Transforming into a stunningly beautiful fox spirit, leaving a scar on the heart of a prodigy.

The lights outside the capital city stayed on until late into the night.

When Gu Xiang returned to Zuixianju, the courtyard gate was already covered with red silk. The red silk that stretched all the way down Zhuque Avenue undulated in the night wind, like a river flowing through the city.

The front courtyard was piled high with trunks and boxes sent by the Ministry of Rites, the Inner Court, and the Prime Minister's residence. Phoenix crowns, wedding robes, jade tablets, and golden books were all in their proper places, and the guest lists were stacked up to half a person's height.

Gu Xiang stood under the eaves, flipping through the gift list.

"The wedding procession will have two squads of Imperial Guards removed, and the villagers from Gujia Village will be seated at the front. After the Heaven-worshiping ceremony..."

His fingertips hovered over the ritual instruments, and he checked each one of the sacrificial vessels.

He wanted to make up for everything he couldn't give her three thousand years ago.

Su Qing leaned against the door and stared for a long time.

She reached out and picked up the red silk hanging from the pillar, her fingertips slowly tracing the fine lines, but there was little joy on her face.

Gu Xiang closed the gift book.

"Qing'er?"

Su Qing loosened the red silk and looked down at the chests and boxes filling the courtyard.

Gu Xiang followed her gaze and explained in a low voice, "This is not to show off the power of a prime minister. I just want the whole world to know that you are not the empress's tablet enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple."

He paused for a moment.

"You are my lawfully wedded wife."

Su Qing walked to the table, picked up the thick gift list, and casually flipped through a few pages.

"How many of these gifts were chosen by myself?"

Gu Xiang was stunned.

The paper was filled with ritual regulations, from the patterns on wedding dresses to the specifications of carriages, from the seating arrangement of officials to the time of the sacrificial ceremony to Heaven, nothing was missing.

No one asked her about it.

Gu Xiang lowered his eyes to look at the words he had personally written, and slowly loosened his fingers.

"It was my oversight."

Just then, footsteps were heard outside the courtyard.

The Minister of Rites, accompanied by several senior officials, entered the courtyard and presented a newly drafted set of ritual procedures with both hands.

"Prime Minister Gu, the Empress's wedding involves state rites, and we have revised them overnight. According to the rules, we should first offer sacrifices to Heaven, then pay homage at the ancestral temple, and finally receive the congratulations of all officials, so as to demonstrate the coexistence of humans and demons and the majesty of the Holy Dynasty."

The old minister looked at Su Qing, his tone becoming more cautious.

"However, the Holy Empress's status is special, and her wedding dress should cover her fox ears and demon markings. As for the guests, the demons of the Northern Border and the Mountain Moving Sect are not orthodox, and if they are seated at the grand ceremony, it may cause controversy."

The courtyard suddenly fell silent.

The palace maid holding the phoenix crown lowered her head, and the officials from the Ministry of Rites dared not even breathe heavily.

Su Qing was not angry.

She took the ceremony document, flipped through the pages from the first to the last, and her fingertip stopped on the four characters "Sacrifice to Heaven and Receipt of the Imperial Decree".

"Am I marrying Gu Xiang, or am I marrying the Da Zhou that you've written down on paper?"

The old minister opened his mouth.

"Your Majesty, this ceremony concerns the fate of the nation and the hearts of the people..."

"Once again, the world is at peace."

Su Qing looked at him and said, "Three thousand years ago, you used the world to kill me. Now you're using the world to cover my ears and drive away my old friends."

Gu Xiang pressed his hand against the edge of the table.

The wooden table made a soft sound, and a righteous aura emanated from between the fingers. Several old ministers turned pale, as if they could see again the powerful minister of yesteryear, whose words could stain the court with blood.

"If the Ministry of Rites is not good at organizing weddings, then replace them with a group of people who are."

"Gu Xiang".

Su Qing raised her hand and pressed down on his wrist.

The muscles and bones beneath her palm were taut. She paused for a moment, waiting for the killing intent to subside, before releasing her grip.

"On the first day of marriage, do not kill anyone."

She walked to the courtyard full of wedding dresses and lifted them one by one. Dragons and phoenixes, mountains and rivers, sun and moon were all embroidered in detail, but none of them belonged to her.

Finally, she took out a plain red undergarment from the bottom of the trunk and casually draped it over her shoulders.

"A ten-mile-long red bridal procession is acceptable, as is a phoenix coronet and embroidered robe."

Su Qing looked at everyone.

"But I want to choose for myself."

She took out a blank sheet of Xuan paper and spread it on the table.

"First, go to the backyard of Zuixianju and drink a bowl of chicken soup made by Gu Xiang himself. Then, go to the Luoshui River to release lanterns, and finally, hold the wedding ceremony."

"No sacrifice."

"Not eligible for registration?"

"No."

"All officials paid homage..."

