The moonlight was cold, the night wind carrying the valley's lingering mist. Emma and Fox Lian sat side by side on the highest branch of the divine tree— their secret base, known only to the two of them.
Silence flowed between them, broken only by the rustle of leaves in the wind. Emma suddenly spoke, her voice soft, like a pebble dropped into a still lake: "Fox Lian, if… I mean if, back then I had obeyed the marriage contract and wed someone else. What would you have done? Tried to forget me, found another, lived happily?"
She had hidden this question in her heart for a long time. Ever since the fiancé turmoil, she sometimes wondered—if she hadn't been so resolute, if she had yielded to clan law… what would this proud yet stubborn fox have done?
Fox Lian's tail, lazily swaying, froze. He turned, violet eyes deep under the moonlight, emotions swirling too complex for Emma to read. He didn't answer immediately, only looked at her, as if searching for the reason behind her question.
Only after a long silence—so long Emma thought he wouldn't reply—did he finally speak, voice low and calm, yet carrying a chilling finality: "No."
Emma's heart trembled.
His gaze drifted from her face to the heavy night beyond, silver hair stirring in the wind. "I wouldn't find another, nor live any so-called happy life." His tone was flat, as if stating something detached from himself. "If you married someone else, I would leave. Perhaps return to Qingqiu, perhaps wander farther, somewhere no one knows me."
His fingers absently twisted a leaf of the divine tree as he continued, words sounding rehearsed a thousand times in his mind: "I'd find a quiet valley, build a small house. And then… just live, day by day, year by year."
He tilted his head slightly, moonlight illuminating half his face, his smile pale and broken: "Guarding memories, waiting for news of you that may never come. Until my spirit fades, my soul dissolves." "That is the only 'future' I can imagine."
Emma's breath caught. She looked at his lonely profile under the moon, at his tail drooping lifelessly, her heart clenched painfully.
She had never heard him lay bare his despair so plainly. She had always known his devotion, but not that it ran this deep—bordering on self-destruction.
"Fox Lian…" Her voice broke, reaching to touch him.
But he avoided her hand, violet eyes locking onto hers, stripped of their usual laziness or teasing, filled only with cruel honesty: "Emma, don't you understand?"
He seized her hand, pressing her palm to his chest, letting her feel the urgent, powerful heartbeat. Word by word, clear and unyielding: "My heart can hold no one else." "It's either you… or emptiness." "There is no third option."
Emma's tears spilled at last. She gripped his hand tightly, threw herself into his arms, holding him as if to fuse him into her very bones. "I'm sorry… I shouldn't have asked such a foolish question…" she sobbed against him. "There will be no one else, Fox Lian. Only you… forever only you…"
Feeling her trembling body and burning tears, Fox Lian's taut frame finally eased. He wrapped her deeper in his embrace, tail regaining life, curling gently around her, stroking her back in comfort.
"Mm." His voice was muffled in her fragrant hair, heavy yet relieved. "Remember what you said."
Moonlight silently enveloped the two, the divine tree's leaves whispering above, bearing witness to this undeniable vow.
Some loves, from the very beginning, are the only choice.
No retreat, no compromise.