Ze Tian Ji Way Of Choices Chapter 101 – Reminiscing On The Past In The Hundred Herb Garden

Chapter 101 – Reminiscing on the Past in the Hundred Herb Garden

Translated by: Hypersheep325

Edited by: Michyrr

Chen Changsheng walked up to the middle-aged woman, clasped his hands, and bowed.

After seeing that it was not Luoluo, he did not immediately turn and leave, because he recognized this middle-aged woman.

On the night of the Ivy Festival, he had been imprisoned by Mo Yu and ended up at the bottom of the Black Dragon Pond. Ultimately, after experiencing great difficulties and dangers, he had been able to escape, and where he appeared on the surface was a pool. This middle-aged woman had happened to be at the edge of the pool, perhaps preparing to wash her hands or some clothes, and had almost been injured by some mischievous squirrel.

He clearly understood that there was not much chance that the light in the Hundred Herb Garden was Luoluo returning, but after seeing that it truly wasn't Luoluo, he couldn't help but feel somewhat disappointed.

As he looked around at the pitch-black forest, he somewhat absentmindedly thought, since this middle-aged woman is from the Imperial Palace, how did she end up in the Hundred Herb Garden? Given her age, this middle-aged woman was probably a female official of the Imperial Palace. If she was a concubine of Emperor Xian, then this matter would become somewhat troublesome.

Somewhat wary, he walked up to the middle-aged woman and gestured a few questions. Out of concern that he might startle her, he kept his expression as calm as possible. The gestures he made to speak sign language were also done with ease so as to avoid upsetting the woman.

He asked about how she was able to leave the Imperial Palace.

The middle-aged woman calmly gazed back at him, not responding.

Chen Changsheng gazed blankly at her, then he gestured again, his speed much slower this time. He believed that his meaning was clear enough: how did my lady come from the Imperial Palace to here?

The middle-aged woman smiled and raised her right hand. Between her fingers was a key.

Chen Changsheng's eyesight was decent. Even in the somewhat dim light of the Hundred Herb Garden, he was able to see the rust on the key as well as the two brand-new scratches upon it, perhaps made just a few moments ago. It seemed that before tonight, this old key had not been used for a very long time.

On that day when Mo Yu left the Orthodox Academy, he had seen an old door on the walls of the palace. Could this key be for that door? Could this middle-aged woman also have the power to enter and leave the palace as she pleased? Then her status in the Imperial Palace was a.s.suredly not low.

The middle-aged woman pointed at the stone table, indicating that he should sit.

Chen Changsheng thought for a few moments, then sat down.

The middle-aged woman turned to gaze at a wooden cabin deep within the Hundred Herb Garden. After a very long period of silence, her left hand suddenly fell on the table, lightly knocking on it twice.

There was a teapot on the table, and behind the oil lamp were two teacups.

Chen Changsheng understood her meaning. Taking up the teapot, he filled one of the teacups and respectfully placed it in front of the middle-aged woman.

The tea within the pot was not fragrant, but it was very rich. Most likely, it was an aged dark tea.

Sitting across from each other at the table, they were able to see each other much more clearly. With the middle-aged woman's appearance, she was probably not a concubine of Emperor Xian. Perhaps she was one of the female officials the Divine Empress employed in the palace, perhaps even the head of the female officials. However, the respect Chen Changsheng displayed towards her had nothing to do with her probable status. It was just that she was clearly much older than him.

He believed that the length of one's life was extremely important, and it was just like the dark tea in the teacup. The older it was, the sweeter, the more precious, the more one could taste from it. He regretted that it would very difficult for him to experience so many years, so he was particularly respectful to his elders, emphasizing the ethics of seniority.

The middle-aged woman lifted up the teacup and brought it to her lips, taking a sip.

Chen Changsheng noticed that compared to a normal woman, her lips were much thicker and seemed much stronger.

To stare at a woman's lips, even a much older woman with a very ordinary appearance, was still a very rude act. He came to his senses and swiftly tore his gaze away. Then he saw the remaining teacup on the stone table.

The night was late, people asleep, the garden devoid of inhabitants, so why were there two teacups?

He turned to the middle-aged woman and gestured to ask if he could drink some tea. Earlier when he was treating Xuanyuan Po, he had sweat a lot and he was truly rather thirsty.

Without looking at him, the middle-aged woman gave a slight nod. She had probably a.s.sented.

Chen Changsheng took a sip from the tea cup and realized that the tea was strong and moistened his heart and spleen. This was truly an excellent tea that was difficult to find. Even those famous teas gifted to him by Luoluo could not compare with this seemingly unsophisticated dark tea in the pot.

The quality of tea's flavor rested on the quality of the tea leaves, but more importantly, it relied on the brewer of the tea.

A person that was able to brew such a pot of dark tea was naturally unusual.

The gaze Chen Changsheng aimed at the middle-aged woman became even more respectful and cautious.

He put down the teacup and waited for her to ask a question.

And yet, even when the starlight descended into the bottom of the cup, the middle-aged woman still had not done anything.

She calmly sat by the table, watching the trees and flowers of the Hundred Herb Garden. There was no emotion in her eyes, yet there was also all sorts of emotions.

But he was not in her eyes.

Chen Changsheng felt somewhat awkward and nervous. He was not very used to sitting across from someone in silence.

As time pa.s.sed, he gradually grew used to the mood. He no longer thought. He poured tea for both himself and the middle-aged woman and then drank. No words pa.s.sed between them, and he silently listened to the final chirping of the insects in the autumn garden. His mind gradually grew serene, even began to fall into intoxication.

It was only at this point that he remembered that he always loved the quiet, was used to the quiet.

He didn't like to speak, which had been the case since he was small.

