The silence in the cave continued.
Everyone's gaze remained fixed on the bound Shrike, waiting for his answer.
After a long silence, Shrike finally raised his eyes slowly. His teasing, careless demeanor faded, and his voice became unusually sincere and open.
"I admit it. I really was attached to my old life."
He faced his past without evasion.
In the Harem on this isolated island, he had status and freedom. No one could easily order him around, and his days were carefree, spent doing whatever he pleased. No one would readily give up a life like that.
But after he met Li Xiang, everything changed.
"I remembered her from the very day of the palace selection."
A crowd of beauties had gathered that day, and everyone had deliberately tried to please him. Only Li Xiang was different.
A unique clarity and tenacity lay hidden in her eyes.
Li Xiang: I was just zoning out, okay?
"It was only after I gradually got to know her that I realized just how different she was from everyone else."
Shrike's voice softened.
The people in the Harem cowered and scraped by from day to day.
That feeling of being trapped in a cage, drifting with the tide without any sense of self, had seeped into their very neurotransmitters.
But Li Xiang had her own thoughts, people she cared about, and lines she would not cross.
She stood mired in mud, yet carried light in her heart. Even when she could barely keep herself safe, she always did everything she could to protect her companions and stay true to herself.
He had never seen that clarity and resilience in anyone else.
"I've lived this long and met countless people, but she was the only one who showed me a different world."
Genuine longing rippled