Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

Chen Changsheng turned to Xu Yourong.

From the side, she looked very beautiful.

As beautiful as she was from every other angle.

She was as calm as she ever was.

But for some inexplicable reason, Chen Changsheng felt like he saw the chill of autumn on her face.

Perhaps it was because of what Mo Yu said to him yesterday?

Since last night, he had spent a long time thinking and hesitating, and now, he finally asked.

"Do you… want to say something?"

Surprised, Xu Yourong asked, "Say what?"

Both her expression and the way she turned her body to face him were ever so natural.

Chen Changsheng suddenly didn't know how to continue on the topic. His gaze fell on the nearby grass.

A faint smile emerged on Xu Yourong's lips. "You are speaking about the Empress?"

Chen Changsheng nodded.

Her smile faded as she softly said, "She was just like my mother."

Chen Changsheng looked at that place and asked, "Are you prepared to do something?"

Xu Yourong calmly looked at him and said, "Did Mo Yu tell you something last night?"

Chen Changsheng very honestly admitted, "She thinks that you will take revenge for the Divine Empress."

Xu Yourong asked, "You will worry if I do this?"

Chen Changsheng's answer was still honest. "Yes."

Xu Yourong lightly said, "Isn't this something that's more appropriate for her to do? She's the one you should be concerned about."

Chen Changsheng replied, "Last night, she said to me that by killing Zhou Tong, she had returned the affection the Empress had shown to her."

Xu Yourong was quiet for a while, then said, "What's borrowed is returned. That's natural."

Chen Changsheng could not see what she was really thinking, so he asked, "What are you thinking?"

Xu Yourong returned, "And what are you thinking?"

"Although I and Master now treat each other as strangers precisely because of this matter, with regards to this specific matter, I really don't know who's right and who's wrong."

Chen Changsheng added, "If I consider the fact that they all used Zhou Tong, then I think that they are all wrong."

Xu Yourong said, "So you feel that there is no reason to use a mistake to deal with another mistake."

Chen Changsheng replied, "I just find it impossible to convince myself."

Xu Yourong calmly returned, "That's reasonable, but you also don't need to try and convince me, nor do you need to worry about me, because I have not planned to do anything. I cultivate the Great Dao, and the Empress also cultivated the Great Dao. If a strand of her soul in the sea of stars still has awareness, she also would not want me to place my thoughts on these trifling matters."

Chen Changsheng said nothing.

Logically speaking, since Xu Yourong had just worked together with Shang Xingzhou, Chen Changsheng should have had nothing to worry about. But he still felt that something wasn't right.

Xu Yourong added, "If I really do plan on doing something, I will definitely tell you first. And besides, how would the venerable Daoist fail to notice?"

Chen Changsheng felt a little relieved, because he knew that Xu Yourong would not deceive him.

Xu Yourong ceased discussion on this topic. Looking at the wall in the depths of the forest, she asked, "Is the Orthodox Academy on that side?"

Chen Changsheng was very familiar with this forest. "It's on the other side of the wall."

Since they had gone to the Hundred Herb Garden, they had no reason to not go to the Orthodox Academy.

Chen Changsheng walked over to the wall.

Xu Yourong was a step slower.

Because she had given that patch of grass an extra glance.

Her eyes were very calm.

The Divine Empress was buried, in a very, very deep place.

In her heart, there was also a very, very deep place.

……

……

The gray-black wall was rather tall and very old. It was hard to say how many years of wind and rain it had experienced.

But the door in the wall was clearly quite new. From the hinges or the dust in its seams, it couldn't be older than several years.

With the end of the wall out of sight, the sudden appearance of this door in the middle of this gray-black wall looked like a mouth opening in laughter.

Chen Changsheng almost seemed to see that girl pushing open that door and coming through, and he couldn't help but smile.

He pushed upon the door and entered the Orthodox Academy.

There was no wooden basin giving off steam on the other side of the wall.

