Di Yiwei met his gaze, exhaled a smoke ring, and said lazily: “Well—”

Qi Yuansi was baffled by her “well.”

Di Yiwei smiled: “Didn’t they want our Majesty to agree? Although I don’t have the qualifications either, I can still answer on behalf of His Majesty under orders.”

Qi Yuansi was stunned for a moment, slowly realizing what she meant. His expression changed and his eyes searched everywhere.

Di Yiwei was already smiling: “Come on, bring your new wife to meet someone.”

Now Qi Yuansi got confirmation and immediately tensed up all over, saying urgently: “General Di, this won’t do…”

Di Yiwei had already dragged him away without another word.

Naren Aya was somewhat confused. Seeing Qi Yuansi being pulled inside, she hurriedly followed.

As soon as they entered through the wall, Naren Aya let out a “wow.”

Before them was a brilliant display of lights. In the brilliant illumination stood a seven-story tall pagoda flickering with purple-gold lights, a tranquil and gentle small village with uniquely designed bamboo buildings full of fresh flowers, huge tower ships with flowing pearl lights and white sails on high masts in the dark river shadows in the distance, and right before them, winding azure waters with an arched bridge spanning over them, hanging green vines, red lanterns, and green willows among flowers.

Although there were beautiful sceneries everywhere with overflowing colors and flowing light, Naren Aya’s gaze still fell first on the arched bridge to the right.

There were quite a few people on that bridge, but she only saw a man standing at the highest point.

That person wasn’t very tall, but appeared slender due to his slim build. Under the hazy moonlight at the bridge head, his features couldn’t be seen clearly, but just the vague silhouette of him with clothes fluttering in the wind made one think of snow gathering in the moon, jade containing starlight.

And that person’s upright posture – how still he was, like a pine growing in an empty valley.

Somehow, although the scene before her was extremely beautiful – lanterns dyeing the curved bridge, rouge flowing red, crowds bustling on the bridge, charming boat ladies below – Naren Aya still felt that the person in the center of the crowd appeared lonely and desolate, like wind passing over the earth, snow covering the magnificent courtyard. The human clamor had nothing to do with him.

Naren Aya loved Chinese studies and had read many books. At this moment, a line of poetry couldn’t help but flash through her mind:

“Officials and nobles fill the capital, yet this person alone grows haggard.”

She couldn’t help but stare in fascination.

Suddenly feeling something strange beside her, she turned to see Qi Yuansi staring at the man on the bridge with clenched fists, his whole body trembling slightly.

In that instant, she felt his shock, wild joy, worry… and longing.

So much so that he stood there stunned, not daring to approach.

On the bridge, Tie Ci turned around and saw the pair of man and woman staring at her from below.

She smiled and waved, signaling for them to come up on the bridge.

Qi Yuansi hadn’t moved yet when Naren Aya took a breath, grasped Qi Yuansi’s hand, and pulled him forward.

Tie Ci looked at their clasped hands, her smile deepening.

When the two approached, Qi Yuansi finally came to his senses and was about to bow with Naren Aya when Tie Ci waved her hand, turned to look at the scenery ahead, and said: “Old classmate, it’s rare for us to gather. Don’t be so formal.”

She smiled at Naren Aya again, beckoning her over: “I’ve seen your portrait before. Meeting you in person today, your spirit is indeed even better.”

Naren Aya slowly walked over. Tie Ci didn’t stare at her in a way that made her uncomfortable, only pointed ahead: “This is the Pagoda of All Beings, this is Lingquan Village, this is Taolin Town, this is Fuchun Tower…”

She said: “These are places I’ve been to before. I didn’t think much of them at the time, but looking at them now, they’re quite beautiful.”

She said: “However, all these many scenes crowded together really give off the aura of nouveau riche.”

She asked her: “Did you just visit the ghost market outside? How do you think those King of Hell’s palace and Bridge of Helplessness sets compare to here?”

Naren Aya usually worried about her tribespeople, and later had the additional worry of Qi Yuansi. She hadn’t read “The Compassionate Heart” and wasn’t very clear about Great Qian’s affairs, but this didn’t prevent her from gradually awakening during the other’s gentle conversation and spring breeze-like attitude.

