In the third year of the Tang Tianbao era, in spring, on the first day of the first month, bingshen day, the year count was changed and called zai.

"What real difference is there between 'third zai' and 'third year'? It's just a way of marking time, that's all." Beneath the second-floor corridor, a slender woman lounged sideways against a brocade cushion. Not far before her sat a flask of wine. Its faint fragrance drifted through the air, like morning dew wrapped around flower scent, soft and tempting, enough to draw anyone in for a taste.

From Kaiyuan into Tianbao, beneath Chang'an's glittering splendor, the first hint of decline had already begun to show.

A flourishing age was naturally full of bustle and glory. But once troubled times appeared, all manner of demons would surely rise with them.

In the dark of night, a married woman walked along the street of Tonggui Fang with a lantern in hand, her heart pounding with unease. Without thinking, she gripped the jade bi hanging at her waist. A few days ago she had met a woman called Sylvia Frost. She was the most beautiful person Harriet Trevathan had ever seen in all her life, yet there was nothing sharp or threatening about her. On the contrary, she was beautiful in a way that seemed harmless to both man and beast, the sort of beauty that made people trust her completely after only one glance.

The woman was Harriet Trevathan, wife of the Fang chief of Qinren Fang. Her mother had died when she was young. After that, her father took another wife. At first, her stepmother treated her fairly well, but once she gave birth to a son, Harriet's life turned into something close to hell.

Harriet Trevathan closed her eyes and gave a mocking little laugh. Maybe the nightmare had been too terrible and she could no longer bear to think on it. Maybe she had simply been driven into a corner and was grabbing at any remedy in desperation. In any case, the day she learned that her stepmother and younger brother were coming from the Eastern Capital to Chang'an, she had already made up her mind.

Then suddenly, from somewhere unknown, came several sharp chirps of birdsong. Harriet Trevathan shuddered all over at once. She quickly turned to look around, tense from head to toe, only to find that in the darkness ahead there was now a place lit by lamplight. Her eyes widened as she stared for a long while, until cold sweat crept over her back and she abruptly came back to herself.

It was a small two-story building. Beneath the corridor on the second floor hung a white lantern, and under that lantern reclined a woman, smiling at her like a blossom in full bloom.

The birdsong still went on, now near, now far, breaking off and resuming in the dark, eerie enough to make the scalp prickle. Harriet Trevathan was frightened, but she could not turn back. She only gathered the shawl around her arms with trembling hands and thought to herself, human or demon, it did not matter. If this person could solve the trouble pressing down on her, then she was a benefactor.

"Madam, you've come. Please, come in."

Sylvia Frost lifted a hand and released the bird from its cage. In the blink of an eye, it vanished into the night.

She withdrew her gaze, gave a casual wave, and the dark red doors before the little building slowly opened.

Harriet Trevathan walked closer with her lantern. Through the narrow gap in the doors, all she could see was darkness. There was no telling what waited inside.

Just as she hesitated, a strange fragrance drifted out through the crack. In that instant, every bit of doubt and alarm in Harriet Trevathan's heart seemed to melt away. It was as if nothing in the world mattered more than stepping through that door right now.

"All right."

Her eyes grew distant and unfocused as she answered softly, almost against her own will. In her embroidered shoes, she slowly, very slowly, stepped through the dark red doorway.

Beyond the door was another world entirely. There were fish ponds and plank walkways, rare flowers and curious plants, and beneath a pear tree lay a coiled black snake, staring at her with chilling eyes, hissing as its scarlet tongue flicked in and out.

Harriet Trevathan suddenly came back to her senses and realized she was already inside. Startled, she looked around in alarm. It was only the first month of the year, so how could countless flowers and grasses be blooming like this?

"Since Madam has brought the jade bi, you must have thought it through."

Sylvia Frost stood in the courtyard in a grass-green long dress, graceful and still. She watched the shaken Harriet Trevathan, and the smile on her face deepened. Every person who came to Fuyue Tower carried within them a wish they could not speak aloud, whether righteous or wicked, sorrowful or bitter.

