Before Chu Hengyuan could recover his senses, Aran withdrew her head and ran off, breathless.
Back at Guanju Courtyard, Aran locked herself in her bedroom. With a flushed face, she muttered to herself, "Chu Hengyuan isn't sick; it is I who have gone mad to have said such things to him." Stunned by her own behavior, she convinced herself that she must have fallen prey to Chu Hengyuan’s good looks. She sat on the bed and began reciting the Heart Sutra, chanting, "Form is emptiness, emptiness is form."
Meanwhile, in his quarters, Chu Hengyuan alternated between sipping sobering soup, fingering the jade pendant hanging from his waist, and picking up a book, though he could not focus on a single word.
Chapter 23