Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

After hearing Chen Changsheng’s words, Xu Yourong sat stunned in her position by the window for quite some time, not knowing how to respond.

In the Plains of the Unsetting Sun, they had experienced life-and-death situations together, stood side by side and back to back, and had also brushed away snow, so they had long understood each other's feelings. It was just that she had not known that he was a young Daoist boy from Xining Village, so after leaving the Garden of Zhou, she had also only thought about the promise she had made to him and prepared to end the engagement. But then, the Li Palace had announced to the world that the Sword Pool had reappeared and that many people had seen the swords from it. After making a few comparisons, she finally confirmed that he was him, finally understood that fate toyed with people’s hearts, even playing such a joke on her.

But what did that matter? As long as he was him, she clearly understood what she desired. On the Bridge of Helplessness and sitting by the pot eating ribs, she had been waiting for him to say something, but he had never said it. Only now, at such a late hour, did he inexplicably appear by her window and speak those inexplicable words.

Fine, this really was like his path of the sword.

Just like Wang Po's path of the sword, very straight.

He had used his words to straightforwardly pierce through the window paper in front of her and straightforwardly bring her back to the Divine Path of the Mausoleum of Zhou.

Xu Yourong stood up and looked at his figure through the window, and then extended her hand to open the window.

The snowflakes were buffeted inside by the wind, falling upon her face with a slight chill.

"The dilong is burning too hot, the room is a little warm."

(TN: A dilong 地龙, floor/earth dragon, was basically a variation of the kang where channels under the floor conducted heat into a room from a heat source that was elsewhere.)

She looked at Chen Changsheng and said this seemingly to explain why she had opened the window and met with him, but she had not noticed that this explanation was rather cute.

Chen Changsheng looked at her face, not noticing the nervousness she revealed as she gave this explanation that resulted in this cuteness. He just felt that she was very cute.

"I was just standing outside and also felt it was a little hot," he earnestly said.

It was currently in the depths of winter, in the dead of the night, the weather cold and the ground frozen, with snowflakes dancing in the air.

"How long have you been standing?" Xu Yourong asked as she looked at the snow on his body.

Chen Changsheng considered the question, then shook his head. "I forgot."

Xu Yourong asked, "Why didn't you just come in?"

Chen Changsheng answered, "I was afraid of disturbing your rest, and…Shuang'er should also be here, right? I was worried that she would see us and say something."

Xu Yourong asked, "Then do you want to come in now?"

Chen Changsheng replied, "No need, I came…because there's actually something I want to give you."

Saying this, he slipped off the string of stone pearls from his wrist and very carefully snapped it. He then stuck his hand into the window and said, "There are ten in total. Pick five."

In truth, he had long forgotten that there had been no agreement between them to divide up the treasures of the Mausoleum of Zhou. He simply believed it was only right and proper that since they had discovered the Mausoleum of Zhou together, anything they found in the Mausoleum of Zhou should be divided evenly, whether it was the Halving Blade Style or these ten stone pearls.

"This is…" Xu Yourong's curious voice suddenly halted and she raised her head to look at him and say in a somewhat incredulous voice, "This is those ten…that were around the Mausoleum of Zhou?"

If this were some other expert, even a Prefect of the Orthodoxy like Linghai Zhiwang, they would be unable to see anything wrong with these seemingly ordinary stone pearls, because these stone pearls truly emanated no Qi whatsoever. However, she had begun studying the Heavenly Tome Monoliths when she was little more than ten, and she had personally seen these Heavenly Tome Monoliths in the Garden of Zhou, so she was naturally able to sense that something was different about them.

"Yeah." Chen Changsheng looked back at her and said, "The Garden of Zhou has not disappeared. If you want to go back and take a look, I can bring you in."

He didn't describe it as 'entering the Garden of Zhou', instead asking if she wanted to go back. This was because to him and her, the Garden of Zhou was truly too important.

