It was the biggest instance of shock within the Hall of Political Discourse during the Great Tang Dynasty’s Sky Opening reign. Within every department, unknown numbers of officials were trembling in fear, guessing their own and their bosses’ fates. While the youth in the Imperial Study was amidst excitedly looking around, Chao XiaoShu was standing somewhere in the Imperial Garden, thinking that he completely had no relation to these current events. He silently stood by this big lake called Li Ocean, smiling as he watched those five spotted, six-colored carp leaping from the surface of the water, jumping over the Dragon Gate, and then luckily falling once again into the lake, swishing their tails begging for food; and he occasionally sighed.

Ten years ago, he had gone to the capitol in order to take the test for the Academy, but nowadays the Emperor led that young scholar into ChangAn’s JiangHu. Ten years later he cut down countless heads with the sword as the night-time Underworld’s blue-robed, austere patron. Standing at the lakeside and thinking of the past age and thinking of the future road ahead, his heart naturally had a different feeling, and didn’t feel that the path of a cloud in clear skies was of any interest; he only thought of returning to those first days of hard studying day and night, the old days of wholehearted studying towards the Dao.

The sudden ringing of a ring of ornaments smashed the silence of the lakeside, and a quiet and elegant young princess, bringing with her two maids close by, slowly walked over. Li Yu’s gaze fell onto the somewhat faded blue robes of the middle-aged man at the lakeside. Slightly pausing, she smiled and gave a half-curtsy in a greeting, and softly said, “Greetings Uncle Chao.”

The Great Tang’s fourth princess Li Yu, much beloved by His Majesty, venerated and loved by the people – even if she came across His Highness the Prince, she would only need to lightly call out Royal Uncle. Had she ever addressed a man so intimately?

“This coa.r.s.e person doesn’t dare.”

Chao XiaoShu stood aside to give way, his voice continuously fearful and humble, with the expression on his face full of fear and humbleness. Then with a slight dodge of his body, the lake wind moved a corner of his robes. Where was there half a bit of the sense of fearful humbleness? Merely in the respectfulness of his manners, it showed the rejection and estrangement of a thousand miles.

Seeing Chao XiaoShu’s reaction, Li Yu’s hands hanging at her waist slightly stiffened, and the two nanny maids behind her suddenly became displeased. Without waiting for them to take any kind of action, Li Yu slightly smiled and rushed to respond, “Bringing up when I was small and Imperial Father let the guards carry me to play, I saw Uncle in the gambling street many times, but after all I was young then. Afterwards unexpectedly I slowly forgot. Uncle Chao has only carried his niece before, what is the need for acting so much like the stranger today?”

“Your Highness’ words truly make this coa.r.s.e person fearful. How would I dare to be an elder of the Princess?”

Chao XiaoShu replied with a slight smile. The sunlight reflected by the lake’s waters fell on his clear and handsome face, and nowhere could there be the slightest bit of deliberate humility, only the strict adherence of a ruler and his ministers, without daring to take a single step forward.

Li Yu had time and time again meant well, and Chao XiaoShu had time and time again deflected her neither harshly nor softly. The atmosphere around the lakeside became a bit tense and even oppressive. Li Yu quietly looked at this middle-aged man’s face, and thought of her Imperial Father’s angry display since last night till today, showing his desire to protect this person, and moreover showing the extreme importance of this person’s place in the Imperial Father’s mind. Waving her hand to stop the whispering urges of the palace maids, with a smile she continued, “I brought back some barbarian guards from the Gra.s.slands. I heard that a few days ago someone wanted to ask them about some things, that the person was named Chen, and it seems he is your brother?”

Chao XiaoShu was a bit taciturn and replied, “He is called Chen the Seventh, and is my brother.”

Hearing this response, Li Yu smiled. Her eyes shifted towards that sea-like lake, watching a leaf being disturbed by swimming fish under the surface, and asked, “Was that boy of good use?”

“Your Highness Princess, I didn’t use him, I only asked him to help me.” Chao XiaoShu replied saying, “It was a joining of hands, and not using.”

“If it was joining of hands, then he also has become your brother?” Li Yu turned her head around, her brow slightly knitted and asked.

