Heaven Dou Royal Academy, evening.
Chen Jieqi came out of the cultivation room and headed for the gate.
He walked unhurriedly, his gaze fixed on the entrance, where a familiar figure stood.
Ning Rongrong stood by the gate, holding a little flower she had picked from somewhere. She had already plucked off most of its petals.
She lowered her head and muttered to herself, as if counting something.
"Go... don't go... go... don't go..."
As Chen Jieqi approached, she plucked off the last petal.
"Go."
She stared at the bare stem, froze for a moment, then bit her lip.
"Then I'll go."
She looked up, saw Chen Jieqi standing in front of her, and froze as if rooted to the spot.
"You... when did you get here?"
"Just now."
Chen Jieqi looked at her, his gaze lingering on her face for a moment. She was nervous; her eyelashes trembled.
"Alone? I could've sworn I saw..."
"Xiao Wu was called away by Third Brother."
Rongrong interrupted him and hid the stem behind her back. Only then did she realize her hand was empty.
Her hand froze halfway through the motion, then she drew it back.
"I was just... taking a walk."
Chen Jieqi didn't call her out. "Want to go inside and sit for a while?"
"No, no need."
She bit her lip, twisting the hem of her clothes round and round. Suddenly, she looked up at him.
"I just... wanted to ask you something."
"What?"
"Last time, you said it was because I was Ning Rongrong, not because my surname was Ning..."
Before she could finish, a voice came from behind her.
"Rongrong?"
They both turned around.
Xue Qinghe stood not far away in a plain white brocade robe. The setting sun bathed her in a faint golden glow.
She looked at Rongrong, her expression calm, though a trace of surprise showed in her eyes.
When had she arrived? How long had she been standing there? No one knew.
"Brother Xue!"
Rongrong's eyes lit up, and she ran straight over to grab her sleeve.
"What are you doing here?"
Xue Qinghe looked down at the hand clutching her sleeve and paused.
It had been a long time since anyone had held on to her like that.
She should have pulled away, but she didn't.
She simply stared at that hand, then at Rongrong's bright eyes, as if she were encountering the word "affection" for the first time.
"I had some business to take care of."
She looked up, her gaze passing over Rongrong and settling on Chen Jieqi.
"You two..."
"We met once in Suotuo City," Chen Jieqi said.
"Just once?"
Rongrong grew anxious. She ran back to Chen Jieqi and looked up at him.
"I remember everything you said back then!"
As she ran past Xue Qinghe, the breeze lifted the ends of her hair, brushing lightly across Xue Qinghe's hand.
But Xue Qinghe's fingers trembled.
Chen Jieqi glanced at her but didn't respond.
Rongrong realized she had said too much. Her face grew even redder, but she still held her chin high.
"I just wanted to ask you—were the things you said... really how you felt?"
As she asked, her voice trembled.
It wasn't because she was afraid of being rejected. She simply never asked questions like that.
"Yes."
Rongrong froze. She hadn't expected him to answer so readily.
She had even prepared several different responses in case he said no.
But he said yes. Just one word.
"Oh."
She lowered her head, her voice growing softer.
"Then... that's good."
She turned to leave, then stopped and looked back at him.
This time, she looked for longer, as if checking something.
Checking that he meant it, checking that she hadn't misheard,
checking... that she wasn't dreaming.
"You'll compete in the Heaven Dou Spirit Master Exchange Tournament, right?"
"I will."
"Then I'll come cheer you on."
After saying that, she hurried away, as if afraid he might refuse.
The setting sun stretched her shadow long across the ground. She moved as lightly as a little deer.
But after a few steps, she stopped and looked back.
Just once. Then she really ran off.
Xue Qinghe stood where she was, watching Rongrong disappear. For a long time, she didn't move.
The Rongrong she knew was spoiled, willful, and arrogant. Others had always indulged her; she had never indulged anyone else.
But the Rongrong she had just seen had taken the initiative to seek out a young man, blushed when he saw through her, and frozen when he answered her.
Then she had said, "I'll come cheer you on." Xue Qinghe had never seen her like that.
Suddenly, she felt as if she had never known this side of Rongrong at all.
All her life, the only things around her had been self-interest, scheming, and pretense.
She had thought that was simply how people were with one another.
But Rongrong was different. If she wanted to see him, she went to him.
If she wanted to ask something, she asked. If she wanted to cheer him on, she said so.
Just moments ago, Rongrong had tugged on her sleeve, her eyes bright, like a little cat begging for a treat.
Then she had turned and run to Chen Jieqi, looked up at him, and asked if he meant what he said, making no effort to hide how much she cared.
And what about her?
She could only sit in the residence and wait for him to come. She could only say, "See you at the tournament."
She couldn't even hold on to his sleeve as openly as Rongrong had.
