The prince's heart felt as if a great weight had been lifted. Her words echoed in his mind, "I was destined to be here with you." It was everything he had ever longed to hear. All his fears—the fear that she would leave, that she was unhappy, that she secretly loved someone else—dissolved in a single, magnificent moment. He was no longer a prince with a bleak future, but a man chosen by fate.
"Li Lan," he began, his voice thick with emotion he no longer felt the need to hide. He moved to kneel beside her, taking her hands in his. "I don't know what to say. For so long, I thought I was going mad. I would look at you, so quiet and composed, and think to myself, 'She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen.' But your silence... it terrified me. I thought you saw me as just a duty, that you were unhappy, and that one day you would tell me you wanted to go home."
He squeezed her hands, his eyes filled with a raw, unfiltered love. "I love you. I have loved you since the moment I saw you on our wedding day. I was so scared that I'd lose you that I would get up before the sun, just so I wouldn't have to face the thought of you telling me you didn't want to be here."
Li Lan's gaze softened. He had been so guarded, so distant. And yet, his fears were a mirror of her own. She looked at him, and for the first time, a genuine smile touched her lips.
"And I," she replied, her voice filled with a gentle humor, "would wake up and find you gone. I thought you didn't like me and were just fulfilling your duties as a husband."
He laughed, a rich, open sound that filled the quiet garden and made her heart flutter. "Every night?" he said, shaking his head in disbelief. "Surely you should have seen that I am completely obsessed with you."
"Well," she countered with a witty smirk, "I have never been married before, especially to a Xialan prince, so I didn't know what Xialan husbandly duties were."
Their shared laughter broke the last of the ice between them. It was the first time they had truly connected, their banter flowing as if they had known each other forever. He was so witty, and she, for the first time in her life, was just as witty, her quick sense of humor finally finding a place to shine.
As they sat there, talking and laughing under the fading light, he felt a joy he hadn't known was possible. Just moments before, he had thought his love for her was so immense it could not possibly grow. But in that moment, with her laughter dancing on the breeze and her eyes sparkling in the twilight, he realized he was wrong. His love had grown again, a feeling so profound it humbled him.