The moonlight, like water, flowed quietly between the pillars of the Spirit Hall. Bibi Dong's palace and Huo Yuhao's residence were separated by only one wall, but tonight it felt as if an entire world was separated between them.
Inside the Pope's bedroom, the purple gauze curtains moved without wind. Bibi Dong leaned against the window, her fingertips lightly tracing the cold gemstones on her scepter. Suddenly, she rose, her bare feet stepping onto the marble floor, letting the night dew soak the hem of her nightgown.
(Six hours left...)
This thought was like a thorn, making her uneasy. When she came to her senses, she was already standing in front of Huo Yuhao's door. The moonlight cast a long shadow of her, and her fingertips hovered in front of the door, unable to fall.
"Squeak--"
The door suddenly opened from the inside. Huo Yuhao stood there, wearing only a thin robe, his Golden Pupils gleaming faintly in the night.
"The night is long, and I can't sleep." He chuckled softly. "I didn't expect even His Holiness the Pope to be unable to sleep?"
Bibi Dong's fingertips curled slightly, then quickly relaxed. She raised her chin, the moonlight tracing the graceful line of her neck. "Hmm."
"That's perfect." Huo Yuhao stepped aside to make way for him. "Shall we take a walk together?"
They strolled slowly along the corridor. Bibi Dong's bare feet trod on the cool stone slabs, yet she was oblivious. A night breeze carried the scent of the distant rose garden.
On the thirty-seventh step, Bibi Dong suddenly stopped. Her gaze fell on the spire of the distant clock tower, where the moon hung between the crosses.
"Are you really leaving?" Her voice was very soft, like a feather falling on the water.
Huo Yuhao looked up at the same bright moon. "I still have many unfinished things." The moonlight shattered into golden stars in his eyes. "This world is vast; I cannot stop here."
The night wind suddenly became noisy. Bibi Dong's purple hair danced in the wind, obscuring her instantly pale face.
"Time... flies so fast," she said suddenly, her fingers unconsciously stroking her dress. "From your arrival to your departure, your sudden intrusion into my life gave me someone to care about in my otherwise mundane existence."
"Perhaps I didn't care how fast time went by before, maybe because my life was devoid of light, only darkness."
Therefore, no matter how fast time goes, one won't notice it, and might even think that time speeding up is a good thing, because the faster time goes, the more negligible the pain one suffers might become.
Huo Yuhao's pupils contracted slightly. In the moonlight, he saw the shadows flickering in Bibi Dong's eyes—the loneliness and hatred accumulated over the past twenty years.
(If I hadn't come here...)
His thoughts suddenly drifted away. The words on the pages of history books floated into his mind: the destruction of the Spirit Hall, the fall of Bibi Dong... The woman who died in despair gradually overlapped with the Pope trembling slightly in the moonlight before him.
He murmured to himself, almost as if talking to himself, "Yes, time is truly an incredible thing. It brought me here, to meet you, to meet all of you. Time can change things, change regrets, change pain."
"If I had never come here, you might still be suffering like in history, until you are defeated, trying to change what cannot be changed."
"It's impossible for time to change things, so will your future be altered by time to become like history?"
He simply gazed calmly at Bibi Dong, his heart filled with countless emotions. "If I didn't have this power of time, Jiang Nannan might still be with Xu Sanshi, but that memory would never change. I have no way of judging whether they are happy or not, just like in the previous life, nothing has changed."
"Without this power, Bibi Dong would die... I don't know if that's true."
"I'm just doing what I want to do, I'm just doing what I can do."
Huo Yuhao turned his head slightly, and the moonlight outlined Bibi Dong's delicate profile. Her eyelashes cast dappled shadows in the silvery light, and her violet hair swayed gently in the night breeze.
"Yes," he said softly, his voice unusually gentle, "I will never forget the days in the Star Dou Great Forest." Images flashed through his mind— Bibi Dong Dong's fluttering Pope robes as she stood before him. "Thank you for your sacrifice."
Bibi Dong turned her face, moonlight shimmering in her eyes. A gentle smile curved her lips, a smile devoid of Pope majesty, leaving only the purest tenderness.
"I'm the one who should be thanking you, Hao Yi." Her voice was so soft, as if afraid of disturbing the quiet night. " Hao Yi, you made me understand the meaning of my existence; you saved me."
A single, glistening tear slid down her cheek, shimmering faintly in the moonlight.
"It was you who appeared in that nightmare and woke me up; it was you who freed me from the prison of memories; it was you who made me understand what love is."
Her voice trembled slightly, and her fingers unconsciously clenched the hem of the Pope robe.
