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After wiping out the traitors and helping the young emperor ascend the throne, Zhai Yue returned to his fief, built a temple, and devoted himself to religious practice, living on a vegetarian diet and keeping far from the turmoil of court.
In the third year of Wuning, an urgent letter arrived from the capital: the young emperor was dying. Zhai Yue changed out of his plain robes and headed back to the capital.
When the Shen family was branded traitors, their home confiscated, and they were sentenced to execution, Song Mu was hidden away by the young emperor. Later, she was named a Beauty and brought into the palace, only to be mistaken for a spy working with the rebels by the Imperial Guards the very next day and locked in the Cold Palace. On the day she was released and allowed to leave the palace, she was led before the emperor to offer thanks for his grace.
Kneeling on the ground, Song Mu had only just raised her eyes when she saw the villain who had destroyed her family. A bone-deep chill seized her in that instant.
Holding a wine cup, Zhai Yue lifted the beaded curtain. A smile played across his stern, icy features as he beckoned to her. "Come here. Let me have a look at you."
In late spring three years ago, Madam Shen, her mother-in-law, had been desperate for a grandchild, so she took Song Mu to a temple to pray for one.
That day, torrential rain triggered a landslide that blocked the road down the mountain. Song Mu survived by hiding in a stone cave. Zhai Yue rescued her and washed her without the slightest restraint. His palm scraped inch by inch over her skin, like a sharp blade.
"Why won't Madam Shen look at me?"
Zhai Yue had once wanted her to enter his prince's residence as a concubine. But by the time he returned from the border, she had already married into the Shen family.
He had no interest in intruding on someone else's marriage. But when Zhai Yue set his sights on someone, he would never let another man take her away.
Watching her yearn for a child day after day, Zhai Yue gazed at her as if he could devour her, yet patiently taught her in a low voice, "If you want a child, you have to do it the way I do."
[26.1.31]
Theme: Don't force what isn't meant to be.
