Sunset clouds burned like fire, and the fishing boats sang their way home.
It was dusk.
A cool, drifting wind brushed across Liyue Harbor as it bathed in the last of the daylight, tilting the thin columns of cooking smoke that curled up from the rooftops.
High above the harbor, though, the Jade Chamber hung motionless, untouched by the cold gusts.
With the secretary at her side, Fang Qiu walked out through the lobby of the Yujing Terrace building.
"Miss Fang Qiu, forgive me for seeing you no further than here."
Baishi, Miss Ningguang's secretary, halted and looked at her as she spoke.
"Sorry to have troubled you, Miss Baishi."
Fang Qiu gave a polite nod.
"It's only my duty," Baishi said with a soft laugh. "Well then, I'll go and report back to Lady Ningguang. Do take care on your way, Miss Fang Qiu."
"Mm."
Fang Qiu nodded.
Once Baishi had turned and gone back inside, Fang Qiu stretched her arms and got ready to leave.
Another disaster out of a clear blue sky.
She had walked out of the publishing house's editorial department and set off for the Wanwen Bookhouse without a pause.
And then, barely any distance down the road, she had run straight into the secretary Ningguang had sent to fetch her.
She'd had no grounds to refuse.
So she had been hauled all the way to Yujing Terrace.
At least it hadn't been the Jade Chamber. Just standing on that stone slab while it rose into the sky would have turned her legs to jelly.
Once she'd sat down with Ningguang, they had settled the adaptation rights for her other books, along with the merchandising rights.
As expected, Ningguang's offer wasn't as steep as it had been last time.
The first two works had been the ones that carved out the market, so of course Ningguang had paid a premium for them.
After that, prices naturally came back down to earth.
Even so, what Ningguang offered was still double the going rate, and Fang Qiu signed without hesitating.
With the deal struck, they had eaten together.
And she had to admit it, the food Ningguang ate was genuinely high-class and genuinely delicious.
Especially that dish of Boiled Cabbage.
Rich yet clear on the tongue, the finest of the fine.
After the meal, Ningguang had brought up the infrastructure going in around the picture studio.
Looking over the plans Ningguang laid out, Fang Qiu offered a few constructive suggestions of her own.
Which was to say, commercial district theory from her past life.
It sounded sophisticated, perhaps, but really it was just the model of a certain Wanda-style plaza from back then.
Beyond that, they had touched on a few matters concerning her entertainment empire.
She was in a hurry, desperate to go eat her pastries, but the hurry had to wait.
Business first, after all.
And by the time the talking was over, it was already this late.
"I wonder if the proprietress got tired of waiting."
Gazing out at the ocean, its surface carpeted in the last light of the sun, Fang Qiu brushed back the white hair the sea wind had tossed across her temples, then sighed and muttered to herself, "I'll apologize properly when I see her… mm… and treat her to a meal while I'm at it."
Plan settled, she headed out of Yujing Terrace, turning over what she wanted to eat later, and her foot came down on empty air.
?
Since when was there a step here?
Fang Qiu froze, and by the time she understood what was happening it was far too late to catch herself. She pitched forward, stiff as a plank, straight at the ground.
This was it.
As the flagstones rushed up at her, she threw her arms over her face on instinct and prayed she wouldn't land too hard…
She still wanted to go to the dessert shop and taste that pastry made from the essence of three nations. What she did not want was to go check in at Bubu Pharmacy.
She hadn't seen Qiqi in ages, true, but she'd rather not show up as a patient…
In the instant she squeezed her eyes shut and braced for the pain, a streak of blue flashed past.
The pain never came. Instead she tumbled into a warm, soft embrace, her face landing squarely against someone's chest.
So soft.
"You all right?"
A cool, unhurried voice spoke above her.
"Thank you. I'm fine."
Fang Qiu didn't linger in the woman's arms. The moment she had her feet under her she stepped back twice and out of the embrace.
Which was when she got a clear look at her rescuer.
Blue-black hair cropped level with her ears, and draped over her shoulders a fur-trimmed coat that looked expensive at a glance.
It didn't look like Liyue tailoring. More like something out of Snezhnaya.
It looked very warm.
Under it she wore something like the evening gown of a singing star from the Republican era of Fang Qiu's past life.
She was like a blue rose with thorns on the stem: elegant, and dangerous.
That was especially clear when those eyes were fixed on you. The discomfort crawled over every inch of skin.
As if… as if you were standing naked in front of her.
This woman was a little dangerous.
Under that gaze, Fang Qiu gave an involuntary shiver, and only then did she register that the person who'd caught her looked familiar.
She'd seen her somewhere before.
