Chapter 1 【The Hedgehog Legion】

“TO the residents of Wangchuan City: Anyone who has knowledge of the whereabouts of the object shown in the photograph, please call 13999999999 immediately. There will be a generous reward. Those who know and fail to report will bear the consequences themselves. Wangchuan is in danger.”

I had just returned to Wangchuan. The new Bu Ting had not yet opened for business and was still being renovated. Half an hour ago, I had bought a boxed lunch from next door and come back, and then — right outside the wall of my courtyard — I caught this hedgehog red-handed in the act of plastering unauthorized advertisements. I detest people sticking flyers on my walls most of all. Last time, some quack medicine peddler plastered them all over, so I used a spell to stick the entire advertisement right onto his face, and he couldn’t peel it off for an entire month.

Back to the matter at hand. The interrogation was conducted by me, while the task of applying immediate physical intimidation to the freshly-caught suspect was assigned to Gu Wuming. To save on renovation costs, I had yesterday rounded up a bunch of old demons to serve as laborers for Bu Ting — the fox A’Tou, the black cat Xuan, and the old codger Jiu Jue. The moment they laid eyes on this puffed-up, bristly little ball, they automatically gave it three feet of distance. Fortunately, among the laborers there was Gu Wuming, all bones and no flesh — a bone demon who feared neither pricks nor pain — making him truly the ideal assistant for interrogating a hedgehog.

Halting today’s renovation work, I reclined comfortably in the lounge chair in the backyard, sipping tea while examining the confiscated flyer. Beneath the rather bold-toned warning text was a photograph of rather ordinary quality — a wooden-handled umbrella, lacquered black. Apart from the end of the handle being deliberately carved into the shape of a curved blade, there was nothing else particularly remarkable about it, for the moment.

Xuan and A’Tou also crowded over for a look, couldn’t make heads or tails of it, and retreated back to continue painting the walls. Jiu Jue, clutching two boxed lunches all by himself, cast a glance at the photograph, clicked his tongue twice, said nothing at all, and settled down in the spot with the best afternoon sunlight to eat with great relish. Of all the makeshift laborers, he was the most at ease — he’d spent the entire morning doing nothing but holding a pencil and scribbling away, claiming he was designing the perfect interior layout for the new Bu Ting.

The hedgehog was gripped in Gu Wuming’s hand, squeaking and squirming. After jabbing at Gu Wuming several times with its natural weapons to no avail, it was quickly disheartened by the hardness of his bones, and gave up its offensive entirely. It hung limp and listless in his grip, its little eyes darting about in all directions.

“Who are you?” I asked the hedgehog.

“Squeak squeak squeak squeak!”

“Where did you come from?” I asked again.

“Squeak squeak squeak squeak!”

I gave up. This was simply a low-level demon of the most basic kind, one that couldn’t even speak human language. Indeed, it was a demon — ordinary hedgehogs don’t paste flyers. That being the case, there must be someone behind this little creature giving orders. I was considering whether to hang a banner on its back reading “I will never again dare to paste flyers on the proprietress’s wall” and lock it in a cage to be hung at the shop entrance for public ridicule for three days, when an uninvited guest knocked at my shop door.

No — not knocked. It was a thunderous, booming impact.

I sent A’Tou to go take a look, but to my surprise, that fox came scurrying back with his head in his arms, then shot up onto the highest rooftop in a flash — because what poured into the backyard behind him was a dense, teeming, surging tide of… a hedgehog legion.

I had never seen so many hedgehogs in all my life! Had its companions come to rescue it? While thinking this, I — well, I truly find it difficult to be graceful about such things — sprang from my chair to the top of the nearest tree.

My lounge chair was instantly surrounded by the spiky little creatures. Beneath my feet they shrieked and squealed, some of them rearing up on their hind legs, using their short, stubby little forepaws to beat their chests in imitation of a mighty warrior, countless tiny eyes gazing upward with fury.

Xuan had already darted up another tree. Jiu Jue had vanished entirely, not even his shadow visible. Only Gu Wuming stood firm in place, unyielding, gripping the hedgehog suspect. No matter how many hedgehogs launched their assault, and even when one climbed onto his head and relieved itself there, he remained immovable as a mountain — only at the very limit of his endurance did he let out one great roar, sending the hedgehog flying to the side. With the abilities of a bone demon, what difficulty could dispatching a crowd of little hedgehogs possibly pose?

And the others — it was the same for all of them. In today’s Bu Ting there was a cat demon, the mountain god of Yingyue Mountain, an immortal old enough to have outlived death itself, and myself, a tree demon of a thousand years. Any one of us striking out would leave those reckless little hedgehogs with no chance of survival. Only — I sensed no malice from the little creatures. On the contrary, from their posturing bravado and their air of menacing bluster, I detected something that was really nothing more than a show of timid bravado.

“Aren’t you embarrassed? A bunch of hedgehogs has frightened you into this state!”

Close to my ear, a familiar young woman’s voice spoke with disdain — I had nearly forgotten that the spot where I was now perched was the true body of Mu.

Mu was a scholar tree, a tree demon from Fulong Mountain just as I was. I was the elder, she the younger; I was at the mountain’s peak, she at its foot. In those early days, driven by a certain “youthful recklessness,” she had gone astray and we had fought each other to the death. She had nearly dragged the entire human realm into ruin with her, and even after her defeat, she refused to submit. So I simply uprooted her true body from Fulong Mountain and replanted it in my backyard, so that in this place closest to the human world, she might come to understand what true feeling really was, and find the right direction for herself. This girl had a very stubborn temper. In the early days after I brought her to Bu Ting, her constant refrain was always, “Once I recover my human form, I will surely kill you!” I encouraged her to come and try, while tenderly tending to this ill-tempered little tree — even when I left Bu Ting on my honeymoon, I arranged for someone to look after her specifically.

Now my relationship with Mu had eased considerably, but mocking me remained her greatest pleasure — whether it was that my face had grown rounder than yesterday, my waist thicker, or that my hairstyle didn’t suit my face shape. My way of returning the favor was to catch a few caterpillars and put them on her trunk. She feared nothing except being tickled, then she’d beg for mercy, then she’d do it again, then beg for mercy again — endlessly, with great delight on both our parts.

Today, she had seized another opportunity to ridicule me. Her branches rustled and shook with a hissing laughter: “An old demon afraid of hedgehogs — weren’t there plenty of hedgehogs on Fulong Mountain in the old days? And not a single one dared come near me.”

