried that pure tsundere flavor, and her realm was still Sequence 7.
Yet relying on the keen transcendent intuition of the [Witch of Bliss], she faintly sensed from Lilith a sliver of profound dark aura—as if, after a single trip away and back, some evil, chaotic forbidden existence had been sealed deep within her pure, flawless soul, somewhat resembling a witch's essence.
"It's nothing..."
Lilith said guiltily.
—She's definitely hiding something from me.
From her expression and tone alone, Miss Top Courtesan immediately caught on to something fishy.
So she cradled Lilith's hand and said in a gentle, soft voice:
"If there's anything wrong, you can tell me, okay? No matter what it is, I'm willing to help you."
At this, Lilith abruptly raised her head, gazing at her young, beautiful stepmother with complicated eyes.
—Liar.
—If I asked you to help me complete the Sequence 6 Ascension Ritual and create a [Forbidden] life, would that be okay, Miss Stepmother?
Think about it and you'd know—there's no way you'd ever agree, heh.
For a moment, the sinful seed in her heart nearly sprouted, almost making Lilith blurt out resentful, bitter words right in front of her mother.
Her gaze, too, grew somewhat off, carrying an almost twisted possessiveness—like a devout nun smearing hand-squeezed orange juice across the holy, perfect face of an angel statue deep within the church, delighting in the blasphemy.
But her deep love for her mother allowed Lilith to painfully snuff out the sinful, forbidden thoughts within.
Over all these years, mother and daughter had depended on each other; just because Lilith never said aloud how much Lady Annie had toiled and sacrificed for her didn't mean she was truly ignorant of it.
—Absolutely not! She must never do anything to wrong her mother!
Lilith warned herself inwardly, then answered listlessly:
"I get it already."
"Teacher Annie, what's wrong?"
Li Fei turned her head and waved at Lady Annie, who was holding three bowls of rice.
Just seconds earlier, Lady Annie had stepped out of the kitchen, tenderly watching the two young girls she loved most, and broke into a happy smile at the pleasant atmosphere between her lover and her daughter.
But Lilith's gaze made her footsteps suddenly halt.
Because the way her daughter gazed at her lover felt somewhat familiar.
As if... it were the way Li Fei looked at her, or at the wedding photo by the bedside?
"Ah, it's nothing."
Lady Annie walked toward the dining table as if waking from a dream, quickly tossing aside that absurd notion, and said softly:
"Come, let's eat."
After the meal, Li Fei clung to Lilith's arm and smiled sweetly at Lady Annie:
"Teacher Annie, lend me your daughter—she'll go shopping with me tonight."
Lady Annie blinked, glanced at her helpless-looking daughter, and started to speak but stopped.
A little guiltily, she hid the hand bearing her wedding ring within the palm of her other hand, lowered her eyelids, and said in a wavering tone:
"Won't you... rest a while first before heading out?"
Of course Li Fei also wanted to "rest a while," but she hadn't yet obtained the materials for the Sequence 7 Witch Sickness suppression ritual, so she could only say regretfully: "I'm heading to the Folded Space tomorrow, so I have to make the most of tonight—go early, return early."
"Then..."
Lady Annie fell silent for a moment, glanced at her daughter again, and a blush surfaced on her face.
Her slender, snowy-tender lotus-root arms crossed, her five fingers fidgeting awkwardly, as if about to make a request too embarrassing to voice; yet after hesitating a few seconds, this reserved, delicate married woman still, in a tiny voice, stammered:
"Tonight... will you stay here?"
Lady Annie had clearly dressed up with care; though her style remained plain and elegant, her lips—glossy from a coat of colorless balm—and her firm, slender ankles wrapped in glass-clear sheer stockings were enticing enough. For a woman whose wife had not returned in ten years, whose sealed and empty heart had at last been filled by a new love, it was only natural to want to leave her lover a romantic, profound memory before she set off on a long journey.
However.
Li Fei, who had genuinely intended to come back and spend the night, suddenly changed her mind upon seeing this normally intellectual, conservative married woman now displaying such a bashful, alluring look that even her snow-white neck was overtaken by a flush.
