This is a warning.

Shangguan Qingchen's expression changed slightly.

A gust of wind suddenly blew past the window, lifting a corner of the curtain and letting in a ray of dazzling sunlight.

The three stood at the boundary between light and shadow, none of them moving.

After a long while, Shangguan Qingchen closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he had regained his calm and composed demeanor.

He bent down to pick up the folding fan, his fingertips tracing the fine cracks on the fan ribs, and said calmly, "Xie Zhaoran, have you been blinded by beauty to the point that you don't even care about Pei Xuan's life or death?"

Having said that, he turned and left, his robes fluttering and carrying a faint fragrance.

The room fell silent again.

Pei Xuan?

Xie Zhaoran shuddered, her fingertips unconsciously digging into her palm.

Three years ago, during the fire, she witnessed Pei Xuan being shot in the chest and falling into a pool of blood while protecting her as she escaped.

What did Shangguan Qingchen mean by those words?

"Wait!" She suddenly stood up, slamming the table with a dull thud.

Gu Zhixing instinctively tried to stop her, but she grabbed his wrist: "I'll explain when I get back."

Before the words were even finished, the person had already chased after the white figure and rushed out the door. Gu Zhixing stood there, looking at the overturned teacup on the ground, the brown tea dripping down the edge of the table.

——

The lanterns under the eaves swayed as Xie Zhaoran intercepted Shangguan Qingchen under the pear tree in the backyard of the inn.

The night wind whipped up fallen petals that stung her face, and her voice tightened: "Pei Xuan isn't dead?"

Shangguan Qingchen had his back to her, the moonlight casting a long shadow of him: "After the news of the incident three years ago reached Yangzhou, I went to Youzhou immediately. I didn't see you, I only saw Pei Xuan, who was half-dead."

As he turned around, a pear blossom petal clung to the tip of his fan. "We all thought you were dead..."

Xie Zhaoran's throat went dry. She looked up at Shangguan Qingchen and noticed a strand of white hair at his temple.

It wasn't there three years ago; it's grown up in the last few years.