The fairies streamed out one by one, each carrying a letter sealed with Li Fei's kiss, their butterfly wings scattering rainbow light in the setting sun.
Li Fei stood before a full-length mirror, delicately pressing a petal of crimson rouge to her lips to restore the color the letters had stolen. Her mouth bloomed red and lush once more.
Black hair falling to her waist. A red dress like a bridal gown.
She extended one fingertip and touched her own reflection, her eyes carrying a faint, dreamy haze.
Approaching eighteen, and driven forward by the Witch bloodline, she had blossomed into a figure of breathtaking curves, bewitching height, and devastating allure — possessed, furthermore, of a magnanimous and open heart. (Open-hearted: because one has no conscience, the chest is empty — and in that emptiness lies a valley as deep as any mountain gorge.)
Only when she smiled could you catch the faintest trace of a schoolgirl still lurking within.
A mature body, a mature mind. She was only one coming-of-age ceremony away from leaving girlhood behind for good.
Su Ling'er combed through her long hair again and again, and with each stroke, the anxiety coiled in her chest eased a little more.
"It's nearly time. Let's go."
Li Fei curved the corner of her mouth and gently touched the finger-mark still faintly visible on Su Ling'er's cheek. "Let's get that slap back for you — and take back my wife while we're at it."
...
"This is all you've got?"
Qin Lan's brow creased. "Restock before tomorrow. Every last item."
"My lady, we haven't slept in two days…"
One of the apothecary's pharmacists hunched over in a nervous bow. "And some of these compounds can only be prepared by Miss Qin herself…"
Qin Lan swallowed the word useless before it could escape her lips, and waved her hand dismissively. "Make everything within your ability. Don't go home until the stock is replenished."
The maid at her side immediately set off, arranging for servants to bring bedding and spread it across the floor of the alchemy room.
"Zhihua still refuses to eat?"
Qin Lan walked to the apothecary's entrance, her brow knotted in irritation.
"Yes. The young miss has not touched a single grain of rice in several days now…"
Her personal maid lowered her head.
"Let Su Ling'er face the family's discipline herself," Qin Lan said coldly. "What use is a servant who can't even look after her mistress?"
Days of fruitless persuasion had ground her patience to nothing.
Thanks to Qin Zhihua's extraordinarily capable mentor, and Qin Zhihua's own ever-improving skills as an apothecary, Qin's Apothecary had flourished across the Continent of Enlos — it might not draw many walk-in customers, but the Qin family operated in rarified circles, maintaining long-term partnerships with both major Transcendent academies, City Hall, the Mercenary Guild, the Thieves Guild, and noble families of every stripe.
The occasional delay in a delivery was nothing. But if Qin Zhihua kept indulging this willful behavior and displeased their valued clients, the apothecary's losses could be catastrophic.
Qin Lan moved to the doorway and surveyed the busy street with cool, dispassionate eyes.
Night had fallen, and the Transcendent Quarter blazed with lantern light and silver-flowered iron trees — a scene of dazzling, festive splendor. Yet even that vivid tableau could not dissolve the languid indifference on Qin Lan's face.
Zhihua… don't blame me for this.
In the end, Qin Lan made up her mind: she would give Qin Zhihua one final chance to see reason. If the girl remained stubborn, she would have no choice but to report the matter to the family.
However this ended, Qin Lan had lived alongside this quiet, cultured little sister-in-law for years — they weren't without feeling for each other. If she could avoid a complete and irreparable falling-out, she would. And besides, if the family patriarch's fury came down on Qin Zhihua, the consequences would likely splash back on Qin Lan herself.
She sighed and turned to go back inside — and then something felt wrong.
The clamor of the street had dimmed. Audible gasps were breaking out here and there.
Qin Lan turned. The crowd on the street was parting on its own, opening a path down its center.
A woman in a red dress walked toward her, brilliant and devastating, and everywhere she passed, the world seemed to drain of color — turning black and white — as though all of existence had conspired to serve as a backdrop for her beauty.
She actually had the nerve to show up here?
Qin Lan snapped back from her momentary daze, and her expression turned to ice.
She had always kept a quiet eye on Qin Zhihua's movements, and had personally ordered the oak tree in the courtyard cut down just days ago — she knew Li Fei by sight. But she had always assumed the magical portrait the servants had given her must have been touched up, because the woman in it had been an absurd, exaggerated beauty.
