Chapter 115 Imprisonment
Chen He hugged Gu Yu, who was shaking like a leaf in the wind, tightly, and patted her back gently with his fingertips, telling her to be at ease.
Her gaze passed over Guyu's head and looked at the tightly closed window frame, her expression calm, as if the shrill crying was just the sound of wind and rain outside the window.
"Wu...wuwu...Miss...I am afraid..."
Guyu's voice was heavily nasal, almost crushing in Shen He's arms.
The crying sound was intermittent, sometimes far away, sometimes near, like an invisible hand, tightly grasping the human heart.
Each cry was louder and more shrill than the last.
The candle flame jumped again and almost went out.
At the moment when the suffocating silence and the strange crying intertwined——
“Squeak—”
There was a sudden, teeth-grinding sound of a door hinge turning, as clear as a thunderclap in the dead of night!
"ah--!"
Guyu's scream almost pierced her eardrums. She raised her head suddenly, and her little face, which had long been covered with tears and fear, turned as pale as paper in an instant, without even a trace of blood.
She grabbed Chen He's sleeves tightly and shrank into Chen He's arms, wishing she could squeeze herself in.
"Something's coming in! Miss! It's coming in!"
At the door, against the dim moonlight, a tall figure suddenly stood there.
The man held a hexagonal palace lantern in one hand, and the dim light spread from his hand, dispelling the small darkness at the door, but also making his figure appear a little shadowy and unclear under the swaying light.
But the familiar figure and the unique paranoid and cold aura emanating from the body made Shen He's eyes move slightly.
Guyu glanced through Chenhe's arms in horror, only to see a blurry black shadow. She was so frightened that she let out another short scream and almost fainted.
"Don't be afraid."
Shen He's voice was still calm, with a hint of soothing power.
She gently pushed Guyu away a little to allow her to breathe, then slowly raised her eyes and looked at the person at the door.
"It's you."
Her tone was more of a statement than a question, as if she had expected him to come.
The man at the door was Xue Minglan.
He was dressed in a dark brocade robe, almost blending into the darkness at night. Only the light from the lantern cast a mixture of light and dark on his handsome but slightly gloomy face.
His eyes, as always, were filled with a bit of stubbornness and depth, and they fell directly on Shen He, as if he wanted to see through her.
"Come in." Shen He said lightly.
Xue Minglan walked in holding a lantern.
As he approached, a faint cold fragrance mixed with a hint of chill came with it.
The candlelight in the room seemed to have stabilized a little because of this sudden "popularity".
Chen He first patted Gu Yu's back soothingly and whispered, "It's okay, it's Second Young Master Xue."
Guyu raised his head tremblingly, and with the light of the lantern in Xue Minglan's hand, he finally saw the person clearly. Although he was still frightened, at least he was sure that it was not an "unclean thing", and his tense nerves relaxed a little.
But why would Second Young Master Xue come to such a haunted place in the middle of the night?
Chen He then slowly stood up and walked towards Xue Minglan, looking calm, as if the thrilling things that had just happened had never happened.
"You're here." She said softly, without much emotion in her voice.
Xue Minglan's eyes were fixed on her, and the lantern in his hand swayed slightly, and the light and shadow danced on her calm face.
He parted his thin lips slightly, his voice slightly hoarse.
"How come you've made yourself so miserable after not seeing you for a few days?"
***
Chen He's gaze slowly moved down from Xue Minglan's eyes, which were so deep that they seemed to suck people in, and landed on his hand holding the lantern.
To be more precise, it was the white cloth strip that was wrapped around his wrist, which was still conspicuous under the dim light.
There was a faint hint of dark red on it.
Her pupils shrank slightly, and a complex and indistinguishable emotion flashed across her eyes, so fast that it was impossible to catch it.
"Your hand..."
Her voice was soft, with a barely perceptible hoarseness.
"Thank you very much."
The word "thank you" was light, yet it seemed to carry a thousand pounds of weight.
Xue Minglan's eyes were still as scorching as ever, like two burning flames, locked firmly on Shen He's face, as if he wanted to imprint all of her subtle expressions at the moment in his heart.
He sneered nonchalantly at the injury on his wrist.
"This little injury is nothing."
What he cared about more was her. Why was she here?
"You haven't answered me yet," Xue Minglan's voice deepened, and he pressed on with his usual paranoia, "Were the ghosts and wolves howling in Jingsi Garden really part of your calculations?"
"Or do you have another purpose for coming here?"
Chen He raised her eyes, met his inquiring gaze, and her expression returned to her usual calmness.
"I didn't come here to listen to this."
Her tone was calm, as if she was talking about something very ordinary.
"Then why did you take the initiative to request to come to Jingsi Garden?" Xue Minglan frowned slightly, obviously puzzled.
This place is gloomy and dilapidated, and it doesn't seem like a good place to be.
Shen He was silent for a moment, the candlelight casting bright and dark shadows on her face, making her beautiful face even more mysterious.
"Because," she spoke word by word, her voice low but clear enough to reach Xue Minglan's ears, "I suspect this was once where your mother and your sister were imprisoned."
"What did you say?!"
The aura around Xue Minglan suddenly changed!
Those eyes, which were originally full of paranoia and deepness, seemed to be thrown into a raging fire of boiling oil in an instant, and the surging shock and disbelief almost burst out!
His hand holding the lantern suddenly tightened, his knuckles turned white from the force, and the light and shadow of the lantern began to shake violently.
Even Gu Yu, who had been hiding behind Shen He and trying to reduce his presence, was so frightened by the sudden tense atmosphere that he held his breath and dared not make a sound.
"Why...why do you say that?"
Xue Minglan's voice became a little hoarse due to extreme shock, and every word seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth.
His mother and sister, that is the deepest and most painful forbidden place in his heart!
Chen He looked at him calmly, as if he had already expected such a violent reaction from him.
She did not answer immediately, but slowly walked to the tightly closed window frame, her eyes cast at the boundless darkness outside the window, and the faint sobbing sound that still drifted in the night wind.
"This Jingsi Garden is named Jingsi, but in reality, it is a corner that has long been deliberately forgotten by everyone in the palace."
Her voice came faintly, like the night breeze in Jingsi Garden, with a hint of coolness.
"It can't be considered a true cold palace, because concubines who make mistakes never live here."
"But precisely because of this, it is more terrifying than the cold palace."
"Being forgotten means no one cares about it, no one guards it, and no one cares about whether people live or die here."
Xue Minglan's breathing became heavy and his chest heaved violently. It was obvious that he was trying hard to control his surging emotions.
Chen He turned around and looked at him again, with a hint of cold clarity in his eyes.
"Aren't you curious? This is a forgotten place where there's a rumor that women often cry in the middle of the night, and everyone avoids it..."
Her voice paused, as if she was recalling something.
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