The prince stepped on me to get to the top, I angrily flirted with the enemy's hostage

Su Rou frowned slightly, and Shen Changming said, "Don't worry, I'm not here to find you to blame. I have a rough guess about what happened to you, and combined with some of the things Su Chi told me, I already know the whole story."

Su Rou said, "I didn't mean to hide it. Everyone is watching my life, and I have to protect myself... As for the Shen family..."

She changed the subject and said, "That's what you deserve. You owe Shen Yao."

Shen Changming looked at Su Rou in front of him and suddenly asked, "Have you ever loved him?"

"Who?"

"Shen Yao."

Su Rou shook her head. "He's a very good friend. If someone in our Su family sets their sights on someone, they'll stick with him forever. Shen Yao left something for me, and I saw it. I don't want him to become a tool of your family. I hope you can understand."

After hearing her words, Shen Changming's expression relaxed a little.

“Your personality is really the same as before…that fake one who deceived everyone in the Shen family is really exactly like you.”

Su Rou said, "I thought you were looking for a chance to take revenge on me. Are you interested in the position of the general?"

Shen Changming glanced at Su Chi and said, "Well, but I have no chance of winning against someone from your family. I came here today just to take a look at you."

Gong Yu asked, "Why are you looking at her? Are you looking at me?"

Shen Changming curled his lips, knowing that Gong Yu was unhappy with him.

"Okay, okay, I won't look at her. His Majesty will host a banquet later. Will you stay and join us?"

Su Rou shook her head. "Gong Yu drinks with you? I can't. I have to accompany the children."

Speaking of children, Shen Changming's eyes narrowed slightly.

That fake Su Rou also has a child with Shen Yao...

if……

Shen Yao is still alive.

if……

Shen Yao and Su Rou are together, and that outcome seems to be better than the current one.

Gong Yu felt offended by the disappointment in Shen Changming's eyes.

Su Rou's fingertips brushed across the nails and she pulled Gong Yu's hanging hand. "I'll take Youyou back later. Don't drink cold wine. Youyou and I will wait for you at home."

He leaned over and kissed her lips, "Okay."

The wind grew stronger, making the corners of their clothes flutter.

The palace walls in the distance were thick with dark shadows, like impatient beasts waiting to devour someone.

……

In the general's mansion, the furnace was melting silver, and the sheep-horn lamp cast a dim light.

Su Rou rolled up her sleeves and held the celadon bowl in her hand.

The thin ice shattered into ginkgo leaves with a light "crack" in her palm, and the syrup flowed down through her fingers, sweet but bitter.

She repeated this step over and over again, as if building an invisible wall for herself.

The door was pushed open with a creak, and someone wrapped in snow entered the room.

But it wasn’t Gong Yu.

The man wore a light, soft black robe, a low-hanging bamboo hat, and hung a small ebony plaque around his waist—the Chinese character "Shu" was engraved in seal script. That was the secret code of the Su family's shadow guards.

"Miss." The man knelt on one knee and whispered quickly, "A secret letter was found in the western warm chamber, sealed with cinnabar. It read: 'The tiger talisman will be presented at 3:30 PM.'"

The sugary liquid on Su Rou's fingertips suddenly solidified, and the sweet, crisp liquid suddenly fell, hitting the blue bricks and splattering a floor of broken ice. She raised her eyes, and the flickering candlelight made her pupils as deep as a cold spring.

"Who put it there?"

"I haven't seen it clearly, only the fragrance of plum blossoms remains."

Su Rou thought of the fallen Gong family flag.

In the corner, a withered plum petal was curled up due to the heat wave.

She took a deep breath, poured the remaining ice cream into the glass cup, covered it tightly, and put the fox fur back.

As we walked out of the Shangshan Bureau, the snow fell even faster, making the paper surface of the lanterns crackle.

She looked up and saw a dark green figure leaning against the railing in the Wuying Palace in the distance. His shoulders and back were thin, but he looked like a solitary pine tree on a cliff.

Gong Yu was looking at her.

The wind and snow filled the sky and earth, and their gazes pierced through the snow and palace lanterns, silently colliding with each other, like two blades standing side by side many years ago, but now pointing their edges at the same abyss.

Dusk fell, the tiger talisman had not yet been taken out, but the arrow had already been shot.

She didn't know whether the next moment would be the trumpet of triumph or the knell of destruction.

She only knew that if the mountains and rivers were about to collapse, she would still be willing to be the first brick to break, and fight to the death to hold up the last inch of the world for him and her third brother.

Su Rou looked up and saw a line of dark clouds in the sky, like a black horse running out of control, running towards the training ground.

She hugged the child tightly, placed her palm on the red mark, and rubbed it lightly with her fingertips, as if stroking an old wound.

"Yo yo," she whispered, "Don't be afraid, Mommy will take you home."

When the wind picked up again, it scattered a strand of hair from her temple, revealing an old scar on the side of her neck. It was three years ago, when Gong Yu was trapped in the Northern Di King's court. She rode alone at night and shot an arrow through the enemy general's throat, but the arrowhead also lacerated her jugular vein. When Gong Yu found her, she was covered in blood, still clutching the Northern Di King's head tightly, her smile as sweet as a flower blooming in the snow.

At this moment, the scar was slightly itchy due to the wind, as if reminding her: the debt has not been paid and the game is not over.

Gong Yu reached out and gathered her hair, his fingertips brushing against her earlobe. He spoke in a low, hoarse voice, "Su Rou, go back to the camp. The Beidi spies have been recruited. We have people in the capital, and we can exchange letters with them."

Su Rou raised her eyes, her expression calm: "Who is it?"

