Yu Mingyue forced herself to sit up, took the medicine Su Mu had just brewed, and without needing to be fed, drank it all in one go.
Yu Mingyue had been in a coma for two days and two nights. She couldn't sleep now, so she asked Chihua to get her a book.
The few of them had guarded her for several days. Yu Mingyue told them to go down and rest for a while. Soon, it would be dawn, and they wouldn't be able to sleep for long.
This book happened to be one that Jia Yan Gege had read, with his annotations still in it. Su Xinghe's hand gently caressed the words, as if she could imagine him reading.
It wasn't easy to fall in love with someone, but it was even harder to forget them. Longing was always all-pervasive.
But even so, Yu Mingyue didn't want him to return to the capital.
That letter would be considered a farewell.
She retrieved the red string, and the vows made before the matchmaker's temple were no longer valid.
Yu Mingyue looked up and saw Xie Jia Yan standing in her room. She thought she was hallucinating. Was it possible to see illusions from missing someone too much?
The candle flickered, and his shadow swayed with it.
Yu Mingyue blinked. It wasn't her eyes playing tricks; it was really him.
Unlike his usual green robes, he was dressed in black today, looking travel-worn.
"Jia Yan Gege, is it really you?"
As Yu Mingyue tried to get out of bed, Xie Jia Yan stopped her, his voice tinged with hoarseness, "You're still sick, lie down quickly."
Hearing his voice, Yu Mingyue truly felt his presence. She reached out and pushed his body, "Why did you come back to the capital? Go quickly, go!"
"Liu Niang, it's something we have to face sooner or later." Xie Jia Yan helped her lean back and then sat down on a stool beside her. "I heard you were ill, so I came to see you."
When he first entered, he had encountered Zhu Yu. Zhu Yu was stunned for a moment upon seeing him and didn't stop him.
"Father and Gege will be returning to the capital soon. Even if the marriage cannot be called off, they have a way to get me out of it. The Sage has been unpredictable lately; you shouldn't have come back." The Sage had been acting madly recently, disregarding the opinions of his ministers.
"Although he has demoted several officials, he hasn't resorted to indiscriminate killing. It's all to make the ministers more anxious to promote the Crown Prince."
"How could that be? He rejected the memorial from the Zhongshu Province proposing the Crown Prince's succession just yesterday..." Yu Mingyue stopped halfway through, suddenly thinking of something.
The more the Sage acted like this, the stronger the ministers' desire to support a new emperor would become. She feared that in the next few days, more memorials would pour in.
Then, the Crown Prince would ascend the throne as a matter of course.
The new emperor would be the one they supported. At that time, even if Jia Yan Gege's identity were exposed, the ministers would have to accept Xiao Che; they couldn't possibly backtrack on their own words.
If that were the case, the Sage probably wouldn't want Jia Yan Gege's life.
No, if that were the case, why would the Sage lure him back to the capital?
Yu Mingyue stared intently at Xie Jia Yan, "And you? Since that's the case, why did you come back?"
Xie Jia Yan remained calm, "I naturally came back to congratulate the new emperor on his ascension."
"You're lying. What exactly does the Sage want you to do?"
Force him to rebel, to be sacrificed for the new emperor, or to be a stepping stone for the new emperor?
One was death, the other was a fate worse than death.
"I won't let anything happen to myself. Liu Niang, if I can survive this time, I will take you away."
Xie Jia Yan's smile was as gentle as a spring breeze. Yu Mingyue seemed to feel the warmth washing over her.
"Really?" Yu Mingyue murmured.
Why did she feel like she was dreaming?
"Of course, I won't break my promise this time."
Now that the world was at peace, what he had to do could be done by others later, but what he owed her could only be repaid by him.