In Old Chao of Spring Wind Pavilion’s hands, he possessed an unknowable amount of streets of shops like this 47th Street and in his former days, he had exchanges an unknowable amount of times with ruthless high officials. It seemed that this group of people wanted to leave ChangAn City, and he wanted to say goodbye to his partner that absolutely shouldn’t be a shop boss on 47th Street. But today before he left, he especially came to 47th Street, and gave a word of farewell to the bosses of the street. If it was from the perspective of those high n.o.bles of the Empire, they would probably think that this middle-aged man was relaying that this street led to the Spring Wind Pavilion Incident, and making a clear message: After I leave, don’t you recklessly come.

But Ning Que was definitely sure that that wasn’t the real reason he came to 47th Street – he wanted to come to say farewell to him, for that one time they fought side by side in that rainy spring night, to say goodbye to a comrade that he ate fried egg and noodles with side by side. Only because Ning Que wanted to hide his ident.i.ty that nowadays he was a Secret Imperial Guard of the Palace, so this man would go to every shop boss and patiently speak a farewell, so as to have the person he was intending for in ChangAn City notice his presence.

With this in mind, even though Ning Que himself felt cold and indifferent, he couldn’t help but to feel gentleness and warmth in his chest. Seeing this blue-robed, middle-aged man with a smile come closer and closer in the heart and center of a crowd, he didn’t quite know how to handle it.

Arriving to the entrance of the Old Brush House, Chao XiaoShu looked at the youth and the little maid inside the shop and smiled. Clasping his hands in propriety he said, “Boss Ning Que, greetings.”

Ning Que looked at the shop entrance being crammed shut with the lively crowd surrounding outside, and with a smirk, he mimicked his performance returning the clasped hands, and harmoniously said, “Greetings Chao Second Brother.”

These three words ‘Chao Second Brother‘ were heard from Vice Commander Xu ChongShan. He felt that this way of addressing him was both close and respected, extremely fitting. Unexpectedly it made Chao XiaoShu slightly hesitate, then show a difficult to restrain laugh, those several imposing mannered men standing behind Chao XiaoShu further shook their heads repeatedly, their gazes looking at this Ning Que couldn’t help but to have some well-intentioned ridicule – everyone in ChangAn City addressed Chao XiaoShu as Spring Wind Pavilion’s Old Chao. Brothers in the Fish Dragon Gang addressed him as Leader or Big Brother; the people who knew the means of address  ‘Chao Second Brother‘ were extremely few. Ning Que had unknowingly leaked a secret.

“I’m about to leave ChangAn City, so I brought all of the brothers in the gang to come see all the bosses. Boss Ning, in the future if you have any inconveniences, you can go look for them. Of course I believe Boss Ning will only carefully manage, inevitably will have wonderful success, and rise to fly like a cloud in clear skies. By then please don’t forget the help of my brothers and I.”

Chao XiaoShu smiled to him as he spoke, his right hand pointing at the imposing men behind him, and said, “Qi the Fourth you have already met. They are Chang the Third, Liu the Fifth, Fei the Sixth and Chen the Seventh, all brothers I trust in.”

The so-called careful management would inevitably become like a soaring cloud in clear skies, Chao XiaoShu had also said in other shops, but saying this to Ning Que, naturally was hiding another meaning. Ning Que heard and understood, those people at the entrance of the Old Brush House also heard and understood. Chang the Third, Liu the Fifth and the others each glanced at each other, seeing the surprise in each other’s eyes. Then taking a step forward, they silently saluted towards Ning Que.

They knew what happened in that rainy spring night, and they already had an extremely high opinion of Ning Que whom they had never seen before. At the same time they knew Chao XiaoShu gauged this youth extremely highly, just that they hadn’t thought that it would actually be so high – even such that he faintly showed the tone of serious trust.

Chang SiWei looked at Ning Que and mildly said, “Boss Ning, in the future you inevitably will have trouble coming to bother you.”