She was, she thought, the woman from that day when the editors dragged her off to the tavern and they'd all gone drinking together.
Come to think of it, when exactly had she appeared in front of her?
"It was nothing. No need for thanks," the woman said, narrowing her eyes at her, then waving a hand. "I've got business to see to, so I'll be going. And watch your step on the road. Try not to fall again."
"Mm. I'll remember."
Fang Qiu nodded.
After those few words, the woman walked off without looking back.
Fang Qiu let out a long breath and made her way toward the street outside Yujing Terrace.
That woman's eyes were genuinely terrifying.
If she ever took work as an interrogator, her numbers would be excellent.
She'd been speaking perfectly calmly just now and Fang Qiu had still felt seen through to the bone. Heaven only knew what she was like when she turned cold.
Never mind. No point overthinking it.
Pastries were the priority.
And as Fang Qiu set off for the Wanwen Bookhouse, the woman turned around, watching that retreating figure, her eyes narrowing slightly.
Fang Qiu's books were everywhere in Liyue Harbor, and half the city was guessing at who the author actually was.
She had never read any of them, but she was curious, a little, about the person who had single-handedly doubled the business of most of the taverns in Liyue Harbor.
Curiosity was one thing, though. She wasn't bored enough to go prying into the private life of an ordinary citizen.
She knew who Fang Qiu was only because, once, while disguised as a commoner to track the movements of the Treasure Hoarders, she had spotted her sitting nearby chatting with the Director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor and a few other girls.
And so she had learned, entirely by accident, that Fang Qiu was that author.
What she hadn't expected was that the Fang Qiu whose readers called her steeped in sin, guilty beyond redemption, would turn out to be such a strikingly beautiful young woman.
Soft and delicate too, and fond of pastries.
Of course, when she first learned who Fang Qiu was, her initial reaction hadn't been amazement at the girl's looks. It had been amazement that the girl published under her real name.
So much so that, hearing it, she'd found it hard to believe for a moment.
"I didn't expect to run into her here. She must have come to discuss a deal with Ningguang."
Yelan drew her gaze back and turned toward Yujing Terrace.
Not long after, she stepped out onto the terrace balcony.
"How are things at The Chasm?"
Ningguang looked up from the plans for the commercial district built around the picture studio, the ones she and Fang Qiu had worked out together, and turned her attention to the woman standing on the balcony.
"More dangerous by the day." Yelan's eyes narrowed slightly, her voice level. "The cause is still unknown. And it seems the Fatui have taken an interest in The Chasm."
"The Fatui?"
Ningguang's eyes narrowed, a cold glint crossing those crimson irises.
"That's right, though no Fatui Harbinger has been involved this time."
Yelan came forward and gave Ningguang her report on the intelligence work of the past several days.
Fang Qiu, meanwhile, was walking toward the tavern.
On the way she ran into a familiar figure.
It was Shenhe.
She seemed to have just finished work and was heading home.
After greeting her, Fang Qiu looked her over carefully, and only when she found no blood anywhere on her did she let out a breath.
"Don't worry. I won't get hurt," Shenhe said with a faint smile.
"Mm. Good, as long as you're all right." Fang Qiu smiled back.
She was hardly going to tell Shenhe that what she'd really been checking for was whether any of a criminal's blood had splashed onto her.
Shenhe had been at the job a long while now, but Fang Qiu still worried every single day.
Worried that one day Shenhe would come home covered in blood… someone else's blood.
Since they'd met by chance anyway, Fang Qiu brought her along toward the tavern.
Meanwhile.
Downstairs from the Wanwen Bookhouse, inside the tavern.
The Tavern Proprietress sat at the bar with a cup of Mondstadt apple cider in front of her.
The fragrance of it was rich.
A trace of sweetness hung in the air.
She watched the doorway, where twilight spilled across the street, and let out a long, low sigh.
Why wasn't Fang Qiu here yet?
Had her editor demanded revisions?
Or had Fang Qiu simply forgotten the whole thing and gone straight home after handing in her manuscript?
How depressing.
She sighed again, deeply, lifted the cup and took a swallow. The bittersweet liquid ran down her throat and slowly unfurled into a warm haze of drunkenness.
A faint flush rose across her pale face.
And right in the middle of her sulking, Fang Qiu's voice rang out.
"Sorry, proprietress, I'm late. Something came up and held me back."
At that voice her gloom lifted at once. She whipped her head around and saw a white-haired beauty standing prettily in the doorway, looking at her with an apologetic face.
It was Fang Qiu.
"It's no—"
The word "trouble" never made it out. A second white-haired beauty stepped into her field of view and stopped right beside the first.