Now, seeing her in person, Qin Lan realized the truth: the courtesan who had so thoroughly bewitched Qin Zhihua was far more beautiful than any portrait — more mature, too, with an aggressively seductive quality in every glance that seemed to reach out and grab you.
"Your humble guest pays her respects to elder sister-in-law," Li Fei said, coming to a stop before the elegantly imposing woman, her smile blooming like spring flowers.
Qin Lan ignored her entirely. She fixed her gaze on Su Ling'er trailing behind Li Fei, and her brow arched in sharp displeasure:
"You treacherous thing — since when does a maid of the Qin household take orders from a woman of the pleasure quarters?"
Su Ling'er flinched — but held her ground behind Li Fei, utterly still.
The days of Qin Zhihua's house arrest had been miserable ones for her: beaten and berated at every turn, humiliation piled on humiliation.
Then, in an instant, a figure shifted. A silhouette with black hair falling loose stepped in front of Su Ling'er like a wall.
"Sister-in-law is being far too formal," Li Fei said sweetly. "Once Zhihua and I are wed, what's yours becomes mine — doesn't it?"
Her face, a nation-toppling beauty, even carried a faint trace of girlish innocence — but that honey-sweet mouth hid a blade, and the words that came out were a knife unsheathed.
"Ha."
Qin Lan laughed with cold contempt. "A woman of ill repute, without a shred of propriety, daring to humiliate herself at my door. If not for Lady Gneia's sake, you'd have been fed to the wolves in the den outside the city long ago."
…At this point you'd have a hard time finding even one Moonlight Wolf left out there. Considering I killed nine hundred and ninety-nine percent of them…
"My, sister-in-law is very well acquainted with my line of work," Li Fei said, her smile only widening. "You must have spent quite a bit of time enjoying our services. Shall I introduce you to a few of my sisters…?"
"Insolent!"
Qin Lan's expression turned glacial. She had always guarded her reputation jealously and could not abide even a whisper of gossip — Li Fei's words ignited fury in her chest in an instant. Her eyes narrowed to slits, her voice dropping to a frostbitten edge:
"Remember this — a whore like you, fit to be used by any man, will only dirty the threshold of Qin's Apothecary. If you have any sense, you'll go back to being a top-tier hostess and stay there. But if you dare continue tangling yourself up with Zhihua…"
"Why must sister-in-law go to such lengths to drive two lovers apart?" Li Fei said, wholly unbothered by the threat, her tone almost lazily casual. "Unless — you've taken a liking to me yourself? Planning to break up a happy couple and swoop in while there's an opening?"
"You're asking for death!"
Enraged by Li Fei's brazen flippancy, Qin Lan let out a sharp cry and swung her hand at Li Fei's face.
Crack!
Li Fei caught the incoming wrist in one hand — and swung her own arm right back, landing a slap that rang out clear and crisp.
Don't think that just because you're a married woman, I, Li — Ruthless — Fei, will go easy on you!
I have crushed more flowers in my time than you've ever touched!
Qin Lan stood frozen where she was, her hair ornaments scattered in disarray, her thick black hair tumbling loose around her shoulders.
She had been coddled and waited on from birth, accustomed to commanding her inferiors with a look — it was simply beyond imagination that a mere courtesan would dare strike her across the face.
This slap had struck not just her cheek, but the honor of the Qin family entire.
"That one," Li Fei said with a cold smile, raising her hand again.
Crack!
"Was for bullying Ling'er."
Crack!
"That one is for your utter lack of eyes."
Crack!
"That one is for ruining a perfectly good match."
Crack!
"And that one severs whatever sisterly feeling we might have had."
Crack!
"This one… my apologies — I got a little carried away."
Li Fei's expression shifted entirely. She looked like a pet owner who had accidentally stepped on their dog. She gently kneaded and patted Qin Lan's cheek, her voice soft and solicitous: "Don't mind it."
Qin Lan stood there in disarray — hair wild, one side of her face flushed scarlet, her reddened eyes brimming with tears. She cut a thoroughly wretched figure.
And this was Li Fei holding back. Against a non-combatant, even without her Ogre-Mage Staff, 36 points of Strength was more than enough to perform a live demonstration of a watermelon exploding.
"You — you — AHHH!!!"
Qin Lan gasped several short, frantic breaths before reality crashed back in. Her face twisted into something ghastly, and she let out a hysterical shriek: "Someone come! Come and seize her!"
