The morning was calm—a golden ray slipped through the window, scattering shadows across the floor like a brushstroke marking the start of what should have been an ordinary day…
except it wasn't.
They gathered around the table:
Wu Xin, with his silent aura of command.
The venerable Bi Hua, always carrying the weight of worlds on his shoulders.
Suo, bright and simple like sunlight through leaves.
Huo Feng, whose spirit had never once known stillness.
And lastly, Shu Shu, smiling a smile far too sharp for a child.
Huo Feng lifted her head, speaking with the blunt innocence of someone who never feared the truth.
"master Bi… Little Li. Who is he, really?"
Bi Hua answered, unwavering—like a boulder that storms could never move.
"They are not from this land. Their origin lies in the Shadow Realm. They have their trials, as you have yours. But be cautious, girl...our paths were never meant to intertwine with theirs."
The air stiffened.
Shu Shu lowered her head, her small fingers trembling against her cup. But her eyes devoured every word.
As always, Huo Feng remained blind to the flames beside her. She tossed salt onto burning embers and sighed cheerfully.
"Li is truly amazing!
There's a warmth in him that doesn't match his family at all.
I feel like… I've known him for a very long time."
Shu Shu's gaze snapped up sharp as a hawk guarding its prey.
A spark of jealousy ignited and vanished like lightning. But Huo Feng wasn't finished. She tilted her head with an innocent laugh.
"And he looks perfect beside Fu Ying!
They're adorable together, aren't they?"
Shu Shu's face flared crimson. She bit her lip, afraid her fury might spill onto the table.
Li belonged to her. That had been her truth since childhood.
Silence fell heavy, suffocating enough to shift the threads of fate.
Then Wu Xin's voice cut through it, sharp as a drawn blade uncharacteristic of him.
"Enough, Huo Feng."
Time froze.
She turned to him and felt reality slap the air from her chest.
He wasn't angry on Shu Shu's behalf. He thought she was talking about Master Li.
Heat flooded her cheeks in a surge of embarrassed panic. A short, awkward laugh escaped her.
But Shu Shu saw everything. She saw a jealousy far from childish,a man's fear of losing something he had never dared claim.
And so… At a breakfast table that looked perfectly ordinary, threads of love, jealousy, and doubt
tightened silently between them threads that would soon tighten… until something finally breaks.
The garden of the Third House was a portrait of divine madness white flowers blooming like embodiments of purity, and others black as night, smiling as if to greet the abyss itself.
Between them lay countless shades that danced between life and death, painting invisible borders between heaven and decay.
That place wasn't merely beautiful it was a reflection of humankind:
rising toward light one moment, and sinking into the mud the next.
Huo Feng walked deeper into the garden, drawing in its strange magic with every breath.
She brushed a petal, whispering softly:
"What a strange family…
neither pure nor tainted…
just human—capable of loving, erring, and burning."
Wu Xin glanced sideways at her, his chest tightening with an unnamed feeling.
This place… held secrets too vast for curiosity alone.
Far from the sunlight, in a corner touched only by darkness, Shu Shu listened to a voice that had never left her soul. Her shadow… or something far worse.
A dark voice soft as a mother's whisper, yet cold as a blade's edge:
"Protect Li…
If you wish the path to the Shadow Kingdom to walk beside you alone,
you must strip away anything that might steal you from it.
The weak are not allowed to love."
Her hand pressed against her chest, heart fluttering like a frightened bird.
Then, a wicked gleam began to bloom in her eyes. She whispered slowly,
as though pronouncing a divine judgment:
"Fu… the weakest among them.
If she vanished… no one would mourn."
The shadow laughed a brief, childlike laugh, but enough to mark the beginning… of someone's end.