As her words faded, the secret chamber fell deathly silent.
Only her slightly hurried breathing remained, along with the occasional soft crackle of the candle flame.
Lu Changfeng stood where he was, watching her.
The Princess Taiping before him-no, Li Lingyue-seemed like a jade statue whose paint and jeweled ornaments had all been stripped away by wind and rain, leaving only its most essential, hardest contours.
What she offered was not a contract, but more like an inventory of the remnants left after "dismembering herself."
She had voluntarily dismantled and downgraded everything she could give, stripping away every part that might impose a "heavy burden"-the favors of power, emotional expectations, future ties-leaving only the two most basic things, the least likely to "go wrong": a practical alliance against common enemies, and a fleeting affair that could be ended at any time, with no obligations.
This could hardly even be called a "proposal." It was more like disposing of herself in the wake of despair-I have already removed the parts of me that could threaten you. These fragments that remain... would you be willing to pick them up?
There was no forcefulness, no calculation, only an almost humble plea for him to stay.
The string in Lu Changfeng's heart that had remained taut all along, the one called "vigilance," was quietly plucked by something far more complicated. Within that emotion lay only overwhelming shock, a deep stirring at her uncompromising resolve, and a trace of... pain that even he had not anticipated.
He suddenly realized just how far his rational, impeccably sound "risk avoidance" had driven this woman, proud to her very bones, like a merciless blade.
She was not negotiating. She was surrendering...
His silence seemed to last too long.
Long enough that the final faint glimmer of expectation in