Chen Changsheng was about to return to the capital. Upon hearing this news, Zhuang Huanyu fell silent for a very long time, just like a few days ago when he heard that Chen Changsheng was still alive.
After the party from the Garden of Zhou left Hanqiu City and returned to the capital, Zhexiu was requested by the Imperial Court from the Li Palace. Everyone believed that Chen Changsheng had died along with the collapse of the Garden of Zhou. After returning to Mount Li, Qi Jian was still unconscious. Moreover, the matters between men and women were the most likely to cause trouble in the world. He believed that no one would believe Zhexiu and Qi Jian's explanations, so he was very happy. He felt that his life had finally returned to the right path. However, he would occasionally think of Liang Xiaoxiao — that young genius who had used the final move of the Mount Li Sword Style to commit suicide in front of him. Thus, his body would begin to grow cold. No matter how many blankets he covered himself with, he would never be able to warm up. It was as if the shadow of a demon was always quietly standing in the air around him.
However, what made him feel even colder was that Chen Changsheng had not died.
He had appeared in the wilderness to the north of Tianliang County. It was said that he was together with that legendary Junior Martial Uncle of Mount Li. Following that, it was said that Divine General Xue He had passed away, but Chen Changsheng had still not died. They had gone to Xunyang City. Following that, Liang Wangsun and Painted Armor Xiao Zhang appeared. Zhu Luo and Guan Xingke, the two Storms of the Eight Directions appeared. Chen Changsheng had actually not died … why didn't you die?
Zhuang Huanyu stood in the courtyard, looking up at the pitch-black night sky that seemed like an abyss. His face was pale, and he muttered to himself, "Why didn't you die?"
He looked up at the night sky in silence for a very long time, then muttered, "No one would believe it."
Several months ago, after that night when Wang Zhice comprehended the Dao, the capital of the Great Zhou was once again bathed in silver starlight. That was because Chen Changsheng was viewing the monoliths and cultivating in the Mausoleum of Books. After that night, the entire continent knew of his meritorious service for the human world, and also knew of the Li Palace's true attitude towards him.
– Chen Chang Sheng became the youngest principal of the Tradition Academy in history. His Holiness had chosen him as his successor. He was the successor of the Orthodoxy.
No one believed that the successor of the Orthodoxy would collude with the demons, because it was impossible for the demons to give him any greater benefits. If he had died in the Garden of Zhou at the very beginning, or perhaps for the benefit of some living person, some people could have tried to believe him. However, Su Li had returned to Mount Li alive, and Chen Changsheng had returned to the capital alive. Then everything had come to an end, and the scheme that Liang Xiaoxiao had weaved with his own death was about to be broken. Of course, there were also people who held different views, such as that terrifying Lord Zhou Tong.
This was because Zhou Tong knew that Chen Chang Sheng was Daoist Ji's student. He believed that Daoist Ji, for the sake of vengeance, would not hesitate to sacrifice the entire human world, much less collude with the demon race. However, Zhuang Huanyu did not know of these things, so as more and more news of Chen Changsheng's return to the south spread to the capital, he became more and more taciturn. He no longer left his small courtyard, and his confident figure could no longer be seen in the verdant forest of the Heavenly Dao Academy. He began to understand why Liang Xiaoxiao would so resolutely die when he saw Zhexiu carrying Qi Jian into the Mountainside Whispering Wood in the Garden of Zhou.
Besides death, what else could he do?
He lowered his head and gazed at the quiet well in the courtyard. He gazed at the well water that reflected the gloomy starlight and suddenly shivered.
Ever since he was a child, he and his mother had relied on each other for survival. He passed his days in poverty, diligently studying. When he came to the capital, he entered the Heavenly Dao Academy. Because his father was the Vice Principal of the Heavenly Dao Academy and because his talent in cultivation was extremely high, he received the love of many teachers and the respect and love of his schoolmates. However, he had never relaxed his demands on himself. Even in the cold winter, he still persisted in using the ice-cold well water to bathe.
It was already late spring, and the capital was very hot and stuffy. It even felt like summer, but he felt that the well water was somewhat cold.
That cold feeling made one feel fear and despair.
Gazing at the mouth of the quiet well, Zhuang Huanyu's face grew paler and paler. After a very long time, he finally turned and left the well.
This was the first time in many days that he had left the small courtyard he lived in. On the way, the students of the Heavenly Dao Academy that he met all looked at him with astonished expressions. One by one, they moved to the side of the road and bowed in greeting. Zhuang Huanyu acted as if he did not see anything, nor did he speak to his schoolmates. He directly walked to the front of a building in the depths of the Heavenly Dao Academy.
This was the residence of the Principal of the Heavenly Dao Academy. Back then, Mao Qiuyu had lived here. Later on, Mao Qiuyu went to the Li Palace to take over as Archbishop of the Hall of Subjugation, and this place became the residence of the new Principal.
The new Principal of the Heavenly Dao Academy was surnamed Zhuang, and he was his father.
Standing outside the quiet residence, separated by the sparse plum branches, Zhuang Huanyu once again fell silent for a very long time as he gazed at the lights in the building and the figure of that man. However, his face was no longer as pale as it was before.
Back then, his father had abandoned his mother and son and entered the capital to take the imperial examination. He had an ambiguous relationship with that girl from the Wenshui Tangs, and was very ungrateful and ungrateful — this was the story that Zhuang Huanyu persisted in believing, and this had always been his view of his father. Thus, he had always harbored a great hatred and malice towards his father. As a result, when facing his father, he would always have the greatest courage.
