Tranaslator’s Note: 12 more chapters and thats the END. lmk in comments if you want them now or 5 chapters a day?

 

Chapter 120 – Extra 2: No Wings to Flee (Final)

From the capital, Xie Lanxu rode Longyan northward.

He traveled by day and rested by night.

He ate dry rations and slept in mountain caves. After so many years, it was as if he had returned to his days of exile.

Back then, the nightmares of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess still clung to him.
In those dreams, they were still alive. His mother’s body was cold, but she wandered the rooms as usual, her temperament shifting without warning. He feared her smile because it always turned, without a hint of warning, into blazing rage. Just as he began to lower his guard under her soft words and gentle expression, Princess Cui would grab anything nearby and hurl it at him. And if there was nothing to throw, her fists and feet would do.

She always called him “little slave.”

She no longer remembered she’d been married. She didn’t remember giving birth to a son. She didn’t remember once calling him gently, “Ah-Li.”

Perhaps the Crown Princess didn’t want to remember.

And so Princess Cui was born.

In those restless days and nights, whenever he closed his eyes, it was always her or the Crown Prince who came to haunt him.

The Crown Prince in his dreams looked just as he had in their last meeting, except now there was a deep scar across his neck.

He remembered everything—how Xie Lanxu had betrayed him. But he never blamed him. Even in dreams, he said calmly, “You understand me, so I hope you can also understand why I did what I did. Between one man and the lives of all the people, you know which one matters more.”

But Xie Lanxu didn’t know.

What did the people of the world have to do with him?

He just wanted to live.

Even if he was a harbinger of misfortune, what use was it to the world if he died and they survived?

So he laid trap after trap, sending the Crown Prince off first.

It was only a desperate strike back.

If the prince died, it was only what he deserved.

Even in the dream, the Crown Prince never showed anger. Just like that day, when the guards swarmed in and he surrendered without resistance.

When the Ministry of Justice laid those clumsy forged charges before him, he must have realized who had framed him.

But he never said a word.

Because when a sovereign demands his subject’s death, the subject cannot refuse.

Xie Lanxu had merely quickened the inevitable.

Their bodies were gone, yet their spirits remained.

Why? What grievance did they have? They had wanted him dead first.

So why now torment him in return?

One night, he woke with a start to the sound of a voice.

“Your Highness—”

Still half-asleep, he lifted the curtain. The sunlight outside was soft and hazy, blurring the face of the person who stood there.

But her eyes were clear. Sharp, clever, and filled with ambition.

“The road is hard, Your Highness. Please take care of yourself,” she said gently, though her eyes betrayed nothing of that kindness.

She handed him half a steamed bun wrapped in embroidered cloth.

He accepted it without thinking.

But what came to his mind was the Crown Prince’s calm, noble face.

“…Thank you,” he said with a faint smile.

Just like the Crown Prince would have.

From that day on, she came every day. Each time, she left him a bit of her saved food.

At first, he threw it away. Then, without knowing when it started, a pack of stray dogs gathered around his carriage, waiting each night for scraps.

He watched them fight, bleed, and howl over dry, hard bread. It added a strange amusement to his dull life.

He knew she had an agenda. So one day, just as she turned to leave, he took the embroidered cloth she had wrapped the food in.

That night, she came back looking for it.

He deliberately tossed the food to the dogs in front of her.

He waited to see shock, hurt, or maybe some sort of plea in her expression.

But there was none.

Her eyes were empty, calm, like moonlight falling on frost.

Distant, cold.

The reaction he expected never came.

Nor did something unexpected.

It was a new kind of disappointment. One he had never experienced before.

Later, he was kidnapped by bandits, and she risked everything to infiltrate the mountain stronghold.

Her persistence surpassed his imagination.

When she burst into the room wearing a bright red wedding robe, the setting sun behind her, he was momentarily blinded by the light in her eyes. Before he could react, she had grabbed his hand and was running.

He had no choice but to follow.

As they ran, he glanced at their joined hands. He couldn’t explain his own hesitation.

By the time they reached the lotus pond and the pursuers were closing in, Xie Lanxu was preparing to let go of her hand and escape on his own.