Gong Yu didn't answer. He simply hugged the child tightly, his palm covering the back of her head as if protecting a fire. After a moment, he said, "The letter only mentioned one word—'Shen'."

Dark clouds gathered overhead, and the first drop of rain fell on the back of Su Rou's hand, cold and icy. She looked down and saw the water trickling down You You's sleeve, washing away the bloodstains on the child's arm, but not the crescent moon shape, like a curse seared into her flesh.

"Gong Yu," she said softly, "Before I return to the capital, I want the phoenix seal in Shen Wan's hand."

Gong Yu smiled, the snow in his eyes deepened: "Okay, I'll get it for you."

The rain curtain lifted and the training ground was empty in an instant.

As the imperial carriage went away, a corner of Shen Wan's curtain was lifted by the wind, revealing half of her profile, as pale as paper.

She looked at the backs of Gong Yu and Su Rou walking side by side, and her fingertips slowly stroked the corner of her lips - there, the wound she had bitten was bleeding, like a grain of cinnabar, dripping into the rain.

She whispered, a voice only she could hear:

"Su Rou, you can protect your daughter, but can you protect him?"

The sound of rain drowned out her answer, but it couldn't hide the fire in her eyes, which grew brighter and brighter, and then grew colder and colder.

The lights in Changxin Palace were extinguished that night.

When the palace maids discovered her, Shen Zhaoyi was sitting in front of a bronze mirror, wearing a plain dress and a white plum blossom pinned on her temples - that was the one Xiao Lin had pinned there himself on her first night in the palace.

Now, the flowers have withered, like an old love, swollen by rain.

She held an unfinished letter in her hand, the ink blurred by tears, leaving only one sentence:

"Your Majesty, I am just jealous, jealous to the point of madness."

Below the letter paper, there was a phoenix seal, the ink was bright red, like an unhealed wound.

Su Rou was applying medicine to Youyou when she received the news. The child was already asleep, and the pinch marks on his forearm were scabby, dark red and shaped like a crescent moon.

After listening to the palace servant's report, she paused for a moment and then said softly:

"Tell her I'll go see her tomorrow."

Gong Yu leaned against the door, the rain wet his temples, like a layer of frost.

He didn't stop her, but just said, "Bring a knife."

Su Rou smiled, but her eyes were calm: "Why bring a knife? She's gone crazy."

Gong Yu raised his eyes, his gaze piercing through the rain, landing on the distant palace wall: "A madman would know best where to stab."

The sound of rain continued all night. The next morning, the gates of Changxin Palace opened, and Su Rou entered, dressed in plain clothes, her hair unadorned, except for the old scar on the side of her neck, which shone brightly in the morning light.

Shen Wan sat in front of the mirror with her back to her. Two faces were reflected in the bronze mirror, one pale and the other calm.

"What are you doing here?" Shen Wan's voice was hoarse, like paper soaked in rain.

Su Rou didn't answer, but reached out and placed a tiger-head hat on the dressing table - it was a tiara, with one of the gold thread tassels at the end of the hat torn off by the child.

"I've come to repay you something," she said. "That night, when you pinched her, a piece of gold thread got embedded in your nails. I took it out for her."

Shen Wan lowered her head and looked at her fingertips—there was a scar as thin as a hairline, which had already scabbed over, but still ached slightly. She suddenly laughed out loud, and the sound of her laughter was like broken porcelain, piercing her throat:

"Su Rou, you win."

Su Rou shook her head, her voice as light as a sigh: "I didn't win, you just lost to yourself."

Shen Wan raised her eyes and saw in the bronze mirror that the fire in her eyes had finally burned out, leaving only a pile of cold ashes.

She stretched out her hand, stroked the edge of the bronze mirror, and her fingertips touched Su Rou's face in the mirror. Her voice was so low that it was almost inaudible:

"Tell him for me that I never regret loving him, I only regret... not loving him hard enough."

As soon as she finished speaking, she turned her wrist and the bronze mirror fell to the ground with a crash, breaking into millions of pieces.

In the fragments, Su Rou's departing figure was reflected. She was dressed in white clothes, and her footsteps were silent, like a knife edge, cutting through the long-lasting darkness of Changxin Palace.

Outside the palace gate, the rain stopped.

Gong Yu stood with his sword in his arms. Seeing Su Rou coming out, he reached out and held her wrist.

Their palms touched, and neither of them spoke, just walked side by side.

In the distance, the sound of drums in the parade grounds rose again, like a new storm brewing.

Su Rou looked up and saw the dark clouds in the sky disperse, and a ray of golden light fell on the palace wall.

She suddenly remembered the first time she taught Xiao Lin to hold a sword many years ago. The boy's palms were sweaty, but he stubbornly refused to let go. She laughed at him, and he said, "Master, if I let go, I won't be able to protect you."

Now, he protected her, but he couldn't protect another woman.

And the woman, in a frenzy, handed the knife to her.

"Gong Yu," she said softly, "Before returning to the Northern Territory, I will take Youyou to the Imperial Ancestral Temple and light a perpetual lamp for her."

Gong Yu hummed, tightened his palms, and said in a low voice: "I'll accompany you."

The wind blew away the lingering rain on his shoulders, like blowing away an old dream.

Su Rou tilted her head to look at the new wound on his temple - it was the arrow he blocked for her last night. The arrowhead was poisoned and grazed his ear, leaving a trail of blood.

She reached out her hand, lightly touching the wound with her fingertips, her voice as soft as the wind:

"Gong Yu, let's go home."

Gong Yu smiled, and the snow in his eyes melted away, as if spring had returned to the earth.

He lowered his head, kissed her fingertips, and said in a low and steady voice:

"Okay, go home."

The lights in Changxin Palace were never lit again.