After being reborn, the aloof prime minister was once again forced by a tyrant.

Xiao Jingyuan leaned out.

He had clearly dressed up specially today, wearing a dark brocade robe with a dark dragon pattern, his black hair was neatly tied up with a black jade crown, and his usually fierce eyebrows and eyes were softened. The handsome and noble demeanor of the young emperor could not be hidden.

Xiao Jingyuan washed his face and changed his clothes as soon as he returned from the training ground. He examined himself in the bronze mirror for a long time before daring to go out. He squatted on the wall for a full half hour, took three deep breaths, and then dared to peek out, only to be caught red-handed.

He clutched the crabapple branch in one hand and clung to the wall bricks with the other. His face showed both the embarrassment of being caught red-handed and a hint of unconcealed grievance. He squatted on the wall for a while before finally speaking in a muffled voice, "I...I've come to apologize."

Xie Qinglan looked at his pathetic state as he squatted on the wall, clinging to the cracks in the bricks, clearly wanting to come down but too afraid to, and remained silent for a long time.

He then placed the Guilan Sword on the stone table, sat back in his previous seat, picked up his teacup, took a sip, and said in a flat tone, "The courtyard gate is not closed."

Xiao Jingyuan nimbly flipped down from the wall, landing with a graceful, swift movement, his clothes fluttering in the wind. He brushed the dust off his knees, walked up to Xie Qinglan, still clutching the crabapple branch in his hand.

He offered the flower branch forward, but Xie Qinglan didn't take it. He then placed the branch on the stone table, stood there for a while, and repeated himself after a long pause: "I've come to apologize."

Xie Qinglan put down her teacup, looked up at him, and asked, "What did I do wrong?"

"I shouldn't have laid a hand on you." After saying this, Xiao Jingyuan secretly glanced at Xie Qinglan and saw that the man's face was expressionless, so he knew that he had said something wrong.

He gritted his teeth and tentatively added, "...Shouldn't I have refused to release Pei Yuning?"

Xie Qinglan tapped the rim of the teacup lightly with her fingertips. The sound was extremely soft, yet it made Xiao Jingyuan's back tense. He was all too familiar with this gesture—it was a sign that Xie Qinglan's patience was about to run out.

"I did nothing wrong." He spoke hastily before Xie Qinglan could, his tone tinged with guilt yet stubbornly unwilling to yield. "I will keep her locked up and forbid you from seeing her again. I can agree to anything else, but not this."

Xie Qinglan looked at him and fell silent. There was a scrutinizing quality to that silence, as if he were examining something that had puzzled him for a long time.

After a long silence, he suddenly spoke, abruptly changing the subject: "I've heard that there were seventeen princes in Northern Shu back then, and the struggle for the top ten was extremely fierce. With Your Majesty's wisdom, to be able to stand out from more than ten princes is truly—"

He paused slightly, as if considering his words.

"Extraordinarily brave and skilled in martial arts."

Xiao Jingyuan was stunned.

Wasn't he able to win back then because he had basically killed all the princes in the court? What does it have to do with whether he was intelligent or brave? But he didn't have time to think about it, he only felt that Xie Qinglan was praising him.

His eyes suddenly lit up, and the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up. "Are you praising me?"

Xie Qinglan remained silent for a long time, then picked up her teacup and used the rim to cover her slightly twitching lips: "...I guess so."

Xiao Jingyuan felt as if something had struck his heart hard, a surge of heat rising from his chest to his ears. He couldn't help but lean forward again, his voice filled with barely concealed excitement and tentative inquiry: "Qinglan, you're not angry anymore?"

"Your Majesty has broken your promise."

"???"

"Your Majesty promised to listen to me that day, but in the end—" Xie Qinglan turned her face away, her ears slightly red, her tone still unhurried and indifferent, "she shut me up and wouldn't let me speak."

Xiao Jingyuan's ears suddenly turned red. Of course he remembered that day—he pressed the person down on the dressing table and kissed them. Xie Qinglan pushed him away, but he didn't let go. Instead, he kissed her even deeper, his hand reaching inside her bathrobe. He kissed her until she couldn't breathe before letting go, and then kissed her again.

He coughed, trying to make his voice sound righteous: "I...I don't want to hear you plead for Pei Yuning. I hate her. I'm going to keep her locked up—"

"Your Majesty is truly unreasonable. You didn't even let me finish speaking before jumping to conclusions," Xie Qinglan interrupted him, her tone still unhurried, but growing colder towards the end. "When will Your Majesty change this habit of silencing people when you're in a hurry?"

Xiao Jingyuan was rendered speechless by his words. His voice lowered, carrying a hint of grievance and guilt: "I'm sorry, Qinglan."

