Candlelight burned quietly in the corner. The arrangement of the Mirror Room was precise. The placements of the mirrors and candles never interfered with each other. Despite the many mirrors, the lighting remained dim and hazy.
A soft fragrance drifted through the entire room. Shen Changyin, walking in soft socks across the carpet, made footsteps too quiet to hear.
Half of Xie Yu's dark hair had fallen over the table. The corners of her eyes were as flushed as the rouge around her forehead ornament. Her gaze was unfocused. She did not recognize Shen Changyin.
Still drunk, she sat where she was, watching Shen Changyin approach slowly. She waved and said with a laugh, "Hello, Mirror Xie Yu."
She truly thought Shen Changyin was her own reflection.
Shen Changyin stopped in front of her. Her eyes lowered. She said nothing.
Xie Yu lifted her head. Her lips still carried a thin layer of rose hydrolate and wine. She stared blankly at Shen Changyin for a while and suddenly said, "I'm so pretty."
Then she jolted awake a little. "No, wait. If you're just my reflection, how are you moving?"
"You're a mirror demon. No, you're from the reverse world. You want to wait until I'm looking in a mirror and pull me into the reverse world, and then you come here and take my place."
She began mumbling the ghost stories she had heard as a child. "No way. Demon. I won't go to the reverse world. You can't take over my life, even if we look exactly the same."
She said many things that made no sense. Shen Changyin understood none of them. All her attention was fixed on that pair of lips opening and closing, on the thin sheen of moisture glimmering under the candlelight.
Xie Yu's ghost story had reached the part where the heroine counterattacks. Holding onto the edge of the table, she pushed herself unsteadily to her feet and stretched out a shaky hand, trying to push Shen Changyin away.
"Demon, go back to your reverse world."
Because she was drunk, her movements were slow. Shen Changyin did not dodge, simply letting her do as she wished.
Xie Yu placed her hand on Shen Changyin's shoulder. Her eyes widened like a startled cat's. "So cool."
Shen Changyin glanced down at her own clothing.
Spring had warmed the days, but the nights were still cold. She had ridden hard through the wind. Her garments had been chilled through. Even now, the silver-white silk still held a cool breath.
Xie Yu touched the cool silk, then touched her own burning cheeks, and her expression crumpled in grievance. "But I'm so hot."
Like someone who has taken a hot bath in midsummer—heat flooded through her entire body.
"Then let's trade… let me cool down." She grabbed Shen Changyin's shoulders and gave a small shake. "Trade, trade. Let me go to the reverse world and cool off."
But after two or three weak motions, she tired herself out. She leaned forward lazily and suddenly rested her forehead against Shen Changyin's.
Shen Changyin's skin was cold. Xie Yu's was burning. The instant hot and cold met, Xie Yu sighed in relief. "So cool."
The drop in temperature granted her a trace of clarity. She even began to think. "I get it now. You're a reflection. A mirror. Mirrors are cool."
"When I stick to you, I get cooler too."
Without warning, she turned her head and pressed her cheek against Shen Changyin's. Their skins fit together without any space between them.
Shen Changyin's eyes flew open.
"This side too." Xie Yu turned her other cheek over but forgot to lean in.
Looking at the drunk girl waiting quietly, Shen Changyin hesitated for several moments. Something compelled her to exhale softly, and she leaned in just enough for their cheeks to touch.
They stayed like that for a few seconds.
Then Xie Yu suddenly pulled back a little, creating a small distance between them. Air flowed back into the space.
She counted on her fingers. "Forehead, left cheek, right cheek. Now only my lips are hot."
Even drunk like this, she still had a little shame left. "But kissing a mirror and kissing myself is kind of perverted."
Yet she really wanted to kiss, really wanted relief. She gave a strange little laugh. "I'm a pervert."
But she also felt it was wrong, muttering to herself, "No. A person can't… a mirror can't… the mirror can't turn into…"
She hesitated for a long time, making three decisions per second, yet executing none of them.
