The rain was falling harder and harder.
It poured from the heavens as though someone were emptying basin after basin overhead, so dense that nothing more than three paces away could be seen clearly.
Thunder rolled over the rooftops with a deafening rumble, shaking even the window lattice. Bolt after bolt of lightning turned heaven and earth a ghastly white.
Cui Yu’s boots struck the rain-slick flagstones. Wind drove the rain in sharply from the open corridor, soaking half his robe through, yet he seemed wholly unaware of it. His pace did not slow in the slightest.
At his side, Zheng Yuande held up an umbrella, panting for breath. The umbrella swayed wildly in the gale as though it were made of paper, utterly incapable of keeping out the storm.
At the entrance to the rear hall of Chengxin Hall, Dongyi was on night duty beneath the eaves. The thunderclap just now had been so loud that she had flinched, and she was patting her chest to calm herself when she caught sight of a group approaching from the far end of the covered walkway.
They were moving quickly.
The lantern light bobbed and swayed through the curtain of rain, casting wavering shadows.
She narrowed her eyes and looked more closely. The moment she recognized them, she was so startled she nearly toppled off her stool.
“Y-Your Highness, the Crown Prince?!”
She hurried to her feet, fumbling as she bent to salute. Quanfu, beside her, had also caught sight of them. His expression changed at once, and in a voice kept extremely low, he said, “This servant pays his respects to Your Highness!”
Dongyi hastily followed suit, her heart nearly leaping into her throat.
Why had the Crown Prince come at such an hour, in the middle of this wind and rain?
Cui Yu’s face was dark and grave. Without pausing or sparing them a glance, he strode straight to the door, pushed it open, and entered.
Zheng Yuande followed him to the doorway, tossed aside his umbrella, and hurried in after him. His gaze fell on the Crown Prince, and his heart clenched. Lowering his voice, he urged anxiously, “Your Highness, your clothes are soaked. Please change at once, lest you catch a chill—”
Before he could finish—
Cui Yu turned his eyes toward him. “Leave.”
Zheng Yuande choked, every remaining word lodged in his throat. His mouth opened, then closed again. Faced with the Crown Prince’s terribly cold expression, he did not dare utter another word. He promptly bowed and retreated.
The instant the door closed softly behind him, Zheng Yuande leaned against the doorframe and let out a long breath.
He had just raised a hand to wipe the rainwater from his face when Quanfu hurried over in small steps and said in a low voice, “Eunuch Zheng, please come with this servant and change your clothes. You’re drenched as well.”
Zheng Yuande did not move at once. Instead, he looked at Quanfu and instructed quietly, “Hurry and have the small kitchen brew a pot of ginger soup. And don’t forget to add sugar.”
The Crown Prince could not stand the earthy taste of raw ginger. Without sugar, he likely would not drink a single sip.
Quanfu quickly replied, “Please rest assured, Eunuch Zheng. This servant already sent someone to notify the small kitchen.” As he spoke, he pointed toward the tea room. “Please go and change first, Eunuch Zheng. This servant will go to the small kitchen and keep watch personally. Nothing will go wrong.”
Only then did Zheng Yuande relax.
He glanced at Quanfu and nodded. “You’re a clever lad.” He still had to serve the Crown Prince for the rest of his life—he could not afford to fall ill.
Quanfu turned sideways to lead the way.
*
The inner chamber was pitch-dark.
Cui Yu stood beside the bed, looking down.
Shen Yanshui was sleeping deeply, her cheek buried in a pillow, both arms wrapped around it. She had kicked the thin quilt down to the foot of the bed, leaving her entire body exposed to the cold.
Lightning split the night sky outside, flooding the room with a stark white light.
Cui Yu saw clearly which pillow she was holding.
It was his.
She had always been restless in her sleep. She needed to drape her hands and feet over him, or be completely held in his arms, before she could settle down.
Now that he was gone, she slept hugging his pillow instead.
For some reason, the knot of anger in his chest eased a little.
But no sooner had the thought surfaced than thunder rolled outside, one clap after another, making even the window lattice tremble...
And yet there she was, sleeping as though nothing had happened. She did not so much as furrow her brow. She even smacked her lips, as if she were eating something delicious in her dream.
The small measure of anger that had ebbed away immediately surged back.
His face darkened as he took a few steps forward. Just as he was about to sit down, he caught sight of one side of his clothes, soaked through, water dripping from the hem. He raised a hand, removed his outer robe, and tossed it carelessly onto the floor.
He sat on the edge of the bed, his expression grim as he stared at her.
Shen Yanshui remained utterly unaware, still sleeping soundly.
Cui Yu parted his thin lips, intending to call her.
But the words reached his mouth and were swallowed back down. His face darkened further.
His eyes remained fixed on her, black and heavy as ink.
He had come here to demand an explanation.
