Leaving Chang'an, heading northwest a hundred miles, deep in the mountains, in the middle of two mountain ridges, on a precious land known as the Double Dragon Arch, sits a mausoleum with a towering mound.
This is the tomb of the former Empress Zhaode. The young Empress Zhaode rests in this unique palace that has the best feng shui and is as grand as the imperial tomb.
The haze that had descended on the sky last night had not yet dissipated, and the sky was covered with a thick layer of crab-shell green. Before dawn, in the dim light of dawn, an old palace supervisor in gray clothes walked out slowly from the gate of the cemetery.
He held a bamboo broom in his hand and walked slowly to the shrine path, sweeping away the dead branches and grass that had been blown onto the path by the wind last night.
All the sounds were still in the silence of last night. A few mountain birds that had been resting on the wild branches nearby were startled and flew away with a whirring sound, turning into black dots and disappearing into the forest at the end of the mausoleum.
The old palace supervisor had a hunched body, gray hair and eyebrows, and a face that had been crushed by suffering, covered with silent wrinkles. One of his legs was also defective, with the left and right legs being of different lengths, so he could only limp forward with his crippled leg, which was not very convenient. But this did not affect what he did at all.
After cleaning the long straight sacred road outside the mausoleum gate, the sky gradually brightened. He took off the whisk hanging on his waist, limped towards the tall stone statues standing on both sides of the sacred road, and began to sweep the dust off their backs.
This palace supervisor should be an old servant who guards the mausoleum. He obviously repeats this kind of work every day. After carefully cleaning a stone Weng Zhong without leaving any dust on it, he came to another stone Xiezhi nearby.
The divine beast was kneeling on the ground with its front paws, but it was huge. After brushing its back, the old palace supervisor pounded his injured leg, which was becoming more and more swollen and painful due to rheumatism, and then continued to tiptoe with difficulty, leaning forward to reach a fallen leaf attached to the top of the beast's head. Suddenly, he seemed to realize something, stopped, slowly turned his head, and looked behind him.
Behind him, at the end of the straight sacred road where the morning mist gradually thinned, a young man appeared.
The young man had arrived at some unknown time, staring quietly. Then he took a step forward, and his boots landed on the smooth and clean bluestone pavement of the Shinto Road, making a slight sound.
The old palace supervisor looked at the young man with a dull expression as he walked closer and closer and stopped in front of him.
He narrowed his dim eyes, and his cloudy gaze stayed on the young man for a moment, then he turned his head indifferently and continued what he was doing, reaching for the fallen leaf on the animal head that had not been brushed away.
Although Xuyu had prepared herself on the way here that Zhao Ban Dang was no longer the person she remembered, but at this moment, when she really saw the appearance of the man in front of her, her heart, which had not yet completely recovered from the shock of Aye's old and sick appearance that day, trembled again.
She moved her lips and wanted to call out, but found that the voice was stuck in her throat and she was unable to make a sound for a while. It was not until the old palace eunuch brushed off the fallen leaves, took a step, and left her behind, limping away on his crippled leg once again that she finally uttered that call.
"It's me!"
She looked at the hunched back that once carried her high up as he staggered along the shrine path, and spoke softly, as if she was afraid that her voice would be too loud and would frighten him.
"It's me!"