Dusk in Heaven Dou City crept over the courtyard walls of Shrek's resting area, stretching the shadow of the Old Scholar Tree within long and thin. Ye Jin hid in the darkness outside the wall, his fingers clenched tightly around a scholar tree leaf blown down by the wind. Its edge cut painfully into his palm, yet he felt nothing—his gaze passed through the window lattice and remained fixed on the two people in the courtyard.
Lin Zhixia sat on a stone bench, most of the bandages on her shoulder already removed. Gu Zhinian carefully handed her a bowl of warm medicine, deliberately pausing when his fingertips touched her hand, as if afraid of startling her. Lin Zhixia accepted the bowl and looked up with a smile. It was a faint smile, yet like a ray of warm sunlight, it shone straight into Ye Jin's heart before instantly turning into sharp thorns that made his heart seize with pain.
"My resolve to wait for you..." Ye Jin silently repeated the words he had once said to Lin Zhixia. But now, they seemed like the cruelest joke. He had thought that as long as he stayed away from her and followed Mo Xuan in serving Spirit Hall well, he could pull these feelings from his heart—but from the moment he saw her injured in the arena, he knew he had been wrong. This love was like vines buried in his bones and blood. The more he tried to tear them away, the tighter they wound around him, until even every breath carried her shadow.
He recalled what Lin Zhixia had said outside the resting area that day: "There is a sea of blood and deep hatred between us." "The love you offer is too fierce. I can't accept it." Every word