That night, Shen Yuheng dismissed Qingmo earlier than usual.

The courtyard settled into silence.

A thin moon hung above the roof tiles. Bamboo shadows swayed over the window paper, long and narrow like ink strokes. Shen Yuheng sat beneath a lamp, a book open before him, though he had not turned the page for some time.

The system suddenly spoke.

【Unidentified presence approaching from eastern wall.】

【Movement pattern: trained martial individual.】

【Killing intent: none.】

【Danger level: low.】

Shen Yuheng lowered his eyes.  A moment later, someone knocked on the window. Once. Then again. Polite, restrained, and entirely improper.

Shen Yuheng looked toward the window.

“Who?”

A low voice answered from outside. “Xiao Jingyuan.”

The seventh prince had climbed over a wall and announced himself outside his future spouse’s window. Shen Yuheng almost smiled. He rose and opened the window. Xiao Jingyuan stood outside beneath the moonlight.

He had changed into dark narrow-sleeved clothes. Without formal court robes, the lines of his body looked even sharper. Tall, broad-shouldered, sun-hardened, with eyes that seemed to carry the cold discipline of the northern border. Yet at this moment, standing outside Shen Yuheng’s window, he also looked faintly stiff.

Like a man who could break through an enemy formation but did not know how to begin a private conversation.

Shen Yuheng looked at him calmly.

“Your Highness climbs walls?”

Xiao Jingyuan paused.

“The main gate would alarm your household.”

“So Your Highness chose to alarm me instead?”

“I knocked.”

Shen Yuheng looked at him for a moment. Then the curve of his lips deepened slightly. Xiao Jingyuan’s gaze fixed on that smile.

At the banquet, Shen Yuheng had been beautiful enough to make the hall forget etiquette. Under the moonlight, with his hair loosened and his robe simple, he seemed less like an immortal in a painting and more like a living person who might truly be touched by warmth.

That made him even more difficult to resist.

Shen Yuheng stepped aside.

“Come in. Unless Your Highness wishes to discuss a bestowed marriage while standing outside my window.”

Xiao Jingyuan entered.

He moved silently and carefully, avoiding the flower stand, the low table, and the half-drawn screen. Once inside, he did not come too close. He stood at a proper distance, hands lowered, posture straight.

Shen Yuheng closed the window.

The room became intimate in its quietness.

Xiao Jingyuan had prepared words before coming.

He had arranged them clearly: apology, explanation, promise, then retreat if Shen Yuheng refused. It had seemed manageable on the way here.

Now, facing Shen Yuheng beneath the lamp, those words scattered like troops startled by night arrows.

He was too beautiful. But more than that, he was too calm. Xiao Jingyuan felt, with strange certainty, that if he lied, Shen Yuheng would know. So he chose the simplest truth.

“I came to ask whether you are willing.”

Shen Yuheng’s expression changed faintly.

"The marriage was requested by me," Xiao Jingyuan continued. "Imperial Father will likely bestow it. Your father will not refuse. But if you refuse, I will find a way."

"Find a way," Shen Yuheng repeated.

"Yes."

"Against an imperial decree?"

A pause. "If the decree has not been issued, I will beg Imperial Father to withdraw it. If it has, I will find a way to delay and dissolve it without touching your reputation."

Xiao Jingyuan was silent for a moment.

“If the decree has not been issued, I will beg Imperial Father to withdraw it. If it has been issued, I will still find a way to delay and dissolve it without damaging your reputation.”

There was no elegance in that, no softening nor flattery. Every word was said as it was.

Shen Yuheng had heard polished promises across two lives. The more beautiful they were, the more carefully one had to look for what was inside them. Xiao Jingyuan's words had nothing inside them but the words. That made them more dangerous.

“Why?” Shen Yuheng asked. “Why did Your Highness request this marriage?”

Xiao Jingyuan looked at him.

“Because I was captivated.”

Shen Yuheng paused.

The answer was so direct that even he did not immediately respond.

Xiao Jingyuan realized, a breath too late, that the wording was improper. His ears reddened faintly, but his eyes did not move away.

“At the banquet, I saw you and could not look away. That is true,” he said. “But it was not only because of your appearance.”

Shen Yuheng sat down beside the table.

“Then because of what?”

Xiao Jingyuan remained standing.

“I had a dream before returning to Tianjing.”

The room quieted.

Shen Yuheng’s fingers rested lightly on his sleeve.

Xiao Jingyuan spoke slowly.

