“I’m not leaving. I will never leave again.” Yan Yunning soothed the man who could not seem to feel secure.

“Mm.” Xuan Yanyu tightened his arms around her again and again.

“Xuan Xixi, just now at the chamber door, Ye’an said you intended to confine Xiaoxiao to the ancestral hall — why?” Yan Yunning didn’t forget to ask.

The man’s voice came out low and rough. “You’ve seen Xiaoxiao?”

“Mm. I snuck Xiaoxiao’s token to get into the palace — how else did you think I got in?”

Xuan Yanyu drew her further into his arms. “The Imperial Mother Xiaoxiao spoke of — that’s you?”

“Hmm?” Yan Yunning looked at the man before her and curled the corner of her lips. “Xiaoxiao told you? That I’m his Imperial Mother?”

“He said you claimed to be his Imperial Mother, and asked Us to send someone to bring you to the palace. We assumed…” Xuan Yanyu pressed his lips together. “We assumed you were the same as those other women before, so We reprimanded him.”

Yan Yunning’s heart lurched. “So it was because you thought Xiaoxiao had accepted someone else as his Imperial Mother — that’s why you told him he couldn’t call you Imperial Father anymore?”

“Mm.” The man rested his chin on top of her head, and the corners of his mouth curved upward. “Lingning, We will not allow him to accept anyone else as his Imperial Mother. No one can replace you — not even someone who looks like you.”

“Xuan Xixi.” Yan Yunning’s eyes grew faintly red. Listening to the powerful rhythm of the man’s heartbeat, her voice broke slightly. “These past five years — it must have been very hard on you.”

“Mm. Very hard. So you cannot leave Us again.” Xuan Yanyu’s voice was laced with a dependent, aggrieved undertone.

Yan Yunning’s chest ached — both sour and pained — and her eyes trembled as she began to sob softly.

“We were only joking. We’ve been doing quite well — please don’t cry, all right?” The man coaxed her gently.

“Nonsense. You’ve gotten thinner.” Yan Yunning’s voice was thick with congestion.

Xuan Yanyu rose with Yan Yunning in his arms. The coldness that usually inhabited his gaze had, today, been replaced by warmth and laughter.

Once she had been settled onto the bed, Yan Yunning grabbed the hem of the man’s sleeping robe and used it to wipe away her tears. She then suddenly asked, “Xuan Xixi, you still haven’t told me — why were you going to confine Xiaoxiao to the ancestral hall? It’s so late — aren’t you afraid of frightening him?”

The man gave a light cough, and as he draped Yan Yunning’s robe over the sandalwood stand, he refused to say a word.

He could hardly admit that it was because Xiaoxiao had tracked down the so-called Imperial Mother himself, and the two had even dined together — and that because he had felt it was unfair to her, he had wanted to punish Xiaoxiao, could he?

Lingning would surely blame him for giving orders without investigating first.

Fortunately, Ye Chen hadn’t done what he’d said. Otherwise, he would never forgive himself.

“Is it hard to say?” Yan Yunning pulled the brocade blanket over herself and tucked it in.

The candlelight was dim and hazy. Xuan Yanyu gazed at the girl whose brows and eyes had grown only more beautiful and exquisite with time, and swept his tongue across his lips.

Yan Yunning reached out and hooked her arm around his neck. “You don’t want to say?”

At such a close distance, Xuan Yanyu’s gaze slowly grew heated. He lowered his eyes and pressed his lips to Yan Yunning’s, his hand reaching for the bedcurtain and drawing it closed.

The sound of breathing gradually deepened. The bedcurtain swayed as though stirred by a breeze, lifting and falling in turns.

Meeting the man’s scorching gaze, Yan Yunning furrowed her brow slightly, and an involuntary soft sound escaped her lips.

That night, outside the bedchamber, one could hear not only the occasional cry of insects, but also the man’s low and faint sighs, and the woman’s barely-there murmurs.

Early the next morning, before Yan Yunning had fully woken, she heard the guards outside the chamber announce in loud voices, “Your Majesty — this is dreadful! His Highness the Crown Prince has fallen unconscious and cannot be roused!”

“Your Majesty, please hurry and check on His Highness!”

“Your Majesty, His Highness the Crown Prince is gravely ill — please go and see him!”

Yan Yunning jolted upright in alarm, then sank back against the pillow, her body aching and weak.

“Pay them no mind.” The man tugged the brocade blanket over Yan Yunning, his voice still low and drowsy. “He’s putting it on. He was up nearly the entire night — be a good girl and close your eyes to rest.”

“That won’t do.” Yan Yunning cleared her raspy throat. “I have to go and check. Even if it’s all an act, I need to see for myself — otherwise I won’t be at ease.”

