Under the moon, the lake filled with Lianjiang waters rose silently, overflowing the low, wild banks covered with lush grass. The warm, humid night wind from the depths of the lake swept across the water’s surface, climbed up the mountain foothills, blew into the courtyard, passed through swaying dense branches, surged through a moon window, and rushed directly into the depths of the hall, causing a brocade curtain to dance wildly, revealing a hazy corner behind the screen. On a carved ivory wide couch, intertwined figures rose and fell, clouds turning and rain flowing, with muffled watery sounds.

Shu Shenhui clenched his teeth tightly, spreading his strong arms that could draw an iron bow to their fullest, tightly encircling her, transforming into a fierce warrior, spurring his horse forward, charging through formations and attacking armies.

She was the territory he wanted to conquer and capture with reddened eyes, and she was also the general he willingly surrendered to and worshipped. He wished he could crush and break her apart inch by inch, tear her open and devour her, to punish her heartlessness and coldness, yet he only wanted to do everything in his power to please her, serve her, even if it meant being humble, just to earn a few drops of her compassion.

They had been cold to each other for over a month, and tonight they were finally intimate again. That feeling of extreme satisfaction and exhilaration was unprecedented, even surpassing that night they had spent together in the Wenlin Pavilion. After it ended, Shu Shenhui was covered in hot sweat, feeling his heart beating like urgent war drums in his chest, yet he still held her close, unwilling to let go for even a moment.

When his breathing had somewhat calmed, he opened his eyes that still glowed red, turned his face to look at the person beside him, reached out to pull her closer, making her body press tightly against his once more.

“A’Yuan… A’Yuan… Si Si… Si Si…”

Jiang Hanyuan heard him calling her name randomly in her ear, kissing her while speaking to her incoherently, “Last night when I saw the fire, I was extremely worried. It’s true… I was afraid something would happen to you…”

She was lying with her eyes closed. Her body was still completely soft from the lingering afterglow, and she was experiencing again the sensation of the man’s lips and tongue gently roaming over her skin.

She felt the same way. She heard him, thinking hazily in her heart.

At that time, she was perched atop the ancient pagoda’s spire, and when that firelight entered her vision, her first thought was how he was doing. Although given his status, she believed the people around him would certainly protect him at the first opportunity, she still couldn’t control her worry. She wished she could grow wings and fly back. She ran down the pagoda stairs, hating how narrow and winding they were, delaying her steps. Unable to wait to walk down layer by layer to the bottom, she leaped directly from a pagoda window. When she finally rushed back and learned he was safe, before she could breathe a sigh of relief, she learned he had gone to the fire scene looking for her.

Before Jiang Hanyuan’s eyes appeared that scene from last night: he heard her calling voice, suddenly turned his head, and in the firelight, their eyes met from afar. He ran toward her, using strength that hurt her, embraced her tightly, yet remained completely silent throughout.

He would never know that such a silent, rough, brief embrace was better than all the words in the world, striking directly at the heart, causing even a heart that wanted to cut off emotion and love to begin wavering.

Jiang Hanyuan felt him turn her over again, making her lie face down on the pillow. She was still feeling lazy and didn’t want to move, so she let him do as he pleased.

The man was no longer demanding as urgently and fiercely as before. He had become a patient, skillful hunter, slowly teasing and tormenting, enjoying the pleasure in between. He pressed down on her back, kissed and bit her earlobe, blew in her ear, and complained about Fan Jing in a low voice, “…I didn’t expect him to come so early… I was still hoping he would take a wrong turn on the road, preferably never come at all. I figured he was a man without family or home; otherwise, how could he be such a spoilsport? I asked Liu Xiang, and indeed it was so…”

Jiang Hanyuan’s cheek was pressed against the pillow, and his somewhat roguish words made the corners of her lips curl up slightly.

Dear Uncle Fan… He only thought she was forced to enter Chang’an, believing she wholeheartedly wanted to return home early, which was why he had worked so hard to come fetch her ahead of schedule. He didn’t know that the heart of the little lady he spoke of could no longer be as hard as iron as it once was.

Things had deviated from her plan. Starting from his embrace in the fire scene last night, to Uncle Fan’s sudden arrival from heaven, to the Dowager Consort’s arrangement that caught even her somewhat off guard, she still appeared steady and composed on the surface, as if nothing had changed, yet in her heart, something had broken free from its constraints, quietly crawling out through the cracks in those broken restraints.

She could no longer return to being the heartless, desireless Jiang Hanyuan of before.

He seemed dissatisfied with her silence. His lips left her ear, and his kisses continued to fall densely on her neck and shoulder blades. Suddenly, he opened his mouth and unexpectedly bit her shoulder with his teeth. She felt both pain and itchiness, and couldn’t help shrinking her shoulders and raising her arm to push him. He firmly grasped her hand with his, not allowing her resistance, continuing to gnaw at her shoulder bone with his teeth.

