Li Wei and Yisha descended the grand staircase, their energy palpable. Yisha, a storm of flustered embarrassment, and Li Wei, a glacier of comical, murderous intent. The air around them crackled, causing a few servants to quickly find tasks away from them.
The young man waited obliviously in the center of the main hall. His face lit up with a hopeful, charming smile as he saw Yisha, completely missing the danger radiating from the white-haired man beside her.
"Ah! You came!" he began, bowing politely. "My name is Xuán Chè. I... I had to find you. Your mastery of illusion today was breathtaking. You saw through my clumsy tricks and turned them into true art... Pèifú pèifú (I admire you)."
Yisha crossed her arms, her foot tapping impatiently on the polished floor. Li Wei simply stared, his eyes narrowed, waiting for the moment to strike.
Xuán Chè, misreading her silence as professional discretion and Li Wei's as protective concern, rambled on. "I know this is your place of work, and I mean no disrespect. It's honest work! A skilled entertainer, a master of charm and conversation... there is true honor in bringing joy and beauty to others, is there not?"
Yisha's jaw dropped. Honor? She was the adopted daughter of the realm's most powerful demon, and he was giving her a lecture on the professional ethics of courtesanship! Her embarrassment began to curdle into genuine, sputtering outrage.
But then, a strange sound came from Li Wei. A soft, almost imperceptible hum. Yisha glanced at him. The killing intent had vanished, replaced by a terrifying stillness. A muscle twitched at the corner of his mouth. He was... amused.
Seeing his chance to tease Yisha as a form of friendly, sibling revenge, Li Wei stepped forward, his voice dangerously smooth. "You are perceptive. I am Li Wei. This is my sister, Yisha."
Xuán Chè's eyes widened with dawning understanding. "A family business! Of course! It explains the... the shared aura of formidable grace."
He turned his admiring gaze to Li Wei. "And you, sir! One can see why you are also in high demand. The striking hair, the powerful presence. You're truly remarkable."
Li Wei slowly unfolded his black ironwood fan with a definitive snap. He began to fan himself with an air of profound, wicked amusement, his eyes glinting as he looked at the utterly flabbergasted Yisha.
"You do have a good eye," Li Wei said, his voice a low purr of entertainment.
Li Wei, thoroughly amused, decided to show the young man around the pavilion to gauge who he really was. "Come, Xuán Chè," he said, his fan still gently waving. "Let me show you Zuì Mèng Lóu Pavilion."
As they walked, Li Wei pointed out various features with the air of a proprietor, all while subtly probing for information. "Your illusions, though low-level, are quite clever. Self-taught?"
"Necessity is a harsh teacher," Xuán Chè replied, his guard down. "I pick up scraps of knowledge here and there. I heard whispers about this town and how prosperous it was. So, I made my way here."
It was during this walk that Xuán Chè began to notice the details he'd been too star-struck to see before. A guard bowed deeply and addressed Li Wei as "Gōngzǐ." A maid scurried past, greeting Yisha with a respectful "Xiǎojiě - Young Miss." The staff didn't just work here; they treated the pair with a deference bordering on reverence.
The pieces clicked into place with an almost audible snap. The sheer scale of the pavilion, the obvious power Li Wei held, the way Yisha carried herself not as an employee, but as an owner. He suddenly felt incredibly foolish.
He stopped walking and turned to them, his expression shifting from curiosity to clarity. He was a straightforward man, so he asked directly.
"I have made a grave misjudgment, haven't I?" he said, his eyes moving from Li Wei to Yisha. "You are not courtesans. This is your home."
Li Wei's fan stilled. A genuine smile of approval touched his lips. He appreciated the candor. "Indeed. This is the Zuì Mèng Lóu Pavilion. And this," he gestured to Yisha, "is Jia Yisha, the adopted daughter of the proprietress."
Xuán Chè's face flushed with genuine embarrassment, but he didn't look away. He met Yisha's eyes and bowed deeply, a sign of sincere respect and apology.
"Young Miss Jia," he said, his voice earnest. "My assumptions were crude and disrespectful. I saw only talent and beauty and filled in the blanks with the limited worldview of a wanderer. I apologize from the bottom of my heart. It was an honor to witness your skill."
Yisha, who had been ready to stay angry, found her indignation deflating in the face of such a honesty and graceful apology.
She let out a small, relenting sigh. "Fine," she said, though a trace of a smile threatened to break through.
"And you, sir?" Xuán Chè ventured, emboldened by the other man's candor. "What is your role here?"
A slow, enigmatic smile touched Li Wei's lips. It was not an answer, but a conclusion. He simply turned and continued the tour, leaving the unspoken message hanging in the air between them:
My role is whatever the situation requires me to be, and you are in no position to need the specifics.
Xuán Chè understood. This quiet, smiling man with the wintery aura carried a different kind of authority, one that was absolute and needed no name.
Li Wei found himself, to his own surprise, liking the kid. There was a raw honesty to him that was rare in any realm. As they walked, his questions shifted from subtle probes to genuine inquiry.
"Where are you from, Xuán Chè? What brought you to Wàng Yōu Zhèn?"
The young man's usual bright demeanor softened. "I don't know where I'm from. I've been moving from town to town for as long as I can remember. I came here because I heard the streets were paved with opportunity." He smiled. "Turns out, they're just regular cobblestones."
"And your family?" Li Wei asked, his voice quieter.