“In the dream, I saw a strange world. Buildings made of metal. A sky torn open. A war I could not understand. Monsters with black limbs, like blades.”

Shen Yuheng’s gaze stilled.

Xiao Jingyuan saw it and continued, voice lower.

“There were civilians fleeing through a passage. You stood at the end of it. Older than now. Injured. Wearing white, though your cloak was torn and covered in blood.”

The lamp flame moved once.

Outside, bamboo leaves whispered against the wall.

Xiao Jingyuan said, “There was a strange light near you. It seemed to be speaking. I could not understand it. But I knew you were buying time for the people behind you.”

His throat tightened slightly.

“I also knew you would die.”

For the first time since Shen Yuheng had woken in this world, someone named his death under those other stars.

The Third Civilian Shelter. The Zerg swarm. The defense grid failing in sequence, the transport pulling away with the last of the civilians. Those things belonged to another sky, another body of time.

Xiao Jingyuan had seen them.

Shen Yuheng lowered his eyes.

“Your Highness believes that person was me?”

“Yes.”

“Even though I am Shen Yuheng of the Shen House of Rites?”

“Yes.”

“Even though such a dream is absurd?”

Xiao Jingyuan said, “I have guarded the border for four years. I have seen men die from wounds no physician believed they could survive, and watched storms change the outcome of battles more cleanly than strategy. Heaven has never been as narrow as court scholars claim.”

Shen Yuheng’s lips curved faintly. It was a practical answer yet unexpectedly comforting.

He looked at Xiao Jingyuan for a long while, then asked, “If someone died in one world and woke in another body almost the same as himself, with the same name, the same appearance, the same will, the same instincts, and memories that entered him as naturally as his own… would he still be himself?”

Xiao Jingyuan did not rush to answer.

He looked at Shen Yuheng carefully.

His eyes held not with fear, not with greed, not with the bright excitement of someone discovering a useful secret. He looked as though the answer mattered because Shen Yuheng mattered.

After a moment, he said, “Yes.”

Shen Yuheng’s lashes trembled slightly.

Xiao Jingyuan continued, “If his will remains his own, if his memories do not erase his heart, if he still chooses, remembers, suffers, protects, and lives, then he is himself.”

He paused, his voice becoming quieter.

“And such a life should be cherished.”

Shen Yuheng did not speak.

The original body’s memories rested inside him like a second heartbeat. The interstellar past had not faded. The Zerg attack was still real and Shen Lanyin’s death was also real. The loneliness he felt in the Shen courtyard was real and the years of command training beneath artificial stars were real. Both were suffocating and his. He had accepted both lives, but acceptance was not the same as being believed. He too didn't realise how much he needed someone to believe him, to know this secret, for this burden to lessern. For a brief moment, something beneath his restraint loosened.

“Your Highness is not afraid?”

“Of you?” Xiao Jingyuan asked.

“Of what I said.”

Xiao Jingyuan frowned slightly. “I came to your window after dreaming of you dying under strange stars. If I were afraid, I would not be here.”

The answer was blunt enough to be almost amusing.

Shen Yuheng finally smiled.

This time, the smile reached his eyes.

Xiao Jingyuan felt his breath catch.

At that moment, the system’s voice sounded in Shen Yuheng’s mind.

【Rare resonance material detected within close range.】

【Source: object at Xiao Jingyuan’s waist.】

【Material compatibility with auxiliary contract: 91.4%.】

【Limited partner contract available.】

Shen Yuheng’s gaze shifted.

Xiao Jingyuan noticed at once. “What is it?”

“Your pendant,” Shen Yuheng said.

Xiao Jingyuan looked down.

At his waist hung a dark blue jade-like pendant, nearly black beneath lamplight, carved with the shape of a coiled beast. The material was not ordinary jade. It carried a faint chill and a subtle energy fluctuation that the system had clearly recognized.

“Where did it come from?” Shen Yuheng asked.

“A collapsed watchtower near the northern border,” Xiao Jingyuan said. “I found it when I was fifteen. It blocked an arrow for me once, so I kept it.”

Shen Yuheng was silent for a moment. Then he looked at Xiao Jingyuan and made a decision.

“Your Highness, do you remember the strange light in your dream?”

“Yes.”

“It was not a ghost or a divine omen.” Shen Yuheng’s voice was calm. “It is my system. In my former era, it was a personal intelligent assistant. Mine followed me here.”

Xiao Jingyuan absorbed this with admirable steadiness.