The household guards and servants who had already noticed the commotion at the gate came pouring out, surrounding Li Fei on all sides.
Seeing Li Fei encircled by a pack of fierce-faced Transcendents, a few opportunistic shop clerks who had caught wind of the scene crowded in too — eager to perform their loyalty and perhaps profit from the chaos.
Shhhing!
A sword-cry rang out, clear and resonant as a dragon's call. Li Fei raised her head, and a smile broke across her face.
She could sense it through her perception — a faint, withered stream of True Qi, like a grassland scorched by wildfire, suddenly surging back to life in a spring breeze. It shot upward with breathtaking speed, budding, growing, and within moments had become more lush and vital than it had ever been before.
At Viranean, Qin Zhihua had lost someone precious and walked to the edge of death and back. At the apothecary, she had strained against the shackles she had worn since childhood, nearly breaking with her sister-in-law entirely. Amid such seismic upheaval, her mind had been as though mired in trackless mud — murky, drifting, unable to find purchase.
But Li Fei's voice had been a beam of light for Qin Zhihua, sinking in the dark.
Her sword-heart cleared as it never had before, shattering every inner demon in a single flash of illumination. Her family's True Qi flowed freely through her meridians — smooth and effortless — and the barrier that had blocked her advance crumbled without a sound.
The True Qi of the Fifth Heaven surged into sword-intent, tearing the night sky apart and slicing through the cage that had held her captive. Qin Zhihua burst through the window in white robes that shone like fresh snow — descending like a generation-defining sword-immortal stepping down from the moon palace into the mortal world, ancient in spirit, and devastatingly beautiful.
"Stand down," Qin Zhihua said with a quiet, unhurried command, and took Li Fei's hand.
The guards exchanged uncertain glances. Their aggressive posturing deflated all at once.
"This is outrageous!"
Qin Lan shook with fury, her chest heaving in great, agitated waves. Her voice sharpened to a blade: "Qin Zhihua! Do you have any idea — if the Qin and Kong families join through marriage, the Qin family can ascend to the rank of a Great Clan! You defy your betrothal and entangle yourself with a woman from the pleasure quarters — are you not afraid of disgracing the family name and making the Qins a laughingstock?!"
"Bit of a stench coming off that speech…" Li Fei muttered under her breath.
"You! You lowborn wretch!"
Qin Lan rounded on Li Fei, beyond all self-control now: "I will buy you out and have the servants take turns—"
At this, the assembled household guards perked up noticeably.
"Buy me out? That's quite an ambitious mouth on you. Are you King Martin Jack's mistress or something?"
A peal of bright laughter cut through the air.
Aurora — the Golden Kumquat Tavern's top courtesan — was still dressed in her signature forest-fairy style, blue hair swept up in a high ponytail. A stranger stood at her side, a girlfriend Li Fei didn't recognize. But Aurora's eyes, usually warm and generous, held something cooler now — a trace of contempt, her voice lazily unhurried:
"Lady Gneia asked me to pass along a message — the tavern will no longer be ordering goods from you."
Lady Gneia didn't even come herself! She doesn't love me anymore!
Li Fei's cheeks puffed. She opened her mouth to say something — but Aurora's girlfriend spoke first: "Effective today, the Louis family terminates all agreements with Qin's Apothecary."
Hm…
The dense rumble of carriage wheels drew closer. Something clicked in Li Fei's mind, and she turned.
Unicorns, Nightmares, and Fanged Beasts — magnificent, powerful Transcendent creatures — came into view. They pulled carriages of every style, from opulently regal to quietly elegant, rolling toward her in a long, stately procession.
This class of conveyance was more or less the Enlos equivalent of a supercar.
Clip-clop—
A unicorn's snow-white hooves came to a halt before Qin's Apothecary, its long whinny ringing out like a thoroughbred's cry.
A pair of snow-white legs in exquisite high-heeled sandals stepped out from a carriage — and down came a Blood Clan noblewoman with a face of cool, precisely refined beauty. It was difficult to believe that just days ago, this same woman had been sprawled across Li Fei's lap weeping about rude customers.
She curved the corner of her mouth at Li Fei — and then reached back into the carriage and lifted out an adorable little beast-eared girl with twin-tails, who piped up in a soft, babyish voice:
"From now on, the Ursula Tribe will no longer purchase medicine from Qin's Apothecary!"
