CHAPTER 9 – The Confession
236 Words
Two nights later, they were in the garden again.
Jingxing sat beside her on the stone bench. Close enough that she felt his warmth.
"You seem troubled," he said.
"Thinking about home," she said. "A different home. Far away. Somewhere I can never go back to."
He was quiet for a long moment.
Then he took her hand.
His fingers were calloused. From swords. But his grip was gentle.
"Then stay," he said. "Stay here. With me."
Her heart flipped.
"Your Highness—"
"I know what I'm saying." He turned to look at her. Dark eyes. Intense. Vulnerable. "I've never said this to anyone. Never knew how. But you—you're infuriating. Loud. You dress weirdly. You sell drinks with balls in them."
"Tapioca pearls."
"Whatever they are. You make me laugh. You confuse me. You make me want to be better." He squeezed her hand. "I don't care about your past. Where you came from. I want you here. Forever."
【HE CONFESSED. Likes: 567,821.】
Wanwan stared at him. The man who used to look at her like she was vermin. The man who'd drunk her "poison" soup. The man who'd given her a jade pin worth a fortune and acted like it was nothing.
She could feel the tears building.
Don't cry. Crying is weakness.
But for the first time in her life, she let herself cry in front of someone else.
- Writer
