Fake Daughter Is the Real Legend novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Last Night

Twenty-three days went by in dressings and muster rolls.

On the last night of her sentence, Ruyun walked into the commander's tent without being sent for.

Shen Zhuo was standing at the table with his left arm still bound across his chest.

He had been writing, and he put the brush down.

"It is past midnight," he said. "You should be asleep."

"I have been awake for three years."

She pulled the flap shut behind her.

The brazier threw a low red light across the felt walls and the table and the scar through his eyebrow.

"You watched," she said.

He did not need to ask when.

"Yes."

"You counted every stroke. I saw your lips move."

"Yes."

"You could have stopped it by raising a hand."

"I hung on that post with my back open, and I thought, he is the only person here who can help me."

"He is standing there with his arms folded."

"Ruyun."

"I forgave it in the ice hole. I forgave it again when you put your hand on my ankle and looked at the stove." Her voice shook and she let it. "I have never said it out loud, and I am going to. It was the worst thing anyone did to me in this camp, and it was you."

He took it without lowering his eyes.

"The quartermaster would have written to your mother within the week that the Commander favored you," he said. "She would have written to the Marquis. The Marquis would have sent you somewhere I could not follow. I chose ten lashes you could live through over a camp you could not."

"You chose for me."

"Yes."

"And you have helped me since because of a promise to a princess."

"At the start."

"And now?"

He was quiet for as long as it took the brazier to settle.

"I am not going to tell you tonight," he said. "In the morning you walk out of that gate and you owe me nothing. I will not have you leave because of something I said in the dark."

She crossed the tent in four steps.

"No one in your camp is owed anything," she said. "You told me that on the first day."

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