Chapter 1

When he carried me into the hot spring, I was too sleepy even to lift my eyelids.

I was almost asleep when Xiao Heng spoke.

“You can go.”

I turned sluggishly toward him. “What?”

Xiao Heng had kept at me for an unusually long time tonight.

From the corner of my eye, I glimpsed the water clock in the hall. It was well past midnight.

He leaned against the edge of the pool, wet black hair hanging behind his shoulders, his expression indifferent.

“I said I’ll let you leave the palace. You can go and find him.”

I stared, unable for a moment to take it in.

Five years ago, when he first forced me to stay, I had begged and wept, asking only that he let me go.

I called him shameless, vile, a man who trampled every bond of decency. He never grew angry.

When I split his forehead with a teacup, he laughed and praised me for recovering my strength so well.

I had tried escaping, too.

After pretending to behave for a while, I finally slipped out during a change of guards.

But the moment I passed through Weiyang Palace’s gates, there he was with a group of guards, watching me at his leisure.

I was a bird struggling uselessly in a trap.

That day, I drove a little herb knife hard into his shoulder.

“The world is full of women who want to marry you. Why must you torment me?”

Xiao Heng glanced down at the blade in his flesh and raised an eyebrow.

Then he closed his hand around mine and drew the knife out, little by little.

Blood ran down his arm, but he seemed unable to feel pain.

Instead, he brushed his bloodied fingers across my lips.

“The world is full of women. But you and I are going to torment each other for the rest of our lives.”

He had told me that one day I would stay beside him willingly.

He had all the time and patience he needed.

If one year wasn’t enough, he would wait two.

If two weren’t enough, he would wait ten.

Somehow, he would make me forget everything outside the palace.

Now five years had passed.

And he was the one who had tired of it.

He toyed with a strand of my hair, his voice casual.

“I used to like that wild streak of yours. After a while, though, it loses its appeal.”

“Especially when I touch you. Every time, I remember you’ve been married before.”

“Filthy.”

I lowered my head, hiding what was in my eyes. “What made Your Majesty change his mind?”

“I met a girl during the hunt.”

I understood.

He had finally found a new amusement.

Xiao Heng rose from the water, and the palace servants immediately draped a loose sleeping robe over him.

“After meeting her, I finally understood what it means to truly care for someone.”

“So you can go.”

He reached the pool’s edge, then paused again.

I kept my eyes lowered and did not move.

Only when the doors closed did cold air seep through the gap.

I dug my nails into my palm. The pain was sharp and unmistakable.

Joy rose inside me.

This time, it wasn’t a dream.