Going back, then? To become Zili’s consort? Just to survive? For some distant hope? Or should she force the issue with her own life? Liu Jue would die for her sake; the Anqing household would be implicated because of her. Would Zili, in a blind rage, kill everyone around her? A’Luo’s head throbbed.

Sure enough, growing close to people here brought exactly this much trouble. Trouble she couldn’t shed, couldn’t set down either. A’Luo thought of the days ahead and felt a chill run through her.

Liu Ying walked in and knelt. “If the young miss doesn’t wish to go back, Liu Ying will gladly die trying to stop it.”

“Don’t talk of dying. I once read a story called ‘To Live’ — however hard, however bitter, you keep living. Life matters more than anything. Remember that, don’t speak so lightly of death. I still want to see you and Xiao Yu living happily, raising a couple of children. The Cheng residence in Fengcheng will be your home from now on. Uncle Fu and Aunt Fu — take care of them from here on. I need somewhere I can call my own home outside the palace.” A’Luo smiled.

“Miss!” Xiao Yu choked back tears.

“Ask after my mother and Nanny Zhang for me.”

“I will!”

Liu Jue walked quietly in and, seeing the somber faces of the three inside, smiled and approached A’Luo. “Wasn’t it someone here who told me to smile through every day? Hm?”

Liu Ying took Xiao Yu’s hand and stepped out, leaving the room to the two of them.

“There’s no way out for us, is there? We’re going back to Fengcheng? And then I go into the palace, and Zili, for the sake of your father and everything you’ve done for his enthronement, won’t kill you! Is that really all there is?” A’Luo simply couldn’t manage a smile no matter what.

Liu Jue froze — how had she guessed all of it? A bitterness settled in his chest, though he forced a hearty laugh. “Since he sent Tianxiang, he obviously doesn’t want this to turn too ugly — it’s also his way of urging us to return. Maybe things won’t be as bad as you think?”

A’Luo looked at him. “You don’t need to comfort me. Gu Tianxiang wouldn’t have come with only two guards. Zili has his own means of finding us precisely — there’s no way for us not to go back.”

“You’re right.” Liu Jue did his best to keep the smile on his face. “Zili wants me back to help him — with troubles both inside and out right now, he won’t kill me. But you — you’re the real problem between him and me. I could get away with taking you once, but a second time is another matter. Word will eventually spread that you entered the mausoleum’s Ice Spring, and once it does, he’ll have no choice but to marry you. Honestly, I don’t know how this will end once he’s secured his throne and turns his attention back to this matter. To have you, I’d be defying the whole world — the crime of abducting a royal consort isn’t just a matter of whether Zili chooses to pursue it. The court officials won’t tolerate it either. It touches the authority of Ning Guo’s king, the honor of the royal house.”

A’Luo suddenly felt utterly drained. She murmured, “If only I’d never known you two. If only I’d never met Zili.”

Liu Jue’s face darkened. “What kind of talk is that?”

“Isn’t it true? If I’d never known either of you, the two of you could still stand united as ruler and subject. Now, because of me, you’re fighting each other, and I’ve become the cause of it all. Nothing good ever comes from being a cause of trouble.” A’Luo said dejectedly.

Liu Jue pulled her into a tight embrace. “Don’t think like that. You have no idea how grateful I am to have met you, how grateful that it’s me you love and not Zili. If our positions were reversed, I’d go mad! Sometimes I think Zili has it truly hard.”

“It’s not that I dislike Zili — honestly, I even feel for him sometimes. Being a ruler really isn’t easy. But that’s an entirely different matter from marrying him and living shut up in the palace!” A’Luo felt utterly helpless. If only, like so many stories, she held real power in her own hands — she could do as she pleased. Power really was a good thing to have. Compared to being caught between the chopping block and the fish on it, she thought the former was clearly the better position. No wonder Zili had risked everything for the throne. And here she was, single-mindedly seeking some paradise to escape all her troubles — how naive that had been.

“I probably won’t manage to behave myself, quietly playing the consort in the palace. If I go back and have to enter the palace, just — consider me dead already. A single thread of longing, a handful of ash. If I’m dead, everyone will be better off.” A’Luo looked at Liu Jue calmly.

“A’Luo, as long as the mountains remain green, there’s no shortage of firewood. There will be a way.”

