A few simple words made Gong Xinyue’s nose sting, and tears slid down her face.

“No.” She shook her head. “Just wait for me three months. Let’s agree on three months.”

“If the other person doesn’t wait for you, we’ll each seek someone else.”

Affection had crept in without her noticing, and now it could not be reined back in — how could she bear to let him spend his whole life alone?

“No!” Long Yi lowered his eyes, his face full of deep feeling. “I said, I—”

He never got to finish. Gong Xinyue’s slender fingers pressed against his thin lips.

“Just three months. If you don’t come, I’ll go find someone else.”

She rose on her toes, nipped lightly at his lips, then let go of him and turned away.

“Yue’er.” Long Yi wrapped his arms around her from behind just as she reached for the door.

Gong Xinyue’s legs went stiff; she nearly melted into his embrace.

If she could, she would want to leave with him right now and depend on him for the rest of her life.

“Don’t do this.” Gong Xinyue didn’t turn around, her eyes reddening again. “It’s only three months. It’ll pass quickly.”

The battle for the capital might not take three months — it might take much longer.

“You must protect yourself well, and wait for me to come back.” Gong Xinyue broke free of Long Yi’s arms and pushed the door open to leave.

She used to not understand what it meant to love someone. Now she did — even if this parting meant a lifetime apart, at least she would have no regrets.

Long Yi understood Gong Xinyue’s temperament; he knew she wouldn’t leave with him, and that she had stayed only to make her feelings clear.

He touched his lips, which still carried a trace of warmth, watched the direction she had gone, then leapt up and vanished without a trace.

…

The next day, close to noon, a shabby carriage rolled into Feng Jin’s army camp.

Escorted in by guards, Concubine Ya finally saw the person she had missed for so long.

“A’Jin, I’ve come.”

“Your Highness the Crown Prince, this subordinate will go issue the orders first.” Seeing Concubine Ya enter, the general cupped his hands and turned to leave.

Concubine Ya pulled her hand free from Gong Xinyue’s grasp and rushed toward the man on the couch.

“A’Jin, are you hurt? How badly?”

Feng Jin sat on the soft couch, his left arm wrapped in bandages, a letter in his right hand.

“Did you finish what I asked you to do?” he said flatly, without even lifting his head.

Concubine Ya had spent the whole night hiding and sneaking about, and after finally escaping, she received not one word of concern — her heart felt deeply wronged.

“The plan failed. I got away.”

She sat down beside him, wanting to embrace him, but he pulled back.

“The mission isn’t finished. What was the point of you coming out?”

Feng Jin’s tone was ice-cold, nothing like the gentle man he once had been.

Had this been the old Concubine Ya, she would surely have been furious by now. But instead of anger, she smiled and stood up.

“A’Jin, you have your goals, and I have my own life to choose. We’re the same kind of person.”

Love was fine, but one couldn’t let it turn into numbness, and certainly not into self-abasement!

Xiao You had been right — a man could not be relied upon, and no matter how much you loved him, you must not lose yourself.

Gong Xinyue wasn’t a master of romance and didn’t understand these things well; she’d simply heard them from Feng Jiu’er and applied them where they seemed to fit.

Feng Jin seemed not to have expected Concubine Ya to suddenly pull away. He looked up: “What do you mean by that?”

“Your Highness, please sit!” Gong Xinyue pulled out a chair beside the table and gestured toward it.

Concubine Ya came and sat beside her, then finally turned back: “Feng Jin, in the eyes of you and your father, am I just a fool?”

“I suppose I am, ha ha ha…” She tilted her head back with a bitter laugh.

“If I weren’t a fool, would I have given everything for you without reservation, and nearly gotten my whole family killed for it? I really am a fool! Ha ha ha…”