She stared at Tie Ci’s warm and lustrous face and suddenly said: “Are you His Majesty of Great Qian?”

Tie Ci smiled: “Mm.”

Naren Aya didn’t bow. She stood beside Tie Ci, looking at the flowing water and light boats below the bridge with her, and suddenly said: “Thank you.”

Tie Ci knew she was thanking her for giving her status, allowing her to be with Qi Yuansi.

But what she was thanking her for wasn’t the status, but such a fair opportunity to win him.

She said: “No need to thank me. It’s because you’re good enough that you made Qi Yuansi like you first.”

Naren Aya turned her head, her clear bright gaze focused on her: “Yuansi likes me.”

Tie Ci smiled slightly.

“But in his heart, there’s someone he likes even more.”

Tie Ci glanced at Qi Yuansi. Qi Yuansi was on her other side, his face suddenly flushing red. He seemed to want to stop Naren Aya but knew it was impossible, so he could only stand farther away, rubbing the willow branch vines with his hands, making the lights on the willow branches sway wildly and broken leaves fly everywhere.

“Sometimes I wonder who he likes. If she’s alive, why doesn’t he go find her? If she’s dead, how do I compete with a ghost?” Naren Aya said without any evasion. “But now, I suddenly understand.”

Tie Ci looked at her with surprise, thinking that one shouldn’t have stereotypes. Who said girls from desert peoples were rough and naive? Naren Aya was clearly a very intelligent, meticulous, and remarkably perceptive girl.

But girls from the desert had one thing in common – they were direct, straightforward, and dared to love and hate. They dared to do anything and say anything.

The untraceable sandstorms and omnipresent wild winds of the desert taught them to cherish everything and seize all opportunities that might slip away at any moment.

Tie Ci frowned and glanced at Qi Yuansi. She thought, surely not.

Qi Yuansi had already retreated into the shadows and began looking around fearfully.

After all, during those years, he had always lived in someone’s shadow, and the nightmare of being hung high on a flagpole had not yet dissipated.

To avoid the demon king, he had even fled to Hanli Hanmo and hadn’t seen His Majesty for four or five years. What did Naren Aya mean today? Insisting on exposing old matters in person – would this summon that demon king?

Over there, Tie Ci changed the subject: “Shall we go visit the bamboo buildings?”

Naren Aya, who had been staring intently at her, suddenly stepped forward, grasped her hand, raised her eyebrows and smiled: “Now it’s good! I finally understand! I don’t need to care anymore about who Yuansi likes more in his heart, because now I’ve fallen in love with you!”

Tie Ci: “…”

Di Yiwei: “…??? Cough cough cough.”

Qi Yuansi: “!!!???”

Surrounding background characters: “…??”

After a moment of eerie silence, Tie Ci coughed and said: “Aya, I am a woman.”

“I know.” Naren Aya’s face still showed excitement. “But liking is liking – what does it have to do with gender? In our tribe, excellent women are welcomed by everyone. I have many female pursuers too.”

Qi Yuansi: …This was actually true.

Tie Ci’s expression was rarely blank for a while. Honestly, being confessed to by a woman wasn’t particularly unusual for her, but the key point was that the person’s fiancé was right there!

At this time, the original passersby had all walked away, but one or two people remained at the bridge head, probably serving as guards, all wearing masks. Tie Ci suddenly heard one of them let out a soft snort.

She turned sharply.

But before she could see the figure clearly, a black shadow had already shot over. The figure was vaguely tall and slender, with a fierce mask on his face showing horizontal brows and vertical eyes. Tie Ci reached out to grab his mask. He neither avoided nor yielded, only reaching toward Tie Ci’s shoulders.

With a soft swoosh, the mask’s string snapped and the Yama mask flew into the air.

At the same time, Tie Ci’s shoulders were grasped and her body felt light as she was flipped backward.

In the next instant, with robes fluttering and sashes dancing, Tie Ci flipped once in the air and lightly fell toward the bridge bottom, where a light boat was passing by with no one on it.

