Some things didn’t need to be spelled out by Shen Xihe for Xiao Huayong to understand.

His heart was so pained it had gone numb.

Looking at Xiao Huayong in this state, Shen Xihe showed no guilt or discomfort. Her clear eyes met his anguished gaze without wavering: “Your Highness, we come from similar backgrounds. Let me ask you this: if our positions were reversed, would you trust me? Would you be willing to stake everything, including your loved ones, on betting that a sincere heart would never change?”

“I…”

Xiao Huayong desperately wanted to shout: He would!

But facing her soul-penetrating eyes, he couldn’t bring himself to utter those words.

Between them lay imperial power, the relationship between ruler and subject, and the supreme nobility of the imperial throne.

If he were Shen Xihe, he probably… would do exactly as she did – when facing someone you believe you cannot handle, the best approach is to face them in an honorable battle. Even death would be glorious – this would be showing the greatest respect to one’s opponent.

She didn’t want to marry him because she didn’t want to maintain pretenses, didn’t want them to become people who distrusted each other most deeply and didn’t want to put on an act before him.

“So, you choose not to fail your homeland, not to fail your father and brothers, not to fail the people who respect you, but choose only to fail me alone.” Xiao Huayong forced a smile that looked worse than crying.

“Your Highness, this is my only choice.” Shen Xihe gave a proper curtsy.

“Shen Xihe, do you know how much I hate you right now?” Xiao Huayong staggered back two steps, steadying himself with one hand on the table. “I liked your composure and wisdom, your broad-mindedness. But now I hate your composure and wisdom, your broad-mindedness.

How I wish you were an ordinary lady, naive and youthful in your romance. Then perhaps you wouldn’t analyze every advantage and disadvantage so thoroughly, using what you believe to be your most sincere words as knives to slowly slice my heart?”

Shen Xihe faced his reproach and pain with composure.

“I hate myself even more. To survive, I struggled to make myself strong, strong enough that no one could easily harm me or control my fate. But I never imagined that one day, the person I came to love would reject me precisely because of this… heh heh heh… hahahahaha…”

Xiao Huayong burst into wild, grief-stricken laughter, his laughter filled with unbearable agony. As he laughed, tears began streaming down his face, stunning Shen Xihe.

This man before her, how powerful he was, capable of ruling the world, seemingly invincible – in her eyes, he should have been someone incapable of tears, yet here he was, crying.

“If you weren’t this kind of Shen Xihe, how could I have fallen for you? If I didn’t have my current capabilities, how could I have survived until now? Is this what they call fate’s cruel joke?” His emotions gradually subsided, his dark eyes returning to how they were when she first met him – gathering silvery light, concealing brilliance, deep as an abyss, vast as the sea.

“I want to marry you. You don’t believe in eternal, unchanging love? Then I’ll prove it to you.” His sharp edge showed through, powerful and determined. “It doesn’t matter if you’re on guard against me. Youyou, listen to me – I can endure you never being moved by me in this lifetime, can accept you hiding a dagger in your pillow, ready to take my life at any moment, but I will never allow you, while I live, to marry anyone else, not even without love.”

This was the true Xiao Huayong, the true Crown Prince, so domineering and forceful.

“Why does Your Highness torment yourself so?” Shen Xihe sighed deeply.

“I don’t fear torment, I fear pain. Bone-deep pain – if I see you intimate with anyone else, I will kill them.” Xiao Huayong smiled while speaking these vicious words, appearing particularly eerie and sinister.

“Your Highness, marrying me might bring you even more pain.” Just as Xiao Changqi marrying Gu Qingzhi had nearly driven him mad.

“You said if you were alone, you wouldn’t fear joining me in this river of love, that even if you lost and were destroyed, you would accept it as your own doing.” Xiao Huayong’s gaze concealed tenderness. “I happen to be alone. I don’t fear you killing me, seizing the world – if I lose, I too will accept it.”

“Your Highness, please think thrice. Before the Imperial Astronomer sets the wedding date, I hope Your Highness will consider carefully.” Shen Xihe still offered one word of advice.

“I will not change my mind. My desire to marry you, my heart for you – though sun and moon may diminish, this heart will not.” Xiao Huayong said word by word.

Shen Xihe lowered her eyes, about to curtsy farewell, but he moved first to grasp her hand. Despite her violent struggle, she couldn’t break free. Instead, he forcefully pulled her into his embrace, his face pressing against hers, whispering in her ear like a lover: “I know your nature. My unwillingness to break the engagement is my affair, and you will find ways around it. But I must warn Youyou – I can kill everyone for you.”

After speaking, his lips brushed across her face as he moved away, wearing a gentle yet wicked smile: “Youyou, no matter how many choices you think you have, in the end, it can only be me.”

Whoever you choose, I will make them disappear from this world.

Shen Xihe’s gaze turned sharp, while Xiao Huayong smiled maliciously, their eyes locked in an unyielding standoff.

“Zhaoning takes her leave.” Shen Xihe curtsied and turned to leave.

Waiting outside, Tianyuan and Zhenzhu saw Shen Xihe emerge with a cold expression. Tianyuan ran inside by the door while Shen Xihe left with Zhenzhu.

“Princess, what exactly happened?” Even now, Zhenzhu couldn’t understand what had occurred to make the previously harmonious Crown Prince and Princess suddenly seem on the verge of breaking apart.

“He is Hua Fuhai.” Shen Xihe said gravely.

Zhenzhu’s pupils contracted. They had worried about this – their worst fear had come true.

They all knew that the Princess had hoped the Crown Prince wasn’t Hua Fuhai, preferably that it was Prince Jing instead. That way, the Princess could have joined forces with the Crown Prince against Prince Jing.

The Princess already felt the Crown Prince’s wisdom was unmatched. Now that the Crown Prince’s power was so formidable, if they truly came into conflict one day, the Princess would likely have little chance of victory.

“I’ve provoked a deadly star.” Shen Xihe now regretted it. Her biggest regret in this life was giving the rouge case evidence to Xiao Huayong that day to disrupt the capital’s situation, thereby provoking him.

If she hadn’t provoked him, she probably wouldn’t have gotten the Bone-Removing Pill. Even dying would have been better – at least it wouldn’t have implicated her father and brothers. That life would have counted as one lived earnestly and diligently.

Now she owed him too much, already impossible to repay, and yet he had revealed his true nature. She believed his words – if she dared get close to any prince, that person would surely meet the same fate as Princess Changling.

“Princess, do you still want to marry into the Eastern Palace?” Zhenzhu asked uncertainly.

“Marry – why not marry? Isn’t he insisting on marriage? Then I’ll let him know what it means to desire something he can’t truly have!”

Since Xiao Huayong wouldn’t let go, and she didn’t want to drive him mad or waste time entangled in this, then she would marry him – just staying vigilant would be enough.