"Nope."
Li Fei's voice turned cheerful: "I still need to go back and pack my luggage..."
As the saying about the witch's world-saving sword goes—before you've got the cow in hand, you wish you could shove your whole wrist in—but now, she suddenly felt that occasionally keeping someone in suspense was rather fun too.
"Th-then alright."
Lady Annie said with a forced smile, looking somewhat awkward and dejected.
After the little teasing, Li Fei offered her a sweet date with a warm, soft embrace.
"I'm afraid if I stay here, I won't be able to bear leaving tomorrow."
"I want to keep my greed and longing for you, and come back soon..."
The sweet nothings she tossed off so casually moved Lady Annie to lift her head, mouth opening to speak, when from outside the door came the sound of Lilith stomping heavily:
"I'm going by myself!"
Li Fei and Lady Annie both froze, then looked at each other and laughed helplessly.
"I'll take good care of her."
Li Fei promised, leaving a lip print on her hand—though half of it accidentally landed on the wedding ring.
Then she headed toward Lilith's retreating figure, bidding Lady Annie a carefree farewell:
"See ya."
"Anyway, besides the two of us, Sasha and Eva will be coming along tomorrow—they'll mainly handle our food and daily needs."
Li Fei strolled leisurely through the brightly lit Transcendent market, recounting the arrangements for the Folded Space trip while quite naturally taking Lilith's hand.
Lilith's body stiffened, her head turned away as she pretended to answer nonchalantly:
"If you can bring two Sequence 9s too... I thought you'd bring Ram."
"Someone has to stay home to look after things."
Li Fei had long since prepared her excuse.
The real reason was that Eva and Sasha had Witch Sickness and had to stay with Li Fei to regularly replenish their orange juice; otherwise an outbreak of Witch Sickness would be quite agonizing and impossible to quit—more terrifying than certain drugs that made people pale at the mere mention.
One could say every witch was a walking opium poppy—gorgeous and bewitching, yet once you got hooked, you couldn't escape even with wings.
"Seems you're not beyond saving after all—you actually know to look after the household..."
Lilith mumbled, her soft hand curling slightly, wanting to grip her stepmother's hand back, but in the end she couldn't muster the courage.
In truth, whether as mother and daughter, classmates, friends, or teammates, holding hands while shopping was nothing—pity she had a guilty conscience.
After Li Fei had wandered seemingly aimlessly for ages, Lilith finally couldn't help asking: "What are you doing? Why do you touch everything you see and then not buy any of it?"
"I have an innate specialty that lets me sense the value of Transcendent items."
Li Fei declared with full confidence: "I have to check whether there's any treasure that's a pearl hidden under dust!"
—Does she even have such an outstanding innate specialty?
Lilith puffed her cheeks, an indescribable feeling in her heart.
Such an excellent girl—why was her private life so... unseemly?
After making a full loop through the Transcendent market and returning to where they'd started, Li Fei sighed in disappointment:
"As expected, no bargains again... but I did spot what I wanted."
She tugged Lilith's hand and walked purposefully to a stall selling all sorts of Transcendent materials in bulk.
Without any reserve, Li Fei said to the stall owner—who was also her good sister from the tavern, Eleanor:
"This one, this one, and that one... give me five of each."
This decadent-type big sister with heavy eyeshadow and a tall, slender figure lazily curled her lips and said in a lukewarm tone:
"Are five enough?"
Evidently, she'd noticed Miss Top Courtesan was preparing materials for the Sequence 8 [Witch Sickness Suppression Ritual · Single-Use · Kong Wanying Edition].
—For a single trip to the Folded Space, if she's frugal, it should be fine?
Li Fei put on a poverty-stricken look: "Mm, that's enough."
"Alright, sixteen thousand."
Lady Eleanor automatically gave her a twenty-percent-off friendship price.
To maintain the prestige of being the top girl, Li Fei didn't keep haggling; she briskly lifted one side of her skirt, pulled a goldsmith's note from her stocking band, and handed it over with both hands:
"Thank you."
"What are these for?"
Lilith asked suspiciously.
