483 Bie Yanghong's Position

After a moment of silence, Tang Thirty-Six asked, "And Bie Yanghong is your…?" Su Moyu replied, "My uncle." (TN: 舅舅 = Mother's brother.)  Tang Thirty-Six took a deep breath, then asked, "Wuqiong Bi?" Su Moyu wondered to himself, you still need to ask? "Naturally, she's my aunt." There was a rather awkward silence. Tang Thirty-Six looked at him and said, "In the future, can you mention this alittle sooner?" Su Moyu replied, "No one has ever asked me, and I can't just meet someone andtell them, 'My uncle is Bie Yanghong'." Chen Changsheng nodded. "That's reasonable." Tang Thirty-Six glanced at him and said, "I still haven't talked about how youhid that engagement of yours with Xu Yourong from us. Don't be in such a rushto form an alliance." He then turned back to Su Moyu and said, "Continue." “When my aunt studied at the Li Palace Academy, she and Archbishop Siyuan werelike sister and brother, so she would naturally stand on his side. Inaddition…she tends to cover for the mistakes of others." As he was speaking ofhis elders, Su Moyu had a rather unnatural expression. "If Cousin really didfight with you, no matter who won or lost, I'm afraid it wouldn’t be that easyto end the matter. It might result in my aunt coming to the capital." Chen Changsheng and Tang Thirty-Six looked each other in the eyes, then saidwith one voice, "It's not necessary! Quickly write to your uncle saying thateverything here is all right." Su Moyu replied, "No need, my uncle already wrote me a letter." "What?" "What other reason would I have come out of the Mausoleum of Books for?" When Su Moyu thought of the contents of that letter, he felt rather helpless.  Uncle, even if you're a henpecked husband, does that mean that I'm not afraidof Auntie? "Uncle wanted me to enter the Orthodox Academy." "So here I am," he finished. It was only now that Chen Changsheng and Tang Thirty-Six finally understoodthe entire situation. Bie Yanghong knew that his own wife supported the Orthodoxy's new faction. Atthe moment, Bie Tianxin was representing the Li Palace Academy in challengingthe Orthodox Academy. If he won, then the Bie family would naturally haveoffended the Pope, the Wenshui clan, and even Su Li and those two Saints inWhite Emperor City. But if he lost, that wife of his who loved to cover for themistakes of others might come to the capital to stir up a storm. He didn't want such a thing to occur. Perhaps it was because he supported theOrthodoxy's conservative faction, or perhaps it was for the very simple reasonthat he didn't want to participate in this storm. Consequently, he wrote aletter to Su Moyu in the Mausoleum of Books, asking his most favored nephew toleave the Mausoleum of Books ahead of time, enter the Orthodox Academy, and dohis utmost to make this entire matter disappear! It must be said that Bie Yanghong's way of doing things was very intelligent.When his wife was standing with the new faction of the Orthodoxy, he had SuMoyu represent him in displaying his goodwill, or at least his desire to calmthe situation, to the other side. In this way, and with the status and powerthe two held as a couple, the Bie family would probably be able to avoid anyconsequences from this storm. This was what was meant by the saying, 'Only bynot getting involved can one proudly stride upon the earth'. However, this wayof doing things made one fact very obvious: in this matter, Wuqiong Bi hadclearly not solicited the opinion of her husband or had not followed his advice. The loving couple of the Eight Storms, the legendary companions that trulyseemed like immortals, also turned out to have their own disagreements. Thinking of this, Chen Changsheng couldn't help but sigh. On the other hand, Tang Thirty-Six was much more straightforward. He asking SuMoyu, "Is the relationship between your uncle and aunt not good?" Su Moyu looked at him but did not respond, resulting in another awkwardsilence. "Just act like I never said that." Tang Thirty-Six chuckled and said, "In thiscase, you're basically the associate young master of the Bie family. No wonderthat guy looked at you with such a strange expression. And if the associateyoung master wants to discipline a servant, would he dare to hit back?" Su Moyu very seriously corrected him, "Even if he used his full strength, Iwould still be able to beat him." He then turned to Chen Changsheng and sighed, "You truly are extraordinary." Chen Changsheng felt somewhat embarrassed. Tang Thirty-Six wasn't embarrassed at all. Draping his arms over ChenChangsheng's shoulders, he said, "The reason your uncle had you enter theOrthodox Academy is now very clear. Today, you've already disciplined yourservant. In another few days, if your cousin similarly comes to make trouble,don't you try and avoid it." Su Moyu thought, the words are the same and the meaning is the same, but whyis it that when they come out of your