Chapter 24: Let’s Talk
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In the end, it turned out to be the latter.
Xu Yourong looked up at Chen Changsheng and asked, “Why aren’t you eating?”
“Oh, eating.” Over the past two years, influenced by Tang Thirty-Six, Chen Changsheng had become much more talkative. But in front of her, he seemed to revert to that honest young Daoist boy from Xining Town—his words extremely simple, his mind exceptionally pure, unable to hide a single emotion.
For instance, right now he was somewhat flustered, so when he picked up his chopsticks, he nearly dropped them. He snatched them out of midair with a swift motion, but in doing so, he pushed aside the yellow paper umbrella that was propped open. As a result, the ongoing argument from the kang table in front once again reached their ears.
“Last spring, when young Dean Chen first entered the capital, he suffered such humiliation at the Divine General’s Mansion, and afterward was repeatedly suppressed. Despite his extraordinary talent and excellent exam scores, he was forcibly removed from the admission lists of all the academies. If not for the covert protection of His Holiness the Pope, he wouldn’t even have been able to enter the already dilapidated National Academy. You all say his annulment of the engagement was heartless, but have you ever considered that if the Xu family hadn’t acted so shamelessly, how could this marriage have turned out like this?”
“What does that have to do with Miss Yourong? Back then at the Ivy Banquet, when the white crane returned north, she acknowledged this engagement in that letter. Otherwise, even if Chen Changsheng had the marriage contract, how could he have silenced the Southern envoy delegation? Even if Chen Changsheng holds a grudge against the Divine General’s Mansion, there’s no reason for him to make Miss Yourong suffer such humiliation!”
“Hmph, Xu Shiji refused to recognize this marriage from the start. The people of the Eastern Divine General’s Mansion despise poverty and love wealth. Now that young Dean Chen is no longer what he used to be, they suddenly want to cling to him? Utterly shameless! You say young Dean Chen annulling the engagement is humiliating? In my view, it’s the Eastern Divine General’s Mansion humiliating itself!”
“But this matter has nothing to do with the Saintess after all. Why should she have to bear all these rumors and gossip?”
“One can only say the Saintess is unlucky, born into such a household, with such parents!”
……
……
The kang table in the corner fell silent. The meat broth in the iron pot bubbled with a steady gurgle.
Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong sat on opposite sides of the kang table, the atmosphere growing heavy once more.
He had been in the capital for nearly two years now. That marriage contract had long since spread across the entire continent—the humiliation and suppression the Eastern Divine General’s Mansion had once inflicted on him, their later change in attitude, his transformation from a country Daoist boy into the successor of the National Religion—all of this was endlessly discussed by everyone.
This morning’s battle on the Bridge of Helplessness seemed like the final conclusion or judgment of this story, yet it hadn’t truly ended anything. Instead, it had pushed people’s interest in the tale to its peak. He believed that, just like the diners at that table, countless family banquets across the capital were surely discussing this very matter right now.
He had never forgotten the humiliation the Divine General’s Mansion had dealt him. He had also harbored many emotions toward her, far away in the south. But as that guest had said earlier, she had never truly harmed him in this matter. Yet now, she had to bear the ridicule and criticism aimed at the Divine General’s Mansion.
That might be somewhat unfair.
Chen Changsheng didn’t know what to say.
“After all, they are my parents.”
Xu Yourong’s expression was calm, as if unaffected by those discussions. But then her tone shifted abruptly.
“I want to drink some wine.”
“Alright.”
Chen Changsheng asked the owner for two small jars of the best wine. He unsealed one of them and filled her bowl to seven-tenths full.
Xu Yourong thanked him softly, took the other jar, opened it, and filled his bowl to the brim. Then she looked at him and said, “Let’s talk.”
Chen Changsheng still didn’t know what to say. After thinking for a moment, he looked at her beautiful face and asked hesitantly, “The face?”
“A certain technique from Nanxi Zhai.”
“Oh.”
After these two simple exchanges, silence fell again beside the kang table.
Xu Yourong picked up her wine bowl and took a small sip. Just that one sip made her cheeks flush slightly.
“Don’t tell anyone that we met in the Garden of Zhou.”
“Why?”
Chen Changsheng hadn’t understood her request on the Bridge of Helplessness, and now, confirming that she truly didn’t want anyone to know about this whole matter, he was even more puzzled.
Xu Yourong didn’t directly answer his question. She said softly, “Hasn’t the marriage contract already been annulled?”
This was a rumor that had circulated in the capital for a long time, never confirmed by the National Academy or the Eastern Divine General’s Mansion. But as one of the parties involved in the engagement, she naturally knew that the rumor wasn’t just a rumor—it was something that had definitely happened.
Chen Changsheng remained silent for a long time.
When the snowy wind on the bridge had blown away the white veil and he saw her eyes, it had been the happiest moment of his sixteen years. Happier than when he had memorized the last volume of Daoist scriptures in the old temple, found his fate star at the National Academy, achieved first place in the Grand Examination, or discovered Wang Zhice’s notes in Lingyan Pavilion.
She was still alive. She was her. She was his fiancée. Was there anything more miraculous in the world, anything better than this?
While bathing in the small building at the National Academy, he had already decided: he would go to the Li Palace and ask His Holiness the Pope to restore the marriage contract. Then, he would take Tang Thirty-Six and the others directly to the Imperial Palace to find her. If she agreed, he would propose to her outright.
He had never experienced matters of the heart, but once he was certain something was what he wanted to do, he would pursue it with utmost seriousness and focus, seizing every moment.
But now she was saying this matter couldn’t be spoken of. So how could he convince His Holiness the Pope to revoke the decree annulling the engagement?
A month ago, he had worked very hard to finally dissolve this engagement.
Now, he found that he desperately needed this engagement.
Tang Thirty-Six had been right.
“I thought you were dead. Back in the Garden of Zhou, I promised you I would dissolve this engagement, so…”
He looked at Xu Yourong, somewhat helplessly. “Since you knew it was me, why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
Xu Yourong’s expression turned slightly cold. “In the Garden of Zhou, you deceived me. I discovered the truth myself. So why should I tell you?”
Chen Changsheng felt very wronged and asked, “When did I deceive you?”
“Weren’t you calling yourself Xu Sheng?”
“And you weren’t calling yourself First Meeting Girl?”
“Why didn’t you admit you were Chen Changsheng?”
“Why didn’t you say you were Xu Yourong?”
They looked into each other’s eyes and almost simultaneously asked this question.
Then they remembered that back in the snow temple beside White Grass Path, when they had first introduced themselves, they had also spoken in unison—and given two false names…
They wondered what they had been thinking back then.
Chen Changsheng recalled his feelings at the time. He hadn’t wanted her to know his identity, mainly because he hadn’t wanted her to know he had a world-famous fiancée. Perhaps Xu Yourong had felt the same way, not wanting him to know she had a universally known fiancé?
“Is having a fiancé like me such a shameful thing?”
He looked at Xu Yourong and asked, his tone serious, yet tinged with bitterness and sorrow.
……
……
(Lying in bed all day, in a daze… I said I wouldn’t give reasons for taking leave, but I didn’t take leave today, so I’ll explain: I have a bad cold. Wishing everyone a happy holiday and good health.)