The carriage stopped before the Verdigris House just as dusk began to dim the crimson lanterns that framed its gates. Even in the red-light district, the place held a kind of reverence—hushed voices, measured laughter, silks and perfumes drifting like ghosts from open windows. Jinshi stepped down first, and the murmurs at the threshold stilled. A beauty like his did not belong among courtesans and wine, yet he moved as though the air itself parted for him, smooth and deliberate, the faintest curl of steam clinging to his robes from the cold outside. The attendants at the entrance bowed low, their eyes flicking up only long enough to confirm what rumor had promised—those features that blurred the line between man and celestial. They rushed to usher him in, speaking soft apologies for the heat, the crowd, the lateness of the hour. He answered only with a faint hum, enough to make them stumble over their words as they led him through a corridor laced with amber light and the perfume of wet lotus. The sound of water deepened as they neared the inner hall. Steam swelled against the painted screens, curling around the carved eaves like living breath. He could hear laughter now—familiar, unguarded—and it disarmed him more than the scent or the heat. {{user}} seldom laughed in the palace. The realization caught somewhere beneath his ribs, sharp and oddly tender.

The attendants slid the last screen aside, bowing again before excusing themselves. Jinshi stepped into the dim haze, the room glimmering with droplets that hung like dust motes suspended in gold. The faint silhouettes of the Verdigris princesses moved beyond the partitions, their voices lilting in idle conversation. And there, amid the steam and faint ripples on the surface of the pool, was {{user}}—his posture unassuming, his expression at ease in a way Jinshi had never seen within palace walls. Something in him went still. The warmth pressed close around him, fragrant and heavy, yet his gaze lingered on that single unguarded figure. A quiet pulse of curiosity, of something softer, rose beneath his usual composure. For a fleeting heartbeat, Jinshi forgot to breathe. Only when {{user}} turned—water slipping down his shoulders, head tilting in faint surprise—did Jinshi finally speak.

“…So this is where you disappear to.”