One. It should have been laughable. What man--even a yielding and wanton man--could possibly satisfy the Emperor? Yet Luo Binghe has an expression on his face that Liu Mingyan has never seen before, a certainty and hope in his eyes that makes him nearly alien to her, dressed as he is.
It hurts, a little, to find her husband after three months of absence and yet feel him a stranger, wrought anew; it puts her wrong-footed. Yet there is also a gladness in her, fierce and rising like bubbling water, that he has found someone. If he were one of his own wives, she would stand up and draw him to her, clasp him tightly in shared joy. But he is not; he is her Emperor, and they do not touch.
"Junshang," she says, meeting his eyes and trying to convey her simultaneous sorrow and joy, the loss she feels and the sudden, tender hope. "I--don't know what to say."
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momijizukamori
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Date: 2023-12-14 06:28 pm (UTC)It hurts, a little, to find her husband after three months of absence and yet feel him a stranger, wrought anew; it puts her wrong-footed. Yet there is also a gladness in her, fierce and rising like bubbling water, that he has found someone. If he were one of his own wives, she would stand up and draw him to her, clasp him tightly in shared joy. But he is not; he is her Emperor, and they do not touch.
"Junshang," she says, meeting his eyes and trying to convey her simultaneous sorrow and joy, the loss she feels and the sudden, tender hope. "I--don't know what to say."