The Librarian and the Fox Princess: a Donghua Dijun and Bai Fengjiu story, V.I

Chapter 74 - The Twilight Garden

A/N: I was overwhelmed in the best possible way with the support and kind words from my last Author's Note. Thank you. Writing can be a lonely endeavor at times. It's nice to have a tribe.

---

When Dong Hua led her into his library, she immediately noticed that it was different.

It was verdant.

Climbing plants and vines grew along the sides of the shelves and grass was under her feet. Trees were dispersed throughout the labyrinth of shelves. She looked up to the ceiling of the library and beyond the tree canopy was a dark night sky filled with stars.

Trees and stars. She blinked up at them.

"Dijun?" she asked as she turned to him.

He looked back at her intently but said nothing. She broke her gaze away and found herself stepping forward. Was it a library or a forest? Was it a library in a forest? In safe tucked away corners around the shelves grew small blue flowers.

She kept walking down the rows of shelves letting her fingers softly graze the books and scrolls. When she met the end of the shelf as it opened to another path, there was a tree growing in between the intersection of shelves. The library had been reconfigured so that there was plenty of room to move around but she still couldn't shake the feeling that she was in a forest, that just happened to have shelves upon shelves with endless amount of books and scrolls. This was truly confusing to her.

A few lightning bugs whirled past as if they were late for an engagement. She stood watching their light surge forward, looping around and then disappearing into the night.

Life in the library? But wasn't this Dijun's cultivation? She felt something lightly brush over her head. Seemingly out of nowhere Dijun had appeared next to her stroking her hair. His hand was ethereal as the night breeze.

"Are you scared?" His voice was hushed. Like his touch, it was barely there yet something electrifying danced in the space between them.

She shook her head. "But I'm a little lost as to why things are like this. Your library wasn't like this when I was last here."

"I know. It wasn't like this the last time I was here, either. That was right before you came back from ... your travels."

Without another word he reached down for her hand and he began slowly walking. Wordlessly she followed. This was the first time she could remember walking hand in hand with him. His palm was cold but not icy. His fingers reminded her of the handle of the smoothest porcelain teapot left out under the twilight.

He led her through the labyrinth as she marveled at all the plants that had climbed on the sides of the shelves. Somehow none of the plants got in the way of the functionality of the library. She had never seen nature so orderly and vibrant at the same time.

The more they walked the more it became a forest and less like a library. She tugged at his hand letting him know she wanted to look at something. She led him over to a small patch of blue flowers growing at the base of a tree trunk. Kneeling down, her small red-robed form starkly contrasted against the dark green grass. She just gazed at the flowers with a soft smile. He knelt by her side and kept his eyes on her face.

This reminded him of when she had agreed to take him back to the Nine Heavens when they had first met. During their leisurely stroll, she would lead him over to inspect rocks or flowers that she found interesting. She showed him a world he had long forgotten.

"Why are these here?" she whispered to herself. She took time to look around at the dark forest library.

"Dijun, tell me. This library is made from your cultivation and an extension of your aura. Why does it look like the forests of Qing Qiu? These flowers are native to Qing Qiu and only grow there. I played in forests like this a lot as a kit."