"Later on, whenever I returned from the war, I would go see her dance the sacrificial ritual.
"Her sacrificial dance increasingly gave me energy."
At this point, Chu Yichen suddenly stopped talking.
He thought of how he had fallen for her and how the king had looked for him in private to tell him that she would be his queen, asking him to control his heart.
After so many years, he still remembered how he had felt at that time. That gloom, that indignation, and finally seeing her smile like a child in front of the king.
At that time, he knew that he couldn't give her such a smile.
So he chose to back off. He hadn't said a word to her since.
It wasn't that he didn't want to talk to her, but he was afraid that the moment he opened his mouth, the affection he had concealed would be exposed.
It was because of his crush on her that Feng Lan used him later on.
If he hadn't been trapped or fallen unconscious in that battle…