Chapter 149

Prologue Jiangnan snow always carries a touch of moisture, bearing a striking resemblance to the final teardrop Su Wan left upon the xuan paper. Back then, she was drawing Xie Xuan's eyebrows for him, her qingdai brush pausing mid-air while the ink bled outward, mirroring the blood that would later saturate his dark court robes. But now, Xie Xuan's spirit tablet rested in the side hall beneath the vermilion palace walls, the incense ash three inches deep. Clutching that long-dried brush, Su Wan finally understood that the vow of "a lifetime, a single heart, a pair forever" was, in truth, the sharpest blade—gouging the heart and scraping the bone, yet failing to let even blood condense into a pearl. Part 1: The Locked Heart, the Misguided Youth