514 All Things Indescribable

The crane's cry resounded through the snowstorm and spread to both banks ofthe Luo River. People in the crowd began to stand up. Voices could be heard everywhere andsome people stood on tiptoes, wanting to get a better view of the activity onthe bridge. Some people decided to just climb up to the branches of the scholartrees on the riverside. However, trees in winter are somewhat brittle—how couldthey bear the burden of so many people? With a cracking sound, ten-odd scholartrees successively snapped and several dozen people were dumped into the coldriver. Today, there were many Li Palace priests and Zhou soldiers keepingwatch, and there were also boats at ready downstream. It didn't take long forthose people to be rescued from the river. No lives were endangered, but withthe sudden shock of bone-chilling river water, a bout of illness was almostinevitable. The match on the Bridge of Helplessness had not yet begun and many peoplehadn't even caught sight of Xu Yourong's figure yet, but the surroundings werealready a mess of disorder. From this, one could gather just how much thisbattle was anticipated. The great ship was somewhat closer to the Bridge of Helplessness. Theimportant figures on the ship had already seen that figure at the foot of thebridge. After a momentary restlessness, they grew quiet once more. At this time, Tang Thirty-Six and Zhexiu somehow boarded the boat. Aftermeeting up with Su Moyu, they began to search for a place to view the match.The head of the boat was filled with important figures and seniors. No matterhow wanton he was, even Tang Thirty-Six found it inappropriate to cause troubleat this sort of time. After looking around, he suddenly revealed a cheerfulexpression. Leading the other two, he squeezed next to Mo Yu. Mo Yu glanced athim but didn't say anything. Tang Thirty-Six looked over at the distant Bridge of Helplessness, asking,"Are they really just going to begin fighting like this?" Mo Yu gazed at the young man and young woman on the bridge. She remainedsilent, her mood somewhat complex. This match was a battle between the young leaders of the northern and southernfactions of the Orthodoxy, and it was also the first conflict between the newand conservative factions of the Orthodoxy. More importantly, this match was acompetition of wills between the Divine Empress and the Pope. Chen Changsheng stood on the bridge, watching the water flow by. As he watchedthe snow fall into the water and then vanish, the nervousness and anxiety wasthe same as those pieces of snow, gradually fading into nothingness. He sensed something and turned to look through the falling snow at the otherend of the bridge. It was a very simple action with no weight, but it was done very slowly,because this turning had already used up many years. Separated by the wind and snow, he saw the young woman at the foot of thebridge. This was the first time he saw Xu Yourong, his once-fiancée and the owner ofthose letters and the bamboo dragonfly. Just as he had thought about on the bridge, from a certain perspective, hislife had been changed because of this young woman. Far too many things had been caused for her sake, yet this was their firsttime meeting. Before they met, he had already heard excessive praise over her and the thingsshe had done, but he would still imagine what she looked like. Did she haveblack and beautiful long hair, was she really born with such a beautifulappearance…at present, he still had not seen her face, had not seen her blackhair, but he still felt like the her standing in the snow at the foot of thebridge was completely in line with his imagination. She was in a white dress. There was no umbrella in her hand and she wore acurtained hat. The gauze hanging from the brim of the hat obscured her face. He could vaguely make out a little and he couldn't see clearly, but she wasprobably very beautiful. He couldn't see, but she was very beautiful, because it was a sort ofindescribable beauty. Yes, even with the veil covering her face, even if she just quietly stoodthere, she would give people the feeling of a beauty beyond description. She stood amidst the wind and snow, and it seemed possible that she could atany time depart with the wind, vanish with the snow. She had never been a person of this mortal world. Instead, she should beliving on some high mountain where no man had walked, lofty and unsullied. As he stared at the young woman in the snow, Chen Changsheng finallyunderstood why Xu Shiji and Tang Thirty-Six were so certain that he wouldchange his mind upon seeing her, why Tang Thirty-Six had said many people haddelayed their marriage after seeing her, why she made others speechless. …… …… The gauze in front of Xu Yourong's lightly swayed in the wind. She was noddingin greeting. Chen Changsheng nodded his head to return the greeting, thinking, now whatshould I say? But in the next moment, he realized that over the past few daysand this moment, he had been overthinking things. The young woman in the snow clearly had no intention of talking. She justquietly stood there. The two banks of the Luo River were both deathly still. There was only the gentle sound of the river waters flowing around the greatship. He could almost even hear the sound of snow falling. Everyone else thought the same as Chen Changsheng, believing that he shouldsay something. They all wanted to hear just what he and Xu Yourong would saybefore their battle. To the important figures of the Imperial Court and the Li Palace, this matchon the Bridge of Helplessness held a great significance. The common folk of thecapital were also aware of this, but they didn't care too much. Who wouldinherit the Divine Empress's authority, who would be the next Pope…neither ofthese had much to do with the lives of the common people. When the coup of theHundred Herb Garden occurred, after the bloody incident of the OrthodoxAcademy, the capital was still the capital. What they were all concerned about was the gratitude and resentment, the loveand hatred, between these two participants of the battle. Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong were engaged, or perhaps as was rumored, thePope had forcefully annulled the engagement. However, this fact had no bearingon their attention. The two were originally fiancé and fiancée, and should be husband and wife. Speaking of this matter made people sigh regretfully. Last autumn, because ofthis engagement, the people of the capital had even besieged the OrthodoxAcademy and cursed Chen Changsheng like he was a dog, even inventing cursesjust for him. Yet now, after merely a year, the people of the capital hadchanged their position. They hoped that this marriage could succeed. This wasbecause, in their view, Chen Changsheng was already a complete match for XuYourong, and he was a person of Zhou—Xu Yourong marrying Qiushan Jun was muchworse than marrying him. What these people on the two banks of the Luo River were thinking of, whatthey were waiting for, Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong did not know, nor wouldthey probably care. They just calmly stared at each other through the wind and snow, sayingnothing to each other. For a very long time, nobody spoke. Right until the end, he and she did not speak. The deathly stillness of the Bridge of Helplessness ultimately was not broken,only awakened through an action. Xu Yourong reached out her hand to grasp a sword. The sword she used was naturally no ordinary sword, but a renowned sword. The temple sword of Holy Maiden Peak, after several centuries, had finallyreturned to the hands of the current Holy Maiden. The hand grasping the sword was very white, even paler than the snow. Chen Changsheng did not notice this point. He only gazed at her eyes, but hefound that no matter what he did, his and her eyes could never meet. The gauze hanging from the curtained hat was apparently rather strange. Xu Yourong drew the temple sword from the sheath. A sword cry rose up from the Bridge of Helplessness and drifted down the LuoRiver. Ripples began to form on the calm surface of the water, and then theytransformed into mighty waves that incessantly slammed against the bow of theship and the two river banks.