Upon hearing that the Garden of Zhou had not collapsed and that he could even enter it, Xu Yourong was astounded.

But the truly important thing was still those stone pearls in his palm.

She solemnly asked him, "You truly plan to give them to me?"

Chen Changsheng solemnly replied, "Without you, I would already be dead, and then how would I have possibly been able to find the Mausoleum of Zhou, let alone the Sword Pool?"

Xu Yourong thought about it, then casually picked out five stone pearls and swiftly stowed them away in the Tong Palace.

She felt that Chen Changsheng's argument made sense, so she very calmly accepted them, like the gentle wind and faint clouds, right and proper, frank and upright.

What Chen Changsheng most admired and most loved about her was this sort of temperament.

"Then I'll go now."

Entering the palace in the snowy night, the window being opened, seeing her, and even giving her the stone pearls—everything he needed to do had been done, and now it was naturally time to return. This was what it meant to come in high spirits, but leave upon losing interest, the so-called elegance of a distinguished scholar…but he was a youth, not a distinguished scholar, so he said he was going to go, but his feet did not move.

Xu Yourong said, "Go back first."

Chen Changsheng affirmed, but his feet still did not move, and he still did nothing but look at her.

She slightly turned, almost as if she wished to avoid his gaze, but in reality, she was leaning out the window.

The closer she got, the more nervous he became.

She extended her hand and brushed the snow off his shoulder, just like how she had brushed the leaves off his shoulder on the Divine Path.

It was very gentle, very calm, very familiar, very composed.

The paper of the window had long been pierced through, even the window had been opened, but he still needed a final confirmation.

The action of brushing away snow was this confirmation.

Chen Changsheng felt like his severed meridians had all been healed and his body brimmed with vigor. As he looked at her, his eyes glowed with light.

Xu Yourong did not look him in the eyes, instead gazing off into the snowy night, feeling her face to be somewhat hot. She softly whispered, "Tomorrow, I want to go to the Orthodox Academy and look around."

Chen Changsheng no longer had any hesitation, turning around and walking into the snowy night.

He was very sure now that he would definitely be able to sleep this time.

……

……

At five in the morning, Chen Changsheng woke up, used five breaths of time to steady his mind, then opened his eyes. After washing his face and mouth and putting on his clothes, he went on a run around the lake.

If one carefully calculated, he had not even slept for four hours. Strangely enough, he was bursting with energy, bearing none of the black bags that were often seen under Tang Thirty-Six's eyes, and his feet seemed to be borne along by the wind.

As time passed, more and more students began to run along the lakeshore, but none of them were faster than him and some would occasionally be lapped by him. When those students that had been lapped saw him, they would hurriedly bow.

No matter how young he was, he was still the principal, let alone the fact that he had been affirmed last night as candidate for Pope. As a result, the students were even more reverential than normal.

He, on the other hand, could not see any difference. He calmly returned their greetings with even more patience than usual.

In the small cafeteria across the lake, the breakfast being served was golden millet porridge, but he couldn't tell any difference between it and regular millet porridge. Not even when Xuanyuan Po took the Mountain Sea Sword from the pile of firewood and flaunted it in front of him, saying how in his practice last night, he had succeeded in attracting thunder and lightning, was Chen Changsheng able to see any difference in the Mountain Sea Sword compared to when it had first emerged from the Sword Pool in the Garden of Zhou.

In brief, he was rather scatterbrained. From time to time, his gaze would flit over in the direction of the Imperial Palace.

"You're not sick, are you?" Tang Thirty-Six asked, yawning.

Chen Changsheng came to his senses and, seeing the two black bags around Tang Thirty-Six's eyes, returned, "I think that you might be sick."

Tang Thirty-Six angrily thought, if it weren't for the fact that I had been keeping an eye on your sick self half the night but ended up getting too tired and sleeping in the snow, there's no way my energy would be so lacking right now.

