Late at night, Bai Li pushed open the door to the back hall of the guild.
By the moonlight, she saw a graceful figure in the shadows by the window.
“Miss Xue Yin, this is no way to be a guest.”
Bai Li’s voice was calm, but her tone carried a hint of reproach.
“In the dead of night, breaking into the Cloud Ruins Bazaar without so much as a greeting—is this the manners He Lian taught you?”
Xue Yin stepped out from the darkness.
Under her hood, a pale face slowly revealed itself, with faint signs of exhaustion beneath her eyes.
From early morning when she entered the guild seeking information, to noon when she intercepted the transport convoy and endured the self-destruction impact of the magic array, to now returning to Cloud Ruins Bazaar late at night—
Xue Yin had not rested for an entire day.
“Madam Bai Li, don’t misunderstand.”
Xue Yin’s voice was very soft, her gaze directly meeting Bai Li’s.
“I insisted on coming myself. It has nothing to do with Brother He Lian.”
Xue Yin stepped forward slowly, her pace unhurried.
“I want to have a few words with you alone, while the situation hasn’t worsened and everything can still be salvaged.”
Bai Li walked to the desk and lit a candle.
“Make it brief. I hope you can find a proper reason for your rude behavior. Otherwise, even if you are an acquaintance of He Lian, the Cloud Ruins Bazaar will not let this go easily.”
“We rescued the five missing persons from the Slag Highlands today.”
Xue Yin looked at her back and spoke slowly.
“They don’t know anything. They don’t remember the process of being captured, don’t know who took them, and can’t even recall why they went missing.”
“That’s good. Being alive is already fortunate.”
Bai Li kept her back to her, calmly organizing the guild files on the desk.
“But with your aggressive manner, Miss Xue Yin, you didn’t come just to tell me this, did you?”
“But there’s one thing I’ve never understood.”
Xue Yin paused, her voice low but clear.
“That day we entered the bazaar to investigate, it was only half a day from start to finish. Brother He Lian met us in the evening, and only the next morning did he introduce us to the guild…”
Xue Yin spoke very slowly, as if weighing her words or giving the other party room to deny.
“But Madam, when you first saw us, you said: ‘You two have come from the Slag Highlands, what business do you have?'”
Bai Li’s hand, which was organizing the files, paused almost imperceptibly for a moment.
“Cloud Ruins Bazaar sees hundreds of people passing through every day, information like a tide.”
Xue Yin continued, but her gaze grew sharp.
“Yet Madam’s intelligence network specifically locked onto us two in the vast sea of people… so early that it seemed we were targeted the moment we stepped through the boundary marker.”
Bai Li slowly turned around.
Her succubus pupils glowed with a violet light in the darkness, meeting Xue Yin’s gaze without flinching.
“So Miss Xue Yin’s late-night visit is just to have me listen to your baseless conjectures? Then I’ll take my leave.”
“That’s not it.”
Xue Yin shook her head, her eyes candid, not retreating an inch from that violet light.
“I just… wanted to give Madam a chance to explain. If Madam is merely well-informed, then can you tell me, how did the Human Realm’s Magic Association know about the rare bloodline in those five people, so faint that even they themselves didn’t know? And why did the transport convoy’s magic array lose control during activation? All nine were reduced to ashes—that doesn’t seem like an accident.”
Bai Li suddenly let out a low laugh.
“Miss Xue Yin, you overestimate me.”
She set the files aside, folded her hands in front of her, her fingertips landing precisely on the position of that copper button.
“I don’t want to meddle in the Magic Association’s affairs; I don’t need to know why the array self-destructed or what happened to the transport convoy.”
Bai Li looked up at Xue Yin, the violet glow in her eyes fading, replaced by the calm and composure unique to a merchant.
“This is Cloud Ruins Bazaar. If you want to find the truth, you should go ask the Human Realm’s Magic Association, not break into my room late at night, spouting nonsense, expecting me to give you answers.”
The candle flame flickered.
Between them, only a silent light and shadow remained.
Xue Yin suddenly spoke.
“Madam might think I’m meddling, but these past few days, what I’ve seen in Cloud Ruins Bazaar is not just the black market, smuggling, disappearances… but also the unique way of survival of the people on this land, and Madam Bai Li’s quiet contributions.”
