Balg Huyi had always been careful with words. Words could stitch wounds or tear them open, much like the needle in her hands. But tonight, words felt heavier than ever.

“You’re being unreasonable.” Yushi’s voice was firm, his youthful frustration bubbling beneath the surface.

Huyi sighed, placing her embroidery aside. “Yushi, it’s not about reason. It’s about reality.”

His brows furrowed, dark eyes burning with something she refused to name. “Reality? That’s just an excuse you keep using to push me away.”

She glanced at him then, really looked at him—the young man who had trailed after her for years, growing taller, sharper, and somehow more insistent. The...