The moment Xiao Nanhui left everyone’s line of sight, she broke into a full sprint.
She had never run with this kind of effort anywhere but a battlefield, but though what lay before her was an expanse of empty air without a soul in sight, she felt that somewhere within it was the answer she had been searching for so long.
The clamor of the guests was quickly left behind. The long covered walkway went straight ahead first, then after turning a bend abruptly split into three directions.
Xiao Nanhui caught her breath, standing at the fork and looking around. Every walkway curved and wound without end in sight. The sky all around was gradually darkening, and the rockeries and planted landscaping that had been clearly defined in daylight began to blur and magnify as they grew indistinct. What had seemed a hodgepodge of low walls and decorative screens were now all joined together into one — like a delicate cage trapping her within.
Trees dense and grass tall, walls enclosing in layer after layer, with no path out in sight.
The traditional garden design of great noble houses had been brought to its fullest expression in the Xuanyuan Prince’s Mansion.
Xiao Nanhui crouched down and pressed close to the ground, observing the marks on the surface.
During the blessing ceremony just now, the geomancer had burned quite a number of paper talismans. Those who had been standing nearby would inevitably have had some of the paper ash land on them — small as it was, it was not entirely without a trace.
She observed for a while, then rose and set off down the leftmost covered walkway.
The last time, she had also taken the left-hand path.
Xiao Nanhui’s steps faltered, startled by the thought that had suddenly surfaced in her mind.
The last time — that was at the separate palace in Jiaosong County.
She forced herself not to let her mind wander, but the more she forced it the less she could manage. Bizarre, disjointed fragments swarmed into her mind like a hive of bees. The stench of corpses and the strange sweet fragrance she had smelled at the datura flower garden; the body lying quietly on the stone platform inside Jingbo Tower; and those inferences about returning from death…
Not far away, a few homeward-bound sparrows burst up fluttering from the grass. Xiao Nanhui’s hair stood on end, and a cold sweat seeped out on her back.
The temperature all around fell as the sun sank lower. The night wind carried a trace of coolness brushing across the fine down on her face, and she felt as though every pore’s sensitivity had been magnified in this moment — the faintest breath of wind or rustle of grass was enough to trigger a storm.
Click.
A sound came suddenly from the left rear. Xiao Nanhui spun sharply and instinctively reached for the dagger at her waist.
But she had forgotten — upon entering the Prince’s Mansion, as per protocol, no weapons were permitted, and her dagger had been left at the gatehouse.
In the dimness, she stared tensely toward the source of the sound.
“Who’s there?”
Xiao Nanhui narrowed her eyes and saw a small serving girl with her hair in twin buns coming out from behind a nearby pillar of the covered walkway, cradling a bundle of freshly gathered flowers in her arms, an oil lamp hanging from her wrist, looking at her with a timid, cautious gaze.
She quietly let out her breath, and looked around in all directions.
“Excuse me, where is this? I’ve gotten a little lost.”
The small serving girl hesitated for a moment, then said softly:
“Going a bit further ahead leads to the direction of the ancestral hall — outsiders are not permitted in.”
The ancestral hall? Was the Prince’s Mansion’s ancestral hall not ordinarily located near the main rooms? Why would it be out here in a place like this?
Xiao Nanhui paused and continued to ask:
“Did you happen to see someone pass by here? He was wearing a brown cloak—”
“Is the young lady speaking of Master Zong?” The small serving girl smiled shyly, the flower branches she was cradling trembling a little with each word. “After the blessing ceremony is concluded, the officiant must return to the ancestral hall to burn incense. It will be quite a long while before he comes out.”
“How long is ‘quite a long while’?” Xiao Nanhui was getting anxious. “I have something I would like to ask his guidance on — could I ask you to pass on my request? If that is not convenient, I will wait for him here.”
“Your servant is only one of the rear courtyard people — I don’t know about such things.” The small serving girl bowed her head and adjusted the wick of the oil lamp in her hand. The lamp flickered and finally brightened. “However, this is not a place where outsiders are normally allowed to linger. Let your servant take the young lady somewhere else to wait.”