She lowered her head and looked at her hand.
The spot Rongrong had held seemed to retain a little warmth.
She clenched her fist, then relaxed it. There was nothing there.
She suddenly remembered what he had said.
"Some masks don't need to be worn so tightly around someone who can see through you."
But now she realized that even in front of him, she was still wearing the mask called "Xue Qinghe."
Because what he saw through was "the Crown Prince," not "Qian Renxue."
She turned to Chen Jieqi.
He was looking in the direction Rongrong had gone, his expression calm and impossible to read.
How long had he been watching? She didn't know.
She only knew he had watched Rongrong's departing figure longer than he had looked at her.
Or perhaps he simply never watched her after she turned away.
A trace of disappointment welled up in her, though she couldn't say why.
The thought was like a fine needle, so small she barely felt it when it pierced her.
But it was there.
She only felt that something she had believed belonged to her alone now seemed not to.
Or perhaps she had never had it to begin with.
"She really cares about you," she said, her voice even.
"We've only met once."
"Once?" She repeated the word.
Suddenly, she wondered how many times she and he had met.
And yet, they already understood each other so well.
He understood what she meant, and she understood what he left unsaid.
She had thought that made their connection unique.
But now she saw that he looked at Rongrong the same way, spoke to her in the same tone, and said the same thing: "because you're Ning Rongrong."
So what was the difference between her and Rongrong?
The question made her deeply uncomfortable.
She couldn't put the feeling into words. It was like a blunt knife, cutting straight through the hard shell she had spent years building around herself.
Did it hurt? No. But somehow, it felt worse than pain.
"I'm leaving."
She turned and walked away.
After a few steps, she suddenly stopped and looked back.
Chen Jieqi was still standing where he had been, his shadow stretched long by the setting sun.
She suddenly wanted to ask him something, something she had never asked anyone.
"If I weren't the Crown Prince of Heaven Dou, what would you think of me?"
But she didn't ask. She didn't know how, or even why she wanted to.
She just stood there, looking at him for a moment.
The wind blew, stirring the hem of her clothes. The Crown Prince's robes were plain white, dignified, and immaculate.
Suddenly, she felt how heavy those clothes were.
A voice inside her spoke, so softly that even she barely heard it.
"I want to watch you compete, too. Not because I'm the Crown Prince,
but because... I want to."
She turned and walked away without looking back.
Chen Jieqi stood where he was, watching her disappear around the corner.
The sun had set, leaving only a streak of dark red on the horizon.
He lowered his head and looked at the ground.
There lay a flower stem. He bent down and picked it up.
There was also a faint mark in the dirt, the print left by Xue Qinghe's shoe after she had stood there for a long time.
The evening breeze had blown dust across its edges, softening them slightly,
but he could still tell she had lingered there for quite a while.
He stared at the footprint for a moment, as if he could see the brief glance she had cast back before leaving.
As if she had been checking something, or holding something back.
After a moment, he turned and casually tossed the stem into the grass nearby.
Then he headed back into the academy, walking unhurriedly.
Crown Prince's Residence, late at night.
She sat by the window without moving for a long time.
The room was dark, lit only by moonlight streaming through the lattice and spilling silver across the floor.
She lowered her head and looked at the shadow the moonlight cast on the ground. It was her own.
The Crown Prince's robes, the Crown Prince's hairpiece, and the Crown Prince's posture.
She stared at it for a long time.
Suddenly, she remembered her childhood. There had been a mirror in her room at Spirit Hall. Back then, she was still called Qian Renxue, and the person in the mirror still had a name.
Later, she had come to Heaven Dou City and become Xue Qinghe. The mirror had disappeared, and she had never looked into one again.
Tonight, she had seen herself.
When Rongrong had tugged on her sleeve, when Rongrong had run toward Chen Jieqi and the tips of her hair had brushed across her hand, ...
At the moment Chen Jieqi looked at Rongrong's retreating figure, she could only stand where she was.
She saw the person in the mirror, dressed in the Crown Prince's robes and wearing the Crown Prince's mask, a role she had played for more than ten years,
so long that she had begun to forget what she had been like before.
She suddenly wanted to ask him a question,
"If I weren't the Heaven Dou Crown Prince, how would you see me?"
But she had no question. She didn't know how to ask,
or even who she was if she wasn't the Heaven Dou Crown Prince.
She just sat there, very still, the moonlight falling on her.
A voice inside her was so faint, so faint that she barely heard it herself,
*On the day of the tournament, I want to come watch you compete. Not because I'm the Crown Prince,
but because... I want to go.*
She kept those words in her heart, like a seed falling into soil she had never tilled.
She didn't know it had begun to sprout. She didn't even know it was a seed.
She only thought that the moon was very bright tonight.