Everything is going downhill…

“Calm down, San-mei. Calm down! It was a false alarm.”

“I don’t mean the artefact. It’s those two men. Mother is going to kill them!”

“She is?” I stammer. “For what?”

Zhu Chun takes one hand from mine and points at her own head. I’m dumbfounded for a moment until I realise… the horns. The half-dragon form. They know Murong Zhiyu’s best kept secret. It didn’t come out by accident in the drama—only towards the end when she needed her powers to protect the artefact, she unleashed the full dragon form, showing herself to both of them for the first time. But, well, it seems like I changed that timeline completely. Shit.

“Surely she won’t do something as radical?”

Zhu Chun shakes her head. “They didn’t just see you in your shifted form, they were near the lake when the chamber was opened. Who knows what they sensed?”

Shit, shit, shit!

“What can I do for them?”

“First get dressed.”

I snatch the clothes and turn my back to put them on bit by bit. It’s lucky they’re not as elaborate as Zhu Chun’s robes, which seem to have roughly ten layers, several belts and so many pendants and charms dangling at her waist, she sounds like a musical instrument when she walks. In the drama, she had always been the delicate one, the perfect little sister to dote on. She didn’t have the strongest energy out of the four siblings, but she was still a dragon, so she could hold her own. She actually went missing during the last arc, making many complain that her storyline didn’t wrap up properly. I wonder how much of that was true and how much deliberately placed it to goad fanfic writers like me to write fix-its that deal with those issues.

“I have to take them to the palace, so mother can decide. She will want to have you there with them anyway. You can try to convince her.”

While I fasten my belt, I glance over my shoulder to see Zhu Chun stand there with crossed arms. Just the bracers and the shoes left.

“I will try,” I reply.

“Don’t be too charitable. You’re at fault for shifting in the first place. Defend yourself. Come over once you’re done dressing and we’ll leave.”

She pats down her robe, feels along the golden flowers in her hair, adjusts one of them, then walks back out, head high. Well, she has all the right to do so. She isn’t the one who blew her cover and also nearly revealed the best kept secret in the country. I’m so doomed. Also my wet hair is a mess. I bundle it up on top of my head as best I can, probably making it worse. With a heavy heart, I walk back out of hiding to find Feng Yu and Liu Renqing with bound hands and a terrible mood.

“Murong-xiaojie!! Tell them to let us go, we did nothing wrong!” Feng Yu pleads, his eyes suddenly big and round like a puppy’s.

“Nothing wrong? Then why are you here in the first place, following me?” I ask.

“I came to the sect to ask you out again for tomorrow… and guess who I ran into on my way! Right! None other than Liu Renqing!”

“You can’t forbid me to visit my sect,” Liu Renqing counters.

“Your sect or Murong-xiaojie?”

“You just don’t want to admit we have more in common than you two could ever.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you followed me here,” I cut in.

They have the decency to look somewhat scolded. Somewhat. I have a feeling that while Feng Yu has a more shameless image than Liu Renqing, the latter is secretly a lot more brazen. He did come to my room right after I ran away from them, after all. When I look into their eyes, Feng Yu avoids my gaze, but Liu Renqing glares at me.

“When I wanted to pass him to get to Huoyun Sect, he actually stopped me!” Feng Yu pouts. “I almost had to draw my weapon, but I got away in time. He chased me, but then we saw you leave the compound… Curiosity got the better of us.”

“Mhn,” Liu Renqing adds.

“Are there any stalking laws in this country?”

Zhu Chun frowns. “Stalking?”

“Following and observing someone without their consent.”

“Oh, yes. Don’t worry, they’ll get what’s due to them, if there’s anything left after their punishment for what they witnessed.”

It’s entirely my fault for shifting without thinking it through, but that’s the way royalty works, I suppose. Even if it was by chance, by no fault of their own, they saw something they weren’t meant to and now they have to pay the price. I clench my teeth. Making both of them fall in love with each other will be much harder once they’re dead. I have to convince the queen that it was my fault. I hope she’s not unreasonable… I’m her favourite daughter after all. At least Murong Zhiyu was the golden child in the drama.

As I watch them being bundled together, bumping shoulders as they’re led away, I hope this can at least be a bonding moment for them, but then I hear Liu Renqing hiss at Feng Yu and my hopes are thoroughly crushed.