Yan Yunning’s eyes lit up faintly. “Your Highness the Crown Prince, you’re absolutely right — even if you never see someone again, you should let go and live well.”

“However…” The man’s tone shifted abruptly. “That doesn’t apply to us. Whether we are fated or not, this lord will never permit you to leave his side.”

He paused, then Xuan Yanyu added, “In the future, read fewer picture stories.”

“……” Yan Yunning let out a slow breath. She sat up. “Then answer my question again. If I could truly never come back — what would you do?”

The man patted her head, curving his lips slightly. “Did this lord not say to read fewer picture stories?”

“Answer me! Stop talking nonsense!!” Yan Yunning flicked him on the forehead.

“Yan Yunning? Who gave you permission to act so insubordinately against this lord?”

“You did. You spoiled me into it.” Yan Yunning leaned toward his ear. “Don’t change the subject. Answer me.”

Xuan Yanyu frowned and considered it for a long while before finally saying, “That won’t do. This lord cannot be without you. Therefore, you cannot leave this lord.”

“That’s the wrong answer, Xuan Xixi. All the more reason you should take good care of yourself. What if one day I suddenly came back, only to find you nowhere, or to find you had become someone I no longer recognized — all disheveled and unkempt, for instance — I would turn right around and walk away.”

“You wouldn’t dare.” Xuan Yanyu said, utterly without emotion.

Meeting the man’s displeased gaze, Yan Yunning said unhurriedly, “Xuan Xixi, you said it yourself — those who are fated will one day meet again. If I really do leave you, you wait for me in the same spot. When I come back, I want to see someone who is…”

Without warning, a large hand closed over the back of her head. The words she hadn’t finished were helplessly swallowed back down her throat. Yan Yunning’s delicate brows creased. Deliberate!! He did that on purpose!!

Would it kill him to let her finish!!??

“See someone who is what?” A moment later, the man lay back down on the soft pillow, his breathing slightly unsteady.

Meeting Xuan Yanyu’s gaze, Yan Yunning suddenly went quiet.

See someone who was what?

If she told him all of this now — if she never managed to come back — would she still have him waiting for her forever?

“Nothing. I was joking.” Yan Yunning gripped his hand and lay down.

“Yan Yunning — are you trying to leave this lord? Is that why you keep testing this lord, again and again.” After a long stretch of quiet, just as Yan Yunning was nearly asleep, a low, muffled voice sounded in her ear.

Leave…

There was no way he would let her leave. If she insisted on going, then from that day forward, she would remain in the Crown Prince’s residence and never need go out again.

Yan Yunning was no fool either. She heard the edge in his tone. She looked up to find the man’s face perfectly placid and detached, and spoke to him in a soft, plaintive voice. “I don’t want to. If I left you, who else would indulge me like this? The way you’ve been doting on me — I’ve grown so particular about food now. If I went to someone else’s household, I’d be afraid they’d throw me out for being too much trouble.”

“If anyone dared to lay a hand on you, this lord would have their estate torn apart.”

“……I was speaking metaphorically. In any case, I have absolutely no desire to leave you. If I ever do leave, it certainly won’t be of my own will.”

“If it’s not of your own will, then you cannot leave this lord.”

She couldn’t even leave Xuanzhao, let alone anywhere else.

Yan Yunning’s drowsy eyes were growing heavy. She said sincerely, “Xuan Xixi, whether I leave you or whether I stay — all I hope is that you can always be well.”

“This lord also hopes that you will always be well. Even in that place you spoke of — the one without this lord, the one that isn’t a picture story.”

Yan Yunning’s pupils contracted. Her drowsiness vanished instantly. “Xuan Xixi… what did you say?”

“Yan Yunning, this lord is not a fool.” He said only that one line, then closed his eyes.

From very long ago, she had spoken to him about what would happen if she left one day.

That time at the Xuan Wang Palace she had said something about having no choice but to be carried away by the evening breeze. A few days before she had said that no matter what happened in the future, she hoped he could always be well. That day he had answered her with three “with you here”s.