Shen Changyin, the only sober one, had meant to push Xie Yu away. But after watching her struggle so long and do nothing, even the hand she had placed on Xie Yu's shoulder to push her aside slowly dropped.
How could anyone be so indecisive?
She, who had a face cold and ethereal as the moon and a frail body, yet had once led twenty thousand soldiers in a forced march across more than two thousand kilometers to seize the palace—she, the young regent—finally ran out of patience. She placed her hand on the back of Xie Yu's head, pressed down gently, lifted her own chin slightly, and moved in.
Their soft lips met at once. Shen Changyin watched Xie Yu's eyes widen in shock. Her own eyes curved faintly as she kissed her.
The room was filled with incense, a faint floral fragrance surrounding them. But the warmth and coolness interwoven through the kiss drowned out everything else. Their breaths mixed and tangled. Soon, each could only smell the other.
Shen Changyin guided her gently, parting Xie Yu's lips and touching her lightly with the tip of her tongue. Her breath carried a woody note, deep and intoxicating.
Xie Yu's scent was fresher, sweeter. Rose hydrolate, pear-blossom cakes, the scent of the flowers she had picked under the trees that morning—everything blended together. Shen Changyin gradually closed her eyes.
She was an inexperienced teacher, relying only on rumors and theory. Fortunately, her student, after the initial shock, followed her guidance obediently.
They slowly sank to their knees on the soft white carpet, leaning toward each other, supporting each other.
Xie Yu was fully drunk. All forced thoughts vanished. Only the coolness before her was real.
She sucked lightly on Shen Changyin's lower lip. Her eyes shone. She tilted her head slightly, as if seeking praise.
Shen Changyin slowly closed her own eyes. Her long dark eyelashes trembled, casting a fan-shaped shadow beneath them.
Xie Yu's warmth enveloped her. Shen Changyin had never been this close to anyone. Her normally cold skin was warmed bit by bit by the younger woman's heat. Her hand caressed the back of Xie Yu's head, stroking the dark hair.
She tilted her head slightly, waiting for the student to continue her "lesson," but realized her own breath was not as steady as Xie Yu's. She had to pull back a little every few dozen breaths just to recover.
But gradually, she found she could no longer retreat. It felt as if she were trapped in the other woman's arms.
A dangerous feeling surged. She suddenly opened her eyes and pressed a hand against Xie Yu's shoulder to push her away.
"Stop." If this continued, she would lose control.
Xie Yu did not hear her at all. She had discovered that this method relieved the heat far more than mere skin contact. Like a small beast that had found water, she wanted only to drink her fill.
But her water source wanted to escape.
Shen Changyin pushed her twice, harder this time, and their lips finally separated. Xie Yu blinked in confusion, unaware of what had just happened.
Shen Changyin tried to lift her hand to straighten her clothes, when she saw Xie Yu tilt her head, looking at her with a pair of deep, dark eyes.
In that instant, it felt as if she were being locked onto by a wild beast.
The next second, Xie Yu leaned in again. She wasn't even angry about being pushed away earlier.
In some way, she hadn't even realized she was kissing a real person. All she was thinking was.
If I hold her down, she won't be able to run.
So she moved forward, easily catching both of Shen Changyin's wrists and raising them over her head. Then she leaned in again, pushing her down onto the soft carpet.
Rationality, morality, gentleness, and kindness built from a lifetime of experiences dissolved like smoke. In a moment when she could no longer think properly, her true nature emerged like rock exposed by low tide.
Looking down at the woman beneath her, she didn't even show the aggressive tension most beasts have when hunting prey out of hunger or uncertainty.
She simply accepted, as a matter of course, that this prey is mine, under my control.
It was the gaze of a top predator absolutely certain of success. Even though she was far too young and had always suppressed this part of herself, that gaze still surfaced.
She wasn't even in a hurry to devour. She kissed as if she had just found rain after a drought, slowly losing interest in lips alone and beginning her exploration.
