Tonight. Wed.

Feng Jiu’er stared at Mu Mu, so stunned that not a single word came.

“I said — don’t betray me, don’t deceive me. Jiu’er, is there still something holding you back?”

Mu Mu held her hand. Her small hand was still cold as ice — even wrapped inside his large palm, it wouldn’t warm.

Was it that he couldn’t give her warmth? Or was it that her heart was simply never meant to be warmed by him?

“Mu Mu…”

“Do you still want to return to the Ninth Prince’s side?”

Feng Jiu’er’s heart lurched. A flash of Mu Mu and the Ninth Imperial Uncle wounding each other tore through her mind.

She shook her head, turned her face away, avoiding his gaze: “I’m not — it’s just… just that all of a sudden, I still…”

“Didn’t you already think this through when you chose to leave with me?” Mu Mu was, by nature, easy-going. He had also said that he would never force her.

Though similar things had been spoken of before, he had truly never pressed her in the past.

But tonight, he seemed resolute — determined to have an answer.

Feng Jiu’er understood. He was unsettled too. Perhaps he had other thoughts as well — just as she couldn’t fully trust him, Mu Mu could not fully trust her either.

Was he saying he would only commit himself entirely once he had what he needed?

“Mu Mu, I am willing to be with you. It’s just — I didn’t expect it to be this soon.” Jiu’er couldn’t find the right excuse.

She could go with him. But to wed right now… her heart was uneasy. What was he thinking?

Mu Mu’s face was expressionless. He only lowered his gaze to look at her, and said nothing for a long time.

The moments ticked by. All around them, the air was silent and still. Breath, or perhaps heartbeat — both seemed gradually to grow more distinct.

Still. A stillness that was deeply uncomfortable. A silence like death.

After a long while, Mu Mu finally spoke: “You still cannot truly be with me, is that it? Jiu’er?”

“I’m not…”

“I said — don’t deceive me, don’t betray me. But Jiu’er, how am I to believe you?”

Mu Mu suddenly stood up and walked toward the door.

Feng Jiu’er didn’t know what he intended. She scrambled off the bed in a panic, pulled on her boots, and ran after him.

But outside the small cabin, there was no sign of Mu Mu at all. Nothing of his presence in the surrounding air.

Where had he gone?

“Mu Mu!” Jiu’er followed to the courtyard gate. It was the dead of night; she didn’t dare call out too loudly — everyone had already retired to sleep.

This village was not uninhabited — on the contrary, people lived in the surrounding houses.

Beyond the courtyard gate, a small river flowed quietly. In the distance, a row of willow trees stood by the water’s edge. Late autumn willows — not lush and green but already beginning to turn yellow.

Everything was still so quiet. Still no sign of Mu Mu.

Had he left? But she was still here — why would he go?

“Mu Mu…” Feng Jiu’er followed the river, searching further along its bank. The horses by the river were gone too. Had Mu Mu truly left?

In her agitation just now, she hadn’t noticed whether there had been any sound of hoofbeats outside. It seemed likely there had been — she simply hadn’t paid attention.

Had he ridden off? Feng Jiu’er wasn’t certain.

She had been brought out by the Night Demon Palace’s people. Everything she had contrived had been for one purpose — to slip free of the Night Demon Palace’s reach, return to the imperial city, return to the Ninth Imperial Uncle’s side, and keep the Ninth Imperial Uncle from riding out to find her and putting himself in danger.

Now Mu Mu had gone, leaving her alone here…

Without dwelling on it further, Jiu’er continued toward the edge of the village: “Mu Mu, where are you? Come out.”

All along the way, there was not the slightest trace of him. If he were truly somewhere nearby, she wouldn’t have failed to sense it at all.

Had he truly left?

“Mu Mu?” Feng Jiu’er kept walking, and soon passed beyond the village’s boundaries.

Ahead of her, the road forked in two. One path led back to the imperial city. The other — she didn’t know where it went.

Feng Jiu’er stood at the fork in the road, facing the faintly cold wind of the night.

After some time — she didn’t know how long — she suddenly turned and walked toward the unknown path.

This time, she quickened her pace, covering a considerable distance in short order.

Mu Mu was certainly waiting on the road back to the imperial city, waiting for her to walk into the trap herself. If she headed back to the city now, she would run straight into him head-on.

And at that point, she would have no excuse left, no way to persuade him to break away from the Night Demon and the others with her.

She only didn’t want Mu Mu and the Ninth Imperial Uncle to truly come to blows. And for some reason she couldn’t name, the scene from her dream kept drifting through her mind.

Every time she imagined their weapons driving into each other’s bodies, it was as though something seized her heart and cut at it — the pain was such that she couldn’t breathe, such that her whole body convulsed.

She didn’t want to deceive Mu Mu. But right now, the most important thing was still to go back and tell the Ninth Imperial Uncle she was safe and unharmed.

If she fell into the Night Demon Palace’s hands and was used as a pawn to threaten the Ninth Imperial Uncle, she truly feared he might do what he had done the last time — throw away even his life for her sake.

Last time, they had both survived by the slimmest of chances. The Ninth Imperial Uncle had lived, but she had nearly died.

That she had made it through was nothing short of a miracle.

But this time, even the Night Demon Palace had become an enemy. How could she and the Ninth Imperial Uncle possibly survive this?

On the wind, a faint and familiar presence drifted past.

Feng Jiu’er stopped. A chill settled in her chest.

The tall silhouette in the tree above was utterly beyond her expectation.

The unfamiliar road ahead seemed suddenly to become a mass of darkness — she could no longer make out what lay in front of her.

“Mu Mu…”

“If you could have trusted me just a little more — perhaps tonight, you truly could have returned to his side.”

Mu Mu sat on a branch, gazing at the heavy, dim sky in the distance.

“Mu Mu, what are you saying? I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Jiu’er forced a smile to her lips, but her palms were growing colder by the moment.

“Jiu’er, you’re so clever — how could you not have anticipated that I would be waiting on the road back to the imperial city?”

“Why would I be heading toward the imperial city?” She was unwilling to admit it. Only her fingers were truly cold now — icy, biting cold. And her body with them.

Mu Mu dropped from the branch, landing soundlessly before her, and in an instant, blocked out every drop of moonlight falling her way.

“If you walked the road back to the imperial city, it would mean you were coming to find me. If you walked this road, it could only mean you were running for your life.”

He stepped forward. Feng Jiu’er immediately stepped back twice.

Mu Mu’s eyes held no warmth. The tenderness of ordinary days was gone. The gaze he fixed on her now carried nothing but an icy stillness.

“If you had come back for me, I could have taken you back to the imperial city with me. I said — if you don’t betray me, I will never betray you.”

He had staked the one and only act of willfulness and defiance his entire life had ever known on the chance that her heart was real. And she had, in the end, disappointed him.

Feng Jiu’er drew a slow breath. The smile faded from her face. She said, her voice calm and even: “From the moment you came near me, there was never any real sincerity between the two of us. Now all that’s happened is everything has been laid bare.”

The silver needles in her hand cut through the night breeze — and were already at Mu Mu’s face.