Moon light:My Beloved Gave Me...

No howling winds. No dragon roars. Just the faint crackle of frost against the windows and the soft hush of snow falling beyond the walls.

I sat up in bed, the blanket still wrapped tightly around me. My body felt better—stronger—but something inside me still hummed, like a silent question pacing beneath my ribs.

Yuzhe sat near the door, as still as a statue.

He hadn't slept.

He just sat there. Eyes half-lowered, cloak draped neatly around him, as if he belonged to the ice more than to the fire of living.

"You stayed all night," I said softly.

He didn't answer.

Of course.

My fingers tightened around the blanket. "You don't have to watch me like a prisoner."

"I'm not."

"Then why?"

He looked at me then, slowly. His voice was quiet, but firm:

"Because I have to."

I blinked.

Not *want to.*

Not *ordered to.*

Just... *have to.*

He looked away again, but those three words clung to the walls of my chest, echoing louder than they should have.

There was a knock.

The door creaked open, and a servant stepped in with a tray of breakfast. Another approached carefully and handed me a folded note sealed in silver wax.

I opened it.

"The Ice Serum has begun. Five days. Stay within the East Wing. Do not wander. —Mingzhen"

I sighed. "Five days..."

Yuzhe stood. "Then don't waste your strength."

I narrowed my eyes. "What do you think I'm going to do? Dance in the snow?"

He didn't smile. Not even a twitch of amusement.

I stuck my tongue out at him—he didn't flinch.

"Wow," I muttered. "You really *are* made of stone."

Without a word, he turned and walked out, the door clicking shut behind him.

I let out a long breath.

**Later that day**

The East Wing of the palace was like walking through a dream.

Frozen waterfalls shimmered along the glass walls, their ice forever caught in mid-motion. Blue roses bloomed beneath enchanted frost, glowing faintly under silver moonlight.

I wandered the halls alone, boots crunching softly against diamond-tiled floors.

I stopped at a balcony. The Ice Kingdom stretched far beneath me—its towers, its forests, its endless, breathless winter.

So far from the motel.

So far from the girl I'd been, leaning against a broken vending machine with frost on my lashes and panic in my chest.

I didn't know who I really was yet.

But something inside me… was changing.

**That evening**

The fire in the hearth was almost out.

I sat in silence, wrapped in layers of velvet, thinking about things I couldn't explain. The dragons. My lost memories. Mingzhen's eyes.

Then the door opened again.

Yuzhe.

Carrying firewood in his arms.

He didn't say anything—just walked straight to the hearth, set the logs in place, and lit the flames with a flick of his fingers. The warmth returned, gentle and steady.

He didn't look at me.

Didn't ask how I felt.

He just moved back to his usual corner, where shadows and silence always welcomed him.

I watched him.

And for a long, quiet moment, I wondered:

What was he protecting me from?

Me?

The dragons?

Or something deeper?

Something neither of us could name?

I didn't know the answer.

But I knew this—

The sound of five days had begun.

And nothing would be the same after they passed.

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*Episode 15 is the beginning of "the calm before the storm." These five days will shape everything between Xiwang and Yuzhe — not with loud actions, but with silence, care, and small moments that change hearts.

Yuzhe didn't say "But I want to."

He said "But I have to."

That matters.

Because sometimes… we do things not out of choice, but out of something deeper — duty, guilt, love we don't understand yet.

Xiwang doesn't remember her past yet. But she's feeling her present very deeply. And Yuzhe, in all his quiet ways, is starting to show us that his silence isn't empty — it's heavy with everything he's not ready to say.

Thank you for reading 💙

Please leave a comment if the quiet moments spoke to you, too.

Love from

Li yuxin

🌝🌝🌝