About ten feet away from the small open space where Shi Chan, Liu Li, and A Hua were, there was another open space about ten feet square. Lang Yuan, Liang Yihan, and Xuan Yuanhao found this hiding place while hiding and dodging during the collapse, which is how they managed to survive the collapse of the underground palace.
Fearing that the area might collapse again, Lang Yuan and Liang Yihan did not take any further action. At that time, Liang Yihan and Xuan Yuanhao sat side by side on one side, while Lang Yuan sat alone on the other side.
The three remained silent as time ticked by. In the darkness, Lang Yuan suddenly spoke, his voice ambiguous, asking, "You are... Liang Yihan, aren't you?"
Liang Yihan paused for a moment, then answered calmly, "Yes."
"Ah Hua..." Lang Yuan's voice was low as he slowly uttered these two words, then fell silent and stopped speaking.
Liang Yihan raised an eyebrow, a hint of doubt on his face, but he didn't speak, patiently waiting for Lang Yuan to continue.
After a long silence, Langyuan spoke again, asking in a low voice, "How did you and Ahua... meet?"
"Do you know Ahua?" Liang Yihan asked in return.
"Yes." Lang Yuan answered directly, without any hesitation.
Liang Yihan frowned and asked in confusion, "Then why have I never seen you before?"
Lang Yuan paused for a moment, then said in a low voice, "I've known her for much longer than you have."
The more confused Liang Yihan looked, the more he pondered for a while before asking a question that had been nagging at him: "Ahua isn't an ordinary cat, is she? What... what kind of cat is she?"
Langyuan avoided answering his question and instead asked, "When did you first realize that she wasn't an ordinary house cat?"
Liang Yihan pondered for a moment, then said softly, "A long time ago, when we were both young, I always felt that Ahua could understand what I was saying, and sometimes she would even respond to me when she was happy..."
"I remember……"
As she spoke those three words, Liang Yihan's voice suddenly turned sorrowful, tinged with self-reproach and regret. She slowly said, "I remember that year I decided to leave Haitang Courtyard, to leave Ahua, to seek immortality and the Dao... She tried to stop me, she desperately tried to stop me, but I..."
"I gave her up for my dream."
"I still remember the day I left. She chased me all the way from the Begonia Courtyard to the gate of the Prime Minister's Mansion. In the end, it was the maid who caught her. After I had walked a long way, I looked back once... In that last look, Ahua was being held tightly by the maid. She stopped making a fuss and just looked at me with tears in her eyes."
"How could a cat shed tears? I once doubted that I was seeing things, but that scene often appeared in my dreams, very clearly, allowing me to see her tears clearly. Later, I would sometimes wonder, is Ahua really just an ordinary house cat?"
After Liang Yihan finished speaking, there was silence in the darkness for a long time. Xuan Yuanhao, who had been up all night, was now asleep and snoring softly.
After a long silence, Langyuan said in a low voice, "Tell me first, how did you meet Ahua?"
Perhaps because of the darkness, Liang Yihan's bright eyes revealed an undisguised look of remembrance and sorrow. Normally, he would never let his true feelings show in his eyes. His voice was distant as he slowly said, "That year, I had just turned three. It was the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. My wet nurse was holding me as we admired the lanterns in the street. That was the day I met a little tabby cat shivering in the cold wind."
"She was curled up in the corner, just looking at me through the crowd. I liked her very much, so I took her back with me."
"I named her Ahua, and she seemed to really like the name. She was jumping around with joy."
“I grew up with her. She is my best friend, someone I can talk to about anything, and my closest playmate.”
“When I was little, no matter what troubles or sad things happened, as long as I saw her and played with her for a while, I would be happy.”
“There are many important people in my world: my father, mother, brother, sister, Haozi, teachers and fellow students. I believe that I am also a very important person in their hearts. But in their hearts, there must be other people they care about besides me.”
"Only Ahua, only in her heart, is the most important person to me, the person she cares about the most. In fact, in her heart, there is only me. This is something I have always firmly believed."
In the darkness, Lang Yuan slowly lowered his head, his eyes half-closed, a sorrowful expression in them. He remained silent for a long while before whispering, "Clearly, I met her... much earlier..."
Liang Yihan asked, "I've already answered your question. Now, can you tell me what race Ahua is?"
Lang Yuan remained silent for a long time.
"Never mind," Liang Yihan said calmly. "One day, Ahua will tell me."
The open space fell silent once more, except for the soft snores of Xuan Yuanhao.
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