She blinked her eyes. Was it just an illusion. She actually thought that she had seen a sort of coldness glint in the child's eye.
But looking at the child now she didn't think it was possible maybe it was just the light. It was so dim right now she could hardly see anything.
"Yes, it had to be " She told herself shaking those thoughts out of her head.
She needed to focus on the main problem.
This was the princess's mansion. The guests were all nobles, ministers, and their families. A child in a patched robe did not belong in the garden of the eldest princess.
"Is he lost," she thought. "Why is he hiding?"
She glanced back at Xi Shu. He was currently a distance away focused on the edge of the garden, his back half‑turned to her, checking the perimeter.
"Should I call out to him " she thought " but he was far, should she?"
Turning back to the child he looked small. So still like a cornered animal.
She took a step toward him.
He flinched back.
"Wait, I promise" she said softly. "I won't hurt you. Are you lost?"
The Child stood still.
Maybe thinking the child had relaxed Shen Miao took a step forward.
"Please let me-" Shen Miao said but was cut off
As the child simply turned and darted deeper into the garden, disappearing behind a hedge of flowering camellias.
"Wait "she said, hurrying after him.
Xi Shu hearing her loud call turned to see his young miss run away. Immediately followed behind.
Shen Miao followed not out of curiosity or recklessness. But because he was a child, alone, in a place where he didn't belong. And she could not leave him there.
The flowers closed around her—white and pink and deep red, their petals brushing her sleeves. The lantern light grew dimmer. The path twisted and turned, and she kept moving, her eyes searching for the small grey robe.
Seeing him turn a corner, she followed.
The child's form disappearing around the hedges with every turn.
She followed looking for the thin grey blur every time the child turned.
"Fourth Miss " She heard Xi Shu yell. Realizing the mistake that she made she turned around hoping to find a way out only to make another turn trapping herself in what looked to be a corner of the bush.
She panicked "Xi Shu, I'm here"
The voice seemed distant now.
Then she saw another blur of grey again
If she could catch him quickly, she could bring him back and find Xi Shu afterwards.
But after few turns later and the child was gone.
She turned again, looking for him—
And realized she did not recognize where she was.
The garden stretched out around her, dark and quiet, the lanterns sparse and distant. The sound of the banquet had faded entirely. She was alone.
"No" she mumbled.
She glanced back. No Xi Shu. No path she could name.
"How," she thought.
--
Under the light footsteps dashing around, the garden was quiet.
Xi Shu stood in the middle of the flower beds, his eyes scanning the shadows. The lantern light flickered, casting long, shifting shapes across the hedges.
He couldn't hear her footsteps anymore.
He turned glancing behind him.
She was gone.
His heart lurched. He kept his face still, but his eyes moved faster, tracking the path she had been walking, the direction she had been facing.
"She was right there," he thought. "A moment ago."
He walked forward, his steps hurried, his gaze cutting through the gaps between the camellias and the rose bushes. Nothing. Just flowers, leaves, and the dark earth.
In the end, he ended up where he started
"Where is she? "He thought.
Going back to the place where she stood, he glanced around for any clue anything that could give him a glimpse as to why his young miss's sudden behavior.
Stopping at a bend in the path where the ground was unsettled—small footprints, too small for an adult, pressed into the soft soil. And beside them, deeper impressions, the edges of a robe dragging through the damp earth.
"A child," he thought but immediately denied the idea "What would a child be doing here? Maybe the prints belong to a smaller animal"
He straightened and looked around. The garden seemed larger now, the path less certain. The sounds of the banquet were distant, muffled, as if they belonged to another world entirely.
He had lost her.
He closed his eyes for a moment, forcing calm.
"He needed to inform the others" he thought turning to leave the garden