"Shen Changyin, come down."
The voice pierced the cool post-rain air, reaching clearly to the third-floor window.
Shen Changyin stiffened slightly but didn't turn around. She lifted the wine jug, poured herself another cup, and tilted her head back to drink, pretending she hadn't heard.
Xie Yu's voice grew heavier as she said it a second time.
"Shen Changyin."
The figure by the window finally reacted.
She set the cup down, slowly turned, and looked down at Xie Yu.
In the moonlight, her face was pale, only the corners of her eyes still tinged red from the alcohol.
"I don't want to call you a third time," Xie Yu said calmly.
Shen Changyin lowered her gaze, set the wine cup aside, and stood up. The window was left empty.
Moments later, the tavern door opened, and Shen Changyin stepped out from the wooden interior.
She walked forward a few slow steps and stopped three paces from Xie Yu. Her white robes stirred lightly in the night breeze.
She looked quietly at Xie Yu. The rouge-like flush on her cheeks gradually faded under the wind, revealing skin so pale it was almost translucent.
The corners of her eyes were still red, her gaze unreadable.
The air nearly congealed. Dark rain clouds gathered again overhead.
The first thing Xie Yu did was lift the trembling, soaked kitten in her arms and show it to her.
"I picked up a cat."
Shen Changyin's gaze swept over the heterochromatic kitten, its sparse fur fluffed up as it glared at her warily, before returning to Xie Yu's face. After a brief pause, she said, "…Congratulations."
After thinking for a moment, she added, "It's very cute."
Xie Yu nodded and tucked the cat back into her arms. "Right? I think it's really cute. We can raise it together."
She looked at Shen Changyin seriously.
"Why did you do this?"
Shen Changyin didn't speak. She only pressed her lips together, quietly looking at Xie Yu with those eyes damp and deep like a cold pool. Her frame was slender, swaying in the wind like a reed on the verge of breaking.
What difference was there, really, between her and that rain-soaked cat crouched in the corner?
Xie Yu let out a long sigh. Her heart had already softened. She covered her eyes briefly, then dropped her hand and warned,
"Don't play pitiful. Answer my question."
What had to come couldn't be avoided. Shen Changyin's thick lashes trembled slightly, her voice a little hoarse.
"Which matter are you referring to?"
"Start with the killing."
Shen Changyin exhaled. "The infiltration of the Jiangnan Navy was already complete. Killing Shen Liuzhen meant you would never have a chance to fall for her."
Xie Yu nodded, surprisingly not pressing the matter further.
"Fine. Let's clarify the first thing. I don't like her, and I absolutely would never like her."
"Next—the second thing. Why didn't you tell me in advance? And why did you avoid me afterward?"
Shen Changyin straightened her voice.
"Third Highness, even if I had told you beforehand, would you have agreed with my approach?"
People always said the Crown Princess was kind, and they were grateful for it.
Shen Changyin hated that about her.
Perhaps she had drunk too much. Her heart was pounding painfully as it beat. Her voice was cold.
"Would you have made the same choice as me?"
Xie Yu slowly smiled.
"Do I look like the kind of person who demands others be saints?"
Kindness, justice, courage—those were standards Xie Yu set for herself. She hoped to be that kind of person.
But that didn't mean she expected the whole world to be the same.
"I know your way of doing things is different from mine, but you should have discussed it with me beforehand."
Shen Changyin asked quietly, "If I had discussed it with you, would you have agreed?"
Xie Yu shook her head. "No. But you still should have discussed it with me."
Shen Changyin looked at her silently.
Xie Yu played shamelessly.
"Yes, that's right—overbearing and selfish. So what?"
Shen Changyin didn't answer. She only tilted her head slightly, lips pressed together, her profile fragile yet stubborn in the moonlight.
Xie Yu looked at her, then at the cat, and smiled subtly.
She spoke.
"There's one more thing—I'm sorry."
Shen Changyin looked at her abruptly.
Xie Yu nodded sincerely.
"I understand why you deceived me—because I made you feel unsafe."
"Because you confessed to me long ago, and I still haven't given you a good answer. Because I've never shown you firm, unwavering support."
