Chapter 57

Chen Changsheng really thought this way, so he said it, but to others, it seemed more like a jest, and it was somewhat shameless. It was clear that Mo Yu thought this way. Her voice was slightly low as she said, "Let's talk about the engagement."

"That's a matter between me and the Eastern Marshal's Mansion."

"You know very well that this isn't true, and this issue needs to be resolved."

Both of them spoke very calmly, and there was no room for doubt.

Mo Yu's voice was as cold as snow: "If it weren't for someone insisting that you must live, the engagement letter in your arms would just be a piece of scrap paper."

For someone like her, although the engagement letter had the signature of the Pope, which was very special, she could easily make it invalid. The simplest method would be to kill Chen Changsheng—once he was dead, the engagement letter would naturally become scrap paper.

Chen Changsheng looked into the depths of the night and said, "Many people saw me enter the palace."

Mo Yu said, "Who would care about the life or death of someone like you?"

Chen Changsheng said, "I am now a student at the National Academy, so many people will care... These days, those people haven't appeared, but it doesn't mean they don't exist. They are watching the National Academy, watching me, and watching you."

When he said this, he naturally thought of the Bishop of the Church's Chancellery. To this day, he hadn't spoken a word to the other party, but he knew where the source of the National Academy's transformation lay.

"Killing me is a simple matter, but it's also a troublesome one."

He said, "You can try to make Luo Luo leave my side, but you can't make those eyes watching the National Academy leave."

Mo Yu's voice was somewhat cold: "My intention to kill you has nothing to do with the National Academy; I don't even see those old guys."

"Yes, you want to kill me, and it has nothing to do with the National Academy, but unfortunately, no one knows, and no one will believe it."

Chen Changsheng finally said, "Unless you announce the engagement between Xu Yourong and me to the world, then perhaps everyone would support you in killing me. But the problem is, that would create new troubles. So I really want to know, what can you do?"

Since he came to the capital, especially after entering the National Academy, it seemed that he didn't need to worry about anything, only the sounds of the wind, rain, and reading, and his days were very peaceful. In reality, he and the National Academy were always in a storm, very unstable.

These days, he studied and practiced hard at the National Academy, never stepping out of the gate. As Mo Yu had said earlier, he was using Luo Luo's background to intimidate those who intended to harm him. Although it was Luo Luo who proposed it, he also agreed. At the same time, he used the history and rising reputation of the National Academy to point to the other end of the unknown engagement, making the Eastern Marshal's Mansion dare not act rashly, thus ensuring his safety.

A common youth from the remote Xining, facing the high gates and powerful figures in the capital, even the great figures in the palace, had already done everything he could think of. He was grateful for his identity as a new student at the National Academy and for his so-called character, which allowed him to persist until tonight.

"What a cunning little man."

Miss Mo Yu's voice was full of disdain and sarcasm, "Unfortunately, a small person has never seen the vast ocean, how can they understand what grandeur is? Never having plucked a star, how can they understand what vastness is? You are ultimately a summer insect that doesn't understand snow and ice."

Chen Changsheng suddenly felt a strong sense of unease. His right hand gripped the rhinoceros horn button in his sleeve, and his left hand gripped the hilt of the short sword.

But it was too late.

He felt a moment of dizziness, and the scenery before his eyes became blurry.

The scenery under the night sky in the palace was not very clear, but the current blurriness was clearly different.

A hard-to-describe aura entered his mind, and he suddenly felt sleepy.

The next moment, he felt a slight chill in his heart and became clear-headed.

The scenery had changed. He found himself in a deserted garden. In front of him, a cold pond was faintly visible under the starlight, emitting a chilling water vapor. A few plum trees were scattered around the pond, still in autumn, with no blossoms or buds, looking very lonely.

He was shocked and speechless. Clearly, he was still on the corridor outside the Weiyang Palace a moment ago, but why did he suddenly find himself here?

What kind of means did the other party use to create such a bizarre effect?

The deserted garden was silent and empty, and faint music could be heard from a distance.

He turned to look and saw that the palace several hundred feet away was still brightly lit, and although he couldn't see it, he could imagine the lively scene inside.

The Southern delegation must have arrived.

Standing in the deserted garden, looking at the bright palace, his figure seemed very lonely.

Mo Yu's voice sounded again, but this time it was not in his mind, but from the other end of the deserted garden, from somewhere in the night: "Look. If you just be a spectator tonight, then all the problems can be easily solved."

Chen Changsheng looked at the dark night and said, "This is unfair."

Mo Yu said, "Such childish words shouldn't come from such a cunning person."

For some reason, her voice sounded somewhat tired.

Chen Changsheng said, "Such childish words shouldn't come from the legendary Miss Mo."

