As the night deepened, gusts of cold wind blew through the corridor, sometimes hitting the windows, making a rustling sound like snow knocking on the windows at night.
The lights in the room flickered, occasionally with the crisp sound of chess pieces falling on the board.
Winter nights are so long and quiet. The night hours hidden in the clock are like the smoke from the incense burner in the corner of the house, which gushes out from the belly of the burner, dissipates, and then continues to flow out, curling up endlessly, as if there is no end.
Xuyu sat on the couch, taking turns throwing the dice and holding the pieces. After a while, she had finished two games of backgammon.
Before, every night in the palace, she rarely had a moment of leisure. Suddenly returning here, she seemed to be completely empty. While waiting, she slowly began to feel a little uneasy.
At first, she played chess just to kill time at night, occasionally. After another game, she didn't know how it started, but a thought suddenly flashed through her mind. There was a chaotic opponent with no shape or reason who was playing against her, and the bet was what she hoped for.
If she could win this game, then, even though she already knew that the world was changeable and love was always the most vicious, everything would be fine. Her secret wish would finally come true.
How could she not know that her sudden thought was bizarre and ridiculous? However, once it came out, she could not get rid of it. With some hesitation and some self-mockery, she placed the white jade horse-head chess pieces one by one, and then put the tortoise-green horse, which symbolized the chaotic opponent, back in place. The dice she threw rolled lightly on the red sandalwood chess table with white ivory and green horns.
That was the most secret worry in her heart that she had never told anyone. Normally, even she herself would not want to think about it. But in such a quiet winter night of waiting, it quietly came to her mind and she could no longer suppress it.
Amid the crisp and melodious sound of the dice rolling, she rashly began a gamble on its outcome.
It was just a game of chess, it couldn't really determine the outcome, even if the white horse lost, it didn't matter. This was just a game she used to kill the night, she told herself.
However, she was no longer as careless as she was at the beginning. She could listen to the noise outside while playing chess, so much so that she mistook the sound of the wind blowing the dead branches for the footsteps of people returning home. She became focused, and every time she rolled the dice, she was cautious and calculated, hoping that the number she got would be what she expected.
Luck seems to be bad tonight. Halfway through the journey, the blue Luzi has clearly gained the upper hand. The tortoise-shell horse heads shine brightly in the candlelight, and march towards the half-moon-shaped city gate in triumph.
An ominous feeling, like a prophecy, filled her heart.
She became hesitant and rolled the dice more and more slowly. After the tortoise shell moved a few more steps towards the city gate, the fighter plane once again rotated to the side of the white jade shell, and she looked at the chessboard, deeply immersed in it, holding the dice for a long time with her fingers, motionless, and she was a little afraid to continue.
She was so focused that a cold wind blew past the beaded curtain behind her and into the depths of the bedroom, causing the candlelight to sway. She was unaware of it until she finally threw the dice, but she used too much force and the dice rolled over the chess table, hit the table rails, bounced out and fell to the ground.