Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

"What?"

"I want to hug you as I sleep."

"Ah?"

"Mm."

Mo Yu spoke boldly and frankly.

Chen Changsheng felt like a thunderclap had gone off by his ear.

He waved his hands and said, "Stop messing around."

Mo Yu asked, "Then why did you come?"

Chen Changsheng said, "I came to see you, advise you, and also thank you."

Mo Yu truly had done many things for him, truly did deserve to have him personally come and offer his thanks.

Mo Yu replied, "If you want to thank me, then you should accompany me as I sleep."

Chen Changsheng felt very helpless. "You're going to get married in a few days."

"Back then, I made no request to have you sleep with me."

Mo Yu looked at him and said, "It's precisely because I'm about to get married that I want to sleep with you."

Her words were still bold and frank, but this frankness concealed many meanings, many very obvious meanings.

Chen Changsheng had no idea what to say.

Mo Yu stared into his eyes and said, "If you don't dare come over, it means you have feelings for me."

After some hesitation, Chen Changsheng walked to her bedside.

Mo Yu wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his back.

Chen Changsheng suddenly remembered a matter.

"Didn't you take a set of my bedding and pillows from the Orthodox Academy?"

Mo Yu was currently leaning into his back, so she did not need to worry about being seen by him, which put her much at ease.

When she heard these words, two patches of red quickly spread through her face as she thought, I really was ridiculous back then. But she happened to forget that she was being quite ridiculous right now.

"It's been a long time. The smell on the bedding and pillows faded a long time ago."

"Ah Then have you still been suffering from insomnia lately?"

"It's strange. After Empress left, I stopped getting insomnia. When I was at Zhou Tong's other residence the other day, I even managed to take a midday nap."

"Is that so?"

"That's right."

"I'll just sit like this. You can sleep a while."

"Mm, just for a while. A while will be fine."

The room fell quiet.

Chen Changsheng sat on the side of the bed, not daring to move a muscle.

Mo Yu hugged his waist, not moving an inch.

This should have been an incredibly uncomfortable posture, but she still quickly fell asleep so soundly that she even began to softly snore.

Time slowly passed, just like the snow gradually piling up outside the window.

Just when Chen Changsheng believed that he would have sit for an entire night, just when he was thinking about how he should explain things to Xu Yourong on the morrow, Mo Yu woke up.

One hour of sleep had filled her with energy. One could imagine the quality of this sleep.

A maid brought her a bowl of swallow's nest soup. She took two mouthfuls and suddenly raised her head. Looking at Chen Changsheng, she asked, "Why haven't you left?"

Feeling helpless, Chen Changsheng said, "I thought that you wrote me a letter asking me to come because you wanted to discuss some things."

It turns out that all you wanted was to hug me as you slept.

Mo Yu replied, "There's nothing good to talk about. It's very quiet in the capital, not much different from before."

Mo Yu had been writing him letters for the past three years, so he was no stranger to the state of the court.

In the court, the ten-some Chen princes, led by the Prince of Xiang and the Prince of Zhongshan, the Tianhai clan, and the several Divine Generals raised by Chen Guansong were part of one faction. The other faction consisted of ministers that had survived the previous government and Eunuch Lin in the palace.

A simple way to distinguish these two factions was in their attitude toward the emperor.

"If your master were willing to care about these matters, these problems naturally wouldn't have appeared, but it's clear that he doesn't want to care about them."

Mo Yu added, "Perhaps he wants to see His Majesty's administrative skills, or perhaps he just wants to temper His Majesty."

"Senior can handle these matters."

Chen Changsheng recalled how long ago in Xining Village, he had caught those scaleless fish living in the stream by the temple which his senior had cooked.

His senior was the best at cooking fish, because his heart was still, making him very patient and granting him a steady hand.

"So the Imperial Court's greatest problems are outside the Imperial Court. Put more accurately, it's its relationship with the Orthodoxy."

Mo Yu said, "Many people want to know how the venerable Daoist will deal with your return to the capital."

