That dream again.
Xie Lingyuan.
His breath was warm against my neck. His lips, soft and deliberate, grazed the skin just below my ear.
Fingertips followed—slow, reverent—sliding from the nape of my neck down the curve of my back, then curling around my waist.
He pulled me closer. My chest pressed to his. I felt every breath he took, every flicker of restraint unraveling.
Then his mouth found that red mark—hidden beneath my collarbone, the one no one else knew.
He kissed it. Then bit.
Pain bloomed. Sharp. Electric.
I gasped, tears stinging my eyes.
Not just shame—desire.
His body was against mine. His hand slid under the silk of my robes. Heat coiled deep in my belly. I should've pushed him away.
Instead, I clung to him. Harder.
When I woke, the sheets were twisted, damp with sweat. My thighs were slick.
My breath hitched as I touched the spot below my collarbone.
There it was—an unmistakable mark.
Xiaotang's knock startled me. "Miss? May I come in?"
She stepped inside with a worried face and a warm towel. "Another nightmare, miss?"
I yanked my collar up, but the tremble in my hands betrayed me. The copper mirror on the table slipped and shattered on the floor. Shards scattered like the remnants of the dream still clinging to my skin.
Xiaotang rushed to my side. She took my wrist gently. "You're ice-cold. You should tell the young lord. These dreams... they leave marks."
"He mustn't know," I said too quickly. Too harshly.
She looked down, then folded the towel and began wiping my brow in silence.
Seven nights.
Since my coming-of-age ceremony—the ji li, when girls receive their first hairpin and step into womanhood. Since he gave me that jade hairpin and smiled like nothing had changed.
But everything had changed.
That day, his fingers brushed my hair as he pinned the jade just above my temple. I remember the way he avoided my gaze, as if the smallest glance might break something inside him. Or me.
In my dreams, I call him cousin.
But in the dark, he murmurs "Zhiwei."
And it doesn't sound wrong.
I pressed a palm to my chest. My heart was racing again. Not from fear. From memory. From longing I wasn't supposed to feel.
Xiaotang caught my eye. "You care for him, don't you?"
I turned my face away. "It's not allowed."
But we both knew. It had already begun.