Xuan Xi’s kiss was as brief as a butterfly fluttering its wings—but the consequences of a butterfly’s flap are often unpredictable.
After kissing Sig, Xuan Xi shrank back, pressing her back tight against the seat. Her face burned red from the base of her neck all the way to her earlobes.
Her amber-gold eyes fixed on her own knees, too afraid to look at the person beside her.
The private room went still for an instant.
Then it exploded like a powder keg.
“Whoa—!!!”
Elsa’s shriek burst through the air like a thunderclap.
Having witnessed the whole thing, she sprang up from her seat, her short brown hair bouncing, her eyes wide as saucers, and the half-eaten piece of crispy candy nearly fell out of her mouth.
“I saw that! I saw it! Xuan Xi, you kissed her! You kissed Sig!”
Reggie’s body moved faster than his mind.
He clamped one hand over Elsa’s mouth and covered her eyes with the other, then lifted her straight off the seat like a chicken.
Elsa let out muffled mmmph sounds under his palm, her feet kicking in the air.
“Mmph mmph!! Reggie, let me go—mmph!! I want to see what happens next!”
“No, you don’t.” Reggie’s voice was very steady.
“I do!!”
“You don’t.”
He dragged Elsa toward the door of the VIP area while she clawed at the doorframe with her fingers, nails scraping against the wood with a screech.
“Veralis! Veralis, you be the judge—!!”
Veralis had already stood up from her seat.
She closed her notebook with graceful movements.
Her ice-blue eyes swept over Xuan Xi and Sigrdrífa, her expression unchanged—but Xuan Xi noticed that the corners of her lips were slightly more curved than usual.
“I’ll go downstairs to check on Mother,” Veralis said, holding the notebook against her chest, her tone flat.
“She’s sitting alone down there, and 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.
Reggie finally pried Elsa’s fingers off the door one by one and dragged her out. Elsa’s voice carried down the hallway, growing fainter and fainter.
“Reggie, put me down!! I can walk by myself!! Wait, slow down, my shoe—”
The door closed behind them, and the room suddenly fell silent.
Wall lamps cast their light onto the deep red velvet seats, dyeing everything in warm, intimate tones.
The auctioneer’s voice from downstairs continued, muffled and indistinct, as if through thick glass.
Xuan Xi stared at her knees, her face so red it felt like it might catch fire.
Sigrdrífa could still feel the touch of that kiss on her cheek.
So brief, so light—like a flower petal landing on skin, then swept away by the wind. But the warmth had lingered, seeped in, branded itself into Sig’s bones.
After two seconds, or five seconds, or an eternity.
Xuan Xi finally mustered the courage to lift her head.
Only to find Sigrdrífa’s face was red too—a deep, unmistakable flush spreading from her cheeks down to her neck.
Her lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to say something, but no sound came out.
In her amethyst eyes, Xuan Xi’s reflection shimmered, and something beneath that icy purple surface cracked, melted just a little.
Sig turned her head back toward the floor below.
But Xuan Xi noticed something different: Sig raised a hand and brushed a stray strand of hair from her ear with an extremely natural motion—but the trembling tips of her fingers betrayed her heart.
Downstairs, the bidding continued.
“Four hundred and fifty thousand.”
“VIP area, four hundred and eighty thousand.”
“Five hundred thousand.”
Sigrdrífa didn’t raise her paddle or give any signal. She just sat there, her gaze fixed on the auction stage below, her amethyst eyes as deep as a winter lake.
Xuan Xi had no idea what she was thinking, and she didn’t dare ask.
After all, she had already offered up her biggest bargaining chip.
Her face was still burning.
The lingering sensation of Sigrdrífa’s cheek on her lips—so Sig’s skin was cool.
Even after sitting in the warm light of the VIP area for so long, it was still that cool.
‘If it were the height of summer, holding Sig to sleep would be like having a human-shaped air conditioner.’
Down below, the old man seated in the Edelstein family section seemed to sense something. He turned his head slightly and glanced upward toward the second floor.
Sigrdrífa gave a barely perceptible nod.