After a moment of silence, he spoke again, this time in an even lower voice, as if he were talking to himself: "I know you don't like me, but I really can't accept you thinking about other people in front of me."

His gaze fell on the pile of broken flower petals on the ground. His Adam's apple bobbed, and a faint, self-deprecating smile appeared on his lips. "I can't control myself. The thought that you have someone else in your heart makes me lose control."

The wind blew through the courtyard, and the crabapple petals fluttered down, landing on the stone table, on the scabbard of Guilan Sword, and on Xiao Jingyuan's shoulder.

Xie Qinglan looked at him.

He suddenly felt that this person was hopelessly stupid.

He had indulged him to this extent—he took his jade pendant, let him drink tea at Tingxuexuan, named his sword for him, and let him kiss and hug him while drunk. Even when he was pressed down on the dressing table and kissed until his lips went numb, he only said "lecherous scoundrel".

In her past life, she had always indulged his advances and his wanton behavior towards her.

He felt he had made it obvious enough; he had truly indulged Xiao Jingyuan enough. But Xiao Jingyuan completely failed to see it, still wallowing in self-pity, saying, "I know you don't like me."

Must he, who has been passive from the very beginning, be the one to say the words "I like you"? He really wanted to say it, but he was Xie Qinglan, the proud Xie Qinglan.

Xie Qinglan stared at Xiao Jingyuan for a long time, so long that Xiao Jingyuan felt uneasy under her gaze, opening his mouth as if to say something but daring not to. Then Xie Qinglan stood up, turned and walked into the hall. The hem of her moon-white brocade robe swept across the blue brick floor, her steps were slow, and her back was ramrod straight.

Xiao Jingyuan stood in the courtyard, watching him walk away step by step. He subconsciously reached out as if to grab something, but in the end he only grabbed an empty gust of wind.

As the pale white figure receded into the distance, Xiao Jingyuan's heart sank lower and lower. He had specially changed his clothes today and squatted outside the courtyard wall for half an hour before mustering the courage to climb over, wanting to apologize properly, hoping Xie Qinglan would stop being angry with him, and also to test his fantastical guess. But it seemed he had backfired again.

Behind him was a long silence. There were no footsteps, no attempts to stop him, no cries of "Qinglan, don't go!" as someone chased after him and clung to him tightly.

Xie Qinglan walked to the palace entrance, his fingers already touching the cold door frame. Behind him, Xiao Jingyuan's suppressed breathing was clearly audible, as light as a feather, yet it scratched heavily on his heart.

He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails almost dug into his palms. Two lifetimes of forbearance finally broke through the dam at this moment.

He turned abruptly and strode up to Xiao Jingyuan. His moon-white robes billowed in the wind, carrying with them a refreshing scent of agarwood.

"Xiao Jingyuan".

"I've put up with you for a long time."

His voice trembled slightly, carrying a hoarseness that had been suppressed for too long.

Xiao Jingyuan raised his head and unexpectedly met Xie Qinglan's cold eyes. There was too much churning in them—anger, resentment, grievances that had been suppressed for too long, and a burning, solitary courage that had been suppressed for two lifetimes.

Before he could even figure it out, he felt his collar being grabbed so tightly that he staggered forward a step.

Then, Xie Qinglan's lips met his.

It wasn't a lingering kiss, or even a tender one.

Xie Qinglan simply pressed her lips against Xiao Jingyuan's, pressing them tightly together, as if using this method to say something she had kept hidden for two lifetimes, something she could never say.

In that instant, Xiao Jingyuan froze completely. His mind went blank; all thoughts of politics, the empire, Pei Yuning, and past and present lives were pulverized.

He stared wide-eyed at the face so close to his—Xie Qinglan's eyes were closed, her long, thick eyelashes trembling violently, her brows slightly furrowed, and the tips of her ears burning red.

His lips were slightly cool, and when pressed against his lips, they trembled slightly.

One breath. Two breaths. Three breaths.

Crabapple petals fell into Xie Qinglan's hair, but no one brushed them away.

Four breaths. Five breaths. Six breaths.

The wind lifted the hem of their clothes, the moon white and black overlapping, like the most intense yet lightest stroke in an ink painting.

Seven breaths. Eight breaths. Nine breaths.

Xiao Jingyuan could feel Xie Qinglan's fingers tightening around his clothes, could feel the man's breathing becoming erratic, and could feel the lips pressed against his own lips changing from cool to burning hot.

Ten breaths.

Xie Qinglan let go of him.

He took a step back, avoiding Xiao Jingyuan's eyes, his ears burning red. He turned and strode quickly into the hall, pausing at the doorway. Without turning back, he uttered a single sentence, his voice slightly hoarse and tinged with unnatural stiffness:

"Your Majesty, please go back and think it over carefully before coming to Tingxuexuan."