Harriet Trevathan hesitated, then nodded. "I've thought it through. Tower Master Su, can you truly help me make it happen?"

Sylvia Frost gave no direct answer. She only made a gesture for her to proceed.

The two of them went one before the other to sit in a cool pavilion. Harriet Trevathan reached out and held the teacup between her fingers. The tea inside was a clear green, unlike anything sold in the markets outside. Its color carried a faint, strange, almost unearthly cast.

"My wish is simple. I want that mother and son gone from before my eyes. I never want anything to do with them again."

With a trembling hand, Harriet Trevathan took a sip of tea and said, "When I was little, my mother died of illness. Then my father brought another woman into the house. Not long after, my stepmother had a son with him. That was my younger brother, Edwin Trevathan.

"Before he was born, my life wasn't good, but at least I wasn't beaten, and at least I didn't go hungry all the time. But once he came along, my stepmother became like a different person. She would beat me, curse me, and when it came to meals, she always gave me as little as she could."

Harriet Trevathan did not know why she was telling Sylvia Frost all this. But there was a force inside her, a rush she could no longer hold back, pushing all the bitterness and fury she had buried over the years to spill out at once.

"When Edwin Trevathan was eight, my stepmother locked me in the woodshed for two whole days over a single hu cake. She didn't even give me one sip of water. That was when I first saw the demon living inside a child."

Only later had Harriet Trevathan understood why Edwin Trevathan had chosen that moment to fight her over the hu cake, why he had insulted her dead mother with such purpose. He had done it all while waiting for their mother to see it with her own eyes, so she would believe her precious son was the one being bullied.

"'Elder Sister, I just can't stand you. If I were the only one in this house, no one would have to fight me for anything. You shouldn't have been alive in the first place. If Mother sends you to a brothel, you'll deserve it.'"

She repeated the words Edwin Trevathan had spoken back then, and in her eyes there was something tangled and dark, fear mixed with disbelief. How could an eight-year-old child say something so vicious, so cold, so casually, as though it meant nothing at all?

And only afterward had she realized that, just so her own son could live more comfortably, her stepmother had actually planned to secretly sell her into a brothel. At the time she had only been ten, barely older than her son.

"And after that?"

Sylvia Frost's brows and eyes were gentle as water, but inside she let out a quiet sigh. In this world, those who do evil were never divided by age. If every person could truly keep the demon in their heart in check, then how would there still be any difference between good and evil, or karma and retribution?

Harriet Trevathan clasped her hands tightly before her, so hard it seemed she might draw blood. After a long silence she said, "I refused. How could I possibly agree? No matter how she beat me, even when she drove needles under my nails, I clenched my teeth and refused to agree. After that, having no other way, she only became worse. Beatings, curses, humiliation—those things became ordinary."

She said the words "became ordinary" with shocking lightness, yet the blood bitten from her lip was so bright it hurt the eye.

Her father had looked on in distress, but he had never stopped it. If she had not later met the husband she had now, then perhaps she would have spent this whole life trapped in the mud forever, unable to fight back, unable to crawl free.

Harriet Trevathan would never forget the blow her stepmother struck to her head on the day she was married. It was only because she had spoken up for her own mother and contradicted Edwin Trevathan. In that instant, her stepmother had looked at her like she was some mortal enemy. If not for the wedding party waiting right outside the gate, Harriet Trevathan felt sure that woman would have beaten her to death.

She had lived through that kind of life hanging by a thread many times. She had thought that marrying her husband and leaving that house would make things better. But she had not expected them to refuse to let her go. Following her to Chang'an would have been bad enough, but they had even openly said they wanted to live right beside her.

Harriet Trevathan could not help laughing. Tears slid down her cheeks, and when she spoke, her voice was thick with sobs and hatred.

"They don't want to be neighbors at all. They want my life!"

Her expression twisted, changing all at once. A wild light flashed out of her, and with the tear tracks still wet on her face, she looked almost frightening.

"If they won't let me live, then we may as well all die together!"