Crown Prince’s Private Wing – Midnight

The palace had long since quieted. Fireworks had faded, and servants were dismissed with subtle hand gestures.

Inside the chamber, Shen Lianhua sat on the edge of the wedding bed, still in her bridal robes. Her veil was gone, her hair loosened, her eyes lined with something softer than caution—but not quite trust.

Li Shenzhao entered without armor, without title. Just a man.

He stopped a few steps away, watching her in the lantern glow.

“You don’t have to do anything tonight,” he said quietly. “I will not take what isn’t given freely.”

Lianhua looked up, the corners of her mouth lifting—not in amusement, but something far more fragile.

“If I feared you,” she whispered, “I wouldn’t have married you.”

She stood.

With slow, deliberate movements, she unfastened the crimson sash around her waist. The silk whispered as it slid to the floor. Her outer robe followed.

And still, Shenzhao did not move.

“Do you know why I waited?” she asked.

He shook his head, voice low. “No.”

“Because I needed to know that what I gave tonight wasn’t stolen… like everything else in my past.”

Her fingers brushed the edge of his robe now. He let her undress him, not as a prince, but as a man she was learning to trust.

When their bodies touched, it wasn’t lust—it was peace. The kind she never thought she’d earn.

He kissed her forehead first.

Then her shoulder.

Then her lips, gently—like a promise that didn’t need words.

She trembled once, but it wasn’t fear.

It was the weight of safety.

Of being held, not owned.

Of being chosen—not used.

That night, when they came together, it wasn’t perfect. It was slow, human, a little awkward. But it was real. And it was hers.

Afterward, she lay against his chest, fingers tracing the scar near his collarbone.

“What do you see in me, truly?” she asked.

“A fire that refuses to burn everything down,” he replied. “A woman who could rule… and still want love.”

She looked up at him.

“And what do I see in you?”

“What?” he asked.

“A man who could have taken the world,” she said, “but asked me first if I wanted to build it with you.”

He didn’t speak.

He just kissed her again.

This time, like he meant it for a lifetime.