The bamboo swayed gently in the wind as twilight settled over the sect.
Mu Qianxue stood at the edge of a quiet grove, her hands trembling slightly.
Her chest still rose and fell unevenly from how quickly she had run—not from danger, but from what she had seen.
She leaned her back against a tree, her eyes locked somewhere between the stars and her memories.
She had thought the rumors were nonsense.
Whispers that floated among the elders about Hei Long and the Sect Leader?
Please. She'd only joked about joining his harem because it was amusing.
Because she thought she was safe from ever needing something like that.
But she wasn't.
And what she saw…
Mu Qianxue closed her eyes and swallowed, hard.
"So it's true," she whispered to herself, voice barely audible against the rustling of the leaves:
"I was joking. I didn't think…"
There was a tightness in her chest that wouldn't go away.
A twisting feeling she hadn't felt in decades.
