An empty corridor stretched on, its end forever out of reach. The road looked endless, yet her feet refused that first step. In the end, only her eyes could roam. Autumn wind moaned through, threads of cold slipped under her clothes and straight into the heart, sharpening the loneliness.

She sat on the ground, gaze on the courtyard’s flowers and grass. Yun Shi felt no ease. Against the manor’s painted beauty, her heart was stained black.

Sunlight flooded the earth, yet it couldn’t spill into her chest. Green tangled across the soil, yet it couldn’t bloom inside her. A butterfly drifted by, yet it couldn’t carry off the bird inside the cage.

That was Yun Shi’s world now—glittering on the skin, rotten in the marrow.

Truth was, she didn’t want to be engaged. Not at all.

Girls wish for a partner who truly loves them for a lifetime. Yun Shi didn’t think she was a whole girl, yet she still refused a half she’d never met.

If she could, she wanted to never marry.

But that was impossible. It struck too suddenly, left her unarmed.

“How nice for you. You don’t have to think about anything.”

She snatched a butterfly from the air. Her other hand cupped over it. The sigh in her voice carried a bruise.

The butterfly fought and quivered, desperate to flee the prison of her palms. Struggling like that had no result.

“Free and easy... how good that must be.”

Yun Shi longed to become a butterfly. Think nothing. Do nothing. Just fly under this sky, and that would be enough.

The imprisoned live in pain. They don’t even know what the sky outside looks like. They can only stare, and they cannot speak.

Yun Shi was that person.

Suddenly, fingers closed around her wrist. Yun Shi startled and tried to pull free. A familiar voice rose, cool and steady.

“Don’t toy with brief lives.”

Her palm loosened. The butterfly slipped free and fled toward the far sky.

“Brother...”

Yun Shi dropped her hand, kept her head bowed, kept staring at the courtyard as if it were the only world.

Yuuya was right. She had been toying with another life. Catching a free butterfly, caging it in her hand—no different from...

No different from what her family always did.

“Still thinking about that?”

Yuuya saw she didn’t want to entertain him. He didn’t sit beside her. He simply stood.

“What else would I be thinking.”

Yun Shi had no mind to deal with him, so she let the words fall.

“I know you reject this. But... forgive me. I don’t have a way.”

“No need to apologize. It’s not your burden.”

“But... my conscience won’t let me off.”

Yuuya gave a bitter smile.

A man who couldn’t guard his own family’s happiness—how could he claim no burden.

“You’re always like this. It has nothing to do with you, yet you latch on anyway. Sometimes I really don’t get how someone like that is my brother.”

She meant it. She didn’t understand Yuuya at all.

“...That’s my way. And I never move on pure impulse.”

“...”

“Xiao Yun, I mean it. I want to protect this home.”

“So you play the fool. You’re not wrong, yet you keep apologizing. To be honest, I hate that kind of person.”

At last, Yun Shi turned. Her eyes held on Yuuya’s face. She stripped her heart bare.

Yuuya was a little surprised, even hurt. Yet he trusted his sister. He chose to listen in silence.

“I hate fools. Fools always run their own path. Even without being asked, they shove into other people’s business. They get hurt, then grin like a clown. That kind—I hate.”

“Fools never care what others think. They act on their urges.”

“People who keep ‘I want to help’ on their lips aren’t reliable in this world.”

Why did Yun Shi hate this type? It tied back to memories from her previous life.

Long ago, she despised the harem leads in anime. Not only their flings and open harems, but that idiot faith they peddled.

Because real life didn’t have people like that, right? Who would sacrifice themselves for others. Who’d get hurt and still smile. Would such a person exist?

Impossible... right?

So Yun Shi hated them.

“Xiao Yun doesn’t like me? A person like that?”

“I hate it very much.”

“Merciless.”

Yuuya’s bitter smile deepened. His sister hadn’t softened here; her pride still shone.

“But, Xiao Yun, there may be a day you meet someone like that.”