When their child was still with them, she had reminded him again and again not to let the child suffer any grievance — and yet if she were there herself, there would have been no need to say such things.

Today, she had again inexplicably raised the question of whether this place could possibly be a story, and whether she was not a person who belonged in it.

Again and again, one time after another. He had no way to pretend she was simply speaking off the top of her head.

He had no way to pretend she was joking…

No one would be so idle as to bring up the same subject again and again. He would rather he had never thought of it all…

He would rather remain blissfully oblivious…

“Xuan… Xuan Xixi, what have you guessed?”

In the darkness, Xuan Yanyu reached out with unerring accuracy and ruffled Yan Yunning’s hair. “Sleep. It’s very late.”

He would not allow her to leave him. Whatever it cost.

“Xuan Xixi.” Yan Yunning’s heart felt as though it had been struck, throbbing with a dull, heavy ache. She murmured, “I came here by accident. At the very beginning, I missed home so much, so very much. I missed my father and mother, my older brothers and sisters, my friends. I didn’t know what state they’d be in once I disappeared from their lives.”

“Would my father and mother be frantic with worry? Would my brothers and sisters be alright? Would they be missing me too?”

Yan Yunning’s tears slipped soundlessly down her face. “Later… later I didn’t… didn’t miss home quite so much. I kept thinking — if I went home, what would become of you?”

Yan Yunning looked up at the ceiling beams, tears spiraling in her eyes. “I thought of a solution — to ask you for a baby, to have the baby keep you company. But you refused.”

Xuan Yanyu tightened his grip, suppressing the emotions surging within him.

“But afterward, we had a baby. I was so happy — so incredibly happy. Only… he’s gone now… he’s gone.”

“So I became very worried. Worried that losing both the baby and me — what would my Xuan Xixi do? And so every day I drank that awful, horrible medicine.”

“Xuan Xixi, the medicine is so horrible. I don’t… don’t want to drink it at all.” Tears blurred her vision. Yan Yunning curled into herself, her face unable to conceal her grief.

“Stop crying. You don’t have to drink it anymore… we don’t have to drink it anymore.” The man’s voice was strangled with suppressed anguish.

Yan Yunning wiped at her tears. “No… I can’t.”

Xuan Yanyu wiped away the tear that slipped from the corner of her eye and asked, his voice barely above a whisper, “Do you want to go home?”

“I miss my father and mother.”

She hadn’t answered directly, only said that she missed her father and mother. Xuan Yanyu wiped her tears away, his voice dropping low in a soft murmur, “I’m sorry…”

He could not accept her leaving his side. He would find a way to keep her here.

“What?” Yan Yunning didn’t understand why he had suddenly apologized.

The man kissed her on the forehead. His eyes were filled with a helpless grief. “Ningning, you won’t abandon this lord and leave, will you?”

Yan Yunning’s eyes burned with a raw, aching sting. How was she supposed to tell Xuan Xixi that she had no choice in the matter…

Yan Yunning didn’t speak. Xuan Yanyu, at a loss, let out a wretched smile and asked, “You will abandon this lord and leave, won’t you?”

“Xuan Yanyu, I don’t want to leave you.”

The man’s expression went rigid. She had said “don’t want to leave” — not “won’t leave,” and not “I would never abandon you.”

She would still leave. Leave him, permanently and forever…

No. Absolutely not.

——

The following morning.

The moment Xuan Yanyu left, Yan Yunning felt sweetness rise in her throat. With practiced ease, she wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth, and hid the handkerchief under the bed.

Looking at the pale face with red, swollen eyes reflected in the bronze mirror, Yan Yunning pulled a face.

She looked perfectly suited to work at a haunted house right now.

Meanwhile, elsewhere — having left the Crown Prince’s residence early that morning — the man, accompanied by his retinue, made his way to the Grand Astrologer’s estate.