She kissed Shen Changyin's ear tip, her forehead. She would lick and kiss a spot until it heated, then move to another. Her favorite was the delicate skin beneath the eyes, which she kissed again and again until the pale skin flushed into a broad bloom of pink, like morning clouds, like rouge.
Every kiss she left behind felt to Shen Changyin like a small firework blooming under her skin. A shiver would shoot outward, racing through her limbs and bones, her blood rushing faster and faster as heat surged through her entire body.
But the more pleasure she felt, the more she knew she was losing control — which meant the danger only grew.
Yet she found that she could do nothing. Her rationality sank deeper and deeper underwater. Her fingers slipped from pushing Xie Yu away to sliding down her back, lightly pulling her fiancée closer.
In her haze, she occasionally opened her eyes, only to be met with her own reflection in the ceiling mirror—
Her body sinking into the long soft fur of the white carpet, black hair spilled like ink across white, her face flushed, her gaze soft and wet, as though she were the one who had gotten drunk. And she was the one clinging to the young woman above her.
She shut her eyes instinctively—
Then, for some unknown reason, she opened them again, peeking at the two women entwined in the mirror.
The incense burner in the corner burned quietly, its floral scent drifting into every corner and onto every surface.
After kissing every inch of Shen Changyin's face until it was warm, Xie Yu finally stopped. She was straddling Changyin's waist, and now she slowly straightened up. The haze in her eyes faded a little—like a small beast that had finally quenched its thirst.
"I'm hungry."
Her eyes were still dark and unfocused. Clearly she wasn't sober, but her attention had simply drifted elsewhere. She crawled toward the low table, picked up a piece of pear blossom cake.
Shen Changyin was left alone, stunned, lying silently on the carpet and staring up at her mirrored reflection.
Her clothes were still tidy, just a bit rumpled. Her body felt strange, her fingertips strange, as if her entire sense of touch had been altered.
She even laughed a little, sat up, and looked at the culprit who had run away.
"Your Highness Third Princess thinks she can just leave it at that?"
Her smile bloomed like a flower on a face that should have been cool and austere—like spring arriving overnight in the dead of winter, breathtaking.
Even Xie Yu froze, forgetting to breathe for a moment.
She blinked, feeling vaguely that something was off. This person didn't look like her reflection at all.
But she wasn't sober enough to recognize faces yet. Her brain was busy reminding her she was starving.
She bit into the last piece of pear blossom cake, speaking around the half still sticking out of her mouth, stuttering and muffled.
"Can… Can you wait till I finish eating?"
Shen Changyin rose to her feet, slowly. She walked to Xie Yu, crouched down, let her knees sink into the carpet, and leaned forward to take the half-exposed piece of cake from between Xie Yu's lips, eating it unhurriedly.
Then she smiled.
"You're finished now."
"What are you planning to do?"
Xie Yu stared, dazed. Through the haze of drunkenness, a faint glimmer passed through her dark pupils. She felt as if she recognized this woman…
"Shen…"
She didn't finish the name. Her gaze dropped—uncontrollably—to Shen Changyin's lips. There was still a faint dusting of white pear blossom powder on them.
She leaned forward instinctively, first licking away that tiny speck, then softly, solemnly kissing Shen Changyin's lips.
Just a simple touch.
No other contact.
Shen Changyin's heart lurched violently.
The next moment, Xie Yu closed her eyes, her body losing all strength as she collapsed heavily against her shoulder.
Silence.
Shen Changyin stayed silent for a long time, looking down at the sleeping features resting against her. One hand held the slipping woman in place; the other covered her own face.
A deep… very deep sigh.
—
Late at night, the Princess of Jin's estate was brightly lit.
In a clean bedroom prepared on short notice, people crowded about.
Xie Yu lay quietly on the bed. The blanket had been pulled up for her; the pillow was set low the way she preferred. She slept peacefully, entirely unaware she'd been moved.
Shen Changyin stood by the bed with no expression, watching as the elder imperial physician checked Xie Yu's pulse.
After a moment, the old woman drew back her hand and stood.
