The sun had risen the next day by the time they arrived in Tiancheng. Luo Qinghan had woken up, but with the poison still coursing through his veins, he was weak with lethargy. Zhe Huo had no choice but to keep on carrying the boy as they made their way through the streets.
Although Qinghan had his gray felt cap on again, he was nevertheless drawing attention from all directions. He was a cute kid, there was no helping it. People are naturally drawn towards beautiful things. She held the boy tight, wary of covetous eyes.
Small wonder Tiancheng was known as the greatest city in the world. Every street was packed with a dazzling array of things to see. Humans and demons without number bustled in every direction, clad in strange and outlandish clothes—and yet no one ever gave anyone else a second glance, as though all of this was perfectly ordinary in Tiancheng.
As for Zhe Huo, she hadn’t come here to shop. Asking her way around, and never even stopping to think about breakfast, she finally arrived at the practice of a prestigious poisons specialist. They were just opening for the day—a shopkeeper in blue robes hung a red plaque over the doorway, announcing ‘Open For Business’, and then went back inside with a yawn.
Carrying Qinghan in her arms, Zhe Huo hurried inside after him. “Excuse me, young man—my little brother has been poisoned with something. Could you please take a look at him, find out what kind of poison it is?”
Nuzzling contentedly against her neck, Qinghan’s pointed little ears perked up at this. “I’m not your little brother,” he corrected, looking up at her.
Zhe Huo nodded. “He’s like my little brother.”
“We’re not like that at all,” Qinghan declared, intent on making matters clear. “One day, I shall take you as my wife, Zhe Huo.”
Flabbergasted, Zhe Huo stared in shock. Then, as a delayed reaction, her face flushed and her ears turned red, and her eyes boggled nearly out of her skull. Noticing the shopkeeper’s intrigue in this potential scandal, Zhe Huo hurried to defuse the situation, “Um, ah… as you can see, the poison has addled the poor child’s mind! Please, sir—help him!”
The young man shrugged. “This way, please.”
Zhe Huo nodded and fell in step behind him, while lowering her head to whisper to Qinghan, “Don’t speak such nonsense in front of others again! Your wife, indeed—I don’t remember agreeing to that!”
Qinghan cocked his head to the side, his ears drooping for a moment, then rising up again. Eyes like stars, he asked, “What would I have to do to make you say yes?”
The sheer sincerity in his expression made it difficult for her to respond. Fortunately, that was when the shopkeeper said, “What are you two prattling on about? Are you coming or not?”
“Right away!” As she dashed after him, she quickly muttered to Qinghan, “We’ll discuss this when you’re bigger!”
Zhe Huo decided she’d handled that wisely, because it would be a dozen years or so before Qinghan got ‘bigger’. It was the perfect response!
What she didn’t see was the momentary flash of delight in Qinghan’s deep blue eyes after he heard her say this.
“Sir, what poison has he taken?”
Zhe Huo asked this after a long while spent watching the young man closely examining every inch of Qinghan’s face with a wood-framed magnifying glass.
The shopkeeper continued his scrutiny for a moment longer, before finally turning to her to declare, “What a pretty little thing this fox demon is.”