"Grandpa, did you go out this late? What happened?"
Dugu Bo had just stepped into the living room when his granddaughter, Dugu Yan, heard the noise and emerged from her room, her eyes heavy with sleep.
She wore a plain nightdress, her short, pale-purple hair falling over her shoulders, and her purple eyes still held a trace of sleepy haze.
She raised a hand to rub her eyes and looked at her grandfather, her face full of curiosity.
Only one Soul Guidance Lamp burned in the living room. Its dim, gentle light stretched their shadows long.
"The crown prince summoned me to the palace."
Dugu Bo sat on the sofa and gently kneaded his brow.
His voice carried a trace of weariness. His cold, shadowed eyes were half closed as he digested the information from their earlier conversation.
His fingers slowly massaged the space between his brows, their pads pressing against his gaunt skin and smoothing out his tightly furrowed brow little by little.
"He summoned you to the palace this late?"
Dugu Yan froze for a moment, then hurried over to sit beside her grandfather.
Her steps were light, her bare feet making almost no sound on the carpet.
She tilted her head to look at Dugu Bo's furrowed brow, and a faint unease stirred in her heart.
"Right, Grandpa, I heard Xue Beng was brought back in the exchange."
"Do you think Xue Qinghe is so eager to win you over because Xue Beng is back, and he wants to secure his position as crown prince?"
At his granddaughter's words, Dugu Bo gave a silent smile.
There was a measure of mockery in that smile, and a measure of helplessness.
He opened his eyes, a complicated light churning in their cold, shadowed depths.
"If only it were that