That was news to me. Back when I was still just a tree, small animals would often rest or forage at my roots. Around those of us tree demons with spiritual energy, delectable fungi and wild fruits tended to grow, and those little creatures often came following the fragrance. The ones we most disliked were hedgehogs and porcupines — when they came close, their spines would invariably prick at our bodies. It wasn’t exactly painful, but it was terribly uncomfortable. I had only stopped letting hedgehogs near me many, many years later, once my spiritual power had grown strong enough to drive small beasts away. Mu’s cultivation was far below mine — she had no way to refuse a hedgehog’s approach.

“Nonsense!” I snorted.

“It’s true!” Her branches shook all the more vigorously.

“Then why not demonstrate your charm right now, and send the hedgehog legion home?” I loved to go with the flow.

“Watch me!” She snorted as well, then suddenly opened her voice and bellowed at the hedgehog legion: “Spiny little freaks, get lost!”

I had thought she had some brilliant method up her sleeve… but the squeaking beneath my feet fell suddenly silent. The hedgehog legion ceased all their demonstrations, every one of them tilting their heads back, staring blankly at Mu. A few seconds later, I faintly heard someone whistle, and then the hedgehog legion emitted a peculiar radiance from their bodies — and vanished. Shortly after, the backyard was perfectly still, with nothing left on the ground but small white piles of salt granules.

The hedgehog legion had been conjured from salt?! I jumped down from Mu’s tree and looked all around — indeed, there was nothing but salt, not a single hedgehog hair. A few minutes later, Jiu Jue appeared from who-knows-where, carrying a bag of fruit and a roast chicken, saying he had gone out to buy something for the hedgehogs, as perhaps they were just hungry and had come begging for food.

As if anyone believed him! Clearly it was all food he liked himself!

“I thought you would just do away with those hedgehogs.” A young man, casual and free in manner, strolled in from outside and stopped before me — dark, mid-length hunting clothes, dashing black military boots, a head of silver-white short hair ill-matched with his age, flawlessly handsome features wearing an expression of boundless teasing, and a slender cord woven of black silk threads, tied across his brow, giving off an inexplicably mysterious air. This one was no demon — he was an immortal.

“Wine Immortal Official, it’s been a long time.” He gave Jiu Jue a slight nod.

Jiu Jue stared at him for a long while, then tossed his fruit aside and leapt away as though from a plague god, dragging me along with him. He looked the man over with absolute contempt and said: “Good grief, what are you doing here? You are the very last person in all of the Celestial Realm I want to see!” Then he leaned close to my ear and added, “Don’t get near this fellow, or watch out — you’ll end up divorced!”

“Among those in the Celestial Realm, there are few you want to see. Otherwise you wouldn’t be hiding in the human realm all the time.” The silver-haired young man returned the remark.

This was far too sudden — a man who had appeared out of nowhere, who knew Jiu Jue, who was very likely an immortal, and what on earth did he have to do with whether I divorced or not? And besides, wasn’t it up to me and Ao Chi whether we divorced or not?!

“If it were any other demon encountering that scene just now, they would probably have already struck out.” The silver-haired man suddenly turned serious, looking at me. “Which means — I’ve found the right person.”

“Oh?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Someone who holds goodwill toward the weak and small is also restrained when it comes to causing harm.” He walked toward me. “Those flyers were something I had a small hedgehog demon go and paste specifically, with instructions to paste them somewhere you could definitely see. The hedgehog army you saw was made from salt — it was all to see whether the legendary tree demon proprietress was truly fierce in face but kind at heart.”

“If you’d said I was kind in face but vicious at heart, I might actually have been pleased,” I glared at him fiercely. “The shop is still being renovated. Whatever your origins, I’m afraid we’re not receiving guests right now.”

“You must receive me,” the man persisted. “Do you think everything written on that notice is false?” His gaze moved up, down, left, and right across my backyard — but there was one place he did not look, always deliberately avoiding where Mu stood.

“Release it,” he said, looking at the little hedgehog suspect in Gu Wuming’s hand, pleading in a commanding tone.

“It’s a hostage!” Since I was already branded as fierce-faced, I might as well lean into it a little further. “Since you’re speaking so directly, let us get everything out in the open today. If nothing is explained clearly, you will never leave. I have my methods for dealing with immortals.”

“Good grief, are you mad?!” Jiu Jue grabbed me aside. “You’re actually going to keep him here?! Do you know who he is?” He jutted his chin at the man with great agitation.

“Your colleague?” My familiarity with the Celestial Realm was minimal — I had no idea about this strange person’s background.

“Colleague my foot!” Jiu Jue lowered his voice. “This fellow is the Black Matchmaker from Yue Lao’s side — he does the exact opposite of what a Red Matchmaker does!”

“Black Matchmaker?!” I knew of birth mothers, cross-dressers, and Red Matchmakers, but this was truly the first time I had heard of a Black Matchmaker.

“A celestial civil servant who specializes in severing human emotional bonds!” Jiu Jue pressed further for emphasis. “Listen carefully — not just love, but all emotions, including familial love, friendship, and even bonds with pets!”

Now that he put it this way, I felt even more that this man should stay for a candlelit night of conversation. Although Jiu Jue was behaving like someone had stepped on his tail, I sensed not the slightest malicious intent from this male “Black Matchmaker.” In a fleeting impression of my sixth, seventh, and eighth senses, I consistently felt that he must be a kind, honest, and even deeply helpless man — rather like a hedgehog, raising its spines out of fear so that no one could come close. I was not the least bit afraid of him, truly.

I had Xuan go bring out another chair, and I invited him to sit. He smiled and sat down, but deliberately turned the chair in a different direction, his back toward Mu.

Chapter 2

When it rains, people generally prefer not to go out if they can help it — let alone in the cold rains of winter. The building manager of Block C in Yun Shang Fang, at No. 118 Grass Hat Street in Wangchuan City, felt the same way, which was why the girl who lived on the nineteenth floor always puzzled him.

It wasn’t because she was too beautiful. It was because every time it rained, she would go out — and she always wore only a red overcoat and carried a black umbrella, slipping quietly out the door without a word to anyone, as though she lived in another world entirely. Another building manager remarked that the girl looked exactly like the female lead of a horror film: red clothes, long hair, strange behavior.