Jiang Hanyuan finally couldn’t stand it anymore.

“What are you doing?” she scolded him.

He laughed lowly, released his teeth, his chest sliding up from her sweat-dampened back, once again level with her head, pressing his lips to her ear and beginning to plead: “Si Si, Si Si, I want you to be good to me. I don’t want you to leave. I hope the person coming to fetch you never arrives. Don’t leave tomorrow morning, stay here and accompany me for a few more days. Wait until my people reach Yangzhou, then you can go back, alright…”

Jiang Hanyuan slowly opened her eyes and turned to look at him. He was still lying possessively on her back, head slightly tilted, chin resting on her shoulder, eyes unblinking, gazing at her intently.

The moonlight was pale, the night shadows hazy. She listened to the pleading voice in her ear, looked at this man’s face so intimate with hers, and felt her heart was like drowning in water, continuously drowning, unable to extricate herself.

“Don’t you believe me? I truly have you in my heart. I’ve never cared so much about any other woman.”

He brought his face closer to hers, pressing his sweat-dampened forehead against her equally heated forehead, gently nuzzling her tenderly, confessing his heart to her.

Jiang Hanyuan believed him. When he stood quietly outside the threshold tonight, speaking to her in that restrained yet urgent tone, saying he had figured it out, that she was in his heart, she already believed him.

He didn’t even need to speak. Just last night, when he ran toward her from the fire scene and held her tightly, she had already felt his heart beating violently for her.

Even if he had once liked other women, thought of marrying other women as wives, so what? It didn’t matter.

It was also in that moment that Jiang Hanyuan suddenly had a great awakening. She knew what she had been waiting for tonight, and what she had mistakenly heard several times as the rustling sound of the clear wind passing through the courtyard.

She was waiting for his footsteps, waiting for him to come and ask her to stay a few more days.

As long as he asked, she wouldn’t refuse him. Her mind always sternly reminded her, telling her that this man who had once entered her youthful dreams could never truly belong to her or walk with her to the end. Her mind urged her to follow her predetermined goals, move forward steadily, and continue being a general who galloped across battlefields with the purpose of killing enemies. Yet her steps became slow, hesitant, betraying her mind.

From the time she could remember, day after day, year after year, she had built today’s self with a somewhat self-tormenting iron will. She had never known what indulgence meant.

If staying meant just staying a few more days, making him satisfied while she could also find happiness, why couldn’t she set aside all the rights and wrongs of the mortal world and indulge just once?

Just pretend Uncle Fan hadn’t arrived yet. They could still spend some time together in this warm and gentle Jiangnan weather…

He was still waiting for her reply, nuzzling her face with that handsome face from her dreams, “Si Si, Si Si…” She heard him chattering in her ear, blaming her again, “You’re too heartless. If I hadn’t come to beg you tonight, you would have abandoned me and left, wouldn’t you?”

He was talking nonsense.

When had he begged her tonight? Wasn’t it she who was moved by his conflicted and suppressed eyes that wanted to speak but hesitated under the moonlight, couldn’t bear to be harsh with him, and took the initiative to let him ask her to stay?

But she couldn’t argue, had no way to argue. He pressed close and continued to pester her, “Promise me…”

Her heart completely softened, became a complete mess. She said: “Alright—”

The man immediately laughed. The night was dark and ambiguous, so she couldn’t see his smile completely, but his eyes were sparkling brightly. He kissed her once as if rewarding her, then said in a tone mixed with some command: “Then you must also take the flower garland my mother gave you, and my betrothal knife!”

Like a person struggling in water that was about to drown her, the last trace of clarity in her spiritual platform emerged at this moment, reminding her that this time was different from before.

If this time, in such an intimate situation, she did as he said, then this meant she had decided to bind her remaining life to this man, unless death came.

This was a solemn promise for a lifetime.

At this moment, could she? Merely based on a youthful encounter, a few months of being together, and tonight’s impulse sparked by facing separation, the happiness gained from mutual love and physical intimacy?

She lay quietly on the pillow, face turned to the side, looking back at the hazy, indistinct face approaching her in the night shadows.

He waited for a moment, then quickly laughed by himself, gently comforting her, “You’re willing to stay and accompany me for a few more days, and I’m already very happy. The future is long, pretend I never said that!”

Jiang Hanyuan secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Not only that, she even felt some guilt and gratitude in her heart because of his tolerance and magnanimity. She supported herself on her arms against the pillow, raised her upper body, turned her head, and actively kissed his mouth to express her current feelings.

