The air inside the room was taut with silence.
Huo Xi looked at Shadow Blade, her eyes still damp with unshed tears, but they were slowly growing clear. She sniffled, her voice trembling slightly, yet no longer as panicked as before.
"Master Shadow..." she began softly. "Did you always think... that this was given to me by the Third Young Master?"
Shadow Blade didn't answer. But the rigid line of his shoulders told her everything.
Huo Xi suddenly let out a small laugh. It was a light sound, but it carried an indescribable bitterness. "No wonder..." She looked down at the pouch in her arms, her fingertips slowly tightening. "No wonder you wouldn't see me these past few days."
Shadow Blade's Adam's apple bobbed. His voice was low and raspy. "I..."
He didn't finish. For the first time, he realized he didn't even know how to explain himself.
Huo Xi didn't let him continue. She lifted her head and looked him straight in the eye—no flinching, no avoiding. At that moment, she wasn't the little girl who usually laughed and acted spoiled. Instead, she was so quiet it made one's heart ache.
"That night," she said slowly, enunciating every word, "I begged the Third Young Master to teach me how to carve wood."
Shadow Blade's pupils constricted violently.
Huo Xi continued, "Because I'm clumsy, I couldn't get it right no matter how I tried. Those two characters... I practiced so many times. I wore the skin off my fingers, and they were still slanted." She smiled faintly, with a hint of self-mockery.
Suddenly, Shadow Blade felt a weight in his palm. The warm pouch, carrying Huo Xi's body heat and tears, was thrust into his hand.
"Open it and see for yourself."
Huo Xi dropped those words, her tone no longer gentle. Instead, it carried the stubbornness and indignation of someone who had been wronged. Before Shadow Blade could react, she turned and strode out of the blood-scented dark room.
Left alone, Shadow Blade felt the pouch in his hand grow so heavy he could barely hold it up. With trembling fingers, he slowly pulled the drawstring and took out the roughly polished redwood tag.
Moonlight pierced through the broken roof, spilling over the wood. There, slanted and clumsy, were two characters: "Shadow Blade".
The handwriting was indeed unrefined; every stroke betrayed the carver's awkwardness and effort. On the sweeping stroke of the character Ren (Blade), there was even a faint, long-dried brownish bloodstain.
It wasn't Chu Yuning's handwriting. It was her heart. It was the obsession she had carved stroke by stroke, nursing her worn fingertips in the silence of the night.
Shadow Blade froze like a stone statue, feeling as if that dried bloodstain was burning through time and space to sear his palm. Beneath the mask, his expression shifted from shock to realization, finally settling into a self-destructive regret. Every "distance" he had meticulously maintained was shattered into pieces by this small, rough piece of wood.
"I... am a fool."
He gripped the tag tightly, his nails digging into his palms until blood seeped out, yet he didn't feel it. The physical pain couldn't compare to the feeling of his heart being torn in two.
Huo Xi walked quickly, her skirt brushing against the withered weeds with a rustling sound. Once outside, the cold wind bit at her, making her realize the scrapes on her hands and feet were throbbing with pain.
Chu Yuning stood under an old locust tree. Seeing the huffy little girl walk out, a trace of pity flickered in his eyes.
"Third Young Master..." Huo Xi's eyes were red as she approached him, her voice still thick with tears. "Can the Third Young Master take Little Xi back to the manor?"
Chu Yuning looked down at her disheveled state—her hair was a mess, her face was covered in dust, and her usually bright eyes were swollen like walnuts. He didn't look back at the "Shadow" still dazed inside the room. Instead, he nodded gently, his tone unusually soft. "Are you alright, Little Xi? Besides the scrapes, is there any other discomfort?"
Huo Xi shook her head, biting her lower lip aggrievedly.
"Let's go." Chu Yuning gestured for a soldier to bring a horse. "We must return quickly. Auntie Mei has been worried sick during the hours you were missing."
"Yes," Huo Xi whispered, obediently following behind Chu Yuning.
