Ze Tian Ji (Way of Choices)

Chapter 493 – I Want to Have a Look at Your Face

In the darkness, the palace was cold and cheerless. The pool and the small garden were also very cold and cheerless, even though it was a summer night.

It wasn’t just two people by the pool. There was also the Black Goat. It was in the thicket not too far away.

Chen Changsheng first saw the middle-aged woman and then saw the Black Goat. If it were another person, they definitely would have been given quite the fright, but he was not. He had already grown accustomed to seeing the Black Goat every time he emerged from the underground space below New North Bridge. As for the middle-aged woman, he also did not find it strange. The first time he came out of the pool, he had seen her.

Deep within the Forbidden Palace, as if afraid that alarming the people within the palace would cause big trouble, he said nothing. Clasping his hands, he bowed towards the middle-aged woman.

His action was very courteous and his movements very proper. It was just that he was still soaked to the bone, so this respectful bow of his couldn’t help but look rather comical.

The Black Goat watched him through the leaves, slightly tilting its head as if it was making fun of him.

He couldn’t deal with all this. He gestured to the middle-aged woman that he needed to change into a clean set of clothes and wished her to turn around and wait a moment.

Then he used his mouth to say to the Black Goat, “Close your eyes.”

He had always believed that the middle-aged woman was deaf and dumb and so could naturally understand the sign language he had learned from Senior Yu Ren. In fact, she really did know sign language.

But she did not turn around because nothing in this world had the qualifications to make her turn around and avert her gaze.

The Black Goat also did not close its eyes. On the contrary, it opened them even wider, two bright spots in the darkness.

Chen Changsheng didn’t know what to do. Soaked through and through with water dripping off his body nonstop, he cut quite the pitiful figure.

The middle-aged woman seemed somewhat displeased at his reaction and waved her sleeve.

A gust of wind blew across from her side of the pool and wrapped around his body.

The wind of summer nights wasn’t at all dry, but it was rather hot.

In a moment, his clothes were dry. From the inside out, they were dry and clean beyond compare.

Chen Changsheng was stunned, then he saw the middle-aged woman walk out of the garden, her hands clasped behind her.

The Black Goat glanced at him, then turned its head and walked out of the thicket to catch up to the middle-aged woman.

In the past when he had made his way back to the Orthodox Academy from the Imperial Palace, the Black Goat had always led the way, even later on when he had the key. Habit was always a most powerful thing. Consequently, he followed the Black Goat, accompanying the middle-aged woman into the darkness of the Imperial Palace, then through that secluded secret door arrived at…the Hundred Herb Garden.

Presently, Luoluo was staying in the Li Palace for a month, and then in the Imperial Palace for a month. The Hundred Herb Garden had been deserted for quite some time.

Besides when he came with Tang Thirty-Six to steal medicinal herbs, Chen Changsheng had also not been here in quite some time.

But the Hundred Herb Garden was still the same as ever. Its long hallways were still extremely perplexing. The trees and flowers were still growing extremely well, half-obscuring the paths. The table in the forest was still at its original place. Still arranged on that stone table were one teapot and two teacups. It was just that today, the tea being drunk was white tea. The tea was very clear, but very fragrant.

There were many things that he found impossible to comprehend, to understand. For instance, why was it that although the Hundred Herb Garden had no people, this stone table had a teapot and teacups—why was the tea freshly brewed and had just reached the perfect temperature, neither too hot nor too cold? For instance, why was it that this Black Goat which he heard Mo Yu had raised in the palace, was so close to this middle-aged woman? For instance, why was it that this middle-aged woman needed only a wave of her sleeve to have the night wind dry his clothes and hair? For instance, this middle-aged woman…just who was she?

This middle-aged woman’s cultivation was unfathomable, at least in his eyes. Her status in the Imperial Palace was very high and she could move about as she pleased. Moreover, she knew many of the secrets of the Imperial Palace and seemed to have a peculiar affection for the Hundred Herb Garden—Chen Changsheng had long realized that this middle-aged woman was not simple. He had even speculated as to her identity many times, guessing her to be everything from an imperial concubine once doted upon by Emperor Xian but now fallen from grace to a Daoist nun that had cultivated together with the Divine Empress in the Hundred Herb Garden, but he always felt these guesses to be wrong.

Later on, Chen Changsheng ceased to guess. The middle-aged woman had never asked him to do anything and had even helped him in passing. In addition, just as Tang Thirty-Six had once said, because of his own reasons, he didn’t care very much for many things and would always reveal a composure that surpassed his age. It was also because he had many of his own secrets and didn’t wish to seek the secrets of others.

More importantly, he had grown used to, even enjoyed, the mood when he and this middle-aged woman sat across from each other in the Hundred Herb Garden, drinking tea, even though it had only happened three times.

When they were drinking tea in the Hundred Herb Garden, the middle-aged woman would never speak and he was not required to speak. The middle-aged woman would spend the vast majority of the time gazing up at the stars in the night sky or the marks of time in the Hundred Herb Garden. She didn’t look at him, so there was no need for him to be nervous. That sort of tranquility seemed able to bring him back to Xining Village’s old temple, as if he were sitting with Senior Yu Ren by the stream. Nothing needed to be said, nor did either of them need to know what the other was thinking. They could just sit like this, whiling away the time.

Because of the Garden of Zhou, Chen Changsheng’s emotions were rather unsettled recently.

He had no means of entering the Garden of Zhou and so had no means of finally confirming that maiden’s tracks. This made him very anxious and he desperately required this moment of tranquility.

Yet this time was different. This sort of tranquility which he yearned for and treasured was shattered.

The middle-aged woman withdrew her gaze from the starry sky and began to look at him.

This look lasted for a very long time. She looked very carefully, very calmly, very attentively. It was like his face contained mountains, water, flowers, trees, clouds—contained limitless sights.

Chen Changsheng didn’t know why she was looking at him. There was an indescribable feeling about it and naturally some tension as well.

As time flowed on, the middle-aged woman continued to examine, making him ever more nervous, so much so that his body began to turn stiff.

At this moment, the middle-aged woman suddenly reached out her hand, using her forefinger to raise his chin.

Chen Changsheng was startled.

The first time they had drunken tea at this place, the middle-aged woman had once caressed his cheeks. Back then, because of the emotions in her eyes, Chen Changsheng had held it in and done nothing.

But caressing a cheek and raising his chin were two actions with completely different implications. The former could be understood as a senior showing tender affection for a junior, recollecting some sort of lost emotion. As for the latter…it was more like teasing a small animal or flirting. Moreover, although this woman was old enough to be his mother, in the end, they were man and woman. He really couldn’t endure this sort of action. He wanted to turn his head and avoid it, but realized that some incomprehensible Qi was being transmitted from that finger and made it impossible for him to move.

She raised his chin and carefully scrutinized his face.

Of course, she was not flirting with a young man, nor was she teasing a small animal. There was no tender affection in her eyes, no sense of nostalgia, no emotion whatsoever.

She examined Chen Changsheng’s face like she was looking at a painting, wanting to see what sort of secrets lay hidden behind the painting.

Chen Changsheng found the expression in her eyes deeply unpleasant because it was too apathetic. However, he didn’t move an inch. His nose rose up and down, his breathing much coarser than usual.

If it were Luoluo or Tang Thirty-Six seeing this scene, they would know that he was truly angry.

But she did not know, and even if she did know, this would not affect her decision. No man or matter could change her decision.

However, she might have felt that Chen Changsheng’s current appearance was very cute. She smiled and prepared to release his chin, but it was at this very moment that her smile vanished. Her complexion became frigid as ice, as if she had seen something on his face.