"I won't make them kneel when I get married."

Su Qing picked up his pen and wrote down the names of the villagers of Gujia Village, the people of Shendu, and the refugees from the northern border in the guest column, and added representatives of the Mountain Moving Sect and the human and demon races of the Anzhifang.

"Anyone who dares to use their social status to stop others need not come."

The officials from the Ministry of Rites looked at each other in bewilderment.

They originally thought that Su Qing's return would be an opportunity to seize the Empress's power. But all she wanted to do was choose a dress, book a table of guests, and decide how she would live.

Gu Xiang took over the old ceremony procedures.

With a stroke of the ink brush, the four characters "祭天受册" (Sacrifice to Heaven and Receive the Decree) were crossed out.

He started writing again.

"Husbands and wives bow to each other, but do not worship fate."

A righteous spirit flowed from the brush into the paper, and the entire scroll of the ceremony shimmered with golden light, while the red silk in the courtyard fluttered without wind.

When Li Yu and Li Qingge arrived, they saw the new characters.

Li Qingge stared at Gu Xiang: "Did you personally alter the state gift?"

Gu Xiang calmly replied, "Yes."

Li Yu reached out and took the pen, placing the imperial seal at the end of the ceremony.

The golden national destiny unfolds along the paper, blending with the noble spirit of righteousness.

"The Great Zhou only observes the proper etiquette for her, but does not determine her fate."

Not long after the imperial seal was placed, people from the former residence of the Imperial Preceptor sent over an ebony dowry chest.

The seal on the box had been there for three hundred years. Su Qing touched it lightly with the Phoenix True Fire, and the fire patterns dispersed on their own.

There were no crowns or robes in the box.

There was only a piece of cloud-patterned wedding dress fabric, an old jade pendant, and a short note protected by the Phoenix True Fire.

Su Qing unfolded the short note.

There was only one sentence on the paper.

"If anyone later manages not to force her to die for the sake of the world, please tell her for me that the red dress should be worn by herself."

She grasped the jade pendant.

The bronze mask on the Star-Picking Tower flashed through his mind, as did the monk trapped in Ghost Cry Valley for three hundred years. One calculated the fate of the nation, the other endured the passing years, yet in the end, neither could live for themselves even once.

Su Qing closed her dowry chest.

"I'm going to the Star-Picking Tower."

Gu Xiang didn't offer to accompany her, but instead carried her dowry chest downstairs.

Su Qing climbed the tower alone.

From a high vantage point, the lights of the capital city resembled a galaxy falling across the streets and alleys. She spread her cloud-patterned robes on the railing, placed her old jade pendant on top, and lit three incense sticks.

"You've lived for others for three hundred years, that's enough."

She gazed at the new lights of the resettlement community in the distance.

"The Great Zhou will remember you. But I will not take your lives to teach others to die again."

Phoenix fire rose from his palm and landed on the jade pendant.

The flames did not burn the jade; they merely peeled away the layers of blood-red aura that clung to it. As the bloodstains faded, the old jade pendant revealed a warm, clear light.

Downstairs, Gu Xiang waited quietly.

He did not go upstairs, nor did he urge him.

The night breeze stirred Su Qing's red dress. She picked up a pair of scissors, cut a corner from the fabric of her dress, and tied it to the railing of the Star-Picking Tower.

That corner of red cloth unfurled in the wind, like a flag finally raised not for sacrifice, not for a dying wish.

When Su Qing came downstairs, she handed the dowry chest to Gu Xiang.

"The wedding dress must have a nine-tailed catkin, a phoenix tree, and a Luoshui lantern."

"it is good."

"Embroider another crooked little fox."

Gu Xiang paused for a moment: "Why does it have to be off-center?"

Su Qing glanced at the old jade pendant at his waist.

"If I embroider it exactly like the one you carved back then, won't it be crooked?"

Gu Xiang's lips twitched slightly.

"Where's the phoenix crown?"

"I don't want that pile of gold weighing me down." Su Qing raised her hand and touched her hair bun. "I'll use the fox-shaped jade hairpin you gave me."

"it is good."

The two returned to Zuixianju.

Gu Xiang folded the old scarlet robe and placed it on the table, then spread out a new marriage certificate. Su Qing sat beside him, still clutching the piece of fabric in her hand.

Before Gu Xiang picked up his pen, he turned to ask her a question.

"How do you want to write your first marriage certificate?"

Su Qing moved closer and looked at the blank paper.

"Write your name first."

"Whose comes first?"

"mine."

Gu Xiang responded, wrote down the two characters "Su Qing", and then wrote his own name next to them.

The night breeze of the capital city blows through Zuixianju, and the news of the new wedding ceremony spreads through the streets and alleys along with the lights.

When the Holy Empress of the Great Zhou returned, she was not there to hold a grand ceremony to worship Heaven.

It was a wedding in which she chose her own wedding dress, her own guests, and even her own final resting place.