Shadow Blade stood at the broken threshold, the tag clenched in his fist. His gaze was burning, but he didn't dare take a step forward. He watched Huo Xi walk toward the horse under Chu Yuning's protection; he watched as she didn't even spare him a glance from the corner of her eye. The isolation of being abandoned by the world washed over him instantly.
Chu Yuning glanced coldly at Shadow Blade through the moonlight. His look carried a warning, mixed with a playful 'you deserve this' jab.
—In the next instant.
Shadow Blade moved. He was fast as a lightning strike, leaving no afterimage.
Just as Chu Yuning's hand touched Huo Xi's waist to help her onto the horse, a purple-gold blur swept past like a gale. Chu Yuning's vision blurred, and the soft warmth at his fingertips was brushed away by a powerful force.
Whinny!
The horse let out a startled cry. Shadow Blade was already firmly seated in the saddle. His powerful arms reached around Huo Xi's waist, pulling her into his broad chest with a precision that brooked no refusal.
The hem of the purple-gold python robes snapped in the wind. Shadow Blade's knuckles on the reins turned white—an almost uncontrollable display of possessiveness after nearly losing her.
"Third Young Master, I will escort Lady Huo Xi back to the manor."
His voice was low, raspy, and strained. Gone was the usual calm and distance; in its place was a tremor and a hidden ferocity. It wasn't a request. It was a declaration. He was pulled taut like a fully drawn bow. Even facing the Young General, he did not back down. He was protecting the only thing that mattered to him; if anyone took another step, he would draw blood.
Chu Yuning stood there, his hand still suspended in the air. He slowly withdrew it, looking first at Huo Xi in Shadow Blade's arms and then at the masked face of the guard. He was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing in exasperation.
"Shadow Blade, you're currently dressed as 'Prince Zhan.' Riding through the streets with a servant girl—are you trying to make sure the spies have enough stories to write tomorrow?" Despite the mockery, a look of relief flashed in Chu Yuning's eyes. So the block of wood can be saved after all.
Shadow Blade didn't respond. His chest was pressed tight against Huo Xi's back; it was the first time in his life he felt a heartbeat so vivid, yet so fragile. He leaned down and whispered in her ear:
"Hold on tight."
Huo Xi froze in his arms, the back of her head resting against his iron-hard chest. His familiar cold scent, mixed with a faint hint of blood, surrounded her. She could feel his arms around her waist trembling slightly. He was afraid.
"Master Shadow..." Just as she started to speak, the horse bolted forward like an arrow.
As the night wind howled past, Shadow Blade leaned forward slightly, using his wide cloak to shield her from the chill.
"Don't speak," Shadow Blade's voice was somewhat broken in the wind. "The name you carved... I saw it."
Huo Xi's nose crinkled, and the tears she had finally stopped began to flow again. She felt Shadow Blade's chin rest against the top of her head. He held her with a force that suggested he wanted to press her into his very soul.
"I'm sorry."
Amidst the thundering hooves, Shadow Blade whispered the most awkward and heaviest words of his life into her ear.
"From now on... you are not allowed to leave the manor alone without my permission. If you want to go anywhere, even to the ends of the earth, I will take you."
Chu Yuning watched the receding purple-gold silhouette and shook his head helplessly before mounting another horse. "Shadow Blade, oh Shadow Blade... you aren't escorting her back to the manor. You're delivering yourself right into her heart's prison. You'll never get out in this lifetime."
Under the moonlight, the horse kicked up dust. The redwood tag, stained with blood and tears, was pressed tight against Shadow Blade's heart, pulsing in rhythm with him beneath the royal robes.
The shadow had finally caught his light. Even if the price was eternal damnation, he would never let go.
Expert Guide Question:
They are finally together (sort of)! Should the next chapter focus on the "Aftermath in the Manor" (where Shadow Blade refuses to let anyone else treat Huo Xi's wounds, leading to a very awkward/sweet nursing scene), or should the Fourth Prince's retaliation begin immediately, as he realizes the person he kidnapped was just a servant, but the person who rescued her was "Prince Zhan" himself?