530 Entering the Palace in the Snowy Nigh

This was an answer that could easily render others speechless. Precisely as Tang Thirty-Six had said, Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong reallywere two people that made others speechless. Perhaps it was for precisely this reason that when Xu Yourong heard ChenChangsheng's answer, she showed no surprise, much less anger. On the contrary,she was very satisfied. He only remembered that after dusk, he should come to Fortune Peace Road toeat Tofu and Fish, even though they ultimately ended up eating beef ribs. Heonly remembered the conversation they had in the Mausoleum of Zhou, so he splitup the gold and treasures into two piles and used the majority of his part tobuy a plain by the lower reaches of the Red River, even though she had nothingto do with the elves. He only remembered promising her that he would end theengagement, so he, regardless of the criticisms of the common people, requestedthe Pope to forcefully annul the engagement, even though this matter now lookedvery silly and he was now even trying to get back the marriage contract… To make a mistake on a few things was not important. To forget a few thingswas even less important. As long as one remembered a few things, it was justfine. Chen Changsheng's answer and the fragrant beef ribs in the pot allowed XuYourong to not have the slightest regret about passing him that slip of paperon the Bridge of Helplessness. She softly spoke, "I ate very well, thank you." Saying this, she stood up, put away that deed to the plain, took the YellowPaper Umbrella up from the floor, and began to walk out of the restaurant. The noisy clamor instantly surged back in and Chen Changsheng was a littletaken aback. As he watched her raise the curtain and walk out, he suddenlyremembered something, that he still had one very important thing to give toher. He quickly went after her, but in the face of the cold and the snowflakesdrifting down the dark street, how could he possibly catch sight of her figure? He gazed at the string of ten stone pearls on his wrist and thought, such animportant object, I absolutely cannot forget next time. From the side came the restaurant owner's voice, "Dear guest, there's stillsome beef ribs left. Is Sir prepared to take it away or eat a little longer?" Chen Changsheng turned and saw the owner's face was rather uneasy. Aftervacantly staring at him for a moment, he realized that the owner was worriedthat he was going to skip on the bill. The owner rubbed his hand, looking at him rather nervously. …… …… Carrying the wrapped leftovers of the beef ribs, Chen Changsheng returned tothe Orthodox Academy. In the darkness, the winter forest by the lake seemed somewhat sinister.Thankfully, the snow weighing down the tree branches somewhat mollified thisfeeling. Deep within the forest, thundering booms could be faintly heard,occasionally accompanied by the appearance of extremely thin rays of light,like lightning bolts. This was Xuanyuan Po practicing. Su Moyu was in the library, instructing the new students. Zhexiu, who wasgradually recovering, had buried himself under some pile of snow to hone hisspirit and will. Only Tang Thirty-Six had not gone out, nor was he in his ownroom. Instead, he was in Chen Changsheng's, waiting for him. It wasn't merely because he was curious about where Chen Changsheng had goneoff to, nor was it because investigating this guy's secrets had truly made himalmost as wrathful as a god. Rather, it was because the item in his hand wassuch an object that he absolutely had to deliver it into Chen Changsheng'shands personally before he could be at ease. Even the wealthiest man in the world would find himself powerless tocompensate for the loss of this item. Because this was the Divine Staff that represented the power of the Orthodoxy.Even with money, one would not be able to buy it. Tang Thirty-Six had already sat in this room for a very long time. When hethought of that embarrassing scene in the Li Palace, thought of those gazesthat were like swords such that even now his back still felt a little sore, andthen he thought about how Chen Changsheng was having the time of his life atsome random place, his mood continued to get worse. So when Chen Changsheng returned to his room, it was only right that he saw avery nasty face. For some reason, perhaps because he had been concealing the truth, when he sawTang Thirty-Six's complexion, Chen Changsheng felt uneasy. He placed the foodbox on the table and pretended not to see that Tang Thirty-Six was sitting onhis bed, pretended that he wasn't a clean freak. He carefully said, "FortunePeace Road's beef ribs taste rather good." "The taste of His Holiness's Divine Staff is even better." The unsightly expression on Tang Thirty-Six's face had vanished to some place,but the deliberate indifference that represented his rage was very easy to see. Chen Changsheng took the Divine Staff in a state of shock. Although TangThirty-Six had anticipated this and mentioned the matter to him, ChenChangsheng had still been caught by surprise. Tang Thirty-Six said in a chilly voice, "You're not going give an explanation?" Chen Changsheng glanced at him and replied, "I just arranged to eat a mealwith someone, not anything big." "But it's still something you can't tell me?" "Mm." ”"Then who did you eat with?" "I also can't say…" Chen Changsheng was rather tense, but when he thought back to the scene of XuYourong sitting across from, drinking wine, he couldn't help but turn his lipsup in a smile. Seeing this, Tang Thirty-Six sucked in a cold breath and asked, "A woman?" Chen Changsheng asked in disbelief, "How did you tell?" Tang Thirty-Six sneered, "Seeing your beaming face with all your emotions asopen as a book, only Xuanyuan Po wouldn't be able to tell." Chen Changsheng was a little distressed and was clueless as to how to respond. "Three days, at most three days." Tang Thirty-Six grit his teeth and declared,"I will definitely find out the truth of this matter. You just met Xu Yourong,but instead of being charmed, you went off with some other girl. I'm reallycurious as to just what this girl looks like." Chen Changsheng was rather confused and also faintly dissatisfied. He asked,"Why can't I go and meet with Xu Yourong?" Tang Thirty-Six expressionlessly said to him, "Xu Yourong will meet with youin private? You might as well say that you're Su Li's illegitimate son." Chen Changsheng thought it over, then said, "If that were the case, wouldn'tZhexiu have to call me ‘brother-in-law’?" Tang