Xiao Nanhui hesitated for a moment, then nodded.
“All right.”
In the long covered walkway, two figures moved one behind the other.
Creak, creak.
A swaying oil lamp rocked along with those two figures, casting a small patch of shifting light on the ground. Beyond that, the darkness all around was an unbroken swathe.
Xiao Nanhui kept a silent count of the route in her mind, not daring to take her eyes off the twin-bunned figure walking ahead.
The sky all around grew darker and darker. She could not make out any of the scenery beyond the covered walkway, nor could she make out the patterns carved into the corridor pillars. She could only memorize the sequence of turns at each fork in the path.
Was this Xuanyuan Prince’s Mansion truly so stingy that they could not even light the lamps once night came?
Xiao Nanhui was cursing inwardly when the person walking ahead of her abruptly slowed her steps.
“We’re here.”
She walked a few more steps forward, and a faint, barely-there floral fragrance drifted past her nose. She let out a heavy sneeze, and her gaze fell on the flower branches in the small serving girl’s hand.
It was a cluster of pale white flowers with a touch of pale yellow, looking like ordinary forsythia and winter jasmine. By rights their fragrance should be far subtler than the gardenias and peonies at Yaoyi’s place — so why was it so pungent and overwhelming?
Perhaps it was from having inhaled too much pollen in Lady Bo’s side courtyard earlier, and only now was it taking full effect.
Xiao Nanhui rubbed her nose and took stock of the courtyard at the end of the covered walkway.
Four-square, clean and tidy, with nothing particularly noteworthy about it.
“What is this place?”
The small serving girl pushed open the door of the central room and gestured for Xiao Nanhui to go inside.
“It’s where the little master’s wet nurse used to live. It has been vacant for a long time now. The path from the ancestral hall necessarily passes through here — the young lady won’t miss the person she’s waiting for.”
Xiao Nanhui looked at the pitch-dark room, but nodded and thanked her all the same.
“Thank you.”
“The young lady is too polite. If there is nothing else, your servant will take her leave.” The small serving girl raised her head to look at her for the first time, giving a gentle smile that showed two small, pointed eye teeth. “It’s dark in the room — your servant will leave this lamp with the young lady.”
With these words, she slipped the oil lamp from her wrist and placed it on the table inside the room. Then she stepped back out, and drew the door shut behind her.
A creak, and then the room fell suddenly silent.
This silence was unlike any other — not a breath of wind could be heard.
Xiao Nanhui stood in place for a moment, then casually picked up the oil lamp from the table and lit her way around the room.
It was a simple suite of inner and outer rooms. The outer room was a small sitting area; the inner room had a bed, surrounded by thick curtains that by the look of them had not been disturbed in a very long time.
In terms of furnishings, the room was indeed quite plain. But the soundproofing seemed rather too effective. Living in a room like this, could a wet nurse really hear what was happening in the outer courtyard at any moment?
Something felt off to her, and recalling something, she went straight to the window. She had not noticed clearly from outside — only now did she see that the carved lattice windows of this room were extraordinarily detailed.
On instinct, she reached out and touched one — and stopped.
Beneath her fingers was a perfectly smooth surface. Cold, hard, and unyielding to the touch.
These were windows painted on the wall.
Not satisfied, she walked briskly to another window. The same painstaking detail. The same false window.
After checking along all four walls, a thin sheen of sweat had broken out on Xiao Nanhui’s forehead.
This was a room without windows. The only way to communicate with the outside world was through the door she had entered.
But when she went to pull at the door, she found that it had already been locked from the outside.
Xiao Nanhui stepped back a few paces and sat down squarely on the padded porcelain stool positioned facing the door.
All of this commotion had left her inexplicably exhausted. Ordinarily, if she had found herself locked in a room, she would have lifted a leg and kicked the door open without a second thought.
