Falling Star

An Jia Li again felt her head spinning. Cold sweat dripped from his temples. It seems that the fever he had forgotten about protested and came back to stay.

"Xing Yi"

"Xing Yi"

"Xing Yi"

An Jia Li reread the character of the name many times and it didn't change at all. The character still shows the name 'Xing Yi' which means one star. The name of the author of the novel where An Jia Li is now in the story. An Jia Li's mind began to fantasize with many absurd things. He seems to be going crazy soon, even though he has always read stories that are beyond the common sense of human logic. But reading and experiencing fantasy things like that is of course different.

There is a saying, "the blind cannot see, the dumb cannot speak, the deaf cannot hear, the dead cannot feel."

"If you don't feel it, you won't understand it"

Of course, at this time only An Jia Li felt this fantasy thing that made her soul tremble. But, on the other hand he also did not understand. Maybe it was because he was too crazy, so An Jia Li couldn't think calmly at the moment. His head shook more and more like there was an earthquake, tsunami, storm and all disasters gathered in one place unreasonably. An Jia Li's mind sensed the apocalypse. His soul seemed to plunge across the horizon like a shooting star.

"Mei-Mei, I forgot to say something" Miss Liu's voice woke An Jia Li who was lost in her thoughts.

An Jia Li gasped. He was suddenly like a fish that had just come out of a pond and was trying to crawl on land. His trembling hands had accidentally dropped what he was holding and had put the book in his hand into a box containing a pile of books that had been separated for disposal. Even though those books would end up in An Jia Li's hands later.

Miss Liu furrowed her brows so that her river brows seemed to come together. He stared at An Jia Li in surprise for a moment "why is your face so pale like that?" Miss Liu asked. He then touched An Jia Li's forehead again and was surprised.

"Geez!. You have a high fever?!. How can that be?. Your body temperature wasn't this hot earlier." Miss Liu was busy with her words and every action of checking An Jia Li's body temperature at a certain point repeatedly to confirm whether she was wrong or not. no. Meanwhile, An Jia Li actually felt like her head was constantly spinning. Cold sweat trickled down his forehead. His breath also began to rush and heat. An Jia Li's mind became confused by the name. The more he kept repeating the character of the name, the more depressed he felt.

"You-" Miss Liu seemed to be at a loss for words or was reluctant to continue when she saw something strange on her adopted sister's wrist. Even though she didn't fully understand, but with all the conditions, Miss Liu was able to quickly guess what was going on.

"You wouldn't be like this if you just plunged into a shallow fish pond, idiot" Miss Liu muttered. His face looked angry. "Let's go back to your room and rest"

Miss Liu led An Jia Li to walk away from the room that was like heaven to An Jia Li earlier.

"The book..."

"Can you still worry about books? Better worry about yourself first. You're hiding something from me right? Did that concubine do something to you again?" Miss Liu started to ask questions because she couldn't stand it.

"You have strange marks on your wrists... I've only ever seen such strange marks on the bodies of prisoners who were thrown into the water prison" Miss Liu continued purposely. He asked An Jia Li for an explanation to prove whether his guess was correct or not. "Were you put in there by that snake?!" Miss Liu whispered slightly suppressing the word reptile.

"What do you mean, Miss Liu? I wasn't bitten by a snake," he said deliberately. An Jia Li knew what Miss Liu meant but she tried to distract her. At the same time he also distracts himself from that night. Where he met with Chunyin who was sneaking for whatever purpose. To be precise, An Jia Li had indeed become focused on her memories with Chunyin and forgotten the incident with the Snake concubine.

"Aih, you're starting to digress" Miss Liu thought, because An Jia Li's fever was high so she couldn't focus while thinking about answering her question so Miss Liu held back another question and let An Jia Li rest. "Sleep. Don't worry about the book. I'll take care of it," said Miss Liu. He was busy taking care of An Jia Li who seemed like his little sister he had to worry too much about.

"I will call a doctor. Wait," said Miss Liu after she put a wet towel on An Jia Li's head and then left.

"What is wrong with me?" An Jia Li tried to talk to herself. As Miss Liu left, she began to notice strange things. A shadow of a person appeared in front of him then disappeared like Miss Liu had left him. Now in front of his eyes only the flowers in the vase that Chunyin gave him that night. The flower looks a little wilted.

Worry creeps in. An Jia Li returned to the feeling she had when she first opened her eyes back then. A feeling of fear of loss and loneliness overcame him.

All the fleeting memories fell like fragile glass fragments.

"Yi-Ge, don't leave me" An Jia Li muttered without realizing it. In his imagination, Zhang Chunyin's face and Li Xi's emperor's face now merged to make a smile. That smile hurts.