His pride and self-respect would not allow him to deceive himself.
If, all this time, she had been fooling him, lying to him...
Then he would—
Just as his expression turned colder and more forbidding, something lightly kicked the side of his leg.
Cui Yu lowered his gaze.
A soft, pale foot was pressed against his thigh, its toes giving a faint wiggle.
He looked up at her face.
Shen Yanshui's eyes were still closed, but her brows had suddenly drawn together, as though something in her dream had made her uncomfortable.
Cui Yu's gaze fell back to that foot. By the flash of lightning, he could see her calf. Its ordinarily slim, straight curve was now tense, the muscle tightening and bulging slightly...
Without realizing it, he frowned.
He reached out to grasp it, but halfway there, he noticed the dampness still clinging to his fingers. He pulled over the quilt at the corner of the bed and wiped his hand against it. Only once his palm was no longer icy did he gently take hold of her leg.
The muscle beneath his hand was hard as stone.
A cramp, just as he had suspected.
Frowning, he pressed his thumb to the knotted muscle and began to massage it, neither too gently nor too hard. He kneaded along the grain of the muscle, gradually applying more pressure, slowly working the tension loose.
...
In her dream, Shen Yanshui had been perfectly content.
She dreamed that she and the Crown Prince were fishing from a small boat. She caught a huge fish, roasted it until it was golden and glistening with oil, its fragrance irresistible. Turning around, she offered some to the Crown Prince, but for some reason he had become angry, his face set as he refused to eat.
She did not mind at all. Hugging the fish, she happily gnawed away at it herself. The flesh was tender and fragrant, and she ate until her mouth was shiny with grease.
Just as she was eating, monstrous waves suddenly rose on the lake, and the little boat capsized in an instant!
She fell into the water with a splash. Icy lake water surged in from all sides. After searching for a long while without finding the Crown Prince, she decided to swim to shore first.
But the moment she kicked her legs, her left calf cramped violently. A sharp pain shot through her. Her body stiffened, and she began to sink.
She turned her head—and saw him.
The Crown Prince was dressed all in black, his hair hanging loose, soaked strands plastered against his face. One hand gripped her leg in a deathly hold, refusing to let her go.
Like a water ghost.
Scared out of her wits, she shuddered violently and reflexively kicked out!
Shen Yanshui jerked awake.
Above her was the familiar canopy of her bed in the darkness. She let out a breath and muttered softly, “So it was only a dream... That scared me to death...”
The moment the words left her mouth, however, she realized something was wrong.
Someone was holding her left leg.
She turned to look behind her—
There was a “person” sitting at the foot of the bed!
A pitch-black silhouette. At that very moment, lightning flashed outside, illuminating the face with startling clarity—cold, pale skin; black eyes; thin lips pressed together; and water still dripping from the ends of his hair.
“Good heavens! A ghost!”
Shen Yanshui was so frightened her soul nearly left her body!
Cui Yu’s face darkened at the sound of her cry. His hand tightened around her leg, firmly catching her ankle as she kicked about wildly.
“It’s me,” he said coldly.
Hearing the familiar voice, Shen Yanshui froze.
Only then did she realize that the hand gripping her calf was warm. The callused pads of his fingers rested against her skin, their warmth slowly seeping into her.
She looked closely, and that “ghost” was none other than the Crown Prince.
She let out a huge breath of relief, her heart settling back into her chest—but then indignation rose at once.
“Your Highness, why is it you?!” she complained. “When did you come back? Why were you sitting there without making a sound? You nearly scared me to death!”
No sooner had she finished speaking than the Crown Prince’s cold, eerie voice drifted over.
“If you’ve done nothing guilty, you needn’t fear ghosts knocking at your door in the middle of the night.”
Shen Yanshui choked on her words. She recalled the dream just now: she had kicked him. And that kick in the dream had been remarkably solid—so vivid it almost felt as though she had actually kicked him...
It wasn’t intentional, of course, but... well, she did feel a little guilty.
Just then, Dongyi’s voice came from outside.
“Your Highness, my lady, shall I light the lamps?”
Cui Yu’s face remained cold as he said nothing.
Shen Yanshui quickly answered, “Come in.”
Chunping responded and pushed open the door. With practiced efficiency, she lit two lamps, and the room immediately became much brighter.
Zheng Yuande followed close behind, carrying a steaming bowl of ginger soup. He bowed carefully, his gaze falling on the Crown Prince.
“Your Highness, you came here through the pouring rain and are soaked to the skin. Please drink some ginger soup to warm yourself, lest you catch a chill.”
He emphasized the words “through the pouring rain” especially clearly. After saying them, he glanced at Worthy Lady Shen—only to immediately lower his head again.
Good heavens! Hadn’t the Crown Prince arrived looking so fierce and imposing, as though he meant to hold Worthy Lady Shen to account? How had things suddenly become… intimate again?
