Chapter 7: Overcast Days Last Only a Few Days
A year had passed. The National Teaching Academy had no new students, but the existing ones had long since transformed the once graveyard-like atmosphere. The academy remained quiet within, but outside, security was tight. Priests from the Li Palace guarded Hundred Flowers Lane, never leaving even late into the night, making it impossible for commoners to approach. Yet the priests, looking at the youth in the wheelchair, showed only vigilance and disgust in their eyes. They could not act, however, because the Tianhai family held a uniquely special position in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and also because Tianhai Ya'er was now a cripple.
In the Holy Empress's view, those in the National Teaching Academy were fond of mystifying their actions. In their own eyes, they valued reason and openness. It was difficult for them to take the initiative against a crippled youth. Beyond that, there was another reason: the person standing beside Tianhai Ya'er. This man was about thirty years old, tall and thin, with a gloomy, cold expression, and the aura emanating from him was formidable.
In the drizzling rain, Tianhai Ya'er's sharp, venomous curses never ceased. The man remained silent, saying nothing, merely staring quietly at the tightly shut academy gate, lost in thought.
The new gate of the National Teaching Academy was pushed open from within. Chen Changsheng stepped out, standing on the stone steps, and looked at Tianhai Ya'er in the rain. His first notice was that the youth had no umbrella, and the man beside the wheelchair hadn't opened one for him either. He turned his gaze to that man, guessing he was likely not Tianhai Ya'er's guard, but uncertain of his origins.
Chen Changsheng looked again at Tianhai Ya'er in the wheelchair and said, "You should know very well why your elders sent you to curse at the National Teaching Academy's gate."
Tianhai Ya'er's face was wet with rain, making it look even paler, yet his expression remained fierce and arrogant, and he grew excited at Chen Changsheng's appearance.
"Of course I know," the youth's voice grew sharper, even somewhat shrill, like a mix of crying and laughing. "I'm a waste now. A waste should be put to good use—to gain sympathy, right? And what's between us is just kids' stuff, a bit of mischief. Surely the Pope wouldn't dare say my Tianhai family is suppressing the academy's dean?"
Chen Changsheng was silent for a moment, then said, "But I don't understand. What's the point of you making a scene like this? I can just ignore you."
Times had changed. At the academy's gate, a bishop led dozens of priests and guards from the Li Palace, keeping the two from the Tianhai family at a distance. Even if Tianhai Shengxue were to charge back from the Snow Embrace Pass with his cavalry, he could no longer storm the academy gate as he had last year.
Tianhai Ya'er laughed, revealing a mouthful of small, sharp white teeth, looking like a wounded young beast. He said shrilly, "Didn't you hear me cursing your ancestors back eighteen generations?"
Chen Changsheng was silent again, then said, "And then? Should I curse your ancestors back eighteen generations? I won't do that."
The Tianhai family's ancestors were the Holy Empress's ancestors.
He wouldn't make the same mistake as last year.
Tianhai Ya'er sneered, "I don't dare curse Luo Luo... the Princess, but I'm not afraid of you. I'd like to see how long you can endure."
"Then go ahead and keep cursing." With that, Chen Changsheng turned and walked back into the National Teaching Academy.
Before pushing open the gate, hearing Tianhai Ya'er insult his parents and ancestors, he had been truly angry, ready to teach the other a lesson regardless of whatever schemes the Tianhai family had in store. But when he actually stepped out and saw the crippled youth in the wheelchair, he suddenly changed his mind.
Tianhai Ya'er was cruel and cold-blooded, once a terrifying person. Now crippled, he was still terrifying—terrifying in his shamelessness, his lack of awe, his lack of ambition, and now even his lack of desire. He was nothing but a pile of mud. If Chen Changsheng and the National Teaching Academy didn't want their feet stuck in that mud, slowing their progress, they could only ignore it or fill the mud with gravel.
Since he couldn't kill Tianhai Ya'er outright, anything else was meaningless. So why stand at the gate listening to this?
Seeing his retreating figure, Tianhai Ya'er was stunned, then grew even angrier, hurling curses in a sharp voice, spewing the most vile and filthy language imaginable.
Chen Changsheng acted as if he hadn't heard a thing, his pace neither quickening nor slowing, walking steadily into the academy.
The priests watched this scene, surprised and then admiring, thinking that he truly deserved to be the Pope's most valued junior, the youngest dean of the National Teaching Academy.
The man standing by the wheelchair watched Chen Changsheng's back, his eyebrows slightly raised, as if surprised, but then the surprise turned to disdain.
Compared to his peers, Chen Changsheng was indeed more mature and steady, or rather, too silent and calm. He didn't seem like a sixteen-year-old youth at all.
Xuan Yuan Po looked older, but in fact, he was just a fourteen-year-old bear tribe youth. So he couldn't understand why Chen Changsheng could endure this, and asked angrily, "That's it?"
Chen Changsheng glanced at him and said, "What else? Kill him?"
Xuan Yuan Po thought for a moment and said, "That's not impossible."
Chen Changsheng said, "He's from the Tianhai family. Unless the Li Palace personally issues an edict, no one can do anything. Besides, didn't you see the person always by his side?"
Xuan Yuan Po asked, "Is that guy strong?"