Xuan Yanyu opened his eyes with reluctant resignation. “We will go to the Crown Prince’s residence and take a look. You rest here in the chamber.”

Yan Yunning hesitated.

The man sat up and tucked the blanket snugly around her, his voice exceptionally gentle. “Rest properly and then go to see him. With Us and the Imperial Physicians there, nothing will go wrong.”

Yan Yunning’s eyes truly couldn’t stay open — she was utterly exhausted. She instructed him, “Bring Xiaoxiao back to the palace. When I wake up, I want to see him.”

“Very well.” Xuan Yanyu lowered his gaze to the girl whose eyes were already closed, his expression full of warm, indulgent tenderness.

The Crown Prince’s Residence.

The little one lay on the bed with ruddy, healthy color in his cheeks, his legs idly crossed, while four or five Imperial Physicians stood gathered around him.

“Is she here? Has this Crown Prince’s Imperial Mother arrived?”

“Your Highness, please don’t be impatient.” For the sake of authenticity, Ye Chen placed a dampened cloth on Xuan Yuncheng’s forehead.

“We pay our respects to His Majesty!” The guards outside bellowed loudly in greeting.

The little one lowered his legs and widened his eyes. “Why has Imperial Father come? He never comes to this Crown Prince’s residence.”

Ye Chen jerked his chin. “Your Highness, are you still keeping up the act?”

Xuan Yuncheng: “…”

The chamber doors swung open. The little one turned on his side and met the man’s eyes. He considered for a moment, then called out in a soft, milky voice, “Your Majesty.”

Ye Chen, Ye’an, the guards who had followed Xuan Yanyu in, and the Imperial Physicians all seemed to draw their necks in at once, their breathing slowing to near silence.

“Your Majesty of Prince Xuan?” The little one lay on his stomach on the bed, kicking his small legs back and forth, eyes crinkled in a smile as he looked at Xuan Yanyu.

Xuan Yanyu’s brow arched lightly, and he tossed the token in his hand onto the bed.

“Your Majesty, how did this Crown Prince’s token end up in your hands?” Xuan Yuncheng picked up the token with his small hand and spun it by its string around his fingertip.

“Is His Highness the Crown Prince not supposed to be unconscious and unresponsive?” Xuan Yanyu walked to the bedside and looked down at him from above.

The little one glanced sideways at the Imperial Physicians.

One of them drew in a deep breath and replied with great trepidation, “Your… Your Majesty, His Highness has just… just woken.”

He hadn’t deceived His Majesty — His Highness had indeed only just woken. That couldn’t be counted against him.

“Since you’re awake, go attend your morning studies.” The man looked at the little Xuan Yuncheng, whose face was all scrunched up in protest, and seemed to be in rather good spirits.

The little one pursed his small mouth. “Your Majesty, this Crown Prince is ill — can I not have a day off?”

Xuan Yanyu gave a cold snort, and took the brocade robe from Ye Chen’s hands and tossed it onto him. “Put on your robes and go to your morning studies.”

Xuan Yuncheng picked up the robe at a crawl, sulkily and reluctantly pulling it over himself. The collar embroidered with coiling dragons ended up crooked and lopsided, and the jade belt was fastened loose and slack.

Xuan Yanyu’s brow furrowed — half annoyed, half amused. “Xuan Yuncheng? One shift and the whole robe will fall to the floor. Do you intend to embarrass the imperial family at the study hall?”

“I can’t do it properly.” This, at least, he said honestly.

The brocade robe was elaborate and complicated. He truly could not get it on by himself.

“Stand still.” Xuan Yanyu’s brow furrowed a few degrees more.

“Okay.” The little one stood up obediently as he was told — and the robe promptly got caught under his foot. He stumbled and lurched toward the floor. Ye Chen’s heart leapt into his throat, and he was just about to catch him, when Xuan Yanyu’s long arm reached out, scooping the little one up against him, and could not help letting out the single word: “Clumsy.”

“…” The little one straightened his tilted gold coronet and lay draped over Xuan Yanyu’s shoulder. He sniffed with his little nose, and said in puzzlement, “Why do you have the same scent as the Imperial Mother I just recognized — the fragrance from her robes?”

When Imperial Mother had held him, he had caught it — a faint, delicate scent, very pleasing, very pleasing indeed.

“Imperial Mother held you too?”

Xuan Yanyu said nothing and went on straightening the little one’s robes.

The little one said deliberately, “Did you not say that no one could replace this Crown Prince’s Imperial Mother? Then why did you let the Imperial Mother I just recognized hold you? Your Majesty!!”