I pinched the bridge of my nose. "You're going to dump it all on the floor."
"Please," he scoffed, nearly tripping on the threshold. "I have the grace of a thousand-year-old spirit."
Mingzhu stirred at the noise, his brow furrowing. His eyes cracked open just enough to glare at Dòu Dòu with unmistakable disdain. "Do you ever stop talking?"
Dòu Dòu gasped dramatically. "He speaks! Truly, the river has blessed us." He set the tray down barely missing my knee and leaned close to Mingzhu. "Don't worry, brother, I saved you the good bowl."
"Keep it," Mingzhu muttered, voice gravelly.
Something twisted in my chest. His words were cold, but weaker now, as though he lacked the strength to coat them in full cruelty. I reached for the bowl before Dòu Dòu could make a mess of it and held it carefully.
"You'll eat," I said, trying to sound firm rather than pleading. "Even dragons need strength."
For once, he didn't argue. He only glanced at me, his gaze unreadable, then let out a breath that sounded dangerously close to surrender.
Behind me, Dòu Dòu grinned like a cat who had seen far too much. "Well, well. Maybe miracles do happen after all."
The air inside had grown stifling. I needed a breath, a moment away from the weight of Mingzhu's eyes and the silence pressing on all sides. With quiet steps, I slipped through the door, pulling it closed behind me until only a narrow crack of light remained.
I had meant to walk farther, to clear my thoughts. Instead, my feet lingered near the threshold when voices drifted through.
"…You let her," Dòu Dòu was saying, his tone light, teasing. "Fed by a mortal girl, no less. Our proud river guardian, reduced to a patient with no claws."
A pause, followed by Mingzhu's voice low, strained, colder than it should have been. "She was… persistent. Nothing more."
"Oh?" Dòu Dòu chuckled softly. "Persistent enough to slip past even your armor. Admit it, you didn't mind."
Another silence, heavy enough to knot in my chest. Then Mingzhu spoke again, quieter. "It changes nothing. You know what binds me. You know the curse."
The word struck through the crack in the door like a blade. My hand froze on the wood, breath caught in my throat.
Curse?
Inside, Dòu Dòu's laughter faded, replaced by something softer, almost wary. But before he could reply, Mingzhu's voice dropped into silence, and I realized I had leaned too close to the door. The floor creaked under my weight.
I jerked back, heart hammering, forcing my steps down the hall before either of them could notice. Yet the word lingered in my mind, sharp and merciless.
Curse...
When I stepped back into the room, the air felt heavier than before. Mingzhu lay exactly as I had left him, eyes half-closed, face unreadable. Dòu Dòu lounged by the window, pretending to be fascinated by the dust motes dancing in the morning light.
Neither of them spoke.
I forced my steps steady, setting the bowl of water down with more care than necessary. My hands itched to tremble, but I pressed them flat against the table until the feeling passed.
"Here," I said, keeping my voice even. "Fresh water."
Mingzhu opened his eyes at the sound, those storm-grey irises cutting toward me with a sharpness that made my chest tighten. For one fragile moment I thought he knew that he had heard me lingering outside, that he could see the word still echoing in my thoughts.
But he only gave the faintest nod, as if I were nothing more than a servant performing a task.
Dòu Dòu stretched, breaking the silence. "You should be proud, Lianyin. Most people would've run screaming after spending one night in this house. You're practically a legend already."
I shot him a glare, though my lips curved despite myself. "Maybe I should. Maybe I should walk right out that door."
"Try it," Mingzhu murmured, his voice like smoke quiet, cold. "You wouldn't last an hour out there."
The words struck like a slap. I should have been furious, but instead the back of my neck burned, because beneath the insult was something else. A warning. A truth.
I turned away before either of them could see the storm in my face. But the thought wouldn't leave me, pulsing at the back of my mind like a bruise:
What curse? And why him?
The silence of the house pressed in until I could no longer bear it. Every shadow seemed thicker, every glance from Mingzhu too sharp, every careless hum from Dòu Dòu a reminder that I did not belong.
Curse.
The word clung to me like water in my lungs. I needed to move, to breathe even if the breath I took here was borrowed from magic not my own.
I slipped out, letting the door close behind me.
The city unfurled in a wash of colors streets of pearl and coral bending as though carved from living crystal, stalls draped with fabrics that shimmered like strands of liquid light, voices rising and falling in cadences that echoed like bells through the current.
Above, shoals of silver fish drifted in perfect arcs, their scales scattering light across the towers of shell and glass. Lanterns floated freely in the water, glowing softly as if stars themselves had descended into this world.
It was breathtaking, alive with rhythm and color. For a moment, I almost forgot the heaviness that had driven me outside. Children darted past me, laughter bubbling in trails behind them, while merchants called out from behind counters laden with luminous shells, pearls, and fruits I could not name.
I forced a smile, steadying my steps, though a quiet unease lingered at the back of my mind not because this world was false, but because it was too vast, too strange, too powerful.
And beneath all its beauty, one thought pulsed relentlessly in my chest:
If this is the truth of their world… then what else is hidden from me?
The market was a maze of color and sound. Pearls strung like lanterns swayed gently in the current, their glow brushing over faces that hurried past. I slowed near a stall where a woman sold fruits that pulsed faintly with light, their skins glimmering like molten gold.
"How much?" I asked, fumbling for words, for coins I wasn't even sure I had.