Xuanxi’s kiss was as brief as a butterfly fluttering its wings, but the consequences of a butterfly’s wing flutter are often unpredictable.
After kissing Xige, Xuanxi shrank back, her back pressed tightly against the seat.
Her face reddened from the base of her neck all the way to the tips of her ears, and her amber-gold eyes stared at her own knees, too afraid to look at the person beside her.
The entire private room fell silent for a moment.
Then it exploded like a powder keg. “Oh—!!!”
Elsa’s cry of surprise burst out like a thunderclap. Having seen the whole thing, she shot up from her seat, her short brown hair bouncing with the motion. Her eyes were wide, and the half-eaten crispy candy in her mouth almost fell out.
“I saw it! I saw it! Xuanxi, you kissed her! You kissed Xige!”
Reginald’s actions were quicker than his thoughts.
He clamped one hand over Elsa’s mouth and covered her eyes with the other, lifting her straight off the seat like a chicken. Under his palm, Elsa let out muffled whines, her feet kicking in the air—thump.
“Mmmph!! Reginald, let me go—mmph!! I want to see what happens next!”
“No, you don’t.” Reginald’s voice was very steady.
“I do!!”
“You don’t.”
He dragged Elsa toward the door of the VIP area, while Elsa’s fingers clung to the doorframe, her nails scraping against the wood with a screech.
“-Valeris! Valeris, you be the judge!!”
Valeris had also stood up from her seat.
She closed the notebook in her hands with an elegant motion. Her ice-blue eyes swept over Xuanxi and Hildegrifa, her expression unchanged—but Xuanxi noticed that the corners of her mouth were slightly more curved than usual.
“I’ll go downstairs to check on Mother,” Valeris said, holding the notebook to her chest. Her voice was flat. “She’s sitting alone down there. I’m worried.”
She turned and left. Her pace was neither fast nor slow. When she reached the door, she sidestepped around Elsa, who was still clinging to the frame, and disappeared into the corridor without looking back.
Reginald finally pried Elsa’s fingers off the doorframe one by one and dragged her out. Elsa’s voice traveled from the corridor, growing fainter.
“Reginald, put me down!! I can walk by myself!! Wait, slow down, my shoe—”
The door closed behind them, and the room suddenly fell silent.
The light from the wall lamps fell on the dark red velvet seats, dyeing everything in warm, ambiguous tones. The auctioneer’s voice continued from downstairs, muffled as if through thick glass.
Xuanxi stared at her knees, her face burning red.
Hildegrifa’s cheek still held the sensation of that kiss—short, light, like a petal falling on skin before being blown away by the wind. But that warmth remained, seeped in, branded itself into Xige’s bones.
Two seconds passed, or five, or an eternity.
Xuanxi finally mustered the courage to look up.
Only to find that Hildegrifa’s face was also red—a deep, unmistakable flush spreading from her cheeks to her neck. Her lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but no sound came out.
Xuanxi’s reflection shimmered in those amethyst eyes, and something beneath that icy purple cracked and melted just a little.
She turned her head back and looked downstairs.
But Xuanxi noticed something different: Xige raised her hand and brushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear with an extremely natural gesture, but the slightly trembling fingertips betrayed her inner feelings.
Downstairs, the bidding continued.
“Forty-five thousand.”
“VIP area, forty-eight thousand.”
“Fifty thousand.”
Hildegrifa did not raise a paddle or give any signal. She just sat there, her gaze fixed on the auction stage downstairs, her amethyst eyes as deep as a winter lake.
Xuanxi didn’t know what she was thinking, and didn’t dare to ask. After all, she had already offered her greatest bargaining chip.
Her face was still hot. On her lips lingered the temperature of Hildegrifa’s cheek—so Xige’s skin was cool. Even after sitting in the warm light of the VIP area for so long, it was still that cool.
‘If I could hold Xige to sleep in the scorching summer, wouldn’t she be a human air conditioner?’
Downstairs, the old man in the Edelstein Family seat seemed to sense something. He turned his head slightly and glanced toward the second floor.