Mo Yu thought that his concern about the fairness of the whole matter was very childish.

He thought that Mo Yu's view was truly childish.

This was not a verbal confrontation, but a difference in their views of the world.

Mo Yu's voice was very cold: "Fairness has never been the most important thing."

Chen Changsheng was silent for a moment and said, "When Scholar Zhaoming was frozen to death in prison, he probably didn't think that way."

Scholar Zhaoming, Mo Wenshan, a literary master of the Great Zhou Dynasty, offended the powerful figures in the palace in the late years of the previous emperor, was falsely accused and imprisoned, and was dragged out of his cell on a cold winter day, doused with water, and frozen to death. All the male members of the Mo family were killed, except for one granddaughter who survived by chance.

Mo Yu was that granddaughter.

A cold and angry voice suddenly sounded in the night: "Bold little thief!"

Chen Changsheng said, "When the people of the world talk about the affairs of the world, why should they need to be bold?"

Hearing this, Mo Yu was silent for a long time.

"Yes, this is indeed unfair, but you are too insignificant... compared to this palace. To fight against the demons, humans need unity and new blood. For this, whether it's our Great Zhou or the Southern sects, we spare no effort. That's why there is the Qingteng Banquet, the Imperial Examination, and... the marriage between her and Qiu Shanjun."

Mo Yu's voice gradually calmed down, and she said, "Of course, these are actually not important. What's important is that the Empress likes Xu Yourong, values Xu Yourong, and thinks that only Qiu Shanjun can barely match her. So, she can only marry him."

Chen Changsheng disagreed with this view. He wanted to leave the deserted garden and go to the Weiyang Palace.

He knew that it was impossible to leave in front of a legendary figure like Mo Yu. This seemingly lonely, wall-less deserted garden would be very difficult to leave. So, he unhesitatingly flicked the button he had been holding in his palm onto the ground.

This button made of rhinoceros horn was an extremely precious magical artifact—the Thousand Mile Button.

After Luo Luo gave him the Thousand Mile Button, she also taught him how to use it.

A wisp of smoke rose in the deserted garden, and Chen Changsheng's figure disappeared.

But the next moment, his figure reappeared in the same place.

The cold pond remained, and the plum trees did not tremble.

His face turned pale, and a trickle of blood slowly dripped from the corner of his mouth.

There was an extremely powerful barrier around the deserted garden, even more powerful than the smoke screen used by the demon in the National Academy that night.

The Great Zhou Palace was indeed extraordinary.

The place where Mo Yu wanted him to stay was indeed not ordinary.

Even though it looked like just a deserted garden, he couldn't leave.

...

...

"Everything you have is within my calculations, so give up," Mo Yu's voice was calm and chilling.

Chen Changsheng raised his head, raised his right arm, and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve. He looked at the palace in the night, at the capital where he had lived for several months but still felt unfamiliar and hard to approach, and at all the people living there whom he couldn't see.

"Actually, I really came to break off the engagement."

His voice was somewhat tired but as calm as usual: "She is a phoenix that everyone, including the Empress, likes and values, but I never thought of marrying her. I... really came to break off the engagement, but no one ever believed me."

The night was deathly silent, and the deserted garden remained cold, just like his current expression.

He came to the capital to break off the engagement. In the Eastern Marshal's Mansion, he said it twice, and today, in the deserted garden of the palace, he said it twice again.

Yes, why did no one ever believe him?

Just because she was the reincarnation of the True Phoenix, while he was just an ordinary youth who hadn't practiced?

"I know better than most people in this world what is most important in life. That thing is very important, more important than the engagement, and more important than all the humiliations and setbacks I have experienced since coming to the capital. So, I don't care."

He withdrew his gaze from the distance and looked at the night on the other side of the cold pond. "But you did many unnecessary things, constantly reminding me that I have a fiancée, and that she is going to marry someone else. Even just now, you were still reminding me..."

"Alright, I must admit that I started to care."

"Just like what I said to Mrs. Xu in the Marshal's Mansion."

"This time, I really changed my mind."

"I won't marry Xu Yourong because I don't like her and you."

"But I won't dissolve the engagement either because I don't like her and you."

"This is very fair."

"This way, as long as I don't agree, she can't marry Qiu Shanjun or anyone else."

"I know this is unfair to her."

"But it is very fair to me."

The deserted garden was silent.

The cold pond was bone-chilling.

Mo Yu was silent for a long time. She suddenly felt that she might have done something wrong.

Back in the Eastern Marshal's Mansion, Mrs. Xu had also had this feeling.

But the next moment, she laughed, somewhat self-mocking, and also mocking the young man's words.

"Then you must let the whole continent know that there is an engagement between you and her."

"Tonight is indeed the best opportunity."

"But first, you have to be able to leave here."

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