Time slipped away unnoticed. By the time they strolled back to the courtyard, the night was already deep, the hands of the clock quietly pointing past eight o'clock.
As they stepped into the courtyard, an unusual silence washed over them.
The Front Courtyard was particularly quiet. The only light came from a streetlamp, casting a dim, yellow glow. The surrounding houses all had their doors and windows tightly shut, plunged into pitch darkness without a single flicker of light. Even Yan Bugui and his family, who had stood guard by the main gate day in and day out for over a decade, were nowhere to be seen.
Chapter 119