Only then did Shen Yanshui notice the commotion outside. Rain was pouring down in sheets, the wind howling fiercely, with thunder rumbling from time to time—booming so loudly it made one’s heart tighten.
She had been sleeping so deeply that she had not heard a thing.
Cui Yu glanced at the bowl of ginger soup, his voice icy. “Put it down.”
Zheng Yuande opened his mouth, seemingly wanting to say something, but at the sight of the Crown Prince’s dark, forbidding expression, he did not dare speak further. With a pained look, he set the bowl of ginger soup on the low table beside the bed, stepped back two paces, then could not help adding cautiously, “Your Highness, please don’t forget to drink it. Take care of your health…”
With that, he hurriedly withdrew and shut the door behind him.
The room fell quiet once more. Only then did Shen Yanshui look at the Crown Prince.
The moment Cui Yu noticed her gaze, he immediately released her hand. Yet his expression only darkened further, cold enough to rival the stormy sky outside.
Shen Yanshui: “…”
She lifted her eyes to glance at him, her gaze falling upon the water still dripping from the ends of his hair… Then, unhurriedly, she drew her leg back.
Her calf still felt weak from the cramp, with a faint pulling soreness. The muscle felt as though it had been thoroughly kneaded, and was still slightly warm.
Thinking of where his hand had been just moments ago, the motion of her hand rubbing her calf paused briefly.
She looked up at him and asked softly, “Your Highness… did you see that my calf was cramping and massage it for me?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, the Crown Prince’s expression visibly darkened by several shades, turning even colder and more unpleasant.
In a rather stiff voice, he forced out two words. “I didn’t.”
How could he admit it?
He had clearly come to demand an explanation, determined to lay everything out plainly.
And yet?
He had simply sat there without moving, his face dark, not saying a word.
Shen Yanshui watched him stubbornly refuse to admit it. Then she lowered her gaze to the lingering warmth on her calf before looking back at his somber face.
Her heart suddenly softened.
She had never been afraid of falling in love with someone, because she knew herself well enough.
No matter whom she liked, she would still be herself.
She had never been the sort to live or die for love.
Love was only one part of her life. If she liked someone, if she fell in love, then she would follow her heart and love them. There was no need to make things difficult for herself.
She could take it up, and she could let it go.
She simply had never imagined that person would be the Crown Prince.
After all, someone of the Crown Prince’s status was destined never to fit her expectations for a partner.
But… since she had already fallen for him, there was nothing she dared not admit.
If she liked him, then she liked him. So what?
She could not even guarantee how many more days these feelings would last… Perhaps once they returned to the Eastern Palace and the Crown Prince went to visit other women’s rooms, this fondness would quickly vanish into thin air.
When that time came, life would go on as it always had.
She would simply treat these few months at the imperial residence as a romance with the Crown Prince.
It wasn’t as though she was losing out.
Originally, she had intended to let nature take its course and not force anything. It would all depend on the Crown Prince himself.
But then she glanced at her own leg, then at the Crown Prince’s dark expression and the water still dripping from the ends of his hair, and suddenly, a small impulse rose within her.
Perhaps the stillness of the late night made people more prone to impulsiveness.
All at once, she... wanted to give it a try.
After all, throughout history, devoted emperors had never been entirely absent—only exceptionally rare. Across several thousand years, one could scarcely count more than a handful on one’s fingers.
But she had already transmigrated into another world. What if she happened to encounter one?
If she tried and it came to nothing, that was fine too. From then on, she would no longer dwell on it, nor would she have any regrets. Life would simply go on as it always had.
As she thought this, she looked at the Crown Prince and suddenly smiled faintly. In a soft voice, she asked, “Your Highness, why did you come here in the middle of the night, braving such heavy rain?”
Cui Yu lifted his eyes to look at her. His tone was cool, carrying a strong note of sarcasm. “My legs belong to me. Where is there that I cannot go? I can go wherever I please.”
Shen Yanshui: “...”
Hearing the heavy resentment in his voice, she felt both speechless and amused.
Fine. She would be magnanimous and not hold it against him.
Smiling, she looked at him and said, “Your Highness still hasn’t answered my earlier question.”
Cui Yu shot her a cold glance. “...What question?”
Shen Yanshui did not answer at once. She rose and went to the washstand, took a clean cloth, then stood behind him and gently dried the damp ends of his hair. Her movements were light, stroke after stroke, as the cloth absorbed the moisture from his hair.
At her approach, Cui Yu’s back stiffened slightly.
“Your Highness still hasn’t answered me...” Shen Yanshui said with a smile as she dried his hair. “Why is it that, during these past months at the imperial retreat, you have never once gone to Sister Zhang’s quarters?”
As she spoke, her hands came to a stop.