He did not know why he had come here tonight, but he realized that because of his anger towards that man behind the window, the despair and coldness in his heart had actually improved by a great deal.
Afterwards, he left the Heavenly Dao Academy and walked to the stone pillar of the Li Palace. He stopped and did not continue forward.
He was a genius of the Heavenly Dao Academy, and was also one of the next generation that the Orthodoxy had focused on nurturing. He had sufficient qualifications to enter the Li Palace, but he did not, because he had not come to the Li Palace to sightsee, but to see those last few night cherry trees. He had come to the Li Palace to see a person, but even if he entered the Li Palace, he would not be able to see that person. Just like how even though he was a genius like Zhuang Huanyu, he did not have the qualifications to approach that person. Just like before in the Heavenly Dao Academy, he could only occasionally see that fairy-like junior sister in Principal Mao Qiuyu's garden, and then watch her depart like a fairy.
Standing in front of the Li Palace, he calmly gazed at the Hall of Pure Virtue in the darkness, imagining the life of that junior sister in the Pope's Green Leaf World, Zhuang Huanyu began to reminisce.
He wanted to sort through the events of the past few years, to understand just how all these things had happened.
Several years ago, he and she had met in the Heavenly Dao Academy, and then, at the Ivy League gathering, they had met again. When he had originally thought that they could get to know each other, he had seen her holding the sleeve of a youth called Chen Chang Sheng.
Yes, so this was how everything had started.
By the lake in the Garden of Zhou, when Liang Xiaoxiao had suddenly launched a sneak attack, when the demon experts were about to kill Chen Chang Sheng, Zhexiu, and Qi Jian, he had been in the forest, not drawing his sword, not meeting.
Yes, because he had been afraid, he was still a youth, and he wanted to live.
But now that he thought about it, wasn't it also because he had always had a deep jealousy and hatred towards Chen Chang Sheng?
He really wanted Chen Chang Sheng to die.
Why didn't you die?
It suddenly began to rain in the capital, and the Li Palace was naturally no exception.
The air of late spring was instantly washed clean by the rain, and the wet stone slabs actually began to faintly emit a cold air.
Zhuang Huanyu did not hold up an umbrella. He just stood in the rain, silent for a very long time.
A priest of the Li Palace came to inquire, but upon realizing that it was him, they thought of the news that Chen Chang Sheng would be returning to the capital tomorrow and believed that they had guessed at something, so they did not disturb him.
In the rain, the priests and students of the Six Ivies came and went with umbrellas. When they saw his drenched body, their gazes were very complicated. There was some pity, some sympathy, and of course, there was also some ridicule.
Zhuang Huanyu returned to the small courtyard of the Heavenly Dao Academy.
His clothes were completely drenched in the rain, so how could he care about the cold? But for some reason, in the end, he still did not jump into that deep and cold well.
In the final moment of his life, he had protected a bit of his pride. He had used a sword.
He had chosen to die under his own sword.
… …
… …
The news of Zhuang Huanyu's death quickly spread to the entire capital.
The gray courtyard not too far from the Imperial City was the first place to receive this news, because this was the Department for Purging Officials.
When Zhou Tong heard this news, he was carrying a lantern and standing in front of a stalk of green wormwood in the vegetable field, attempting to find the wormwood stalk bug that had bitten half to death the orchid he was raising last night.
Zhuang Huanyu's death was naturally related to Chen Chang Sheng's return to the capital. The people standing on Chen Chang Sheng's side would presumably feel proud and elated, while those people that had once tried to use this matter to attack Chen Chang Sheng and even the Orthodoxy would inevitably feel somewhat disappointed.
Zhou Tong was probably the only person in the world that truly believed that Chen Chang Sheng might be colluding with the demons, but not only did he not feel defeated, he even began to laugh. "It's good that he died."
He truly was very happy. Although it was not to the extent that he was rocking back and forth with laughter, the lantern in his hand began to sway, so much so that the shadow of the wormwood stalk turned into many blurs in the vegetable field, just like a fence.
From the conclusion of the matter in Xunyang City to the confirmation that Su Li was alive and Chen Chang Sheng was also alive, the winds in the capital instantly changed.
The Li Palace and the military exerted enormous pressure on the Department for Purging Officials, demanding that it release Zhexiu.
Releasing Zhexiu was a gift, a great gift to welcome Chen Chang Sheng's return.
Of course, Zhou Tong would not release Zhexiu. If not for the fact that Chen Chang Sheng's identity was too sensitive, he would definitely have imprisoned Chen Chang Sheng in the great prison in the front courtyard.
So he believed that Zhuang Huanyu's death was good, that the dead could not testify, that the dead could not testify was good.
Of course, he was keenly aware that with Chen Chang Sheng's current status, Zhuang Huanyu's death did not have much meaning.
But there would definitely be people who would use this matter.
… …
… …
The fresh rain blew away the dust. The feeling of spring in the capital had not lessened, but rather deepened. It was extremely bright and beautiful, even somewhat sticky.
A convoy of carriages returned to the capital.
Chen Chang Sheng sat in the carriage, feeling the ripples coming from his sheath. He knew that the Black Dragon was about to awaken and was very comforted.
Then, he heard a voice from outside the carriage.
"Traitor!"
Many people knew that the person in the carriage was Chen Chang Sheng. The commoners of the capital who were used to the bustle could not help but crowd the two sides of the street to watch the spectacle. They discussed spiritedly, their voices clamoring, and the scene was incomparably lively.
When these two words rang out, the streets of the capital instantly became incomparably quiet.
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