The court dispersed in ripples of murmurs and bowing heads, but DongZe did not linger to watch the ministers scatter like startled birds. His hand remained firm on XiaoQi's arm, guiding her out of the throne room and into the cooler corridors beyond.
Behind them, the poisoned guard had been lifted onto a stretcher, his breaths shallow, lips tinged faintly blue. The maid trailed anxiously after him, wringing her hands.
"Your Highness," XiaoQi said suddenly, her voice hushed but urgent. She turned, her gaze fixed on the guard's still figure. "I must go with him. The poison is mine to unravel. If I do not—"
DongZe's hand caught her wrist before she could move. His tone was soft but sharp enough to cut through her protest. "No."
She blinked up at him, stunned by the finality in that single word. "But he will die. I can help. You know I can." Her brows knitted together, her voice trembling with both guilt and determination. "I cannot leave him to fate, not when his suffering was drawn from my hands."
DongZe's expression hardened, though his thumb brushed unconsciously across her wrist, a gesture almost tender. "You will rest. The imperial doctor will tend to him. He has no less skill than you. Do you forget you yourself are still poisoned? You can barely stand, and yet you would risk your life again."
Her lips parted in protest, but he leaned closer, his voice dropping low. "You speak of saving him, but tell me, what good would your death bring? Shall I bury you beside him when his heart fails?"
XiaoQi's breath caught. For a moment, she could not answer, her eyes darting away, down the hall where the guard's stretcher disappeared.
He exhaled slowly, some of the steel in his gaze softening. "Enough, XiaoQi. You have done more than any would dare. Let others carry the burden now. I forbid you to lift another finger tonight."
The words struck her like a scolding parent's hand, and yet beneath them was something steadier, fiercer. He was not merely reprimanding her. He was protecting her, even from herself.
Her shoulders sagged, the fight leaving her body in a long, trembling breath. "You treat me like a child."
DongZe's lips curved faintly, but his eyes did not waver. "Then don't act like one, just for tonight. Allow yourself to be cared for."
They reached the covered walk leading out of the audience hall. The night air met them, cool and damp, carrying the faint scent of wet earth after the earlier drizzle. XiaoQi thought it might calm her, but her heart continued to thrum with unease.
DongZe stopped, turning to face her fully. His gaze swept her pale face, the exhaustion darkening the skin beneath her eyes, the stubborn set of her mouth. His hand lifted, brushing a stray strand of hair from her temple.
"I will not leave you in the West Residence any longer," he said quietly, though every syllable carried the weight of command. "You will move into the imperial palace itself."
Her eyes widened. "No." The word left her lips instinctively, almost before she thought it through. She stepped back, shaking her head. "That is not my place. I am already resented for being near you. If I enter the palace, the glares will sharpen into knives. You would place me at the centre of every whisper and scheme."
"I care nothing for whispers," DongZe replied, his tone steady as stone. "I care for your safety."
"I will be safer away from the heart of the storm," she insisted, her voice rising. "If I move into the palace, I will bring nothing but trouble to you."
DongZe's jaw tightened. He leaned down, so his shadow fell across her, his words slow and deliberate. "And if you remain where you are, who will protect you when Lian's allies strike again? Do you think tonight was her last attempt? No, XiaoQi. She failed because I was near. If you were alone, if I had arrived moments later..." His voice trailed off, but the fury and fear beneath it were unmistakable.
She stared at him, caught by the rawness in his tone. For all his discipline, for all his command, the thought of her slipping from his grasp had unravelled him.
Her lips parted, then closed again. She had no ready answer, only the thudding of her heart in her chest.
DongZe reached for her hand this time, enclosing it firmly in his. "This is not a request," he said, softer but no less unyielding. "You will come with me into the palace. Under my roof. Under my eyes. No harm will reach you there."
For a long moment she searched his face, as if looking for a crack in his resolve. But there was none. His dark eyes burned with an intensity that made her chest ache.
At last, she lowered her gaze, her voice a whisper. "You truly will not take no for an answer."
His lips curved, faint but certain. "No."
The faintest warmth stirred in her chest, and she let her hand remain in his, and though unease still pressed against her ribs, for the first time that night she allowed herself to lean into his steadiness, if only a little.
