Lu Feng didn't talk much as Lu Yan described Echo.
Lu Yan didn't think much of it. It was already late at night and she was exhausted. Between one word, and the next, she fell asleep.
Lu Feng, though, didn't dare to close his eyes for a single second. He sat there like a statue, frozen. Irrationally feeling that if he made a single movement, something would jump out of the dark or out of the girl next to him and attack him.
Time passed torturously. The hall seemed to creak too much, as if it were a live thing. The candles on the altar flickered. Shadows jumped everywhere. The darkness seemed alive. If he listened closely, it felt like there was a meaning in the creaks.
Lu Feng grabbed the hilt of the knife he was carrying tightly, high-strung with fear and anxiety. If anything moved, if anything attacked, he was ready.
More time passed. A wind rose outside, and the creaking seemed to grow louder.
He couldn't stand it anymore.
Between one moment and the next, he stood and raced to the door of the hall. A lifetime of martial arts practice made his footsteps light and fast like the wind.
He rushed out of the main door into the bright night outside. Suddenly he felt like he could breathe again.
His mother's maid had long left, and no one was standing guard.
At the bottom of the steps, he paused and looked back. Lu Yan was alone in there. But no matter how he tried, the image of her two colored eyes gleaming in the unending darkness rose in his mind, and he couldn't make himself turn back.
He walked back to his own courtyard, had the lamps in his bedroom all lit, until everything was as bright as he could make it, and collapsed wearily onto his bed.
His servants, woken from sleep, were astonished at this unusual request. But none of them dared to ask anything.
Surrounded by light, Lu Feng fell into an uneasy slumber.
---
When Lu Yan woke up in the morning, Lu Feng was gone.
It made sense, Lu Yan thought. Already, it was light outside, and if he had lingered, someone would have noticed him for sure.
Lu Yan straightened and tried to remember the dream she'd been having. She'd had this same dream several times: burning orange light, destruction, but Lu Yan in the dream felt strangely happy.
Suddenly remembering that she didn't need to stay in this ancestral hall, Lu Yan smiled. Without waiting a moment longer, she grabbed her scroll, collected her cloak and walked towards the door.
Outside, her mother's maid was nowhere to be seen.
Breathing in the fresh morning air, Lu Yan shivered slightly, but continued smiling as she looked at the light and brightness all around her.
---
Since she had returned to her courtyard after her first night in the ancestral hall without Luizhu accompanying her, the atmosphere between Lu Yan and Luizhu had remained awkward.
Luizhu didn't chatter as she normally would. Lu Yan didn't spill her thoughts as she normally would. The stillness and silence in the room was unbearable.
When Lu Yan dismissed her, an expression of immense relief crossed Luizhu's face, and she left the room quickly as if being chased by the hounds of hell.
Watching her go, Lu Yan felt a twinge of unease in her heart. Gritting her teeth, she continued looking at her scroll, struggling to focus with tears filling her eyes.
---
Later in the morning, a servant brought a message from Lu Feng: Lu Yan was expected in his courtyard after lunch.
Cheering up slightly, Lu Yan wolfed down her lunch and set off for Lu Feng's courtyard. She didn't ask any of her maids to accompany her and took the long scenic route, walking leisurely along the lake towards Lu Feng's courtyard.
---
After waking up, Lu Feng felt that he had overreacted the previous night.
Feeling guilty for leaving Lu Yan alone in the hall, he anxiously wondered how he would explain his absence to her.
Meanwhile, he had the servants arrange a small table, ink and paper for Lu Yan in one of the side rooms in his courtyard.
When Lu Yan arrived, she smiled as she greeted him.
Lu Feng reflexively checked her eye color, and felt a subconscious sense of relief when he found no strangeness.
Looked at her carefully, he didn't find the anger or blame he had expected.
It took him a moment to understand: she didn't know he had left in the middle of the night. She slept throughout the night.
His anxiety disappeared, and smiling back, he led her to the side room and gave her the scrolls she would have to copy. Then he walked back to his study and closed the door behind him.
Lu Yan felt a sense of disappointment as she looked at the side room she was in. The room was empty except for the desk there. Lu Feng was probably busy, which was why he didn't chat with her as she had expected.
Inside her head, Echo sneered, 'Keep dreaming.'
Lu Yan took a deep breath and ignoring Echo, opened up a scroll and started copying.
---
She was there all afternoon.
As evening began to fall, Lu Feng appeared.
Looking over the scrolls she had copied in neat calligraphy, he praised, "You write well."
Lu Yan looked up briefly from the scroll she was copying and hummed.
Lu Feng remembered the medical scroll from last night, and asked, "Where did you learn to write so well?"
If he had asked this question last night while they were in the darkness of the ancestral hall, Lu Yan might have told him.
But this morning, after Luizhu's coldness, after the closed study door, and an afternoon spent alone, she didn't feel as open.
Besides, she needed to ask master before she made any mention of him.
She smiled lightly, "I like writing."
Lu Feng felt there was more to the story, "What about the medical scroll you had last night? Where did you get that?"
Lu Yan looked up and saw the curiosity and doubt in his eyes. She regretted her lapse. He never should have seen that scroll.
"I found it while wandering in the city with Luizhu."
"You found it?" Lu Feng asked incredulously.
Lu Yan nodded, "There's a shop in the city that sells used scrolls. I found it there, and it looked so beautiful, I bought it."
Before he could ask any more questions, Lu Yan stood up and said, "I'm so hungry."
Lu Feng looked at the darkening sky, and didn't invite her to stay for dinner.
Lu Yan paused for a moment, then continued, "I'll see you in the afternoon tomorrow."
Lu Feng nodded. Then he stood and watched her small figure leave his courtyard.