It is Xiao Xun.
He was dressed in a loose-fitting black casual suit, with a matching fox fur cloak over it.
His face was still almost transparently pale, and his lips were pale and bloodless. He had lost a lot of weight, like a jade mountain recovering from a serious illness—still upright, yet exuding a fragile vulnerability. His steps were slow and steady, but still somewhat unsteady, clearly indicating that his body was far from fully recovered.
You Ye cautiously followed half a step behind him, looking nervous, as if she was ready to step forward and help him at any moment.
Xiao Xun's gaze passed over the dim light in the warm pavilion and landed directly on Xin Jiuwei by the window. His gaze was calm and deep, like a bottomless cold pool, but it lacked the cold scrutiny of the past and instead contained an indescribable complexity and... a trace of almost imperceptible weariness.
Xin Jiuwei instinctively tried to get up. Xiao Xun raised his hand, making a gesture to stop her, his voice low and hoarse, weak from a serious illness, yet still clear: "Sit down."
He sat down on another soft chair that You Ye had brought, not too close, not too far from Xin Jiuwei. You Ye silently retreated to the doorway, leaving only the two of them in the warm pavilion. The air seemed to freeze, with only the occasional crackling of the charcoal fire.
The last rays of the setting sun shone through the window lattice, falling on Xin Jiuwei's pale yet beautiful profile, and also on Xiao Xun's pale but sharply defined face. Neither of them spoke; a strange silence, tinged with the weariness of surviving a catastrophe, flowed in the air.
Xin Jiuwei lowered her eyelashes, her fingers unconsciously twisting the edge of the blanket. She could feel Xiao Xun's gaze on her; it was no longer sharp and intimidating, but carried a heavy weight that made her flustered and unsure how to face him.
"How... is the injury?" Finally, Xiao Xun broke the silence, his voice low and calm.
Xin Jiuwei slightly raised her eyes to meet his gaze, then quickly looked away, whispering, "Thank you for your concern, Your Highness. I'm much better now. Miss Lin said... I need to rest for a while." She paused, then mustered her courage to ask, "Your Highness... you..."
“I won’t die.” Xiao Xun’s voice carried a hint of self-mockery and indifference, as if he were talking about something that had nothing to do with him. He paused for a moment, his gaze falling on Xin Jiuwei again, complex emotions surging in his deep eyes, finally turning into a clear and solemn statement: “Xin Jiuwei, you saved my life.”
His tone was not one of doubt or lament, but rather a statement of an undeniable fact. There were no flowery words, no deliberate sentimentality, only the most direct expression.
Xin Jiuwei's heart skipped a beat. She looked up at Xiao Xun again. The golden light of the setting sun fell into his deep eyes, reflecting her clear image within them.
"Your Highness..." She opened her mouth, wanting to say "It's a contract," wanting to say "Your Highness saved me first," but the words felt so pale and powerless. In the face of life and death, those cold calculations and reasons seemed to have lost their meaning.
"Qi Huaiyu," Xiao Xun continued before she could finish, his voice carrying a chilling killing intent, "I will deal with him."
Xin Jiuwei nodded vigorously, her eyes burning with the same hatred: "He deserves to die!"
Another silence fell. The setting sun sank lower, and the light in the warm pavilion grew increasingly dim. Xiao Xun seemed somewhat weary; he closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, his gaze became even more profound and unfathomable. He looked at Xin Jiuwei, at her pale, fragile yet still stubborn appearance, at the flames of hatred burning in her eyes, and at her trembling fingertips due to her weakness.
After a long time, so long that Xin Jiuwei thought he wouldn't speak again, Xiao Xun's deep, hoarse voice rang out once more, carrying an unprecedented, almost blunt, complex emotion that shattered the thin layer of ice between them:
"Why?"
His gaze was fixed on her, as if trying to pierce through her soul: "Why... did you chase after her? Why... did you risk your life to get that antidote?" He didn't use the "contract," he didn't use "self-preservation," he asked "why."
Why?
Xin Jiuwei's heart felt as if it had been gripped tightly by an invisible hand, abruptly ceasing its beating. The dim light in the warm pavilion blurred their outlines, but made the probing and complex emotions in Xiao Xun's deep eyes even clearer. That one "Why?" was like a heavy hammer, shattering all her attempts to use "contract" and "responsibility" as excuses.
Why?
Was it because of that cold contract? But the contract only required her to live, not to die for him.
Was it for the safety of the Xin family? But at that time, Xiao Xun's life or death was uncertain, and the future of the Xin family was also hanging by a thread. Her actions were more like a reckless gamble.
Was it to repay the kindness of shielding him from the knife? Perhaps. But the impulsive, reckless impulse that erupted in that instant seemed to go far beyond mere gratitude.
She opened her mouth, but her throat felt blocked, and she couldn't make a sound. Images flashed through her mind: his fallen figure on the official road, Qi Huaiyu's狰狞 smile in the abandoned earthen house, the cold glint of the poisoned dagger aimed at his heart… and even earlier, his cold protection at the palace banquet, his forceful commands on the high slope, his stiff delivery of medicine in the quiet garden, and… that brand-new moon-white cloak.
Countless images intertwined and collided, eventually coalescing in her chaotic mind into an answer that even she herself found unfamiliar and frightening.
“I…” she began with difficulty, her voice dry and hoarse, trembling without her even realizing it, “I don’t know…” It was the truth. She didn’t know what had driven her to chase after him at that moment. Was it hatred? Was it responsibility? Was it repaying a debt of gratitude? Or… something deeper, more complex, something she had deliberately suppressed and denied?
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