Most people would have suspected possession, madness, or sorcery.

He only asked, “It can speak to you?”

“Yes.”

“Can it harm you?”

“No.”

“Can it protect you?”

“Yes.”

Xiao Jingyuan’s shoulders relaxed slightly.

Shen Yuheng noticed. His first concern was not whether the system could be used. It was whether the system would harm him. That realization softened Shen Yuheng further.

He continued, “It can detect poison, assess danger, analyze documents, provide medicine from storage, and assist with emergency treatment. It is useful, but not omnipotent.”

Xiao Jingyuan nodded seriously. “That is already powerful.”

“It has detected rare material on Your Highness’s pendant. With it, I can share limited system permissions with you.”

“What permissions?”

“Poison detection, danger-level analysis, important document scanning, route warnings, basic health checks for yourself and, in the future, children if we have them. Also limited emergency suggestions.”

Xiao Jingyuan listened carefully.

“If Your Highness betrays me, the system will erase system-related memories, lock your permissions, and trigger protection protocols.”

Xiao Jingyuan did not hesitate.

“Good.”

Shen Yuheng looked up.

Xiao Jingyuan said, “If I betray you, I should not be allowed to keep your secrets.”

For a moment, Shen Yuheng had nothing to say.

Then he laughed softly. The sound was light, almost inaudible, but it struck Xiao Jingyuan with more force than the emperor’s praise after a victorious battle.

“Your Highness,” Shen Yuheng said, “you make it difficult for me to remain cautious.”

Xiao Jingyuan’s gaze softened.

“I do not want you to stop being cautious. I only hope that one day, when you are tired of guarding against everyone else, you may rest beside me for a while.”

Shen Yuheng’s smile faded. He wasn't displeased rather he was touched too unexpectedly.

In the interstellar era, he had been trained to lead, endure, calculate, and survive. In the Shen household, he had learned to bow without surrendering and suffer without breaking. No one had ever told him that caution could remain, but rest might still be allowed.After a long moment, he extended his hand.

“System. Begin auxiliary contract evaluation.”

【User intent confirmed.】

【Target: Xiao Jingyuan.】

【Rare resonance material stable.】

【Auxiliary contract available.】

【Permissions restricted. Protection protocols active.】

【Proceed?】

“Proceed.”

A faint silver light unfolded from Shen Yuheng’s fingertips.

It was subtle, almost like moonlight given shape. It touched the pendant at Xiao Jingyuan’s waist, circled once, then flowed upward toward his wrist.

Xiao Jingyuan’s pupils contracted.

The silver light sank into his skin.

【Auxiliary contract established.】

【Available functions: poison detection, danger assessment, document scan, route warning, emergency health check, limited optimal-solution suggestions.】

Then a crisp mechanical voice sounded in Xiao Jingyuan’s mind.

【Auxiliary user Xiao Jingyuan, contract established.】

Xiao Jingyuan went still. For the first time that night, his dignified expression cracked.

Shen Yuheng watched him with faint amusement.

“Your Highness?”

Xiao Jingyuan slowly looked at him.

“It speaks very directly.”

【Correction: communication efficiency is optimized.】

Xiao Jingyuan’s eyes sharpened.

“It heard me?”

Shen Yuheng said, “It hears what I allow it to hear.”

【Auxiliary contract context active.】

Shen Yuheng pressed two fingers lightly against his brow.

“Occasionally, it also likes to defend itself.”

Xiao Jingyuan looked between him and the empty air.

Then, unexpectedly, he smiled.

It was a small smile, but it changed his whole face.

The cold battle prince suddenly looked nineteen. Still sharp, still disciplined, still dangerous, but young enough to be pleased by a shared secret.

Shen Yuheng looked at him for a breath longer than necessary.

The system said calmly in his mind:

【User emotional fluctuation detected.】

Shen Yuheng ignored it.

Xiao Jingyuan looked at the cup on the table, then at Shen Yuheng.

“Ten days is hurried,” he said. “But four months gives your household too much time. Six months gives other people too many chances.”

“So Your Highness chose the soonest date for political reasons?”

“For that reason,” Xiao Jingyuan admitted.

Then he added, “And because I wanted to marry you sooner.”

Shen Yuheng’s fingers paused on his sleeve. He turned his face slightly, and the lamplight caught the faint warmth near his ear.

Xiao Jingyuan saw it. His gaze darkened softly, but he did not step closer although he wanted to.