She set the cloth aside and gently looped her arms around his neck from behind. Pressing her whole body against his back, she tilted her head and rested her chin in the hollow of his shoulder, gazing at his profile with smiling eyes.
Cui Yu’s body tensed abruptly.
Her soft body was pressed close against his back—warm, carrying the faint, clean fragrance of her recent bath.
His thin lips moved, as though he wanted to say something, but in the end, no words came out.
It was not as though he did not know what he felt for A-Yan.
Otherwise, he would not have been too restless to eat or sleep tonight, much less come here through such a storm.
But he was a grown man. To open his mouth and speak of love and affection... it simply did not seem proper.
With that thought, his expression darkened further, and he sat there in silence.
Seeing that he would not speak, Shen Yanshui leaned close to his ear and laughed softly. “Your Highness... you like me. You like being with me, don’t you?”
Cui Yu’s heart trembled. He pressed his lips together and said nothing.
Yet neither did he deny it.
Shen Yanshui watched the ear so close before her gradually flush with a faint shade of red. She pursed her lips in a smile, the amusement in her eyes deepening.
“Why was Your Highness angry today...?”
At her words, Cui Yu recalled what she had said earlier. His face immediately darkened again, his expression growing even colder.
Yet Shen Yanshui was not afraid of him in the least.
After all, what was there for her to fear from a man who, while sulking on his own, had still run through the pouring rain to see her—without waking her—and even massaged her legs?
At least, at this moment, she was not afraid.
She let go of his hand, walked around behind him, and sat down opposite him. Face-to-face, she looked earnestly into his eyes.
“Your Highness,” she said with a smile, her tone unhurried, “by the rules of propriety, the Crown Prince is my sovereign, while I am but a concubine. If Your Highness wishes to go somewhere, naturally you may go wherever you please. How could I possibly influence the Crown Prince’s decisions?”
Cui Yu’s gaze turned abruptly cold.
He looked at her darkly. After a long while, he finally spoke, his voice low and slightly hoarse.
“To you, am I... merely your sovereign?”
Shen Yanshui did not answer him directly. Instead, she said gently, “If I were to grow jealous today because Your Highness went to Sister Zhang’s place, then in the future there would be countless more Sister Chus, Sister Songs, Younger Sister Zhangs, and Younger Sister Lins. Would I have to be jealous of every single one of them? Would I ever get anything else done? I might as well spend every day being jealous.”
When she finished, she looked at the Crown Prince, her expression carrying a hint of earnestness.
No one had ever taught the Crown Prince, from childhood onward, that love required fidelity.
She could not simply demand that he conform to the values she had learned in the modern world. No one would ever have required such a thing of him—so how could he possess that awareness?
After hearing her words, the Crown Prince’s formerly cold expression abruptly froze.
He looked at her in silence for a long time.
The room was so quiet that only the wind and rain outside could be heard. Shen Yanshui waited and waited, until drowsiness washed over her and she began to yawn. Only then did she hear the Crown Prince’s voice, hoarse as he spoke.
“I... understand.”
With that, he slowly rose to his feet.
Shen Yanshui stopped in the middle of her yawn. He had said, “I understand,” and then stood up, looking as though he intended to leave...
She hurriedly caught hold of his hand. “Where are you going, Your Highness? It’s still raining outside. Stop fussing about and get some sleep.”
When she grasped his hand, her fingertips brushed his sleeve. It was wet—cold and soaked through, water still dripping from it.
Her brows immediately drew together. Rising to her feet, she said, “Your Highness, your sleeves are all wet. Why didn’t you say so?” As she spoke, she felt around the rest of his clothes, only to discover that not only were his sleeves wet, but everything below his waist was soaked as well.
She frowned and hurried over to the wardrobe, pulling out a clean set of sleeping robes. Then she reached for the ties at his waist, all the while muttering, “Your Highness may be in good health, but this is the mountains. It’s terribly cold...”
Cui Yu lowered his eyes in silence. Listening to her mutter, he let her fuss over him without saying a word.
Just as she had dressed him in clean sleeping robes and had yet to tie the sash, she was suddenly pulled into an embrace.
He held her rather tightly...
Shen Yanshui froze for a moment, then called softly, “Your Highness?”
Cui Yu kept his eyes lowered and said nothing.
She had no idea what he was thinking, so she did not struggle. She simply rested in his arms and let him hold her. At first, she thought she would go to bed once he had held her for a while, but the embrace was so familiar that, before long, her eyelids began to droop.
Outside, the wind and rain still raged, while thunder rumbled overhead.
Nestled against his chest, she listened to the steady, powerful beat of his heart—once, then again.
Gradually, her breathing evened out.
Cui Yu’s emotions surged for quite some time. Just as he finally managed to calm himself, he heard her soft, steady breathing...
Lowering his gaze, he saw that A-Yan had fallen asleep in his arms.
