Chapter 10

Chapter 10

After the banquet ended, I was locked in a glass prayer room.

All four sides were transparent. Outside, the lights were brilliant, but inside, it was as cold as an ice cellar. The prayer room faced the deepest corridor of Glimmersnow Palace, and I could see attendants in the distance busy preparing for the Furnace Front Ritual-silver plates, white candles, red strings, and boxes of matches arranged in neat rows.

Ming Yinxing’s name was at the very top.

I sat on the floor, staring at that box of matches, the copper key in my palm nearly soaked with sweat. When rage reaches its peak, it turns into a strange stillness. I thought of Yan Zhichuan’s words when he handed me the key-“Try it once for her”-and felt only irony.

The door opened then.

Yan Zhichuan walked in alone, locking the door behind him.

“You still have the nerve to come here?” My voice was very soft, sounding foreign even to my own ears.

He stopped in front of me. He didn’t offer any excuses; he simply placed a dagger by my hand.

“When you enter the Furnace Room later, there will be three locks. Use this key for the first. The second is beneath Ming Yinxing’s box of matches. The third requires blood.”

I looked up at him and suddenly laughed. “Does Your Highness think that after selling me out and then giving me a blade, I should be grateful?”

His Adam’s apple bobbed. After a long silence, he said, “After Midwinter Night, Mo Yaoshuang will refine you into a new Fire Seed Woman. Only if she believes you have been chosen and have no way back will she allow you near the Furnace Core.”

“So you chose me in front of everyone?”

“Yes.”

“What right do you have to choose for me?”

Yan Zhichuan remained silent.

My smile grew colder. “Because I’m a child of a poor family? Because my mother didn’t die completely back then? Because you can’t bring yourself to do it, so it’s my turn, is that it?”

Those words struck like a blade, and his face turned even paler. Yet, he did not retreat.

“Yi Jiangxue.” His voice was incredibly hoarse. “After tonight, either you die, or the winter in this city dies. If I don’t send you in, next year there will be another Ming Yinxing, another Ah Qiao, another Ah Man.”

“That is a sin committed by your Royal Palace, not a debt I should have to pay!”

I finally couldn’t take it anymore. I grabbed the dagger and lunged at him. The tip only sliced through his sleeve, drawing a line of blood across his wrist. As the blood flowed out, it actually carried a faint chill.

Yan Zhichuan looked down at it as if he couldn’t feel the pain.

“I know,” he said. “So if you come out alive, the first thing you should do is kill me.”

My hand holding the knife trembled.

He slowly leaned down and placed a ring in my palm. A speck of dark red stone was embedded in the black silver surface, and a tiny Snow Falcon Pattern was engraved on the inner band.

“This is the Furnace Opening Token,” he whispered. “The guards will not stop you if they see it.”

I stared at him, my chest suddenly tightening with a sour ache.

It wasn’t because of forgiveness.

It was because I finally saw clearly that he truly had no way back. But just because he had no way back didn’t mean I was obligated to walk the path for him.

“Yan Zhichuan.” It was the first time I had called him by his full name. “You are just like the others-one who buys dreams at the cost of lives.”

His shoulders gave a very slight shudder.

A moment later, he gave a low “Mhm.”

“So don’t expect me to forgive you.”

“I know.”

“And don’t expect me to leave you any dignity if I survive.”

“Fine.”

Urgent footsteps came from outside the door. Before Yan Zhichuan turned to leave, he suddenly paused.

“If you really make it to the final door,” he said, “don’t look back.”

With that, he left.

I watched the door close again. After a long time, I looked down and slipped the ring onto my finger.

It was a perfect fit.