Chapter Text
The Hostage Prince – Shadows of the Bond
The Night of Chains
The summons came at dusk.
Tantai Jin had learned to dread the rustle of silken sleeves at his cell door, the smirk of the guard as he hissed, “The Princess Consort requires you.”
His legs trembled as they dragged him to Ye Xiwu’s quarters. Lanterns burned bright, casting the chamber in crimson light—like a pit of hell.
Ye Xiwu reclined on her couch, eyes gleaming with cruel amusement. “My husband,” she drawled, her lips curling. “Come closer.”
He obeyed, because disobedience only led to worse.
Her fingers traced his face, nails scratching over fading bruises. “You wear suffering so well,” she whispered, before striking him sharply across the cheek. “But you can endure more, can’t you?”
What followed was torment without end. Every moment was calculated—humiliation layered upon agony, until he could not tell where his body ended and pain began. She laughed at his trembling, mocked his pleas, and when he finally collapsed, she ordered him thrown back into the cold corridor like refuse.
By the time night fell, Tantai Jin could not even walk. Yet some fragment of his broken will dragged him forward—crawling through the dark like a dying animal. His knees bled against stone, his palms scraped raw, but he did not stop.
He could only whisper one name in his mind...
The Crawling Refuge
Lingxuan had been waiting. The instant she saw his broken figure crawling toward the hidden chamber she used, her breath caught.
“Jin…”
He collapsed into her arms before she could finish. His body was burning with fever, trembling violently, his lips split and bleeding.
“Why—why do they keep—” His words broke into sobs, desperate, strangled. He clung to her with the wild strength of someone drowning. “Please, no more… I can’t, I can’t… Lingxuan, save me…”
Her hands shook as she held him, his blood seeping into her robes. She rocked him gently, whispering his name over and over, as if repeating it might anchor him to life.
But he could not stop begging. Each plea was a knife. “Please, don’t let her touch me again… please don’t leave me alone… I’ll do anything, just… just make it stop…”
He broke down in her arms, sobbing until his voice gave out, until the sound that escaped him was not human, only raw anguish.
Lingxuan could only cradle him tighter, her spiritual energy wrapping around him like a shield, though it could not erase the scars on his mind.
At last, exhaustion claimed him. He fell asleep against her shoulder, still gripping her hand like a lifeline.
But sleep did not bring peace.
Within moments, his body jerked violently, breath catching in terror. His lips moved, whispering broken fragment don’t...please...no....stop....
Lingxuan tried to soothe him, brushing his hair back, murmuring, “It’s over, you’re safe.”
Yet he woke again, gasping, eyes wild. He clutched at her like a man in chains, nails digging into her arms.
“They’re coming,” he whispered hoarsely. “I hear them....I can’t....please, don’t let them take me back...
Her heart shattered. She pulled him close, pressing his head against her chest. “No one will touch you here. No one. Not while I’m alive.”
But still, the nightmares tore at him. Again and again he woke, crying out, begging, his body curling into itself as though expecting blows.
Lingxuan held him through every tremor, every ragged sob, every haunted whisper. And when dawn broke, her robes were soaked with his tears, her arms numb from holding him all night.
Yet she did not let go.
Because in that broken, trembling boy was a spark,small, nearly extinguished, but still burning. And she swore she would guard it, no matter how much the world tried to crush him.