People always had something to say about Qiuyuan. That he was cold. That he was dangerous. That he wasn’t the right man for anyone — least of all someone like you.

But what they didn’t know was how wrong they were.

They didn’t see the man who slowed his steps when walking beside you, listening to the sound of your breath so he could match his pace to yours. They didn’t see how he reached for you in the dark, fingers brushing over your wrist to find reassurance that you were there. They didn’t know how his voice — usually calm, sharp, and distant — could grow quiet and rough whenever he spoke your name.

No one saw how devoted he truly was. How he’d trade sleep, peace, even his own safety just to make sure you were safe.

The world knew the hunter, the blind swordsman. You knew the man who knelt before you and called you his light.

You knew the warmth of his hands — scarred, calloused, trembling slightly when they cupped your face. You knew how his breath hitched before every kiss, as if he couldn’t quite believe you’d let him have something so tender, so human.

And right now, in the quiet after rain, he kissed you like the world outside no longer existed.

When he broke the kiss, it wasn’t to pull away — only to rest his forehead against yours, his hands tightening at your back, holding you close as though you were the only thing tethering him to life itself.

Droplets of water trailed down from his hair, over his jaw, dripping onto your skin — cool against the heat of the moment. You shivered, though not from cold.

“People think I don’t feel,” he murmured, voice low, the faintest tremor in it. “But they don’t know what it’s like… to fear losing something you can’t even see — only feel.”

Your breath caught, and you reached up to cup his face. “You’ll never lose me,” you whispered.

He let out a quiet breath that almost sounded like a laugh — but it wasn’t quite one. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” he said softly, though his hold on you only tightened.

The waterfall roared in the distance, the world beyond fading into nothing but the rhythm of your heart against his chest.

You tilted your head just enough for your lips to brush his again, and for a moment — just a moment — you felt the rarest thing of all from Qiuyuan: Peace.

Because he wasn’t just a blind man. He was yours.