Hildegrifa gave an almost imperceptible nod.
The old man withdrew his gaze and raised his bidding paddle.
“Edelstein Family,” the auctioneer’s voice rose a bit. “Sixty thousand!”
The entire hall fell silent.
Sixty thousand was already far above the market price of this azure dragon jade pendant. A few bidders on the first floor who had been raising their paddles lowered them and exchanged glances. Not worth it.
Although azure dragon jade was rare, sixty thousand gold coins could buy the mining rights to an entire vein. It wasn’t worth buying a pendant, especially one that was missing half.
But in another booth on the second floor, that light lit up again.
“VIP area, sixty-five thousand.”
Hildegrifa’s expression didn’t change. Her right hand rested on the armrest, and she tapped her index finger lightly.
The old man downstairs raised the paddle again.
“Seventy thousand.”
The light in the booth lit up again.
“Seventy-five thousand.”
Xuanxi’s breath caught. She didn’t know who was on the other side, why they were fighting her for this pendant. She only knew that every bid was like a knife stabbing into her heart. Her fingers clutched the pendant under her collar, her knuckles white.
Hildegrifa turned her head and glanced at her.
That glance was very brief, barely a breath’s time, but in it Xuanxi saw Xige’s confidence.
Then Hildegrifa raised her hand and made a fist. It wasn’t a secret signal to the person downstairs, but a direct gesture toward the auctioneer.
“Edelstein Family,” the auctioneer’s voice wavered for the first time.
“One million.”
The light in that booth did not come on again. Silence.
The auctioneer raised his hammer and brought it down. The sound wasn’t loud, but Xuanxi felt the entire auction hall tremble.
“Sold! The Yin face of the Yin-Yang diagram of the azure dragon jade pendant goes to the Edelstein Family.”
Xuanxi’s tears fell.
She didn’t even realize it until a warm drop landed on the back of her hand that was clutching the pendant.
Only then did she discover she was crying. No sound, no sobs—just tears falling one after another, unstoppable.
Hildegrifa didn’t speak or offer a handkerchief. She simply moved her hand from the armrest, palm up, and laid it on the seat between them.
Xuanxi looked at that slender, fair, slightly cool hand. She placed her still trembling fingers into Hildegrifa’s palm.
Hildegrifa closed her fingers, holding her hand with just the right amount of pressure.
But Xuanxi’s tears didn’t stop. She didn’t know what she was crying about. Was it because the pendant had finally been found? Because three hundred years of separation had come to an end today?
Or because she had finally acknowledged that in this unfamiliar Western Continent, in this unfamiliar Academy, in this unfamiliar world, she was no longer alone?
She didn’t want to cry, but her tears wouldn’t listen.
Seeing Xuanxi like this, Xige leaned over from her seat. She reached out with her other hand, threading it through Xuanxi’s dark green hair, gently cradling the back of her head, and pulled her close.
Xuanxi’s face buried itself into the crook of Hildegrifa’s shoulder.
Silver-white hair cascaded down like a curtain, separating them from the rest of the world.
Hildegrifa’s chin rested on the top of Xuanxi’s head, her breath brushing through her hair, slow and steady, as if telling her in this way: I’m here. Don’t be afraid.
Xuanxi’s tears finally found an outlet.
She clutched Hildegrifa’s collar, buried her face in that silver-white hair, and cried her heart out in silence. Hildegrifa’s hand moved over her back in strokes, very gentle, as if soothing an injured dragon.
The eldest daughter of the Edelstein Family had probably never done this before—her hand was a bit stiff, her movements not entirely natural—but she didn’t stop.
***
After a while, once Xuanxi had composed herself, the door was pushed open again.
Elsa was the first to rush in, her short brown hair as messy as a bird’s nest, her cheeks flushed, still chewing something.
“Did you get it? Did you get it?! We heard the hammer in the hallway! Did you get it?!”
Behind her, Reginald shuffled in slowly, his face bearing an expression that said, “I tried my best, but this person is completely unstoppable.”