The West Residence was in chaos by morning. Servants hurried back and forth, their arms laden with lacquered chests, folded silks, and trays of porcelain. Guards directed them with clipped orders, while DongZe's men oversaw the process like generals moving supplies to the front line.
XiaoQi stood at the centre of it all, her hands on her hips, her voice nearly drowned by the commotion.
"Put that back—no, that belongs here! And why are you packing my herbal jars so carelessly? They will shatter!" She darted forward, snatching a bundle from one of the servants, her cheeks flushed with irritation. "All of you, stop this madness! I never agreed to—"
Her words faltered as she caught sight of DongZe at the far end of the courtyard, issuing orders in a calm, implacable tone. He didn't so much as glance her way, as if her protests were little more than the chirping of sparrows. His command was law, and the entire residence moved under his will.
XiaoQi's hands clenched around the bundle of jars until her knuckles whitened. Her chest tightened with a helpless frustration she could neither spit out nor swallow.
When she finally retreated to her chambers, slamming the door behind her, Bai Hu was already there, perched on the low table with his nine tails fanned lazily around him. He was polishing an apple with exaggerated care, his golden eyes twinkling with amusement.
"You look like a fish tossed on land," he said, biting into the fruit with a crunch. Juice dripped from his sharp grin. "Flopping about, gasping for air, yet still dragged along wherever the tide pleases."
"Do not mock me," XiaoQi snapped, tossing the bundle of jars onto her bed. Her voice cracked with weariness more than anger. She pressed her palms to her face, exhaling through her fingers. "He is moving me into the imperial palace as though I were a sack of grain, and I am powerless to stop him."
Bai Hu's ears flicked, and he stretched luxuriously, yawning before replying. "Powerless? That is not what I see. You could walk away, could you not? Sneak out, vanish into the city like mist. No chains bind you."
Her hands dropped, and she glared at him. "Do not be absurd. He would find me within an hour."
"Exactly," Bai Hu said, wagging his tail with smug satisfaction. "You stay because a part of you wishes to. You like being under his shadow, whether you admit it or not."
Heat rose in her cheeks, and she turned away sharply. "That is not true. I am only thinking of the trouble this will cause him. If I move into the palace, I will be the target of every woman there. The whispers will never cease. He will be dragged into their spite because of me."
Bai Hu tilted his head, watching her with sly amusement. "And still, he does not care. He carries your burdens as though they were feathers. Do you not see, XiaoQi? To him, your safety is worth more than the scorn of a thousand jealous eyes."
Her heart stumbled against her ribs, caught between defiance and an ache she could not name. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest. "It is reckless. Foolish. He does not understand the weight of his own choices."
"Perhaps," Bai Hu mused, his gaze narrowing as if peering straight into her soul. "Or he understands better than you do. He chooses you, again and again, without hesitation. And you... you protest loudly, yet your feet never move away from him."
Silence stretched, broken only by the sound of Bai Hu's tail swishing against the wood and the muffled bustle outside as servants continued to pack.
XiaoQi's throat tightened. She sank onto the edge of the bed, her shoulders slumping. "I do not know if I can bear it, Bai Hu. To live in that palace, under the eyes of all who despise me, clinging to the protection of a man I cannot match in power. I feel as though I am being carried into a storm with no shelter of my own."
Bai Hu padded over, curling at her feet with surprising gentleness. His golden eyes softened. "Then grow your own shelter. Storms will always rage, but roots that reach deep do not fall. Perhaps this is not a cage he builds for you, but a chance to plant yourself where no wind can tear you down."
XiaoQi lowered her gaze to her trembling hands. Outside, she heard DongZe's voice once more, firm and commanding, directing her world into motion without her consent.
By the time the palanquins reached the imperial palace, dawn had broken over the tiled rooftops, painting the sky in shades of pale gold. The grand gates yawned open, revealing courtyards swept clean, walls gleaming with fresh lacquer, and rows of guards who bowed deeply as the Crown Prince passed.
XiaoQi kept her chin lifted, but inside her stomach twisted. The sheer scale of it all pressed on her like an invisible weight. She was no noble daughter, no consort meant to walk gilded halls. The thought of her simple possessions being carried into these chambers made her palms sweat.
DongZe walked beside her with his usual composure, hands folded behind his back, eyes scanning everything. He looked perfectly at home here, as if the marble paths themselves bent to his will.
