Deep within the palace, all was quiet.
The candles had already burned down by more than half.
Suddenly troubled by a headache and a restless heart, the Empress Dowager slipped her shoes on carelessly and walked out of the hall. Leaning against the railing, she gazed at the moon in the night sky, waxing full only to wane again, and could not help letting out a silent sigh.
After an unknown stretch of time, someone draped a garment over her shoulders from behind.
"Your Majesty, the night is deep and the dew heavy. You must take care of your health."
"Su Xi, I met an insolent little girl today."
The Empress Dowager did not look at her, but spoke in a wistful voice.
"Your Majesty, are you thinking of the Grand Princess again?"
Su Xi studied the woman before her, whose radiance had largely faded yet whose sharpness remained undiminished from years past, her eyes filled with heartache.
She was the maid who had accompanied Wu Qingyuan, the Yu Kingdom's Empress Dowager, into marriage.
Through the passing springs and autumns, she had seen every side of the Empress Dowager.
Her carefree youth, her adulthood spent fighting on battlefields, and then her entry into this secluded palace.
Now, she could only watch helplessly as the Empress Dowager silently squandered her years within these palace walls.
"Su Xi, that girl I met today truly resembled Zhaohua. She was just as bold and reckless, just as keen and thoughtful..."
Su Xi said nothing. Knowing the Empress Dowager had not finished, she remained a quiet listener as she always did.
"She looked fourteen or fifteen. If my Yu'er had not gone missing, she would probably be about that age, wouldn't she?
"Tell me... was she taken away by Zhaohua? Or has she long since