Siheyuan, integrating everything, cultivating the city

When he walked into the courtyard, he found that the courtyard was still the familiar scene. The locust tree on the west side was still lush and leafy. Although the flowers and plants in the courtyard were a little messy, it did not prevent them from growing tenaciously in this old courtyard. Li Xiangqian looked up and saw the dim light coming through the window. He couldn't help but speed up his pace, but he was a little hesitant in his heart. For some reason, he always felt that something was wrong today.

Li Xiangqian's footsteps were particularly clear in the quiet room as he pushed open the door of the east wing. He put the sweet potato on the table and wiped the sweat off his forehead. The anxiety in his heart had not dissipated, but became stronger on the way home. The wind outside the door was still blowing gently, bringing a hint of coolness, and the room was still so quiet that people could not ignore the depressing atmosphere.

He stood at the door and glanced at the pair of old shoes in the corner. These were the shoes he wore every day. Although they were a little worn, they had accompanied him through many journeys. Today, his shoes were a little dirty, as if they were stained with mud. He did not rush to change his shoes, but slowly sat down at the table, picked up a pen, and casually drew on the paper, trying to calm himself down.

However, the uneasiness still lingers.

After an unknown amount of time, Li Xiangqian suddenly stood up, walked to the window, and looked down at the quiet yard outside. The moonlight sprinkled among the flowers and plants, casting tiny shadows through the window lattice, like some kind of ominous omen. His heartbeat began to speed up, and his whole body felt a little cold. The familiar feeling of oppression swept over him again. This feeling became stronger and stronger, as if he was being stared at by something. Suddenly, he glanced out the window and saw that there seemed to be some movement next to the flower bed in the west.

Li Xiangqian's heart skipped a beat. He couldn't help but look outside, but he couldn't see anything clearly. The shadows of the trees in the yard were projected onto the ground. The vague outlines were like some kind of ghost figure, approaching silently from a distance. Li Xiangqian's heart tightened, and he squinted his eyes, as if the shadow had created some kind of indescribable fear in his heart.

It was an unknown figure, slowly approaching his yard. Li Xiangqian's breathing began to become rapid, his mind was in a mess, and the scene in front of him was a little blurry, as if everything was beginning to lose focus. The strange sense of oppression just now seemed to sweep across the entire courtyard again. He stood there, but he didn't do anything in his heart. He just stared out the window blankly, and kept asking in his heart: What is that? Who is that?

Suddenly, a crisp sound broke the silence - a light cough came from outside.

Li Xiangqian suddenly came to his senses and turned his head to look at the door. He found Aunt Wang standing outside the door, looking in through the window. She didn't seem to realize Li Xiangqian's panic. She was still the familiar face with a calm smile. Aunt Wang looked at the sweet potato in his hand, then looked at his shoes covered with mud, and asked, "Did you just come back today?"

"Yeah, I just bought some sweet potatoes." Li Xiangqian's voice was a little low, and he felt a little overwhelmed. "I... I just saw some movement in the yard. I don't know if I saw it wrongly."

Aunt Wang nodded, with a somewhat ambiguous look between her eyebrows. She said softly, "Something is not right in the yard recently, you know? Some people always come in and out quietly at night, as if...something is happening quietly." She paused, as if thinking about something, and then continued, "You should be careful too. These days, I always feel that something is not right here."

Li Xiangqian couldn't help but feel nervous, and the tension surged into his heart like a tide. He was stunned for a moment, wanting to ask something, but found that he couldn't speak at all. Aunt Wang's words were like a warning bell, making his nervousness more obvious. Yes, he did feel this unusual atmosphere recently, but he didn't have the courage to think deeply, and habitually suppressed these emotions in his heart. But now, Aunt Wang's words seemed to break the veil of silence, and he suddenly felt a chill.

"Do you think... there's something wrong here?" Li Xiangqian asked cautiously, his eyes unconsciously falling on the quiet courtyard outside the door. Aunt Wang narrowed her eyes and looked at him, with a complicated light flashing in her eyes.

"Li Xiangqian, there are many things that you should see clearly." Aunt Wang did not seem to answer directly, but turned and walked towards the yard, her voice a little low, "Some things, if you don't pay attention to them, will eventually come to you on their own."

As Li Xiangqian watched Aunt Wang leave, he became even more confused. He knew that the old lady had something else in her words, but she didn't seem to want to say it out loud. And he himself felt more and more that this courtyard seemed to be hiding some unknown secrets.

He looked back at his shoes. The dirt marks under his feet had dried up and looked a little old. There seemed to be nothing special about the shoes, but he couldn't help but wonder if the dirt marks on the shoes were also related to the strangeness of that night. Every step he took, every piece of dirt he stepped on, seemed to remind him that the courtyard was no longer the one he once knew.

His eyes fell on the pair of shoes again, and his heart ached, as if something was pressing on him, forcing him to ignore it. The shoes were covered with mud, as if hiding some unknown truth. Li Xiangqian reached out to touch the upper of the shoes, and his fingertips touched dry mud, which was cool and seemed to penetrate through the soles of the shoes into a corner deep in his heart.

"Who on earth did it?" This thought suddenly popped up in Li Xiangqian's mind. He suddenly felt that he was trapped in an invisible net, and every slight movement made it impossible for him to escape. His eyes began to become anxious, and every corner of the courtyard began to become extremely sensitive in his eyes.

Li Xiangqian withdrew his gaze from Aunt Wang's back, his heart still surging. In the yard, the air became somewhat oppressive, and everything around him seemed to begin to approach him. He reached out and rubbed his hair, but suddenly felt a strange sense of relief - it was not a natural relaxation, but a sudden sparse feeling that slipped through his fingers. His fingers paused for a moment, and Li Xiangqian looked down at the palm of his hand, vaguely seeing a few black hairs lying quietly on it, looking so abrupt.

He was a little stunned, and a wave of uneasiness rose in his heart, as if an undercurrent began to flow quietly. That kind of unknown anxiety began to spread, covering his already anxious mood.