She had only just moved in less than half a month ago. On the resident register, her name was written: Mo Qixi. Hmph — did they really think she hadn’t noticed their odd stares? This red overcoat of hers was her “work uniform.” As long as she remained a junior Red Matchmaker in the Celestial Realm’s Yue Lao Palace, this coat was not to be taken off. As for that black umbrella — she had robbed it from a coward.

That forgetful old fool Yue Lao surely hadn’t noticed she’d left the Celestial Realm yet, had he? Otherwise, why had no one been sent to find or apprehend her after all this time? Lately, she went to a certain hospital ward in the Third People’s Hospital’s inpatient wing almost every day — except when it rained. She hated rain most of all, and going out in the rain even more so.

She never went out in the rain — only once had she made an exception. The man in that hospital ward was handsome and refined-looking. The reason he was lying in that hospital bed was that he had attempted to jump from a building, but a street tree below had broken his fall, leaving him with only broken bones. Mo Qixi had always considered herself an exceptionally capable junior immortal — clever, quick, and efficient, able to accomplish anything she set out to do. Even catching him as he fell from above had felt so perfectly timed. But this one person, of all people, was the first to make Mo Qixi feel she had encountered something she could not do well.

She had first seen him a year and a month ago. Red Matchmakers sneaking off to wander the human realm was an open secret in Yue Lao Palace. That day was Christmas. She was wearing her red clothes and a red Santa hat, eating ice cream. A gust of wind came, and her hat flew off. He was walking toward her from the opposite direction. He picked up the hat, brushed off the dust, and kindly placed it back on her head — her hands were empty — and said: Go home soon, little girl.

And so, she decided that this was her love. He was so good-looking, his voice so lovely, and he had been so good to her.

Yue Lao always said that loving someone was not easy — yet had she not fallen in love quite easily? Then she began sneaking away more and more frequently. Their second encounter: he had no recollection whatsoever of this little red-clad girl. Their third encounter: bold and uninhibited as a flame, she said to him directly, I’ve fallen in love with you. He was surprised, and told her candidly that he already had a fiancée whom he loved very much, and that they were to be married in half a year.

So it turned out Yue Lao had already bound him with a red thread. Mo Qixi went back to Yue Lao Palace in disappointment and did not go to see him again for several months. But in the end, she went to find him again — on the day he had mentioned, his wedding day. She had no intention of causing trouble; she only wanted to watch from afar, and then leave.

But he did not marry his fiancée. All she saw was him and that woman in a fierce argument at home — something about going abroad, about prospects, words she couldn’t understand. Then the woman slammed the door and left.

Were they not lovers bound by a red thread? Why were they still arguing?

She found this terribly interesting and stayed on, quietly watching his every move. In the long time that followed, they continued to meet, but quarreling was always far more frequent than tenderness. She watched him often drunk late into the night, clutching her photograph and weeping, then tearing the photograph to shreds once he was done crying. His fiancée, too, spent her days with furrowed brows, touching the ring he had given her, with the look of someone wanting to take it off yet unable to.

Based on her experience, Mo Qixi concluded that Yue Lao had, as expected, grown muddled — randomly binding red threads every day. Since there was no longer any feeling between them, the most caring thing was to help them, and to help herself as well. But how to help? She was not like the more senior Red Matchmakers, who had access to the Red Thread Chamber where they could interfere with the threads — and besides, even if she found his red thread, she had no scissors to cut it.

For people whose feelings are gone, a clean break is best. But how to go about it? She thought of many approaches and none of them worked, but she refused to give up — and persistence pays off. More than a month ago, she truly stumbled upon what seemed like a heaven-sent opportunity.

It turned out she was not the only one who wanted to sever another’s emotional bond.

One day, while hiding in Yue Lao’s garden worrying about how to solve the problem, she saw the Black Matchmaker — someone from a different department with whom she rarely interacted — sneaking out of Yue Lao’s treasure vault, clutching a black umbrella in his arms.

Yue Lao was responsible for forging the bonds of love and affection throughout the world, and equally responsible for dissolving them. The method of “dissolving” typically came in two forms. One was to have a Red Matchmaker snip the red thread of certain mismatched couples with a single cut — this was not truly meant to sever the bond permanently, but rather to give both parties more time to think in a calmer state. If their fate was not yet exhausted when the time came, the red thread could be reconnected.

The other method required deploying that black umbrella. You only needed to open the umbrella over two people while it was raining, and regardless of whether they were bound by a red thread, whether they were a couple, spouses, relatives, or close friends, all feeling between those two people would be severed in that single instant. Some would even become enemies, and those separated by the black umbrella could never be bound together by a red thread again for any lifetime to come — not as romantic partners, not even as kin.

Mo Qixi didn’t believe any of it. Yue Lao must be trying to frighten people again. After all, they were both from Yue Lao Palace — what was there that couldn’t be touched?

That day, she followed the Black Matchmaker all the way to the human realm. So he had gone to Wangchuan as well. This fellow must have set his sights on some girl, and since that girl was already attached to another, he had abused his position to sever their bond with the black umbrella, and then kept the girl for himself!

Not even kin could be kin ever again. So Yue Lao took the Black Matchmaker’s work very seriously — for any target the Black Matchmaker was to be deployed against, Yue Lao would review the case repeatedly, and once the decision was made, it was final and irrevocable. As for the black umbrella, it had to be returned to the treasure vault after each use and could not be used without authorization. And Yue Lao had also warned that the black umbrella could only be used by the Black Matchmaker; Red Matchmakers were forbidden from touching it, or there would be endless trouble — harm to others and to oneself.

Well then — she robbed him, and it was surprisingly easy. In her eyes, Black Matchmakers were all cowards, every single one of them. They only followed Yue Lao’s orders, and when executing a task, they always confirmed it over and over again, as though terrified of making a mistake — timid and overcautious to a ridiculous degree.

He was no match for her. He only warned her: The black umbrella cannot be used recklessly! Mo Qixi laughed and said: then why did you steal it out in the first place? Tell me the truth, and maybe I’ll give it back. He told her the truth. But she said she didn’t believe him, called him a coward, and swaggered off with the black umbrella.

The next day, it rained. A torrential downpour.

He went to find his fiancée, and the two of them actually got into a fierce argument right there in the street.

Mo Qixi felt herself to be his savior. The moment to rescue him from his suffering had finally arrived. The black umbrella was opened above the heads of them both.

Mo Qixi’s face beneath the umbrella was radiant and glowing. What a great and good thing she had done!

