Ember Moonlight: The Qipao-Cutting Fire Phoenix Burns the Old World

On the night she signed away her freedom, Shen Qingqiu pressed a blood-red phoenix seal into the contract with a broken jade brooch. As the blood curse, “The daughter of the Shen family shall repay the debt owed to the Xie family,” appeared on the window, she sneered and tore up the wealthy merchant’s marriage contract.

Stepping into a private room at the Paramount, she fixed her eyes on the third button of Xie Chenzhou’s military uniform. “A bride by contract? Fine. But every night, I’ll cut off one of your buttons. When they’re all gone, your heart will belong to me!”

[As Shanghai mocked her for wearing a counterfeit qipao in place of the real thing, she ripped open the underskirt to reveal a golden phoenix that glimmered in the dark:]“Military-grade fabric from the Meiya Silk Mill? It’s my phoenix feathers now!” Xie Chenzhou grabbed her by the waist and demanded an explanation, only to have golden shears pressed to his throat. “Touch me again, and next time I’ll cut Commander Xie’s tie, throat and all.”

[She smeared poisonous lip color made with beeswax onto his lips:]“Swallow it, and let’s see if I’ll give you the antidote.” He gripped the back of her neck and kissed her deeply. “If I die, you die with me. We’ll keep fighting in hell!” As their lips turned red with blood, a bloodstained confession surfaced from her makeup case, [The headline #TheLivingKingofHellKneelsattheAncestralHall# exploded! In the video, she ground her heel into his military boot:]“Want to atone? First, be a fitting model at my Ember-Hued Qipao shop!” And so Shanghai witnessed a strange sight: Commander Xie stood stiffly as she took his measurements, while her fingertips traced the slit. “This time, it goes up to your thigh… Boss Xie, your heartbeat is so loud I can’t concentrate on my cutting.”

[At a Paris fashion show, she took apart a wedding dress and pieced hundreds of shards of jade into a map of China:]“The shackles that bound women will become a fire phoenix sweeping across the land!”