"Even if I still can't fully agree with your methods, before I criticize you in any way, I should apologize first."
"So," Xie Yu took a deep breath, every word crystal clear,
"I'm sorry, Shen Changyin."
The moonlight was dazzling. The moon reflected in the pooled water was dazzling too. Human shadows overlapped with the moon's reflection, blurring and swaying together.
Xie Yu couldn't say anything romantic. She only said, very seriously:
"I should have confessed earlier. I should have said those four words sooner."
"I—"
"Wait." Shen Changyin suddenly interrupted her.
Xie Yu was abruptly cut off, confused—and then suddenly panicked.
"What do you mean? Why won't you listen to my confession?"
"You'd better not tell me right now that you don't like me anymore, or you're finished. Let me tell you, am I really that easy to mess with—"
She babbled anxiously, rambling.
Shen Changyin solemnly took her hand.
"Come with me."
After thinking for a moment, she added,
"Leave the cat at the tavern first. We'll send someone to get it tomorrow."
Xie Yu looked suspicious.
"Why does the cat have to stay at the tavern? You'd better not be the kind of rain-night maniac who enjoys killing people but spares cats…"
Shen Changyin smacked her shoulder hard, urging her to hurry.
Xie Yu's eyes widened strangely.
"Your strength is way more than I expected, Lady Shen. Impressive…"
Shen Changyin finally lost patience.
"Hurry up!"
She got scolded.
Xie Yu happily went to leave the kitten at the counter.
When she returned, Shen Changyin had her mount a horse. The two of them rode hard all the way to the entrance of a building.
Xie Yu dismounted and realized,
"Isn't this the residence you usually use for official work?"
Shen Changyin nodded. The air was damp from the rain, moisture clinging to her clothes.
She strode forward, and Xie Yu could only follow.
They passed through the main hall and went straight to the room Shen Changyin normally used for work. It was filled with all kinds of books and documents, with no decoration whatsoever—cold and barren, like an ice cave.
It was Xie Yu's first time here. She had just stopped to look around curiously when Shen Changyin forcefully pulled open a cabinet, revealing a small door behind it.
Xie Yu was alarmed.
"Shen Changyin, I'm warning you, I have no interest in dark-room play."
Already used to her strange remarks, Shen Changyin didn't react. She extended her hand.
Xie Yu obediently placed her hand in Shen Changyin's and followed her down the staircase behind the door.
Below was pitch black. Shen Changyin turned a mechanism on the wall at the bottom of the stairs, and the entire underground space suddenly lit up.
Before them was a large room, within which seven medium-sized enclosures were formed by thick logs. Calling them rooms was generous—they were enormous cages, with no walls and no privacy.
Inside each cage were meticulously arranged, brand-new instruments of torture, gleaming coldly—iron hooks, finger crushers, branding irons, barbed whips… countless varieties, everything imaginable.
All of them were unused, arranged with chilling order, waiting for their first victims—and that made them even more horrifying.
The air was cold, filled with the sharp, metallic scent of new wood and iron.
Xie Yu subconsciously took a few steps forward, examining them. With each instrument she recognized, her heart grew colder.
Shen Changyin's voice echoed from behind her in the vast, frigid space—calm, without the slightest ripple.
"This place has been under construction since the day we entered the capital. It was only completed recently."
Xie Yu swallowed.
Okay.
Okay okay okay.
Fine fine fine.
Xie Yu, your wife built a death prison behind your back. And the torture tools are so complete they could be used to write an encyclopedia.
But that's fine. Everyone has harmless little hobbies… right?
She comforted herself, calmed down a bit, then counted the cages.
"Seven?"
She said instinctively,
"Isn't that not enough? My empress mother plus seven princesses—that's eight rooms."
She suddenly turned to Shen Changyin.
"Is there no cell for me?"
Shen Changyin was speechless.
"Do you want one?"
Xie Yu shook her head.
"Not really. But suddenly I feel a bit sadly left out."
Shen Changyin sighed and took down a hanging landscape painting from one of the cages.
Xie Yu complained from behind her,
"I was just thinking—this decor is way too out of place. Cultivating refined tastes in a torture chamber?"
