The hall wore a heavy hush, like a storm cloud pressed low; today felt stricter than any other day.

No voices rose, only steam drifted from teacups like pale ghosts; little by little, even the tension seemed to fade into that white breath.

Yun Shi knelt facing her parents, head bowed and silent; she wore a kimono for meeting her elders, a family rule stitched into her bones.

A thought cut like chill water—this might be the last time she faced them dressed like this.

“Is… this true?”

Her voice shook at the edges, a pleading tremor, like a string stretched too tight.

“Yes. The engagement ceremony is set for one month from now.”

Shino Shitou’s words snuffed out her last candle of hope, a pinch of fingers and darkness.

Yun Shi’s palm clenched in a flash; fear sparked in her eyes; her heart kicked like a trapped bird.

Let it be a dream, she begged the air; let her wake before she drowned in this. But the dream was a nightmare, and it had teeth.

“Your life is decided. You’re of the Four Pupils Clan. Sooner or later, you marry.”

“It’s too fast…”

“You two haven’t even met. After the engagement, you can build feelings. It won’t be too late.”

“Why must it be like this, Mother, Father…”

“Zou is a good child. I’m at ease entrusting you to him. Or do you doubt your mother’s eye?”

“…I wouldn’t dare.”

She couldn’t understand it and didn’t want to. Why should her life hang on someone else’s hand like a puppet on a string?

She would never like men. That truth felt ancient, like stone. She carried a boy’s memories, and no man would ever fit.

Reality gave her no mercy, not even a moment to argue back. It cut straight through.

This morning, her parents summoned her. They announced the date. The ceremony would be soon. The groom was blood kin of the Divine Ling Family, her betrothed since childhood.

Shock hit first, then a crawling revulsion. No one loves a stranger. How could she marry one? Shen Ling Zou—she felt nothing but dislike for that name.

“But I… I don’t want to get engaged.”

Her plea cracked apart like thin ice. She had never begged anyone before. She carried everything herself, stubborn and proud. Today she laid her pride down, for the sake of her life and future.

“Don’t be willful, Yun Shi. You should understand. You have no right to resist this.”

“Mother!”

Yun Shi stood. She couldn’t take it anymore. The air scraped her lungs.

“I don’t want to hand over my whole life to someone else. My future should be mine to chart. I don’t need anyone meddling!”

It was her first time shouting at her parents, her first tantrum like a child. The most sensible, the most calm, the most silent of daughters raised her voice today. Even Shino Shitou found that surprising.

But only for a heartbeat.

“Yun Shi, is that how you address your mother? Sit down.”

Souji Shitou’s rebuke cracked like a staff on stone. His voice allowed no refusal. Even if she refused in her bones, Yun Shi’s knees folded and she sat.

“Father. Mother. Anything else, I can accept. But not this. I won’t marry.”

She clenched her fists; she kept her head down. Her whole posture spoke her disgust like a shadow on the floor.

Shino sipped tea. She didn’t rush. She watched her strong-willed daughter with a faint smile, her eyes cool and mocking.

“At this point, do you think protest will help?”

“B—But…”

“Yun Shi, that’s life. Even if you don’t want it, so what? Reality doesn’t hand you what you wish for. You adapt. You accept.”

“That’s your view, Mother. I refuse it. A life ruled by others—how is that not a puppet?”

“There’s a great difference. It’s the law of survival. If you don’t adapt, do you think you can live?”

Shino didn’t even raise her voice. She treated the outburst like wind ruffling tea steam.

She knew she had already won. Yun Shi had lost her calm and fallen to the weakest ground. Shino’s move had landed just right.

“Shouting here changes nothing. It’s just willfulness. And after you marry, your life won’t be in danger anymore. You won’t have to struggle in the Underworld. With a backer, what is there to complain about? In this world, without power, you die.”

“I disagree!”

Yuuya burst in like a door kicked by a gust. No one had seen him at the threshold until he crossed it.

“Yuuya, this has nothing to do with you. Out.”

“Let me speak, Father! Just one thing. I have to say it!”

He ignored his father’s darkening face. He stepped forward like a man on a suicide mission, jaw set.

