He Xinyan nodded her head and looked over at the paper bag near the table, "Well. . . I. . . I got a little hungry yesterday night, and I. . . I might have accidentally eaten the sunflower seeds."

". . ."

An awkward silence drifted upon them for several seconds before Yi Qiansi cleared his throat and nodded his head softly, "I'll go check if they bought extra seeds."

He left the room and after a few minutes, he came back with a new bag of sunflower seeds.

He gave it to her and she grabbed onto it before jumping off the bed and walking over to the door with Yi Qiansi behind her.

Outside, they switched positions and He Xinyan followed Yi Qiansi through the palace grounds. As they walked this time, she memorized every twist and turn that they made so she would know how to reach the door if she ever needed it.

When they were outside, she saw a pair of working boots, work gloves, a sun hat, and a shovel outside.

She put on the boots, gloves, and hats and grabbed the shovel before making her way over to the dirt.

"Are you just going to stand there and watch me work this entire time?" He Xinyan asked.

Yi Qiansi raised one eyebrow, "Why? You want me to help you plant the seeds."

He Xinyan shrugged, "No. I was just wondering. I didn't know you had this much time to waste."

Yi Qiansi pressed his lips together and turned around, speaking to the worker that had followed them out. The worker returned to the palace and He Xinyan began planting.

She didn't have much experience with planting things, but she still had some basic knowledge. She took out her shovel and kneeled down, beginning to dig the dirt.

She decided to bury the seeds about one inch deep and a few inches apart although she didn't know if that was right.

A few minutes later after she had begun, she suddenly noticed that someone else had joined her on the dirt. She looked back to see that Yi Qiansi had also put on gloves and boots and had a shovel in his hand.

"What are you doing?" She asked, a little annoyed.

He blinked a few times, "Didn't you ask me to help?"

"When did I ask you to help? Go, go, go. Stop annoying me here." He Xinyan waved him off.

Yi Qiansi innocently blinked a few times, not sure what he did to receive this type of treatment. This was the first time in his life he was going onto the dirt to plant things, and she was saying he was annoying?!

Yi Qiansi was crying internally.

However, he wasn't going to give up!

"Give me some sunflower seeds."

He Xinyan looked back at him and stared at him for a few seconds before finally throwing him a handful of seeds, "Be careful!"

The two of them began planting sunflower seeds, and they planted for a very long time before the entire dirt was finished.

He Xinyan climbed out of the dirt and back onto the grass, her face red from the sunlight and slightly wet with sweat.

Yi Qiansi was also very tired as he took off his gloves and took off the suit jacket he was wearing, revealing the white shirt inside that was slightly wet and sticking to his body from sweat.

He Xinyan watered the dirt, unsure if that was right to do, before she also took off his gloves, looking at their finished work.

Yi Qiansi smiled softly and looked down at her, who was at least a head shorter than him, "Don't you think we work well together? Since your lovely boy - husband is dead, why don't you go with me?"

The smile on He Xinyan's face immediately disappeared and her eyes turned red as she slowly turned her head, glaring at Yi Qiansi.

Yi Qiansi didn't expect her reaction to be so big and he was slightly taken back by surprise.

He Xinyan obviously didn't believe that Gu Yechen was dead, and she had been trying very hard to not think about what Yi Qiansi and Shen Xiner had told her.

She refused to believe that he was dead! He was. . . He was also just recovering from the accident and looking for her.

Her lips twitched from anger and she looked down, suddenly lifting her feet up and slamming it down onto Yi Qiansi's feet,

"He's not dead, you liar!" She then turned around and marched away, opening the door and returning back to the palace without looking back.

Yi Qiansi felt the pain inside his feet reach his brain but he didn't give any physical reaction to it. Maybe it was because he was too used to pain. . .

---

He Xinyan ran back to her room, remembering every turn they had made when walking from the room to the outside world.

She closed the door and ran back to the bed, taking off the working boots.

She sniffed her nose and forced herself to stop the tears that were threatening to fall. Why was she crying? What was she crying about?

Gu Yechen wasn't dead! They were lying!

