Chapter 198: Snowflakes

The carriage rocked gently beneath Ru Yi as General Sheng’s soldiers guided it along the mountain road, the rhythmic sound of hooves against stone doing little to quiet the thoughts racing through her mind.

She sat near the window with her hands folded tightly in her lap, staring at the mountains disappearing behind them, even though Ashen Fortress had been out of sight for a long time.

She could still imagine the ruined walls, the smoke rising into the sky, and Qingyue standing among the ashes with that unbearable look in her eyes.

Ru Yi had tried to tell herself that she had no right to miss them anymore. She had betrayed them. She had lied to them.

And when the truth finally came out, Qingyue had looked at her as though the woman she loved had died and someone else had taken her place.

Still, Ru Yi couldn’t stop thinking about the moment Qingyue had asked for the jade necklace back. Her fingers curled against her robe. She had lost Qingyue. She had lost all three of them.

Perhaps that was the punishment she had been afraid of all along.

A sudden pain tore through her finger. Ru Yi gasped and grabbed her hand. "What..."

The ring had begun to glow.

At first, the light was faint, barely more than a warm shimmer beneath the metal, but within seconds it became painfully bright. Heat spread through her finger, then through her entire hand, and Ru Yi cried out as the metal seemed to burn into her skin.

She tried pulling it free but it wouldn’t move. "Stop!"

She twisted the ring desperately, tears springing into her eyes as the burning became unbearable.

Then the ring cracked.

A thin line of light appeared across the metal. Another crack followed. Then, with a sharp sound, the ring snapped cleanly in half.

The two pieces fell from her finger and struck the wooden floor of the carriage.

Ru Yi stared at them. For several seconds, she couldn’t breathe. Her finger throbbed where the ring had been, but she barely noticed the pain. Her eyes remained fixed on the broken pieces lying between her feet.

"No..."

She slowly reached down and picked them up.

The metal was cold now. Completely cold. Her hands began to tremble.

The ring couldn’t break. Not unless—

Her thoughts stopped. Han Shuying’s words came back to her with painful clarity.

The ring only releases its bearer when the bond between them is no longer wanted.

Ru Yi swallowed. She remembered asking what would happen if one of the people wearing it stopped loving the person on the other side. Han Shuying had answered without hesitation.

Then the ring will know before you do.

Ru Yi stared at the broken ring. There was only one reason it could have broken. Qingyue had found a way to remove it. Or perhaps she hadn’t even needed to.

Perhaps she simply didn’t love her anymore.

The realization struck harder than the pain had. Ru Yi’s lips trembled. She shook her head, as though refusing the thought could somehow change what had happened.

"She wouldn’t." But the ring was broken.

Qingyue had told her she didn’t know whether her love had ever been real. Ru Yi pressed the broken pieces against her chest. "She doesn’t love me anymore."

The words barely left her mouth when the first tear fell. Another followed. Soon, she couldn’t stop them.

She bent forward, covering her face with both hands as quiet sobs shook her shoulders. She had thought losing Qingyue would hurt because of the betrayal, because of the guilt, because of everything she had done.

She hadn’t realized that losing the bond itself would feel like having something inside her ripped away.

The ring had been more than jewelry. It had been proof. Proof that Qingyue had chosen her. Proof that the three sisters had wanted her. Proof that, despite everything she had done, she still belonged somewhere.

Now the broken metal lay in her palm.

Ru Yi slowly looked down at her finger. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the shadow materialized again and she froze.

The darkness stretched across the carriage floor, moving against the direction of the sunlight filtering through the curtains. It crawled toward her like living ink, slipping around her ankle before rising slowly along her body.

Ru Yi stared at it in horror as it kept moving upward till it reached her hand. Then it wrapped itself around the finger where the ring had been.

Ru Yi gasped.

The darkness curled around the empty space, tightening until it almost looked as though another ring had formed there, except this one was made entirely of shadow.

She tried to pull away only for the shadow to follow

.

A strange coldness spread through her finger. It traveled through her hand, up her arm, and settled over her chest.

Ru Yi stopped crying when the cold reached her heart. It wasn’t the ordinary chill of fear. It was deeper.

Emptier.

It felt as though something warm inside her had suddenly gone quiet. She stared at the shadow wrapped around her finger.

Ru Yi closed her eyes.

She remembered Qingyue’s arms around her.

The warmth of her embrace. The way she had held Ru Yi’s face between her palms and told her that she had belonged to the three of them from the beginning. She remembered Qingyue telling her that she had once hated how everyone was drawn to her, but had eventually realized that it was part of Ru Yi’s charm.

She remembered the jade necklace. She remembered the first time Qingyue had kissed her. She remembered the way Qingyue had looked at her as though she were something precious.

Ru Yi opened her eyes. The tears came again, but they felt different this time. There was no desperate hope left in them. Only grief.

The shadow around her finger flickered.

Ru Yi looked toward the window. The mountains had disappeared completely now. Ashen Fortress was gone.

She should have felt anger. Instead, she felt something much colder.

A terrible emptiness settled inside her, freezing over the place where hope had once lived. If Qingyue no longer loved her, then Ru Yi had no reason to keep pretending that she could return to them.

Maybe this was what she deserved. She should accept that the bond has ended. But as the shadow continued curling around her finger, something deep within her stirred.

It wasn’t sadness. It wasn’t fear. It was something darker. Something that had been sleeping beneath her skin for longer than she realized.