The old man withdrew his gaze and raised his paddle.
“House Edelstein,” the auctioneer’s voice pitched a little higher. “Six hundred thousand!”
The hall went silent.
Six hundred thousand—already far exceeding the market price of this Azure Dragon Jade Pendant. Several bidders in the first-floor area lowered their paddles and exchanged glances.
Not worth it.
Though rare, six hundred thousand gold coins could buy the mining rights to an entire vein. It wasn’t worth buying a single jade pendant—especially one missing half.
But a light flicked on again in another booth on the second floor.
“VIP area, six hundred and fifty thousand.”
Sigrdrífa’s expression didn’t change. Her right hand rested on the armrest; her index finger tapped once.
The old man downstairs raised his paddle again.
“Seven hundred thousand.”
The booth’s light flicked on again.
“Seven hundred and fifty thousand.”
Xuan Xi held her breath. She didn’t know who was across from her, or why they were fighting her for this jade.
All she knew was that each bid felt like a knife stabbing into her heart. Her fingers clutched the pendant under her collar, her knuckles white.
Sigrdrífa turned her head and glanced at her.
That glance was brief—so brief it barely lasted a single breath—but in that moment, Xuan Xi saw a quiet confidence in Sig’s eyes.
Then Sigrdrífa raised her hand and made a fist. Not a secret signal to the people downstairs, but a direct gesture toward the auctioneer.
“House Edelstein,” the auctioneer’s voice wavered for the first time. “One million.”
The light in that booth didn’t flicker on again. Silence.
The auctioneer raised his gavel and brought it down. The sound wasn’t loud, but Xuan Xi felt the whole auction hall tremble.
“Sold! The Yin side of the Azure Dragon Jade Pendant’s Yin Yang Diagram has been won by House Edelstein.”
Xuan Xi’s tears fell.
She hadn’t even realized it until a warm drop splashed onto the back of her hand, still clenched around her pendant. She found herself crying.
No sound, no sobs—just tears streaming down, one after another, uncontrollable.
Sigrdrífa didn’t say anything.
She didn’t offer a handkerchief. Instead, she moved her hand from the armrest, palm up, and spread it open on the seat between them.
Xuan Xi looked at that long, fair, cool hand. She placed her still-trembling fingers into Sigrdrífa’s palm.
Sigrdrífa closed her fingers around Xuan Xi’s hand, holding it with just the right pressure.
But Xuan Xi’s tears didn’t stop. She didn’t know why she was crying.
Was it because the jade was finally found? Because three hundred years of separation had finally ended today? Or because she could finally admit that in this strange Western continent, in this unfamiliar academy, in this alien world, she was no longer alone?
She didn’t want to cry, but her tears wouldn’t obey.
Seeing Xuan Xi like this, Sig shifted sideways from her seat, slid her other hand through Xuan Xi’s dark blue-green hair, gently cupped the back of her head, and pulled her close.
Xuan Xi’s face buried itself in Sigrdrífa’s shoulder.
Silver-white hair cascaded down like a curtain, separating them from the rest of the world.
Sigrdrífa’s chin rested on top of Xuan Xi’s head, her breath brushing through Xuan Xi’s hair in slow, steady rhythms—as if telling her in this way: I’m here.
Don’t be afraid.
Xuan Xi’s tears finally found an outlet.
She clutched Sigrdrífa’s collar, pressed her face into that sea of silver hair, and cried silently, letting it all out.
Sigrdrífa’s hand moved over her back again and again, lightly, like soothing a wounded young dragon.
The eldest daughter of House Edelstein had probably never done anything like this before—her hand was a bit stiff, her movements not quite natural—but she didn’t stop.
After a long while, when Xuan Xi had finally composed herself, the door was pushed open again.
Elsa burst in first, her short brown hair a wild mess, her cheeks flushed, still chewing on something.
“Did you get it? Did you get it?! We heard the gavel in the hallway! Did we win?!”
Behind her, Reggie shuffled in slowly, his face an expression that screamed ‘I did my best, but this one is impossible to stop.’