After the conversation in the Palace last night, Ning Que of today already understood that these men in front of him were all Secret Imperial Guards sprinkled among the people by His Majesty the Emperor. With his current understanding of his ident.i.ty, perhaps in the next few days he would once again enter the Palace to serve. He naturally wouldn’t be neglectful – just that hearing these words, he constantly felt like something was wrong.

Chang the Third ‘Cold’, Qi the Fourth ‘Ruthless’, Liu the Fifth ‘Wild’, Fei the Sixth ‘Fierce’, Chen the Seventh ‘Dark’ – this was the a.s.sessment of the several generals of the Fish Dragon Gang within the streets and markets of ChangAn. But seeing Chang SiWei’s moderate expression, Ning Que couldn’t help but to link him and the word ‘cold’ together, and further hadn’t thought that this man had already figured out his own deeply covered plans inside.

Since they were deceiving the eyes and ears of people, Chao XiaoShu and the crowd naturally couldn’t stay too long inside of the Old Brush House – it would show significance. But they freely spoke several natural and normal words, then Chao XiaoShu looked at Ning Que smiling, and spoke two words.

“I’m leaving.”

Another spell of the pitter patter of spring rain came, thin and gentle. Very many people were too lazy to even wear a rain hat. Ning Que stood silently at the opening of 47th Street, watching those gradually distancing figures; seeing that middle-aged man’s back just as calm as before, and suddenly he felt a little regret from his heart.

“In this brotherhood thing, of course it needs to rely on time to prove it. You say to be brothers and I’ll just agree to be your brother – then isn’t that giving me too little face? I originally thought that after a few more years, if it was good, it wouldn’t hurt to be your brother, but now after slapping your b.u.t.t you’re leaving, and the result is playing me and making me lose face.”

Ning Que shook his head, and sighed. Turning around, he took Sang Sang’s little hand and walked into the middle of the road. Beside them, several branches of peach blossoms stretched out from the top of the street wall, unknown as to when they were cut into pieces by the spring rain, fallen withered onto the limestone tiles.

The tiles of the city gate had the same withered stamens. Beside some wine storeroom, Chao XiaoShu and his brothers sworn to live and die together, drank beneath the peach blossoms, drinking several cups before bidding farewell.    ……    ……

The spring rain came again and again. The person they were just acquainted with or just reunited with, who had just left and been parted by death – the youth who had come from Wei City and his little maid had unknowingly spent their first month in the capital of the Empire. Then he finally met the most important day of his life; if those instances of life and death weren’t included that is.

Today the Academy began the term. That’s right, indeed the Academy began the term. Because the Academy’s first day was also the entrance exam, to be able to pa.s.s the exam, one could then become one of the glorious Academy’s students. And for the candidates who could not pa.s.s the entrance exam, they would see the majestic opening ceremony, and see the true appearance of the Academy. Surely the memory of this would become unforgettable in their whole life afterwards, as some consolation.

Early in the morning at five, Ning Que and Sang Sang got up, started was.h.i.+ng up, getting dressed, and eating breakfast. The beginning of the term for the entire Tang Empire was a big event that everyone’s eyes in the whole world would be watching. To the people of ChangAn City, it was an even more long-awaited day. Every kind of little peddler s.h.i.+fted trading to an earlier date, thus the master and servant very luckily were able to eat hot and sour noodle soup.

Ning Que yawned incessantly, rubbing his somewhat stinging eyes. Clearly he didn’t sleep well last night. Sang Sang was propping up her even darker eye circles, even darker than her skin. Seeing her appearance she was even more nervous than her master by several margins.

The Department of Rites had a special carriage for picking up candidates, but because Ning Que wanted to take Sang Sang along, they chose to go by themselves in a carriage. Carriage renters knew this customer’s ident.i.ty, and didn’t dare to be neglectful – by midnight they were already on standby at the street entrance, so the master and servant left the Old Brush House, and immediately set off moving southward.

