Sitting back, Bai Xue let out a second long sigh. Broken out of his thoughts, Hui looked over. She shook her head, tossed her white hair out of her face, then stood decisively. “I haven’t even gotten the tea, and I’ve already pushed all my troubles onto you. I’m a terrible host. Wait a moment—”

The older male servant pushed the door open. “Matriarch summons Young Master Bai Xue.”

“Eh? Not again. My answer hasn’t changed,” Bai Xue complained.

“What answer?” Hui asked.

“I had a betrothed. I used the curse as an excuse—ahem. I respectfully broke off the marriage out of respect for my betrothed after the curse was inflicted upon me. The Matriarch wants me to accept my betrothed once again.” She glanced at the servant. “I assume this is what the call is about?”

The male servant bowed low. “This humble servant couldn’t possibly—”

“Right. Fetch the guests some tea while I’m—” Bai Xue froze mid-sentence. She looked over Hui and Li Xiang slowly, an appraising glint in her eye.

“What is it?” Li Xiang asked, tilting her head.

Oh no, Hui thought.

Bai Xue smiled. “Come with me! It’s a good opportunity to meet the Matriarch.”

“We couldn’t be so bold,” Hui said, at the same time as Li Xiang said, “Of course!”

Hui looked at Li Xiang. She frowned at him. “These people are in trouble. It would be wrong of us to turn our backs.”

“I’m not suggesting we turn our backs, just—”

“Who knows better the clan’s troubles than its Matriarch?” Li Xiang reasoned.

“Exactly,” Bai Xue said, giving Li Xiang a good pat on the shoulder. She grinned at Hui.

This is bad news. Hui laughed nervously, helpless against the two. “As you insist.”

Bai Xue’s smile grew wider. She gestured them on, leading the way deeper into the complex. Through door after door, the three of them padded along, until the male servant scurried ahead and threw open a pair of red and gold doors.

Atop a half-white, half-black chaise, a white-haired woman sprawled, lazily snacking on a platter of fresh fruit. The platter radiated qi, every fruit atop it a high-level magical treasure in its own right. I wonder how much those fruits are worth, Hui thought, then cast a side-eyed look at Bai Xue. Good friend of mine, do you have a million spirit stones or so to spare?

Radiant and youthful, she barely looked a year older than Xue, her eyes just as brilliant a shade of crimson. If Hui hadn’t known better, he would have imagined her Xue’s sister, not mother. They could have passed for one another, except for the Matriarch’s slightly swollen belly, magnified by her loose robes and slender figure.

Servants stood in the wings, ready to jump to at any moment. A few of the servants wore armor and carried swords, and gazed at the three intruders with watchful eyes. Hui eyed them back, slightly hesitant.

“Bai Xue greets Honorable Mother,” Bai Xue said, bowing and cupping her hands.

Hui and Li Xiang bowed as well, standing slightly behind Bai Xue.

“Ah, yes. I understand you were rushing around town again today?” the Matriarch yawned. She leaned back on the chaise, tucking her legs up, an arm under her head.

“The lotus pills—”

The Matriarch waved her hand. “That is the guards’ job. There is no need for our Young Master to galivant all over. You recall how it went last time, I trust?”

Bai Xue scowled. “Honorable Mother, I never go out alone—”

The Matriarch sighed deeply. “And yet you never bring Jingwen along. Jingwen, come here.”

From off to the side, a young woman a little younger in appearance than Bai Xue stepped out of the wings. Hanging in a braid, her long hair dangled over her shoulder. Sleepy, heavily-lidded eyes took in the courtroom, hovering on Bai Xue.

“Respectfully, Honorable Mother, I have released Jingwen from our marriage contract out of consideration for my regretful circumstances. It wouldn’t do to appear in public with her.”

The Matriarch’s eyes narrowed. “No? Would it do for our Young Master to wander off and sneak into another sect’s secret realm? Is it proper for her to collapse that realm early or kill several disciples inside?”

Hui’s stomach went cold. He maintained his bowing posture, but his neck prickled. Oh no. This is not good.

Unphased, Bai Xue replied, “Answering Honorable Mother, this Bai Xue has no recollection of taking any of those actions—”

“Because of your curse!” the Matriarch snapped, sitting up. She glared at Bai Xue for a beat, then collapsed back onto the chaise. A pair of servants in physician’s robes rushed to her side, but she waved them down.