“Sure, Zou’s a decent guy. But that’s all. If my sister won’t be happy, even the highest status in the world won’t make it right.”

He wanted this engagement to work, true. But he knew one thing that mattered like breath: his sister wasn’t happy. An unhappy marriage steals a person’s happiness like a thief at night.

“Why can’t you see it? You’re stealing Yun’s smile!”

“If she can’t laugh for the rest of her life, what are we as family even for?”

“A smile is the most precious thing in this world. No mountain of gold can buy it.”

“Why take that beautiful smile away? Didn’t you once wear it yourselves? Do you really want to force your past onto your child?”

He wanted to guard more than blood. He wanted to guard the light on their faces.

And that light was about to go out. He couldn’t sit and watch the flame die.

So he stood up.

“Meaningless.”

Shino didn’t budge an inch. She rose and looked down at her son, her presence turning the air into a weight.

Even from that height, Yuuya could feel the pressure of her gaze, like winter in his lungs.

“Yuuya. Yun Shi. You’re naive. Willfulness brings you nothing. And smiles—tell me, to those of us in the Underworld, do they matter?”

“How many lives were taken without a single cry. How many people drowned in killing and couldn’t surface. How many lost the innocence they had.”

“In this world, without strength, you don’t even have the right to exist. What smile are you speaking of?”

“Survival comes before grins. You think hot blood and so-called friendship win every fight? Every victory costs everything. We lost plenty along the way.”

“Life is the same as war.”

Yuuya had no answer. Her words sounded cold, yes, but they rang with her truth, iron and scar.

To her, the two of them… were simply foolish.

“No. That’s not it!”

Yun Shi shook her head hard, like trying to fling water from her hair.

“These aren’t chains you can use to bind me. You’re forcing your worldview on me!”

She would not accept this, no matter what it broke. This was a blow aimed at her entire life.

Slap.

The sound cracked the still air. Her cheek burned. Shock hit first, then confusion, then a heavy hurt.

She covered her right cheek and stared at the woman before her. Shino lowered the hand she had left hanging, turned her back, and faced away.

“Don’t be too willful.”

One sentence. Enough to decide everything.

Shino’s mind was set. There was no path back.

Yun Shi could do nothing but sit on the floor and stare at the grain of the wood. At some point, the hall held only one person.

There was no rain today. No wind. Not even a falling leaf. Sunlight flooded the earth like spilled gold, yet not a drop reached her heart. Inside, it was a hollow cave.

She walked the path and felt it stretch like a desert road, endless and hot. Truth was, it was as short as always. Her mind had carved the distance long.

Her steps fell heavy as a thousand-pound stone, yet the ground did not give, and her weight changed nothing.

Ideal and reality—there was no bridge between them.

“Oh? Isn’t that the young lady?”

Mia came toward her with a bright face, like a splash of spring. A handmade bracelet glinted in her hands.

“Mia…”

“Hey, hey, I heard it! Is it true you’re getting engaged?”

Her eyes sparkled with gossip, light as a breeze.

Bitterness rose, bitter as tea gone cold. Yun Shi didn’t know how to answer.

“That’s great! Miss is getting married. I want to see who’s so lucky. Here, this is my engagement gift to you. I made it myself.”

She held out the bracelet. It wasn’t fine work, but it was pretty. As a gift, it was perfect.

Yun Shi looked at the chain in her palm, tiny crystals catching light like dew. She looked at Mia’s smile. A cold laugh slipped out like a crack in ice.

“So you’re here to mock me too, Mia.”

“Eh?”

“I thought you’d stand with me. Mia, you liar…”

“Miss, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to be engaged! I don’t want to be with someone I don’t even know!”

Anger broke its dam. Yun Shi flung the bracelet. The string snapped with a thin sound. Beads burst across the ground like rain, and the thought inside it shattered too. Mia stared, empty-eyed, the shine gone from her face.

Yun Shi dropped her gaze. A bitter curve touched her lips. She swallowed the tears back like fire, and walked past Mia. The beads on the ground still caught the sun, cruel and bright.

So this was fate.

She felt she had no more room to fight. Giving up like this was a dying struggle, a last breath in water.

No matter how hard she tried, there was no way left to turn.