He and his fiancée stared at each other for a long moment, and then, almost simultaneously, both blurted out: “I never want to see you again!”

One turned left, the other turned right. The rain kept falling. And neither of them was there anymore.

The next day, he jumped from a building. The doctor said his injuries would require at least half a year of bed rest.

She didn’t understand. Hadn’t the black umbrella been supposed to completely sever the feelings between two people? Then why had he still done something so drastic? But it didn’t matter — she was still by his side, after all.

Mo Qixi would often, during the times when no one came to visit him, slip quietly into the ward and chat with him, cheer him up. But toward her, he was always cool and distant — a connection that could not even be called an ordinary friendship — and he repeatedly told her that he was fine already, that she shouldn’t waste her time on him. She felt that this was only his way of concealing his true feelings. He liked her; he simply didn’t dare say so. Just like that coward.

She wanted to remain by his side, until the day he “came to his senses.”

Mo Qixi’s days were very regular, very settled. Recently she had even moved to a place closer to his hospital. The black umbrella had been placed in the wardrobe. She no longer needed to use it. But she found something odd — the umbrella would sometimes come out of the wardrobe on its own, still bearing undried rainwater on it. It would appear every day after rain, and even the ordinarily bold Mo Qixi felt a flicker of unease.

When had this started? It seemed to be ever since the first time she had used the black umbrella. Mo Qixi thought.

Chapter 3: Yue Lao’s Badge

“You’re this good-looking and you still got robbed?!” I really wanted to laugh! By this man’s appearance and manner, one would think he’d be some cold, unyielding, capable charmer of ten thousand admirers — yet he had been robbed by a young girl, whose only weapon was a brick, no less. Come to think of it, he had just told me his name was Mu Er.

“I was walking along perfectly fine, and she suddenly jumped out — of course I was startled!” He glared at me with embarrassed exasperation. “I’d be grateful if you would stop fixating on that, and on my name. I can tell you want to laugh.”

“Black Fungus — what a tiny little nerve you have,” I blurted out, then forced myself to return to a serious demeanor. “You went through all those schemes to test me, and then you told me all of this — surely you want me to help you get back that black umbrella?”

Should I agree to help? If I offended him, would he be displeased enough to make me and Ao Chi divorce?!

“Yes.” Mu Er nodded. “This matter must be handled by someone trustworthy from outside the Celestial Realm. That person is you.”

“Please — you and Mo Qixi are colleagues. You can’t even find her yourself, so where exactly am I supposed to look?” I waved my hand. “Not going.”

Jiu Jue also chimed in: “My advice is to come clean to Yue Lao. This matter could be made large or small, and Yue Lao has always been lenient and broad-minded. Only he can locate Mo Qixi and the black umbrella in the shortest possible time.”

“That won’t do. If Yue Lao finds out, Mo Qixi will certainly be severely punished. I only want to recover the black umbrella before things become irreparable, and then go back to confess to Yue Lao. Punishing me alone is enough.” Mu Er firmly rejected Jiu Jue’s suggestion.

This Black Fungus was an interesting one. In a situation like this, most people would think of themselves first. He had been robbed by Mo Qixi — and instead of wanting to drag her down to be punished alongside him, he was worried about her being punished by Yue Lao. Truly too honest and kind for his own good!

I began to understand a little why Yue Lao would have Mu Er serve as the Black Matchmaker. He was simply far too kind — kind to the point of timidity. If the black umbrella could truly cause two people who once shared emotional bonds to become strangers for the rest of their lives and all lives thereafter, then regardless of the reason, this was the most severe and irrevocable of punishments. To have the kindest person carry out the harshest sentence — it might seem heartless, but it was, in truth, an act of compassion. Because such a person would observe again and again, seek confirmation again and again, and would not act unless they had absolutely no other choice. In this way, the likelihood of a “misdiagnosis and wrongful severance” would be reduced to the absolute minimum. That old fox Yue Lao knew how to read and use people well. But with an elder of his attainment, there was no way he remained entirely unaware of the actions of these two Matchmakers — one Black, one Red — even now. He was simply biding his time.

Seeing that I had fallen silent, Mu Er apparently thought I was still wavering between helping and not helping. He stood up, yanked me from my chair, and said: “Come with me! Once you see it, you’ll understand how bad things already are!” He turned his head to look at Jiu Jue: “You come too.” With that, he grabbed the two of us and rose into the air.

“Looks like it has nothing to do with us?” Xuan tilted his head upward, watching the sky.

“Looks like it has nothing to do with us.” A’Tou nodded, the crafty fox smiling serenely in the breeze. “The proprietress and the blue-haired demon man have both been abducted — we can knock off early!”

The most honest of all, Gu Wuming, was still pinching that little hedgehog suspect. “Just leave?” he said. “That doesn’t seem right. At the very least, we should finish painting the walls!”

The hedgehog in his hand — the one that could only squeak — spun its tiny eyes and looked up at the sky, letting out a few laughs that sounded distinctly human.

During the flight, I noticed Mu Er unconsciously looked back three times, each time in the direction of my Bu Ting. This fellow was of course not longing for my shop — I suspected he only longed for a certain someone in it.

We stopped in the air above the Civil Affairs Bureau. Mu Er pointed to the queue at the entrance and said: “You don’t think they’re all here to collect marriage certificates, do you?”

Of course not. Couple after couple — some fighting, some arguing, some wearing stone-cold expressions, refusing to even acknowledge each other.

“I never want to see you again for the rest of my life!”

“I’ve long wanted a divorce!”

“The sight of you makes me sick!”

Voices like these rose and fell one after another. A queue to get divorced — what an extraordinary sight!

“This is the first place I wanted you to see,” Mu Er said, and then took us away again.

Next came the entrance of a middle school. Two high school students were fighting — fists and feet flying, faces bloodied, battered, and bruised — until they were finally pulled apart.

“What are you two doing?!” said someone who was clearly a close friend. “Weren’t you inseparable before? Didn’t you even swear to be sworn siblings?! All over one method for solving a problem — how did this get to be as serious as a blood feud?!”

“Sworn siblings, my foot!” one of the injured spat out. “I don’t know this heartless little thug.”

“Who needs you!” the other retorted. “Being friends with a bar of soap would be better than you. The worst luck I ever had was being put in the same class as you!” The two were about to fight again, were pulled apart again, a teacher arrived, security came, the troublemakers were taken away, and the school fell quiet once more.