“Because of my curse,” Xue acknowledged.

“In any case. Take Jingwen with you, and—”

“Honorable Mother, will you refuse my right to choose my own love?” Bai Xue burst out, standing upright suddenly, a hand clutched to her chest.

All the fear Hui had felt moments ago couldn’t be compared to the crushing paralysis that gripped him in that moment. Fuck. Here it comes.

The Matriarch’s eyes narrowed further. “Bai Xue, you dare—”

Bai Xue grabbed Hui by the shoulders and lifted him out of his bow to hug him tight. “I’ve fallen in love, mother. That’s what I came to tell you today.”

The Matriarch glared. Her chest heaved, cheeks reddening. The physicians crowded in again, but she waved them back. “Bai Xue, you unfilial child, after all you have done to me, this too?”

“He saved me in the secret realm. Without him, I would be some filthy incompetents’ furnace several times over, or dead, another rotting body among the sands. Let me introduce you. This is Starbound Sect’s Weiheng Hui.”

Hui waved his hands in protest. “No—No, I’m—”

Bai Xue squeezed him tighter, forcing the air out of his lungs. Hui squeaked, unable to make any noise.

The Matriarch’s face grew redder and redder with every sentence, anger boiling under her skin, but at the mention of Hui’s name, her anger faded. “Weiheng Hui?”

Bai Xue nodded.

“That… That Weiheng?”

Bai Xue released Hui and gave him a jab in the gut. Hui coughed, then met the Matriarch’s eyes. The desire to lie welled up in him, but at the murder in her eyes, and the presence of Li Xiang to his right, he swallowed it back. “Er, yes. I am the inheriting disciple of Starbound Sect’s Weiheng Wu.”

“Not related?” the Matriarch asked.

Hui shook his head. Aha! Is this a way out?

She waved. “No mind. Growing closer to a rising star like that one is sowing good karma.”

Dammit!

“You—how close are you? You barely met a few years ago! You can’t be—” Jingwen burst out, half stepping forward. Her white-and-black robes whirled around her feet.

Barely moving her mouth, Bai Xue demanded at a mutter, “Give me your energy.”

“Huh?”

“Give me your energy. Now. Or else I’ll tell Mother that you’re the one who made me kill those disciples in the secret realm.”

Hui jolted. Abruptly, he passed some of his energy to Bai Xue.

White skirts whirled, bleeding to black. Long white hair lashed, turning inky. Her voice deepened, and Bai Xue laughed and tossed his hair. “This close.”

“Well. If that’s the case, and our Bai Xue has finally settled down, let us mark this wondrous occasion immediately! Quickly, quickly, someone prepare the marriage clothes. By the end of the week, I want her wed.” The Matriarch clapped her hands, and the servants all rushed off.

“Bai Xue…” Hui growled.

“Don’t worry. I’ll put it off. I’m not going to marry you right now,” Bai Xue assured him.

From slightly behind Bai Xue, Li Xiang stared, mouth open. “Y-you two—I had no idea!”

Hui whirled. “Li Xiang, no, it isn’t—”

Bai Xue punched him in the gut. All the air fled his body. “Not in front of Mother,” he hissed.

Hui startled. Right, right, fifth stage cultivators are scary, and sixth stage moreso! He nodded, but cast a please don’t read into this look at Li Xiang.

She stared back, absolutely taken by surprise. Through her clear eyes, Hui could see all the way to the back of her head, cleared of thoughts by shock. Ah. Perhaps this was too much for poor Li Xiang.

“I—I won’t accept this!” Jingwen demanded. She strode to the edge of the dais and glared at Bai Xue. “You’re lying! I am your fiancée, and I will be your wife!”

Bai Xue drew Hui closer and put a hand on his head possessively. “Oh? Jingwen, don’t tell me… no one wanted my secondhand goods?”

Jingwen scowled. “When you learn to look at the good of the clan instead of only at your personal pleasure, you’ll understand the mistakes you’re making.”

“How profound, how profound,” Bai Xue mocked her.

