Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)
chapter-87

There was a knock on the door. Xuan Yuan Po went to take a look. After a short while, he came back and although the youngster had a big beard, it couldn’t hide his red face. He was nervous and shy because of the young girl holding an umbrella who followed him into the library.

Tang Thirty Six looked at the pretty, young girl and said a little surprised, “Where did this flowerlike girl come from?”

Xuan Yuan Po rubbed his hands nervously and said, “I don’t know which mansion’s miss she is. When I asked, she didn’t answer me.”

Tang Thirty Six said, “Then how can you let her in like that? Although last night was the seventh of the July(the Chinese Valentine’s Day), you still should not do so.”

Xuan Yuan Po immediately explained, “She said she knows Chen Chang Sheng.”

Chen Chang Sheng was reading. After hearing this, he put down the Scroll and looked up. He actually knew her. She wasn’t the miss of any mansion, she was the maid of the Dong Yu General’s Mansion. Her name was Shuang Er.

He obviously wouldn’t point it out to Xuan Yuan Po. He stood up, walked out and said to Shuang Er, “Long time no see.”

Indeed, long time no see. Since the last time Shuang Er came to the Tradition Academy to look for him, several months have passed.

Shuang Er closed the umbrella and indicated him to follow her to the corner.

“What’s happening?” he asked.

Shuang Er looked at him and recalled what she heard about the Ivy Festival last night. She had a complicated feeling. After thinking a bit, she said, “I heard about you. I must admit that you certainly shocked many. Madam and I didn’t make a correct evaluation of you.”

Chen Chang Sheng said, “You have your standpoint, so you don’t have to apologize.”

He spoke truthfully right from the start. He could only speak truthfully.

Shuang Er’s thin eyebrows lifted up a bit and she said, “Don’t misunderstand. Maybe my view towards you is incorrect, but that doesn’t mean I support you and miss staying together. Even though you are knowledgeable, you can’t xiuxing. After all, you are still…..”

Although she didn’t like Chen Chang Sheng, she wasn’t a mean person. She restrained herself from saying the two words, “useless trash.”

Yet everyone knew her meaning.

Chen Chang Sheng said, “Whether you support it or not, your opinion holds no meaning in this marriage.”

Shuang Er felt a little angry, she said, “I and miss are like sisters. I care about miss’s happiness more than everyone else. You took out the engagement at the Ivy Festival and acquired your reputation, but have you ever considered that miss and Qiu Shan Jun were the best match originally? You ruined it, how could you?”

“So, you are here to defend Qiu Shan Jun?”

Chen Chang Sheng looked at her said, “You should know, in the Ivy Festival last night, your miss let the white crane bring a letter.

In the letter, she admitted the engagement herself, but now you seem to have a different viewpoint on it. Are even trying to defend another man?”

“Does your miss know what you are doing here?”

Shuang Er couldn’t say a word. She didn’t know why miss would do that.

Chen Chang Sheng said, “Is there anything else?”

“Indeed I shouldn’t have said my last sentence.” Shuang Er now calmed down. She lifted her arm to wipe off the raindrop in her hair and said, “Miss has a sentence for you.”

“What sentence?”

“Please don’t misunderstand.”

Hearing this sentence, Chen Chang Sheng remained silent for a very long time. Previously, Shuang Er had said similar words which hurt his feeling a lot. So what did Xu You Rong mean by that?

He asked, “Misunderstand what?”

“I don’t know.” Shuang Er looked at him and said, “You should understand it yourself.”

Last night, the white crane carried the letter over ten thousands miles back to the capital. In the letter, Xu You Rong revealed her attitude towards the marriage clearly. Although he understood it clearly, it was impossible for Xu You Rong to actually want to marry him. There must be a hidden meaning. Regardless, he hated her less because of this.

However, after hearing the message sent to him, he didn’t feel too good.

“That’s all?” he looked at Shuang Er to suggest her to leave.

Shuang Er said, “Miss also said, if you have anything to say, you can write a letter to her directly.”

With a flutter, a white crane flew down from the sky. While flapping its wings, it landed outside of the library. Water slowly flowed down from its feathers.

Chen Chang Sheng looked at the white crane and nodded.

The white crane moved near him and touched his right arm using its neck. It appeared to be very affectionate towards him.

“Did you live well all these years?” he spoke to the white crane.

White Crane tweeted as if it was answering.

Seeing this image, Shuang Er was very surprised.

Last night when the white crane flew back, Chen Chang Sheng felt that he had forgotten something. Back then, he thought it was the black dragon under the abandoned garden but now he recalled that he should write a letter and let the white crane take it to Xu You Rong. There were many things to say so it’s better to communicate directly.

Shuang Er had been playing a role in the communication between Xu You Rong and him, he didn’t like that.

From the time he arrived at the capital, he had only received one letter from Xu You Rong. In this letter, there were only three words and it was very concise, “Please behave yourself.”

Chen Chang Sheng held pen and thought for a while about how determined, meaningful, and arrogant the words he wrote should be, so that he could reply to her without losing his honor.

This was the first letter he wrote to her after ten years.

However, after all this thought, he only wrote a normal letter, with normal words about normal things.

He didn’t really want to get in a fight(not physical) with little girl.

Even if she was Xu You Rong, even if she was only three days younger than him, he considered her a little girl.

