Night Talk

For the next few days, Wu Lingfeng lived in both heaven and hell.

Heaven, because she could finally stay by the side of the man she loved to the point of madness, day and night.

Hell, because she could only watch helplessly, like a sewer rat hiding from the light, as he treated another woman with tenderness.

One day, they arrived at a scenic riverside.

The setting sun cast its dying rays, turning the water's surface into a patchwork of scattered gold, shimmering and dazzling—a painting too beautiful to be real.

Ye Xuan was in good spirits. He casually caught a few spirit fish, set up a campfire, and began roasting them.

The aroma soon spread, carried by the evening breeze, warm and comforting.

Ying'er huddled close to Ye Xuan, her eyes sparkling. She ate with greasy lips, her face full of contentment.

Wu Lingfeng sat silently on a cold, large stone across the river, gripping a piece of hard, stale dry ration. She broke off a piece and brought it to her lips, but couldn't force it down.

Her gaze drifted uncontrollably toward them.

"Ying'er, open wide."

Ye Xuan tore off the tenderest piece of fish belly, blew on it to cool it, and gently brought it to Ying'er's lips.

Ying'er squinted in bliss, bit down, and mumbled, "Mmm... delicious! My Husband's cooking is the best in the world!"

"Eat up, then," he said with doting affection, wiping the grease from the corner of her mouth. "Look how skinny you are—I can feel your bones when I hold you."

"Stop it! I'm slender!" she whined, playfully punching his chest before leaning into his arms, giggling.

Ye Xuan didn’t mind. He wrapped an arm around her, and the two of them nestled together by the firelight, their shadows overlapping and stretching long.

"Crunch."

The dry ration in Wu Lingfeng's hand crumbled to dust, scattering across her lap.

Her heart felt as if someone were gripping it, kneading it over and over, grinding it to pieces.

Once upon a time…

In Youzhou's Forgetting Sorrow Valley, she had been the one Ye Xuan fed so gently.

She had been the one who curled up in his arms, playfully acting spoiled.

Why… why had that place now been taken by someone else?

Jealousy slithered up like a venomous serpent, silently coiling around her, gnawing away at her reason bit by bit.

But she couldn't let it show.

At this moment, she was Wu Nianxuan—a fallen imperial clansman, an outsider with no right to speak.

From the corner of his eye, Ye Xuan took in the tightly suppressed anguish on her face—the kind of pain that nearly seeped out from beneath her skin.

He slowly curled the corner of his mouth, then lowered his gaze.

Not enough yet.

The firelight steadied, the evening breeze whispered, and the atmosphere relaxed.

Wu Lingfeng set down the crushed dry ration, cleared her throat, and spoke in a hoarse voice:

"Benefactor…"

Ye Xuan didn't look up. He idly turned the skewers over the fire. "Mm."

"As I traveled, I saw wanted posters everywhere," Wu Lingfeng said, pausing as if casually. "The Female Emperor, Empress Wu Lingxiao, is searching for you like she's gone mad."

Ye Xuan's hand paused for a fraction of a second—so slight it was almost imperceptible.

He lifted his eyes and, through the dancing flames, gave Wu Lingfeng a cold stare.

"So?"

Wu Lingfeng took a deep breath, her voice growing steadier:

"I heard she'll stop at nothing to find you. People say the Female Emperor is deeply devoted to Lady Consort Xuan—a paragon of love."

"Love?"

Ye Xuan let out a faint scoff, as if he had just heard the most absurd joke in the world. He tossed a withered branch onto the fire.

A sharp crack split the air, sending sparks flying.

"Don't mention that woman."

His voice was flat, but it carried a bone-chilling revulsion that seemed to seep out from the marrow of his very bones.

"Disgusting."

Ying'er muttered softly beside him, "But Husband... the Female Emperor has truly been good to you these past ten years. She disbanded her entire harem for you—something no emperor in history has ever done."

Ye Xuan turned to look at Ying'er, his gaze complicated, as if he were seeing through her the rotten years that had already passed.

"Ying'er, you're far too naive."

His voice dropped low, carrying a piercing clarity:

"Her 'goodness' was a form of charity. It was the tyranny of 'I give, so you may receive; I do not give, so you must not take.'"

"For those ten years, we appeared to be the perfect couple. But every single day, I could feel her holding back."

Ye Xuan picked up his jug of wine and took a gulp. The fiery liquid slid down his throat as his voice grew heavier:

"Deep down, she was always the arrogant, self-worshipping Female Emperor. She played the devoted wife for my sake, and it exhausted her. So when that Holy Son Yeyou appeared, when her restraint reached its limit, she rebounded."

"Her betrayal wasn’t just about desire."

"More than that, it was because, deep in her subconscious, she wanted to shatter the shackles of 'remaining chaste for you.' She wanted to prove that she was the emperor—that she could have everything, including the right to betray me."

Wu Lingfeng’s heart was a tangled mess as she listened. Eager to salvage something for her sister, she blurted out:

"As far as I know... the Female Emperor later uprooted the entire Sacred Sect of Boundless Light in atonement, sparing not even a chicken or a dog. She hunted the Holy Son Yeyou until he had no path to the heavens and no door to the earth—he’s long since vanished without a trace. She has already paid the price..."

"And so what?"

Ye Xun cut her off, his expression eerily calm:

"Even if she killed Yeyou, would that erase the fact of her betrayal?"

Wu Lingfeng fell silent, a retort stuck in her throat.

"From the very beginning, she never truly loved me."

Ye Xuan gently ruffled Ying’er’s hair, his voice low: "She was only playing the role of a devoted lover. For those ten years, she was constantly suppressing her true nature. At her core, she needed to control everything—including a man’s submission. Our relationship was warped from the start."

Finally, he pulled Ying’er closer, letting some of the sharpness in his eyes soften into something calm and resolute:

"The woman I, Ye Xuan, want—body and soul—can only have me. So she and I... we travel different paths in this world."

Wu Lingfeng listened to this speech, her heart swirling with mixed emotions.

She felt a piercing ache at Ye Xuan’s painful clarity, but at the same time, she couldn’t help a secret joy rising within her.

Thank goodness she had never betrayed him. Thank goodness, for those twenty years, she had been completely obedient to him, never oppressing him like her imperial sister had.

She still had a chance.

With that thought, Wu Lingfeng swallowed hard to suppress the heat stirring in her chest, then made a casual, probing comment:

"Brother Ye speaks wisely. The Female Emperor truly is unworthy." She paused, her voice unconsciously tensing: "But as a member of the royal family, I’ve heard a certain secret."

Ying'er tilted her head, suddenly alert.

"What secret?"

Wu Lingfeng stared into Ye Xuan's eyes, her voice slightly tight. "I heard that after you fled the palace, Brother Ye, you shared a twenty-year romance with the Ninth Prince Wu Lingfeng. You even didn't hesitate to completely break with the Female Emperor to protect her."

"That's right, that's right!" Ying'er immediately chimed in, sitting up excitedly. "That Ninth Lord—I heard she not only rebuilt her foundation for your sake but also dared to fight the Female Emperor! She was so good to you, Husband... do you love her very much?"

Wu Lingfeng held her breath.

She fixed her gaze on Ye Xuan, her heart pounding so fast it felt like it might burst from her chest.

She was waiting.

She had waited eight hundred years, waiting precisely for this answer.

If only he said one word—"love." Even just "like." Even just "care."

Then these eight hundred years of suffering, this tearing and reshaping of her own flesh and blood, this torment day after day and night after night, would all have been worth it.