Chapter 56: The Question of Fairness
Chen Changsheng genuinely thought this way, and so he said it. But to others, his words sounded more like a taunt, tinged with a hint of shamelessness. Mo Yu clearly thought so too; her voice turned cold as she said, "Let's talk about the marriage contract."
"That's a matter between me and the East Divine General's Mansion."
"You know very well that's not true. This matter has to be resolved."
Both spoke calmly, with no room for doubt.
Mo Yu's voice was as cold as snow: "If it weren't for someone insisting that you must live, that marriage contract in your arms would be nothing but a scrap of paper."
For a figure as powerful as her, even though that marriage contract bore the signature of His Holiness the Pope, making it special, she could easily render it void. The simplest method would be to kill Chen Changsheng—if he were dead, the contract would naturally become worthless.
Chen Changsheng gazed into the depths of the night and said, "Many people saw me enter the palace."
Mo Yu replied, "Who would care about the life or death of someone like you?"
Chen Changsheng said, "I am now a student of the National Academy, so many people will care... These past days, those people haven't shown themselves, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. They watch the National Academy, they watch me, and they watch you."
As he spoke, he naturally thought of that bishop from the Pontifical Council.
To this day, he had never exchanged a single word with that man, but he knew where the change at the National Academy had originated.
"Killing me is a simple thing, but it's also a very troublesome thing."
He continued, "You can find a way to make Luo Luo leave my side, but you can't make the gazes fixed on the National Academy look away."
Mo Yu's voice was indifferent: "My desire to kill you has nothing to do with the National Academy. I don't even see those old fossils in my eyes."
"Yes, your desire to kill me has little to do with the National Academy. Unfortunately, no one knows that, and no one would believe it."
Chen Changsheng concluded, "Unless you announce my marriage contract with Xu Yourong to the world. Then, I think everyone might support you in killing me. But the problem is, that would create new troubles. So I'm very curious—what can you actually do?"
After arriving in the capital, especially after entering the National Academy, he seemed to have nothing to worry about—only the sound of wind, rain, and reading, living a peaceful life. In reality, he and the National Academy had always been caught in a storm, swaying precariously.
These days, he had stayed within the National Academy, studying and training hard, never stepping outside its gates. As Mo Yu had said earlier, he was using Luo Luo's background and origins to intimidate those who might wish him harm. Though Luo Luo had proposed it, he had agreed. At the same time, he leveraged the National Academy's history and its resurgence to point toward the unknown party of the marriage contract, preventing the East Divine General's Mansion from acting rashly. Only thus could he ensure his safety.
An ordinary youth from remote Xining, facing the powerful clans of the capital and even the great figures in the palace, had done everything he could think of. Thanks to his new identity as a student of the National Academy and his so-called character, he had managed to hold out until tonight.
"What a scheming little man."
Mo Yu's voice was laced with undisguised contempt and sarcasm. "But a small man who has never seen the vast ocean—how could he understand its grandeur? Never plucked a star—how could he grasp its vastness? In the end, you're just a summer insect that knows nothing of ice and snow."
Chen Changsheng suddenly felt a strong sense of unease. His right hand gripped the rhinoceros horn button in his sleeve, and his left hand grasped the hilt of his short sword.
But it was too late.
His mind grew hazy, and the scenery before him blurred.
Under the night sky, the palace's sights were never very clear, but this blurriness was distinctly different.
An indescribable aura seeped into his mind, and he suddenly felt drowsy.
The next moment, his mind sharpened, and he snapped awake.
The scenery had changed. He found himself in an abandoned garden. Ahead, faintly visible in the starlight, was a cold pool exuding a chilling aura. A few plum trees grew scattered by the pool's edge. It was still autumn, so the branches bore no blossoms, not even buds, giving them a lonely, desolate look.
He was stunned into silence. Just moments ago, he had been under the corridor outside Weiyang Palace. How had he ended up here?
What kind of technique had the other party used to create such an eerie effect?
The abandoned garden was silent and empty. In the distance, the faint sound of music and singing drifted over.
He turned to look. Hundreds of feet away, that palace was still brightly lit. Though he couldn't see it, he could imagine the lively scene within.
The southern envoy must have arrived.
Standing in the abandoned garden, gazing at the illuminated palace, his figure seemed so lonely.
Mo Yu's voice rang out again, but this time not in his mind. It came from the far end of the garden, from somewhere in the darkness: "Look. Tonight, you only need to be a spectator, and then everything can be resolved easily."
Chen Changsheng looked into the pitch-black night and said, "This isn't fair."
Mo Yu replied, "Such childish words shouldn't come from the mouth of someone as cunning as you."
For some reason, her voice sounded a bit weary.
Chen Changsheng said, "Such childish words shouldn't come from the mouth of the legendary Miss Mo."
