"I don't understand..." Qianyue clutched her head, pain blooming like thorns under ice. "Why has Sis been talking to herself from the start? The things she says… Qianyue can’t grasp them. Qianyue knows nothing, yet when Sis mentions those things, something inside me twists strange, like wind snagging a torn banner."

"It hurts… it’s a mess… my head’s turning weird..." Her voice shook like rain on glass.

The pain folded her to her knees on the cold ground, not a performance but a collapse, like a flower beaten flat by hail.

But that didn’t shake Qingsheng Tangxue’s decision. The day had come to head for the Imperial City. The royal mausoleum waited like a buried moon; contact was inevitable, exposure only a matter of time.

Better to lay the cards down now than fumble later in fog.

"Qianyue, if it’s too much, I’ll stop," Tangxue said, palm skimming the white silk of Qianyue’s hair, her tone soft as dusk. "But we have to leave here now. Will you still come with me?"

Not now, then later, the truth would still be a tide.

"Mm!" Qianyue bobbed her head, a stubborn bud in wind. "Qianyue doesn’t want to stay. Qianyue wants to leave with Sis."

"All right, then." Tangxue crouched and smiled, fingers closing around Qianyue’s hand. Together they stepped into a wash of pale glow and vanished like fireflies swallowed by night.

Space rippled. They emerged by the river skirting the Imperial City, water running black as ink under morning light.

"This is where I reached after swimming three hours yesterday," Tangxue said, flicking water from her sleeve like flicked starlight. "If I’m not wrong, the Imperial City is just ahead, right, Qianyue?"

"Mm..." Qianyue’s gaze dimmed like clouded glass. "Qianyue first woke up in the Imperial City… it’s the place Qianyue knows best."

"In that case, let’s not go in." Tangxue’s smile tilted, light as a leaf. "Our real destination is close anyway… I used to linger around here too."

Qianyue stepped up and pinched the hem of Tangxue’s skirt, trailing her like a shadow. "Sis… if you’re familiar with it, why do you still need Qianyue…?"

"Because I want company," Tangxue said, breezy as a river wind. "Traveling alone is dull. Honestly I can’t stand the air here—cough, fine. I’m homesick. I want to cut this trip short."

"Home…" The word fell from Qianyue’s lips like ash. Her mood sank, a lantern going dark.

Tangxue caught it and clapped a hand over her own mouth, as if to dam a spill.

"Forget it, forget it. Let’s not bring that up." She pointed ahead, voice lifting like a pebble skimming water. "Go a bit farther and we’ll be at the Imperial City’s edge. If you don’t want to go in, we’ll skirt it. The royal mausoleum’s already close. See? That wide stretch glazed in ice over there."

"..." Qianyue said nothing. She walked close, quiet as snowfall.

The air turned awkward, thin as brittle frost. Tangxue thought, then tossed out a piece of her own black history to warm the chill.

"Last time I came to the Imperial City, a pack of swindlers ran circles around me. Thinking about it still boils my blood."

"They even mocked me for being dumb at the end! Said they were charging an idiot tax. Please—just a bunch of con artists…"

"You’ve been here before, haven’t you?" Qianyue turned her face up, eyes like a lake before rain.

"I said already, didn’t I? I was here over ten years ago."

"But… why would you still…"

"Qianyue, I explained all that just now," Tangxue said, a small sigh, like steam fading.

"Qianyue doesn’t understand… Qianyue doesn’t understand what Sis says!" Her voice frayed, a string pulled too tight.

"From a moment ago, Sis felt like someone else. So strange Qianyue doesn’t recognize you. The Sis right now… who are you?" Her hands twisted the skirt’s edge, knuckles paling like pressed petals.

"Ah, right. We never did the formal introduction." Tangxue scratched her cheek, sheepish as a stray cat.

"Let’s do it again. Qianyue, remember it this time, okay? My name is… too long. Just call me Tangxue."

"Tangxue… Sis?" Qianyue tried the sound, careful as setting a cup.

"If I’m honest, I’d rather you call me brother," Tangxue muttered, smile crooked like a moon.

"Forget it, Sis it is. Whatever. I’m used to it." She waved it off, a flick of the wrist like flicked dew.

"Let’s keep moving. Don’t mind my identity. We’ve reintroduced ourselves, that’s enough… After all, I’m a mermaid right now, and you’re a Vampire."

The Vampire royal mausoleum lay halfway up the mountain, the palace crowning the peak like a cold crown. Tangxue didn’t know why they built the tomb beneath the palace. It felt perverse, like living under your ancestors’ shadow. Then again, they were Vampires—grim logic had its own winter.

Near the slope, they ran into a knot of Blood Clan drifters, ragged as scarecrows but geared to the teeth. A tomb-robbing crew, sharper on average than the punks Tangxue had met before.

The moment Tangxue and Qianyue stepped into that strip of ground, eyes latched onto them like hooks.

"Yo, little sisters. What are you doing out in this wasteland?" The leader’s gaze crawled over them, greed glinting like oil.

The Empire forbade anyone from entering this zone. Even Blood Clan troops were barred. Anyone you met here was a cornered wolf.

"Boss, our luck’s hot today! Two little beauties in a place like this. Hah! I’m calling dibs on the blue-haired one. Hands off, boys!"

"Shut your noise! You don’t see the sword on her?" The leader smacked him, a crack like split bamboo. "You freeze up whenever you see a woman, huh? They came prepared. We could all end up under her boot."

"Under her boot? Hah! These two brats who haven’t even grown all their fangs?"

So noisy…

I want to kill them…

No. Hold it…

Can’t hold it…

"Tangxue…" Qianyue felt Sis’s temper fray like torn silk. She caught Tangxue’s hand, worry warm as a small hearth.

"I’m fine," Tangxue said. The heat of that grip pulled her back, like a rope thrown to someone slipping into a river. "But they really are an eyesore."

"Mm." Qianyue nodded, a tiny bell striking once.

"Watch out!"

Not again.

This time Tangxue saw it. Their idiot banter was bait. In the shadow, a drifter crept in with a dagger, breath held like a snake before strike.

Qianyue moved first. She shoved Tangxue aside, clean and quick, snapping Tangxue’s spell like a twig.

The dagger kissed air by Qianyue’s back. Then it screeched across a sheen of thin ice that flashed up like a sudden frost.

Shallow Water, Reverse Current. Water Cross-Cut!

Before the other drifters could blink, an unseen water blade swept sideways, a clear crescent slicing the wind.

"I hate it when people don’t value their lives," Tangxue said, breath low, eyes cold as winter rain. "Qianyue, don’t pull that stunt again. You’re just a kid. Taking knives for others—what is that supposed to be?"

Qianyue only grinned, foolish as sun through leaves. "It’s fine. As long as I can help Sis."

"If you want to help me, don’t make trouble for me." Tangxue ruffled her hair, fingers combing snow-silk strands. Qianyue leaned into it, content as a cat in a sunbeam. "I can handle this lot alone."