The man’s eyes were shrouded in a thick, dark haze, his thin lips pressed tightly into a straight line. “You hate me because I forced you to stay, don’t you?”
The woman standing with her back to him remained silent, and he couldn’t discern anything from her posture.
A long silence stretched between them, thickening the already tense atmosphere.
“What if… I no longer forced you to stay?”
Di Ronghua’s pupils contracted sharply.
Xiao Hanjin watched her suddenly stiffened back, faintly detecting traces of shock and even hesitation. The corners of his lips curled into a faint, almost imperceptible smile, tinged with both mockery and self-deprecation. “A year from now, I can let you go wherever you want, as long as you give birth to the child. By then, whether you choose to abandon him or visit him occasionally, it will be up to you.”
After speaking, he released her hand.
Di Ronghua was about to turn around, but in the next second, the man wrapped his arms around her from behind, preventing her from moving. Their bodies pressed close, and his low, hoarse voice carried a hint of subtle coaxing. “Your Highness, how about this?”
It had to be said, the offer was incredibly tempting.
Di Ronghua stood still for a long while, silent for an equally long time. “What if… by some chance, I grow to love him and want to take him with me?”
The man’s arms stiffened, his eyes darkening several shades. Yet, the curve of his lips deepened, making him appear even more desolate. “Ronghua, was I so terrible to you in the past that you now feel the need to torment me like this?”
Di Ronghua bit her lip abruptly. “You could visit him too.”
“You don’t want him at all. How could you possibly love him?”
Di Ronghua opened her mouth but found no words to refute him.
She didn’t even know why she had asked such a question. In the very beginning, she hadn’t wanted to leave any ties with Xiao Hanjin. Yet, somehow, she had ended up asking something like this.
“Let me think.”
Her mind was in chaos, and she tried to push his hands away in a disordered manner. “Let go of me. I need to think this through alone.”
Xiao Hanjin hesitated for a moment but eventually loosened his grip.
The woman in his arms immediately pushed him away and ran off.
He instinctively took a step forward, but his feet rooted themselves to the spot. Watching her retreating figure, almost fleeing in panic, his eyes filled with boundless darkness and desolation.
—
Di Ronghua wandered aimlessly for a long time. She had said she needed to think, but her mind remained blank.
It wasn’t until a figure in moon-white robes appeared in the distance that she finally stopped.
Their eyes met for a long moment before Xiao Yixun slowly walked toward her.
Di Ronghua watched his approaching figure and instinctively took half a step back.
The man’s eyes darkened, but the corners of his lips lifted into a slow smile. “Ronghua, are you afraid of me?”
“No.”
What she feared was Xiao Hanjin harming him.
But she didn’t say that. “Did you come to the palace to see him?”
The man smiled. “No, I came to see you.”
He paused. “I might be leaving the capital for a while. If… you still want to leave him, I can help you.”
Di Ronghua was visibly stunned.
But without any hesitation, she shook her head. “No need.”
Xiao Yixun’s pupils contracted. “Why?”
Why?
Because back then, her all-or-nothing gamble had been based on the fact that Xiao Hanjin was only the Crown Prince, and Beixi still had an emperor. Her actions, on the surface, had seemed mutually beneficial with Xiao Yixun. But who could have guessed that Xiao Hanjin would become the emperor so quickly?
