The palace was too still tonight, as if every wall were holding its breath. Yunan stepped through the lantern-lit corridor, each flame bending toward her like it recognized her new, sharpened resolve. Her steps echoed gently, steady, neither timid nor hurried. The girl who used to trip over her own panic was gone. What walked now was something distilled.
She stopped at the courtyard gate. A light winter wind rolled past, carrying the frost-bitten scent of pine resin and cold stone. It brushed her hair across her cheek like a warning.
Inside the courtyard waited someone she did not expect.
Song Xiao.
He stood beneath the plum tree—yes, the same one where she once hid from him as a child. Its skeletal branches clawed at the sky as if they were drawing ink strokes on an invisible scroll.
He wore no weapon tonight, yet Yunan felt as if the entire courtyard bowed around him. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes held that soft ache he always failed to bury.
"Princess," he greeted, voice low. "You shouldn't be walking alone at night."
Yunan didn't step toward him. "And you shouldn't be guarding paths you surrendered."
A flicker. Not hurt. Something heavier.
"Is this about the jade pendant?" he asked. "Jang Linghu told me you came for it."
"Did he also tell you," she replied, "that he nearly killed me once to protect someone else? That I died still loving him? That I died still trusting the both of you?"
Song Xiao's breath caught.There it was. The truth she had been too soft to say in seventeen years.
Her fingers wrapped tighter around her sleeve, but her voice stayed level. "I've let go of both of you. I came to reclaim what was mine, not to rewrite a childhood that never protected me."
Song Xiao lowered his head. For a moment, Yunan almost thought he would step back and let her leave.
But then—
"Yunan," he said softly, "your brother is watching everything you do."
Her pulse stumbled.
"He—?"
Song Xiao stepped closer. Not touching. Not daring. But his presence wrapped around her like a warning bell. "The emperor has ordered secret eyes on the Princess Court. You need to be careful, especially now. He is… not as distant toward you as you think."
The air thickened.Even the plum branches seemed to curl inward.
Bullet comments flickered in the corner of her vision like startled sparrows:
[Wait, why does this sound dangerous??][Sis, RUN. Your emperor brother's aura is not normal.][Someone call the 'Avoidance Department.'][Protect Yunan at all costs!]
Yunan swallowed. "Why are you telling me this?"
Song Xiao's answer was immediate. Heavy. Raw.
"Because even if you no longer want me in your life, I refuse to let you walk headfirst into a trap."
Cold. Clean. Honest.
She met his gaze. "You and Jang Linghu have made your choices. Let me make mine."
Song Xiao exhaled slowly, like someone accepting an irreversible truth. "Very well. But remember: I owe you a debt I will repay, even if you deny me every path back into your world."
Yunan turned away. "Then repay it from afar."
She walked past him, the soft sound of her steps breaking the night's stillness. She didn't look back.
Song Xiao did.
His whisper trailed after her like a thread she no longer wished to hold.
"Then… may Heaven forgive me for still wanting to protect you."
Back in her chambers, Yunan closed the door gently behind her.The moonlight spilled across the floor like silver water.
Her fingers brushed the jade pendant she had retrieved.Her mother's warmth lingered faintly on its surface, as if reaching from a life already gone.
And as she finally lay down, eyes drifting toward the window—
A shadow moved on the roof.
Silent. Controlled. Watching her window with a familiarity that chilled the marrow beneath her ribs.
Not Song Xiao.Not Jang Linghu.
This presence felt… imperial.
The bullet comments exploded:
[HELLO?? WHO IS THAT ON THE ROOF??][That's not a guard, I swear.][Why does this have emperor-brother vibes…][Abort mission! Abort!]
Yunan's heartbeat slowed, deepened.She did not rise.She did not show fear.
She simply opened her eyes fully and stared at the ceiling, knowing exactly who had come to observe his cherished sister at night.
The emperor's shadow lingered… a moment too long.