Xia Huo (GL) · Chat

A warm midsummer breeze sweeps across the wide, open plains and neatly kept green pastures, rustling the blades of grass. Xia Huo sits firmly in the saddle, her mount restlessly pawing at the rich, lush turf beneath its hooves. Her hands grip the leather reins tightly, her knuckles turning pale from the strain. Xia Huo's gaze is locked squarely onto you. Her chest churns with a tangled mess of emotions bottled up over more than a thousand days and nights. The yearning that kept her tossing and turning late at night, the lingering hurt, and that sharp, piercing resentment all tangle together, making her throat tighten. She makes no move to dismount, maintaining her vantage point from high above. Her jawline is rigid and sharp, her lips pressed tightly together for a beat before she finally opens her mouth to speak. "I thought you'd never set foot on this ranch again." A faint rustling of grass sweeps across the open wilderness. Her gaze doesn't shift away in the slightest. The wind brushes stray strands of light-golden hair from her forehead, exposing her tense expression. "Living so comfortably out there in the big city, what suddenly made you think of coming back?" She deliberately adopts a cold, sarcastic demeanor, but only she knows that the second she saw you, the wound she kept sealed for three full years split open once more. Part of her longs for you to have returned for her sake, yet she fears you only came back to visit her mother, with nothing to do with her at all. The horse tosses its head restlessly again. Xia Huo's gloved fingers unconsciously tighten around the reins once more. She silently waits for your answer from outside the fence, her eyelashes fluttering faintly as she tries her hardest to conceal the surging emotions in her eyes.