He didn't ask any further questions, nor did he make any statement.
After saying that, he gave her a deep look.
He then suddenly turned around and left the room.
The door was gently closed, and the room returned to silence, with only the faint chirping of birds outside the window and a faint, almost imperceptible scent of medicine in the air.
Late that night, the darkness was torn apart by a pale flash of lightning, followed by a deafening clap of thunder.
There were no lights on in Lu Qianhan's bedroom. Only the occasional flashes of lightning outside the window would momentarily illuminate everything in the room before quickly plunging it back into darkness.
With each rumble of thunder, the figure curled up on the large bed would tremble violently, and their breathing would become even heavier and more disordered.
Insomnia is hard to endure, but in such terrible weather, it made Lu Qianhan's head feel like it was about to explode with pain.
The brief moments of clarity and ease brought by the acupuncture during the day have long been replaced by the recurring headache.
Lu Qianhan gripped the brocade quilt beneath her tightly, her knuckles turning white from the force, and fine beads of cold sweat seeping from her forehead.
In such raging weather, that small packet of night-blooming jasmine sachets was hardly enough to provide any soothing relief.
A thunderous boom followed, followed by another clap of thunder.
Lu Qianhan sat up abruptly, her chest heaving violently, on the verge of collapse.
Just then, there was a very soft knock on the door.
Before he could respond, the door was gently pushed open a crack.
A slender figure stood quietly at the doorway, carrying a small, dimly lit glass lamp.
It is Shen Zixi.
She wore only a plain-colored outer garment, and her long hair was simply gathered behind her shoulders.
"Get out."
Lu Qianhan let out a hoarse growl from deep in his throat, carrying a strong warning.
Zi Xi did not leave.
By the dim light of the small lamp in her hand, she could see that the room was not as messy as it had been the night before.
Naturally, he also saw the unusually fragile and tense figure on the bed amidst the thunder and lightning.
She didn't approach or even step into the inner room. Instead, she sat down on a rosewood sofa inlaid with mother-of-pearl against the wall in the outer room and placed the small lamp on the low table beside her.
The glass lampshade softened the light, outlining a warm halo around her, creating a subtle boundary with the deep darkness of the inner room.
"The thunder was very loud."
When she spoke, her voice was not as cold as usual; instead, it had a deliberately softened quality.
Lu Qianhan did not respond, but stared intently at the ceiling in the darkness.
Zi Xi didn't seem to expect a response from him.
“When I was a child in the countryside, thunder wasn’t scary. The children there looked forward to the nights after thunder.”
Her soft voice rang out, piercing through the rain and clearly reaching the inner room.
Lu Qianhan's tense body paused almost imperceptibly.
"Because after the thunderstorm, when the clouds disperse, you can see a sky full of stars."
"The stars were so bright and numerous, scattered densely across the black velvet sky, as if you could reach out and pluck them."
“My parents would point to them and tell me which one was the Cowherd and which one was the Weaver Girl, and which section was the Milky Way…”
"Back then, I felt that the world was vast, and even the loudest thunder would eventually pass, leaving behind a quiet and beautiful starry sky."
Zi Xi continued speaking, her pace neither too fast nor too slow.
Her description was simple, even somewhat naive, yet it possessed a strange and comforting power.
There's no logic to it; she just wanted to share ordinary yet happy memories in this terrible weather.
"...Summer thunderstorms are too sudden and heavy, and they always damage the newly sprouted seedlings."
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