An invitation from the Emperor was a great honour indeed, but Shufeng stood behind the golden doors of the Hall of Gathering Elegance with a feeling of deepening apprehension. His eyes were locked firmly onto the great doors through which he would face the wealthy and the high-power circles for the first time in fifteen years.
When one lies alone lamenting the whole night through until the morning rays, and sit alone in a house where no one pays him a visit—how slowly and solitary the years goes by. For fifteen years, he was shunted aside, prohibited from entering the Inner Court. Because of his confinement in the abandoned palace, he was not a man who enjoyed meeting a throng of people.