"Xing Yi... Gege. I'm sorry"

An Jia Li closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep with a feeling of regret enveloping her.

In dreams. An Jia Li transformed into broken flower petals. He rides on the wind in search of something important. Something he could no longer endure. Then the dream ended in nothingness. He did not find a single star in the night. The broken petals finally fell into the darkness.

I don't need the moon. I don't need the sun. I don't need billions of stars. I only want you by my side. Please do not go. Even if you are just a little star that dims and falls. Let me be dust with you. You are my only light. Forever.

The moon has now risen to replace the sun - let it rest so that it can return to the clear sky because there is no way the moon will shine in the morning.

An Jia Li finally woke up after her slowly recovering sense of smell smelled such a strong scent that her stomach forced her to wake up. The bitter and sweet aroma of spices pierced An Jia Li's sense of smell. He opened his eyes and saw someone was cleaning the table nearby.

An Jia Li quickly gathered her consciousness. He pulled his soul with all his might from the dreamland that gripped him.

"Oh. You're awake. I brought this meat and potato stew for you. Eat it while it's warm" Miss Liu handed over a tray containing a bowl of meat and potato stew cooked with spices and a mixture of sugar, as well as black soybeans that had been processed into a paste. sweet spices.

"This…" An Jia Li looked at the smoky dish on her face.

"Oh. I forgot to mention. This is a new recipe from the royal chef, but it seems His Majesty doesn't really like it, so there's still a lot left for the servants to eat" explained Miss Liu which An Jia Li didn't really need.

An Jia Li who comes from or has lived in the modern era of course knows this dish. He once ate it in a middle eastern restaurant which served a lot of processed meat with strong spices. He knew what the food in front of him was, but at the same time he also couldn't remember the food, "what's the name, huh?" An Jia Li thought. He wondered but didn't think about it at all. It seems that his soul is still trapped in dreamland. Only his body woke up to finish the big bowl of meat stew.

An Jia Li's soul is still wandering in the dreamland looking for something she remembers but she doesn't remember either. Very strange if you think about it. But that's what happened.

"This food... I once ate it somewhere with that person..." his soul found a shadowy figure. A memory swirled with unclear images. "Who is it?" The question finally appeared in An Jia Li's mind.

"Where's that?"

"Why am I with him?"

The memory then changes again to another memory. A library now stands in front of An Jia Li's soul. There are so many books with unclear titles. An Jia Li couldn't read it. But that's when he received a book from 'that person' he didn't remember. He then read what was in the corner of the book cover. He saw two characters.

"Xing Yi"

An Jia Li almost grabbed the golden thread that flashed in front of her, but failed. The thread disappeared. An Jia Li's head again felt a violent twist. His heartbeat no longer had a normal rhythm. It felt like there were thousands of shooting stars in his head. He felt it was like a bomb ready to explode if An Jia Li continued to force himself to search for the golden thread.

An Jia Li continued to run and stopped tiredly. "Can't..." he mumbled.

"I can't remember anything about that person… I… I don't remember anything about Xing Yi" An Jia Li felt tight again. He was suddenly sad and upset at the same time because he couldn't remember what he was supposed to remember.

"Why can't I remember it?"

"Why do I feel like I remember it?"

"What the hell is this weird thing?!"

An Jia Li continued to think about her emotional turmoil which was really like waiting for the time to come to explode.

"The book…" muttered An Jia Li. He looked around for something and finally came out looking for Miss Liu who was currently in the palace kitchen.

"Miss Liu!. Where is the book?!" An Jia Li asked. He rushed with his face still pale and shouted so that everyone in the kitchen looked at him in confusion. They looked at An Jia Li strangely. Which waiter is talking about books in the kitchen? Very unreasonable. You should have asked where is the knife?, or where is the meat and vegetables to be cooked?. There's no way you're going to boil a pile of paper to serve to the emperor right?! After all, which human would want to eat pulp?.

***

"Your Majesty. Here is a letter from the Central Literature Bureau," Wenhua said. He handed Chunyin a roll of paper.

Chunyin wore a calm face even though she was a little confused and wondered in silence, "from the center of the Literature Bureau? Is it asking for permission to exchange works from outside the empire?"

"But. There's no way he would be so impolite just by handing me a letter like this. He should have brought his body and face to talk directly."

Chunyin immediately took off the letter that even the seal didn't seem to be for a noble. The letter was formal but not as rigid as a letter to an old friend. After he opened the scroll, Chunyin immediately read the contents.

[To Mr Xing Yi.

From the head of the Imperial Literature Bureau Li.]