mouth, they're always so grating? Hereally didn't know how to respond, so he looked around at the sereneenvironment around the house and noted, "This side is actually rather quiet." "Ordinary students aren't allowed to come over to this side. You also just sawthat short wall. Of course, you're definitely no ordinary student. Xuanyuan Pohas already readied your room. We'll take you to see it in a moment. So? Ourtreatment of you isn't bad, right?" Tang Thirty-Six thought of a coincidence. Laughing, he said, "You're theassociate young master of the Bie family and this garden partitioned off by thewall is called the Separate (Bie) Garden. This is destiny, don't you think?That you were meant to transfer to the Orthodox Academy and you were meant tolive here?" Su Moyu wasn't thinking about these things at all. Shaking his head, hereplied, "We're all students; to enjoy such privilege is inappropriate." "He's the principal, I'm the superintendent, Xuanyuan Po is the head ofhousekeeping, and Zhexiu's position has already been arranged, although wedon't know what to call it yet. Princess Luoluo is the lifetime honorary viceprincipal. In short, none of us is an ordinary student. If you want a position,just mention it." "But I just feel that we're all youths—why do we need a wall to separate us?" "Because Chen Changsheng said he likes quiet. In my view, he has too manysecrets and is afraid of other people finding them out." At this, Chen Changsheng could no longer bear to maintain his silence. Heexplained to Su Moyu, "You know that cultivation really does require quiet. Ifany of the new students succeed in breaking into Ethereal Opening, they canalso move into the Separate Garden. In addition, if any of them can get intothe three banners of the Grand Examination, they also have the qualificationsto move in. Using Tang Tang's words, it also provides some motivation." Su Moyu thought that this explanation was rather reasonable. He asked, "Howdid they all respond?" In the Li Palace Academy, he had grown accustomed to leading his schoolmates.Today on his first arrival at the Orthodox Academy, he subconsciously began toconsider these things. Tang Thirty-Six turned his gaze to the distant lakeshore, where those youngstudents sat or lay on the grass. "They're all either students from thecounties and the countryside or invisible students of the Ivy Academies thatwere ignored. If they were to pass the preparatory examination for the GrandExamination, they would offer a sacrifice to the sea of stars and worship theEmpress. They wouldn't even dare to have such extravagant hopes as entering thethree banners of the Grand Examination. As for breaking into EtherealOpening…it's something that's even more beyond their imagination. As a result,not a single one them paid attention to what we said. They just think that wedrew a picture of a flatcake for them to look at. There have even been somecomplaints." Su Moyu thought of how Chen Changsheng had broken into Ethereal Opening in themiddle of the last match of the Grand Examination and shocked the continent,and then he recalled how after that night bathed in starlight in the Mausoleumof Books, breaking into Ethereal Opening seemingly became much morecommonplace. He couldn't help inadvertently shooting him a glance and thinking,  just how many people actually know the benefits Chen Changsheng has brought tothis generation of youth? Tang Thirty-Six continued to gaze in that direction as he spoke, "In fact, Ican understand why they think this way, but I still feel that they aren't verymature. So, a few days ago, I gathered them together and gave them a goodscolding." Chen Changsheng shook his head. He absolutely didn't want to re-experiencewhat happened on that night a few days ago, even if it was only a recollection.He had never in his life seen Tang Thirty-Six curse people like that. Su Moyu deeply disapproved of this style of teaching. Shaking his head, hechided, "Cursing others is not right." "Not a single swear came from my mouth. It was just like when you obstructedus on the Divine Avenue of the Li Palace." "Ah, the Divine Avenue of the Li Palace," Su Moyu somewhat remorsefullysighed, flashing an apologetic look at Chen Changsheng. "I told them, last year at this time, on the Divine Avenue of the Li Palace,Chen Changsheng told the entire world that he was going to get first rank onthe first banner in the Grand Examination. Moreover, at that time, he hadn'teven succeeded at Purification. Everyone thought he was crazy. In the end? Inthe end, he really did what no one thought was possible." Tang Thirty-Six finished, "Then how can anything in this world truly beimpossible? What do the three banners of the Grand Examination or breaking intoEthereal Opening amount to?" Su Moyu thought it over, then responded, "It makes sense." The two brought Su Moyu to his room to let him rest well, then took theirleave.