The Discarded Heiress is Untouchable

," Qingyu

ridor were closer now, slow and unhurried, th

the des

led into the deep, dark hollow beneath it. It was a space she knew in her bones. She had hidden there from nursemaids and tutors, from thunderstorms and from bad d

mp cli

ue could see a narrow strip of the room through the gap between the chair and the desk's side

ainst hers, his breath warm against her temple, his arm braced against the desk's far wall to keep from to

lotter, a child's crayon horses galloped

ew he had seen them. She closed her eye

e begged silently. Ple

s in the dark and curled around them, firm and war

eld o

e could see the hem of a pale coat, and below it, a pair of narrow shoes. Th

on lacquer. A faint, sweet scent drifted down

mach ti

ft, tired sound. Then she spo

ndfa

whole body

s her

le at the back of the throat when she was trying not to cry. It was the voice she had heard in recordings of herself at nineteen, at twenty,

t," the woman said. "I came

pa

itself. "Not like that. Softer. She br

gainst her mouth so hard t

again, and this time, horribly, the voice cra

ter laugh.

esk began to spin. Beside her, Yuhan's hand left hers and moved to cover her mouth, gently, firmly, his palm

id down her face and s

s she sat in the old man's seat. Her shoes rested a few inches

n murmured, almost to herself. "While it

h

's eyes

red, tinged with something that might have been fear. "Only until she says it's time.

oss the chessboard with

d man," the wo

s shoulder. His face, six inches f

nders

walks through the tower. The empty safe. The small, narrow footprints. The note on the screen. Someone was k

her name on the shares her grandfather had left to his heir. A girl who could s

ding under a desk with a st

eaked as the

ir of pale leather flats, and then the hem of a cream silk dress, and the edge of a scarf

rf sh

s heart

long one edge, neatly mended. And at the corner, catch

her's

the morning of the day Old Qin had co

ss the little gap in the dark, across the toe of Qingyue's s

e's seen us.

and her hands found

lid down and floated to the floor, and the lamplight spille

the gap in the desk, an

he eyebrows lifted at the inner corners when the expression was sad. Every line, ever

her o