There seemed to be laughter all around them. She was laughing too, but she still went along with him obligingly, the two of them walking in starts and stops as they crossed the threshold.
“The road ahead is dark. Will you hold my hand?” Chen Baoxiang asked softly.
Zhang Zhixu stared at her fingertips for a moment, then said quietly, “I can see clearly enough.”
“But I can’t.” She tilted her head. “What if I trip and fall?”
He furrowed his brow and thought it over for a moment, then reached out and carefully took her hand.
Amusement welled up in her eyes. She closed her fingers around his and led him forward together.
Leyou Park was vast — meadows and a riverside walk stretched out in every direction, and even at night the scattered lanterns lit up bursts of noise and laughter.
Zhang Zhixu wandered along in a daze for a little while, then asked in a low, hoarse voice, “Were you busy today?”
“Very. I spent a long time drilling with the spear in the morning — didn’t even have a proper meal before going to the palace in the afternoon. After leaving the palace I went to the Ministry of Personnel, and I’ve only just had a free moment now.” She sighed.
His brow furrowed, and he turned to look for a food stall in the vicinity.
“No hurry.” Chen Baoxiang squeezed his hand. “There’s food ready at home. We’ll eat as soon as we get back.”
Then, with a hint of amusement, she studied him. “Aren’t you cross with me? Why are you still worrying about me like this.”
Only cross — not indifferent.
Zhang Zhixu looked down, thinking. He wasn’t really cross with her, either. He simply hadn’t had a chance to coax himself back yet.
It was fine. There was no need for anyone to fuss over him. He would always settle himself back on his own eventually.
The night wind passed over them, cool and faintly damp.
Chen Baoxiang watched the emotion moving through his eyes in silence.
She watched for a moment, then said suddenly, “Let me send word to Jiuquan — stay at my place tonight.”
Zhang Zhixu instinctively shook his head. He wanted to go home and be alone.
But the person in front of him seemed to be issuing a decision rather than posing a question. She didn’t even look at him — she simply took his wrist and started walking.
The calluses in her palm pressed lightly against his skin, a faint pleasant roughness. Zhang Zhixu stumbled forward to keep pace, his mouth half-opening — and yet he still could not manage to refuse her a second time.
The wine rose through him, the world ahead grew a little blurrier, his feet felt as if they were treading on cotton, and his sense of his surroundings grew gradually dim.
Half-conscious, he thought he felt himself helped into a carriage; half-conscious, he felt someone settle in beside him, a clean, green fragrance of grass drifting through the air.
Inexplicably, Zhang Zhixu felt that same thing — settled and secure.
He, too, had someone who had come to pick him up.