The Lantern Court flickered with a restless glow, as if the flames themselves sensed a storm. Prince Yang stood at its center, his posture regal but his jaw locked tight, a quiet fury simmering beneath his porcelain calm.
He wasn't a man easily unsettled.Not by assassins.Not by rumors.Not even by imperial ministers who whispered daggers behind fans.
But tonight… something had shifted.
He felt it the way predators feel the trembling of the ground—instinctive, unmistakable, primal.
A faint rustle met his ear.His shadow guard dropped to one knee.
"Your Highness… the wards flared near the Jade Pivot Bridge."
Prince Yang's gaze sharpened.
"Who was there?" His tone was soft, dangerous enough to still the air.
"We could not see clearly, but…" The guard bowed lower. "Lady Jiao Shui was present."
A pause.A tightening of knuckles at the prince's side.Then a whisper, barely audible:"Again."
As if fate itself kept circling her toward him.
He dismissed the guard with a flick of his sleeve and walked toward the moonlit courtyards, each step deliberate, his thoughts weaving faster than any court strategist.
Jiao Shui had been avoiding him.No… not avoiding.Evading, like a dancer who had memorized all the wrong steps.
And that meant one thing:She knew something she wasn't meant to know.
He almost smiled.Almost.
The wind carried faint traces of night-blooming jasmine as he approached her quarters. A curtain fluttered—delicate, hesitant. She stood inside, her back turned, combing her hair with slow, precise movements.
But her reflection in the window betrayed her.Her eyes weren't serene.They were calculating.
"Shui."
His voice slid through the room like a blade she hadn't seen coming.
She didn't flinch.But her fingers stilled on the comb.
"Your Highness," she answered, tone polite enough to irritate him.
Yang stepped inside without invitation. Silk whispered under his boots.
"You seem troubled."A lie.He knew she was troubled.And he relished it.
Jiao Shui placed the comb down with care. "The palace is full of troubled people."
"Yet it is only your presence that stirs the wards." He tilted his head, eyes sweeping her face. "Tell me. Who did you meet at the bridge?"
Her heartbeat betrayed her before her voice did.
"No one important."
"Do not insult me."
A low, velvet command.
Jiao Shui turned fully to face him now, chin raised, gaze steady. "And what would you do if I said it was someone you buried in your heart long ago?"
The temperature of the room shifted.The prince's breath stilled.His pupils tightened into pinpoints of danger.
"…Who."One word.A warning.A promise.
Jiao Shui knew the risk.Knew speaking it aloud might ignite the dangerous obsession that once destroyed her.
But she needed him shaken.She needed him off balance.
So she said it.
"Shenzha Jao."
Silence swallowed the room.
Prince Yang did not move.Not a twitch.Not a breath.Only his eyes changed—darkening, hollowing, pulling the world into their gravity.
"That," he said softly, "is impossible."
Jiao Shui's pulse hammered, but she didn't look away."Then perhaps the impossible has returned for you."
For the first time in years, something cracked through the prince's mask.
He looked… human.For half a heartbeat.
Then the fury returned.
"Where," he demanded, stepping closer, "did you see her?"
Jiao Shui held her ground. "At the Jade Pivot Brid—"
But she didn't finish.
Prince Yang had moved—swift, unguarded—grabbing her wrist so suddenly the air jolted.
His voice was low enough to shiver lantern flames.
"Jiao Shui… if this is a lie, I will tear the truth from every living soul in this palace."
"And if it isn't?" she whispered.
His grip tightened.
"Then nothing in this empire will remain untouched."
Behind them, unseen, a strand of ward-light flickered.Fate shivered.
And somewhere in the palace shadows…Shenzha Jao smiled.