15 years later

...

Shi Yen had guests to entertain.

Her home was filled with family and friends in celebration of her son\'s birthday, and they were all together, Yuan\'s and Wanting\'s alike, even their friends, the Long family.

Shi Yen glanced at her parents who stuck together like glue.

When they were released from the prison they\'ve been locked in, her parents had told them how they travelled from town to city in an effort to hunt and kill the Mountain Master. That\'s when they were captured and tortured, kept separate for years, not knowing if the other was alive or not. But the two did not break.

The Mountain Master was a psychopath and Shi Ailin\'s bullet to his head saved their lives as well as the lives of many others in the future.

When the four of them reunited, they fell to their knees and wept. Shi Yen and Shi Ailin freed them, after years and years of uncertainty and pain.

When her parents had washed up and recovered, Shi Yen and Shi Ailin introduced Yuan Shun and Luo Wanting to them. Their father, Shi Yan, gave them an intimidating, hard stare, standing slightly taller than them. But then he cracked a smile and hugged the two. He thanked them for everything they\'ve done for his daughters.

Her mother had pulled Shi Yen and Shi Ailin privately to the side and ask, "where did you find these handsome men?"

Just the memory made Shi Yen smile.

Luo Wanting and Shi Ailin married the day after they left Jujing. Luo Wanting professed his love again and said he did not want to spend another day where he couldn\'t call her his wife, especially after everything they\'ve been through. It was a small and intimate ceremony and Shi Yen cried as Yuan Shun held her.

As for Yuan Ning and Wu Genji, they adopted her nephew and had a younger daughter together, and they were happy and inseparable and free of their haunted past. Shi Yen was happy for them.

Shi Yen then found her teenage son, Yuan Bojing, sitting down, away from his family and friends. His shoulders were slumped as he broodingly stared into the distance. He looked so much like his father that it made her choke up, how she and Yuan Shun brought this beautiful life into this world. When they found out they were having a son, Yuan Shun said: "Fantastic. Now there will be two of me to annoy you." Shi Yen remembered laughing so hard she had to take some time to breathe.

Shi Yen then followed her son\'s gaze as he was staring at Long Xiatian, one of Long Jie\'s daughters.

Shi Yen was well acquainted with the Long family in the past, but they were never close, not until Shi Yen learned that their children were close to the ages of her son and she wanted them to be friends. Shi Yen got to know Long Jie and his wife Song Luli better over the years because of it.

The Long family ran the Dragon Syndicate, who were the oldest and founders of the Underworld\'s secret societies. Now the power is in the hands of the Shi family, but often, rulers change, and Shi Yen upheld the title until she was ready to decide who would be her heir.

Shi Yen gazed at her son. "You like her."

Yuan Bojing stilled. "What?"

Shi Yen pointed her chin at Long Xiatian. "Xia."

Yuan Bojing blushed. "Mother, no. Gross."

Shi Yen sighed. She loved teasing her son, but she found it amusing when he denied things that were blatantly obvious.

"It\'s your birthday, love. Why don\'t you go talk to her?"

"I won\'t spend it with a girl. Especially not Xia."

"Go to her. Or else, I will be taking games from you for a week."

"Mother—"

"Two weeks," Shi Yen asserted.

Yuan Bojing grunted. He then stood and stalked over to the table Long Xiatian stood by, but instead, he walked past her, and found Long Xiatian\'s elder brothers instead, who playfully tackled him.

Shi Yen sighed.

"What\'s wrong?" a deep, familiar, and handsome voice drawled.

"Our son," Shi Yen replied, rubbing against her husband\'s shoulder when he sat next to her. "He\'s just as hopeless as you."

Yuan Shun smiled brightly. "I\'d say he takes after you, as you stubbornly denied yourself of what you thought of me when we first met."

Shi Yen pouted. "I wasn\'t sure if I could have trusted you back then."

Her husband chuckled, his amber eyes glowed. "And what do you think of me now?"

Shi Yen smiled dazzlingly; it knocked the breath from Yuan Shun. "I think…I know that love you," she told him. "I\'ve always had."

Yuan Shun placed a palm on the side of her face, cupping her cheek. "And I love you. That feeling won\'t ever go away."

Shi Yen leaned over and she kissed him, welcomed by the warmth of his mouth. Her heart burst with happiness and joy, and for a long time, she convinced herself she would never feel anything like this.

"Mommy!" shouted her daughter. She called for Shi Yen and yet she jumped onto Yuan Shun\'s l.a.p. She then showed them their wrist with a pink bracelet. "Look. I made this!"

"It\'s very pretty, just like you, Xiaoxi."

Xiaoxi showed her a toothy grin before she hopped off her father and ran towards the other children.

Shi Ailin then approached them with Luo Wanting by her side, joining Shi Yen and Yuan Shun. The four of them watched their joined happy family and it felt right.

Shi Yen then remembered something a wise person once told her long ago: "In all things good and evil, there is something beautiful and wicked beneath."

...

THE END