But she jumped into the water, dragging him in with her.

He had swum through this pond countless times, but he hadn’t expected her—a highborn lady—to be able to swim at all.

Underwater, she looked at him. Her red robe floated around her like fire.

Her black eyes were so deep they felt like they could pull him in.

If he stared too long, he would never escape.

She pressed her lips to his, passing him air through her mouth.

It stunned him.

It was absurd.

She was full of secrets. She was cloaked in shadows. She looked like she might be crushed at any moment.

And yet, she had endured beatings and humiliation in silence, with nothing but sheer will.

Once again, he was drawn to her.

He wanted to know what made her the way she was.

What she’d lived through.

What kept her going?

But from then on, everything began to unravel.

It was as if meeting her had broken the dam.

At first, it was just curiosity.

But from the moment she became interesting to him, his soul had already begun to drift toward hers.
His control eroded.

He wanted to become one with her.

Beneath a rhododendron tree, beside a stream blooming with life, they truly became one.

Xian Naiyue Mountain loomed overhead, watching in silence.

Like a god that did not speak.

A god watching them build a love woven with lies and calculation.

He loved her.

Even if they had never been truly honest with each other.

He still loved her, more than anything in the world. More than his own life.

Xie Lanxu would never die for the people.

But Ah-Li would die for Banban.

Banban—his Banban—had she really returned to the heavens?

He journeyed thousands of miles, never entering cities, eating wind, and sleeping in the open.

Always heading north.

Until the tall gates of Mingyue Tower appeared before him.

Yan Dynasty’s northernmost land.

A place said to be barren and filled with toxic mists.

Returning here, he felt something stir.

Before he knew it, he had led Longyan to the wide Xipeng Grasslands.

The wild grass reached his knees.

He walked through it aimlessly, leading the horse as waves of green swelled around him.

Scattered wildflowers dotted the sea of grass.

The air carried that familiar scent of Mingyue Tower.

Crushed leaves. Midnight dew.

He stopped.

Ahead, on a hillside filled with rhododendrons, someone slept quietly.

She wore a pale cloak, her hair pinned up like a married woman.

One hand rested on her slightly swollen belly.

She leaned against a blooming tree, unaware of the petals in her hair.

Xie Lanxu dropped Longyan’s reins. Afraid the dream would shatter, he approached silently.

Her face was rounder now, not from contentment, but from stress. Her body carried the signs of hardship.

Her expression, even in sleep, was tired.

Only the way she guarded her belly gave off a quiet strength.

A breeze blew. Rhododendron petals fluttered down.

Li Xia stirred. Slowly opened her eyes.

She saw him standing before her, and for a moment, dream and reality blurred.

“You finally came?” she whispered.

Xie Lanxu knelt down and took her hand.

The warmth of her skin nearly brought tears to his eyes.

“I’m here.”

“I thought you’d stay in the capital,” she murmured.

“My wife and child are here. Where else could I go?”

The dappled light through the trees shimmered in both their eyes.

She reached up and brushed his cheek.

“You look worn.”

“And you look the same.”

“Liar,” Li Xia smiled.

“It’s true,” he said. “To me, you’ll always look like the girl I first met.”

Her eyes softened.

She held his hand tightly, as if afraid he might slip away.

“Do you remember? Heihuo is now the Grand Protector of Mingyue Tower.”

“I remember.”

“Then you must know, now that you’re here, you can’t leave again. I’ve already built a fleet for the open seas. After I give birth next summer—”

Her eyes sparkled with that same fire he’d seen the very first time.

Sharp. Clever. Full of ambition.

“I’m going to take this nation’s emperor with me,” Li Xia said. “Because he’s my treasure.”

Xie Lanxu let out a soft laugh.

So much effort, just to test him.

But hadn’t he tested her as well?

How many wrong turns had they taken?

How much time had they lost, time they could’ve spent side by side?

From this moment on, he would stop hiding.

“Wherever you go, I’ll go.”

“Heaven or earth, life or death, I’ll stay with you.”

The wind picked up again.

Red petals soared into the sky, like dandelion seeds starting a new journey.

They set out together.

And this time, they would never part again.