In the faint morning light, Chang'e stared blankly at the figure walking farther and farther away until it finally melted into the golden radiance filling the sky. Her heart felt as though something had seized it in a savage grip, and tears burst forth, soaking the front of her robe.
After a long while, she silently returned to Thatched Cottage and stared blankly at the jade plate covered by That River-and-Mountain Brocade Cloth. Ever since she had been old enough to remember, a woman had slowly emerged from the depths of the moonlight in her dreams every night. A ring of clear radiance revolved behind her head; her bright eyes shone like stars, and her dark brows resembled drifting smoke. She had a jade-like nose, cherry-red lips, a graceful figure, narrow shoulders, a slender waist, delicate hands, skin like condensed frost, an ethereal aura, and a faint rosy flush on her cheeks.
The woman would slowly approach amid drifting clouds and flying rosy light, smiling faintly without a word. Radiance flowed around her, yet she could never conceal the deep sorrow between her brows. She murmured softly, sometimes like wind brushing a banner, sometimes like a child mumbling in a dream, her words indistinct. Yet on the night before Hou Yi took the medicine, Chang'e suddenly heard the woman's words clearly. After awakening, only one sentence lingered in her ears: "Be sure to consume the immortal peach while Hou Yi is away. Remember! Remember!"
Thus, Chang'e chose to believe this unfamiliar woman who had occupied her dreams since infancy. Perhaps she only wanted to know who that person was. Or perhaps it was precisely this curiosity that had haunted her for half a lifetime and finally pushed her to reach out and lift the River-and-Mountain Brocade Cloth.
With trembling hands,