Chapter 35

📖 CHAPTER 35: THE PRINCE'S WARNING

Gu Qingyan didn't move. Her grip tightened around the jade pendant, her silver eyes locked onto the man emerging from the shadows.

Feng Yusheng.

The Crown Prince.

She had expected his eventual interference, but not so soon. And certainly not here.

The flickering lanterns cast half of his face in darkness, but the glow of his golden eyes remained unwavering. Sharp. Watching her.

Xiao Yue trembled beside her. "Y-Your Highness…"

Gu Qingyan didn't bow.

Instead, she tilted her head slightly. "What a coincidence, Your Highness. Do you always skulk around abandoned manors at night?"

Feng Yusheng's lips curled slightly, but the amusement didn't reach his eyes. "Only when someone decides to pry open a chest that should have remained sealed."

Gu Qingyan smiled. "And who, exactly, decided it should remain sealed?"

He took a step forward. "The ones who knew the consequences."

A silent pause stretched between them.

The pendant in her palm felt heavy now.

She had always assumed the lost insignia was destroyed, or worse, buried with the fallen lineage. But now, it was in her hands, carrying secrets that had been hidden for decades.

Secrets the Crown Prince clearly knew about.

Feng Yusheng's gaze flickered to the chest, then back to her. "You don't understand what you've done."

Gu Qingyan's fingers tightened around the jade. "Then enlighten me."

His expression darkened. "That emblem belongs to an erased bloodline."

She arched a brow. "Erased?"

Feng Yusheng's jaw tensed. "Wiped from history. For a reason."

Xiao Yue clutched Gu Qingyan's sleeve, fear evident in her wide eyes. "Miss, maybe we should—"

Gu Qingyan raised a hand, silencing her maid.

Her silver eyes glowed under the dim lantern light. "If this was erased, Your Highness, then why does it still exist?"

Feng Yusheng exhaled slowly. "Because someone made a mistake."

Her heart beat steadily, but her mind raced. A mistake? Or a hidden truth that someone wanted buried?

"Is that why you're here?" she mused. "To correct that mistake?"

Feng Yusheng didn't answer immediately.

Then—

"No."

Gu Qingyan blinked.

He took another step forward, his golden gaze intense. "I'm here to warn you."

She remained silent, waiting.

His voice was quiet, but each word carried weight. "Now that you've opened that chest, they will come for you."

The temperature in the room seemed to drop.

Xiao Yue inhaled sharply. "They?"

Feng Yusheng's eyes gleamed. "The ones who were supposed to be dead."

A chill crawled down Gu Qingyan's spine.

Dead?

Or hidden?

For the first time, true danger settled over her like a suffocating shadow.

And yet—

Her lips curled slightly. "Then let them come."

Feng Yusheng's gaze locked onto hers, unreadable. "Foolish."

Gu Qingyan chuckled softly. "Perhaps. But you seem concerned, Your Highness."

A flicker of something unreadable passed through his eyes. Then, just as quickly, it was gone.

He turned, his robes brushing against the wooden floor. "Keep the pendant close, but trust no one."

She watched as he strode toward the exit.

Just before he disappeared into the night, his voice echoed softly—

"Not even me."

And then he was gone.

Gu Qingyan stared after him, fingers brushing over the pendant.

Trust no one?

She smiled faintly.

She never did.

But now, she had something far more dangerous in her possession.

A relic of a forgotten past.

A key to a truth someone wanted erased.

And a war that had never truly ended.

The storm was coming.

And she was right in the centre of it.