While in midair, she still stared intently at the person who had just acted. His mask had already fallen…

However, what made her exasperated was that the fellow had flipped her under the bridge with one hand while wiping his face with the other, and incredibly, another mask appeared on his face – still one of the Ten Kings of Hell, with leopard eyes, lion nose, King Qinguang.

Playing face-changing now!

With a “thud,” she landed on the small boat.

The previously steady Tie Ci finally showed emotion, especially since the earlier wine hadn’t completely worn off. Seeing a basket of wild fruits at her feet, she picked it up and threw it at the bridge.

With a splash, wild fruits attacked the bridge head like a rainstorm.

At the same time, a willow branch suddenly hung down from the bridge.

The small lantern on the willow branch flickered with red light, and the half-string of copper coins tied to the branch tip made clear clinking sounds as they fell precisely toward her palm through the shower of wild fruits.

The person on the bridge shook his wrist, and the string holding the coins broke, dropping a small string of copper coins into Tie Ci’s palm.

And he reached out to catch the wild fruits in his palm.

Tie Ci stood on the boat, looking up at the masked person on the bridge.

Watching him hold a red fruit in one hand and hang the green willow branch in the other, leaning on the bridge railing to look at her.

Their eyes met.

Under the Yama mask, a pair of eyes was vaguely black and clear.

Behind him, the red lanterns at the bridge head shone brilliantly, and those eyes seemed to contain both laughter and melancholy, familiar yet strange.

And she slightly raised her face, her black hair scattered behind her, the red lantern on the hanging willow branch illuminating her features, with countless turns and changes.

He watched the scenery from the bridge, she watched the person from below the bridge.

Just for an instant.

The light boat slowly passed through the bridge opening.

Overhead darkened, and she immediately stepped to the stern. After passing through the bridge opening, she looked back.

The bridge was already empty with no one there. That person, that willow branch, those lanterns – all had darkened in an instant, like a dream.

Only the cold copper coins in her palm told her that moment of eye contact had existed.

She slowly lowered her head.

The copper coins should be Great Feng currency, cast with “Chongjiu Tongbao,” with cloud and thunder patterns on the back.

But immediately she discovered something wrong. Turning over the copper coins, she found the other side was actually engraved with “Zhiming Tongbao.”

The form was the same as the copper coins currently used in Great Qian.

This was a string of specially made copper coins, bearing both her and his reign names, unique in the world.

From the craftsmanship, they weren’t casually carved but specially cast in a batch.

She held the heavy copper coins in her hand, looking at the increasingly distant arched bridge. In her trance, she remembered that originally she had been on the bridge and he in the boat below. She had dropped the willow branch and fished up a box of eight-treasure glazed rouge.

Years later, identities switched, positions switched.

What about hearts?

Night wind surged, the red lanterns on the bridge cast diffused light, and the small river sang softly behind her.

She tightened her grip on the copper coins in her palm and didn’t look back again.

…

That night, she later also went to that big ship. In the bottom hold of the big ship, she saw that row of communal bunks, thinking of Lan Xian whom she had rescued here back then – who knows where she is now. That bright-eyed daughter of a wealthy family on the ship back then – on which cloud is she now overlooking the human world?

The big ship of those days carried sailors and cooks to Ghost Island. Now Ghost Island really only had ghosts left, but the little princess of Ghost Island was wandering the world.

Those who come and those who go, all cannot be pursued.

…

In the bamboo building of the Ba tribe, she faced the replicated bedroom of Duanmu, carefully examining the cryptic paintings on the wall.

Everything seemed the same as back then.

Yet everything was no longer as it was back then.

…

Later she walked out from the opening in the wall and merged into the crowd of the ghost market. The two masters of Broken Mirror City had no qualms about choosing the Ghost Festival for the city opening ceremony and created a series of underworld sets in the city’s largest square. They were very elaborately made – magnificent and continuous pavilions and towers with brilliant lights, marketplaces and wine houses, the towering Homesickness Platform, Money Mountain built from gold and silver paper ingots, white lanterns floating in midair illuminating the Bridge of Helplessness that seemed to lead to the netherworld, and Meng Po soup being sold throughout the streets.

