In the adjacent guest room next door, the window stood wide open. Wind and snow howled and rushed inside, yet the man seated on the sill sat utterly still amid the billowing of his clothes, as though he felt not the slightest chill.

Gu Yanxi did not quite know what he was thinking about — but no matter what drifted through his mind, it always came to rest on those eyes. Calm, or curious. Penetrating, or resolute. Eyes that betrayed the true nature their owner wished to conceal.

He had seen countless women. Most were full of calculation, and those who were genuinely kind seldom lasted — they were stained, whether by circumstance or by choice, as each sought to be the final victor.

He could not help wondering: if Hua Zhi were placed in such an environment, what would she do? Would she adapt to survive, or would she, being cleverer than the rest, position herself at the very top?

Yet their time traveling together had made him feel he was wrong. If it were Hua Zhi, she would likely have no patience for such games at all — she would have devised an escape long ago. Even high walls and deep courtyards could not contain her, unless she chose to remain within them herself, just as she had once willingly stayed within the inner compound of the Hua Family.

He had never imagined he could admire a woman — and yet this admiration grew with each passing day.

He also understood perfectly well what it meant to be this drawn to a woman. What a novel feeling it was. Twenty-four years of living, and for the first time he found a woman truly worthy of his respect — someone he could not stop looking at. If he let this one slip by, heaven only knew whether fortune would be kind enough to send him another in this lifetime. His luck had never been good.

Gu Yanxi gave a self-deprecating smile. He extended a fingertip and caught a falling snowflake, watching it melt into water and dampen his skin. It seemed his luck had improved slightly after all — how rare it was to encounter a woman who was not afraid of him. And what was more, she got along so well with Shao Yao.

Someone knocked at the door. From the rhythm alone he knew who it was. Without turning his head, Gu Yanxi said, “Come in.”

Shao Yao poked her head in first, eyes darting around the room until she located him, then slipped inside and closed the door behind her. She drifted over to him, fiddling with this and picking at that, with an expression full of things left unsaid.

“What did Hua Zhi say?”

Shao Yao started. “Shi— Yan-ge, you were eavesdropping!”

“If I had been eavesdropping, I would not need to ask you what she said.” Gu Yanxi’s gaze rested on Shao Yao, who had filled out somewhat these days. His expression remained cool and even.

Faced with this version of the Shizi, Shao Yao was actually more at ease. The Shizi she knew had never been as mild and accommodating as he appeared before Hua Zhi.

Thinking of Hua Zhi, Shao Yao’s mood grew heavier. She slid down the wall and settled onto the floor. “Yan-ge, there are some things from the past that I haven’t entirely forgotten.”

Gu Yanxi lowered his gaze to look at her.

“Sometimes I dream of things at night — things I know happened long ago, when I was very small. I was about this tall.” She held up her hand to measure. “I wore my hair in little buns and loved to chase after an older boy. He treated me very well — he would hold me, and give me good things to eat. In the dream there was also a woman, beautiful beyond description. She smiled at me and combed my hair, and said that when I grew up she would arrange for me to marry someone nearby, and that if my husband’s family ever dared to mistreat me, she would have the older boy come and deal with them.”

Shao Yao looked up and met Gu Yanxi’s gaze. Her smile was pure and unguarded. “I know the older boy is you, Yan-ge. And the woman is our mother — isn’t she?”

Gu Yanxi neither nodded nor shook his head. Those memories were too heavy a weight. It was enough that he carried them. Since Shao Yao had chosen to forget, it would be best if she never came to know.

Shao Yao did not press the point. In her heart she was already certain, and Chen Qing — who had followed Yan-ge for many years — made it easy to see that he treated her differently from everyone else.

She had no desire to learn what had happened in the past. Whatever it was, it could not have been anything good — one look at her own face told her that much. All she needed to know was that Yan-ge was her brother.

“More than anyone, I want Hua Zhi to become my sister-in-law. She is so wonderful — she is the kind of person who cannot bear to hear a single word said against me. But Yan-ge, that is not the life Hua Zhi wants. To her, any title of Shizi’s wife means nothing compared to living freely on her own terms.”

Shao Yao leaned back against the wall and tilted her head up, taking in the rather unremarkable interior of the inn. “Just now, Hua Zhi asked me whether you have a wife. I thought for a moment she had feelings for you — but she was only worried that if you already had a wife, having shared a horse with her would be contrary to propriety. She said she has given up all thoughts of marriage entirely, and that when the right time comes she will find a refined little house to live in, watch the sun rise and set, and spend her days in peace and ease. Yan-ge — she said it for you to hear.”

Gu Yanxi listened, and felt not the slightest surprise. He had overstepped certain boundaries, and a woman as perceptive as she could not have failed to notice. She had chosen neither to feign ignorance, nor to seek a protector for herself — confident, no doubt, that she could shoulder the burdens of the Hua Family on her own.

As evidenced by this journey to the north: even without him accompanying her, she would have found a way to make it. At most, she would have had a harder time of it, endured more hardship.

Nobody truly knew how resilient she could be.

No response came from the Shizi. Unable to contain herself, Shao Yao asked outright: “Yan-ge, do you like Hua Zhi?”

Gu Yanxi gave her a look that said plainly: you are stating the obvious.

Shao Yao felt it too — she had stated the obvious. Even toward the Emperor himself, the Shizi had never been this attentive. If it was not affection, what else could it be? Then: “How deep does it go?”

Gu Yanxi considered seriously for a moment. “I want to bring the Hua Family home, so she does not have to make this journey through bitter cold and scorching heat. What does that tell you about how deep it goes?”

Shao Yao thought about it for some time and could not quite work it out. She simply asked instead: “Do you want to marry her?”

“With the Hua Family’s troubles unresolved, do you think she would consider marrying? And do you think the Hua Family could manage without her?”

It would fall to pieces. Shao Yao nodded, her expression understanding — yet knowing Hua Zhi as she did, Hua Zhi’s declaration that she had no intention of marrying was not something said lightly.

“Yan-ge, you wouldn’t force her — would you?”

“I want to take a wife, not make an enemy.” Gu Yanxi thought again of that rainy night, and a smile touched the corner of his mouth. “If I were to coerce her, could I ever sleep soundly again?”

Shao Yao agreed wholeheartedly. “Hua Zhi would absolutely bring you down with her.”

Gu Yanxi turned his gaze to the window. Wind wrapped in snow howled and swirled outside. What he admired — what he valued — was this unyielding Hua Zhi, the one who carried responsibility on her shoulders, who dared to travel to the far north with just a handful of people. Even the occasional flash of fierceness she revealed struck him as endearing. But that did not mean he had any desire to become the target of that fierceness.

How deep did it go?

He wanted to share her worries, do as she did, think as she thought, and protect what she protected. He wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with her, to see her smile at him, to shield her from wind and rain, to be the first person she thought of when she faced difficulty…

What depth was that?

Perhaps — the depth of wanting to be the one and only person in her heart.

“Tomorrow you ride my horse and take her with you.”

Shao Yao blinked. “Yan-ge — have you forgotten that your horse once kicked me face-first into the dirt?”

“It will not today.”

Shao Yao understood. The kick back then had been because Yan-ge permitted it!