“A way? Abducting a royal consort brings execution of the whole clan — oh, though you share his clan, so that one doesn’t quite apply to you… I don’t want to see you break into the palace to take me again. If he kills you, I’d rather see you living well.” A’Luo turned away. “Every feast must end sometime. These ten-odd days… they were enough.” She sighed softly. “Once I’m in the palace, I won’t see you again. Trust me, I’ll live well — I won’t go seeking death again like before. You — you don’t need to…”

Liu Jue, overcome with grief, wrapped both arms around her from behind. “A’Luo, don’t say any more. You told me once you’d share life and death with me — now I choose to live, and wait until that day comes… that day… don’t cut off my hope, don’t say we’ll never meet again. If you say that, I’ll go seize Tianxiang right now… and spend whatever days we have left together… Zili needs me right now, he won’t push things to the breaking point. We still have a chance.”

A’Luo suddenly turned and threw herself into his arms, sobbing. “Why — why does it have to be like this? Why are you so foolish, refusing to want me for yourself… I don’t want to see you die… if you’re going to die, I’ll never see you again, I…”

Liu Jue’s warm lips silenced her words and her tears. He held her, murmuring comfort, slowly calming her. He was suffering too, no less helpless. He said slowly, “A’Luo, we both understand — running isn’t the answer. The rivalry among the five nations, the Prince of Qing’s scheming — it’s all too clear. If Zili couldn’t find us, I could stay here with you for the rest of my life. But now that he has, we can’t keep hiding.”

A’Luo’s tear-washed eyes were bright with deep feeling. She reached up and gently touched his face. “Zili once asked me why, having known him first, I fell for you instead. I’ve asked myself the same thing — Zili surely doesn’t love me any less than you do, so why couldn’t my heart go to him? I never had a clear answer. I only know that in three years I rarely thought of him, yet you kept crossing my mind unbidden. If the two of you were ever in danger, I might save Zili first — but I would share life and death with you. So I need you to promise me — never risk your life recklessly, never leave me alone in this world. I’ll promise the same to you!”

“A’Luo!” Liu Jue sighed.

“All right. Help me tie my hair up like a man’s — I’m riding back to Fengcheng with you!” A’Luo forced out a smile, dazzling despite everything.

The four of them stepped out of the cabin. A’Luo, dressed in men’s clothing, looked graceful and radiant. Gu Tianxiang gave a silent, appreciative sigh — if she were truly a man, Fengcheng would have to call her its sixth young lord! She cupped her fists toward Gu Tianxiang. “Tianxiang, well met — Cheng Qing, at your service!”

Liu Jue took her hand with a laugh. “Mischief-maker!”

The two of them walked hand in hand toward the mouth of the valley. Gu Tianxiang, watching their easy affection, hesitated over whether he should just let them go.

Liu Jue turned back with a grin. “Tianxiang! When we’re back, remember you owe me a round of Liren Zui!”

Gu Tianxiang gave a muffled reply. Did the two of them really not understand what they’d be facing once they returned? Thinking of how, once back, Li Qingluo would have to enter the palace as a consort, he found himself pitying them both.

The column slowed but continued, step by step, toward Fengcheng. In the distance the city walls came into view. Liu Jue glanced at Gu Tianxiang, then reached out and pulled A’Luo onto his own horse, and with a crack of the whip, rode off ahead of the column.

Gu Tianxiang said nothing, simply raised a hand, and the column came to a halt. Let them have a little more time, he thought with a sigh.

A’Luo and Liu Jue watched, entranced, as the sun sank below the horizon, watched the dusk gather and swallow the sky, watched the stars slowly emerge to light the plain. Liu Jue suddenly smiled. “A’Luo, do you know — the night you ran off camping on the grasslands, Zili and I got into a fight over it?”

“Oh? I slept that soundly and never knew?”

“Silly girl, that’s because you’d been struck unconscious without your knowledge.” Liu Jue rested his head on her shoulder. “I was jealous — that’s when I realized I already loved you. My own doing, entirely.”

A’Luo laughed. “Someday I’ll take you camping on the grasslands too, stargazing, roasting food — make it up to you!”

“A’Luo, you really are a mystery. You don’t behave like a sheltered chancellor’s daughter who’s never left home. I’ve never asked, but I’ve always wondered.”

“My soul comes from a place very far away, one that doesn’t belong here. Perhaps, one day, I’ll simply leave.” A’Luo thought back on her past — twelve years now, and she had fully woven herself into this life. The modern world had become, strangely, the distant dream now.

“I’ll keep you here. I won’t let you go. The heavens will hear my sincere prayer and grant me this small wish,” Liu Jue said softly, his arm tightening unconsciously around her.

A’Luo sighed and leaned into him. “I hope nothing else goes wrong — just let us stay like this, together. Afterward we’ll go see my mother, wander around freely — that would be wonderful.”

“It will happen. Trust me!” Liu Jue answered firmly.