The happiest thing in my life is meeting you.
She tilted her face up, letting the moonlight wash away the tears in her eyes. "I have experienced a lot of darkness, and that darkness bred hatred in me. I could only live in hatred. I struggled in the darkness, unable to break free, as if sinking into the cold, desolate sea. But when I wanted to sink into the darkness and drown in it..."
The night breeze suddenly became gentle, lightly brushing against their hair.
Just when I was ready to sink into eternal despair,
Bibi Dong stepped forward, her fingertips lightly touching Huo Yuhao's chest. "You appeared. So dazzling, so forcefully pulling me out of the darkness..."
Her smile held a girlish longing, "Like a hero in a fairy tale."
Huo Yuhao remained silent. Under the moonlight, complex emotions flickered in his Golden Pupils —guilt, reluctance, and other feelings that were hard to define.
He recalled the figure of her back, still protecting him despite being severely injured in the Star Dou Great Forest, and the undisguised tenderness in her eyes whenever she looked at him.
"Actually," Bibi Dong's hand caressed his cheek, her fingertips tracing his features, "That posture was the real you, your true self, wasn't it?" Her gaze seemed to see through all pretense, "Powerful, gentle, yet lonely."
The moonlight bathed the two of them in a silvery glow. Huo Yuhao suddenly reached out and pulled Bibi Dong into his arms. He felt the body in his arms stiffen slightly, then relax, and a pair of slender arms wrapped around his waist, tighter and tighter, as if trying to meld him into their very bones.
"No matter what kind of person you are," Bibi Dong's voice muffled against his chest, "As long as it's you, that's enough."
Huo Yuhao closed his eyes, his chin gently resting on the top of her head. The scent of violets lingered around his nose, mixed with the coolness of the night dew. His arms tightened, but then loosened slightly in the next second.
"I'm sorry..." he whispered, his voice filled with unspeakable complex emotions. In the moonlight, a drop of water slid down his cheek, whether it was night dew or something else, he couldn't tell.
Bibi Dong lifted her head in his arms, the moonlight illuminating her tear-streaked face, yet still smiling. She reached out to wipe the moisture from his face, the warmth of her fingertips sending a shiver through him.
"Don't say sorry," she whispered, "Meeting you is the greatest fortune I've ever had."
The night wind ruffled their robes, and the distant bells tolled twelve times. The moonlight remained gentle, witnessing their Jiujiu embrace in the night.
The "I'm sorry" was so soft it almost disappeared in the night wind. Bibi Dong was slightly taken aback, a hint of confusion flashing in her violet eyes. She didn't understand where this apology came from, but she could feel the heavy weight in Huo Yuhao's voice.
(Why should I apologize?) she asked herself silently, but couldn't bring herself to say it aloud.
For Huo Yuhao, these three words carried too many unspeakable complex emotions. He recalled his initial intention in approaching Bibi Dong —it was nothing more than a meticulously planned scheme, a setup to change something.
But at this moment, the woman in his arms, who had opened her heart to him, looked at him with eyes full of trust, making his chest tighten.
(In the end... I still took advantage of her feelings.)
The night wind suddenly turned fierce, whipping up Bibi Dong's loose long hair. She tilted her head back, and the moonlight flowed across her delicate face, gilding every inch of her skin with a silvery glow.
Huo Yuhao gazed at her, the coldness in his Golden Pupils gradually melting away, replaced by a tenderness he himself was unaware of.
" Hao Yi?" Bibi Dong called softly, her fingertips unconsciously tightening around his collar.
Huo Yuhao didn't answer. He slowly loosened his arms around her, but the next second he raised his hand and touched her cheek. The warmth from his fingertips made his heart tremble slightly. At this moment, all his calculations and schemes were thrown to the back of his mind.
To Bibi Dong's surprise, he leaned down and kissed her.
The moonlight became exceptionally bright at this moment, outlining the silvery silhouettes of the two embracing figures.
Bibi Dong's eyelashes trembled slightly, then she closed her eyes, responding to the sudden kiss. Her fingers ran through Huo Yuhao's hair, pulling him closer, as if to etch this moment forever into the depths of her memory.
In the distance, the rose in Hu Liena's hand fell silently, its petals scattering on the cold stone steps. Her departing figure was stretched long by the moonlight, eventually disappearing into the shadows of the corridor.
The kiss lasted a long time, so long that the night breeze became gentle, so long that the moonlight began to slant westward. When the two finally parted, Bibi Dong's eyes were filled with starlight, while in Huo Yuhao's Golden Pupils, a barely perceptible pain flashed.