“This is the second place,” Mu Er sighed, and brought us to the third location. In an ordinary residential complex, a woman in her sixties had one foot over the windowsill, beating her chest and crying: “What sin did I commit in my previous life, to give birth to an ungrateful wretch like you?! Better to just end it all! I am your mother! You treat me worse than a stranger!”

“Jump then, jump!” a middle-aged man in his forties shouted impatiently from inside. “You say I treat you like a stranger — wasn’t it you who provoked things first? You actually transferred the house to someone outside the family! I don’t have a mother like you who doesn’t care whether her son lives or dies! Not in this life, the next life, or any life after that — don’t let me ever lay eyes on you again!”

The neighbors below were all talking among themselves, saying they couldn’t understand what had come over this family. Mother and son had always been so warm and cheerful together — but just last night, their argument had escalated more and more heatedly, until it had descended into this terrible situation, with one trying to jump from the window and the other indifferent. They talked and consoled for a long time before the old woman finally came down from the windowsill in tears and was taken to the hospital.

“Your timing was truly impeccable — just right to catch all these extraordinary events,” I remarked to Mu Er with a knowing look.

“It wasn’t my timing that was impeccable. Events like these have simply been occurring more and more frequently of late,” Mu Er said gravely. “No matter where you go, you can see scenes this absolute.” He paused. “Do you think this is normal?”

Jiu Jue considered for a moment and said: “And the reason Yue Lao prohibited Red Matchmakers from using the black umbrella is?”

“Once she used the black umbrella even once, she would afterward — without being aware of it herself — begin using it indiscriminately, causing people who should not be separated to turn against each other. If left unchecked, once she had severed the bonds of nine hundred and ninety-nine mortals, she herself would permanently become a black umbrella.” Mu Er explained, then spread open his right hand to reveal a small, button-sized red circular seal in his palm. “This is the badge of a Yue Lao Palace staff member. We are all interconnected and can sense each other. As long as she is in my vicinity, the badge will glow. But my cultivation is not as high as hers — I can only sense she is nearby, I cannot pinpoint her exact location. On rainy days, I search the city everywhere. I can only sense her precise location when someone is covered by the black umbrella, but by the time I arrive, she has escaped each time. I thought that when she was in an unaware state, I might have a chance to retrieve the black umbrella — but one person alone ultimately cannot manage it, and time is running out. If she continues to cause havoc like this, Wangchuan will truly descend into utter chaos.”

“Using the black umbrella indiscriminately while in an unaware state?” I smiled. “Then by what criteria does she choose her targets — the ones she decides to separate?”

“Arguments! Uninhibited, unconstrained arguments! The more vicious and absolute the words spoken, the more she is convinced that such people must be separated.” Mu Er said with certainty.

I exchanged a glance with Jiu Jue — now we understood why he had wanted both of us to come along. Very well. It was wrong to take advantage of a kind soul. Mu Er was this good-looking and this honest — not helping him was really too unconscionable. And besides, Ao Chi and I argued often. What if that mad girl being controlled by the black umbrella one day floated it over our heads…

“The weather forecast says it will rain tomorrow,” Jiu Jue said slowly. “Let’s hope your Yue Lao badge doesn’t malfunction tomorrow.”

Chapter 4: Mu Er’s Parting Words

Factor one: the experts had not misspoken. It did rain.

Factor two: Mu Er’s Yue Lao badge did not malfunction.

Factor three: Mu Er’s sense for the black umbrella was not off.

Factor four: when it comes to acting, Jiu Jue and I are fully deserving of the title of commoner’s acting champions. And when it comes to ability, the two of us — combined, we were tens of thousands of years old — were not to be taken lightly.

Combining the above four factors (primarily the fourth), Mo Qixi was easily lured out by Jiu Jue and me pretending to be a quarreling married couple — enemies, as it were — and then bound tightly with an Immobilizing Spell and brought back to Bu Ting.

After the rain stopped, Mo Qixi gradually came to her senses from her dazed state. Inside the room, she made a great fuss, saying that we few creatures reeking of demonic energy actually dared to abduct a celestial immortal. She was not gentle with Mu Er either, calling him a coward for getting demons to help him — truly shameful. It was only when Gu Wuming stepped forward, pressing his pale, lifeless skull-like face close to hers and staring at her for a full minute, that Mo Qixi finally went quiet.

It was clear that she had no idea whatsoever what she had been doing during the rainy days.

“Stop making a scene. Qixi, be good and go back to Yue Lao Palace, and continue being your Red Matchmaker. Stop sneaking into the human realm — this is not a place you can meddle with as you please.” Mu Er steadied her by the shoulders, speaking earnestly and sincerely. “As for stealing the black umbrella, I will give Yue Lao an account of it myself. But I will not mention anything about you. So — keep silent too.”

“Hmph. Do you think I’ll be grateful to you for this? Think I’ll look up to you?” Mo Qixi showed no gratitude. “You coward! I only did what you didn’t have the guts to do. The black umbrella being in your hands is a complete waste!”

What a girl who was equal parts lovable, exasperating, and utterly honest. I asked her: “The first time you used the black umbrella — whose umbrella did you hold it over?”

“The man I love, of course.” Mo Qixi tossed her head — she really was completely honest. “He and his fiancée always argued. If they were that miserable, they clearly had no feeling left for each other. So I helped him break free, and let them be forever free of each other, so they could each find a new life. What was wrong with that?”

“So by your reasoning, if you see two people arguing, that proves there’s definitely no feeling between them, and you should give them a push — the sooner they part, the better. Is that right?” I pressed further.

“Of course!” Mo Qixi said with certainty. “A demon like you has certainly never witnessed the Celestial Realm. Not a single immortal there ever gets into an argument. We never say anything hurtful to each other — always perfectly polite and gracious. That is what it means to have real feeling.”

“What an unworldly little fool,” Jiu Jue said from the sofa where he had taken up residence, eyes half-closed. “When your age becomes as many as the stars in the Milky Way, perhaps you will finally understand — there is a kind of behavior in this world called pretending.”

Mo Qixi frowned: “I have no idea what you’re talking about! You’re clearly a celestial being too — why are you taking a demon’s side?!”

“Fine, fine, I won’t say another word. I’m going to sleep.” Jiu Jue raised his hands in surrender, turned over, and went to sleep.

