Through the banquet, the oil-paper umbrella swayed from time to time.
Ling Wu knew perfectly well it was Qin Zheng fidgeting, but with her master present she couldn't slip away.
At her fourth light tap on the umbrella's handle, Qingchen said mildly, "Ah-Wu, if you have business, go ahead."
At that, the umbrella shook harder still.
Ling Wu kept her word. Having promised Qin Zheng he could watch Li Funing's wedding from start to finish, she would not go back on it.
And so one woman, one ghost, and one cat demon filed into the Shen wedding chamber.
The moment Qin Zheng saw Li Funing, he lapsed into his old routine, dissolving into a flood of tears.
A stranger would have assumed he was the one betrayed.
Ling Wu perched on the roof beam, gazing blankly down. Yunshu made desultory small talk with her.
Asked what stroke of luck had won her Qingchen as a master, Ling Wu shook her head—she only remembered being picked up.
"I suppose they didn't want the burden of a baby girl."
She'd heard plenty over the years about how mortals prized sons over daughters. Baby girls were dashed to death moments after birth; some villages, fearing the resentment of so many dead infants, hired priests to hold rites that would suppress those tiny souls forever—first so they wouldn't reincarnate back into the family, second so they'd never return to haunt it.
It was pure sin!
Years ago, the Sixth Senior Brother was still a greenhorn. Hearing a mortal's wailing, he assumed some evil ghost was at work. He arrived to find nothing but newborn infants.
The sight had turned his scalp numb; he never forgot it.
He said the most terrifying thing in this world was people.
Back then, the Sixth Senior Brother still had a kind heart—unlike now, insufferably snide and at permanent war with her.
Qin Zheng had no interest in their chatter; his whole being was fixed on Li Funing.
After a long while he said hollowly, "It was all my fault. Funing's life was so bitter. I thought I could carry her out of it—I overestimated myself."
His looks were merely fine, his talent not the stuff of top honors in the exams, and his family circumstances what they were. In the end, he was the one who had held her back.
"If I had told her from the start that the lantern belonged to Shen Ci, none of what followed would ever have happened." His voice was hoarse, drowning in regret.
One spiteful thought, and a million doors of obstruction swing open.
"It wasn't all you," Ling Wu comforted. "The two of you were fated to meet regardless."
He gave a bitter laugh. "I wrecked his marriage-fate. I even sent Yunshu to kill him. Thank heaven nothing came of it."
The wooden carving that was Yunshu flushed at that.
Only because the Demon Lord was hunting her! A mere mortal—she could have swatted him with a wave.
Night fell; the door opened. Shen Ci's face was flushed—he'd clearly been made to drink his fill—though his eyes remained clear, not drunk.
He crossed the room in a few strides, but instead of going to Li Funing, he sat down at the table.
At his footsteps, Li Funing went still.
The whole wedding chamber sank into an eerie silence.
Ling Wu thought about offering to leave—they were rather in the way.
A wedding night shouldn't be interrupted. Besides, what came next would be bad for Qin Zheng's heart—dead though it was.
But the wretched ghost kept gazing on eagerly, as if he were the one getting married.
Red candlelight swayed; Shen Ci's face flickered bright and dark. He looked at the ceremonial beam beside his hand and did not pick it up.
One lift of it would raise the bridal veil; one cup of nuptial wine, and Li Funing would be his wife in full standing.
Yet his gaze only drifted between beam and bride, with no intention of lifting the veil, and his face sank into the same desolation as that morning.
Did marrying the one you love hurt this much too?
Shen Ci broke the silence. "I'll sleep in the study tonight. The veil—lift it yourself."
Li Funing didn't move.
He added, "Don't worry. While I live, no one will give you a hard face. My parents are easy people. In time, treat this house as your own."
Her crossed fingers twitched. She said evenly, "Why did you save me?"
She remembered him; their first meeting had gone badly.