Veralis was the last to enter, holding a cup of tea that seemed to have appeared from nowhere. She glanced at Xuan Xi’s reddened eyes and at Sigrdrífa’s hand still holding Xuan Xi’s, but said nothing.
She simply walked to her seat, sat down, raised the teacup, and hid the corner of her mouth behind its rim.
“We got it! Let me see—” Elsa snatched the confirmation slip the auctioneer had sent up, held it in front of her eyes, and shrieked.
“What?! One—one million?!”
She whirled around to face Sigrdrífa, her mouth wide enough to swallow an apple whole.
“Sig, have you lost your mind?!”
“No. It’s a drop in the bucket.” Sigrdrífa’s tone was very light.
“One million!! Do you know what you can buy with one million?! A manor! A whole manor!”
“Actually, you can’t even buy this auction hall,” Reggie chimed in from the side.
“That’s a metaphor! A metaphor, you understand?!” Elsa slapped the slip down on the table, hands on her hips.
“One million for a broken—for a jade pendant! And it’s missing half!”
Xuan Xi lowered her head, her voice muffled. “Actually, I have the other half.”
“What?” Elsa’s voice went up half an octave.
Xuan Xi pulled out the pendant from under her collar, turned it over, and revealed the complete Yang side pattern.
It was identical to the Yin side image still on the screen—except reversed, Yin and Yang facing each other.
Elsa leaned in for three seconds, then slowly raised her head and looked at Xuan Xi with the expression of someone beholding a legendary figure.
“So you came to the auction today to… claim a relative?”
“Not claim a relative—I had no idea the auction would have the other half of this pendant.”
“What you’re saying is: your pendant and the one up for auction were originally one piece of jade, split in half at some unknown point in time, and they just happened to reunite in this auction hall today.” Elsa took a deep breath.
“This is way too coincidental! This is more absurd than the epics in our family saga!”
Reggie pulled Elsa away from Xuan Xi.
“Give her some space. She’s still crying.”
“I’m not crying.” Xuan Xi wiped her face with the back of her hand, her voice still nasally.
“Saying you’re not crying with red eyes isn’t very convincing,” Elsa said, though her voice softened.
She no longer shouted.
She crouched beside Xuan Xi, tilted her head to look at her face, then reached out and gently patted the top of Xuan Xi’s head.
“There, there. The jade is yours now. Stop crying, little sister Xuan Xi.”
That pat made Xuan Xi want to both cry and laugh at the same time.
Veralis stood up from her seat, walked over to Xuan Xi, looked down at the pendant in her hand, then at the still-displayed Yin side image on the screen.
“Yin and Yang, reunited,” she said softly. “Coming together again in this era. That can’t be a coincidence.”
“Then what is it?” Elsa asked.
Veralis didn’t answer. She glanced at Sigrdrífa, who was still sitting quietly, still holding Xuan Xi’s hand, the light of the two jade pieces reflected in her amethyst eyes.
“It is the choice of fate,” Veralis said with an air of deep significance.
For once, Elsa didn’t retort.
Reggie stood to the side, arms crossed, looking at the pendant in Xuan Xi’s hand, then at the image on the screen.
He was silent for a long time, and finally said only one thing: “One million. Worth it.”
“You just said one million was a lot!” Elsa turned to glare at him.
“That was then.” Reggie’s amber eyes fell on the two jade pieces echoing each other from across the room. “This is now.”
Elsa opened her mouth, but no words came out. Because she knew Reggie was right. Some things couldn’t be measured in money.
Over a hundred years of separation. Two continents apart. And this jade pendant might hold the key to someone’s beloved girl’s origins.
Put all that together, and one million… was really not expensive.
From downstairs came the auctioneer’s voice, announcing the next lot. But none of the five people in the second-floor VIP area paid it any attention.
Xuan Xi still held Sigrdrífa’s hand, the warmth of her palm passing through slowly, steadily.
She looked down at the complete Yang side beneath her collar, then at the newly acquired Yin side on the table. She wanted to hug Sig and cry again T﹏T…
Sig, you’re really such a good person!…