“How could that be.”

She didn’t bother to hide the scorn.

“Maybe. The world’s wide. All kinds cross your path. One day, when you meet the person who matters most in your life, you’ll understand. There are people who’ll give up their own interests for you. Who’ll stand in front of you even if it means getting hurt.”

Yuuya ignored her mockery. His voice stayed patient, earnest. He spoke the truth of his heart.

Yun Shi fell into brief thought. Not because of his words. She simply had no retort.

Maybe standing had tired him. Yuuya finally sat beside her.

“I can’t change Father and Mother’s decision. But, Xiao Yun, don’t give up on everything.”

“Is that supposed to be comfort?”

“I don’t know.”

A clean breeze slipped through, flicked a few strands of hair. Brother and sister faced each other, their eyes steady.

“The forest is vast. A bird bound to the nest won’t know it. I know you want to fly out. But now, you can’t. Your wings aren’t full. And with Father and Mother’s decision, you can’t get out.”

“So I’ve basically been given life without parole.”

“...It’s hard to explain. Anyway, you can’t walk out for now.”

One line dragged her down. She sank and couldn’t climb back up.

Who would know her wish was the world outside? If she couldn’t fly out of the forest, what meaning had a life inside the cage...

“I’m sorry. It’s all I can say. You’re you. I can’t steer your everything.”

Maybe fate was written long ago. No path escaped it...

“Zou—he’s not a bad person.”

At this point, more words had no weight...

“Rest well today. The rest... I’ll handle, bit by bit.”

It did nothing. A dying struggle, just noise...

“Goodbye, Xiao Yun...”

Yuuya saw her bowed head, her eyes shadowed beneath her bangs. He understood. He couldn’t turn the tide.

So he chose to leave.

It was the best and most efficient way.

“Goodbye, brother.”

Cherry lips parted. A quiet voice flowed like an angel’s note, slipped into the ear, carried the heart.

Yuuya’s silhouette blurred in her sight, then faded, then vanished.

That last “goodbye” was a true farewell. The next time they met, a long, long time would have passed...

Yun Shi never imagined that.

The courtyard held steady in its hush. Lush and lively, same as always.

But the human heart wasn’t what it used to be.

“What am I supposed to do...”

Yun Shi was helpless, adrift. She wanted someone to tell her what to do...

Submit to fate—was that all?

It was clearly impossible to negotiate with her parents. She knew their bottom line.

“They’ve completely thrown me away, haven’t they...”

She raised her face to the sky. Grief pulled at every line.

She knew the marriage was political. She was only the sacrifice.

Her parents, for the family’s interests, for long-term rise in the Underworld, had “sold” their daughter to someone else.

If Yun Shi had strength—if she weren’t weak—she’d at least have a fighting chance. As she was, with nothing, she couldn’t change a thing. She couldn’t shake the fact she was a tool.

“I...”

What should she do...

If she yielded like this, she’d never fly out.

Besides, she’d been avoiding, never resisting. Of course she was still in the cage...

If she resisted, would there be a chance?

Try, and she might fail. Do nothing, and she’d fail for sure.

It was a maxim from her previous life. Yun Shi remembered it clearly.

“Rather than do nothing... I’ll gamble.”

Yun Shi stood. Light returned to her eyes. She took in the garden’s cloud of butterflies. She wanted to go with them.

She’d just recalled something inside the Flamebu Family—an old practice that had always been there.

She’d borrow that, and wager her future.

Even if the road ahead was a dead end... she would walk it. Because the road she wanted was the sky.

Yun Shi stepped onto the path. Each step carried her toward her goal. She had found the way she should go. From talking with her brother, she knew pinning hopes on her parents’ change of heart was impossible. And with no chips of her own, the only way to oppose was—

Flip the table.

“Found you! Miss, you’re here!”

“...Mia?”

The choice lay in her hands. And on this day, Yun Shi truly made her final decision.