"None." The answer was simple, final. "I was found with nothing but the clothes on my back and this." He reached into his tunic and pulled out a white jade pendant hanging from a leather cord. It was carved with an intricate, unfamiliar crest. "It's the only reason I know my name. It was etched on the back."
Li Wei's interest sharpened from casual to intense. "May I?"
Xuán Chè handed it over without hesitation. Li Wei closed his fist around the cool, smooth jade. He reached out with his spiritual sense, a fine, invisible thread of frost-energy seeking the pendant's secrets. He could feel it immediately. A resonance. An echo of immense power, but it was shrouded, locked behind a complex seal.
"The crest is a bit familiar," Li Wei said, opening his hand to stare at the pendant. It was a half-truth, but an honest one. It resonated with an age he recognized. "May I hold onto this? I would like to investigate it further."
Xuán Chè's eyes widened with a hope he'd long since buried. "Please. I've spent fifty years showing this to anyone who would look. No one has ever recognized it."
Li Wei tucked the pendant into his own robes. "Where are you staying? What work do you do, beyond your street performances?"
"Wherever I can find a roof. Whatever work I can get," Xuán Chè admitted. "I'm strong. I can lift, carry, whatever needs doing. I even picked up some martial arts from the man who raised me for 15 years. But he disappeared."
Li Wei made a decision in an instant. It was partly pity, partly strategic, and partly a hunter's instinct that this boy was a puzzle piece to something much larger.
"We have need of strong backs. I can offer you a position as a laborer, moving supplies, assisting the groundskeepers. It includes a small room behind the pavilion." He met Xuán Chè's gaze, his tone leaving no room for nonsense. "Do the work well, without complaint, and there may be other opportunities. Consider it a probationary period."
The hope in Xuán Chè's eyes ignited into pure, unadulterated joy. A job. A home. A lead on his past. It was more than he'd had in a lifetime.
"I accept! I won't let you down, Li Wei... Gōngzǐ."
Li Wei gave a curt nod and summoned a steward with a flick of his wrist. "See that Xuán Chè is settled. He starts tomorrow."
As the young man was led away, Li Wei looked down at the faint outline of the jade pendant through his robes. A chance encounter, indeed. He had gone downstairs expecting to discipline a fool and had instead stumbled upon something more. Xuan Ling needed to see this.
Li Wei and Yisha found Xuan Ling in her astral aerie, sipping plum wine as she watched the clouds drift past the balcony. Li Wei, a rare, genuine smile on his face, launched into the story of the Yisha's new friend.
Xuan Ling listened, her shoulders beginning to shake with silent laughter until she was laughing so hard a tear traced a path down her cheek. Yisha, meanwhile, sank deeper into her chair, arms crossed, sulking with a theatrical pout.
"Oh, my dear girl," Xuan Ling finally managed, dabbing her eye.
"The boy is not the only interesting part," Li Wei said, his smile fading into seriousness. He produced the jade pendant from his sleeve and placed it on the table between them. "He carried this. He says it's all he has of his family."
The moment Xuan Ling's eyes fell upon the crest, her laughter died. The warmth drained from her face, replaced by a stillness so profound it felt like the air itself had solidified.
She reached out, her fingers hovering just above the cool jade as if it were a live coal. Memories, long buried under layers of ice and time, flooded her heart.
A daughter. She had a daughter once. A gentle soul who had inherited her mother's beauty but none of her ruthless demonic nature. She had fallen in love with a mortal scholar, and against Xuan Ling's pragmatic advice, had chosen love over legacy.
She bore children, and her eldest son had, to Xuan Ling's distant pride, founded the Yan Empire. Xuan Ling, adhering to her ancient rule of non-interference in mortal affairs, had watched from afar. It was a mistake that haunts her still.
By the time the dangerous rumors of demonic bloodline power spread through the court, and the ensuing strife and assassinations reached a fever pitch, it was too late. She arrived to find the imperial city drenched in blood, her line all but extinguished. Her gentle daughter was gone.
It was this cataclysmic failure that partly fueled the fierce, overprotective love she now showered on Yisha, Qianyi, and Li Wei. She would not make the same mistake twice.
"Is it a coincidence," she whispered, her voice rough with a grief thousands of years old, "that I found our girls in the ruins of a celestial village not a hundred li from where the Yan Empire fell?"
She looked from the pendant to Li Wei. "And is it a coincidence that a boy with this bloodline appears now, just as a greedy, fading clan seeks a celestial seal tied to another lost bloodline?"
"Wait," she commanded, her voice cutting through the heavy silence. She held the pendant up, her gaze tracing invisible lines of power. "There is a seal on this jade. A highly sophisticated concealment spell, woven to suppress his aura and hide his bloodline from spiritual detection."
She looked at Li Wei, all traces of nostalgia gone, replaced by the sharp focus of a strategist.
"This is not a mere keepsake. This is a ward. And a powerful one. It means the seal cannot be away from him for too long, or its protection will fade, and his aura will act as a beacon for anyone who knows what to look for."
She thrust the pendant back into Li Wei's hand.
"Get this back to the boy. Immediately. Have someone protect the boy, discreetly."
She closed her hand around the pendant, its cool surface, a stark contrast to the fury awakening within her.
"Patriarch Shen sought to steal a destiny," she said, her voice dropping to a lethal whisper. "He was digging in the right graveyard, but for the wrong corpse. He and his clan of vultures have been hoarding secrets. I'll set off tomorrow to let him know the bride price has increased again. And the price? Everything he knows."