The silence returned, but this time it was different. It wasn't the heavy, awkward quiet of two strangers; it was a silence charged with a profound, unspoken weight. Prince Wang Cheng's brow was furrowed, his eyes searching Li Lan's.
"What do you mean?" he asked, his voice barely a whisper. "Found your fate?"
Li Lan looked at him, and for the first time, she truly saw him—not as a symbol of a political alliance or the distant man who came to her bed each night, but as a man. In his eyes, she saw the vulnerability he had tried so hard to hide. She felt the sincerity of his fear and the genuine love he had been holding back. There was also a flicker of the immense pride he had felt in her display at court, a pride in her. He was not a cold or calculating man; he was a good man, caught in a web of political intrigue, a victim of his own circumstances, just as she was.
And in that moment, a truth she hadn't even been able to articulate to herself simply flowed from her lips.
"I cannot explain it with words," she began, her voice soft but steady. "But I have been... awakened. I feel a power I didn't know I had. And I feel that I was destined to be here with you. To help you become what you were destined for."
She watched as his expression shifted from confusion to an awe-struck wonder. She hadn't meant to speak so boldly, to sound so confident. She worried she might have sounded like a woman hungry for power, a schemer just like the others in this palace. But as she saw his genuine surprise and relief, she knew he wasn't judging her. He was listening, truly listening.
For so long, Li Lan had believed her purpose was to fade into the background, to be the quiet, unseen daughter. But here, in this unexpected moment, she finally understood her place. Her destiny was not to hide in the shadows but to stand beside this man—to guide and protect him, not for power's sake, but for a greater good. She had a mission that was bigger than herself, a mission she would fulfill with him by her side.