Night had fallen, and Xu Hour was more than halfway over at the City Lord's Residence.
Long Yuqing stood in the pavilion in the East Courtyard, staring in stunned emptiness at the brightly lit Inner Hall, where his beloved wife was chatting and laughing with the maids as she busied herself.
Beside him, the maid named Cui'er sobbed, her eyes red. "Your Highness, not long after you left, Miss lost her mind. After the Yang Family's Eldest Uncle left with his family, there was no word from them at all. And with the General dying in battle on Fallen Divine Mountain, those two shocks overwhelmed her, and M-Miss became like this. Every day, she relives the day before she was to bring you home. Every night, she keeps making preparations until the end of Hai Hour before she agrees to sleep. And she keeps saying... tomorrow, you won't have to hide anymore."
He listened quietly to the maid's account. As his eyes widened, the unbearable ache in his heart became two streams of hot tears that rolled down his cheeks.
If love truly existed in this world, then Long Yuqing was undoubtedly extremely fortunate, for his wife had truly shown what it meant for a husband and wife to weather hardship together and share honor and disgrace.
She loved him, simply and purely. Even when you were no longer the City Lord, only a prisoner hidden in a dark room, that had never changed.
During nearly a year of "death," Long Yuqing had lost many things in that dark room, seen through much, and understood much. He believed he had already become numb to every feeling in this world.
Yet the bond between him and Yang Ling'er alone had deepened by the day, growing ever stronger.
Watching his wife bustle