Yet in the end, he was the one who saved her.
Shen Ci laughed, half at himself. "He was my closest friend, and you and I are old acquaintances of a kind. What sort of man watches someone he knows walk into ruin?"
Li Funing froze.
Beside Ling Wu, Qin Zheng shuddered, then stared at Shen Ci in disbelief, murmuring, "Closest friend... I thought you hated me to the bone..."
He remembered that day—the look of a man who wanted him dead. He'd assumed he would never hear his own name from Shen Ci's lips again.
In his final moments, Qin Zheng had wondered: if he had never been with Li Funing, could he and Shen Ci have gone back to what they were?
He had always, always admired Shen Ci.
The red candle burned halfway down. Shen Ci rose to go to the study, his parting words gentle: "It's been a long day—rest early. Tomorrow morning I'll return, and we'll pay our respects to my parents together. No one will ever know about tonight."
Lest he make her uncomfortable, he left quickly.
When the door clicked shut, Li Funing hesitated a long moment, then lifted the veil herself.
She glanced around, then dragged her feet to the dressing case that had been carried in earlier.
The first thing out of the box was the rabbit lantern.
She'd meant to throw it away yesterday. She couldn't. In the long stretch after Qin Zheng left her, this lantern was what she had survived on. Seeing it brought back those happy days.
However bitter life got, she could keep living it.
Watching, Qin Zheng's expression was unreadable. He closed his eyes, let out a long breath, and turned to Ling Wu.
A sense of impending doom came over her.
And sure enough—
"I beg you, immortal—one last favor."
Ling Wu's brow knotted. Dare she? Ruin one more mortal's fate and her master would expel her from the sect for certain!
And the Star of Destiny was rumored to have a temper. What if he skipped her master and came straight for her!
Still, she left herself room: "Tell me first what you want done."
Qin Zheng thought for a while, as if settling on something. "Funing should never have met me. The rabbit lantern belongs to Shen Ci. I got there first and stole the marriage-fate that was his. I beg you, immortal—return everything to its rightful owner. I cannot repay it in this life. In the next, when you find me reborn, I will repay you with everything I have!"
The speech stirred Ling Wu's blood.
First Shen Qingyu had vowed to serve her like an ox and a horse; now Qin Zheng promised repayment in his next life.
Being an immortal truly had its perks. A pity she wasn't one yet.
She coughed lightly, composed her face, and answered airily, "A difficult matter—but not that difficult."
Her master had only forbidden her to change anyone's fate. He never said she couldn't tell Li Funing the truth!
Heaven loves to help lovers along. She would simply do as Qin Zheng asked and return what was his to its owner.
Before long, with a small trick of the wind, she found the mask Qin Zheng had hidden in the cabinet.
Over the years, Shen Ci had picked it up many times, meaning to show her and confess everything.
But seeing her and Qin Zheng so happy together, he never had the heart.
Ling Wu hardly knew whether to praise the man's kindness or call him a fool.
Had he said it earlier, before Li Funing's love had rooted deep, everything could still have been mended. Waiting until it was set in stone—regret came too late.
A gust of wind swept through; the door swung open, and Li Funing heard a crisp clatter.
On the floor lay a familiar mask.
Her eyes went wide with shock.
"That mask..."
Wasn't that the one Qin Zheng wore the night she first met him? How could it be in Shen Ci's room?
She moved to pick it up—and in the same instant the cabinet door blew ajar. On its lower shelf sat several rabbit lanterns, identical to the one in her dressing case.
Li Funing swayed and sank to the floor.
What was there left not to understand?
No wonder. No wonder...
She broke into sobs all over again.
Watching this, Ling Wu felt a quiet ache too. She led the equally heartbroken demon and ghost out of the room.
Outside, the moon hung full—and a certain fate of theirs was about to come full circle too.
Watching Li Funing stumble out in search of Shen Ci, she asked Qin Zheng, "Do you regret it?"