In the first half of the night, Xuyu slept quite well. After the lights were turned off, the disturbances of the guests walking back and forth and the mice reveling under the bed were nothing to her.
In the second half of the night, when the whole city fell into complete silence and everyone fell into a deep sleep, she dreamed again.
She dreamed again of the palace terrace, the dark ditch between the terraces, the flower forest at the end of the dark ditch, the liquid pool beside the flower forest, and the stunningly beautiful woman who seemed to be floating in the air like smoke and mist.
"Don't come back."
"Don't come back."
"Don't come back."
Amid the familiar sighs, there was a rumbling sound like thunder that came faintly into her ears from far away, waking up Xuyu who was drowning in her dream.
It was the sound of the morning drum of a new day that pulled her out of her deep dream.
The sky was still as dark as ink. Although the current emperor was no longer as diligent as he was in his early years, he might not show up as his subjects expected on the day of court, but as long as that day came, when the first drum sounded in the morning, no matter how much they missed the warm quilts and beautiful maids, the prime ministers and doctors in red and purple still had to hurry up, riding out of the gates of their houses, holding lanterns, and rushing from all directions to the waiting courtyard to wait.
She lay in a strange, shabby room, listening to the snoring of someone next door, quietly waiting for dawn.
She knew that the place where the beauty in her dreams was was the palace.
She is going to that place.
As dawn deepened, the drums stopped beating, the rats disappeared, the snoring next door stopped, the water kept running, someone opened the door and went out, coughing, talking, complaining about the harshness of the boss, mixed with the sound of Aunt Gao scolding someone downstairs. This was Xuyu's first morning in Chang'an.
After she finished cleaning up, Aunt Gao seemed to have changed the target of her scolding. She stood in the yard and scolded the waiter who brought her water last night: "… You want to eat too much and work too hard! You have to tell me three times to sweep the floor! I opened the store to make money, not to give money away. You lazy bones like you are useless! One or two of you are like this, you want me to starve—"
Just as he was cursing, he suddenly saw Xuyu coming out, leaving the waiter behind and greeting him with a smile: "Guest is leaving so early? Why don't you sleep a little longer?"
The guy was so scared by the scolding that he hurried over with his broom when he saw this.
Xuyu nodded in return: "Thank you for your advice last night. I have nothing to do this morning, so I plan to go over and take a look."
Aunt Gao smiled and said, "It's a long way. You're lucky. I happen to have a delivery truck going to East Market. It's right outside the door. I'll give you a ride. It's not much. It's just the price of a bowl of Hu Bing soup. When you get to East Market, you can go there later. It will be convenient."
Xuyu thanked her. Aunt Gao escorted her out and told the coachman to take her there before she turned around and went back in.
Xuyu took the delivery truck to the East Market, followed the driver's instructions and continued north along the street. She successfully found Jingfeng Gate, but did not see the notice that Aunt Gao mentioned. She asked the guard and learned that it was true, but because the exam was coming up, the enrollment was stopped a few days ago. Xuyu asked if there was any way to make up for it, and the guard looked impatient: "Go to Da'en Temple! Go quickly, you can't stay here!"
The guard was vague, so Xuyu didn't ask much. She turned to ask passers-by about Da'en Temple, and learned that it was located in Yongxingfang not far away. It was a temple donated by the current Ning Wangfu to pray for the blessings of the late old princess. She went there, walked around the temple, and found several painters painting murals in front of a wall in the side hall. There were about ten people gathered in the distance. They didn't look like pilgrims. They were all similar to her, dressed in shabby clothes. Among them were elderly people with bitter faces, and young people who were about her age but had eyes full of desire for success. They all stared at the painting of the murals, without blinking, as if they were afraid of missing any details.