The reason Chen Changsheng looked in the direction of the Imperial Palace was because last night, she said she wanted to come, and he was waiting for her.

Of course, he wanted to tell the story of the relationship between him and Xu Yourong to others, especially his friends.

Tang Thirty-Six had always been his best confidant, but Xu Yourong had said that she did not want him to tell others, so he could only hold it in.

After breakfast, he washed his face and brushed his teeth again, changed into a clean set of clothes, and stood by the window, waiting.

It was only because he was normally so obsessed with cleanliness that this did not attract the attention of the rest of the Orthodox Academy.

After waiting for some time, he heard the cry of a crane from the distance.

He followed the crane's cry, and it didn't take too long before he saw the White Crane deep within the winter forest, as well as she who had come riding on the crane.

Xu Yourong was still wearing that big cotton jacket from yesterday, but this didn't make her seem unrefined. Instead, she gave off a warm and gentle impression.

Probably because she did not want others to see, she used the secret technique of South Stream Temple to make her appearance much plainer, just as she had done in the Garden of Zhou.

Seeing her normal and average face, Chen Changsheng did not despair, but instead felt even closer to her.

Perhaps it was this closeness that let him rediscover the willingness to casually converse with her like he did in the Garden of Zhou.

He examined that big cotton jacket that made her seem especially cute and, after hesitating for a while, screwed up the courage to say a few words.

"The smell of beef ribs is very strong. Do you want to change into a new set of clothes? Maybe you want to wear some of mine first and I'll help you wash yours?"

Xu Yourong stared at him, stunned, then she became truly angry and ashamed, and began to turn around and walk back towards the White Crane.

Chen Changsheng quickly came to his senses and felt his way of doing things was truly ridiculous. He quickly caught up with her and then constantly made hand signals towards the White Crane.

The White Crane was old friends with him. Without waiting for Xu Yourong, it flew off with a cry.

Xu Yourong stood in the snow, stunned once more.

Starting from two years ago, she failed to understand why the White Crane was so close to Chen Changsheng and treated him with such kindness.

"Back then, just what did you do to it?"

She looked at Chen Changsheng and asked, "Why is he listening to you?"

This was the first time the two talked about their childhood.

"I mentioned it before in the letters we wrote to each other when we were small, you just forgot." As Chen Changsheng thought about this matter, he felt rather unwell, but when he thought about what had just occurred, this unwellness all transformed into unease. "I misspoke a moment ago, don't be angry. Just think about those words Tang Tang said."

The ‘words’ being mentioned here were naturally those of Tang Thirty-Six calling him a pig.

……

……

The White Crane had gone off forever, the winter forest was devoid of people and free to wander about.

(TN: This is a reference to the poem "Yellow Crane Tower" by Cui Hao. The original line is ‘Once the yellow crane left it will never return, for one thousand years the clouds wandered carelessly’.)

The snowflakes slowly descended. Under the umbrella, Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong strolled through the secluded forest of the Orthodox Academy.

"I, Zhexiu, and the others all live here." Chen Changsheng brought her to the forest's edge and pointed at the nearby house.

As he spoke, he recalled that she had visited the Orthodox Academy on that night and might have even seen that scene in the restaurant across the street. He explained, "Don't misunderstand, on that day, Tang Tang insisted on dragging me and Su Moyu there. Su Moyu was once part of the Li Palace Academy, thirty-third on the Proclamation of Azure Sky, so you might have heard about him before. Right now, he's also with us."

His words had touched on two topics. He had spoken very naturally, and his words also naturally contained the pride of youth, like he was showing off his accomplishments to her.

Suddenly, a voice rang out from the winter forest.

"I knew something was up with you! It's no wonder you didn't even touch the hand of that girl when she was in your bosom that night. As it turns out…you actually had a lover!"

As the voice rang out, a pile of snow suddenly burst apart and Tang Thirty-Six stood up from it.