“Can we go, before Li Xiang passes out from shock?” Hui murmured to Bai Xue.

Bai Xue shook his hair. Black faded to white, his muscular figure turned slender again, and she nodded. “Of course, hubby.”

“Do you want to die?” Hui muttered.

“Bold words from a small cultivator like yourself,” Bai Xue shot back.

She bowed respectfully to her mother, forcing Hui to bow with her with a hand on his head. “We’ll take our leave now. Many thanks to Honorable Mother for accepting this willful child’s whims.”

The Matriarch waved them away and turned back to her fruit plate.

“Bai Xue! I demand an explanation!” Jingwen growled.

Bai Xue ignored her. Steering Hui by the shoulders, she gently collected Li Xiang, and the three of them retreated from the Matriarch’s room.

No sooner had the door shut than Hui jumped away from her. He took out his ponytail, ran his fingers through his hair a few times, then put it back up. That done, he took a deep breath. “Bai Xue.”

“Yes?” she asked, tilting her head innocently in a pale mockery of Li Xiang.

“Could you tell me just when I agreed to marry you?”

Bai Xue laughed uproariously. “Never. But it’s like I said. I’ll stall for time until you head back to Starbound Sect. Before you go, I’ll throw a big dramatic breakup scene, and you’ll be well and away before anything happens to you.”

Hui sighed. “Why did you drag me into this in the first place?”

“Mother insists I marry Jingwen. There’s nothing wrong with her, I suppose, but I’d rather forge my own path. Mother chose her because she’s the most capable of my cousins. There’s a greater chance of my children inheriting the full bloodline if we intermarry within the clan, and the bloodline is everything. Still, I don’t want to marry within the clan. I’ve grown up with everybody here my whole life. It feels… wrong.”

She waved a hand. “Besides, Jingwen only wants my power and status as Young Master of the main family. Her mother has long been after the title of main family, despite belonging to a mere branch family. Since Jingwen was a child, her mother has been grooming her for my sake. Or, I should say, the sake of usurping the clan from Mother. I’m lucky Jingwen’s mother didn’t have any boys, or she might have been even more ferocious, though unfortunate in that it doesn’t disqualify her. As it is, Mother’s equally happy to marry off my yang half as my yin. Someone has to continue the bloodline, after all.”

“And you chose me as your temporary replacement because…?”

“Because you’re Weiheng Wu’s disciple. Mother—no, I don’t think anyone would protest to me marrying the inheriting disciple of the quickest-rising star on the continent. Even becoming a second or third wife isn’t too much to ask.”

“My position is that good?” Hui asked, looking at his hands. Little did I know…

“Mmm. Though I’d stay far away from the women who think that way. They’re all scum, to the last.”

“So you’re… scum?” Hui asked.

“I’m not actually trying to marry you. I’m just acting like scum. There’s a difference.” She paused thoughtfully. “Though, if I was scum, this is an excellent opportunity…”

Hui glared at her.

Li Xiang startled out of her reverie. “You—you don’t actually want to marry Hui?”

Bai Xue shook her head.

“Oh,” Li Xiang said.

Hui leaned toward her, a smile on his face. “Eh? Is Li Xiang jealous?”

She shook her head. “I was just startled because I thought I knew you, and you aren’t the type to be so bold as to propose to a woman you just met. Being forced into it by Bai Xue makes much more sense.”

“Ehhh,” Hui said, unwilling to hear it.

Bai Xue snickered.

“In any case, I wouldn’t be jealous of you. I don’t want to marry Bai Xue,” Li Xiang declared, crossing her arms. “Though her male form is quite handsome.”

Bai Xue burst out laughing. Hui stared, mouth agape.

“Ah! I forgot to ask the Matriarch about the clan’s troubles!” Li Xiang said, slapping her fist on her hand. She turned around.

“No, no, not now. Give her time to calm down,” Bai Xue cautioned her, grabbing her sleeve as she passed.

Li Xiang stared at the doors, then wilted. “Understood.”

Hui touched the jade bird thoughtfully. It didn’t activate in the Matriarch’s presence, either. Who sent that letter? Is it really… no one from Bai clan? Or… did I not get close enough?

He glanced over his shoulder, then shuddered. If it’s the Matriarch, I think I’d rather not know…