In the South, ten thousands miles away, it was the Mountain Virgin.

The land under the Mountain Virgin was all forbidden. But three hundred miles away, there was a small town. The inhabitants were all commoners. There were blacksmiths, a liquor store, a meat store and a casino. Usually, people play dice or dominoes, but in the depths of this casino, there was a simple room. In the room there was a table.

People were playing Mahjong there.

Sitting at the East hand was a beautiful girl.

The girl was around fourteen. She was so beautiful that it seems as if she wasn’t a regular human.

The other three people at the table knew she definitely was a regular human.

Two years ago, the boss of the casino was going to do something evil to her. The fact that she looked young and small and therefore weak, made it even easier to arouse a person’s desire to commit a crime. He died in a very scary way. The dealer then took over the casino. He was the middle aged man sitting at the west of the table.

Since that day, after a period of time, this girl would come to the small town and play Mahjong. She wouldn’t stop without playing continuously for two days and a night.

The simple room would only open once in several months. The people who were playing Mahjong with her were the three from the very beginning. Nothing changed. The three people were commoners, how could they expect to meet such special thing?

From the endless fear in the very beginning to eventually playing without trembling their hands, they played a very long time. By now, they could already naturally get along with that little goddess. In game, they would no longer go easy, but would play for real and sometimes, they even dared to complain.

Being able to play Mahjong with such a pretty goddess, how fortunate were they?

And sometimes, they could really win money.

A crane’s tweet came up outside the window and little girl said, “I have something to do tonight, can’t play anymore.”

The three people were very surprised. They all thought: What happened? She actually ended it so early this time? How about the rule of playing continuous for two days and a night?

The girl took out several golden leaves and left them on the table as compensation. She then turned around and left.

The three stared at each other. A lady worried and said, “It seems that something happened to the girl. She’s not so interested in the game.”

On a cliff away from the small town, Xu You Rong unfastened the letter from the white crane’s leg and opened it casually.

Under the starlights, the paper could be seen clearly. The words were common, the handwriting was clear, and the paragraph wasn’t long but she took a long time to read it.

Among the words and handwriting, she saw reservedness. She didn’t see any hatred or negative emotion at all.

She could hardly imagine how a youngster, after experiencing so many troubles in the capital, could still remain calm.

If she was him, she definitely couldn’t do so.

She remembered that he was only three days older.

She looked towards the direction of the capital and said, “If this letter isn’t fake, then this person is either a gentleman or a forthright man.”

The white crane tweeted. Obviously, it didn’t agree with her saying. The disagreement here was pointed to the word fake.

Xu You Rong felt a little helpless. She said “Why do you like that dude so much? I can’t even remember how he looks like. Why is he worth your liking?”

White crane tweeted twice to remind her of her previous words about being a gentleman and forthright man.

“No matter gentleman or saint, both are not people who I can live with for a long time on the way of xiuxing. It will be too boring.”

She looked at white crane and said, “I don’t want to live a boring life.”

White crane slightly leaned its neck aside. It felt confused as it probably thought: Miss, if you don’t want to marry Chen Chang Sheng, then why do you write that letter? Why do you admit this marriage to the world?

Xu You Rong didn’t explain. She had her own thinking. No matter parents or elders, Pope or Divine Queen, all couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

Then she opened up Shuang Er’s letter and began reading. Next, she learned about the things that happened at the Ivy Festival last night.

She slightly her eyebrows slightly, feeling surprised.

Since the engagement was already announced to the public, then would she be able to at least live calmly for a while?

She found this person really surprising.

Then she saw the conversation that Shuang Er reported between her and Chen Chang Sheng.

She put her hands behind her back and looked towards the direction of the capital again. She was wordless for a very long time.

“I suddenly remembered…when I was eleven, I had secretly written a letter, and let you take it to Xi Ning.”

White Crane nodded; that was the last time it went to Xi Ning. In the entire Dong Yu General’s Mansion, no one knew.

“I think I said in the letter, I won’t marry him.”

“He didn’t write anything to object, so what is he insisting now?”

What Chen Chang Sheng insisted was never the marriage. Besides his master or senior in the old temple in Xi Ning, in this world, only the black dragon in the dimension under the royal court knew. Of course, he didn’t know that the middle aged woman he met by the lake also knew.

For that thing, he even discarded his habit of sleeping and waking up early. He used the entire night to meditate and absorb starlight to purify. Although it seems like he couldn’t proceed, he would never give up trying until the last moments of his life.

In the early morning, he woke up in the library.

Like yesterday, he was awoken by loud noises.

A terrifying huge sound came from the front of the Tradition Academy.

He pushed up the door of the library and went there with Tang Thirty Si and Xuan Yuan Po.

The Tradition Academy’s door was broken.

The Tradition Academy’s door was broken by someone.

The door that was just cleaned up a few months before, fell as a wagon bumped against it.

Wooden fragments and rocks were all over the ground. It looked very pitiful.

A horse fell on the wet floor, opened up its blank eyes, and pedaled slightly with its hoofs.

The dust gradually settled down.

Around ten rides appeared outside the Tradition Academy.

The riders were dressed in fine clothes and had well-groomed horses.

The horses were not common.

The knights looked cold, obviously they were not commoners.

A young knight, looking at the broken door said expressionlessly, “What’s the point for this old, broken yard continue to exist?”