The festival crowd in chaos — love-charms glowing an unsettling deep red, lanterns exploding overhead, people screaming and scattering.

Running through narrow back streets, the chaos fading behind them.

They reach a small abandoned temple at the edge of the festival grounds.

Inside the ruined temple — dust, darkness, moonlight through a cracked roof.

Close examination of their injuries — establishing the damage.

Ling Suyin speaks first — breaking the silence with explanation.

Ling Suyin explains Soul Consumption — the forbidden art and why the binding ruins her plans.

Qing He responds — explaining his situation, the elders, the death sentence mission.

Ling Suyin lays out the ritual's three-phase structure.

They discuss how to interrupt the binding — the anchor concept.

Ling Suyin reveals she knows where the locus is.

Qing He asks why she is telling him all this.

Ling Suyin's answer — pragmatic, cold, honest.

Qing He's response — matching her honesty.

A beat of silence — they sit across from each other, the golden thread glowing between them.

The cloth toss — a small gesture of grudging, minimal cooperation.

Ling Suyin applies pressure to her wound — the ceasefire formalized.

Closing beat — establishing shot of the temple, the golden thread, the agreement made.