503 Understanding Only After Separation

The great banyan tree had already shed many of its leaves. Standing atop itsbranches and looking into the distance, whether one was gazing at the Li Palaceor the Mausoleum of Books, they were all extremely clear, as if they were rightbefore the eyes. "I truly did not expect it." Chen Changsheng turned to Luoluo by his side andwas quiet for a very long time, then repeated, "I did not expect it." "Back then, my coming to the capital was truthfully Queen Mother's idea. Shewanted to see if His Holiness the Pope or the Divine Empress would be able tohelp resolve the problems with my meridians. If not, I would be unable tocultivate in the techniques of the White Emperor clan, and thus be unable toinherit the throne. I might even have had to marry some person I didn't want tomarry. But Queen Mother definitely could not have imagined that the Pope andthe Divine Empress were unable to resolve my problems, but instead it wasTeacher." Luoluo raised her head and gazed at Chen Changsheng's face in admiration."Teacher, you truly are extraordinary." "It's only because I enjoyed considering the problems of meridians ever sinceI was a child…" Chen Changsheng recalled that he had already explained this last year, so fellsilent. He really hadn't expected that Luoluo would leave, even though her departurewas a matter of course—she had come to the capital to learn or have her illnesschecked. Now, she knew how to cultivate in human techniques and could see thepossibility of succeeding to the hegemony of the White Emperor, and her illnesshad been cured. So it was only natural that she should return to White EmperorCity. She was the Princess of the Red River and millions upon millions of hersubjects were awaiting her care. But all this had happened far too quickly. There had been no sign, andwhenever he met her in the Imperial Palace or Li Palace, she had nevermentioned it. Fine, these were all excuses. So what if it was sudden? He still would beunwilling to part, because he truly was unwilling. In the rich twilight, both the lake and trees of the Orthodox Academy seemedto be afire. Luoluo began to make her way out of the Orthodox Academy, thensuddenly stopped. She turned around and snuggled lightly into his chest. Chen Changsheng knew what she was feeling, because he was feeling the same,and used his hands to rub her head. In these almost two years, he and she wouldoften sit side by side, or hold hands, or she would bury her head in his chest.He was used to it and so didn't think much of it. Moreover, in his eyes, shewas a little girl, like a younger sister or a daughter… "Teacher, there's something I've always been deceiving you about." Luoluo raised her head to look at him, her eyelashes blinking. "In truth, I'mnot twelve years old. I'm the same age as Teacher." Chen Changsheng was stupefied, at a complete loss for words. As for his hands,he was even more at a loss as to where to put them, feeling that putting themanywhere was wrong. "You…how can you deceive others?" "Teacher, you're stupid to not be able to see, but you still want to blame melah…" Luoluo opened her eyes wide and seriously stared at him. Chen Changsheng had no words to reply. Laughter akin to silver bells rang throughout the Orthodox Academy. Lahlahlahlah. Luoluo left, returning to White Emperor City to confront the challenges shehad to face. Yet her laughter continued to echo around the great banyan tree and lake ofthe Orthodox Academy for many years. Even after many years, whenever the students of the Orthodox Academy mentionedthe legendary demi-human princess, the vice principal that they had never seenbefore, they would give endless rueful sighs. At the same time, Tang Thirty-Sixwould be filled with countless complaints. Back then when he had beenrecruiting new students, how had he said it? …… …… Luoluo left, but the people coming and going from the Orthodox Academyactually increased in number. The priests of the Bureau of Ecclesiastic Education would come to givelessons, Priest Xin would come over when he wasn't busy, and Mao Qiuyu wouldoccasionally visit the tea house outside the Orthodox Academy to sit for awhile. The person who visited the Orthodox Academy the most was Prince Chen Liu. Timecould change many things, including one's opinion of others, because time wasthe only test of one's true mindset. In the course of their interactions, nomatter if it was Chen Changsheng, Xuanyuan Po, or even the cold and indifferentZhexiu, they all felt the heartfelt desire to protect the Orthodox Academy fromthis young prince. As a result, the two sides began to grow more familiar witheach other. But time could not change all things. For instance, the rocks in a latrinewould always be stinky and hard. Tang Thirty-Six still did not like Prince ChenLiu, not even wanting to put up a pretense. Every time Prince Chen Liu visitedthe Orthodox Academy, he would speak a few taunts and jeers and then leave.Today saw the same scene. Regardless of how much Prince Chen Liu had trainedhimself, even he couldn't help but reveal an awkward expression. Chen Changsheng felt rather embarrassed and said a few words of apology inplace of Tang Thirty-Six. He then went off to look for him, wanting to ask justwhy he was acting like this. However, when he found Tang Thirty-Six in thedepths of the Orthodox Academy's forest, he forgot to ask. This was because, inthe end, this matter was not very important, and also because Tang Thirty-Sixwas currently doing something very strange. Tang Thirty-Six was not hitting trees like Xuanyuan Po, nor did he seem readyto bury himself in the tree leaves and lay there for seven days and nights. Hewas crouched by a tree, forcefully shoving something into a hole in the tree.Chen Changsheng could clearly see that the item being shoved into the tree holewas a sword. Moreover, this was no ordinary sword, but a famous sword that TangThirty-Six had requested from him last night. "What are you doing?" he asked in shock. Without turning his head, Tang Thirty-Six replied, "I said to you before, I'mprepared to hide those swords of yours for future people to find." Chen Changsheng said rather incredulously, "Recently, you've been asking meevery two days for a sword…but I've never seen you return them. You've beenhiding them all?" Tang Thirty-Six wiped the edges of the tree hole, coarsely disguising it.After giving it a once-over, he felt rather satisfied and stood up. Turningtowards Chen Changsheng, he said, "What else? Or can I take those broken swordsof yours and sell them off to buy wine?" Chen Changsheng was dumbfounded. "Those are my swords, quickly bring themback." "All together, I've only asked for you a bit more than a hundred swords. Isthere a need to be so tense?" "I didn't know that you planned to hide those swords. I thought you wanted toborrow the sword intents to learn the sword styles, so I especially picked outthe best swords for you…" "So what? Look at you being so stingy! It's just a few old swords, and inthese past two years, I've given you so much money." "This isn't a question of money…even if you did want them, you should stilltell me first! If I knew you were going to be so wasteful with them, there's noway I would have given them to you." "Isn't that it right there? I clearly know that if I tell you, you won't givethem to me, so what reason do I have to tell you the reason? You think I'mXuanyuan Po, a fool!" "I don't care. In any case, quickly find those swords again." "I also don't care. Hiding swords is very tiresome, and to find them all againis very annoying. In addition, the latrine smells simply awful." "You…actually hid my swords in the latrine!" "Just pretend like you didn't hear that. At any rate, I'm too lazy to look." "Then I'll go myself. Quickly tell me where those swords are hidden." "Since they're hidden…of course I can't tell you the location. You have tofind it yourself. If you can find it, then you're pretty good lah." "Please don't use the word 'lah'." "Luoluo dropped a big radish." (TN: This is a sort of tongue twister. In pinyin, this line reads as 'Luoluoluoxia yi gen da luobo') "You…in the future, don't discuss this thing anymore." "If I become as stupid as you, I might not even amount to a radish." "I'll ask you again about the swords." "Hide-and-seek is very fun." "…could it be that I did something wrong?" "In any case, my advice to you is that even after you become Pope, youshouldn't go to White Emperor City." "Why?" "I'm worried that the White Emperor might swallow you." "……" "In fact, you're a fool, but it's said that fortune favors a fool, otherwise,if you really did marry Luoluo, that's the equivalent of marrying a tigress,and imagine how your life would be then." ……