Valeris brought up the rear, holding a cup of tea that she had obtained from somewhere. She glanced at Xuanxi’s red-rimmed eyes and Hildegrifa’s hand holding hers, but said nothing.
She simply walked to her seat, sat down, and raised the teacup to her lips, hiding her smile behind the rim.
“Got it! Let me see!” Elsa spotted the confirmation slip the auctioneer had handed over, snatched it up, and held it in front of her eyes. “What?! One… one million?!”
She turned to Hildegrifa, her mouth wide enough to fit a whole apple.
“Xige, have you gone crazy?!”
“No, it’s just a drop in the bucket.” Hildegrifa’s tone was very calm.
“One million!! Do you know what one million can buy?! A manor! A whole manor!”
“Actually, you can’t even buy this auction hall with that.” Reginald added from the side.
“That’s a metaphor! A metaphor, you get it?!” Elsa slapped the confirmation slip on the table and put her hands on her hips. “One million for a piece of… a piece of jade pendant! And it’s missing half!”
Xuanxi lowered her head, her voice muffled. “Actually, the other half is with me.”
“What?” Elsa’s voice pitched up half a tone.
Xuanxi pulled out the pendant from under her collar and turned it over, revealing the complete Yang face pattern. It was exactly the same as the Yin face carving on the screen—only reversed in direction, Yin and Yang opposing each other.
Elsa leaned in and stared for three seconds, then slowly raised her head and looked at Xuanxi as if she were a legendary figure.
“So you came to the auction today to recognize a long-lost relative?”
“Not exactly—I didn’t know the other half of this pendant would be at the auction either.”
“You mean your pendant and the one at the auction are from the same piece of jade, split in two who knows how many years ago, and they’re reunited in this auction hall today?”
Elsa took a deep breath. “That’s too much of a coincidence! That’s even more outrageous than the plots in our family epics!”
Reginald pulled Elsa away from Xuanxi. “Give her some space. She’s still crying.”
“I’m not crying.” Xuanxi wiped her face with the back of her hand, her voice still nasal.
“Saying you’re not crying with red eyes isn’t convincing at all.” Elsa said, but her voice softened, no longer loud. She crouched down beside Xuanxi, tilted her head to look at her face, then reached out and lightly patted Xuanxi on the top of the head.
“There, there. The jade is yours now. Don’t cry, little sister Xuanxi.”
Xuanxi felt both like crying and laughing at that pat.
Valeris stood up from her seat, walked over to Xuanxi, and looked down at the pendant in her hand, then at the Yin face image still displayed on the screen.
“Yin and Yang united,” she said softly. “To be reassembled in this era—this should not be a coincidence.”
“Then what is it?” Elsa asked.
Valeris didn’t answer. She glanced at Hildegrifa, who was sitting quietly, still holding Xuanxi’s hand, the light of the two jades reflected in her amethyst eyes.
“It is the choice of fate.” Valeris said with an air of profundity.
For once, Elsa didn’t retort.
Reginald stood to the side, arms crossed. He looked at the pendant in Xuanxi’s hand, then at the image on the screen. After a long silence, he finally said, “One million. Worth it.”
“You just said one million was a lot!” Elsa turned to glare at him.
“That was then.” Reginald’s amber eyes fell on the two pendants that echoed each other from afar. “This is now.”
Elsa opened her mouth but said nothing. She knew Reginald was right. Some things couldn’t be measured by money.
Over a century of separation, the distance of two continents, and the fact that this pendant might hold the origins of someone’s beloved girl—all these things combined, one million was indeed not expensive.
The auctioneer’s voice came from downstairs as the next item began to be presented, but none of the five people in the second-floor VIP area looked down.
Xuanxi still held Hildegrifa’s hand, the warmth of her palm slowly transferring.
She looked down at the complete Yang face under her collar, then at the newly acquired Yin face on the table. She wanted to hug Xige and cry again.
Xige, you’re such a wonderful person!