Chen Changsheng said, "Star Gathering realm."
Xuan Yuan Po gasped. That tall, thin man, looking only about thirty, was a Star Gathering realm expert?
"But we can't just let Tianhai Ya'er curse outside forever, can we?"
"I have more important things to do."
Yes, Chen Changsheng had more important things to do.
Compared to that, the Tianhai family's disgusting tactics and the malice hidden behind them didn't matter. Before, the most important thing for him was cultivation. But now, besides cultivation, there was another matter: in the process of honing his sword heart, crossing to the other shore of the sword intent ocean, finding that black stone tablet, and confirming whether it was the passage to the Zhou Garden. If so, he wanted to enter the Zhou Garden again.
His divine sense landed on the phantom of that black stone tablet. Instantly, it was shattered into countless fine threads by the terrifying energy within—energy that seemed beyond this world—and turned to nothing. A sudden wind stirred in the library, and energy burst from his body, lifting his robes and stirring the sparse dust on the shelves.
He tried three times in a row, each ending in failure. His face was as pale as the white paper on Xiao Zhang's face. Unable to bear the shock to his sea of consciousness and the backlash of that mighty force, he pushed open the library door, ran straight to the green grass by the lake, and began vomiting, looking utterly miserable.
Xuan Yuan Po was smashing a tree. Seeing this, he was startled, came over to support him, and looked at the water stains on the grass, saying worriedly, "Good thing you didn't eat breakfast, or this would be really disgusting."
Chen Changsheng was very particular about his three meals a day. That morning, in his haste, he had skipped breakfast. He still needed to eat lunch and dinner, but he couldn't stomach them.
His chest and stomach churned with nausea, making everything taste awful.
"Is this boiled cauliflower... did you forget to add salt?"
Xuan Yuan Po felt wronged. He thought, "I'm the only one cooking in the whole academy, and you're still being picky, and for no good reason!" He shouted angrily, "You said yourself to use less oil and salt!"
Chen Changsheng held his rice bowl and said weakly, "For dinner... make something flavorful."
Xuan Yuan Po looked at him, thinking he must really be sick—otherwise, those words would never come from this guy's mouth. He asked, "Should I ask the Princess to come take a look?"
Chen Changsheng shook his head. Luo Luo was, after all, the demon tribe's princess, a too-sensitive identity. He didn't want her involved in the standoff between the court and the National Teaching Academy.
The next morning, it didn't rain, so late spring turned back into early summer. The weather in the capital between May and June was always so hard to pin down. Tianhai Ya'er was also hard to define. Once cold-blooded, murderous, and cruel, he had used his family's influence and his own cultivation talent to commit every evil. After being crippled by Luo Luo, he had disappeared for most of a year. When he reappeared in the capital's public eye, he showed rare patience and perseverance, even if what he did seemed unrelated to those words.
The wheelchair rolled over the blue stone slabs to the National Teaching Academy's gate. The crippled youth took a sip of tea to wet his throat, and under the priests' strange gazes, began cursing again.
He had cursed all day yesterday, and it seemed today the academy would still be shrouded in those filthy words.
But unlike yesterday, many curious citizens of the capital had come to watch.
The commoners couldn't enter deep into Hundred Flowers Lane, blocked by priests and Imperial Guard soldiers maintaining order, but they could clearly hear Tianhai Ya'er's curses.
Tianhai Ya'er's curses had no novelty—just greetings to Chen Changsheng's elders, especially his female relatives.
"Chen Changsheng, screw your mother."
"Chen Changsheng, I'll kill your daughter."
Hearing these filthy words, the crowd outside the lane buzzed with discussion, shaking their heads silently. Though displeased, no one dared say anything.
The tall, thin man still stood by the wheelchair, staring at the tightly shut academy gate, lost in thought. A faint, mocking smile still hung on his lips, as if sneering at Chen Changsheng's cowardice, or perhaps meaning something else.
"Are we really going to do nothing? Even if we don't tell the Princess, we should ask the Teaching Pivot Office to handle it."
Xuan Yuan Po, hearing Tianhai Ya'er's curses from outside, his face flushed red, looked at Chen Changsheng and said.
Chen Changsheng said, "When the academy gate was smashed by Tianhai Shengxue's men, who fixed it?"
Xuan Yuan Po thought he understood Chen Changsheng's meaning and asked, "So what do we do next?"
"Wait a few more days." Chen Changsheng paused slightly, then said, "...Wait three more days."
After speaking, he glanced at the dim sky outside and noticed it was overcast today.
Once he stopped paying attention, life went on as usual. The flow of time didn't change like on the Never-Setting Sun Prairie. A day passed normally.
Tianhai Ya'er had blocked the National Teaching Academy's gate and cursed for two full days. The Li Palace and the Teaching Pivot Office remained silent, with no news coming out.
But news came from the Heavenly Book Mausoleum: in three more days, someone would emerge.
(Just one chapter today. Tonight, I'm watching a movie with my wife. Tomorrow, there will be two chapters. "Loving You Isn't Just Two or Three Days"—I love this song. While writing the chapter title, I kept humming it. In two days, Xiao Tang will come out. Actually, I don't know how to write him, but I feel this person is especially interesting. I like this kind of person, even though I can't be one myself.)