Madame Red-Silk walked down Central Avenue with her fingers wrapped tightly around the poisoned hairpin in her sleeve.
Her plan was simple: walk straight past the noisy central square, leap over the wall of the Lord’s Mansion, charm Pei Xuan into a drooling idiot, and stab him through the heart before the moon rose.
“Just wait, you arrogant little brat,” Madame Red-Silk muttered under her breath as she approached the glowing five-story building in the center of the avenue. “Once I take your head, I will burn this whole strange city to the ground and smash every single one of those annoying streetlamps—”
She took one more step past the corner of the Dry-Well Grand Department Store.
And then both of her silk-slippered feet froze solid on the marble sidewalk.
Right beside the grand entrance was a twenty-foot-wide display window made of flawless, transparent crystal glass. And standing right inside that display window, bathed in warm golden light from overhead spirit-lamps, was a Ten-Foot-Tall Full-Length Crystal Glass Mirror framed in carved white jade!
Madame Red-Silk turned her head slightly—and saw a life-sized, razor-sharp reflection of herself staring right back at her.
“Wh-what is that?!”