Everyone wore fierce ghost face masks, wandering on the brightly lit streets. White banners were everywhere, pale paper lanterns floated in the river water, their lights dim, but because the crowd was too dense, it didn’t feel desolate – only lively.

At midnight, a Hundred Ghosts Night Parade began.

Starting with fox spirits, the fox ghosts with fiery red tails swaying appeared now on the left, now on the right, constantly causing exclamations and setting off another climax of the evening.

The painted skin ghost tore off layer after layer of beautiful woman painted skins, with beauty portraits flying everywhere on the ground, finally revealing a white skeleton crawling with snakes and insects.

The hanged ghost with its long tongue kept trying to strangle the neck of the starved ghost beside it. The starved ghost pulled out its skeletal bones to beat the children chasing them, but when the bones fell to the ground, they turned into pieces of rice candy.

Citizens wearing ghost faces joined the parade. Tie Ci stood on the arched bridge and saw Naren Aya pulling Qi Yuansi happily rushing into the procession.

She wore a ghostly mask and turned to smile at Tie Ci from afar.

Tie Ci also waved at her.

Such an extremely clever child.

Earlier on the bridge, she had only looked at the Pagoda of All Beings and the small boat below the bridge, showing a bit of longing in her eyes, and Naren Aya had quietly asked if she needed her help.

Tie Ci hadn’t agreed.

Some things need not be forced.

After all, who knew whether forcing it would lead to yet another tragedy?

After vaguely learning of his experiences back then, she was extremely pained and couldn’t sleep for months. After long periods of tossing and turning, she thought: she would still miss him, accommodate him, and care about him, but she would no longer force anything.

She didn’t want him to break his vows, didn’t want him to suffer any more, didn’t want him to be tormented by fate, gaining and losing countless times.

She only wanted him to be well in this world, to be an emperor who might not necessarily be happy, but would definitely be safe and without suffering.

She hadn’t originally planned to come to Broken Mirror City either. When he hinted at this idea, she came for a trip.

If she could see him, that would naturally be very, very good. If she couldn’t see him, that was also fine.

Not seeing him naturally had its reasons for not seeing him. She had come here, seen the scenes he personally designed, walked the roads he had walked, heard the bronze bells on the Pagoda of All Beings, drunk the wine he had hidden, received the willow string under the Taolin arched bridge – that was already enough.

She had been so painfully struck by fate that from then on she dared not have expectations about anything.

Without expectations, there would be no more pain.

But Naren Aya couldn’t understand her complex and indescribable thoughts, and took it upon herself to “confess,” earth-shaking.

Thus came that moment of eye contact between bridge and boat.

Yet she didn’t know whether it was fortunate or whether it carved longing even deeper into her bones.

In the distance, Naren Aya turned back with moving lips.

Tie Ci understood her lip reading:

“Your Majesty, I hope you can be happy.”

Tie Ci slowly smiled.

Below, the streets were full of flowing lights, hundred ghosts parading at night, everyone wearing masks. She didn’t know which mask might hide him, or who was gazing at her from the darkness.

Perhaps no mask hid him at all.

But in her heart, in the vast world, the magnificent capital, the lonely palace, he was actually everywhere.

Like spring wind always carrying the scent of peach blossoms, summer streams flowing over lotus leaves, autumn’s golden fullness gradually covered by snow, vermillion beams and embroidered eaves gradually dimming in the grinding of years, yet becoming more beautiful in their weathered state.

Window flowers would fade from their bright red, along with all those things belonging to memory and beauty.

Never changing for eternity.

…

A night of revelry.

By dawn, Broken Mirror City finally fell into quiet sleep.

The streets remained scattered with countless firecracker paper scraps that hadn’t been swept up in time, emitting a faint sulfur scent.

White canopies were taken down, morning sunlight rolled through the streets, bit by bit illuminating this originally brightly-styled city.

Also illuminating the horseshoe irons of fine horses passing by with riders.

Shining on the rising dust continuously heading south.

Sunlight climbed grid by grid up the window lattices, creeping into the small courtyard in Lingquan Village. On the table in the main room of Dong Dezi’s house, the originally placed roasted garlic and wild bird egg roasted steamed bun slices had disappeared, leaving only empty rough pottery bowls.