Ze Tian Ji

Edited by: Michyrr

The crane’s cry resounded through the snowstorm and spread to both banks of the Luo River.

People in the crowd began to stand up. Voices could be heard everywhere and some people stood on tiptoes, wanting to get a better view of the activity on the bridge. Some people decided to just climb up to the branches of the scholar trees on the riverside. However, trees in winter are somewhat brittle—how could they bear the burden of so many people? With a cracking sound, ten-odd scholar trees successively snapped and several dozen people were dumped into the cold river. Today, there were many Li Palace priests and Zhou soldiers keeping watch, and there were also boats at ready downstream. It didn’t take long for those people to be rescued from the river. No lives were endangered, but with the sudden shock of bone-chilling river water, a bout of illness was almost inevitable.

The match on the Bridge of Helplessness had not yet begun and many people hadn’t even caught sight of Xu Yourong’s figure yet, but the surroundings were already a mess of disorder. From this, one could gather just how much this battle was anticipated.

The great ship was somewhat closer to the Bridge of Helplessness. The important figures on the ship had already seen that figure at the foot of the bridge. After a momentary restlessness, they grew quiet once more.

At this time, Tang Thirty-Six and Zhexiu somehow boarded the boat. After meeting up with Su Moyu, they began to search for a place to view the match. The head of the boat was filled with important figures and seniors. No matter how wanton he was, even Tang Thirty-Six found it inappropriate to cause trouble at this sort of time. After looking around, he suddenly revealed a cheerful expression. Leading the other two, he squeezed next to Mo Yu. Mo Yu glanced at him but didn’t say anything.

Tang Thirty-Six looked over at the distant Bridge of Helplessness, asking, "Are they really just going to begin fighting like this?"

Mo Yu gazed at the young man and young woman on the bridge. She remained silent, her mood somewhat complex.

This match was a battle between the young leaders of the northern and southern factions of the Orthodoxy, and it was also the first conflict between the new and conservative factions of the Orthodoxy. More importantly, this match was a competition of wills between the Divine Empress and the Pope.

Chen Changsheng stood on the bridge, watching the water flow by. As he watched the snow fall into the water and then vanish, the nervousness and anxiety was the same as those pieces of snow, gradually fading into nothingness.

He sensed something and turned to look through the falling snow at the other end of the bridge.

It was a very simple action with no weight, but it was done very slowly, because this turning had already used up many years.

Separated by the wind and snow, he saw the young woman at the foot of the bridge.

This was the first time he saw Xu Yourong, his once-fiancée and the owner of those letters and the bamboo dragonfly.

Just as he had thought about on the bridge, from a certain perspective, his life had been changed because of this young woman.

Far too many things had been caused for her sake, yet this was their first time meeting.

Before they met, he had already heard excessive praise over her and the things she had done, but he would still imagine what she looked like. Did she have black and beautiful long hair, was she really born with such a beautiful appearance...at present, he still had not seen her face, had not seen her black hair, but he still felt like the her standing in the snow at the foot of the bridge was completely in line with his imagination.

She was in a white dress. There was no umbrella in her hand and she wore a curtained hat. The gauze hanging from the brim of the hat obscured her face.

He could vaguely make out a little and he couldn’t see clearly, but she was probably very beautiful.

He couldn’t see, but she was very beautiful, because it was a sort of indescribable beauty.

Yes, even with the veil covering her face, even if she just quietly stood there, she would give people the feeling of a beauty beyond description.

She stood amidst the wind and snow, and it seemed possible that she could at any time depart with the wind, vanish with the snow.

She had never been a person of this mortal world. Instead, she should be living on some high mountain where no man had walked, lofty and unsullied.

As he stared at the young woman in the snow, Chen Changsheng finally understood why Xu Shiji and Tang Thirty-Six were so certain that he would change his mind upon seeing her, why Tang Thirty-Six had said many people had delayed their marriage after seeing her, why she made others speechless.

......

......

The gauze in front of Xu Yourong’s lightly swayed in the wind. She was nodding in greeting.

Chen Changsheng nodded his head to return the greeting, thinking, now what should I say? But in the next moment, he realized that over the past few days and this moment, he had been overthinking things.

The young woman in the snow clearly had no intention of talking. She just quietly stood there.

The two banks of the Luo River were both deathly still.

There was only the gentle sound of the river waters flowing around the great ship.

He could almost even hear the sound of snow falling.

Everyone else thought the same as Chen Changsheng, believing that he should say something. They all wanted to hear just what he and Xu Yourong would say before their battle.

To the important figures of the Imperial Court and the Li Palace, this match on the Bridge of Helplessness held a great significance. The common folk of the capital were also aware of this, but they didn’t care too much. Who would inherit the Divine Empress’s authority, who would be the next Pope...neither of these had much to do with the lives of the common people. When the coup of the Hundred Herb Garden occurred, after the bloody incident of the Orthodox Academy, the capital was still the capital.

What they were all concerned about was the gratitude and resentment, the love and hatred, between these two participants of the battle.

Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong were engaged, or perhaps as was rumored, the Pope had forcefully annulled the engagement. However, this fact had no bearing on their attention.

The two were originally fiancé and fiancée, and should be husband and wife.

Speaking of this matter made people sigh regretfully. Last autumn, because of this engagement, the people of the capital had even besieged the Orthodox Academy and cursed Chen Changsheng like he was a dog, even inventing curses just for him. Yet now, after merely a year, the people of the capital had changed their position. They hoped that this marriage could succeed. This was because, in their view, Chen Changsheng was already a complete match for Xu Yourong, and he was a person of Zhou—Xu Yourong marrying Qiushan Jun was much worse than marrying him.

What these people on the two banks of the Luo River were thinking of, what they were waiting for, Chen Changsheng and Xu Yourong did not know, nor would they probably care.

They just calmly stared at each other through the wind and snow, saying nothing to each other.

For a very long time, nobody spoke.

Right until the end, he and she did not speak.

The deathly stillness of the Bridge of Helplessness ultimately was not broken, only awakened through an action.

Xu Yourong reached out her hand to grasp a sword.

The sword she used was naturally no ordinary sword, but a renowned sword.

The temple sword of Holy Maiden Peak, after several centuries, had finally returned to the hands of the current Holy Maiden.

The hand grasping the sword was very white, even paler than the snow.

Chen Changsheng did not notice this point. He only gazed at her eyes, but he found that no matter what he did, his and her eyes could never meet.

The gauze hanging from the curtained hat was apparently rather strange.

Xu Yourong drew the temple sword from the sheath.

A sword cry rose up from the Bridge of Helplessness and drifted down the Luo River.

Ripples began to form on the calm surface of the water, and then they transformed into mighty waves that incessantly slammed against the bow of the ship and the two river banks.

Simultaneously, countless great waves began to rise up in Chen Changsheng’s sea of consciousness.