"...Are you Lulu?"
The moment Xixia stepped through the gates, she spotted a gargoyle not far away. It had a pair of wings on its back, a pointed beak, a pig snout, and a dull gray body. Rather than turning into a statue, this gargoyle was furtively eyeing the drapes on the right side of the hall, stretching its head left, then nudging it right, as though it wanted to lift the drapes and peer inside but was afraid of something and did not dare.
Xixia's sudden voice startled the gargoyle, which looked like a thief caught with a guilty conscience. It gave a violent shudder, and even the bony wings on its back shrank inward.
Filled with alarm, the gargoyle moved like a puppet with jammed gears, pausing and tilting its head before its gaze met Xixia's.
Xixia carefully examined this suspicious-looking gargoyle. The longer she looked, the more familiar it seemed. Those little eyes, that timid appearance, and those malnourished-looking wings—it was exactly the same as the gargoyle guarding the second narrow passage at the main entrance of the Stairway of the Hanging Prison.
With her doubts in mind, Xixia called again, "Lulu?"
After several seconds of frozen eye contact, and after Xixia called out once more, the somewhat foolish gargoyle finally reacted. Light gradually kindled in its dim red eyes.
Its ugly, ferocious face, tinged with strange timidity, seemed to be illuminated by brilliant sunlight as an unusual radiance abruptly blossomed across it.
"Chirp-chirp, dee-dee ya-ya..." As though it had seen family, the gargoyle pounced swiftly toward Xixia, muttering an unknown language all the while.
Seeing the gargoyle's reaction, Xixia confirmed it again. This was Lulu!
But was this not a little too absurd? Why was Lulu in this dream as well? If Lulu was here, then