After Qingyin left the private room, Xiao Fan returned to the sofa with the exquisite box in his arms.
"Have you collected all the medicinal ingredients?" Medusa asked coolly. Perhaps it was his imagination, but Xiao Fan kept feeling a chill down his back. He turned to look, yet found nothing unusual.
At Medusa's question, Xiao Fan replied happily, "I'm still missing two relatively rare ones, but that's fine. I'll find them eventually." Then, grinning, he placed the box on the table in front of her and said,
"Why don't you open it and take a look?"
A trace of puzzlement flashed through Medusa's eyes at his words, and her voice was full of confusion. "What is this?"
Xiao Fan gave a mysterious smile and said to Medusa, "It's a gift I prepared especially for you. Go on, open it." Once he said this, the cold behind his back seemed to fade, though he was too excited to notice.
Hearing this, Medusa tilted her head and looked at Xiao Fan curiously, seemingly surprised that he had prepared something especially for her. She sat up on the sofa, her long, beautiful legs emerging from her qipao as she folded them beneath her, her smooth feet sinking into the soft cushions.
Picking up the beautifully wrapped box from the table, Medusa reached out with her slender fingers and opened it.
A pair of exquisite women's shoes lay quietly inside. Golden threads traced a pattern from the toes, winding slowly along both sides of each shoe before reaching the heels, where they formed magnificent phoenixes poised to spread their wings and take flight.
Two small but exquisitely crafted red gems adorned the phoenixes' eyes, their vivid, almost dripping crimson lending an uncanny allure. Beyond the golden-thread embellishments, the soft red fabric beneath them