He walked slowly to the door that was opened for him, stopped, turned around and looked at her.
The door was far away from the lampstand and the light was dim, but Xuyu could still see him clearly. His face, which was originally resolute and calm, was now full of hesitation and worry.
She kept looking at him with a smile, but she didn't say anything. He looked at her like this, and suddenly, the corners of his lips twitched slightly, as if he had something to say, but then it seemed as if something else came rushing over him, like the night wind extinguishing the spark of a candle that had just ignited, and everything returned to silence.
"Well... I'll be leaving first. Princess, please get some rest."
Finally, he just said this in a low voice.
The door of the attic was gently pulled by his hand and closed silently in front of her eyes.
Nor was it like the sound of his hurriedly climbing the stairs that echoed against the wall when he arrived.
After the door in front of her was closed, Xuyu could no longer hear the sound of his boots going down the stairs.
But she knew that he was gone.
She did not go to the high window of the building to watch him go away, or to find out whether his back hesitated and paused after he walked out of Yuyun Tower, or looked back again to look for the light behind the window of the tall building above his head.
She just felt extremely tired, a kind of tiredness that seemed to submerge her whole body as if the world was turning upside down and the buildings were spinning.
Ever since the accident in the Forbidden Garden and Aye's loss of eyesight, she seemed to have not had a good night's sleep for such a long time.
He was gone, and she didn't have to think about anything else for the time being. It would be good to have a good sleep first, as he had urged.
She closed her eyes and fell asleep. However, the Night Wanderer still refused to show its mercy, and the dream it sent made her restless again. The flower forest under the moon, the boundless dark lake, the blazing palace fire that lit up half of the night sky of Chang'an, the dirty blood that slowly seeped out from behind the threshold of the deserted palace, the woman twisted and nailed to death on the painting wall by a sharp arrow piercing her throat, the shrill and vicious curses, the crazy and twisted face...
The nightmare was fragmented, but it overlapped and recurred without end. Xuyu was completely suppressed. She struggled hard, reminding herself again and again in fear that it was all a dream and she needed to wake up quickly. However, she could not open her eyes no matter what. She only felt like she was immersed in a pool of ice water, her whole body was cold, and her limbs were numb.
She was awakened by the cold.
She calmed her still pounding heart and sat up, only to find that the attic was too high and spacious, and the burning stove could not retain heat. In her nightmare, she kicked off the quilt, her hands and feet were cold, her teeth were chattering, and her wet sweat soaked the clothes on her back.
She rolled back the cold, messy quilt and hugged it to keep warm. She couldn't fall asleep anymore and fell into a daze.
In this way, I don't know how much time passed. In the distance, the sound of the palace clock in the middle of the night was heard, passing over the numerous palaces and towering walls, and floating behind the spacious window of this beautiful building.
She got off the couch, walked to the window, pushed open the closed window, and looked out.
The Wei River flows around the north of the city like a jade belt, day and night. The abundant Cao River it nourishes runs through the north and south, just like the blood vessels of this city, becoming the source of its eternal vitality - on both sides of the river, among the neatly crisscrossed walls, there are mansions of princes and nobles, houses and shops, temples and Taoist temples, pavilions and towers, like stars in the sky, gathering around this four-sided encircled city like the celestial hub and the Big Dipper.