"Good." Ji Yunhe stood up. "I'll carry you and we'll go find the eye of the formation together." After Changyi was lifted onto her back, Ji Yunhe laughed.
"Big-tailed fish, doesn't this feel like deja vu?"
Changyi also smiled, "Yes." Inside the Ten Square Formation, when he still had a fish tail and could not walk, Ji Yunhe also carried him on her back. And now with legs, he still needed to be carried by her.
"If we could break out of the Ten Square Formation, this one here should be nothing," Ji Yunhe said.
"Once we leave this trap and return to the Northlands, after you recover from your injuries, I'm going to make you carry me for once."
"As many times as you wish." Changyi then fell silent for a while.
"Ji Yunhe..." he paused, holding back the emotions in his voice, "why didn't you tell me?"
Ji Yunhe turned her head to look at him. She wanted to ask him: about what? But then she knew. Changyi was locked up by Shunde and had a fight with her. What other hidden secrets could he be asking about...
Ji Yunhe had decided it was time to tell Changyi everything, but she never thought he would end up hearing about it from Shunde.
"I was going to tell you after you come back with my food," Ji Yunhe smiled casually, "but it kind of got interrupted..." Changyi was quiet for a long time in the darkness.
"I should have guessed..."
"Changyi, you were right when you said the past didn't matter anymore."
"That decision wasn't mine to make."
"Yes it was. I was dying, telling you it would have been pointless. And I was also afraid… afraid that after you found out, you would still hate me for taking away your right to choose." Long silver hair fell on Ji Yunhe's shoulders.
"I wouldn't."
"But I was still afraid. Even telling you now frightens me. But I am not dying anymore, and I'm not alone anymore either," Ji Yunhe said.
"I want to hold your hand for all the years to come... or carry you on my back, that's fine too." She smiled and looked at the void before them, but her mind was full of spring flowers and sunshine.
"I want no more secrets between us."
She said it calmly, but her words stirred up endless ripples inside his pupils. He closed his eyes and said,
"Shunde is crazy..."
"Mhm."
"The only thing she did right was sending me to the Demon Valley."
Ji Yunhe paused her footsteps and thought over what Changyi had gone through over the years. What he said just now gave her a dull ache inside her heart.
In the Demon Valley, he was tortured, whipped, and lost his tail. He experienced so much suffering and torment there, yet he said that was the only thing Princess Shunde did right...
Because he met her there...
Ji Yunhe suppressed her tears and forced a smiling tone of voice, "Big-tailed fish, you always like to say stuff that catches me by surprise."
It seemed as if he had changed over the years, but he still had the heart of an innocent child. So simple, beautiful, tender and kind, that it made her feel...
... unworthy.