The candlelight in Broken Yuxuan jumped on time at three o'clock in the morning. Zhen Huan pinched the blood-soaked page of palace regulations, her fingertips turning white.
"If the shadow in the mirror has a white plum hairpin on its temples, smash the bronze mirror immediately - that's not you."
The snow outside the window is getting heavier again, and the palace lantern hanging on the corner of the eaves flickers on and off, revealing a series of deep purple footprints under the wall, as if someone has walked by dragging wet blood. She didn't dare to look back and just stared at her own reflection in the bronze mirror - her temples were empty, but the fragrance of plum blossoms was clearly lingering in her nose, as sweet as the blood that slowly solidified when Liu Zhu fell on the steps last year.
"Mother, it's time to hold the lamp." It was Huanbi's voice, but Huanbi's voice shouldn't have echoes, like it was coming from a deep well.
Zhen Huan grasped the last line of the palace rules: "After midnight, whoever knocks on the door must first count the ice flowers on the window lattice." If the ice flower has seven petals, don't open it; if one petal is missing...]
There was a knock on the door outside the window at exactly this moment.
