“Are you sure? It's alright for me to keep this?”
“Yes.”
Sui’er held the bag of fruits in her arms as she laughed gleefully. She took out one, peeled it and stuffed the whole fruit into her mouth at once. “This is delicious!”
Seeing how satisfied she was, Wei Yi thought he made the right decision to leave the fruits to Sui'er. He smiled to himself but Sui'er noticed it. What a beautiful smile.
Sui'er, with the bag of fruits in her arms, squatted beside Wei Yi and asked, “Wei Yi, if you can leave the Imperial palace, will you visit me?” Sui'er kept staring at Wei Yi even though she received no reply.
Sui'er was rather disappointed. She carried the bag of fruits and walked away.
Wei Yi was left alone in the room. He stared at the wavering candlelight on the table. Then, he closed his eyes and leaned on the pillar behind him.
He did not know how much time had passed when he opened his eyes again. He went through the pocket on his chest, and took out a little book.
The cover read ‘Yunshu's Record'. It was the book Ji Yunshu left at Jinjiang’s yamen. He clutched the book in his hand without flipping through it. Then, he heaved a quiet sigh.
That night, Jing Xuan visited him again with the same lantern from yesterday. Just like before, she continued helping Wei Yi in making his Kongming lantern. Both of them worked without speaking a word.
After a long while, Wei Yi turned to look at her. He asked, “Sui'er said that you're moving to Huyi. You're going to be their Empress?”
“Yes.”
“Will you ever come back?”
“No.”
Wei Yi was briefly frozen, but quickly regained his composure. The two of them had not spoken a word since then, and focused only on making the Kongming lantern.
After about an hour, the Kongming lantern was finally done. Although it was not pretty, the shape was there.
“Can I go release this Kongming lantern?” Wei Yi pleaded.
Jing Xuan was hesitant. She sneaked out to visit Wei Yi when no one was around. If she was to bring Wei Yi out to release the Kongming lantern, someone would definitely notice them. However, she agreed.
They carried the Kongming lantern to the courtyard. Then, Wei Yi wrote some words on the Kongming lantern and lit it, letting it fly up into the sky.
Meanwhile, Duan’er arrived at Jing Xuan’s room and found no one in the bed. She panicked and quickly gathered around a few other maids. “Where’s the princess?”
The maids shook their heads. No one knew the princess’ whereabouts.
“Why are you still standing here? Hurry up and find the princess!”
Just when the maids were about to go on, Duan’er added, “Keep it quiet. Don’t alert Her Ladyship for now.”
“Yes.”
The group carried their lanterns as they searched through Zhangzhi Hall. Some of the maids carried out the search outside the hall.
Despite searching high and low, they failed to find Jing Xuan.