The village had been peaceful for quite some time.
Perhaps that fox demon wasn’t particularly powerful. Having exposed itself, it didn’t dare cause any more trouble in the short term.
Even so, every household remained on high alert. They guarded their chickens and ducks with utmost care. Come nightfall, not a soul stirred on the village’s winding paths—only the sturdy hunters patrolled every few days.
The snow fell heavier now, crunching underfoot like the sound of fresh-baked shortbread crumbling.
Red lanterns hung from the eaves, their glow unnaturally vivid and sinister against the profound blackness of the night.
Jiang Rang gripped the Profound Black Sword in his hand. His black hair was bound high in a wooden crown, with flecks of snow dusting his crow-black ponytail. He was bundled in a coarse shirt and thick jacket, his drab gray outer robe patched in places—stitches clearly done by lamplight late into the night.
“…A-Rang, A-Rang, wait up.”
A soft, faintly weak gasp drifted from behind the young man.
Jiang Rang hadn’t yet opened the courtyard gate. He turned at the sound, lifting his gaze. Fine snowflakes settled on his dark lashes, melting slowly along the warm curve of his lips.
The newcomer hurried over, dressed in a light-colored inner robe. The firelight lent a plump, beautiful flush to his pale, slender cheeks.
Zhu Miaojie draped a thick black cloak over one elbow. His pale lashes fluttered like honey-colored moths in the lamplight, accentuating the worry on the man’s face. He evoked the image of one of those virtuous wives from the tales in this very storybook.
He shook out the cloak and draped it over his beloved youth, his slender white fingers deftly tying the knots. As he worked, he lowered his eyes and murmured instructions, white mist from his breath mingling with the falling snow.
“It’s too cold out there. Put this on. A-Rang, come back as soon as your shift ends. Don’t always wait for others and freeze yourself in the process.”
Jiang Rang’s gaze traced the gentle concern in his brows downward. He took hold of the man’s increasingly slender wrist and chuckled softly. “I know. Ah Miao, you should head back inside too. How about I bring home some fermented rice balls when I return?”
Starlit amusement sparkled in Zhu Miaojie’s lovely dark eyes. He couldn’t help murmuring, “You really treat me like one of those little ladies you’re sweet-talking.”
Jiang Rang grinned and playfully pinched the man’s chilled white cheek. “Aren’t you? The other little ladies wash and mend for their husbands, cook with their own hands—you do it every day too, Little Lady Zhu—”
A clear, faint shade of shyness bloomed on the man’s face, red as peach blossoms bursting in the spring sun. The flush spread relentlessly from his cheeks to his ears.
His eyes trembled as he said, “Such a smooth talker. Now go on.”
Jiang Rang grew serious. “Alright, I’ll be back soon. You’re home alone, so be careful. Don’t stay up sewing. Not long ago, that young scholar living on the edge of the street was sewing something late at night and accidentally started a fire. It wasn’t a big blaze, but it ruined half his face…”
The youth trailed off with a sigh. “He was only eighteen, in the prime of youth, not yet married. His family nearly cried their eyes out.”
Zhu Miaojie’s eyes flickered. A faint smile tugged at his pale, sickly lips. After a long moment, he lowered his gaze. “What a shame. Last time he chatted with me, he said he liked men like you, A-Rang.”
Jiang Rang froze, suddenly realizing something. He hurried to say, “Ah Miao, don’t misunderstand. My heart is set on you alone!”
Zhu Miaojie smiled faintly. “I know. His feelings are his own. Of course I’m not angry.”
The man’s deep black eyes caught the crimson lamplight, lending them an unexpectedly demonic allure.
He parted his lips softly. “A-Rang is so outstanding, naturally everyone admires him wherever he goes. How could I be angry? As long as your heart is with me, I fear nothing.”
Only then did Jiang Rang fully relax. They exchanged a few more laughing words before the youth set off to patrol the village.
His footsteps faded into the distance. The smile on Zhu Miaojie’s lowered face widened further. Crimson firelight bathed his profile like blood, and faintly, a layer of soft glow enveloped his jade-like handsome features. Dense scales of snakeskin warped and twisted the human mask, grotesque beyond measure.
“Hiss…”
A slender scarlet snake tongue flicked from his now eerily red lips, bizarre as some man-eating monster from a tale on a snowy night.
~~~
The fire erupted abruptly in the dead of night.
The villagers had always believed fire purified filth, so they lit it for rituals and major events alike.
Zhu Miaojie was sewing clothes by the dim lamplight. A pot of hot soup simmered on the stove nearby, bubbling gently as its aroma filled the small room. Warm and cozy.
Ever since the youth had started his night shifts, the man had patiently waited up for him to return home.
The hurried footsteps outside grew louder and more distinct, filling every street and alley with muffled, chaotic voices. Faintly interspersed among them were a few piercingly high-pitched shouts brimming with excitement.
Zhu Miaojie frowned slightly. At last, he set aside the needlework in his hands. Draping an outer robe over his plain white garment with his fair hand, he stepped out of the house.
A faint mist hung over the streets. The heavy snow had finally stopped, leaving a thin layer of frost on the mud like scattered grains of salt—beautiful to behold, but treacherous underfoot, ready to suck anyone who stepped on it into the muck.
The firelight blazing in the distance soared even higher, and only then did Zhu Miaojie realize that the mist was actually wisps of chilling smoke.
Someone rushed past him, chattering excitedly to his companion. “Did you hear? That fox demon showed up again tonight. Xiao Jiang and the hunters laid their ambush for days, and they’ve finally caught the demon entity.”
