Chapter 548: Who Will Bestow Your Name and Surname
Chen Changsheng leaned against the pillar for a very long time, until the sun shifted westward and his body gradually warmed, before he opened his eyes.
The black sheep walked up to him, ready to lead him away.
Chen Changsheng looked at it and shook his head, saying, "I still have some matters to attend to."
He remained seated, gazing at the chunks of ice in the pond, silent and lost in thought, no one knew what he was pondering.
A hint of confusion flickered in the black sheep's eyes, dark as night.
After an unknown length of time, Chen Changsheng stood up. Instead of leaving the palace to return to the National Teaching Academy, he went directly to another hall.
He had visited this hall several times before, each time under the cover of night, speaking a few words with her through the window. This was his first time stepping inside.
Shuang'er had indeed entered the palace as well. Seeing him, her face instantly turned pale, and she nearly let out a startled cry. After barely calming herself, her hands trembled as she served tea, almost spilling it all over him.
"Don't take it to heart. I can say with certainty that she didn't mean to take revenge on you."
Xu Yourong looked at him calmly and asked, "What happened?"
She knew very well that since she had made her request, under normal circumstances, Chen Changsheng would never risk being discovered to come see her.
Chen Changsheng hesitated for a moment, then said, "I... have a friend. He has been trapped in a place for a very long time, and I want to rescue him."
Hearing this, Xu Yourong was silent for a moment, then asked softly, "And then?"
"He might have done some wrong things back then, but... he has been imprisoned for so long, it's truly pitiful."
Chen Changsheng didn't know how to explain this matter, his words somewhat jumbled. "But I have no way to do it, so..."
Xu Yourong didn't wait for him to finish. She looked quietly into his eyes and asked, "Are you certain you want to do this?"
Chen Changsheng was stunned for a moment, then said very seriously, "Yes, I want to do this."
Xu Yourong looked steadily into his eyes and asked, "Is that friend of yours... Zhu Sha?"
Chen Changsheng was confused and said, "Zhu Sha?"
Xu Yourong was a bit surprised and asked, "You don't know her name?"
Chen Changsheng was slightly taken aback and said, "You know who I'm talking about?"
Xu Yourong said, "Zhu Sha is the little dragon girl's name. It's said that Lord Wang Zhice gave it to her back then."
Chen Changsheng looked at her in astonishment and said, "You know about the black dragon?"
Xu Yourong nodded.
Chen Changsheng was silent for a long time. The black dragon was a taboo subject in the Great Zhou Palace, a secret known only to a very few. But Xu Yourong was the Holy Maiden, raised since childhood by the Holy Empress. Knowing about this matter was indeed not too hard to imagine.
"So... her name is Zhu Sha."
"So you didn't know."
"Why would Lord Wang Zhice give her a name?"
"Many years ago, the Golden Dragon clan suddenly vanished. The noble Frost Dragon became the only candidate for the Dragon clan's chieftain. But the most powerful Frost Dragon of that generation possessed a soul that yearned for freedom above all else, unwilling to bear this responsibility. It secretly came to the human world, where it encountered the Solitary Scholar of Zhou."
"What happened next?"
"The noblest, most powerful, and most proud Frost Dragon in a thousand years fell, transforming into the Twilight Ridge within the Zhou Garden."
Chen Changsheng fell silent.
Back in the Zhou Garden, he had witnessed with his own eyes the magnificent scene of that winding mountain range seeming to burn under the twilight. He had also felt the strangeness from the black dragon's wisp of soul. But how could he have imagined that the Twilight Ridge was actually the fallen body of a Frost Dragon?
"What happened next?"
"Zhu Sha was the daughter of that Frost Dragon. Somehow, she left the Dragon Island in the South Sea and came alone to the human world... According to later records from the Li Palace and the imperial court, she said that when her father left, he forgot to give her a name. The name given by her elder clansmen was too long, too ugly, and too hard to remember. She disliked it very much, so she came to the human world to find her father and ask him to give her a nicer name."
"She just wanted a name?"
"Yes. That's why, in those years, she was also called the Dragon Who Sought a Name."
"An evil dragon?"
"Yes. After landing from the South Sea, she destroyed many fishing villages and towns, killed many people, and even nearly caused chaos in the capital. You should know what happened next. Lord Wang Zhice devised a plan to capture her and then used that formation to imprison her under North New Bridge."
Chen Changsheng shook his head and said, "That wasn't a plan; that was a deception."
Xu Yourong thought for a moment and said, "Indeed it was."
Chen Changsheng asked, "Why did Wang Zhice give her the name Zhu Sha?"
Xu Yourong noticed that this time, when he mentioned Wang Zhice, he didn't add the honorific "Lord" afterward, and she couldn't help but smile slightly.
"No one knows why, but the name Lord Wang Zhice gave must have deep meaning."
She glanced at him, her look laden with implication.
Chen Changsheng didn't notice and asked, "How old is she now?"
"If we equate a dragon's lifespan to a human's, she's probably a year or two younger than us?"
"Even though I had thought of it, it still feels a bit strange... I've been calling her senior all this time."
"Do you still want to rescue her now?"
"Yes."
"Even though she once committed heinous crimes?"
"You said she's a year or two younger than us. So how old was she when she left the South Sea and came to the human world? One or two years old?"
Chen Changsheng was quiet for a moment, then said, "I don't know exactly what happened in those fishing villages and towns back then, and I'm not trying to make excuses for her. But she was just an infant at the time. Even if her sins were as vast as the sky, being imprisoned for several hundred years now should be enough."
Xu Yourong thought it over very seriously and said softly, "Indeed, it's enough."
Chen Changsheng was very glad that she shared his view on this matter. But no matter how dull he was, he knew that his request was actually somewhat improper. So his mood didn't become elated; instead, he grew more cautious and careful, his voice much softer. "Can you help me?"
Xu Yourong looked at him seriously and said, "Of course I can. But aside from the Holy Empress and His Holiness the Pope, who can undo the formation left by Lord Wang Zhice?"
Chen Changsheng recalled the conversation with his uncle the Pope in the Li Palace after returning from the Zhou Garden, and he shook his head.
Xu Yourong understood and said, "Even though I haven't seen it with my own eyes, I can imagine that formation isn't something we can break now."
"We can't just wait forever. No matter how many years pass, North New Bridge won't turn into a real bridge."
"That's not necessarily true. Even the vast sea can turn into mulberry fields. The power of time is far stronger than we imagine."
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(Next chapter at 8 PM.)