The palace corridors shifted around Yunan like a maze that breathed.Red lacquer gleamed. Lanterns flickered. Servants bowed so deeply their fear left ripples in the air.
Prince Yuanxiu walked ahead of her with perfect, silent steps—an arrow carved for the emperor alone. His presence felt less like a person and more like a drawn blade waiting for a throat.
Yunan followed without hesitation.She would not give them the satisfaction of seeing her falter.
The bullet comments trailed her like invisible ghosts:
[Girl you're walking into the lion's lungs, not even just the den.][Yuanxiu giving 'if she tries to run, I'll politely murder her.'][I can't decide if the emperor wants to protect her, cage her, or both.]
At the final turn, Yuanxiu stopped and bowed.
"Princess. His Majesty awaits inside."
The doors opened inward with a whisper that felt intentional.
Yunan stepped into the throne hall.
The room was nearly empty—just the emperor seated on the upper dais, a quiet silhouette framed by morning sunlight. His black robes fell around him like a controlled darkness, swallowing the colors at his sides.
He dismissed the guards with a flick of his hand.
Silence closed around them, soft as snowfall and twice as deadly.
"Come closer," he said.
His voice didn't raise, but it traveled with an authority that left no room for disobedience.
Yunan walked forward. Her heartbeat never quickened. Her breath stayed cool.
When she reached the edge of the dais, she bowed. "Your Majesty."
"Yunan," the emperor murmured, leaning forward just slightly. "You look tired."
"Because someone was on my roof last night," she replied calmly.
His lips curved—not a smile. Something darker.
"You noticed."
"Hard not to when the moonlight hits polished boots."
That earned a soft, amused exhale.
The emperor rose and descended the dais steps slowly, the gentle sweep of his robes echoing across the hall. He moved like someone approaching a fragile artifact he had no intention of letting go of.
He stopped in front of her.
Too close.
Too deliberate.
His fingertips lifted her chin with a touch so gentle it might as well have been a threat.
"You shouldn't wander at night," he said. "I worry."
"I didn't ask you to."
"No," he agreed. "But I've never required your permission."
She met his eyes without wavering. "Is this why you called me? To scold me like a child?"
The emperor's gaze softened, but the softness felt like silk hiding a blade.
"No. I called you here because I have something for you."
He lifted his hand.
Prince Yuanxiu stepped forward from the shadows, carrying a small, lacquered box.
Yunan's stomach tightened—not in fear, but in anticipation of a trap wrapped in red silk.
Yuanxiu opened the box.
Inside lay a hair ornament—elegant, flawless, cruel in its beauty.White jade carved into a plum blossom, threaded with gold so fine it shifted like captured sunlight.
And at the base…
A phoenix feather motif.
Her mother's crest.
Her breath hitched.
The emperor watched her reaction with quiet satisfaction.
"Someone has been searching for your mother's belongings," he said softly. "Retrieving pieces that went missing."
"So you knew," Yunan whispered. "You knew about the jade hair comb that Jang Linghu returned."
The emperor's gaze flickered. "Of course."
"What game are you playing?"
"No game," he murmured. "You are rebuilding yourself. I am simply giving back what the world took from you."
She stared at the ornament.It was beautiful.Painfully so.A piece of a childhood that had been torn away too soon.
But accepting it meant stepping deeper into her brother's grasp.
She drew a breath. "I cannot take this."
The emperor closed the box quietly.
"I wasn't asking."
Her pulse stilled.
The room dimmed around the edges.
"I will not accept something that binds me," she said.
He stepped closer, lowering his head until his breath warmed her ear.
"Yunan," he whispered, "everything binds you.The palace.Your bloodline.Your name.Your fate."
He lifted the box again, gently, insistently.
"This is not a chain," he said. "It is a reminder."
"Of what?"
His eyes darkened, drowning out the morning light completely.
"That nothing in this world belongs to you more than I do."
Yunan froze.
For one breath.
Two.
Then—
She stepped back sharply. "You presume too much."
He tilted his head, studying her like a puzzle piece that had shifted unexpectedly.
"And you deny too much."
The bullet comments exploded:
[OH HE IS OBSESSED OBSESSED.]['Nothing belongs to you more than I do' — sir WHAT.][Someone sedate this emperor he's unhinged.][Yunan girl RUN.]
Yunan steadied herself.This was no time for weakness.
"If that is all," she said, spine icy straight, "I shall take my leave."
The emperor did not stop her.
But just as she reached the door—
His voice followed her like a silk ribbon catching on her wrist.
"Yunan."
She paused.
"You may refuse my gifts," he said softly. "But you cannot refuse what comes next."
A warning.A promise.A threat.All woven into a single breath.
Yunan did not turn around.
"Then you underestimate me," she said, and walked out.
But the chill that trailed her down the corridor felt like the emperor's hand resting on the back of her neck.
Claiming what wasn't his.Yet.