He enjoyed this rare attempt to please him from her, suddenly remembering that time in Xianquan Palace when she rejected him, saying she didn’t like him. His eyes gradually turned dark and brooding. His hands slowly caressed her for a moment, then his body suddenly exerted force, pressing her down onto the pillow.

She was completely unprepared and let out a muffled groan. Soft panting sounds gradually rose again.

The moonlight in front of the window slowly slanted across the floor. The wind had quietly ceased at some point, and the curtains hung still, blocking the dreamlike intertwined shadows behind them.

There was another person who had big dreams that night.

Fan Jing didn’t wake up from his drunken stupor until noon the next day. He discovered he had slept in that elegant lodge from last night, and not only that, a woman was lying beside him. It was the delicate lady who had sung songs last night.

He only remembered that at last night’s banquet, she held a pipa and seemed to frequently look at him, her eyes glancing about as if filled with affection. He had been stationed at the border for years and had never seen such a delicate Jiangnan lady. Perhaps because he had drunk too much, he had looked at her a few times too. That was all.

Waking up now, he was shocked and confused, really not understanding how he could have gotten so drunk and done such an embarrassing and improper thing.

The Regent Prince and Liu Xiang, who had been at the same table last night, were long gone. He apologized repeatedly, saying he would have someone send her money and silk when he returned, asking her not to blame him. Who knew the delicate lady was not only not angry, but looked at him with tender feelings, telling him not to be afraid. She said her name was Red Leaf, she lived in Xie Family Alley, walking straight in from the alley entrance to where there was a jujube tree at the door—that was her home. She lived with her elderly adoptive mother, with no one else in the house. She asked him not to forget last night’s kindness, and if he had free time, to remember to visit her. After saying this, she dressed herself, smiled charmingly, picked up her pipa, and gracefully left.

Fan Jing was dumbfounded. After the woman left, remembering his proper business, he hurriedly rushed to the temporary palace, feeling ashamed, regretful, and some indescribable emotions along the way. He was afraid he had delayed the little lady’s morning departure. However, when he finally returned to the foot of the temporary palace mountain, he saw everything was quiet around, with only a few hidden sentries, and no signs of people preparing to travel. He became even more panicked and hurried toward the temporary palace, but saw Liu Xiang standing halfway, as if waiting for him, approaching to ask: “How did you rest last night?”

Fan Jing waved his hand: “I was so drunk I was unconscious, made a great fool of myself, making the Regent Prince and General Liu laugh at me.”

Liu Xiang didn’t think it was serious, laughing: “General Fan speaks too seriously. Beauties favor heroes—such good fortune is something I could only dream of.”

Fan Jing felt even more ashamed upon hearing this.

Liu Xiang knowing about last night’s incident wasn’t much, but if the little lady also found out…

Liu Xiang saw him gazing toward the temporary palace, wanting to speak but hesitating, looking anxious and uneasy. He coughed, lowered his voice, and said seriously: “General Fan need not be anxious. The Princess Consort temporarily has other matters and has changed her schedule. She won’t leave until the end of this month. Counting it up, there are still six or seven days of leisure time. The Regent Prince asked me to take you around to see more places. This area has scenery everywhere, countless places to visit and enjoy. I’m also here for the first time and wouldn’t normally have such an opportunity—this time I’m benefiting entirely from your presence.”

Only then did Fan Jing breathe a sigh of relief, secretly calling himself lucky. But having had such an accident last night, how could he dare go out again today? He politely declined, saying he would just wait here. Liu Xiang repeatedly invited him, but seeing his firm attitude, he finally had to give up. The two men chatted for a while longer before parting.

Fan Jing stayed with his subordinates like this. After a few days, he gradually discovered that the Regent Prince and the little lady seemed to be shut up in the temporary palace, not taking a single step outside, not knowing what exactly they were busy with.

Though rough in appearance, he was careful and thoughtful, otherwise, the old City Lord of Yunluo City wouldn’t have sent him to guard and protect the little lady as she grew up.

After that night’s accident, having nothing to do these past few days, he gradually calmed down and came to some understanding.

The Regent Prince was outstanding in appearance. Could it be that the little lady had developed feelings for him?

Perhaps it was only because he had arrived early, ruining the romantic mood, that the little lady didn’t want to leave, but being thin-skinned and unable to refuse his urging, she had to make excuses?

He wasn’t a dull person either. After returning from the elegant lodge, he understood clearly that everything should have been the Regent Prince’s exceptional hospitality toward him.

He also finally completely understood why Liu Xiang had earnestly invited him out again the next day.

The Regent Prince and little lady were reluctant to part in the temporary palace—what was the point of him squatting outside keeping watch like this?

Extremely annoyed with himself, he went out that very day to pass the remaining few days.