Chapter 4

Aunt Xing sentenced me to kneel in the ancestral hall for a night.

I knew it was a light punishment for the trouble I had caused.

Zhou Zhixu had wanted to argue for me again, but I had already bowed my head to the ground and accepted.

“It’s only one night, young master,” I reassured him. “It’ll be over very soon.”

“But it’s so cold…”

“It’s all right. I can stand the cold.” I smiled. “I’m very strong.”

The light in his eyes dimmed. He said nothing more.

That evening, Aunt Xing personally took me to the ancestral hall and said sternly, “Kneel.”

The hall was pitch-dark, its floor cold as glass.

I did as she said, kneeling properly before the rows of ancestral tablets.

The cold pierced my knees and sank into my bones. I shivered and held myself rigid.

Aunt Xing’s voice was as cold as the floor. “I will open the door at daybreak. Until then, stay here quietly and reflect on what you’ve done.”

With that, she turned and left, closing the door.

Then I heard the lock click into place.

To keep me from running away, she was locking me in here all night.

There was neither lamp nor candle. I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face. All I could hear was the wind battering the doors and windows.

I was so cold.

Time seemed to crawl. My body was exhausted, but the biting cold kept me from sleeping. I could only force myself to stay alert.

After kneeling for so long, I began to imagine things. I kept thinking some strange beast would leap out of the dark and swallow me whole.

Water dripped somewhere, one drop after another, sounding as though it fell against the back of my neck.

Then, suddenly, someone pushed at the locked door behind me.

Startled, I cried in panic, “Who is it? Who’s there?”

But the voice on the other side was very familiar.

“It’s me, little Luhua,” Zhou Zhixu said anxiously. “Are you all right?”

Forgetting punishment and rank alike, I scrambled over to the door.

“Zhou Zhixu… how can you be here?”

“Why shouldn’t I be?”

“Why are you here at this hour? Where’s Ah Fu? Why isn’t he looking after you? How did you get here?”

Zhou Zhixu chuckled softly.

“Luhua, that’s rather a lot of questions.”

“Anyway… anyway, you must go back! It’s too cold here. Your body can’t take it…” I felt wretched. “Why did you come?”

“I was afraid you’d be frightened.”

I stared blankly. “What?”

“I was worried you would be frightened,” he repeated patiently. “It’s very dark in the ancestral hall, isn’t it?”

I had no answer.

I hadn’t said a word, yet he seemed to know everything.

I searched desperately for an argument, something to persuade him to leave. But my useless mind had gone utterly blank.

Cold wind slipped through the crack in the door, seeming to carry a breath of moonlight with it.

In the long stillness, a very faint cough sounded outside.

All this time, Zhou Zhixu had been holding it back so I would not worry.

After a while, I heard him slowly lower himself to sit beside the door.

Through the wood, his voice was as gentle as ever. “There now. It’s all right. I’m here with you.”

“Brother Xu, I don’t want…”

“I’ll stay with you until morning,” he said stubbornly.