“Well then — has your man completely let go of his fiancée?” I tossed her a sensitive question. Mo Qixi immediately fell silent, then answered with the stubbornness of someone who knows they’re wrong but won’t admit it: “He will, eventually. Maybe I’m not quite skilled enough with the black umbrella yet. But he will, definitely. You have no idea of the power of the black umbrella!”

“I truly have no idea of the power of the black umbrella,” I said with a slight smile. “But I know that what can be severed was never a true feeling. Whether it be familial love, friendship, or romance.”

This time, Mo Qixi could not find a quick retort — she was probably still searching for the words.

“Your man is the best proof,” I landed another blow. “Whether they were truly and completely separated by the black umbrella — you know the answer to that better than I do.” Mo Qixi let out a loud, indignant huff. Facts speak louder than arguments; she could find no words to refute me.

“Go back. Stop causing trouble. You still have all the time in the world.” Mu Er looked at her stubborn face, shook his head, walked to Jiu Jue’s side, and shook the snoring old immortal. “Please take Qixi back to Yue Lao Palace. Thank you.”

“Why aren’t you taking her yourself?” I felt something was not right.

Mu Er furrowed his brow, pulled me far away from Mo Qixi, and said quietly: “This mess was started by me. I need to be the one to clean it up. If I hadn’t stolen the black umbrella, Qixi wouldn’t have had the idea in the first place. Now the mistake has been made, and I cannot sit by and watch those lovers, relatives, and friends who were covered by the black umbrella truly become strangers to one another. Regardless of what arguments they once had, the decision of whether to sever their bond should be for Yue Lao to make. I intend to restore their relationships to what they were.”

“How will you restore them?” I was startled. “Wasn’t it said that the power of the black umbrella is irreversible?”

“Irreversible only after forty-nine days.” Mu Er took a deep breath and looked at the black umbrella in his hands. “From the first time she used the black umbrella until now, it has been less than a month and a half. As long as this umbrella is burned, all those who were covered within these forty-nine days will return to normal.”

“What will happen to you?” I immediately asked.

“Each Black Matchmaker has one black umbrella that belongs exclusively to him. If this umbrella is burned, I will turn to ash as well.” He shrugged with an air of forced nonchalance.

I looked at him for a long moment and asked: “Are you not afraid? Your courage is so small.”

He shook his head: “Strange as it is, I find I’m not the least bit afraid.” As he spoke, he took hold of my hand, solemnly. “I’m only telling you this. Once Jiu Jue takes Qixi away, I hope you can do one more thing for me.”

“What?” The tone of someone delivering a final testament was something I simply could not bear.

“Bury my ashes in your backyard.” When he said this, he actually blushed. Anyone who read only the first part of the story might think his feelings were for Qixi. But anyone reading this part might well suspect he was secretly in love with me — why else would he say he wished to be buried in my backyard?!

But I knew what was in his heart. The person he cared for was not Qixi — and certainly not me.

Chapter 5: The Old Man Has Arrived

Mo Qixi began making a great fuss again, demanding that I remove the Immobilizing Spell.

Nobody paid her any attention. Apart from Jiu Jue and me, everyone else in Bu Ting found her disagreeable. Fortunately, Ao Chi had gone back to the East Sea to visit his family and probably wouldn’t be back until next week. Otherwise, if he had heard what Mu Er had just said, and then seen him grasp my hand — that fiery, hot-tempered man would have swallowed him whole!

I pulled Jiu Jue off the sofa and said: “Take her back to the Celestial Realm first.”

Jiu Jue looked at me, then at the deeply pensive Mu Er, and without asking any further questions, nodded, went over, and hoisted the motionless Mo Qixi onto his shoulder.

“Get your claws off me! Don’t touch me — put me down!” Mo Qixi shrieked.

“Easy there, little one. Settle down for your uncle, or I really will pull out your teeth and throw you into the Heavenly River!” Jiu Jue grinned as he threatened her.

Mo Qixi knew she was no match for Jiu Jue, so she turned her attacks on Mu Er instead, screaming: “Coward! Weakling! Do you dare tell everyone what your real reason for stealing the black umbrella was?! Do you dare?!”

That’s right — even now, with the story at this point, somehow nobody had caught this most essential question.

“Get her out of here quickly!” Mu Er was somewhat flustered, urging Jiu Jue along.

“You don’t dare love someone, yet you can’t let them go. You suffered so badly you couldn’t stand it anymore, and you actually tried to use the black umbrella to sever your own feelings for her! Coward! Coward! Coward!” Mo Qixi shouted.

“Enough.” Mu Er’s anger broke through.

“All of you, be quiet!”

A voice that belonged to no one present drifted over, unhurried and leisurely. Everyone turned toward the sound — and it was coming from the cage that held the little hedgehog suspect: aged and serene.

A white mist drifted out from the cage. When it cleared, the hedgehog was gone. Before the empty cage, floating in mid-air, stood a short, round-headed, round-faced old man, his complexion rosy and radiant, with a white beard. In one hand he stroked his beard, in the other he leaned on a staff. He wore a magnificent robe embroidered with auspicious patterns of flowers in full bloom and a round moon, and beneath his feet floated a wisp of seven-colored cloud, soft as cotton candy. Both his small eyes were scrunched together in a jolly squint.

Mu Er was stunned, and hastily dropped to his knees: “I pay my respects to Yue Lao!”

Qixi’s mouth fell open; she could no longer even form words. Yue Lao pointed his staff at Qixi, and the Immobilizing Spell was instantly lifted. She stumbled to the ground awkwardly, knelt before Yue Lao, and stuttered: “I… I pay my resp— my respects to… Yue Lao!”

“You audacious girl — you dared to curse me, Yue Lao?!” Yue Lao snorted. “Just wait until I return and deal with you!”

Jiu Jue pointed at Yue Lao, astonished: “You old thing — why did you turn yourself into a hedgehog?!”

Yue Lao lightly tapped Mu Er on the head with his staff and said: “It was all because of this wretched boy! In any case, I was on vacation lately with nothing to do, so I came to the human realm to see how well this wretched boy was progressing in finding the black umbrella. I never expected he would end up getting help from you lot.”

Hearing this, Mu Er and Qixi were both aghast, and exclaimed in unison: “You knew the black umbrella had been stolen?!”

“You two were really hoping I was a deaf, mute, forgetful old fool, weren’t you?” Yue Lao pursed his lips. “Let me tell you — if even a single thread goes missing from Yue Lao Palace, I know about it! I simply keep a low profile. I say nothing. I just wait to see whether you two have the good sense to sort it out yourselves.”