Thirty-Six roared in laughter, but then he thought of something and hissmile vanished. He looked at Chen Changsheng and said, "You've actually figured out how totell a joke, and it was actually really funny…you're definitely finished." Puzzled, Chen Changsheng asked, "What?" Tang Thirty-Six said to him with a sympathetic gaze, "It looks to me that youreally love this girl, or why else would your personality have changed so much?In the future, what's going to happen to you?" …… …… Chen Changsheng lay on his bed, tossing and turning until it was late in thenight, still unable to sleep. After the age of ten, besides that period in the capital where he attractedstarlight but failed to succeed in Purification, this was the first time thathe suffered from insomnia. Tang Thirty-Six's final words had seemingly ripped open the curtains of thewindow and caused the starlight to fall upon the snowy plain in his body,revealing with startling clarity every one of his emotions. In this half-year after his departure from the Garden of Zhou, he would oftenthink of her, whether he was sitting on the great banyan tree by the lake oramongst the massive stones of the Mausoleum of Zhou. However, what he did notunderstand was…that sort of longing had been a longing for what was missing,until today on the Bridge of Helplessness when he saw the white gauze fall andsaw her eyes. Especially before in the restaurant, the image of her wrapped ina big cotton jacket, her small mouth sipping on wine and gnawing on ribs, wasdifferent from the Garden of Zhou, different from the stories. Yet it wasincomparably true, truly good to see that appearance that made him want to geteven closer to her. Thus, this longing had fallen into reality and gained a real weight. A longing that was true and had weight was called a yearning, and once onebegan yearning, it was difficult to sleep. Chen Changsheng was a person slow to speak, but quick to act. In any case,since he wanted to see her and he couldn't sleep, he would just go see her. Xu Yourong had told him to not let anyone know that they knew each other, sohe could not take the normal way to see her, but instead had to sneak in to seeher. He got out of bed, put on his clothes, and flew through the window. He passedthrough the winter forest and used the key to open the secret door in thepalace walls that had been concealed exceedingly well by ivy, and walked on in. He opened the heavy door a crack. Looking into the palace grounds that wereshrouded in darkness, he was rather nervous, so much so that even the whistlesfrom his mouth were rather hoarse. He was a youth that lived a very orderly life and rarely did this sort ofthing. Although he had sneaked into the Imperial Palace several times, thecircumstances now were rather different from those of the past. The Pope hadjust formally announced tonight that he was the successor to the Orthodoxy, andnow he was infiltrating the Imperial Palace in the middle of the night. If hewere discovered by anybody, it would definitely be a major event. As the snowflakes slowly drifted down, the red walls and yellow eaves of theImperial Palace were all draped in white. The Divine Empress looked out the window at the snow, her lips turning into amocking smile. She asked, "Do you know when people are the most courageous?" The confluence of north and south was imminent and the matters that requiredhandling for each side had suddenly increased. Mo Yu had accompanied theEmpress late into the night taking care of these matters and was ratherexhausted. Upon hearing this sudden question, she gazed off vacantly for amoment before responding in a soft voice, "When confronting death?" "It's not wrong, but there is another situation…because of love." The Divine Empress looked out the window at the dark palace and continued, "Inother words, when driven by passion." The sky danced with snow and the light of lanterns was profuse. It seemed likedaytime, not late night, in the Imperial Palace, causing black objects toappear all the more conspicuous. When Chen Changsheng saw the Black Goat slowly amble out of the plaza coveredin snow, he was filled with gratitude. He told the Black Goat his reason for coming. The Black Goat glanced at him twice and then turned and walked off. Afterquite some time, it pointed its horns at a certain palace hall and then turnedaround and vanished into the snowy night. This palace hall's location was superb. It was not too remote, but it was verypeaceful. Moreover, deep in the winter, this palace was still surrounded bygreen trees, which was highly unusual. She was here? Based on the rumors, the Divine Empress doted on her, even morethan she doted on the Princess of Ping. Then if the Orthodoxy and the Imperial Court were to split and his martialuncle, the Pope, began to fight with the Divine Empress, she would definitelyassist the Empress. What would he do then? Suddenly, he recalled those words ofhers in the restaurant and realized that this really was a problem. He couldforget it for a moment, but he couldn't leave it unconsidered forever. The combination of snow and wind in front of this palace hall was quite cold.At the very beginning, his face had actually been quite hot, but now it wasgradually beginning to cool. It wasn't because his passion had cooled, but heneeded to be cool-headed. He had come to see her, but he didn't move for a very long time. He had nointention of sneaking into this palace, only standing there. He stood there for quite a while, unaware of the passing of time, untilfinally, a voice fell in his ear. It was her voice. "You…what are you standing here for?" He turned to the voice and saw that a window on the eastern wing of the palacewas still bright. He walked over and saw her silhouette in the light. She was sitting by a table next to the window, her hands holding a book. It was late, but for some reason, she was not asleep, perhaps for the samereason he could not sleep. "I…wanted to see you," he said to her from the window. On the other side, Xu Yourong's gentle voice asked, "Didn't we just see eachother?" After hesitating for a few moments, Chen Changsheng replied, "But…I can'tsleep." Xu Yourong turned to the window, somewhat concerned. She thought, just whathappened to make him unable to sleep? It must be known that back in the Garden of Zhou, even when countlessterrifying monsters were lurking in the sea of grass around him, he would verycalmly fall asleep. "What's happened?" "It's nothing…it's just that I can't sleep when I'm thinking about you." ……