Chapter 2 — Changed the entire Inheritance Lineage to Choose the Wolf King

Six days before the ceremony, Yen Chi decided to try one last time.

She went to the small blacksmith workshop in the west of the palace, where Second Brother - the person who once taught her how to sharpen a sword blade so that it wouldn't chip when transformed into battle - was working hard with a new sword. In the past, this was a place where two sisters could sit for hours, he forged and told stories, and she listened and fanned the fire for him.

"Second brother," she called, standing in the doorway.

The young man looked up, and in that first moment, Yen Chi clearly saw a familiar light flash in his eyes — as if some part of the old Second Brother was still there. But just a second later, that light disappeared, replaced by a reserved, distant look.

"Yen Chi. Is there anything wrong?"

"I just... want to watch you forge your sword." She walked in, trying to keep her voice gentle like the old days. "It's been a while since we sat down and talked."

The second brother was silent for a moment, his hand still hammering on the red-hot iron bar, sparks flying in the air. "I'm very busy. I still have to prepare the ceremony."

"What ritual?" Yen Chi asked, even though in her heart she had vaguely guessed the answer.

"Tieu Yen said that each of us should prepare a gift, a separate vow, to... show our sincerity when it's your turn to choose." The second brother spoke, his voice somewhat embarrassed, as if he realized that his words were unreasonable but still blurted them out.

Yen Chi felt a cold run down her spine. "Tieu Yen told you to do that?"

"She just wanted to help." The second brother replied quickly, a bit too fast. "She said... told us to take this more seriously, not to let you down on the holidays."

There was a strange contradiction in that sentence that Yen Chi couldn't immediately express in words - if Tieu Yen really wanted to help her, why was he the one who directed all five of her brothers to prepare "offerings" as if they were holding a competition, instead of letting everything happen naturally like many generations of clans do?

"I don't need any offerings," she said, trying to stay calm. "I just need to... know that you're still my brother."

The second brother stopped the hammer and looked at her for a long moment. There was a moment — just a moment — his eyes softened, like mist melting on a lake. "Yen Chi, I..."

"Second brother!" A voice rang out from outside the door, sweet but strong enough to cut off unfinished sentences. Tieu Yen stood there, holding a tray of water, smiling brightly as if she had never heard anything. "I'll bring you some cool water. It must be tiring to forge a knife in this hot weather."

Immediately, Yen Chi saw Nhi brother's shoulders stiffen, his gentle eyes just now disappeared without a trace, replaced by a strange attentiveness towards Tieu Yen, almost impossible to look away from.

"Thank you," he said, his voice completely different — warm, close, the kind of tone he had only used before when talking to Yen Chi.

Yen Chi stood still, observing the scene like an outsider. A strange sweet scent lingered in the air, becoming clearer and clearer as Tieu Yen approached. Her intuition tried to penetrate the fog but was helpless — it was as if an invisible hand was covering her eyes.

"I'm sorry, did I interrupt?" Tieu Yen turned to Yen Chi, her eyes sparkling with innocence. "Did you come to visit him too? I thought you were busy preparing clothes for the ceremony."

"I just stopped by," Yen Chi replied, trying to keep her voice calm.

"Then let me and Second Brother take care of the sword forging. Sister, go back and rest. There are only six more days left. Don't be too tired." Tieu Yen's tone is so gentle that if you don't pay close attention, people will think it's a sincere concern. But Yen Chi clearly heard in it a disguised order — go away.

She nodded, turned and walked out of the forge, her heart heavy.

Leaving the blacksmith workshop, Yen Chi passed by the sword practice area south of the palace, where Third Brother was practicing alone in the morning sun. He is the most hot-tempered of the five brothers, but also the most straightforward — before, if there was something he was unhappy with, he would say it out loud, without hiding it.

"Third brother," she called, standing in the shade of a nearby tree.

He stopped his sword, turned to look at her, and for a brief moment his eyes shone with genuine joy — like a natural reflex left over from years of intimacy. But right after that, he seemed to remember something, his face immediately became stiff.