Mu Er and Qixi both hung their heads and said nothing.

“You, girl — you thought you understood everything, when in truth you understand nothing at all! Jiu Jue was right. When your age becomes as many as the stars in the Milky Way, then come back and judge whether you know anything or not. Being a Red Matchmaker does require you to be lively, warm, and courageous — but it requires you even more to be rational. Do you think having feeling or not is judged simply by how fiercely people argue?” Yue Lao shot me a glance, with a half-smile. “Even this tree demon, with a thousand years behind her, has yet to fully comprehend the character of the word ‘feeling.’ Obediently come back to Yue Lao Palace with me. For what you have stirred up this time, I must punish you heavily.” Yue Lao stepped forward and pinched Qixi by the ear. “Your sentence is: forbidden from setting foot in the human realm for one hundred years, to reflect and cultivate at Yue Lao Palace!”

“Yue Lao, I know I was wrong… a hundred years is too long!” Qixi carefully pleaded.

“Say another word and it will be two hundred years!”

Qixi quickly closed her mouth and stood beside Yue Lao, crestfallen.

Mu Er let out a breath of relief, then pressed his forehead heavily to the ground before Yue Lao: “Yue Lao — the theft of the black umbrella and the resulting harm to many people of Wangchuan all arose from my own wayward desire. I beseech Yue Lao to permit me to personally make amends for this calamity.”

“Make amends?” Yue Lao opened his small eyes a little wider. “With what will you make amends?”

“Within forty-nine days…”

“Alright, alright.” Yue Lao cut him off. “The black umbrella you stole is a counterfeit. Its effect on those people will only last for forty-nine days regardless.”

Both Mu Er and I were startled — while I, in particular, felt a surge of delighted surprise. Amitabha, there would be no need to bury a body in my backyard after all! Wonderful, wonderful!

“Did you really think I was a completely muddled old fool?! As your direct superior, my greatest pleasure is understanding what is in the hearts of those under me. Managing people is useless — you have to manage their hearts.” Yue Lao poked at Mu Er’s head. “Do you think I don’t know what knot is tangled in your heart? It has always been necessary to let you walk this path yourself. The one who ties the knot must be the one to untie it — could I possibly not know such a simple principle?” He turned his head toward Qixi. “And you are the same. A person who doesn’t love you — no matter what tricks you employ — will never love you. The very first rule of the Red Matchmaker’s professional code of conduct is: a gourd forced by twisting can never be sweet! As for the second rule through the hundredth, you will learn one per year from now on!”

“Understood…” Qixi’s voice was as thin as a mosquito’s.

Yue Lao had Mu Er stand, then said: “Although what you stole was a counterfeit, the act itself still violated the rules of the Celestial Realm. There must naturally be punishment — and a heavy one at that.” With that, he extended one finger and pressed it to the center of Mu Er’s brow. A ring of red light spread out from beneath his finger and swiftly sank into Mu Er’s skin and flesh.

“Tree demon, come here, come here.” The old man beckoned me over. “Come, the old man has something to tell you.”

I was fond of very few among the various immortals of the Celestial Realm, large and small, but this old man was one I simply could not bring myself to dislike. So I ambled over and asked: “What is it?”

“This foolish young man — I’m entrusting him to you for the time being.” He pulled me aside, jerking his chin conspiratorially in Mu Er’s direction. “Although you are a demon, this young fellow and I think alike. There are quite a few in the Celestial Realm who fall short of you. But don’t go spreading those words around — I still have to get my meals there at the top!”

“You flatter me so highly, yet I’ve never seen you arrange a fine match for me!” I rolled my eyes.

“I only deal with the bonds of humans — I have no jurisdiction over demons!” Yue Lao spread his hands, then immediately broke into a sly grin. “Or could it be — what you have now isn’t already a fine match?!”

I pursed my lips and pretended not to hear. But before he left, he leaned close to my ear one last time and murmured: “You were right. What can be severed was never true feeling. True feeling — even I cannot sever.”

And that was that — sly old Yue Lao. He appeared in his sly way, and departed in his sly way, waving his sleeve, taking away only one Qixi.

Mu Er was left behind at Bu Ting. At first, we thought the so-called “heavy punishment” the old man had spoken of was simply keeping Mu Er from returning to the Celestial Realm. But when the first rays of light the following morning fell upon Mu Er’s form, we understood at last — the heaviest punishment for him was to be turned back into his original form. One tiny, plain-looking, silver-furred hedgehog.

Chapter 6 【Old Tales of Fulong】

The person Mu Er longed to love but didn’t dare to, longed to forget but couldn’t let go of — was right now planted in my backyard, just as Qixi had said. Last night, I spent the whole night with this hedgehog, baring our hearts.

And at last I came to understand why, in those early days, not a single hedgehog had dared come near Mu —

Mu Er had driven away every creature of his own kind who wished to approach Mu, whether by persuasion or by force. In this, at least, he had been a courageous hedgehog.

“In those days, she was still just a scholar tree at the foot of Fulong Mountain — even her girth was about the same in all three dimensions…” I recalled what Mu had looked like in those early years. “How could you possibly fall for a tree?”

“I heard her becoming whole in the moonlight, and I heard her crying too. I hid behind a rock and tried to speak with her. She was so happy then, saying that someone had finally been willing to talk to her. She told me everything on her mind. She envied the tree demon elder sister at the top of the mountain; she too wanted to take on the form of a human, to walk everywhere, to see everything.” Mu Er crouched on the table and spoke slowly, with deep nostalgia. “She loved to ask me who I was, and whether I was an immortal come down from the heavens. Afraid of disappointing her, I didn’t dare say I was only a hedgehog, so I tacitly let her believe it.”

“She never knew all along that the ‘immortal’ behind the rock was you?” I asked.

Mu Er shook his head: “She kept asking me to come out and meet her face to face. I promised. The next day, when the sunlight was at its finest, I even went to wash up in the river specially before making my way toward her. But before I even got close, she was already screaming: ‘Heavens — what an ugly creature, get away! Get away from me! Don’t come near me!'” Mu Er imitated the voice she had used back then, laughing at his own expense. “And then I obediently turned around and left. I knew that tree demons like you are bothered by prickly creatures like us — it makes you itchy, uncomfortable. So I didn’t want her to feel any of that discomfort. Once I got into a fight with a porcupine, and my leg was nearly bitten through — it took a whole month before I could walk again. But after that, every creature with spines in the area knew to respect my strength, and none of them dared come near her again. Ha.”

