The silence was deafening, the still air thick with an eerie tension.
After a long while, she heard his hoarse, low chuckle. “When have you ever really given me a choice?”
Di Ronghua’s fingers twitched slightly.
Doesn’t this count?
Right, during the wedding, she had deceived him. This time, she had threatened him with a life—knowing full well he couldn’t let go, yet forcing him to sever everything. The choice itself was already tantamount to giving him no choice at all.
“Fine.”
She slowly stood up. The evening sunset cast a red glow over her, dyeing her snow-white dress and coat a faint crimson.
Her delicate face held a faint smile as she met his mocking gaze. “Since you’ve made your choice, I hope you won’t come looking for me again.”
Xiao Hanjin’s chest tightened.
As he watched her turn and walk past him, there was a fleeting moment when he wanted to reach out and stop her.
But in the end, his thin lips only moved slightly. “What about the Red Feathers?”
Di Ronghua paused for a moment before replying, “Don’t worry. I’ll have someone deliver them later.”
Xiao Hanjin turned to watch her retreating figure. As she stepped through the courtyard gate, his pupils contracted, and he blurted out instinctively, “Ronghua, she’s very ill.”
The woman’s back stiffened slightly.
Xiao Hanjin’s gaze darkened. “If the imperial physicians could cure her, I could let her go. But they can’t. I can’t just watch her die.”
“Ah…”
He saw her nod, her sleeves fluttering in the wind. Her soft, delicate voice carried on the breeze. “Then you should take good care of her.”
The man’s eyes completely dimmed.
It was as if a cold wind had torn open a gash in his heart, rushing in unexpectedly, chilling him to the bone.
…………
The city gates remained closed, allowing entry but no exit.
Xiao Yixun glanced at the expressionless woman beside him. “It seems he wants to test whether keeping you in the capital will really force you to marry me.”
Di Ronghua pressed her fingers to her temples. “Did your father really agree?”
In truth, before she burned the Red Feathers, she had assumed the emperor wouldn’t consent.
“Yes.”
Xiao Yixun’s gaze was somber. “Otherwise, Father wouldn’t have stood by and watched him shut the city gates without intervening.”
In other words, this was all happening with the emperor’s tacit approval.
Di Ronghua’s expression shifted subtly for a moment. “Your father is truly… eccentric. No wonder he raised brothers like you.”
The man chuckled. “So, Princess, it seems you really have no choice but to marry me.”
Di Ronghua frowned at him. “What if, on the day of the wedding, he still refuses to let me go?”
Xiao Yixun raised an eyebrow, a faint smile playing on his lips. “Then it must be fate. If you truly become my princess consort, I’ll treat you well. It wouldn’t be a bad deal for you, would it?”
Di Ronghua, “……”
As the sun set completely in the west, night fell, and even the white begonias in the courtyard couldn’t dispel the desolate atmosphere.
When Fan Jiang entered, he saw the man sitting alone on the lounge chair—the one the princess had been sitting on before she left. Beside it was a small wooden table, on which a cup of tea sat, as if its owner had never left.
He paused for a moment before stepping forward. “Your Highness, it’s late. You haven’t had dinner yet. Shall I have someone bring it in?”
The air grew even quieter.
The man didn’t respond for a long time.
Fan Jiang pursed his lips. “Are you thinking about the princess?”
