TSFLIP Chapter 298

Inside the bedchamber, there was a serene silence.

As soon as Xia Fengya saw Gu Yan, she tactfully tugged on Mu Liang’s sleeve and pulled him away, leaving the room.

Gu Yan walked straight to the bed. The girl lying there was peacefully asleep, her delicate and serene face exuding an innocence that stirred a tenderness deep in one’s bones. Gu Yan raised his hand, his slender fingers brushing against her cheek. Then he leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead.

He had spent years planning and scheming, all for the sole purpose of ensuring she would remain by his side. To some, it might seem as though all his efforts were nothing more than the foolish pursuits of a man hopelessly enamored. Such people might think him an unambitious fool. But to Gu Yan, no empire or throne could compare to having her by his side for the rest of his life.

He vividly remembered fifteen years ago when, at the age of thirteen, he held the newborn baby girl in his arms. In that moment, he felt as though he had reclaimed a lost treasure. For as long as Gu Yan could remember, he had always felt incomplete—not in a material sense, but spiritually. It was as if there had been a void in his heart since birth, one that neither wealth nor power could fill. Yet, when he cradled that baby girl in his arms, an inexplicable sense of fulfillment washed over him.

Gu Yan often had an unexplainable dream. In it, he felt a deep fear—not from the thought of eternal loneliness as he lived forever, but because the red-clad girl who should have been with him was absent from his endless journey.

In those dreams, the girl’s face was always blurry. Until he met Feng Guang, he had thought it was just a figment of his imagination. But the moment he laid eyes on her, the girl’s face in his dream became clear. That clarity filled him with an overwhelming urge to take the infant from the palace and bring her home, an impulse he suppressed only with immense self-control.

Gu Yan couldn’t understand why he was so obsessively drawn to Feng Guang, who at the time was just a baby. What he did understand was that he relished this obsession. He didn’t believe in past lives or reincarnation, so he attributed his feelings to a deep, inexplicable bond and attraction between their souls.

From the moment she was born, she belonged to him. That was how he saw it. When others complained that the Empress was too willful and urged him, as her teacher, to discipline her, Gu Yan would only smile without saying a word. After all, her willfulness was something he had indulged. How could he ever bring himself to scold her?

Some even suggested that Gu Yan should overthrow the Empress and take the throne for himself. But those people now rotted in the darkness, having been silenced permanently for their stupidity. No one could save them from their fate.

The girl’s eyelashes fluttered, and her eyes slowly opened. Feng Guang, still groggy from sleep, stared blankly at Gu Yan, unable to react for a long moment.

She was… devastatingly adorable.

Gu Yan leaned down and captured her lips in a lingering kiss before murmuring, “Your Majesty, you’re awake.”

“Gu Yan…” Her voice was ethereal and uncertain. She stared at him for a while, and when he smiled and kissed her again, she finally sat up and threw her arms around him. “You’re okay! That’s such a relief!”

He gently stroked her back, his voice soothing. “Your subject still has the duty to assist Your Majesty. How could anything happen to me?”

“But what about your injury?” she asked with concern.

“Please don’t worry, Your Majesty. It’s nothing serious now.” Even though her sudden embrace caused a sharp pain in the wound on his chest, Gu Yan didn’t let it show. With the one he loved in his arms, how could he spare a single thought for something as trivial as pain?