At her second-year level, she couldn't make out the use of these obscure materials at all.
"A ritual that brings people joy and happiness."
Li Fei winked at her mysteriously: "You'll find out later."
"Your girlfriend is so cute."
Eleanor said in a languid tone, lending a timely assist: "You two really make a great match."
"No, I'm not..."
Lilith's face flushed at once, her golden ponytails perking up as she instinctively tried to argue, but from being too tense, the words she wanted to say got completely stuck.
Only after her stepmother bid Eleanor farewell and pulled her away did Lilith recover.
"Lilith, Lilith, everyone says we're a match made in heaven."
Li Fei's eyes sparkled, putting the stars under the night sky to shame.
Lilith stomped her foot and huffed: "Why didn't you set her straight!"
"Because hearing those words, I suddenly found myself thinking..."
Li Fei's long lashes trembled, her gaze dimming, her tone carrying a wistful sense of loss: "If only I'd met you sooner."
Fine beads of sweat suddenly seeped from Lilith's warm palm.
"You... you, you! What do you mean?"
Lilith's heart abruptly clenched, and she asked as if possessed.
Guilt and forbidden anticipation grew uncontrollably within her, watering that quietly sprouting seed.
—I'm waiting for you to make the first move; otherwise how would I explain it to Teacher Annie? Dummy.
Li Fei put on a forced smile that looked somewhat mournfully beautiful under the bright moonlight, and the hair tips brushed by the night breeze made the girl before her catch her breath:
"It's nothing."
You actually feel it too...
How can you possibly like me!!!
Having gotten her answer inwardly, Lilith didn't press further.
But her hand carefully gripped Li Fei's back—for the first time, she actively made a kind of boundary-crossing overture.
Li Fei noticed her movement but merely gave a slight smile, then her slender fingertips playfully slipped between Lilith's fingers, and heedless of the slick sweat, she clasped their palms tightly together.
All that remained in Lilith's ears was the deafening sound of her own heartbeat.
At midnight, Li Fei, who had been hunched over the desk scribbling furiously, finally straightened up, stretched lazily with a little groan, and left a lip print on the letter paper.
For the Folded Space trip, she'd already taken leave from the tavern and the academy in advance; but out of professionalism, Miss Top Courtesan still wrote a farewell letter to each regular client, the contents amounting to nothing more than "forget-me-not" and "I'll be sure to tell you first thing when I return" and so on.
There were even ones for Grace and Lady Zhihua; if they returned earlier, Ram would pass them along.
After handing the letters to Ram and giving a few instructions, Li Fei slowly walked into the bedroom of the family of three.
Sofia was coaxing her daughter to sleep, but Little Yawen, who had been on the verge of dozing off, instantly grew excited again upon sensing Li Fei's presence, babbling and laughing without cease.
"Little Yawen still won't sleep?"
Li Fei strolled over to the bedside, soothed Little Yawen for a while along with Eva, who came over to be coddled at the same time, then turned to look at her strikingly beautiful daughter-in-law.
She wore a black nightgown, her skin whiter than frost, her vermilion lips like blood—still that exquisite, abstinent face, only now her brow brimmed with tender, water-soft maternity; her former elegant, aloof aura had been thoroughly melted away by Little Yawen's birth, lending Sofia a few extra touches of softness and radiance, brimming with the air of a young wife.
The mother-in-law sat down close beside her on the edge of the bed, took up those cool, delicate hands again, and gazed deeply at her ever-more heart-stirring young vampire wife; after pondering a moment, she spoke with apology:
"Sorry—because of me, you and Eva have to be apart for a while."
"She's not only my wife, but also your daughter."
Sofia's tone held no blame, only some confusion:
"But why Eva?"
"I'm optimistic about her potential and intend to try to help her step into the Knowledge Sequence... so I need to take her along to temper her first."
Li Fei answered earnestly.
My daughter Eva has the makings of a Tea Emperor—and that's no idle claim.
"If there's anything I can help with, please be sure to tell me."
Sofia stated without hesitation.
"It's good that you understand."
Li Fei said meaningfully.
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