Xiao Hanjin jolted violently, almost instinctively repeating, “What did you say?”
He clearly remembered how cold she’d been.
She’d known about the assassination in advance but refused to warn him.
Even after he was gravely injured, she wouldn’t spare him a single glance.
If he hadn’t sent Fan Jiang to fetch her, she might not have asked about his condition until he’d fully recovered.
That’s what he’d always believed.
But now, Ju Ye was saying she’d fainted?
Xiao Hanjin’s eyes darkened heavily. “You saw it with your own eyes?”
“Yes,” Ju Ye replied, nodding blankly, unsure why he asked. “I was right beside the princess.”
“…Besides fainting, did she say anything?”
Ju Ye racked her memory. “It seemed like… the princess said, ‘They said it was tomorrow—why did it happen today?’ I didn’t understand what she meant. That was all. She said it and tried to rush out to find you, but then she fainted again!”
A buzzing filled Xiao Hanjin’s mind.
A brief blankness and confusion hit him, followed by delayed shock and disarray.
So, back then, she hadn’t been indifferent or deliberately withholding the assassination plot. She’d… been given false information?
In an instant, Xiao Hanjin pieced it together. His father had told her about the assassination but, fearing she’d tip him off, fed her a fake date. She’d thought there was still time, only to learn he’d been attacked the moment she got the news.
And she’d… fainted from the shock.
His pupils contracted sharply. He’d thought she’d long since given up on him, that her love had faded.
But back then, she’d still… loved him deeply.
As this realization surfaced, his heart felt as if it had been ripped open, a raw, bloody pain crashing over him like a tidal wave.
His Adam’s apple bobbed several times before his hoarse voice emerged, each word strained and halting. “Why didn’t you say this sooner?”
Ju Ye’s eyes reddened. “The princess forbade me from telling…”
Xiao Hanjin already knew the answer, yet he couldn’t stop himself from asking.
Back then… even she hadn’t wanted him to know the truth. She’d rather be misunderstood, keeping her lips sealed. Even after waking from her faint and learning he’d survived, she’d chosen not to visit him. How could she let Ju Ye reveal this?
She loved him deeply yet refused to forgive him easily.
The latter was self-preservation; the former was… instinct.
But he hadn’t seen through it. He’d even thought that after one mistake, she’d ruthlessly withdrawn her heart.
He’d claimed she couldn’t stop loving him so easily, but deep down, he’d already dismissed her affection.
During the assassination, though he’d said nothing, he’d felt wronged, angry, even disappointed.
Yet compared to those dark emotions, he’d feared losing her more, so he’d kept silent.
But in the end, who’d been more wronged?
Her, surely.
When the last embers of her love were snuffed out, she’d finally hated him—hated him enough to leap from a towering cliff.
[You destroyed my love.]
Hadn’t she… said something like that?
Xiao Hanjin shut his eyes. Everything he’d suppressed came flooding back unbidden, his gaze darkening like a stormy tide, pierced by a bone-deep pain and regret.
How had he… driven her to this?
