Chapter 2

At last, Shen Yan came back.

But the little maid had lied to me.

Far from being happy to see me, he seized me by the throat.

“Who are you?” His voice was icy, and his eyes were frighteningly dark.

He didn’t look as though he liked me at all anymore.

“Why are you in my bed? Who sent you?”

I felt terribly wronged. I trembled for a long time before remembering that I could speak now.

“Have you forgotten? This is how I always used to sleep.” With tears in my eyes, I pulled him by the hand to lie down on the bed. “You used to hold me like this.”

He paused, as though he really was trying to remember.

But he couldn’t.

Of course he couldn’t. Why else would he have gone so many years without coming back to see me?

“You really have forgotten. Her Majesty the Empress gave me to you.” I refused to give up and kept trying to remind him.

His handsome brows drew together. “You were with my mother?”

I had always been with him, really.

But his mother did often visit me.

He loved his mother so much. I supposed that wasn’t an unreasonable way to put it.

I smiled and nodded.

“How are you still alive?” He caught my wrist in disbelief.

My wrist had been a flower stem. It was very delicate.

His grip hurt so much that my eyes reddened.

I looked unhappily at my wrist and complained, “I was waiting for you.”

He didn’t seem to believe me.

I led him back to where he used to live and pointed at the weed-choked courtyard. “I’ve been here all along. But you never came to see me after you returned.”

That was why I had been so angry.

Perhaps I had become human because I was too angry.

He stood behind me with only a black robe thrown loosely over him.

When I turned to look at him, his gaze was moving over every part of the courtyard. His eyes grew bloodshot.

“You’ve been here all this time?” His voice was hoarse as he looked at me.

I nodded. “Yes.”

He briefly closed his eyes. “No one found you? How did you stay alive?”

“On dew and this soil, of course.” Rather pleased with myself, I smiled at him. “I hid here. No one could find me.”

He lowered his eyes to me, a little startled. Pity softened his gaze.

That was the look.

He used to look at me that way.

He had remembered me after all.

Shen Yan gave me a very large house.

There were many palace servants inside to attend to me.

They were different from the servants I remembered. They all kept their heads lowered and said nothing.

Only a young maid named Cuilan would exchange a few words with me.

She came over. “What are you thinking about, miss?”

I sat on the steps outside the palace hall, my chin propped in both hands. “Why hasn’t Shen Yan come to see me yet?”

She gasped and hurriedly dropped to her knees.

“Miss, you mustn’t address His Majesty by name.”

I tilted my head at her. “But his name is Shen Yan. He told me himself.”

Cuilan’s little face went white, but she said nothing more.

Nor did she tell me why Shen Yan still hadn’t come to see me.

So that night, after everyone fell asleep, I secretly went to Shen Yan’s room by myself again and crawled under his quilt.

It was warm in his bed.

Much warmer than sleeping alone.

But just as I was contentedly settling into a comfortable position, he lifted me out from under the covers.

“Shen Yan.” I looked at him pleadingly.

He looked back as though I were giving him a headache. “What are you doing here?”

I felt rather hurt. “You haven’t come to see me for days.”

He paused.

“I’ve been busy lately.”

He was lying.

He only pressed his lips together like that when he lied.

“Don’t you want me anymore?” I asked.

He had been away for so many years. He must have seen prettier hibiscuses by now.

The thought made me cry.

Tears pattered down my cheeks.

He sighed and wiped them away with his fingertips. “That’s not true. Go back for now. I’ll come and see you tomorrow.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

I was perfectly satisfied, but I didn’t leave.

Instead, I happily climbed back onto his bed and wriggled farther in. “It’s too cold sleeping by myself. Could you sleep with me? I’ll only take up a little room. I’ll be good.”

He stood beside the bed and watched me for a long time.

In the end, he got in and lay down beside me.

“Who taught you all this?” he suddenly asked, just as I was falling asleep.

“Taught me what?” I murmured drowsily.

“Never mind.”