When Xuanxi opened her eyes, she found that the space beside her was already empty. The sheets still held a trace of warmth from a human body, and from the bathroom came the faint sound of water.
She rolled over, facing the bathroom.
Before long, the sound of water stopped, the door opened, and Hildegrifa stepped out. Her long hair was still not dry, cascading over her shoulders. She had already changed into a light-colored home dress.
When she saw Xuanxi’s eyes open, her steps faltered for a moment.
“You’re awake.”
“Did you sleep well last night?”
Xuanxi thought for a moment. It seemed she had had a dream—a dream with a lot of water, and a five-clawed golden dragon coiled among the clouds, its long body appearing capable of summoning wind and rain. But the images in the dream were blurry, and after waking, only a faint outline remained.
“Not bad,” she said. “I think I had a dream, but I can’t remember the details.”
Hildegrifa didn’t press further. She walked over to the bed and sat down.
“Your hair hasn’t been dried yet,” Xuanxi said.
“It’s fine. It’ll dry on its own in a while.”
“Then let me dry it for you.”
Hildegrifa remained silent, her ears reddening. Seeing this, Xuanxi curled the corners of her mouth, sat up from the bed, and picked up the folded towel from the nightstand. She turned around to face Hildegrifa.
“Turn around.”
Hildegrifa glanced at her, then turned around. Her silver-white hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall. Xuanxi draped the towel over it and gently began to dry it.
The strands slid between her fingers—cool, soft, carrying that cold fragrance spreading from the tips all the way to the gaps between her fingers.
She dried it very slowly, because she wanted to stay like this a little longer.
“What time did you go to sleep last night?” Xuanxi asked.
“Did you fall asleep before me?”
“No, I didn’t.”
Xuanxi’s hand paused. “You slept later than me?”
Hildegrifa did not answer. Xuanxi moved the towel from the ends of her hair back to the tips, then back again, drop by drop of water being absorbed into the towel. “What were you doing, staying up so late?”
Hildegrifa still did not answer. Xuanxi looked at the pair of deep red ears. Even someone as dense as her understood something. She didn’t ask further, lowered her head, and continued drying Xige’s hair.
After a while, “All done.”
Hildegrifa turned her head. Her silver-white hair was already half-dry, scattered over her shoulders.
“Change clothes, then go downstairs for breakfast.” She stood up and walked toward the door.
Xuanxi curled the corners of her mouth, got out of bed, and folded the towel neatly. She placed it back on the nightstand.
After changing clothes, the two walked out of the room hand in hand. When they reached the stairway, Xuanxi noticed that Valeris was already standing downstairs.
Today she was wearing a light blue dress with a few white ice crystal flowers embroidered on the skirt. She stood by the dining table, arranging the tableware. Hearing footsteps, she looked up. Her ice-blue eyes watched them walk down the stairs.
“Morning,” she said.
When Valeris’s gaze fell on their hands clasped together, it paused for a moment. There seemed to be a very faint trace of a smile in her ice-blue eyes.
“Did you sleep well?” she asked, her tone lighter than usual.
Xuanxi nodded. “Pretty well. The bed was big and very comfortable.”
Valeris’s gaze shifted to Hildegrifa, but Hildegrifa did not look at her. She pulled out a chair and sat down on her own. Valeris sat down opposite her and picked up a teacup.
“Let’s have breakfast.”
On the table were several items: a porcelain bowl of white congee still steaming, a small dish of finely chopped pickled vegetables, a plate of fried eggs with a few slices of toast on the side, and finally a pot of light golden tea, with wisps of steam curling from the rim of the cup.
“What about your mother?” Xuanxi asked.
“She’s already eaten. She went to the flower fields now.” Valeris scooped a spoonful of congee, blew on it, and brought it to her mouth. Her movements were as elegant as completing some ritual.
Xuanxi picked up her bowl of congee. It was very hot, so she stirred it with her spoon. She noticed the congee was very thick, the rice grains already dissolved into the soup. “Did your mother make it?”
“I made it.”
Xuanxi lifted her head. Valeris’s expression had not changed.
“You can cook?”
“Living alone, you always have to learn to take care of yourself.” Valeris’s tone was light, as if stating something very ordinary.
“After my father passed away, my stepfather was always away on business, and my mother’s health wasn’t good, so I had to take care of these things.”
The table was quiet for a moment. Hildegrifa picked up her teacup, took a sip, then set it down.
“Not bad,” she said. Though it was only a single word, it was a fairly high compliment.
The three of them finished breakfast. Valeris stood up to clear the dishes, moving with a proficiency that came from countless repetitions. Xuanxi wanted to help, but she was stopped. “You are a guest. There’s no reason for guests to do the cleaning.”
The three of them left the estate together.
Morning light leaked through the gaps in the clouds, casting patches of gold on the flower fields. The ice-blue flowers swayed in the wind. Valeris walked in the front, Xuanxi in the middle holding her notebook, and Hildegrifa at the back.
When the teleportation array was close at hand, Valeris stopped and turned around.
“I’ll see you off to here,” she said, her ice-blue eyes looking at Xuanxi. “Return the notebook to me at school after you’ve finished reading it. No rush.”
Xuanxi nodded. “Thank you, Valeris. And thank your mother for me as well.”