Behind the painting was yet another hidden door.
Shen Changyin pushed it open. Inside was a room of modest size. Xie Yu leaned over to look in.
It had solid wooden floors, white-painted walls, a bed, cabinets, a table—everything. On the cabinet sat a white ceramic urn.
Xie Yu recognized it instantly.
"Isn't this the ashes urn you put in the carriage when we first met?"
She suddenly realized.
"Holy—so that urn was actually prepared for me?!"
Shen Changyin rubbed her nose.
Xie Yu leaned in farther.
Compared to the sharp, gleaming torture tools outside—clearly meant to flay flesh and grind bone—the items in this room followed a different aesthetic.
Heavy iron chains hung down from the wall beside the bed. Two or three black leather ropes dangled from the ceiling. There were various lengths of rope on the cabinet, and hoods for covering the face.
Xie Yu looked around, then fell silent.
Shen Changyin's voice was like a cold needle point.
"You've seen it. I once wanted to kill you."
Xie Yu hesitated.
Privately thinking—looking at this room, you clearly wanted to do dark-room play with me.
"And to this day, I still want to kill your mother and your sisters. I won't stop my revenge."
"You've seen it. Those wooden cells outside, those torture tools—they were all prepared for them."
"There are no walls in those cells because I want them to watch each other suffer. I want them to live in fear and torment every single day."
Shen Changyin grabbed Xie Yu's shoulders, forcing her to look at her.
"The four words you were about to say to me are incredibly important to me. They may even be the only time you ever say them, so I want them to be perfect."
"That's why I wanted you to see this first—this place I've hidden from you."
"I want you to know that I've countless times wanted to lock you in this room and make sure you never saw daylight again."
"Even though I don't want that anymore, I still have to tell you."
Xie Yu was silent.
Shen Changyin's lashes trembled, yet she forced herself to continue.
"Now that you've seen it, I don't know if you still want to say those four—"
Her words were swallowed back down her throat.
Xie Yu stepped forward, cupped Shen Changyin's icy cheeks with both hands, and kissed her.
Shen Changyin's eyes widened. Her entire body went rigid.
Xie Yu kissed her for a long time before finally lifting her head, pulling back slightly to take a breath.
"I love you."
"I love you."
"I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you. I love you…"
She repeated it many times before finally stopping.
"These four words aren't important at all, because you'll hear me say them again and again for the rest of your life."
Her eyes were dazzlingly bright.
Having been deprived of almost all the air in her lungs, Shen Changyin panted sharply, shock and lingering darkness still clinging to her gaze.
Xie Yu was dissatisfied.
"I just told you I love you so many times—give me an answer!"
Shen Changyin's chest rose and fell rapidly. She nodded hard.
Xie Yu broke into a smile and kissed her again.
Stumbling together, the two of them fell into the small room that had originally been meant to imprison Xie Yu. Xie Yu hooked the door shut with her heel.
As they kissed, Shen Changyin ended up falling back onto the bed. Xie Yu knelt by the bedside, bracing her hands on either side of Shen Changyin's face, focused entirely on tasting her.
This was clearly a single-person cell, yet for some reason the bed was wide enough for two, covered in clean, soft bedding.
The floor was made of fine wooden planks, polished like a mirror, almost able to reflect the blurred, swaying figures by the bed—until discarded clothes fell and covered the image.
Xie Yu pressed her fingers lightly against Shen Changyin's cheek.
Shen Changyin checked, breathing hard, her tone almost provocative.
"Not bad."
Xie Yu laughed in disbelief. She straightened up, grabbed the long leather rope hanging from the ceiling, and wrapped it around her palm a few times.
"Not. Bad." She enunciated each word.
Grinding her teeth, she leaned down again.
"Not. Bad."
The heavy iron chains by the wall were accidentally struck, producing a dull metallic sound.
Black leather bindings circled around ankles, put to full use.
The air was no longer filled with cold metal, but with hurried breaths, suppressed moans, and a sweetness that was nearly scorching.
Moonlight could not reach here. In this forgotten corner of the world, their bodies were damp, pressed tightly together.
—
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