I sighed: “And then?”

“And then nothing. She was taken away by a man. He fulfilled her wish and let her take the form of a human. She was truly beautiful.” Mu Er rested his chin on the table. “When I learned she was leaving, I still couldn’t bring myself to walk to her side and tell her — that the one behind the rock was me. That day I had even picked a beautiful handful of wildflowers, but in the end, I put them into the river water. Not long after, I left Fulong Mountain as well. A very drunk Yue Lao fell asleep in my territory. I helped him chase away a venomous insect, and so he said I had a good heart and asked if I’d be willing to come work at Yue Lao Palace in the Celestial Realm. I agreed. After all, she was no longer there.”

I had no intention of telling him that the man who had taken Mu away was Ao Chi’s elder brother. I only asked: “How did you come to know she was here with me?”

“Two years ago, while I was in the human realm on a mission, I heard it from a worm-folk creature — that the great tree demon of Fulong Mountain had nearly died at the hands of a small tree demon on the lower slopes, but in the end the great tree demon had turned defeat into victory, reduced the small tree demon to her original form, and even planted her in her own backyard.” Mu Er recounted faithfully, then went on to admit that he had come to my backyard once, not long after I first planted Mu there — and he had come with hostile intent. If I bore any ill will toward Mu, he was fully prepared to fight to the death to rescue her, and to make me pay for it. But he had found that I treated Mu very well, and his hostility toward me had dissolved. During my honeymoon, whenever he had the chance to come to the human realm, he would visit Mu at Bu Ting — but usually only when she was asleep. If she was awake, there was simply no way he would come near.

“After all this time, why did you finally make such a decision?” I asked him. “Using the black umbrella to sever your own feelings for her — do you really not regret it?”

Mu Er was silent for a long while, then said: “She no longer needs me. And besides — you’ve come back. And I… I’m truly tired.”

I slapped the table: “You don’t even dare stand before her — what right do you have to speak of being tired?!” He was startled by me.

“Qixi wasn’t wrong about a single word she said to you!” If only he didn’t have spines, I would truly have given him a good beating. “Look at yourself — coming to Bu Ting to ask me for help, and going through all those elaborate schemes, pasting flyers to get my attention, conjuring a hedgehog legion to run riot in the backyard as some kind of test — are you afraid she’ll eat you?! You’re not even afraid of turning yourself to ashes, yet you’re afraid of seeing her? Afraid of going near her? All because of one single ‘ugly creature’ said all those years ago?”

Mu Er was left speechless by me. After a long time, he finally said: “I came to find you for two reasons. First — as you said, because I knew you were capable of helping me. Second — also as you said — once I knew that Qixi had already caused such irrevocable harm with the black umbrella, I resolved that the day I found the black umbrella would be the day I turned to ash. Before that, I truly did want to see her one last time.” He hemmed and hawed for a long while before finally admitting, somewhat abashedly: “Actually, I had even gone to have my hair treated beforehand, and changed into my most dashing outfit. I thought that when I appeared before her looking like this, my gaze would no longer flee from hers. But I was wrong. The moment I entered your backyard on some pretense, I realized — I still didn’t dare look at her. The truth is, I’m still that ugly creature.”

“How fragile your heart is!” I heard it all and my temper flared. The words came out on their own: “Let me tell you — the first time I ever met my husband, the very first words I said to him were also ‘ugly creature.'”

“And then?” He raised his head.

“And then he got his revenge on me, of course. We argued. We even came to blows.” I shrugged. “And in the end — we got married. Sigh.”

“How wonderful that must be,” he said, with envy.

“I’m not asking you to envy me!” I couldn’t bear this thick-hearted, self-deprecating, fragile-hearted foolish hedgehog. I tapped his head with my chopsticks. “I’m telling you — if you hide away forever, no one will ever see you! Never mind what the outcome might be: good or bad, at least try once. Then you won’t have lived a life in vain. You’re not even afraid of death — yet you’re afraid of her?!”

He went quiet again, then asked me a question: “Do you and your husband still argue a lot?”

“Of course. He infuriates me to no end all the time, and I drive him to fury too.” I answered honestly. Mu Er seemed a little confused.

I knew what was puzzling him. “Feeling is a strange thing,” I said. “The ways it expresses itself are countless and varied. Quarreling and squabbling doesn’t necessarily mean the feeling is gone. Treating each other with formal respect doesn’t necessarily mean there’s real love. You’ve encountered far too few people and experiences. Many of the old traditions in Yue Lao Palace have grown out of date.” Mu Er nodded, as though deep in thought.

“Have you figured out what your ‘and then’ is?” I tapped his head again.

“And then…” He took a deep breath, and after a long time, finally managed to squeeze out the words: “I… I’ve figured it out…”

“Not convincing enough!”

“I’ve figured it out!”

“Good!”

【Ending】

Another morning. I hid behind the window and quietly watched Mu Er slowly make his way across the backyard, his target: Mu! The straight-line distance — three meters, two meters, one meter…

I pulled my head back and prayed silently in my heart.

Very soon, I heard Mu’s screaming: Ahhh! A hedgehog! Get away, get away!

I poked half my head out to peek, and then laughed with the warmth of old contentment.

Mu Er did not get away. He lay quietly at Mu’s feet, letting her scream and scold. From this moment on, he was no longer the Black Matchmaker who had been evading for so many years — he was a hedgehog returning to the place where it all began. The silver-white spines of Mu Er were touched by the morning light, and shone with a gentle color.

That day, I posted this sentence on my social wall:

I am only a tree demon. I cannot make Mu fall in love with you, nor can I make you forget Mu. I can only offer a quiet backyard, plenty of food, and — a little blessing.

As for what comes after — what “after” is there? I still needed to get back to work on the renovation of Bu Ting! On account of this one hedgehog and his troubles, I had been held up from construction for days. Those two lazy things A’Tou and Xuan still hadn’t finished painting the walls. And Jiu Jue — who even knew where he’d gone to hide! All the heavy work had been dumped onto Gu Wuming. At this pace, when on earth would my new shop be ready to open?!

Wait — it seems like someone has come back. A wave of such a familiar presence, carrying killing intent…

One second later —

“I’m back!”

Ao Chi’s excited and unbridled voice resounded across the heavens.

【END】