Chapter Summaries

Li Jia and Hera stayed in Wave Capital as honored guests, where Li Jia enjoyed the merfolk’s hospitality, new clothes, and local food. As she thought about the people she had grown close to, Li Jia realized she no longer wanted to let go of the happiness she had found.

• Li Jia teased Hera, then pretended not to hear Hera apologize.
• Qili gave Li Jia and Hera a palace key and welcomed them as honored guests of the merfolk.
• Li Jia and Hera rested in a sea-view room before Hera woke Li Jia and took her out to eat.
• Li Jia put on a merfolk-style outfit Hera had prepared and explored Wave Capital with her.
• Li Jia sampled local seafood and remembered the friends and companions she had left behind.
• Li Jia reflected that she had grown attached to her new life and could no longer bear to lose its joys.

Li Jia returned from shopping with Hera and discovered that Hera had made them matching shell bracelets. When the system returned and warned that Li Jia might die before completing her mission to prevent Hera’s marriage, Li Jia activated its risky support function.

• Li Jia finished shopping and reassured Hera that she preferred Hot Spring Ravine over other places.
• Hera gave Li Jia a matching shell bracelet she had strung herself, and Li Jia noticed its unusual seawater-like scent.
• The system returned from training and warned Li Jia that her relationship with Hera had stalled at a critical point and that her mortal lifespan was running out.
• The system explained that Hera would fulfill her fate as divine queen and marry the man in the book if Li Jia died before completing her mission.
• Li Jia accepted the system’s fifty-percent-chance support function and whispered a prayer for Hera’s happiness.

Li Jia was lured into damaging Wave Capital’s Light Vortex by a false mermaid while the system’s “assistance” kept her from recognizing the trap. As the merfolk accused her, Hera arrived and defended her, ending the chapter by brutally silencing a shark guard who challenged her.

• Li Jia followed a familiar fragrance to the Light Vortex, where a little mermaid tricked her into placing a sinister cap rivet against it.
• The rivet attacked the Light Vortex, and Li Jia realized the girl had deceived her just as the system revealed its assistance had deliberately led her into a crisis.
• The false mermaid vanished as guards and the merfolk chief arrived, and Li Jia contacted Hera to tell her the Light Vortex was cracked and she was alone at the scene.
• Hera arrived, declared Li Jia her attendant disciple, and forbade anyone from interrogating her until the truth came out.
• When a shark guard accused Hera of shielding a criminal, Hera used her divine power to crush him and insisted Li Jia was innocent.

Li Jia was horrified when Hera punished a blasphemous merperson, but Hera repaired the merfolk’s Light Vortex and comforted her as she collapsed. The merfolk chief revealed that damage to the vortex had triggered Li Jia’s deadly heat, and Hera began easing her pain while promising not to force her.

• Li Jia recoiled in horror after Hera killed a merperson, while Hera concealed her from the frightened merfolk.
• The merfolk chief begged Hera to save Wave Capital, and Hera repaired the Light Vortex before taking the sick Li Jia into her arms.
• The chief explained that damage to the vortex had released siren extract, causing Li Jia’s heat and threatening to burn her to ashes if it went unsatisfied.
• Hera carried Li Jia away and, after hesitating over the consequences, undressed and held her to ease the pain.
• Hera asked Li Jia who she was, kissed her, and told her she would not force her until Li Jia gave permission.

Li Jia woke beside Hera after their night together and mistook Hera’s calmness for proof she had been with many women before. Hera reassured her that she had been nervous too, pointing to her pruney fingertips as evidence.

• Li Jia woke with aches and marks on her body and realized she had slept with her boss, Hera.
• Li Jia became jealous and upset at the thought that Hera had been intimate with many women before her.
• Hera noticed Li Jia crying, gave her warm water, and asked what was wrong.
• Li Jia confessed she felt it was unfair that their night had been her first time but not Hera’s.
• Hera explained she had been nervous all night and showed Li Jia her pruney fingertips from helping her.

After Hera saved Li Jia from the siren extract, Li Jia tried to dismiss their intimacy as an accident, but Hera confronted her about her feelings and confessed that she had fallen in love with her. The chapter ended with Hera asking Li Jia to form a bond with her.