But this was the Prince’s Mansion, and breaking a door open was far too outlandish — and she had come today as a representative of the Xiao Family to boot. The small serving girl who had brought her here was clearly not as simple as she appeared, but she had not the faintest clue as to what the other party’s true intent might be.
With that one moment of hesitation, the dizziness intensified.
She did not know whether it was because the room had no windows and was completely sealed off, but she found herself parched and short of breath. The floral fragrance she had smelled outside the door seemed to have followed her into the room, and was now burrowing deeper and deeper into her nasal passages.
Xiao Nanhui’s gaze swept around the room and came to rest on the small sandalwood table right beside her.
On the table sat a wine jug and two porcelain cups. The porcelain jug had a layer of condensation misting its surface, as if it held the cool, sweetened, ice-chilled wine of summertime.
Xiao Nanhui made a swallowing motion that was almost involuntary, then stood up and went to pick up the wine jug.
The body of the jug was heavy in her hand, and sure enough, it was faintly cool to the touch.
In her eagerness, she poured out a cup and brought it toward her mouth.
Bang, bang, bang.
A rapid, urgent knocking came at the door.
Xiao Nanhui’s cup stopped just before her lips.
Bang, bang, bang.
The knocking did not stop, and whoever was outside the door seemed urgently anxious.
Perhaps it was that urgent sound that interrupted the strange, inexplicable craving she had just felt. Xiao Nanhui set down the cup and struggled to her feet, making her way toward the door.
“Who—”
The moment she spoke, she found that her voice had already gone hoarse and changed beyond recognition, like that of an eighty-year-old woman.
She felt a pang of alarm and tried to speak again, but could not produce a sound no matter what she tried.
The very next moment, the door was violently pushed open from the outside. A breath of cool night air came rushing in, and Xiao Nanhui was like a fish that had finally found water, drawing a deep, deep breath.
In the night, a figure came toward her with the evening breeze, filling her field of vision in an instant.
A familiar scent surrounded her. Xiao Nanhui looked up, dazed, and met a familiar face.
“Your Majesty?”
Though somewhat hoarse, her voice slowly began to return.
Su Wei said nothing. He looked at her without blinking.
His hair was somewhat disheveled, and his breathing was more hurried than usual. Only his voice retained its ordinary composure — swift and brief, going straight to the point.
“Did you drink it?”
“What?”
Xiao Nanhui could not react in time. The person before her simply stepped past her toward the table.
Long fingers brushed over the rim of the cup and the mouth of the wine jug, then rubbed together between two fingertips. No moisture.
She had not drunk it.
The emperor’s expression relaxed in an instant, and his manner returned to its usual cool composure.
His gaze traveled over every object in the room in turn, and finally settled on the oil lamp.
“Where is the person who gave you the lamp?”
“She has already left.” The bewilderment on Xiao Nanhui’s face deepened. “Why has Your Majesty come to be here?”
The emperor did not answer. He simply raised a hand, picked up the lamp shade that had grown rather hot to the touch, and blew the oil lamp out with a single quiet breath.
With the only source of light gone, the room plunged into darkness in an instant.
She felt another twinge of unease.
This unease was different from what she had felt before, and she could not say what kind of emotion it was — something like a premonition laced with nervousness.
It was her heart’s premonition of what was about to happen.
In the darkness, she felt him approach, one step at a time. A faintly cool breath hovered before her brow, lightly stirring the loose strands of hair at her temples. Something soft touched her forehead for the briefest instant, and then she was drawn into an embrace that pressed with a quiet force.
Thump, thump, thump.
That was the sound of her heartbeat, and it was the sound of his.
So it was possible for two people to be held this close to one another — their very heartbeats blending together, gradually becoming a single rhythm.
She had never been held so tightly in anyone’s arms before. Between the two of them there was no room for even a thin sheet of paper, no space for even a wisp of moving air.
His outer robe still carried the cool of early spring, but the body beneath it gave off a warmth that kept coming without end. That warmth passed through her plain everyday garment, then through the shell of her body, and was still spreading deeper…
“It’s all right now. It is over.”