Chao XiaoShu thought of the fried egg and noodles of the Old Brush House and Ning Que’s response, and with a self-disparaging smile he said, “He’s someone who sees this world even colder than me.”

He looked at Li Yu’s expression, and seriously said, “Your Highness, he doesn’t want people to know, so if Your Highness would please help him keep this secret.”

Li Yu slightly paused and then mockingly said, “Does that idiot think he can hide this thing for long? Wearing a black mask with a Yue Lun Kingdom hairstyle trying to hide his ident.i.ty forever?”

Chao XiaoShu replied saying, “He’s about to be admitted into the Academy, and he’s been admitted into the second floor. By that time naturally he won’t need to fear other people plotting against him.”

Li Yu thought of elderly Lu QingChen’s a.s.sessment of Ning Que, and frowned and asked, “Why are your a.s.sessments of him so high?”

Chao XiaoShu slightly smiled and said, “Because he is of value.”

Thinking of the blade’s shine at North Mountain Crossing, thinking of the figure of a tiger leaping into a blaze, thinking of the stories beside the fire – the expression on Li Yu’s face unconsciously became soft, but her voice still seemed a bit cold and mocking. “Back then I gave him a chance, but he wouldn’t take it. I originally thought he was a maverick that viewed career, power and money as fleeting clouds. I hadn’t thought that he was merely thinking that kind of way of living wasn’t bright enough, absolutely insisting on choosing this kind of method of debuting in ChangAn City.”

“But no matter what is said, it was I who brought him into ChangAn City, and that means he is my person…..” Li Yu seemed to want to smile but couldn’t as she looked at Chao XiaoShu. “Uncle Chao, you used my person so harshly, shouldn’t you tell me in advance?”

The testing clash of words finally became a mental contest. The Fourth Princess Li Yu was naturally the most outstanding girl in this regard of the young generation, but facing Spring Wind Pavilion’s Old Chao who was used to seeing b.l.o.o.d.y wind and b.l.o.o.d.y rain, she never would’ve thought in the slightest of what she would see – only Chao XiaoShu’s respectful smile was seen, and he said, “If he is Princess’ person, why would he be troubled into that state for a little shop? And I believe Princess should see very clearly, that little fellow will never become a person for someone else. He is someone only for himself.”

After repeated tries, unexpectedly she could not find the slightest chance to take advantage of, and couldn’t even find a small crack to talk about the current topic. Li Yu was silent for a moment, and waved her hand, indicating for the Palace nanny maids behind her to leave. Seeing his expression she said, “Uncle Chao……”

Chao XiaoShu again evaded, and repeated, “This coa.r.s.e person doesn’t dare.”

Li Yu shook her head, and then seriously said, “Everyone in the world knows that after today, Spring Wind Pavilion’s Old Chao can no longer be the Imperial Father’s coa.r.s.e person hidden among the commonfolk, and can no longer be the head of ChangAn City’s number one gang. Whether it is as Head of the Imperial Guards, a high minister or even if you were released free, in the whole world you have only one place.”

“When you were Spring Wind Pavilion’s Old Chao, or those ministers that dared to attack me, or those who have gone looking for you in the Empress Mother’s name to recruit you or intimidate you – and now you have already leapt out to sea. Do you think that from now on you can stay beyond, uninvolved?”

Li Yu calmly watched him. With her tone cordial but not in the least hiding anything she said, “Empress Mother is an intelligent person. I’m also not stupid, so we won’t do anything that Imperial Father wouldn’t like us to do, but we absolutely have to do some things.”

“I hope you’ll support me.”

“When I was small you held me before. You also held my little brother, and you’ve seen my mother. Don’t tell me that you’ve steeled your heart seeing my brother being sidelined from the Imperial Throne, and have steeled your heart seeing my mother in a hidden spring of the Underworld, full of unreconciled sorrow?”

The Tang Dynasty didn’t care who was the heir, because whoever it was, was completely within one spoken word of His Majesty the Emperor. Those who seemed weak but were in fact peerlessly clear-minded Emperors wouldn’t allow their own Empresses and children to do any harm to the nation with wars that exceeded his patience limit, but he wanted to see who showed the most excellence after all.

