"Why is it you?"

Tantai Jin heard the head crier argue with someone outside. With a strange feeling of familiarity in his heart, Tantai Jin stepped down the carriage. The maids and eunuchs quickly made way for him.

Ye Xiwu stood in front of the royal procession, bruised and bleeding, her dress dirty and torn in a few places. She was breathing heavily as she glared at the head crier. "I want to see Tantai Jin," she said, with her eyebrows set in determination.

"Ye Xiwu," Tantai Jin called out to her. The head crier stepped aside, and Ye Xiwu turned her eyes to him.

"Tantai Jin," Ye Xiwu replied. Tantai Jin strode towards her as if drawn by a powerful magnet. When they stood face to face, she said to him, clearly and firmly, "I will stay with you."

With a rush of affection for her, Tantai Jin quickly took her in his arms. "You will stay with me?" he repeated what she said, seemingly unable to believe what he heard from her. It had been weeks after she had left him for Xiao Lin, weeks after he had cast the puppet spell to control her and made her stab Xiao Lin with the Soul-Gnawing Wedge. He had only intended for it to weaken him, but Xiao Lin had a will made of diamond, hard and unyielding, a will that sent him make a final stand to protect what remained of the Sheng Kingdom and die on the battlefield.

For Ye Xiwu, it would have been like she had killed Xiao Lin herself.

When he heard about Xiao Lin's demise, when he read the last letter he wrote him, addressing him as brother instead of the enemy, Tantai Jin felt remorse for the first time. The pain of it made him realize that Ye Xiwu was never going to forgive him for what he made her do to Xiao Lin, and his despair at that realization made Nian Baiyu keep a distance from him.

"I will stay with you," Ye Xiwu repeated, her breath hot against his neck. "I want to start over with you. I forgive you. Will you forgive me too?"

Tantai Jin pulled away slowly to look at Ye Xiwu's face. Her dark eyes looked piercingly through his, seeking the forgiveness in them. Her earnestness made him face his own remorse, and he started to say, "That day…"

Ye Xiwu stopped him. "The past is in the past," she said, holding his arm tightly. "Now, I only want to start over with you. Will you forgive me?"

"I forgive you," Tantai Jin said. Will you forgive me, Ye Xiwu?

Ye Xiwu managed a small smile before her eyes slowly fell shut. Tantai Jin felt her lose strength, and he had to hold her up against his body.

"Ye Xiwu?" he asked, but got no response. He then slid his arm at the back of her knees and carried her in his arms. "Ye Xiwu…" he said again, looking at her unconscious face. Now that he noticed, her body felt hot.

"Nian Baiyu," Tantai Jin called as he walked back to the carriage with Ye Xiwu in his arms. His loyal bodyguard ran up to him, and seeing Ye Xiwu in his arms, offered to carry her for him. "Call the royal physician," he said instead, nudging Ye Xiwu closer to him. Nian Baiyu nodded in acknowledgement, and went off to find the physician.

When he got to the carriage, Tantai Jin laid Ye Xiwu carefully on the seat and stayed close to her all journey long as the carriage made its way back to the palace. He tucked a lock of her hair behind her ears. You came back to me, Ye Xiwu. He took her hand and kissed it. I swear to protect you and make you happy from now on.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ye Xiwu burned in a fevered dream.

"Father…" she whimpered as Tantai Jin dabbed her face with the cool cloth, taking care to avoid the bruises he had treated with ointment. Tears trickled from her closed eyes, and he wiped them as they fell. "Brother… I'm sorry."

"Ye Xiwu…" Every word she said pricked Tantai Jin's heart. They were laced with such pain that he wished he could see into her dreams and see what makes her weep. He looked at the physician, who handed him a bowl of decoction to bring down her fever. He raised her upper body up and leaned her on his chest. "Drink this," he said, holding up a spoonful of decoction against her lips. Like a puppet, she readily obeyed, even with her eyes closed, and he was able to feed her medicine. Afterwards, he held a cup of water to her lips to wash the bitterness away.

He lowered her again on the bed. "Your Majesty," the physician said. "You should take a rest and let us care for Third Miss Ye."

Tantai Jin shook his head. "You may go," he told the physician, and he and his assistant nurses had no choice but to obey. They bowed out and left him alone with Ye Xiwu.

He continued wiping down Ye Xiwu's feverish body to bring down her temperature. When he had brought her into the palace from the carriage, he had the physician examine her, and he assessed that the fever was brought on by at least three days and nights of exhaustion and cold. His thoughts brought him back to that time when she did the same thing to him after he collapsed at the frozen lake back at the Ye Mansion. He was mostly out of it, but he felt her care nevertheless.

"Brother… I'm so sorry…" Ye Xiwu moaned again, her face contorted in agony. Tantai Jin placed the cool washcloth on her forehead as he watched her grimace in her sleep. He held her face in his hands.

"Ye Xiwu…" Tantai Jin whispered in turn. "I'm sorry. I promise I won't do anything like that again." He placed his forehead atop of hers. "I promise to give you anything you want. Just… please wake up."

He stayed by her side until she woke up.