Zhu Yuanzhang jolted awake as well.
He reached out and blindly grasped at the bedside, trying to pull his grandson into his arms.
"Xiongying... Xiongying."
"Imperial Grandfather is here. Don't go."
Zhu Yuanzhang cried out anxiously.
But no matter how many times he reached out,
he grasped only at empty air.
It was only after those movements that Zhu Yuanzhang gradually came fully awake. Yet his hand still hung in midair, and beneath the nightfall that had just descended, his emotions were too complicated to put into words.
"Alas."
"My girl."
"Did you know I missed Xiongying, so you deliberately let me see him again?"
"But... but it was only a dream." Zhu Yuanzhang looked toward the memorial tablets within the hall, his expression indescribably complex.
That dream just now had been too real.
With complicated feelings in his heart,
Zhu Yuanzhang slowly walked before the memorial tablets and looked at those of his girl and his grandson, unable to calm himself for a long while.
"Xiongying."
"How wonderful it would have been if you were still alive."
"You should be eighteen by now, shouldn't you? I wonder what you would have looked like after growing up. I truly miss you."
"Eighteen was the prime of youth."
"Come to think of it."
"You might not believe it, but a figure has emerged in our Ming Dynasty whose name will endure through history. His achievements even surpassed those of Huo Qubing."
"With the achievement of Fenglangjuxu, he swept away the threat of the Northern Yuan and brought peace to the Northern Frontier. He was about your age too—also eighteen."
Zhu Yuanzhang spoke slowly. This time, he truly could not hold it in any longer and poured out his heart to his grandson.
But just as Zhu Yuanzhang was speaking,
suddenly!
He