Chapter 43: Who Bestows Your Name and Surname
Chen Changsheng leaned against the pillar for a very long time, until the sun shifted westward and his body grew warm, before he opened his eyes.
The black sheep walked over 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 where he was, gazing at the chunks of ice in the pond, silent and brooding, lost in thought.
A hint of confusion flickered in the black sheep’s eyes, dark as night.
No one knew how much time passed before Chen Changsheng stood up. Instead of leaving the palace to return to the National Academy, he went directly to another hall.
He had visited this hall several times before, always arriving under 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 gasped in shock. After barely managing to calm 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’s not trying 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’s 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 before asking softly, “And then?”
“He might have done some wrong things back then, but… he’s been locked up for so long. It’s really pitiful.”
Chen Changsheng didn’t know how to explain this matter, his words coming out in a jumble. “But I have no way to do it, so…”
Xu Yourong didn’t wait for him to finish. She looked steadily into his eyes and asked, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
Chen Changsheng was taken aback, then said very seriously, “Yes, I want to do this.”
Xu Yourong gazed 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 stunned 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 Zhou Imperial Palace, a secret known only to a very few. But Xu Yourong was the Holy Maiden, raised since childhood by Her Holiness the Saint Empress. Knowing about this wasn’t too hard to imagine.
“So… her name is Zhu Sha.”
“So you didn’t know.”
“Why would Lord Wang Zhice be the one to give her a name?”
“Many years ago, the golden dragon clan suddenly vanished. The noble Xuan Shuang dragon became the only candidate for dragon clan leader. But the most powerful Xuan Shuang dragon of that generation possessed a soul that yearned for freedom above all else. Unwilling to bear that responsibility, she quietly came to the human world in disguise, where she met Zhou Du Fu.”
“And then?”
“The noblest, most powerful, and proudest Xuan Shuang dragon in a millennium fell, transforming into Mu Yu in the Zhou Garden.”
Chen Changsheng fell silent.
Back in the Zhou Garden, he had personally witnessed the magnificent sight of that winding mountain range seeming to burn under the twilight. He had also sensed the strangeness in the black dragon’s lingering soul. But how could he have imagined that Mu Yu was actually the fallen body of a Xuan Shuang dragon?
“And then?”
“Zhu Sha was that Xuan Shuang dragon’s daughter. 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 names given by her clan elders were too long, too ugly, and too hard to remember. She disliked them greatly, 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 searched for a name.”
“A dragon?”
“Yes. After she landed from the South Sea, she destroyed many fishing villages and towns, killed countless people, and even nearly caused a great upheaval in the capital. You should know the rest. 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 trick.”
Xu Yourong thought for a moment and said, “Indeed.”
Chen Changsheng said, “Why did Wang Zhice name her 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 chose 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 dragon lifespan to human years, she’s probably about a year or two younger than us?”
“Even though I suspected as much, 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 defend her. But she was just an infant at the time. Even if her sins were monstrous, being imprisoned for several hundred years now should be enough.”
Xu Yourong thought it over very seriously and said softly, “It really is enough.”
Chen Changsheng was glad that she shared his view on this matter. But no matter how dull he was, he knew his request was somewhat improper. So his mood didn’t become elated; instead, he grew more cautious and careful, his voice dropping significantly. “Can you help me?”
Xu Yourong looked at him seriously and said, “Of course I can. But aside from Her Holiness the Saint 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 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 become a real bridge.”
“That’s not necessarily true. Even vast seas can turn into mulberry fields. The power of time is far greater than we imagine.”
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(Next chapter at eight in the evening.)