A Forbidden Happiness

Chapter 40

It was like nothing, and everything had changed at the same time. But now, their smiles were sweeter, and their hands closer. Jiayi and Prince Han laughed and talked and ignored how their time together was dwindling day by day.

Jiayi was beside herself. Prince Han liked her.

Prince Han, who had traveled far and wide and met all sorts of beauties, still chose her. And he said he would wait for her to be better. Perhaps Jiayi's name wasn't some sort of joke. Maybe she was allowed to be lucky.

Maybe she was allowed to be happy.

At least for a little while.

Jiayi wasn't stupid. What she and Prince Han had wouldn't be forever. How could it? When His Majesty decided it was time, Prince Han would marry a nice gêgê from a good clan and move into a Prince's manor in the capital. Jiayi couldn't possibly go with him. But the more she thought of it, the more she didn't care. From the moment she was born, her life was not her own. She went from being someone's daughter to His Majesty's slave to Xiang pin's maid. The leash around her neck was passed from master to master. Why couldn't she hand that leash to someone of her choosing?

Even when it ended, and Prince Han forgot about her or she was given away to some stranger, she would have something that sometimes noblewomen never got.

Memories of a lover. Even if she and Prince Han did nothing more than hold hands, Jiayi would hold on to the memory like the sky held the sun.

"Furen, are you ready to go?"

Jiayi blinked. She was so deep in her thoughts that she had been digging through her chest mindlessly for some time.

"Sang'er," she scolded, "I told you to stop calling me that,"

Sang'er slipped inside, a wide smile on his face, "How can I call you by your name now? His lordship will have my head, furen. Now, are you ready? Prince Han is waiting,"

Neither Sang'er nor Chang daren seemed very surprised by the development between her and Prince Han. Chang daren sheepishly admitted that he assumed there was something between them from the start, which was mildly embarrassing.

Jiayi returned to unearthing the hairpin Prince Han slid into her hair when he first arrived at the inn. She tucked the jewelry into her hair and tied on her cape.

"Let's go,"

Prince Han was in the inn's waiting area, looking ever more like the prince he was, even in his nobleman costume. He was steadfastly ignoring Chang daren, who was making conversation with the inn owner's wife. As he saw her, his face changed very little, but his eyes twinkled with the sort of warmth that made Jiayi's face burn red.

"Thank goodness," he murmured, "Any longer, and my ear would've fallen off,"

Jiayi smiled, "He's just friendly," she replied.

As they stepped out into the bustling streets, Jiayi couldn't help but feel a sense of surrealism wash over her. She and Prince Han were walking side by side, like equals, like lovers. It made her ecstatic. It made her nervous.

"What's your favorite color?" She blurted out.

"Oh," he said, tilting his head from side to side as he thought, "Black,"

Chang daren snorted from a few paces behind them.

"Really?" Jiayi asked.

Prince Han glared at Chang daren before turning back to her, "It's elegant. You can make it flashy with a good hand, and it doesn't show blood,"