In this world, in the histories there were very few Imperial families that would be so transparent and open-minded like this case, but today what Li Yu said to Chao XiaoShu on the lakeside was still too sincere and frank, and even a bit bare; extremely incongruent with how people thought of these Palace conspiracies.

Chao XiaoShu was silent for a long time, watching her talk and said, “Your Highness the Princess and your mother are truly alike, incomparably intelligent and brave; knowing that I’m this kind of coa.r.s.e JiangHu person that no kind of probing inducement will be effective, and that using the JiangHu way of talking is more suitable. However in the end this is a virtuous and benevolent matter that is decided by oneself. I’m just a small fish in this piece of sea of the Great Tang. Even if fortunately I have the opportunity to have scales, but I cannot rise to have any other use.”

“Uncle Chao is too modest. You must know that in these years, I have never seen someone that Imperial Father has believed in like this…..and he even brutally locked that one shocking talent from back then that was preparing for examination at the Academy in a dark gutter in East City without release, locking him for a few years. I believe inside, Imperial Father feels extremely guilty towards you.”

Li Yu firmly looked at him, and said, “The most important thing is, you’re here in this sea of the Great Tang. Even if you are leaping from the sea, in the end you will still fall once again into the sea. You will eventually have to pick which side to swim on……”

She didn’t even finish speaking, and Chao XiaoShu unfurled with a smile. Bravely and clearly being forced, he raised his arm and sweeping his blue sleeve he pointed at the big lake, and said, “I’m a single fish, but I don’t want to stay inside of a lake. Even if it is that big lake like a sea, in the end it is still a lake. So if I am truly forced to pick which side to swim on, perhaps in the end I will simply choose to come ash.o.r.e.”

Li Yu’s brow slightly knitted and she said, “Fish going ash.o.r.e will die of thirst.”

“But before dying it could breathe more than enough air.” Chao XiaoShu said smiling.

“Uncle Chao insists that the Imperial Clan is that kind of lake? Can you possibly find a lake bigger than my Great Tang’s greatness under the sky?”

“Even though the JiangHu is a bit smaller, but it is more casual and free. In comparison, I would indeed rather be in the distant JiangHu, and am unwilling to stand atop a temple.”

Li Yu’s knitted brow looked at this unconventional blue robed middle-aged scholar on the lakeside, and suddenly found that she could not at all understand some people, and cried out, “The dangers in JiangHu are not just a few!”

Chao XiaoShu slightly smiled and said, “But the JiangHu is far enough, so there is freedom.”

Li Yu shook her head and said, “What kind of freedom could you have?”

Chao XiaoShu looked at her like looking at the younger generation with pained sympathy, and said, “The freedom to not choose.”

Ning Que’s hands really itched. This was a habitual itch that he had been accustomed to for many years, already going deeply into his bone marrow and blood vessels. There was simply no way of getting rid of it, only miserably waiting.

In the quiet Imperial Study with no one inside, he went from the entrance to the desk, from the desk to the bookshelves, and from the bookshelves to the entrance. Hidden in his sleeves, his right hand incessantly rubbed his fingers, but all along he had no way of stopping that itch from boring out of its depths.

The itch of seeing the masterpieces posted on the wall. The itch of seeing those carelessly placed Heng Shop simple brushes. The itch of smelling the scent of Chen Province’s special use loose ink. The itch of touching the fine furrows of Xuan Province’s sapling paper. His gaze fell onto the Emperor Father’s characters of “Leaping Fish in the Current Seas”, and he became even itchier such that he began to blink – that was difficult to stop.

And so to resolve the itch, the only way was to write.

However, to continue His Majesty’s personal work with Imperial brushes in the Imperial Study, this was an extremely stupid kind of decision. There could be very heavy punishment, and he could even possibly receive even more serious punishment, but he truly itched……when Chao XiaoShu was discussing his choice of freedom, meanwhile Ning Que was going through this painful choice.

“Write it and then quickly tear it out.”

After finding a good excuse, Ning Que happily cried out, charging to the front of the table like a true man going to eat meat and drink liquor. He mixed the ink, clutching a brush and spreading out a new sheet of paper. When his heart acc.u.mulated several breaths of the itch, everything was written with pleasure. With one wave, vivid characters were inked.

“Blossoms Open Transcendental Skies.”    ……    ……