[Your mouth is still tingling from the mysterious stranger's stolen kiss, and Lan Wangji looks absolutely indignant at being dragged into the shrubbery with you, but your attention's on neither of those things. They're on your sister and her former fiance, Jin Zixuan, who have just come into sight on the mountain path. She's as demure as ever, clearly upset; he's as arrogant in demeanor as ever.

I just knew Madam Jin would get them to take a stroll together, you fume.

"What quarrel do you have with Jin Zixuan?" Lan Wangji asks quietly. He's calmed down too, noticing your distraction.

Because he's an asshole? Because he's ignored or scorned his childhood betrothed at every turn? Because he thinks he's too good for everyone? Because he accused your sister of tricking him and made her cry, for trying to secretly bring him food and take care of him in her way, during the war? Heavens, you hate his stupid face. You don't regret punching it when you were younger, even if it did get you punished and sent home from Lan Zhan's sect. You don't regret punching it AGAIN when he tried to humiliate her in public for her kindness. Prick.

On the other side of the clearing, he's found a dead monster and he's giving her inane facts about it -- even as a low-level cultivator she knows what a Mesuring Snake does, does he think she's uneducated too? She's clearly confused at being dragged out here and lectured. Your sister's really too polite for her own good, sometimes.

"...If you come to our clan's hunting grounds, you can see a lot of rare monsters," he's telling her. "If you're free sometime next month, I can take you."

Who the hell wants to go to his clan's hunting grounds!?

"Many thanks for your invitation, but there's no need to go to such trouble," your sister answers quietly, as though she heard you.

Jin Zixuan's taken aback. "Why? You don't like watching hunts? Then why did you come to this one? Wait...do you not like them, or do you not like being with me?"

"It's not that..."

"Fine," he sneers.

Your sister's staring at the ground. You can see the upset set of her shoulders. "I'm sorry."

"What're you sorry for? Think what you will. Either way, it wasn't me who wanted to invite you. So if you don't want to come, then forget about it."

Your sister's mouth quivers. "Please excuse me," she says, and turns to go.


The memory skips, blurs into static, and then resumes. A bit of time must have passed, because there's suddenly a lot more people in the clearing, most of them dressed in the same gold style of robes as Jin Zixuan.


You're turning to head back to the observation stands with your sister, when Jin Zixuan shouts, "Miss Jiang!"

You try to pull her away faster. "Let's go, quickly."

But he's insistent. "That's not it, Miss Jiang!"

He's being so loud you have to turn and acknowledge him, and everyone else is staring in your direction. The awkwardness in the air is thick enough to cut, and it only increases as he rushes up and shouts again:

"That wasn't it! It's not my mother -- I didn't invite you because of her! I'm not reluctant to be with you, not at all! It's me! It was all me! I was the one who wanted you to come!"

"...," everyone says.

He flushes so hard it looks like his head's going to pop off and staggers back a few steps to steady himself on a nearby tree. He looks up, then freezes at all the eyes on him. With a last, wordless shout, he bolts off into the woods.

There's silence in the clearing for a moment, and then his mother screams in outrage.

"You bonehead! What are you running away for! A-Li, let's talk back at the observation deck! I need to go catch him first!"

After witnessing this farce, you don't know whether to laugh or cry.
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