Mo Yu thought his concern about the fairness of this whole matter was childish.
He thought her view was the truly childish one.
This wasn't a clash of words, but a difference in how they saw the world.
Mo Yu's voice was cold: "Fairness has never been the most important thing."
Chen Changsheng was silent for a moment, then said, "Scholar Zhaoming probably didn't think that way when he was frozen to death in the unjust prison."
Scholar Zhaoming, Mo Wenshan, was a literary master of the Great Zhou dynasty. In the late years of the previous emperor, he offended powerful figures in the palace, was falsely accused and imprisoned. On a cold winter day, cruel jailers dragged him from his cell, doused him with water, and froze him to death. All the men of the Mo mansion were killed, leaving only one granddaughter alive.
Mo Yu was that granddaughter.
A cold, furious voice suddenly erupted from the night: "How dare you, you little thief!"
Chen Changsheng said, "Those who speak of the world's affairs need no special daring."
Hearing this, Mo Yu fell silent for a long time.
"Yes, this really isn't fair, but you are too insignificant... compared to this palace. To fight the demons, humanity needs unity, needs fresh blood. For this, whether it's our Great Zhou or the southern sects, we spare no effort. That's why there's the Ivy Banquet, the Grand Examination, and... her marriage to Qiu Shanjun."
Mo Yu's voice gradually calmed. "Of course, none of this really matters. What matters is that Her Majesty likes Xu Yourong, values Xu Yourong, and believes that only Qiu Shanjun in this world is barely worthy of her. So she can only marry him."
Chen Changsheng disagreed with this reasoning. He wanted to leave this abandoned garden and return to Weiyang Palace.
He knew that trying to escape from a legendary figure like Mo Yu was impossible. This seemingly empty, unwalled garden would surely be difficult to leave. So without hesitation, he flicked the button he had been holding in his palm toward the ground.
This button, made of rhinoceros horn, was an extremely precious artifact—the Thousand Mile Button.
After Luo Luo had gifted it to him, she had also taught him how to use it.
A wisp of smoke rose in the abandoned garden, and Chen Changsheng's figure vanished.
But the next moment, his figure reappeared in the same spot.
The cold pool remained still, the plum trees didn't tremble.
His face turned pale, and a trickle of blood slowly dripped from the corner of his mouth.
Around the abandoned garden was an extremely powerful barrier, even stronger than the smoke barrier that demonic expert had used at the National Academy that night.
The Great Zhou imperial palace was truly extraordinary.
The place where Mo Yu wanted to keep him was indeed no ordinary spot.
Even if it looked like just an abandoned garden, he couldn't leave.
...
...
"Everything you have, I've accounted for. So give up." Mo Yu's voice was chillingly calm.
Chen Changsheng looked up, raised his right arm, and wiped the blood from his lips with his sleeve. He gazed at the palace city in the night, at the capital where he had lived for months yet still felt unfamiliar and hard to approach, at all the unseen people living here.
"Actually, I really did come to break off the engagement."
His voice was weary, but as calm as ever: "She is the phoenix that all of you, including Her Majesty the Saint Empress, love and value. But I never intended to marry her. I... really came to break it off. Yet no one has ever believed me."
The night was deathly silent. The abandoned garden remained cold and desolate, much like his expression at that moment.
He had come to the capital to break off the engagement. At the East Divine General's Mansion, he had said it twice. Today, in the palace's abandoned garden, he said it twice more.
Yes, why had no one ever believed him?
Just because she was the lofty reincarnation of the true phoenix, while he was just an ordinary youth with no cultivation?
"I know better than most people in this world what matters most in life. That matter is very important—more important than the marriage contract, more important than all the humiliation and setbacks I've faced since coming to the capital combined. So I don't care."
He withdrew his gaze from the distance, looking at the night across the cold pool, and said, "But you've done many pointless things, constantly reminding me that I have a fiancée who is about to marry someone else. Until just now, you were still reminding me..."
"Fine, I have to admit I've started to care."
"Just like I told Lady Xu at the Divine General's Mansion."
"This time, I've really changed my mind."
"I won't marry Xu Yourong, because I don't like her or you."
"But I won't dissolve the engagement either, because I don't like her or you."
"That's fair."
"This way, as long as I don't agree, she can't marry Qiu Shanjun, or anyone else."
"I know this isn't fair to her."
"But it's fair to me."
The abandoned garden was silent.
The cold pool was bitingly chill.
Mo Yu was silent for a long time. She suddenly felt as if she had made some mistake.
Back at the East Divine General's Mansion, Lady Xu had once felt the same way.
But the next moment, she laughed—a self-deprecating laugh, but also a mockery of the youth's words.
"Then you'll have to make the entire continent know that there's a marriage contract between you and her."
"Tonight is indeed the best opportunity."
"But first, you have to be able to leave this place."