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Published at 14th of September 2018 03:16:16 PM


Chapter 48

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Chapter 48 Only seeing an old friend cry

 

What was certain was that Princess Shanyin had the power to influence Liu Ziye’s choices and decisions. As for the degree to which she could do this…that was something she needed to figure out over time.

 

None of this made Chu Yu happy. Quite the opposite: she found herself afraid. If she found that she had more influence than she thought, then she would be even more afraid.

 

It was like if someone who didn’t like to spend money found that they had a key to a vault filled with treasures.

 

After some irrelevant small chat, Chu Yu stayed in the palace for another nerve-wracking half-day. The little emperor went from playing cute for attention to bearing a murderous expression and muttering about all the people he wanted to kill. Chu Yu’s heart got quite the exercise from how much it rose and fell in her chest. It was only when she didn’t hear her own name in the list before leaving that she sighed a breath of relief.

 

This time Chu Yu wasn’t so hasty in leaving the imperial palace. As she walked, she glanced around casually, secretly memorizing her surroundings.

 

While glancing around, she spotted someone. There were a lot of people walking or milling around in the palace. But only this person was enough to make Chu Yu stop and stare.

 

It was a youth, probably seventeen or eighteen years old. In terms of beauty, he couldn’t compare to Liu Se or Mo Xiang, perhaps comparing more favorably to Rong Zhi or Huan Yuan. These days Chu Yu had seen enough pretty faces that they no longer distracted her. But this youth was different, so very different.

 

His eyes were clear, not as heavy as Rong Zhi’s, but closer to the purity of an infant’s. That purity between his brows was almost suffocating. Although he walked in this place that was concentrated with more power than anywhere else in the nation, Chu Yu felt like he was walking outside of the earthly realm, unstained by the love and hatred of the world, the obsessions, resentments, greed, and short-sightedness that blinded everyone else.

 

He was too clean.

 

He wore a purple robe that almost brushed against the ground. Outside of his robe was a light muslin that billowed as he walked, as if he were some kind of spirit.

 

Rong Zhi was about the same age as this youth and had a somewhat similar air. But between the two of these there was the same distance that stretched between the heavens and the earth. They were opposite poles: Rong Zhi was as incalculable as a black hole at the end of the universe, showing nothing of his true intents. But this youth was like a crystal existing outside of this mortal realm, so transparent and pure.

 

As if sensing Chu Yu’s gaze, he stopped, turning his head slightly. When his eyes met Chu Yu’s, he smiled lightly, nodding at her, before walking ahead once more.

 

Seeing her reaction, the eunuch beside her leaned closer and whispered, “Princess, that is the astronomer Tian Rujing, the successor of Mount Yun Mian’s immortal arts. He’s quite talented. If you encounter any sort of misfortune, you can invite him to exorcise the evils. In fact, he has entered the palace this time to exorcise a ghost from a haunted room here.”

 

The court astronomer was just an institutional role that didn’t have much to do every day. His only job was to make reckonings based on the calendar. But Tian Rujing’s other identity was a celestial master who served the royal family. Although his position itself wasn’t impressive, no one in the palace dared disrespect him.

 

Celestial master?

 

After reflecting on what that could mean, most of Chu Yu’s positive feelings toward the man disappeared. Was this youth with such a pure aura involved in mystic nonsense? What a contrast!

 

It seemed that in this world you really couldn’t judge a book by its cover.

 

 

By the time she returned to her own carriage, Chu Yu had forgotten about the youth completely. No matter how pure his aura, how different he seemed from his occupation, Tian Rujing had nothing to do with her. She didn’t need anything exorcised and wasn’t obsessed with physical beauty. After their distant glance at each other, they would no longer have any interaction.

 

Aside from the soft cushions and short tabletop in the carriage, there was something new there now. There was a young man who had been tied in quite an artistic way. He was dressed in new, clean clothes, and his hair was still damp. Studying the ropes, Chu Yu found that it must’ve been tied by some kind of expert. Even untying them would probably take at least five or six minutes.

There was a white handkerchief stuffed in his mouth. He couldn’t speak through it, but his eyes were watering with rage and humiliation. The light in those eyes shot at Chu Yu, sharp as arrows.

 

This young man was Liu Ziye’s present to his sister–Chen Shenzhi. The thought in Liu Ziye’s mind was that picking a day wasn’t any better than seizing the current moment. If he could take care of Chen Shenzhi, he wouldn’t have to see him again. As he was chatting with Chu Yu, he ordered for the man to be bathed and delivered to Chu Yu’s carriage. If Chu Yu was interested, she could savor him on the way back; if not, she could wait until she got back to slowly enjoy him.

 

The carriage drove back. Sitting there, Chu Yu endured Chen Shenzhi’s piercing gaze with an emotionless look on her face. Deep down, she could only smile in exasperation. Although she had saved his life, he was also a male concubine now. For an ambitious young man like him, that had to be unbearable.

 

She had no plans of telling him the truth or obtaining his gratitude. All in all, she had only saved him out of a moment’s pity, not out of any kind of grand feeling. Nor did she have plans to pour her heart out to him. As long as she could keep him in her palace, she had obtained a first win. What happened after that could be slowly negotiated as time went on.

 

After returning to the palace, Chu Yu had a living space arranged for Chen Shenzhi: the old location that the departed concubines once lived in. With that, she had defined his identity. She ordered guards to keep a close watch on him, just in case he tried killing himself out of temporary frustration. Before departing, she turned around, gazing into the ashen face of Chen Shenzhi, with the first words the two of them had exchanged since they met each other, “If you really wish to die, no one will be able to stop you. But know that death is easy while life is hard. If you die here, you’ll be nothing more than an insignificant concubine in the princess’s palace, forever and ever.”

 

Hearing this, a light came into Chen Shenzhi’s eyes. Knowing that she had already vanquished his death wish, Chu Yu finally left without further worries.

 

While Chu Yu was returning to her dwellings with a bound man, someone was already on their way to bring the news to Rong Zhi. Rong Zhi was busy setting up a chessboard. When he heard the news, he slowly set a piece down with his good hand, “I see. You can leave now.”

 

Huan Yuan received the news at about the same time. He was taken aback by the news at first, emotions flitting over his face. It was a while before he waved his hand, ordering the messenger to leave.

 

Everyone in the palace reacted differently. While Liu Se was worried, he couldn’t do anything about it aside from continue to cultivate his temperament.

 

The most worried of all, however, was Yue Jiefei. “So the Princess’s tastes have turned toward more valuable identities…has my responsibility grown even more?”





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