• Li Jia promised Hera she would keep their night together secret and insisted they should pretend it never happened.
• Hera challenged Li Jia's attempt to call their intimacy an accident, recalling that Li Jia had called her name and begged her not to stop.
• Hera asked Li Jia whether she thought she had saved her only because she was her acolyte.
• Hera reminded Li Jia that she had been the first to say she loved her, then confessed that her god had fallen in love with her.
• Li Jia asked whether she could call Hera by her name, and Hera embraced her and asked her to form a bond.

Li Jia overcame her doubts and agreed to form a marriage bond with Hera after Hera reassured her of her love and devotion. They returned to Hot Spring Ravine, where Winslow welcomed their relationship and felt relieved that Hera had found someone she loved.

• Li Jia worried that marrying Hera and entering the marriage register was premature, but Hera embraced her and confessed that she liked her.
• Li Jia accepted Hera’s assurances and agreed to go home with her.
• Li Jia revealed that she had bought gifts on credit from the merfolk chief, leaving Winslow to receive the bill.
• Hera carried Li Jia and the gifts back to Hot Spring Ravine using Shadow Escape.
• Winslow supported the marriage and felt glad that Hera had found someone she loved.

Li Jia and Hera registered their marriage history and completed their covenant at the Temple of the Goddess of Marriage, with Li Jia reassuring Hera that she wanted to stay with her. After Doreen warned that their same-sex marriage would provoke opposition, Hera vowed to protect Li Jia and change the temple's marriage regulations.

• Winslow offered to organize a grand wedding, but Li Jia and Hera said they were not ready to hold one.
• Li Jia and Hera registered their marriage covenant, and Hera removed Vance from the record rather than giving Li Jia a surname.
• Hera and Li Jia placed their covenant in the Covenant Bucket together, completing the temple's recognition of their marriage.
• Hera admitted she feared Li Jia might leave, and Li Jia reassured her that she loved her and had chosen to stay in Hot Spring Ravine.
• Doreen warned Hera that the same-sex marriage broke with propriety and could make Li Jia a target, but Hera said she would protect Li Jia and add a rule stating that gender did not matter where the heart led.

After marrying Hera, Li Jia confronted the system over its dangerous scheme in the Wave Capital and rejected the idea that affection gained through others’ suffering was worthwhile. She threatened to end the mission at the cost of her own life if the system used innocent people as tools again.

• Hera agreed to keep her marriage to Li Jia private until Li Jia felt ready, and assured her that their union gave her divine protection and status.
• The system announced that its auxiliary function had succeeded and that Li Jia and Hera’s affection had increased, bringing the Affection Hourglass to four-fifths progress.
• Li Jia accused the system of manipulating her into helping destroy the Wave Capital’s Light Vortex and putting its children at risk to raise affection.
• The system defended its plan with calculated odds and claimed Hera could repair the Light Vortex, but Li Jia challenged its reliance on probabilities and dismissed its mission logic.
• Li Jia warned the system that if it used other people’s lives as tools again, she would terminate the mission even if it meant her own disappearance.

After Li Jia and Hera’s bond became known, Linai and the animals gave Li Jia wedding gifts, and Linai passed on Artemis’s promised wish as protection. Li Jia and Hera returned to Hot Spring Ravine, agreed they did not want children, and learned the system’s next plot task.

• Artemis congratulated Li Jia and Hera, while Linai warmly accepted their marriage and teased Li Jia about it.
• The animals gave Li Jia wedding presents, and Linai gave her the name tag carrying Artemis’s promise of a wish.
• Hera arrived in the peacock chariot and agreed to bring Li Jia’s gifts, including a log, back to Hot Spring Ravine.
• Winslow put the gifts in the kitchen cellar’s thousand-year ice to keep them from spoiling.
• Li Jia told Hera she was not interested in having children, and Hera agreed that raising Li Jia was enough for her.
• The system told Li Jia to advance the relationship between Demeter and Zeus so the Goddess of Spring could be born successfully.