Chapter 3

Lightning split the darkness outside, illuminating Qiushui’s ashen face.

Looking at the frantic Leng Yushu, I asked without haste, “Is that your third wish?”

He froze, staring blankly at me as though he could not take in the question.

Of course. Ten years had passed since his last wish. Throughout those years, I had kept my marriage vow, put my husband above all else, and treated him kindly. If he was unwell or faced a problem he could not solve, I had always resolved it for him.

That was when I learned that a marriage vow was a vow all the same. Mortals could make empty promises, but once we spirits swore one, we had to keep it to the end. “Husband and wife are one; a wife must put her husband above all else.” Those few words had trapped me for ten years. He had taken whatever he wanted from me and made me avert his every misfortune.

Qiushui, however, was not included in my vow.

“What do you mean?” His expression darkened.

I sipped my tea and repeated calmly, “Is saving her your third wish?”

His eyes bulged with fury. “Qiushui has entered the Leng household! She’s your sister! It would be no effort at all for you. Why must you force me like this?”

I glanced at her. Her face was gray as frost, a knot of black vapor hovered over her forehead, and her lips had turned a bluish green. Black phoenix serpent venom.

There was no antidote. No one poisoned by it survived a day. Yet he called saving her no effort at all.

I set down my cup, splashing tea onto the table. “You’re a capable physician now. You must have taken her pulse. You know her condition, or you wouldn’t have come begging me.”

“As you say, I can save her. But I am under no obligation to. If this is your third wish, however…”

His arms suddenly went slack. Qiushui rolled onto the floor, an involuntary groan of pain escaping her lips.

He did not look at her. Instead, he glared at me, tears streaking his face. “You could save her! How can you be so vicious? This is all your fault! All your fault!…”

Leng Yushu bellowed helplessly, as though that alone could lay every problem at my door and ease his conscience.

The poison took a firmer hold on Qiushui. Her limbs began to convulse without stopping.

Seeming to come to his senses, he hurriedly picked her up and held her close.

“Qiushui, Qiushui… I’m sorry…” He buried his face against her neck, his body shaking with her spasms.

“It’s Hu Li… Hu Li won’t save you… Don’t blame me… Oh…”

“I’m sorry… Don’t blame me…”

He wept bitterly, repeating “I’m sorry” over and over. Qiushui’s convulsions grew worse in his arms until the black vapor over her forehead dispersed. Then she went completely still.

He let go numbly, and her rigid body fell to the floor.

His gaze empty, he stumbled out. Rain poured down outside. He dropped to his knees in the courtyard and howled at the sky.

With the rain and the wailing, it was quite a scene of lovers parted by death. Such “deep love,” indeed.

I drew my missing hairpin from inside Qiushui’s clothes and gently brushed away the black vapor clinging to it. I could not help laughing.

If he loved her so much, why had he begrudged her his third wish?

In the end, the person he loved most was himself.

Looking at her gray face and slightly swollen belly, I sighed again. She was only a girl in her teens, after all. A pitiable thing too.