Ying Qi bowed her head heavily towards the ground: "It is Ying Qi's honor to share the worries of Her Highness the Eldest Princess."
She bowed so earnestly that her forehead struck the white jade-paved ground with a clear sound.
Gu Shengyin felt a headache just listening to it.
But the necessary words still had to be said.
"Ying Qi, I set you free, how about it?"
Ying Qi suddenly raised her head.
Gu Shengyin wasn't offended by her abruptness, and continued, "You can leave this place, find a small town where no one knows you, and live your own life. No longer need to live for others."
Ying Qi was silent.
She was moved.
It was impossible not to be moved.
Only those who had been a stand-in would know how despairing it was.
Forever shrinking in someone else's shadow, unseen, unknown, and unremembered by others.
They exist in this world without even a witness.
Always hidden from the light.