Zhu Miaojie halted in his tracks. He had no idea what was going through his mind, but an uncontrollable haze, faint and almost imperceptible, clouded his usually clear brows and eyes.
Slowly, he let himself be swept along with the surging crowd toward the heart of the firelight.
In the dead of night, the flames burned with a brilliant, solemn grandeur, their soaring tongues like the whip of a stern judge delivering punishment.
The firelight danced in the man’s eyes—foggy black glass beads that gradually faded to a pale gray.
He tilted his head up to gaze at the fox demon on the wooden platform, cruelly bound with coarse ropes, and at the tall, upright figure of his lover standing beside it.
The fox demon lay gasping its last breaths. Patches of its fiery red fur had been scorched black, and its grotesque human-like face was streaked with fine traces of blood.
And Jiang Rang?
Jiang Rang gripped the Profound Black Sword, his handsome features twisted with utter disgust and cold indifference. The loathing in his eyes turned him sinister and icy, devoid of any humanity.
Zhu Miaojie had seldom seen the youth wear such an expression. They had lived together for two full years, and he knew every facet of the young man’s face—the playful grins, the tender warmth, the gentle softness, the adoring gazes, the pangs of longing…
But never this indifference.
Cheers, whoops of approval, and cries of praise erupted from the crowd below, turning the whole world into a raucous, frenzied storm of bloodlust.
A gaze nearly scorching in its intensity jolted the man back to his senses with a shiver.
He met the red eyes of the demon—lifeless orbs laced with sneering mockery.
“Kill it! Kill it!”
The fox demon’s pallid lips twitched, curling into a bizarre smile.
It said, “Next, it will be you.”
Blood sprayed in a crimson arc, and the severed head of the still-vivid corpse tumbled down with a clatter.
It rolled straight to Zhu Miaojie’s feet.
Up on the platform lay a headless fox corpse, while the youth stood with demon blood splattered across his brow.
The crowd erupted in a frenzy, people dashing about and cheering as if New Year’s had arrived.
Jiang Rang clutched the black sword, its edge dripping with scarlet gore. He approached the man step by step, his face still etched with stern chill.
For an instant, Zhu Miaojie even harbored the delusion that he himself would perish beneath that blade.
But the youth’s expression shifted soon enough.
His handsome lover, his husband, his beloved betrayed a flustered anxiety. Jiang Rang kicked aside the inauspicious fox demon head with casual disdain and said softly, cautiously, “Ah Miao, why are you here? Did it scare you?”
He glanced at the fox demon with revulsion. “Don’t be afraid, Ah Miao. That fox demon deserved a thousand deaths. Shizun was right after all—demons only bring harm to people…”
“A-Rang.” Zhu Miaojie suddenly lifted his gaze. His deep gray eyes were indistinct in the night’s shroud, as if the mist itself had seeped into them. In a hoarse voice, he asked, “Do you… hate demons that much?”
The stench of charred meat flooded his nostrils. Someone hoisted the fox demon’s head, grinning broadly. “This fox demon was a real beauty. Shame it was just a beast.”
“Yeah, toss it into the fire quick. Don’t want it scaring the kids…”
Jiang Rang nodded without a moment’s hesitation. With utmost seriousness, he replied, “Exactly, Ah Miao. Those demons are nothing but trouble. They’ve harmed countless innocents—even Shizun was once wounded by those vile, treacherous demons from the Demon Clan.”
“They all deserve to die!”
As he spoke, the youth’s face darkened, as though some painful memory had surfaced. He restrained himself, but a shadow of loss dimmed his eyes.
Zhu Miaojie clenched his wrist tightly. He had no notion of how the next words escaped his lips; he only knew an endless chill was spreading through his entire body.
The Life-Sealing Appearance Lock seared his heart with agony.
His lips trembled as he asked, “What if they never harmed anyone?”
Jiang Rang suddenly smiled. Gazing at him with tender affection, he sighed helplessly. “Ah Miao, you truly have the heart of a bodhisattva. But what does it matter if demons are good or bad? At their core, they’re inhuman beasts. And when those beasts gain the power to hurt people—when they even dare to dream of lording over us—they deserve death.”
“Especially since they hurt my Shizun.”
A shadow flickered briefly across the young man’s brows and eyes, and his tone grew even colder as he said, “When I was a child, I swore an oath: wherever I go, I will slay every demon I encounter.”
Silence and clamor stretched between the two men like an impossibly deep chasm.
After a long while, Zhu Miaojie spoke in a trembling voice. “…A-Rang, what if I were a demon? Would you kill me too?”
Jiang Rang’s expression remained unchanged. He regarded the man with a scrutinizing gaze. After another long pause, the faint snowy hue at the corners of his eyes suddenly melted away. With a gentle smile, he reached out to tuck the stray white strands of hair behind Zhu Miaojie’s ear. “Ah Miao, don’t say such foolish things. How could you possibly be a demon?”
Zhu Miaojie’s eyelashes quivered. It took him another long moment before he slowly lifted his pale face, forcing a wretched smile. “Yeah… how could I be a demon?”
~~~
Jiang Rang didn’t dwell on the events of that day.
Ever since the fox demon incident had been resolved, the villagers’ trust and reverence for him had only grown day by day. With the recent hauls of game and large prey from the mountains, life had become much more comfortable.
With the new year fast approaching, Jiang Rang knew he needed to prepare some New Year’s goods in accordance with Mortal World customs.
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