Iron Widow

While hospitalized and recovering from her battle wounds, Zetian begins vividly reliving Shimin’s memories as dreams due to their shared connection. She meets Wende briefly in Shimin’s memories before waking up to find Yizhi and Shimin asleep in her hospital room, holding hands. The addition of a third person to the Chrysalis cockpit should have caused a disruption for the pilots, and nobody is quite sure why the trio was able to bond and pilot together. Zetian is apprehensive over the resulting love triangle.

Due to the spectacular showing of the Vermillion Bird’s Heroic Form and his own son’s involvement, Gao Qiu invites Zetian and Shimin to his home in the capital city of Chang’an. The media images from the previous fight have gone viral and Zetian, Shimin, and Yizhi are now a national sensation. The trio is welcomed by a lavish party thrown at the Gao estate in their honor.

Zetian and Shimin meet with Qiu over a potential partnership and contractual deal for Qiu to handle their celebrity image. Qiu tries to tempt Shimin with alcohol, which Zetian narrowly saves him from consuming. Qiu has Shimin dismissed so that he can go over the contract alone with Zetian. Once he has her alone, he demands that she strip naked and read the contract aloud while he records her.