Tang Thirty-Six had been gone from the Heavenly Dao Academy for many years and now lived in the Orthodox Academy. If he were to once more flee in his soaked and sorry clothes, where he would go to borrow a set of clothes?

That house was still in its original place.

Chen Changsheng had lived in this house for a very long time, so he was quite familiar with it as he walked in.

One could see a room the moment one entered the first floor. This was Zhexiu's.

It was extremely quiet in the room, like nobody was home.

Whether it was the corridors or the frames, everything was the same as it was three years ago.

Su Moyu and Tang Thirty-Six lived on the floor above.

His own room was on the third floor.

The rooms had also not changed, but it was clear that they were regularly cleaned. They could even be described as spotless.

That row of plain Daoist robes in varying shades still hung in his wardrobe. The books were still on his bookshelf and his bed was still neat and tidy.

It was like he had never left, like those three years did not exist.

Xu Yourong pointed at the empty spot on the bookshelf and asked, "Where is that little trinket I gave you when we were little?"

"When I left, I brought it all with me."

Chen Changsheng used his fingers to pick out a very old bamboo dragonfly.

Xu Yourong carefully took it and placed it on the bookshelf.

Seeing this, Chen Changsheng felt rather warm, but then also a little strange.

He remembered that Xu Yourong shouldn't have visited his room, so how did she know where to put the bamboo dragonfly?

He turned to Xu Yourong, wanting to ask her how she knew.

Xu Yourong's expression was very calm, but there was a faint blush on her cheeks. She preempted him by saying, "It's rather old. I'll make you a new one in the future."

Chen Changsheng knew that he could no longer ask, so he laughed.

Walking out of the house, they crossed a lawn and came to a lake.

The great banyan tree was laden with white snow. It looked very beautiful, but it also made one worry over whether it could endure the cold.

There was a gust of wind. Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong stood on the thick branches of the tree as snow rustled down.

"In the past, would all of you stand here and look at the capital?"

"That's right. We thought that looking at the scenery like this was excellent."

"What's on the other side?"

"A small kitchen. Wuqiong Bi destroyed it later on, and then it was rebuilt. No one is using it now, but I hear that it's still well-stocked with firewood and cooking implements."

"It's just waiting for Xuanyuan Po to come back?"

"Waiting for his next visit to the capital. He should probably be a great general by then."1

……

……

In the light snow, the capital was very quiet, as was the Orthodox Academy. One could hear a few noises from the distance, and careful listening would reveal that it was many people simultaneously reciting a book.

The Orthodox Academy was very large. In the past, Chen Changsheng had only stayed in a very small part of it, but he knew this had ceased to be the case long ago.

He wanted to go over and see, and Xu Yourong naturally had no objection.

They followed the sounds of studying, passing the library, the gatehouse where Jin Yulu had once roasted three deer, past the finally-repaired fountain, and then they entered a forest.

Most of the Orthodox Academy's buildings were on the other side of this forest.

The sounds of recitation grew louder and louder.

Curiously, the forest seemed quieter and quieter.

They suddenly heard crying from in front of them.

Chen Changsheng looked over.

A youth was leaning on a tree, wiping his tears.

The youth had ordinary clothes. He was no scion of a wealthy family, but he was probably not impoverished.

The youth's face was bruised and swollen. It was clear that he had been beaten by someone.

Xu Yourong was prepared to go and ask.

A flurry of footsteps and a bout of laughter suddenly echoed through the forest.

"Today, I'll definitely beat Xue Yejin through and through!"

"Right, we can't let him run away again."

"Yeah yeah yeah, we'll see if he still dares to show up at our Orthodox Academy!"

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1. In the next chapter, the author admits that he has made a mistake, since Chen Changsheng has already taken Xu Yourong on a tour of the Orthodox Academy. In addition, Chen Changsheng knew that Xu Yourong had visited his room once before, so she should naturally have known where the bamboo dragonfly was. However, for the sake of this romantic part of the story, the author decided not to make any changes.