Episode 7 — The Distance Between Breaths
The assassination attempt changed the rules.
Guards doubled. Routes shifted. Shadows lengthened.
And Shen Zhiyuan stopped pretending distance was possible.
Li Wei noticed it in small things—the way Shen walked half a step closer in corridors, the way his hand hovered near Li Wei's back without touching, the way his gaze tracked every person who dared look too long.
It was not subtle.
It was ownership learning restraint.
"You're distracting," Li Wei said one evening as Shen reviewed reports beside him.
Shen didn't look up. "You're alive."
"That's not what I meant."
Shen finally met his gaze. "Then say what you mean."
Li Wei hesitated.
That hesitation was answer enough.
The next morning, they rode out together.
Publicly.
No escort between them. No barrier. Just two figures side by side beneath the open sky.
The court watched from the palace gates.
So did the Crown Prince.
"You're daring them," Li Wei murmured as their horses moved through the city.
"I'm warning them," Shen replied. "Touch you again, and they answer to me."
"And if I'm the weakness they aim for?"
Shen's jaw tightened. "Then they'll learn what desperation costs."
At the eastern market, chaos erupted.
A cart overturned. Screams. Too sudden.
Li Wei barely registered the flash of steel before Shen yanked him hard against his chest, twisting his body so the blade struck armor instead of flesh.
Blood splattered the street.
Not Shen's.
The assassin fell, throat crushed under Shen's grip.
Li Wei's hands were clenched in Shen's robes, breath caught, heart pounding against another man's ribs.
Too close.
Too real.
For a moment, Shen didn't let go.
When he did, his voice was low. "Did he touch you?"
Li Wei stared at him. "You killed him."
"Yes."
"No," Li Wei said quietly. "You didn't hesitate."
Shen met his eyes. Something raw flickered there.
"I will never hesitate," he said.
That night, Li Wei realized something irreversible had begun.
Shen Zhiyuan was no longer reacting.
He was anticipating.