In East City it was still good, but once they entered South City it became very difficult to move an inch. Currently it was the darkness of dawn; the vast Vermillion Bird main street appeared a bit dark, packed tightly with hundreds of carriages. A light rain was falling from the sky, dampening the innumerable numbers of wheels on the limestone tiles as they moved, and many horses stepped angrily in the rainwater.

The shuttle for candidates of the Department of Rites was allowed to pa.s.s first. Carrying a certificate, it entered the exam hall at the direction of the military at the city gates, and with difficulty, it squeezed a desperate path through. Following the drum tower it dashed through the Vermilion Bird Gateway becoming a long dragon. Today the candidates of ChangAn City were the most important people; those carriages of various officials partic.i.p.ating in the opening ceremony and even the Imperial Clan’s n.o.ble relatives, were all pushed aside. As for those rich merchants and scholars that were able to buy admission tickets to watch the liveliness, they were further unceremoniously shuffled to the back.

Candidates were more important than officials, more important than those merchants that could bring more taxes to the Empire. This appeared to be quite unimaginable, but it was the reality, and seeing the quiet of those luxurious carriages, and their entourages with expressions like Chang, it could be imagined that for countless years past, the opening ceremony of the Academy was always like this.

Ning Que and Sang Sang sitting within a carriage would from time to time, lift the carriage curtain and look at the surrounding activity, and their rather nervous and anxious moods gradually calmed down. When the carriage finally went through ChangAn City’s South Gate, following along the s.p.a.cious official road towards the South, heading towards that high, extremely tall mountain in the clouds, they even had the mind to appreciate the scenery.

The spring rain was still falling from time to time, but that sudden tall mountain rising out from the plains of the Wei River wasn’t the slightest bit affected, because in front, the peak of the mountain was clear and bright because the peak was even higher than the rain clouds. The rising sun shed radiance reflected by the mountain cliffs, spilling rays of light onto the world, giving a very warm feeling.

The carriage traveled in the drizzling rain towards the peak beneath the rising sun in front of them, Ning Que’s mood suddenly became extremely calm. Without knowing why, he felt that that place had something very interesting to himself; some kind of hint of something that he very much liked.

The south of ChangAn, underneath a great mountain was the Academy.

Precisely that which had stood for thousands of years of wind and rain, that had along didn’t have a name; with a history even longer than the Tang Empire, that had trained countless previous great ministers for the Tang Empire and the world, the Academy that was not at all mystical, but nearly divine.

And was also exactly where after countless hards.h.i.+ps, the place where Ning Que absolutely wanted to go.    ……    ……

A nameless great mountain, suddenly rising from between plains and rivers, directly charging into the enveloping sky.

A nameless academy, silently appearing during troubled times of the world of mortals, towering for eternity.

Dozens of wagons arrived at the foot of the mountain in succession, and those discussions and laughter inside of the carriages came to an abrupt halt. Previously the students who had come hadn’t felt any kind of oppressive atmosphere, and because of the respect in their hearts, they absolutely had to become silent.

Under the clear and elegant rays of the sun, the area under the mountain was extremely large, with green-green gra.s.s gradually sloping into hills, fluctuating like a frozen ocean wave, and green gra.s.s with rubella shrubs like a painting. Within the painting was a view of more than ten complex crisscrossing carriageways. The roads were separated on the sides by several trunks of flowering trees planted a distance away. In the center of the meadow were even more whitish and pinkish flowering trees, unknowable as to whether they were apricot or peach-colored, and not at all managed but still extremely beautifully spread on the hillside, beautiful and elegant to the uttermost.

Next the window, Ning Que and Sang Sang looked at this wonderland of the world, looking at those not at all tall, black and white buildings stretching on for an unknowable length on the gra.s.sy slope, they couldn’t help but to be a bit entranced. After a long period of silence, he turned his head towards Sang Sang and extremely seriously said, “I definitely have to get into the Academy!”

Sang Sang looked up with her worried little face and looked at him, and said, “Master, the several topics for the entrance exam…….did you finish them yet?”

Ning Que was silent for a long time. After a while he choked out one thing with annoyance, “Auspicious words! You kid, don’t you know what’s called auspicious words!”