Touying did follow, but as hardly an afterthought to the Empress, he kept to the shadows as he always did. Quiet, save for his rough breath, but there, and to anyone else, it seemed she was entirely alone.
He was shaking slightly when the scent of Shenlei reached him, and he stopped, keeping out of immediate eyesight.
She hadn't been alone, but Touying did not step forward to say that. He did not wish to disrupt the intimacy of the moment between emperor and empress.
Speaking Mandarin