"Master Shen, there is no need to worry. I have heard of the incensehouse's drugs. Though the attendants who work there are hardly respectable, the medicine is exactly as they claim. Its effects are strong, but once lovers lie together, the drug dissipates and leaves no harm."
"You have spent much time with the Princess of Jin. It seems the effect has already passed. Her pulse is normal."
She sighed.
"The one who invented this drug is a genius. A pity she uses her talent in the wrong trade."
Shen Changyin didn't care who had invented it. She paused before saying,
"When we left the room, our clothes were neat."
Nothing happened.
Therefore, even if the pulse was normal, the problem was not "resolved."
"Ah—" the old doctor murmured, surprised. Then she added,
"Then you need not worry further. Even drugs rumored to require… intimacy… are in truth only difficult to dissipate naturally."
"The Third Princess has the strongest, most vigorous pulse I have ever seen. She is remarkably healthy. Such people circulate energy far faster than the rest of us. The drug can be expelled naturally."
"There is no cause for concern."
After sending the physician away and extinguishing the candles, Shen Changyin stood alone in the courtyard, gazing at the bright moon.
Tonight was a crescent moon.
A hallucination suddenly appeared before her, whispering sharply.
"You kissed her. You kissed our enemy. You actually—"
The bloodstained figure's chest heaved violently, unable to speak, emotion about to erupt.
Shen Changyin looked at her calmly.
"So you decide to show up now."
"In the mirror room, were you dead? Oh—right, you were dead."
The hallucination choked.
—
By noon the next day, when Xie Yu woke up, her memory had completely fractured. She couldn't recall anything at first.
Thankfully a maid was present. She explained that Xie Yu had gotten drunk and had also been drugged with an aphrodisiac.
The maid repeated the old physician's explanation.
Xie Yu understood immediately.
For ordinary or weak-bodied women, the drug did require "taking off clothes and kissing" to resolve.
But she was far too healthy, her metabolism far too fast, so the drug had burned out of her system much sooner.
She lay in bed feeling perfectly refreshed—then suddenly realized she wasn't in her own room.
The maid said,
"Last night people were rushing about. Master Shen wanted to avoid unnecessary servants entering Your Highness's bedroom, so she settled you here instead."
"Oh, she's pretty considerate." Xie Yu waved her away. "You can go. I'll rest a little longer."
She stretched lazily.
Then memories, fragments of everything before she was fully drunk, crashed back into her skull—
as if the universe had flipped a game board and smashed all the pieces into her face.
The incensehouse, pear blossom cake, rose hydrosol, the mirror room…
Everything before being drunk came back.
And after that—
She remembered drinking a lot of rose hydrosol, getting drunk, then blank.
No matter how she tried, she couldn't remember anything else.
She smacked her head. A sudden image flashed—
Warm dim light, leaning forward, licking the pear blossom powder from Shen Changyin's lips, kissing her—
and then blacking out.
Her whole body froze.
Nearly a full minute passed in stunned silence.
Birds chirped outside.
The estate was quiet.
Wind brushed through the treetops.
And then—
Xie Yu's scream tore through the sky.
Aaaaaaaah—!
How could she have kissed Shen Changyin?!
She grabbed her pillow, threw it over her face, wishing she could simply suffocate herself.
Goosebumps crawled across her skin in waves. The embarrassment and despair were endless tides.
She screamed silently into the pillow for nearly half an hour, then pulled it away and pretended to calm down.
One second later, she broke again.
She pressed the pillow over her face again and screamed—
This repeated over and over for more than half the day before she finally managed, trembling, to crawl out of bed and get dressed.
Her mind kept repeating:
I'm implementing a prohibition on alcohol, a prohibition on alcohol, a prohibition on alcohol…
I'm founding a Bureau of Medicine Supervision, a Bureau of Medicine Supervision, a Bureau of Medicine Supervision.
And a Food Safety Bureau.
She told herself that she had already had her breakdown. Even if she was embarrassed, life had to go on.