The quarters DongZe had chosen for her were unlike anything XiaoQi had ever stepped into. The chamber stretched wide, with high rafters carved in curling cloud motifs and silk drapes that caught the morning light, turning it soft and golden. Screens of polished sandalwood divided the space into layers, one corner holding a low table with scrolls and brushes, another lined with cabinets that gleamed with fresh lacquer. The floors shone like water under a sheen of wax, so clean she almost hesitated to tread upon them.
XiaoQi froze just past the threshold, her breath catching. Servants scurried in behind her, carrying chests and bundles, laying them neatly against the walls. The rustle of silk and clink of porcelain filled the air, until the chamber itself seemed alive with motion.
"This..." she began, her voice thin with disbelief. "This is not a room. It is a palace within a palace."
DongZe's steps were unhurried as he crossed the chamber, hands clasped neatly behind his back. He paused to adjust a silk curtain, testing its draw, as though he had lived here for years. When he looked back at her, his expression was calm, even faintly amused. "Do you find it unsatisfactory?"
Her mouth opened in shock. "Unsatisfactory?" She pointed toward the carved screen, the cabinets, the brazier glowing with sandalwood. "I could fit my entire life in one corner of this place. If I take three steps to the left, I'll forget where the bed is."
"Then it will keep you entertained," he said smoothly, "when you grow restless."
Her eyes widened. "Restless? You think I'll have time for boredom when every consort in this palace will be sharpening their tongues against me?"
DongZe did not flinch. "Let them sharpen until they draw blood. Their words cannot wound you under my protection."
XiaoQi's arms folded tightly across her chest, her jaw tense. "You say that so easily. As if you can silence an entire palace with a single look."
He tilted his head slightly, studying her as if she were a puzzle he enjoyed solving. "Can I not?"
Okay, he isn't wrong.
She rolled her eyes in response.
"You... you are impossible. Absolutely insufferable."
A flicker of warmth touched his mouth, not quite a smile, but close. "And yet," he said softly, "here you are."
She narrowed her eyes, refusing to let him have the last word. "Dragged here like a stubborn mule, you mean."
"Ah," his voice dipped low, carrying a thread of teasing that unsettled her heartbeat, "but even a stubborn mule follows the hand that keeps it safe."
The audacity of him left her staring, breathless. XiaoQi blushed red, though she fought to hide it beneath indignation. Her eyes darted to a silk cushion on the nearest divan. Before she could think twice, she snatched it up and hurled it at him.
DongZe caught it effortlessly, fingers closing around the cushion with disarming grace. His lips curved at last, the sound of a laugh breaking free—low, quiet, but unmistakably real. It startled her more than anything else, that rare sound warming the room in ways even the morning sun could not.
"You laugh at me," she accused, though her lips betrayed her with a twitch of their own.
"I laugh," he replied evenly, "because you never change."
The last of XiaoQi's belongings disappeared into the grand chamber, carried by silent servants who bowed before slipping away. The heavy doors shut with a dull thud that echoed through the gilded space.
XiaoQi folded her arms across her chest, glaring at the polished floors as if they were to blame. Her voice came sharp, each word carrying the weight of her indignation. "I hope you are pleased with yourself. You have abducted me like some roadside scoundrel and deposited me in this gilded prison. Should I begin addressing you as the Crown Prince of Kidnappers?"
DongZe leaned against one of the lacquered pillars, arms crossed in deliberate ease. His eyes flickered with amusement, the faintest curve tugging at his lips. "Bandits take women to sell them. I, however, intend to keep you."
Her head snapped up, the outrage in her face immediate and fiery. "Keep me? Do you hear how that sounds? As if I were some trinket you picked up at the market."
"Not a trinket." He studied her with the patience of a man entertained by a wild animal. "A cat, perhaps. Scratchy. Unpredictable. Occasionally tolerable when it deigns to sit still."
XiaoQi's mouth fell open. "A cat? Scratchy? Tolerable?"
She snatched the nearest silk pillow and hurled it again with surprising force.
DongZe caught it neatly again, as though she had politely handed it to him. He tucked it under his arm with perfect composure. "Your skill in interior decoration grows with each throw. Shall I have the servants fetch you more pillows? Perhaps the entire palace supply?"
Her face flushed hot. "One day I will hit you squarely in that insufferable head of yours."