Chen Changsheng said, "I'm waiting to meet him."

After he departed the capital in the snowstorm, the master and disciple had not met once.

Now that he had returned, a meeting was inevitable.

He was confident that in this meeting, Shang Xingzhou would have to look him straight in the eyes, and could no longer treat him as a stranger.

Mo Yu asked, "Could it be a meeting in which a single smile dissolves all grudges?"

Chen Changsheng said nothing. He knew what the greatest problem between him and his master was.

It was a knot of the heart incredibly difficult to untie. In the end, besides using a sword to cut it apart, there seemed no better method.

Mo Yu paid no attention to his stance. "Although everyone, me included, do not understand why you two decided to become enemies, I think that you should prepare for the venerable Daoist to change his stance. When he expresses an intent to make peace, your reaction needs to be faster."

Chen Changsheng asked, "You really think that his stance will change?"

"Who knows? With the matter of White Emperor City, both he and the Imperial Court owe you a favor, and perhaps he suddenly gets over it."

Mo Yu noted, "In order to exterminate the demons, it wouldn't be surprising for him to do something like that."

Chen Changsheng knew that the possibility was small, but just as Mo Yu said, everything was possible.

When he thought about how there really might be this slim possibility, he suddenly felt a little hope.

"If it can be this way, then nothing would be better."

"But if it's only this way, it's far from enough to resolve the problems between you two."

"I don't understand what you mean."

"You feel that if the venerable Daoist's stance changes, this story will have a happy ending?"

Mo Yu looked at him and said, "On the contrary, if it really is this way, it means a tragedy is about to commence."

Chen Changsheng asked, "Just what do you want to say?"

Mo Yu asked back, "Will you take revenge for the Divine Empress?"

Chen Changsheng shook his head. Let alone the fact that this would make the Human race fall into a civil war, even revenge itself had no meaning.

The Divine Empress had saved his life, but he still did not have the right to raise that great banner.

His senior brother had the most right to take revenge for the Divine Empress, but he was the Emperor of the Great Zhou, his master's most beloved and most trusted disciple.

Not even his senior could do anything about that matter, much less him.

"Many people, including those princes, are all watching me, wary of me. They are all afraid that I will take revenge for the Empress."

Mo Yu looked into his eyes and said, "But all of you have forgotten. The person that wants to take revenge for the Empress the most is not you, not His Majesty, and it's not me either."

Chen Changsheng suddenly felt uneasy.

He truly had forgotten.

All the officials and generals had forgotten.

The entire continent had forgotten.

The person who wanted to avenge the Divine Empress the most, who had the most right to avenge her, was that person.

Was Xu Yourong.

The Divine Empress had watched her grow up.

It was not the previous Holy Maiden, but the Divine Empress that had enlightened Xu Yourong as a teacher.

It was not Xu Shiji's wife, but the Divine Empress that was Xu Yourong's true mother.

The Divine Empress was a Phoenix, and Xu Yourong was also a Phoenix.

It was not the Princess of Ping, but Xu Yourong that was the Divine Empress's true daughter.

It was not Yu Ren, but Xu Yourong that was the Divine Empress's true successor.

Mo Yu asked, "Do you think that she won't take revenge for the Empress?"

Chen Changsheng remained quiet for a very long time before saying, "She never mentioned these matters."

"Given her relationship with the Empress, you didn't find it strange that she didn't mention this matter even once for three years?"

Mo Yu stared into his eyes. "I watched her grow up. I know how frightening her willpower and execution are."

To not mention or even think about a matter for three years, just how powerful would one's willpower have to be?

If she had a similarly formidable execution, just which step had she reached?

In the drifting snow and the cutting winter winds, Chen Changsheng picked up Xu Yourong and took her to the Hundred Herb Garden.

Underneath the Yellow Paper Umbrella, they walked to the deepest part of the garden.

There was an ordinary forest there. Once, a stone table and stone chairs had been placed here, but only vacant ground was left.

Xu Yourong silently looked at that place.

The Divine Empress was buried there.

In a very, very deep place.