The soft murmur of night still hung in the air as Mei Lin watched the young boy sleep. His fever had broken, his breaths now slow and even.
Her hands, once trembling with urgency, now rested in her lap. But her heart—her heart still raced, as if trying to outrun the parting she had already decided on.
She stood, brushing back a strand of loose hair. Around her, the ward had quieted. The worst had passed. The disease was no longer spreading, and the remaining patients were on the mend.
The younger healers, though exhausted, had found confidence. Protocols were in place. Clean water flowed through the wards, herbs were ground with practiced efficiency, and the panic had ebbed into quiet recovery.
She had done her part.
It was time to leave.
---
Jun waited outside near the edge of the ward, arms crossed, eyes already fixed on the road that led toward the hills. His pack was secured, his steps steady. But his silence carried a question.
"We should go," Mei Lin said softly.
Jun nodded. "Are you sure you don't want to say goodbye?"
Mei Lin looked down at her hands. "No. It's better this way."
She had made peace with her decision. Staying would only deepen a wound that had never truly healed. The days spent working beside Shen Liyan had been a reminder—of what they were, of what they might have been. But every moment was also a quiet goodbye. A chance to speak, to smile, to remember. She had given herself those small mercies.
That had to be enough.
---
She hadn't expected him to find her.
But as she stepped beyond the healer's tents, just before the first light of dawn spilled across the path, his voice rang out—quiet but sharp as a blade.
"You were really going to leave without saying goodbye?"
Her breath caught.
She turned slowly. Shen Liyan stood just beyond the gate, his tunic wrinkled from a night of no sleep, his boots dusty from searching.
Mei Lin swallowed. "You shouldn't be here."
He stepped forward. "And yet I am. Why? Because I knew you'd try to leave like this."
She didn't respond. Her silence only seemed to tighten the line of his jaw.
"You've been speaking to me these past few days like each word was a farewell," he said. "And I let you. I thought maybe... maybe you were ready to move on."
"I am," she lied.
He didn't believe her. "Then why does it hurt so much to watch you go?"
Her voice cracked. "Don't make this harder, Shen Liyan. You're married now. There's no future for us."
He stepped closer, each word firm. "I didn't marry her."
She blinked. "What?"
"I didn't marry Jiang Yuyan. The ceremony happened, the alliance was made, but I never took her as my wife. It was politics. Not love."
"But the whole city believes—"
"They needed to believe it," he said. "The court, the nobles, even my father. But you—you were the only one I needed to know the truth."
Her fingers trembled.
"I remembered you," he whispered. "Not just your name. Everything. The night in the garden. The time you braided flowers into your hair and said it made you feel like spring. I remember how you left so I could be free."
She looked away, eyes glistening. "You deserved that freedom."
"And now I want to choose."
She shook her head, heart tearing. "We're not those people anymore. The girl with flowers in her hair... she died the day you walked away."
"Then let her be reborn," he said, stepping closer. "Let her come back. With me."
She pulled back, breath shallow. "I can't. Not while you're bound to a world I'll never belong to."
He held her gaze. "Then wait for me. Give me time to end this charade. I'll return to you—freely, truly. If you'll let me."
She closed her eyes. "You're asking me to hope again."
"I'm asking you not to let this be the end."
---
She didn't answer.
Jun returned with the horses, his expression unreadable. Mei Lin climbed onto hers without a word. Shen Liyan stood back, fists clenched, eyes never leaving her.
As she rode past him, she paused briefly. Her voice was barely audible over the sound of hooves.
"I won't wait forever."
His reply came after a beat. "I won't make you."
She didn't look back.
---
That night, the healer's ward was silent. Lanterns flickered in the breeze. The scent of dried herbs hung in the air.
Shen Liyan sat alone near the cliff, the ribbon she once wore wrapped around his fingers.
Far in the distance, the forest swallowed the trail she had taken. The stars hung low, and somewhere beyond the hills, Mei Lin was riding into a life he wasn't yet part of.
But he would be.
He had to be.