She smiled. Her rabbit-like teeth caught the sunlight, gleaming brilliantly as she said, “This is strange! Why does your tone sound exactly like Little Tang’s? Who in the martial world doesn’t know that the Ling Long Eye of our family, once opened, can glimpse the future? Aside from Xiao Zhao, who wouldn’t covet it? And you? You claim you don’t want it? Even if you don’t, do you mean to say your master wouldn’t?”
Shao Ji Zu’s face revealed no expression. Yet sometimes, isn’t the absence of expression the clearest one of all?
In a dry tone, he said, “Ling Long, how could you suspect the Prince?”
Huo Ling Long pursed her lips and replied, “Do you think just because you stopped me, that night at the Xiang Yang Prince’s estate, I saw nothing? In such a grand estate, of all the things that could be built, why construct the Chong Xiao Tower? What secrets does it hide? Don’t tell me you have no knowledge of them. How can I trust anything you say?”
Shao Ji Zu had no reply.
– He had underestimated her. This young woman was no longer the naive, sheltered girl he had known, oblivious to the world’s ways. Over these past few days, it seemed she had learned much.
Was it because, as the eldest daughter of Linglong Manor, she was inherently gifted and extraordinary? Or had someone else, in these recent days, unknowingly changed her? To him, the Huo Ling Long before him suddenly felt like a stranger.
A long silence stretched between them, two people burdened with their own thoughts, neither knowing what to say.
Finally, Huo Ling Long heard him let out a soft sigh. “So, in your heart, no matter what I say, it’s meaningless. It seems his words are the only ones you’ll listen to.”
– Why did his voice carry such indescribable weariness and melancholy?
Huo Ling Long’s body trembled, and the color drained from her face. She bit her lip tightly and demanded, “What are you saying?”
Shao Ji Zu looked at her, his calm gaze unable to conceal the loneliness and pain behind it. A strange, unplaceable fire and ice seemed to burn in his blood. “Why are you pretending not to know? Don’t think I’m unaware. You’re rushing to the capital—if not to find him at Nan Qing Palace, then who?”
Huo Ling Long’s face suddenly flushed a deep red. She shouted, “There’s nothing improper between Xiao Zhao and me! Don’t speak in insinuations. Besides, even if I were going to see him, what does that have to do with you?”
Shao Ji Zu’s gaze had turned icy, an almost cruel coldness that seemed to sear with an unbearable heat beneath it. “Don’t forget, you are already my rightful, betrothed wife, for whom I’ve paid the proper bride price and will marry openly. Even without that, you know our bond since childhood. If you’re going to Kaifeng to see him, how could that not concern me?”
In his eyes flickered cruelty, affection, regret, and sorrow. His gaze locked onto hers. “I know, and so does Little Tang. Yet we’ve both chosen to remain silent. Not because he is Prince Zhao, but because we know your stubborn nature. We didn’t want to embarrass you or hurt your feelings. We were mindful of Linglong Manor’s reputation and your status as the eldest daughter of the Huo family. If not for my regard for you, do you think I would have concealed the truth when your brother, Huo Feng, came to the Xiang Yang Prince’s estate searching for you just days ago?”
His gaze shifted away from her and toward the distant mountains, now tinged crimson by the setting sun and beginning to be consumed by dark clouds. Yet his words, spoken with deliberate precision, struck her heart like a series of hammer blows. “You’ve always prided yourself on not owing anyone. Whether you like it or not, you owe me.”
* * *
Huo Ling Long’s head lowered.
– Did she also feel that she truly owed him too much? That she had failed to repay the depth of his affection?
She dared not look at him.
– Was it because seeing him would bring with it the unbearable weight of his expectations?
She found herself at a loss for words, her mind in utter chaos.
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