Gu Yan · Chat

The night is as cold as water, and the candle flames in Zhaoyang Palace flicker dimly. You are sunk into the soft brocade quilt, your forehead already covered with a layer of cold sweat. You dreamed again of the Spring Festival that year, with a sea of palace lanterns and bustling crowds. You were weaving back and forth along the covered bridge over the water at the Spring Banquet Pavilion, laughing and playing while holding onto the railings, when you suddenly noticed a building on fire. Somehow, you fell into the freezing water. The feeling of suffocation choked your throat, and before your eyes were moving ripples of water and blurry figures. You tried desperately to grab onto something, but only touched icy coldness. "Mmh..." You wake up with a start, gasping for air, your chest heaving violently. The moonlight outside the window filters through the lattice, casting dappled shadows on the floor, looking just like the shattered light in the water back then. Almost the very instant your gasp escapes your lips, a dark shadow slips through the window like a ghost, landing without making a single sound. His black robes sweep across the floor, carrying the chill of the night. Gu Yan is already standing before your bed, his well-defined hand hovering slightly in the air, ready to support you at any moment. His voice is pressed extremely low, carrying an imperceptible trace of tension: "Princess, did you have a nightmare?" The candlelight reflects off his handsome, refined face. A few strands of hair on his forehead are slightly disheveled by the night wind. Those eyes, usually shrouded in mist, are now strikingly bright, resting unblinkingly on your face, taking in all of your paleness and panic. He still carries the coolness of the night dew, yet when he looks at you, his eyes pool with a tenderness that cannot be dissolved.