Chapter 3 — Changed the entire Inheritance Lineage to Choose the Wolf King

Five days before the ceremony, an eagle landed on the window of Yen Chi's room right at dawn, carrying a piece of paper thicker than usual.

She hastily opened it, and for the first time after nearly a year of exchanging letters, the writer no longer signed "White Lang guest".

*"Yen Chi, the time has come when I can no longer hide it from you. I am Bui Lang Phong, the Wolf King of the White Wolf Kingdom. I hid my identity for the past year not because I did not trust you, but because I was afraid - if you knew who I was from the beginning, you would look at me with the eyes of someone plotting politics, not with the eyes of someone who truly cares about you. I want you to know me first, then know my name.

There are five more days until your feast. I will come. Not to compete or coerce, but to give you another choice - a real choice, not an arranged one."*

Yen Chi sat silently on the bed, her hand trembling as she held a piece of paper. Wolf King. The leader of another wolf kingdom — independent, powerful, with no ties to the Storm Wolves other than a few small trade deals in the past.

The memory of their first meeting rushed back into her mind, as clear as if it were yesterday.

It was a border market where small wolf clans used to trade goods—pelts, medicinal herbs, crude weapons—with each other before political tensions made such meetings increasingly rare. Yen Chi was only seventeen years old at that time, following the patriarch's group to trade for the first time, standing lost in a crowd of strangers.

A tall man, wearing a simple gray robe without any sign of royalty, helped her avoid a suddenly approaching cart. He didn't say her name, didn't ask her identity, just sat with her at a small roadside tea shop, talking about simple things - about the scent of the pine forest after the rain, about how she preferred looking at stars rather than flowers, about the loneliness of someone who has to live according to the framework set by others.

"Do you ever feel like you're living someone else's life?" he asked her like that, his deep eyes looking straight at her as if he already knew the answer.

She cried, right there in that small tea shop, for the first time in her life, telling a stranger about her fear before the upcoming Mate Selection Ceremony, about how she had never seen any spark of love with her five adopted brothers — even though she loved them as if they were her own.

He listened, without judgment, without empty advice. Just before parting, he gave her a secret communication — a trained falcon — and said, "If you need someone to listen, I'll always be here."

She never thought that person was the Wolf King of an entire kingdom.

She still remembers, before breaking up that day, he asked her a question that still resonates in her mind: "If one day you had to choose between duty and your heart, what would you choose?" At that time, she didn't have an answer, just laughed it off and said she was too young to think about such big things. He didn't force her to answer, just nodded, as if he already knew that question would follow her for a long time ahead.

For the next year, the letters that passed between them never talked about politics or power. He told her about the nights he stood alone on the highest gazebo of the Moonlight City, looking at the moonlight shining on the sea in the distance, wondering if the throne he was taking on was really what he wanted or just a responsibility that could not be denied. She told him about the loneliness of being an adopted child, always wondering if the love she received was complete or just part of family duty. They never met each other a second time, but through each word, a strange understanding grew - something Yen Chi had never felt with anyone in her own family.

Folding the letter, Yen Chi felt a strange flow of strength flowing in her heart - not because of the title "Wolf King", but because of the fact that the person who had always listened to her for the past year, never asked for anything, never took advantage of his position, turned out to be the person with enough power to stand firm against an entire other wolf clan if needed.

But that joy was quickly extinguished by an urgent knock on the door.

"Sister," Fifth Brother's voice rang out, hurriedly. "Dad, call your sister to the hall immediately."

Yen Chi quickly put the letter in a familiar secret place - a wooden alcove behind the wardrobe - and then left the room.

In the hall, the atmosphere was tense and stuffy. Patriarch Quach Bach Hai sat on the chair, his face pale, his trembling hands resting on the chair's armrest. Next to him, Tieu Yen stood with just enough worry on her face to make no one suspicious, holding a bowl of medicine in her hand.

"Dad, what's wrong?" Yen Chi quickly ran over and knelt down next to her foster father.

"I'm fine," he replied, but his weak voice betrayed his words. "It's just that lately I've been dizzy and my mind isn't as alert as before. Tieu Yen has prepared a tonic for me to drink every day, don't worry."

Yen Chi glanced at the medicine cup in Tieu Yen's hand, and once again, that strange sweet scent passed through her nose - this time stronger, almost mixed with the steam rising from the medicine bowl.

"Can I take a look at this remedy?" she asked, trying to keep her voice normal.

"Don't you believe me, sister?" Tieu Yen asked again, her voice a bit hurt, but her eyes flashed something cold for a split second — too fast for anyone other than Yen Chi to notice.

"It's not that I don't believe," Yen Chi replied, "it's just that I want to better understand father's health."

"Enough." Chief Bach Hai waved his hand, his voice unusually harsh - something that rarely happened to this normally peaceful man. "I didn't call you guys here to argue about medicine. There are five days left until the ceremony. I want to make sure all the rituals are carefully prepared."

Thiet Phong, standing in the corner of the room with an unusually pensive expression, spoke up. "Father, I think we should postpone this formal discussion. You need to rest."

That was the first statement in many weeks that Yen Chi felt true sincerity from one of the five brothers — no layer of fog covering it. She turned to look at her eldest brother, and saw his eyes also looking at her, searching, as if trying to find something.

But that moment quickly passed when Tieu Yen walked closer to Thiet Phong, her hand gently placed on his arm. "Big brother takes care of dad so thoughtfully. I'm also very touched."

Yen Chi clearly saw Thiet Phong's shoulders stiffen slightly at that touch, but unlike the other four brothers, his eyes never softened - instead there was a fleeting alertness, so quick that Tieu Yen herself probably didn't even notice.

*He's different*, Yen Chi thought to herself. *He is still conscious.*

It was the first glimmer of hope she had had in months — that perhaps, all was not lost. If Thiet Phong still maintains his sanity, perhaps he will be the one to help her put the disparate pieces together.

But she didn't know that night, Tieu Yen had secretly made her own plan for her "most difficult case". In the small room behind the garden, she sat in front of the mirror, holding a bottle of aromatherapy that was darker in color than the others - the most concentrated type, reserved for subjects with strong will and sharp intuition.

"Thiet Phong," she muttered, her voice no longer sweet. "The harder it is for you, the more rewarding the final reward is. But don't worry, I have enough patience."

She opened the drawer of her dressing table and took out an old notebook with a leather cover that had faded over the years - the only thing left from the teacher who taught her to prepare Perfume Du Or, a hermit medicine man who had been banished by the patriarch of another region for using herbs to manipulate people's hearts. She turned to the last page, where there was a scribbled line: "The stronger the will, the more the dosage must be increased gradually in stages, not in a hurry, otherwise the body will eliminate itself before the scent penetrates the mind."

She had done exactly that for the past six months with Thiet Phong - little by little, drop by drop, mixed into tea, into wine, into the air in his room every time she had a chance to visit. Much slower than her four younger siblings, but she firmly believes that tonight, with the most concentrated dose stored in that dark bottle, the last line of defense of Thiet Phong's will collapse.

“The chief trusts me almost completely,” she whispered to herself, putting the notebook back in the drawer. "The four younger siblings are already puppets in my hands. As long as I can win over big brother tonight, tomorrow, no matter what Yen Chi says, no one will believe her anymore."

She put the perfume bottle in her sleeve, stood up, changed her face into a familiar gentle smile, then walked out of the room, heading towards Thiet Phong's suite.

There are five days left until the ceremony. And the silent battle between light and darkness, between truth and lies, is entering its most fierce phase.