Maybe this was also a sense of self-protection and lying to herself, but He Xinyan didn't care. She rather hide behind her wall of protection than admit what was most likely the truth.

A minute later, the door opened and Yi Qiansi walked in.

"Get out!" He Xinyan screamed, her voice scarily cold.

A hint of disappointment flashed past Yi Qiansi's face but he ended up leaving the room.

He locked the door and walked down the hallways. When he was almost back to his room, the door suddenly opened and Shen Xiner walked out.

Her eyes flashed with a happy surprise when she saw Yi Qiansi, "Mr. Yi!"

Yi Qiansi glanced at her and walked straight past her.

"Mr. Yi, what are you doing?" Shen Xiner followed behind him for several seconds before Yi Qiansi suddenly stopped and turned around angrily.

"Go away!"

He turned around to walk away again but Shen Xiner suddenly grabbed onto his arm, stopping him, "Mr. Yi, why do you treat me like this. . . and you are so nice and gentle around that woman?! You know. . . you know that I like you!"

Yi Qiansi mercilessly flung Shen Xiner's arm away and looked at her with a disgusted expression, "I didn't save you for you to like me."

Shen Xiner pursed her lips out, "I. . . I know, but I do!"

Yi Qiansi furrowed his eyebrows together and scoffed, "Didn't you like Gu Yechen? And now you say that you like me? Your love is so cheap. Or. . ."

Yi Qiansi smirked, "Is it that you just like every man related to He Xinyan or like He Xinyan?"

Shen Xiner's eyes widened, "You like He Xinyan?"

Yi Qiansi scoffed again, "That doesn't matter and you don't need to know. All you need to know is that I don't like you."

He glared at her before walking away and disappearing into his bedroom, locking the door behind him. He entered his room and took off the working boots he was wearing.

Then, he sat down on the bed and stared at the red bump on his toes for a long time.

Memories began coming back. Memories of when he was a kid, memories of when he was a teenager, and memories from not too long ago.

The color red encircled all the memories. The blood, the darkness, falling down an endless hole. . .

Yi Qiansi shook his head gently as he returned to reality, the cold frost that had covered his eyes disappearing.

He looked at the injury on his feet for a few seconds before he grinned softly. She was quite merciless, wasn't she?

He put on slippers, not caring about the injury, and walked over to the mirror.

He then stared at himself for several seconds with no expression on his face.

He was pretty sure that he did not like He Xinyan in a romantic way.

However, even if he were to like someone, it would definitely be more likely to be He Xinyan than Shen Xiner.

Because. . . Shen Xiner was too much like him.

She also lived in the darkness.

He Xinyan lived under the sunlight. . . something he has always longed for.

Yi Qiansi smiled mockingly before putting his hands into his pockets and turned around, walking away from his own reflection.

---

He Xinyan stayed inside her room for a long time, her mind sometimes blank, sometimes flooding with thoughts and images.

The mention of Gu Yechen seemed to break the dam in her mind. Now, it was flooding with depressing thoughts and emotions and possibilities.

They had just married. . . He couldn't be dead.

He Xinyan shook her head. She can't think like this! This was too much of a negative and depressing thought. She had to believe in him, believe in God, believe in life. . .

He was alive! He was definitely alive and was somewhere either recovering or looking for her!

He Xinyan smiled softly upon the positive thoughts and ran her fingers through her hair, taking a deep breath.

She shouldn't think so negatively! Their hearts were connected together! Wherever he was, she couldn't let him feel that she was thinking negatively!

Although this idea was a little dumb, He Xinyan still pushed all the negative thoughts away and forced herself to smile.

She had sat on the bed thinking about useless and negative things for more than half of the day already, and she looked at the dinner tray on the table.

She hadn't touched it yet and the food on it was cold already. However, she still picked it up and began eating.

When she finished, she stood up to walk around the room for a while before returning to the bed.

Just as she was about to go close the lights and go to sleep, the door suddenly opened.

Her expression darkened when she thought that it was Yi Qiansi, but to her surprise, it wasn't.

Instead, it was Shen Xiner.

And she had a knife in her hand.