It was just lips brushing lips. Her lips touched bowls every single day. If Shen Changyin happened to use the same bowl as her, wouldn't that count as indirect kissing?
Then what happened last night… wasn't it basically the same as sharing a bowl?
She placed her hand over her chest again and again, taking deep breaths.
It's fine, it's fine, it's fine.
She just had to endure the embarrassment.
She lived with Shen Changyin and they had to attend court together. This small hurdle had to be crossed sooner or later.
She had woken up late today. Shen Changyin had already gone to court. She'd talk to her tonight and apologize sincerely for her drunken nonsense.
But she didn't see Shen Changyin that night either. She heard that she was busy with official duties and hadn't returned even by the time she went to sleep.
The next morning, Shen Changyin was already gone again, leaving her a carriage.
When she finally arrived at court, she realized that although the officials under Shen Changyin's faction were present, Shen Changyin herself was not.
She asked around and heard that Shen Changyin would be stationed long-term at the northern suburban barracks, and that she would send memorials through others only when major issues arose.
Xie Yu was half-skeptical but still sent a message with someone, asking:
When will Shen Changyin return? They should meet.
Even if she had to apologize for her drunken mess, it was better to do it face-to-face.
But that day, she still didn't see Shen Changyin.
The third day, the fourth day—still nothing.
By the fifth day, Xie Yu was one-hundred-percent certain:
Shen Changyin was deliberately avoiding her.
She had sent three messages over the days and received no reply.
To be honest, and without pretending to be noble or righteous—Xie Yu was getting a little angry.
She might have been collapsing inside from embarrassment about her drunken behavior and kissing someone, but her impression of Shen Changyin had always been of someone who stayed calm even if Mount Tai collapsed before her.
Someone who could handle anything with composure.
She had thought that she would be the one apologizing frantically, and Shen Changyin would simply accept it and maybe use the opportunity to negotiate a few conditions.
When the first message received no reply, she could still understand.
Maybe Shen Changyin was more innocent than she expected.
But now it had been five days. Five days!
You're a ruthless and calculating power minister who kills without blinking. Are you really doing this?
Even she had almost gotten over the embarrassment already. Even the little flower in the courtyard were starting to wait by the front gate for "Auntie Shen."
If she had gotten drunk and kissed a random passerby, then fine—she would willingly accept punishment for a month and apologize without resistance.
But when it came to Shen Changyin, she actually found herself getting angry.
So that afternoon, she packed her things, mounted a horse, and stormed toward the northern suburbs.
The guards at the barracks gate had never seen her before. Seeing her charge up on horseback, they instantly went on alert. She dismounted and tried to enter the camp; they reached out to block her.
"Military grounds. Outsiders stop."
"Who are you?"
Xie Yu was already furious. She let out a cold laugh and pointed at several recruitment stands using the Third Princess's name to attract tenants.
"Technically speaking, this barracks belongs half to me."
Only then did the soldiers notice the Princess Jing's waist token on her belt. They exchanged a glance and silently stepped aside.
Xie Yu strode through like a storm, heading straight for the largest tent.
On the way, she ran into Old Jin and Zhu Ting. They had been about to greet her, but the expression on her face made them both wisely lower their hands.
Xie Yu lifted the tent flap and scanned the generals inside, who were discussing military matters with Shen Changyin.
She let out a cold snort.
"Her Excellency Shen's fiancée has business. All unrelated personnel out."
Her tone was too justified and confident. Somehow, the generals obeyed without resistance. Xie Yu held the flap open until the last general left, then finally let it fall.
She turned, facing Shen Changyin, who sat in the main seat with an unreadable expression.
Xie Yu took a deep breath, but her voice still carried fire.
"Kissing you was my fault. But Shen Changyin— it was just one kiss. Just lips touching. Do you really have to make it into this?!"
"You've been avoiding me like I'm some kind of plague beast!"
Shen Changyin listened, then let out a cold laugh and repeated with mocking emphasis,
"Just lips touching?"
"One time?"
—
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