As he laughed, Yi Shuyuan suddenly noticed something odd. He frowned in thought for a moment, then understood in a flash.
A quiet "Holy shit" escaped his lips.
Yi Shuyuan had thought he had not spent long cultivating. After all, dawn had only just broken.
Yet the moment he turned his thoughts to it, everything became clear. He had spent a long time sitting in the Library; it was now nighttime, several days after that morning.
"No wonder they say the years pass unnoticed in the mountains..."
Then again, returning to the Library had indeed been the right choice. All those days had passed without anyone disturbing him.
Yi Shuyuan felt entirely at ease now. He no longer dwelled on the outcome in Moon City, nor was he even in a hurry to read the bamboo slips.
Instead, he dug the piece of scenic soft jade and the engraving knife out of a corner of a nearby bookcase. At last, he could engrave it.
But Yi Shuyuan did not start carving right there in the Library. He gathered the bamboo slips and a few other things into a cloth bundle, then opened the door and walked out.
Outside the Tongxin Pavilion, a waiter sat resting on a bench by the entrance.
It was still early, and there had been few visiting merchants lately. Many locals had also gone to Moon City to join the excitement, so business at the Tongxin Pavilion had been slower than usual.
But when the waiter saw Yi Shuyuan approaching along the street, he immediately perked up, stood, and stepped out to greet him.
"Mr. Yi, didn't you go to Moon City? Would you like something to eat?"
"I did, but I couldn't see the painting, and the city was far too crowded, so I