Uh… why was this one also Fang Qiu?
The sight jammed the rest of the sentence in her throat, and for a long moment she couldn't produce a single word.
Huh…?
Huh?!
T-two Fang Qius?
What… what on earth was going on here?
How could there be two Fang Qius?
Had she drunk too much and started hallucinating?
She rubbed her eyes, then opened them again.
Two Fang Qius still stood in the doorway.
She rubbed them once more. The two Fang Qius were still standing in the doorway.
"Proprietress, is something wrong with your eyes? Why do you keep rubbing them?" Fang Qiu asked, puzzled.
"Nothing…"
Seeing which of the white-haired beauties had spoken, she shifted her stare to the one standing behind her.
"Her name is Shenhe."
Reading the confusion all over the Tavern Proprietress's face, Fang Qiu smiled and introduced Shenhe to her.
"Shenhe?"
The Tavern Proprietress blinked, and then listened to the full explanation.
As Fang Qiu talked it all came clear: the one who had ignored her before hadn't been Fang Qiu at all. It had been Shenhe.
And the "Fang Qiu" she'd seen that day had worn exactly the expression Shenhe wore now, cold as frost, with an air that warned strangers to keep their distance.
With the misunderstanding cleared up, she slumped onto her stool, and the tears came pouring out.
These past few days had put her through the wringer.
She had been racking her brain over what she could possibly have done to offend Fang Qiu, agonizing over how to repair the friendship.
And it turned out that from beginning to end, the whole thing had been a misunderstanding.
Which, thinking about it, made her want to laugh too.
Caught between crying and laughing, she did a bit of both.
Seeing the proprietress laughing and weeping at once, Fang Qiu pulled out a handkerchief and dabbed the tears away for her.
Once everything was settled, the Tavern Proprietress treated the two of them to a cup of fruit juice.
Since there wasn't a drop of alcohol in it, Fang Qiu managed not to get drunk.
But when Fang Qiu suggested they all go eat together, the Tavern Proprietress shook her head and declined.
She had a business to run. She couldn't go wandering off.
Nothing to be done about it. After chatting a while longer, they said their goodbyes and headed out of the tavern.
The Tavern Proprietress was sorted out. Next came the dessert shop, and the pastry she'd been looking forward to for so long, made from the very essence of three nations.
When they walked into the dessert shop and the shopkeeper saw Shenhe standing beside Fang Qiu, she froze too.
With a sigh of resignation, Fang Qiu repeated everything she had just said at the tavern.
The pastry shopkeeper understood at last.
The one in a foul mood that day hadn't been Fang Qiu. It had been Shenhe.
She smiled, turned, and handed them her newly made pastries.
Fang Qiu took one and tried it.
She had to admit, a pastry that drew on the best of three nations was extraordinarily good.
A pity it hadn't gone on sale yet. Otherwise she'd have bought five or six pounds to stockpile at home.
But while they were savoring their pastries, the Tavern Proprietress, who had only just seen them off, already had customers.
"Welcome."
The Tavern Proprietress smiled and turned to look.
Only to find that the customers were the editors from the publishing house.
Fang Qiu's editor, Bai Qing, was among them.
She had met Bai Qing and the other editors on the night Fang Qiu submitted The Legend of Sword and Fairy 2, so she remembered them perfectly well.
What baffled her was that Bai Qing and the two girls beside her had red-rimmed eyes and red noses, with tear tracks still drying on their cheeks.
They had obviously been crying.
"What happened?" the Tavern Proprietress asked.
"Nothing. The three of them just finished Fang Qiu's new book and cried their eyes out, that's all," the editor Li Ling answered, somewhere between laughing and despairing.
Knowing the Tavern Proprietress was a friend of Fang Qiu's, she saw no reason to hide anything about the new book.
"Is that so."
At Li Ling's words, the Tavern Proprietress's eyes lit up.
Bai Qing and the two other editors had wept like rain on pear blossoms, and even that hadn't been enough. They'd had to drag the rest of the department to a tavern to drink.
And all of it, courtesy of Fang Qiu's new book.
Which meant Fang Qiu's new book was—
a tragedy!
The thought drew a sigh of admiration out of her.
Fang Qiu really was the same Fang Qiu she'd always been. Not one bit of change.
The blade came fast, precise, and merciless. Not a shred of pity in it.
The only question was what kind of story Fang Qiu had written this time, to reduce three editors to that state.
She could already picture the scene once the new book launched: a tavern packed wall to wall.
Sure enough, riding on Fang Qiu didn't just take you fast. It took you far!
Something to look forward to.
____
________________________________________
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 50 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