Excellent. Blood Clan truly are all bronze-sexual after all.
Li Fei quietly noted this textbook-absent piece of trivia and beamed at her little sister.
"The Campbell family will be suspending its agreement with Qin's Apothecary!"
"On behalf of the Raphael family…"
"The Howard family…"
Carriage door after carriage door swung open. Beautiful women stepped down one after another, and with each announcement, another shade of color drained from Qin Lan's face.
Even Li Fei hadn't anticipated this. She had only asked Lady Gneia to find an alternative supplier for certain… entertaining tonics. She hadn't expected the tavern's sisterhood to mobilize en masse, bringing their regular patrons to stand behind her without a word of coordination.
Listening to the string of declarations dissolving Qin's Apothecary's partnerships, Li Fei understood at last why no one dared cross the Golden Kumquat Tavern — and she realized the sisterhood's cohesion ran far deeper than she had ever imagined. In the day-to-day, the courtesans called each other sister purely as professional habit — yet here they were, treating it as the literal truth.
Good. The sisterhood is genuinely loyal to their own. I can work with that.
"So the Golden Kumquat Tavern has decided to back her, have they?"
The mounting losses had shocked Qin Lan back to her senses. Her face was set like ice, her voice cold enough to cut bone. She readied a parting threat: "Fine. But there are many days ahead of us yet…"
"The Thieves Guild hereby nullifies all agreements with your establishment."
A flat, indifferent voice reached them. Qin Lan's body jolted. The rest of her sentence lodged in her throat.
I miscalculated. This woman's lover is actually the Vice President of the Thieves Guild!
Qin Lan's eyes blazed with helpless fury — she could have torn Li Fei apart with her bare hands. The Thieves Guild was a major client; the revenue they generated dwarfed the small-batch noble custom orders by an order of magnitude. That one breezy sentence had dealt a loss that exceeded the combined damage of every noble family's collective sanction.
It took Qin Lan a long moment to force down the fire in her chest. She managed a strained smile:
"Vice President, if you would—"
"Hathaway!"
Li Fei beamed and took the elegant cat-woman noblewoman's hand, looking her over from left to right with barely contained inner delight:
Excellent! A historic first meeting between Dog Number One and Dog Number Two!
So where is Number Three?
The thought had barely formed when white feathers began drifting down through the night air.
Li Fei hesitated briefly — she didn't want to let go of either Zhihua's or Hathaway's hands — so she simply tilted her head back and caught the falling angel feather between her lips, then looked upward.
Sure enough: a pair of sacred wings spanned the night sky above.
"Effective immediately, the War Academy rescinds all contracts with Qin's Apothecary."
The angel with a face of flawless, untouched beauty first glanced at the courtesan below — something dimming briefly in her eyes — then looked down at Qin Lan.
At those cool, clear words, Qin Lan went pale as ash and broke into a cold sweat.
"My, my — quite the lively gathering here."
A grey-haired witch came sailing in on a broomstick, her smile sweet and radiant, eyes sparkling with delight.
"Irena, sis."
Li Fei's eyes curved into happy crescents.
The word sis sent Irena into a moment of visible, pleased savoring — she closed her eyes and let it wash over her — before flipping off her broomstick and walking up to stand before Qin Lan.
"No… that's not possible…"
Qin Lan had already grasped what was coming. The color had bled entirely from her face, and for the first time, genuine fear showed in her eyes.
"Well, um — I'm terribly sorry, but going forward the Magic Academy will no longer be placing orders with your family."
Irena pressed her palms together and delivered the apology with every appearance of sincerity.
Thud!
A white uniform, as immaculate as a wedding gown, billowed in a blast of displaced air. Asuna leaped down from the griffin that had carried her in, and said without expression:
"By order of the City Lord — City Hall will be terminating all transactions with Qin's Apothecary."
While reciting her superior's decree, she swept a complicated glance at Li Fei, who stood at the center of it all, wreathed in a cloud of extraordinary women.
Thud.
Qin Lan's composure finally shattered. Her legs gave out. She crumpled to the ground without a shred of grace, her face drained of all color, her eyes hollow and blank, lips moving faintly:
"Impossible… she's just a… just a woman from the pleasure quarters…"
The courtesan surveyed Qin Lan's collapse with quiet appreciation, released the soft hands she held, crossed her arms, and smiled without a word. ✓
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