Xiao Hezhen held an umbrella for Yuan Wenkang.
Naturally, Yuan Wenkang tried to decline.
Xiao Hezhen expressed her inner panic, saying that she just wanted someone to keep her company.
Seeing Xiao Hezhen so fragile, so dainty, as if she would shatter upon a touch, Yuan Wenkang couldn't bring himself to refuse.
So, he knelt on the ground, maintaining the distance required between a monarch and a subject.
That night, Xiao Hezhen told him much, about every little detail of growing up in the Imperial Palace, about how much she longed to leave it, about the many secrets only she knew.
Perhaps it was Xiao Hezhen's candidness that night, perhaps it was her endearing demeanor, or maybe it was because Yuan Wenkang also had a cruel fate, but regardless, Yuan Wenkang began to harbor feelings for Xiao Hezhen.
That year, Xiao Hezhen was thirteen.
Yuan Wenkang, thirty.
Let alone their vastly different statuses, their ages alone were an impassable chasm.
But after that night,