Valeris’s gaze moved from Xuanxi’s face to Hildegrifa’s face and paused for a moment.
“Take good care of her, Xige.”
Hildegrifa did not reply, but she tightened her grip on Xuanxi’s hand.
Valeris turned and walked away. Her braids swayed in the morning light. The hem of her ice-blue dress was lifted by the wind, appearing elegant, restrained, and perfectly appropriate.
Xige watched her back. “What kind of person do you think she is?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” Xuanxi said. “But I think she’s a good person.”
Xige curled the corners of her mouth and tightened her hold on Xuanxi’s hand. The runes of the teleportation array lit up beneath their feet. A pale blue light rose from the ground, enveloping their bodies.
The light grew brighter and brighter. Everything around them became blurry—the gravel path, the flower fields, Valeris’s shrinking silhouette, the sky in the morning light.
Then everything dissipated, and a new scene emerged in the light.
The glow of the teleportation array faded.
Xuanxi opened her eyes. The afternoon sunlight made her squint slightly. They had arrived at a small teleportation station built on a hill.
“The castle is still some distance from here. Let’s wait for a carriage,” Hildegrifa said, her gaze fixed on the main road in the distance.
“Wait for a carriage?” Xuanxi was about to ask, when she suddenly noticed a black carriage approaching from the end of the main road.
The body of the carriage was entirely black, with silver crests on the borders. Four white horses pulled the carriage, their hooves striking the stone road with crisp sounds.
The curtains of the carriage were dark blue, embroidered with the dragon crest emblem of the Edelstein Family.
The coachman was an old man in a silver-gray uniform, his silver-white hair fluttering slightly in the wind, his back straight as a rod.
The carriage stopped in front of the teleportation station. The coachman jumped down and bowed slightly to Hildegrifa. “Young Lady, the Duke and the Duchess sent me to pick up you and your guest.”
Hildegrifa nodded, opened the carriage door, and stepped aside to let Xuanxi enter first.
The interior of the carriage was more spacious than Xuanxi had imagined. In the corner was even a bouquet of fresh flowers, their fragrance overwhelming.
Xuanxi sat down, placed the notebook on her knees, and let her eyes wander from the bouquet to the curtains, from the curtains to the delicate embroidery patterns on the seats.
“Your family still has carriages?” she asked.
“Why wouldn’t we? My home is too far from the teleportation station. Even walking fast would take several hours.” Hildegrifa sat down beside her and casually drew the curtains. “My mother didn’t like me waiting too long, so she bought me one.”
The carriage started moving. The hooves of the four horses fell in perfect unison, and the carriage barely jolted. Xuanxi looked out through the gap in the curtains.
On both sides of the main road were vast fields of farmland, golden wheat waves rolling under the afternoon sun.
In the distance, the outlines of farmhouses and barns could be seen. A few dragon race members in simple clothes were working in the fields. When they saw the carriage passing by, they stopped their work and bowed their heads slightly toward the carriage.
“Those are the residents of the Edelstein family’s territory,” came Hildegrifa’s voice from beside her, very soft.
“Our family’s territory is very large. Besides the castle and the military, there are farmlands, villages, and pastures. It’s been like this for thousands of years.”
The carriage passed through the fields, through the village, and over a stone bridge.
The river under the bridge was so clear that the pebbles and small fish swimming at the bottom were visible. Xuanxi withdrew her gaze from the scenery outside the window and let it fall on Hildegrifa’s profile.
She was looking out the other side. The wind coming through the gap in the curtains lifted her silver-white hair, and a few strands drifted onto Xuanxi’s shoulder.
“Did you often ride in this carriage when you were little?” Xuanxi asked.
“To go to school?”
“No.” Hildegrifa turned her head. In her amethyst-colored eyes, the afternoon light reflected. “When I was little, my mother took me out, and we always took this carriage—to go to the city market, to have picnics by the river, to fly kites in the fields.”
“You know how to fly kites?”
Hildegrifa nodded.
The carriage entered the castle gates. Through the window, Xuanxi could see the walls, the towers, the fluttering flags, and the silver-armored guards standing at the gate. The carriage did not stop; it went straight through the outer city and into the inner city.
The carriage stopped in front of the main building of the castle. The carriage door was opened from the outside.
“Young Lady, we have arrived,” came the coachman’s voice.
Hildegrifa got off first, turned around, and extended her hand.
Xuanxi looked at that long, fair hand, placed her own on it, and held on tightly.
The two stood side by side in front of the castle’s main building. Their silver-white and dark green hair were lifted by the afternoon wind and intertwined in the air.
The castle’s main gate slowly opened before them. The heavy iron doors let out a low rumble, like some kind of ancient call. The corridor behind the door was very long—so long that one could not see the end at a glance.
On the walls on both sides hung portraits of successive heads of the Edelstein family, each framed in gold. Most of the people in the portraits wore luxurious clothes and had solemn expressions.
Xuanxi walked along this corridor, holding her notebook, feeling as if she had stepped into another world.
At the end of the corridor was a double-leaf door. Hildegrifa stopped, turned to face Xuanxi, and in her amethyst-colored eyes was a seriousness that Xuanxi had never seen before.
“Are you ready, Xuanxi?” said Xige.