She sat quietly next to the table and looked around the surrounding of Herb Garden. There was no emotion in her eyes, there were only countless memories.
But Chen Chang Sheng wasn’t one of them.
Chen Chang Sheng was a little embarrassed, a little nervous even. He wasn’t use to this kind of silence.
As time passed, he slowly adopted to this atmosphere and didn’t think too much of it. He poured tea for the middle aged woman and himself, and then drank from the cup. Both of them were silent as they listened to the crickets in the Herb Garden. Slowly, his mind calmed and wandered off.
Only until then did he realize that he had always liked quiet and was used to quiet.
He never liked to talk much when he was little.
Only until he arrived at the capital did he really started speaking to others. He spoke with Madam Xu, Shuang Er, and Lady Mo Yu for some particular reason. After Tang Thirty Six came to Tradition Academy, he showed his true self and talked all day and
Chen Chang Sheng had no choice but to talk back.
He was tired out from all the conversations.
There was no rule saying that when two people sit together, they must speak.
Sometimes it’s fine to just sit there quietly.
Even if they need to converse, they don’t need to speak. A simple gesture will suffice.
It was as if he returned to Xi Ning Village. He was with his senior near the river behind the old temple. They were reading the Scrolls of the Way with the help of starlight. When they read up to a confusing part, they would gesture each other to communicate, then they would continue reading silently.
The river was just like Herb Garden at this moment. It was quiet. It was comfortable.
Xi Ning Village was a rural area. Every night, the region would be pitch dark so the starlight was extremely bright. When it landed on earth, it was like snow covering the ground. After Chen Chang Sheng came to the capital, he wasn’t used to the complicated relationships between people, but he never got use to the candle lights at night and the dim starlight.
After several autumn rains washed the sky of the capital clear, there were no artificial lights left besides the oil candle on the stone table of Herb Garden. The lamps of royal palace were also blocked by the dense forest so at this moment, the starlight seemed to got brighter than usual.
The starlight shone through the branches of the trees and landed on his face.
He raised his face and glanced at the starry sky. He reminisced about the old temple of Xi Ning Village and his senior, but the bright starlight made him squint his eyes.
Under the silver starlight, his eyebrows were still so clean.
He squinted his eyes and all the youth of him surfaced.
He was just as kind as usual, but a little cuter.
Just this moment, the middle aged woman switched her glare from the Herb Garden to him.
She looked at him quietly.
He was squinting his eyes so he didn’t notice her attention. He was reminiscing, thinking back to the past.
She was stumped while looking at him.
Her reminiscence had just finished.
She picked up her right hand and smoothly touched his face.
Chen Chang Sheng was surprised. His eyes opened widely and he looked at the middle aged woman.
He wasn’t used to bodily contact because he had no experience when he was little. Plus he didn’t know the woman; they had only met twice.
He instinctively wanted to back off, but then he saw the eyes of the woman.
The eyes were like a lake of stars. They contained complex feelings, but slowly the mood became sad and despair.
He didn’t want to leave so abruptly. This woman must have faced countless evil and dark things in her years at the royal palace.
Therefore, he stayed calm and let her palm move across his face even though it felt weird.
The woman’s hand was warm and thick. It slowly rub his face and Chen Chang Sheng’s body got stiff. Only after a long time did he relax again.
Suddenly, the middle aged woman squeezed his cheeks, just like an elder would do to a newborn infant.
Chen Chang Sheng couldn’t sit still anymore so he stood up. He back off two steps and bowed, “I need to go back.”
After saying this, he remembered that she was deaf and mute so he quickly gestured.
The middle aged woman saw his reaction and laughed loudly.