She was not a cow, so eating raw lettuce meant nothing to her. Besides, how could this be compared to fruit? It was a vegetable. She liked it when it was cooked, but biting into it like fruit was unacceptable.
She refused to eat it, so Indigo finished it in a few bites and crossed lettuce off her usual diet.
"Aren't you afraid I might leave and never come back?" Aenwyn suddenly asked.
"You want to back out?"
"No, that's not what I mean," Aenwyn explained.
"I didn't come here through normal means. Aren't you worried I might suddenly return home?" She reminded him that her arrival had been anything but normal.
So that was what she meant. Indigo lay back down again. The spot where he rested was covered with a thin layer of grass. He bent his long legs, looking relaxed and at ease.
"Fate brought you here safely, that's destiny," he said, his tone light, his voice slightly hoarse.
"You won't be able to go back," he said with certainty.
The others who had come with her that day had worn similar clothing, but only she had survived unharmed. That was a miracle. And miracles might happen once, but how could they happen to the same person twice?
Even if she could go back, he would not allow it. Indigo pressed his lips together stubbornly.
Aenwyn, now full, also lay beside him. "When I came here, our sky was filled with glowing colors, red, blue, purple, green, light rippling like flowing water, ever-changing, mysterious, dazzling."
She used her hands to trace lines in the air.
"I really want to see such a sight," Indigo said.
"That's the aurora. It brought me here. You've never seen it in Ketaal?"
He shook his head. "Never heard of it." Her very appearance was a miracle, a gift sent from the heavens.
He stretched out his arm, pulling her into his embrace, his voice gentle. "I brought you here today because we'll be leaving soon. I wanted you to see it one last time. After this, you might never have the chance again."
"Where are we going?" Aenwyn asked.
"To the capital," said Indigo.
The capital, huh? That was fine. She had no real home here anyway. The whole world could be her home. Traveling and roaming suited her perfectly.
She had already planned that if this journey yielded nothing, she would wander the world.
Aenwyn leaned on his shoulder in thought. From a distance came the sound of galloping hooves. Clouds of dust rose with the horses. Through the blowing sand, they saw a group of riders approaching.
"Haozhou, what brings you out horse riding today?" someone laughed from horseback. It was Haozhou, followed by a group of men.
His gaze briefly swept over Aenwyn, but in his eyes, the glance burned with fire. Then he looked away.
"Indigo, what a coincidence," said Wen Shan, stepping forward to greet them. He had come too.
But there were no real coincidences. Haozhou had heard Indigo took someone out and came specifically to find them, or rather, to find her.
He might be crazy, but he had an instinct like a wild dog, always spot on. How could a woman like her show up in his territory and not leave some trace?
He had already brushed past her a few times.
His eyes landed on her windproof mask, full of surprise and certainty.
To explain how Haozhou discovered Aenwyn, we must start with Zhu Liu. When Haozhou had been under house arrest, his subordinates came with the monthly tribute silver.
He allowed his men to collect head taxes and forced commoners into servitude for spare cash. It was small-time stuff, but when balancing the books, they mentioned they had their eyes on a poor boy, only for the boy to suddenly pull out the money at the last minute.
Curious, his men investigated and found out that the boy had sold someone to the Spring Breeze Courtyard.
Soon after, word spread that women were being auctioned there.
It was big news. His men told Haozhou immediately. Then Wen Shan said Indigo had a pretty boy hidden outside the city.
That made Haozhou suspicious.
He matched Zhu Liu's address, Qionghua Alley, with the place where he had lost track of someone at the Indigo residence gate.
Could Haozhou dare to guess that the person he had chased that day had been a woman? That Indigo had used a boy as a cover to hide the woman in his home?
It all made more sense now. Indigo had been far too easygoing that day, letting him see the person right away.
Normally, Indigo hated those pretty-boy types, never liked the south wind crowd. Then one day, he paid a fortune just for a smile, showering that person with affection.
Even at the auction, he had come and disappeared fast, and then some capital brat got ambushed.
Piece by piece, it all added up. When his father left the house, he forced Wen Shan to lead a group to follow them.
He wanted to confirm everything himself.
Now, seeing with his own eyes that the person he had once chased was standing next to Indigo, wearing that odd mask and carrying the same bag,
He was shocked and overjoyed.