[A System with almost no presence, pure love, BE, lingering heartbreak]
She looked up at Na Jie and asked softly, “About our bet in the woods today: if you had won our sparring match just now, what would you have asked of me?”
Her question was like an evening breeze parting the mist, sweeping away the layers of delusion wrapped around Na Jie's heart.
In that moment, in the warm glow of the campfire, he looked at the girl before him, her long hair loose and her features clear and delicate. He looked at Qi Yan, clad in armor, daring to stand against any man, resilient and full of life, and all the affection he felt for her surged into his throat.
He truly, deeply liked her. He liked her fierce decisiveness on the battlefield, her cool composure and self-restraint, and the sensitivity and insight concealed beneath her resilient exterior. She was nothing like any other woman on the grasslands. She was lively, stubborn, radiant, beautiful, and utterly unique, and she had claimed every corner of his heart.
The burning feelings in his heart surged and swelled, almost bursting from his throat. His truest desire was crystal clear: he wanted to take her away, far from the strife between nations and the smoke of battle, and bring her back with him to the vast, free grasslands, where they could watch the wind ripple the grass, the sun set, and the stars fill the sky, living carefree and in peace year after year.
I want you to come back to the grasslands with me.
He didn't dare say it.
He feared his sudden confession would unsettle her, that such an audacious request would shatter the rare peace of this moment, and, most of all, that his humble, burning feelings would ultimately become a wedge between them.
Maybe he wasn't really afraid of those things. Maybe he didn't even know what he was afraid of. But he was afraid. He... didn't dare say it aloud.
