Deep within the Prince's Residence, the courtyard lay gloomy and forbidding.
No maids passed to and fro here, no servants waited in attendance. Even the ubiquitous menials who swept and cleaned were nowhere to be seen. There were only armored soldiers, keeping a tight watch both inside and outside the courtyard.
Those standing guard were as still and immovable as mountains, stationed at the doorway and other crucial points, scarcely making a sound. Those on patrol moved back and forth without cease. Every turn, every footfall set their armor plates clanging, the sounds overlapping, echoing, reverberating.
Xie Xinghan sat on the bed with her eyes closed. Her small face was as white as frost-covered pear blossoms, her lips as pale as faded rouge, and the exhaustion in her features could not be concealed. Yet it did nothing to diminish her beauty. Rather, it was like a breath of mist upon white jade, a veil of thin clouds around a bright moon.
Jade was warm by nature; breathed upon with mist, its gentle light drew inward, taking on a hazy, lustrous softness.
Moonlight was clear by nature; veiled in clouds, its pure radiance grew faint and indistinct, all the more ethereal.
She sat curled up there, both knees drawn to her chest, her cheek buried in her folded arms. The posture made her seem even more slender and fragile, as though the lightest push might topple her. Yet the arms she refused to loosen and the tight set of her lips revealed a silent tenacity that warned against underestimating her.
Ever since Xie Xinghan had been placed under house arrest, she had not slept well.
The first night had been especially bad. She had not closed her eyes once. Outside the door, the soldiers' footsteps and clattering armor drew near and