"What are you doing here?" His voice was harsher, harsher than usual.

"I just came by to watch you practice." Yen Chi tried to keep her voice gentle, even though her heart ached at that sudden change. "What's making you so upset?"

"Nothing." He turned his back and continued to swing his sword, but his movements became more chaotic and inaccurate than his usual form. "Don't worry about me anymore. Tieu Yen is right, you're just trying to be friendly so you can easily choose the most satisfactory person during the ceremony."

Those words were like a knife cutting into Yen Chi's heart. "Who told you that?"

"It doesn't matter who says it. What matters is that it's right." He still didn't turn to look at her, but his hand holding the sword trembled slightly - a small sign that only Yen Chi, with her spiritual sense trained since childhood, could recognize.

"Third brother, look at me." She stepped closer, her voice earnest. "Do you really believe what you just said? Or are you just repeating what someone else said?"

He stopped, his sword hanging in mid-air. In a few short seconds, Yen Chi clearly saw a fierce struggle taking place behind his eyes — as if there were two people fighting for control of the same body.

"I don't know," he finally whispered, his voice losing all the harshness from before, replaced by genuine confusion. "I don't know why I keep thinking these things about you lately. I wasn't like that before. I..."

But before he could finish his sentence, a shadow appeared at the entrance to the training ground - just a jade-colored shadow passing quickly, but enough for Third Brother to suddenly stand up straight, his face returning to its familiar cold expression.

"Go home," he said curtly, turning back to continue practicing his sword, this time his movements became decisive and precise as usual - as if the struggle just now had never happened.

Yen Chi stood still for a moment, looking at her brother's back, feeling both sad and more certain about her hypothesis. Each of the brothers has a fleeting moment of sanity — and each time, Tieu Yen's appearance or even a flickering shadow is enough to extinguish it instantly.

She left the sword practice area and passed the garden behind the palace, where the Fourth Brother was sitting alone under a tree, holding a withered wildflower in his hand, looking blankly into the distance. This is the quietest of the five brothers, the one who used to write her clumsy poems every birthday.

"Four brothers?" she called softly.

He was startled, looked up, and for a moment, Yen Chi clearly saw the pain on his face — as if he was struggling with something inside.

"Miss Yen Chi," he said, his voice hoarse. "I... I'm sorry."

"Sorry for what?"

The fourth brother opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it and shook his head. "Nothing. I just... I don't know. I've been feeling so confused lately, it's like there's a fog in my head, I can't remember clearly why I'm thinking the things I'm thinking."

Those words made Yen Chi's heart tighten. This was the first time any of the five brothers had admitted, even vaguely, that something was wrong with them.

"Fourth brother," she sat down next to him, lowering her voice. "If you ever feel bad, tell me. No matter what."

He looked at her, his eyes filled with tears, but then there were footsteps in the distance, and he quickly stood up, his face returning to its familiar distant look. "I have to go. Third brother is calling me for sword practice."

Yen Chi watched his disappearing shadow, her mind filled with a hundred worries. Each brother has a moment of revelation — a glimmer of their true self, before the fog descends again. But she still cannot put them together into a complete picture.

That evening, she sat at the desk again, the candlelight swaying with the wind blowing through the door. She wrote to guest Bach Lang, telling about what she witnessed - not to ask for help, but because he was the only person she could completely trust at this time.

*"I don't understand why my family has changed so much in less than a year. Something — or someone — is creeping in among it all. I can feel it but I can't see it. Do you believe in the intuition of the deceived wolf tribe?"*

She folded the letter and gave it to the little falcon that often perched by the window late at night - the secret messenger between her and the guest Bach Lang, trained to only fly between two fixed points. The bird flapped its wings and flew away in the darkness, carrying questions that she herself had not yet answered.

She didn't know, tonight, not far away, Dinh Thi Le was standing silently in the dark hallway, seeing Tru Tieu Yen sneak into Thiet Phong's room - the eldest son, the only one of the five brothers who had never shown any moment of weakness in front of Tieu Yen.

Tonight, perhaps, everything will change.