After an unknown amount of time, the light at the cave entrance finally brightened, the stones were moved aside, and the anxious faces of the guards appeared at the cave entrance.

"Princess! General Shen! Are you alright?"

As if relieved, Shen Wensong immediately turned around, his voice regaining its usual calm: "Her Highness the Princess was frightened, but is unharmed. Quickly clear the road and escort Her Highness back to the capital!"

He bent down, intending to help Xiao Mingyu up. Xiao Mingyu abruptly shook off his hand and stood up, supporting herself against the stone wall. She hastily wiped away the tears on her face, straightened her back, and her face, previously vulnerable, now held only a frozen aloofness and pride. Without even glancing at Shen Wensong, she walked straight out of the cave, supported by a palace maid. Sunlight fell on her straight back, carrying a stubborn loneliness.

Shen Wensong stood there, watching the red figure resolutely leave. He looked down at his hand, which she had just shoved away, and felt a faint pain in the crescent-shaped bloodstain he had pinched on his palm. A feeling of emptiness, indescribable, quietly spread through him.

---

The journey back to the capital was unusually silent. Xiao Mingyu's carriage curtain was never lifted again. Shen Wensong was even more silent than before, spending his days on horseback, his gaze fixed intently ahead, radiating a cold aura that kept strangers at bay. Between the two, it seemed, lay an invisible, insurmountable chasm.

Upon arriving in the capital, Xiao Mingyu didn't even bid farewell to Shen Wensong before heading straight back to the palace, surrounded by palace servants. Shen Wensong handed over his duties and returned to the Shen residence. Faced with the concerned inquiries from his parents, brothers, and sisters-in-law, he simply said, "Everything went smoothly, the princess is safe," before locking himself in his study.