Chapter 74

Chapter 74

“You…”

“Your Highness…”

Two voices rang out at the same time.

Sheng Zhaoning was half leaning against the vermilion palace wall. As she looked at the figure who had come searching for her, her breathing fell into a moment of panic, her heart abruptly missing a beat. The shock in her eyes lingered for a long while.

How had Wei Heng found her?

After leaving Wenyuan Pavilion, she had wandered aimlessly along the palace paths. Even she did not know where she was now.

She had only meant to lean against the wall and briefly empty her restless, irritable thoughts. She had not expected to lift her eyes and meet that pair of clear, bright eyes head-on.

After a brief silence, Wei Heng spoke first.

“Lord Sheng, may we talk for a while?”

He never made any decision presumptuously. Every time, he would ask for her opinion in earnest.

Sheng Zhaoning had rarely been treated with such respect.

Moreover, this person was no ordinary man. He was the Heir Apparent of the dynasty, the dignified Crown Prince, the future ruler of Great Wei.

A complicated look appeared in her eyes, filled with contradiction and hesitation.

At last, she sighed and said, “Please speak, Your Highness.”

The surroundings were very quiet. The midday sun hung high in the sky, and the towering palace walls cast half their shadow over the long, narrow palace path, just enough to envelop them both.

Wei Heng looked into her eyes and asked seriously, “Have I done something wrong?”

He did not ask why she had suddenly become cold and distant. He was sincerely asking where he had erred.

Only then did Sheng Zhaoning realize that, in front of her, Wei Heng had never once referred to himself with the reserved address of a ruler. He had always used “I,” as though they stood as equals, invisibly dissolving the boundary that should have existed between monarch and subject.

Sheng Zhaoning thought helplessly, why would there be someone in this world as pure and kind as him?

Wei Heng might become a wise and benevolent emperor, but he would never become a qualified one.

He had never experienced the darkness of a struggle for succession. He was not cruel enough, not cold-blooded enough, and not decisive enough in killing.

And someone absolutely pure and kind was not enough to awe the realm and make every scheming wretch willingly bow in submission.

“You are very good.”

Sheng Zhaoning spoke those three words with complete sincerity. Under Wei Heng’s puzzled gaze, she continued, “It is just that, Your Highness, you are the sovereign and I am your subject. There should be a distinction of rank between us.”

“But I do not think we are merely sovereign and subject.”

Wei Heng drew in a deep breath, the color in his face gradually fading. “Lord Sheng, I admire your learning, I respect your courage, and I deeply believe that you and I are people who can walk side by side on the same road.”

Though they had not known each other for long, there was an indescribable tacit understanding between them.

Wei Heng could feel it, and he believed Sheng Zhaoning could feel it as well.

“How does Your Highness know that you and I will certainly walk the same road?” Sheng Zhaoning asked in return.

“We will.”

Wei Heng’s eyes were firm, and the words left his mouth without hesitation.

Sheng Zhaoning, on the other hand, was stunned.

She did not understand why Wei Heng was so persistent about her. They were clearly only chance acquaintances who had known each other for a short time, and their bond was not so deep that either of them could not live without the other.

Sheng Zhaoning deliberately avoided thinking about her instinctive reaction when facing the sword thrust toward Wei Heng, how she had stepped in front of him without thinking.

That had been an action made without going through her mind at all. It could not represent anything.

If one day Liangzhou’s iron cavalry truly broke through Capital City, would she kill him?

Sheng Zhaoning could not answer.

Only… if that day truly came, if she could save his life, even at a price, she thought she would probably be willing to pay it.

Her eyes settled back into cold stillness. Sheng Zhaoning said evenly, “From the heights of court to the far reaches of the jianghu, turmoil is everywhere. Your Highness should not trust anyone lightly. Even if someone seems pure and harmless, who can say when they might turn into a blade that cuts you instead?”

Wei Heng’s brows drew together. His gaze slowly lowered and fixed on her eyes.

His clear, unhurried voice sounded by her ear.

He said, “If different roads can lead to the same destination, why fear how difficult the road ahead may be?”

Her heart suddenly gave a violent thud.

Scorched by the heat in his gaze, Sheng Zhaoning turned her head away and shifted her eyes in panic.

Different roads, the same destination…

Did he know that such a light, casual sentence meant she would have to betray the Wei Clan, abandon every debt of gratitude and every piece of her past, forget all love and hatred, change course entirely, and walk a road utterly unlike the one she had once taken before she could stand at his side?

What right did Wei Heng have to think she could do that for him?

Sheng Zhaoning forced down the frantic pounding in her chest, closed her eyes, and her lashes trembled faintly a few times. Only after a long while did she slowly open them again.

She straightened and met his burning gaze once more.

“Some roads, once chosen, are difficult to change. Whether they are different roads or the same one is not something Your Highness and I can decide.”

Sheng Zhaoning bowed deeply and said, “This humble official takes her leave.”

Her thin, slender figure slowly disappeared at the end of the palace path.

Wei Heng’s knuckles went pale. He stared at the corner where she had vanished, and an indescribable bitterness welled up inside him.

His shoulders sagged weakly. The light in Wei Heng’s eyes dimmed inch by inch, shattered across the ground, and vanished into nothing.

…

Life returned to peace.

As the day of Prince Zhenbei’s return to the capital drew closer and closer, Sheng Zhaoning, on the contrary, no longer felt the panic and unease she had at the beginning.

What had to be faced would have to be faced.

She had already hidden for three years. She could not hide from him for the rest of her life.

Since that day when they parted on the palace path, Wei Heng had not appeared again. She heard he was busy with disaster relief, rushing from place to place, and that he was rarely even in the palace.

Sheng Zhaoning continued going to Wenhua Hall to teach as usual. The Fifteenth Prince’s studies gradually caught up. Once he passed the Guozijian’s assessment later on, he would be able to study together with several of the princes and princesses.

In the blink of an eye, more than two months had passed. The heat in August was almost unbearable.

The Hanlin Academy had been idle recently. Several important assignments were nearing completion, and Fang Chong clearly felt the burden on his shoulders lighten. As a result, he became a little more lenient with those under him.

Sheng Zhaoning received three days off. Just as things finally quieted down, a family letter arrived from Xuzhou, saying that the Sheng Family had already begun preparing to move residences and asking her to keep an eye out for a suitable location in the capital to purchase a house.

So she had no choice but to take Zhou Wei around the capital making inquiries. At last, she managed to pick out two or three places that seemed fairly suitable.

“Prepare the carriage. We’ll go look at the house on Dongjie first today.”

Sheng Zhaoning wore a casual robe of cloud satin with a front opening and narrow sleeves. The sun at the hour of si was not yet too fierce, but the light was already bright enough to dazzle the eyes.

After giving instructions to the attendants in the residence, she turned and went back inside. Before long, she had dragged Zhou Wei out and, by sheer force, shoved him into the carriage.

“No, seriously, why do you have to drag me along when you’re the one buying a house?”

Zhou Wei sat in the carriage, his face full of reluctance, every inch of him screaming resistance.

Sheng Zhaoning cast him a chilly glance and said, “When I’m buying the house later, remember to watch my expression. When it’s time to bargain, push the price down hard. Do you hear me?”

A warning lay hidden in her eyes.