Xiǎo Méi arrives at the Primordial Heart Demon's offices, a legal palace built inside the open throat of a petrified mountain beast. Petitions form stairs into darkness.

The outer hall is made from stacked dismissed petitions. Clerk Shu has escorted Xiǎo Méi only to the threshold.

The inner office receives Xiǎo Méi with rehearsed hospitality: tea, two chairs, Qin's file already placed on the table.

The Primordial Heart Demon sits behind the tea table in formal scholar shape. As a hidden archetype, his veil-mask obscures the lower face while gold eyes look directly toward camera.

The teacher-student tension is courteous and lethal. Tea steam forms tiny legal characters between them.

They dissect Qin's lease in midair, clauses suspended like surgical organs. The demon knows every line by appetite.

Xiǎo Méi finally names the moral shape of the lease, but the room remains civil, almost tender.

The demon opens a wall of the office, revealing the empire's contracts as glowing veins through all Ten Thousand Peaks.

A second black chair rises beside the demon's own, carved with empty name space. The offer is framed as recognition, not temptation.

Xiǎo Méi gives no visible refusal. She answers like a student accepting an assignment.

A private drafting room opens, bare except for a desk, old ink, and a wall mirror of black water. The door closes, leaving Xiǎo Méi alone with blank paper.