Bai Li retorted.
“So what? What do these matters have to do with you?”
“No one forced you to do it.”
Xue Yin’s tone was calm.
“But you do it more earnestly than anyone, so earnestly that it’s like repaying a debt that only you know the amount of.”
Bai Li’s speaking pace began to quicken.
“So? You want to say I’m soft-hearted? Or that I’m hypocritical? Spare me such evaluations. You don’t know me. There’s no need to waste each other’s time.”
“Neither.”
Xue Yin met her gaze without backing down.
“I only want to say, when a good deed happens, it is a fact. Judge by the action, not the intention.”
Xue Yin paused briefly, then continued.
“Someone like He Lian—his martial prowess is enough to dominate a region, and his judgment is no less sharp. He has seen too much betrayal, experienced too much manipulation, yet he has never doubted you.”
Bai Li gave a cold laugh.
“Miss Xue Yin, what do you mean by suddenly bringing up He Lian in your words?”
Xue Yin shook her head.
“I just don’t understand. Why would someone who can earn the unreserved trust of a person like He Lian choose to keep silent about the truth?”
She took a step forward, her tone sincere but not humble.
“Madam, I am not here to condemn you. I am here to ask: if even you choose silence, who in this world will speak for those who have disappeared?”
“He Lian trusts me because he chooses to trust.”
Bai Li’s voice was so low it was almost inaudible.
“But things in this world aren’t clean just because you want them to be.”
She turned and walked toward the inner room, intending to end this conversation while she still had her wits.
The hem of her dark green cheongsam swept across the cold stone floor, her silhouette looking especially lonely under the lamp.
“Miss Xue Yin, you are too young. Some good deeds are not necessarily born from a kind heart; some silences do not necessarily represent peace of mind.”
Xue Yin seemed to recognize a path she herself had once walked.
She sighed softly and spoke with self-mockery.
“I used to be alone too, with no one to rely on. I felt that trust was too expensive for me, something I couldn’t afford to owe, let alone repay.”
Bai Li stopped in her tracks but did not turn around.
“Later, by sheer chance, I took in Jin as a disciple, and only then did I realize that some roads cannot be walked alone.”
Xue Yin’s tone was calm, almost declarative.
“Jin always says I have clear logic and a way with words when persuading others, but when it comes to my own problems, I deliberately avoid them and stagnate, and ended up letting others down because of my negligence.”
“At that time, someone said to me: ‘The dead are gone, but the living can still catch up.'”
Xue Yin paused, passing on a line someone had given her back then to another person.
“The departed cannot be pursued; the living must not stagnate in self-blame and guilt, but carry their share and continue moving forward.”
Bai Li finally turned around.
“So you’re using yourself as an example now, to urge me to speak?”
“Between Jin and me, our relationship is no longer just master and disciple.”
Xue Yin was candid, her tone without shyness, only clarity.
“But I have been hesitating. It’s not that I don’t want to, but that I don’t dare to.”
She met Bai Li’s eyes directly.
“Madam, is it the same between you and Brother He Lian? Some words are too heavy to say; some people are too important to approach.”
Bai Li was silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke in a low voice.
“…Do you think I can’t see that you’re using trust as a bargaining chip?”
“When a good person makes an unforgivable mistake, her guilt does not fade. Instead, it clings to her like a curse for the rest of her life.”
Xue Yin shook her head, her tone slow but unwavering.
“Just because of the word ‘conscience,’ it is enough to make one judge oneself over and over in the darkest hours of the night.”
Bai Li stared at her, her tail tip slowly drooping as if shedding some burden.
“In the end, only two paths remain.”
Xue Yin continued.
“One is to painfully escape in despair, trying to atone through self-destruction; the other is to deceive oneself in concealment, trying to numb oneself through self-indulgence. Why is kindness, clearly the most precious treasure, becoming a burden that holds one back at such a time?”
“Because some doors, once closed, are hard to open again.”
Bai Li was dejected, her voice no longer sharp.
“Then I’ll help you open the door right now.”
Xue Yin did not answer immediately.
Instead, she took out a thick stack of paper from behind her.
“We can choose a third path!”
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