However, after coming to the capital, whether it was the Divine General of the East's estate or the abandoned garden in the Imperial Palace, whether it was speaking with Madam Xu, Shuang'er, or Lady Mo Yu, for several reasons, he had talked a lot. And after Tang Thirty-Six came to the Orthodox Academy, it was no longer like when they first met where he valued words like gold. His nature as a chatterbox had been exposed, and so Chen Changsheng had no choice but to accompany him in conversation.

All this had been very painful for him.

No one had set down a law, but when two people sat across from each other, they talked.

But to quietly sit like this was also quite fine.

If they felt the occasional need to communicate, they didn't need to speak, just make a few gestures. This was also quite fine.

It was like he had returned to Xining Village, sitting by the stream behind the old temple. He and Senior Yu Ren would quietly read Daoist scriptures and when they saw a place they didn't understand, he and his senior brother would gesture at each other on their observations, and then they would quietly continue to read.

The side of the stream from that time was just like the Hundred Herb Garden now: very quiet and very comfortable.

Xining Village was incredibly remote, and when night set in, it was pitch-black. The starlight, however, was extremely bright, falling upon the ground like snow. After coming to the capital, what he was least accustomed to, besides the complicated people that lived here, was that the lights in the night seemed to greatly muddy and dim the starlight.

Several periods of autumn rain had washed the sky above the capital. Coupled with the fact that the only light present in the Hundred Herb Garden was the feeble glow of the oil lamp on the stone table, the lights on the arrow towers of the nearby Imperial Palace blocked by the dense foliage, the starlight seemed to be much brighter.

The starlight penetrated through the branches of the trees and fell upon his face.

He raised his head up to the innumerable stars in the sky, yearning for Xining Village's old temple and his senior brother, but the dazzling brilliance of the starlight caused him to squint his eyes.

Under the silver brilliance of the starlight, his face seemed very clean.

The moment he squinted his eyes, the childish air that he usually kept concealed revealed itself.

He was still as amiable as usual, but he was also somewhat cuter.

It just so happened that it was this moment the middle-aged woman chose to draw back her gaze from the Hundred Herb Garden and look at him.

She quietly gazed at him.

He squinted his eyes, completely unaware, yearning, reminiscing.

She gazed at him in a daze.

Her yearning and reminiscing had just concluded, and it had just been yearning and reminiscing.

She raised her right hand and gently placed it on his face, slowly caressing it.

Startled, Chen Changsheng opened his eyes wide and looked at the middle-aged woman.

He was deeply unaccustomed to such an intimate closeness. He had never experienced it as a child, and that wasn't even considering the fact that he didn't even know this middle-aged woman, having only met her twice.

He subconsciously wanted to back away, but then he saw the middle-aged woman's eyes.

Those eyes like two lakes of stars contained incomparably complex emotions which gradually transformed into sorrow and grief.

When he thought of how this middle-aged woman could not speak and had lived deep within the palace for many years, probably experiencing many sinister and sorrowful events, he found himself somewhat unable to leave. He found it best to just let her move her hand lightly about his face, but that feeling was truly very strange.

The woman's warm and broad palm slowly caressed his face, and his body became extremely stiff. Only after a long while did he gradually begin to relax.

Suddenly, the middle-aged woman pinched his cheek, just like an elder playing with an infant.

Chen Changsheng found it impossible to continue peacefully sitting. He quickly stood up and retreated two steps, then bowed. "I must go back."

When he spoke, he realized that the woman was deaf and quickly gestured.

The middle-aged woman, seeing how intense his response was, heartily laughed.

Her laugh naturally made no noise, but from the bold way in which she moved her head up and down, anyone who saw it could tell that she was laughing to her heart's content.

Without waiting for Chen Changsheng to leave, the middle-aged woman stood up and headed deeper into the Hundred Herb Garden.

Chen Changsheng thought for a moment, then followed.

In the gentle night breeze, fallen leaves drifted onto the stone table, surrounding the teapot and two teacups and gently rotating about them.

After waiting for twenty years, the teapot, the teacups, and the water boiler by the table had welcomed their owner once more. No one knew how many more years they would have to wait.

What somewhat surprised Chen Changsheng was that the middle-aged woman did not go to the Orthodox Academy. Instead, she walked deeper into the Hundred Herb Garden, all the way until she reached the old-fas.h.i.+oned and mottled wall of the palace. Seeing the old door there, he realized that the door she used was different from Mo Yu's.

The middle-aged woman ignored him, and she also did not care that he followed. She took out the key and inserted it in the lock. With two clacks, the lock opened. A creak cut through the night as the old wooden door was pushed open and she entered.

Only now did Chen Changsheng confirm that there was nothing going on. He relaxed and slackened his grip on the hilt of his dagger. Watching the middle-aged woman's back, he lightly called out, wanting to say something, but unexpectedly, the door swiftly closed before his eyes.

Just leaving like this? He was rather stunned, but then he realized that she couldn't hear, which put him somewhat at ease.

The closed wooden door seemed to be one with the palace wall.

He looked at the door, somewhat confused.

Were the events of tonight actually real?

Why were they so similar to those stories of ghosts and immortals described in the Daoist Canon?

But the slightly tart and fragrant flavor of the tea was still lingering on his tongue.

The warmth of her touch was still upon his face.

Shaking his head, he turned and left.

On the side of the door unseen by Chen Changsheng was a long and quiet pa.s.sage.

All around the pa.s.sage was moss and vines. Beneath the vines, at least six mechanisms or arrays capable of killing an expert of the upper level of Star Condensation were concealed.

The floor of this pa.s.sage was formed from dry bricks of stone.

As the middle-aged woman slowly proceeded forward along the stone bricks, her expression gradually began to change.

With only ten-some steps, an indescribable majesty once more returned to her body.

The ordinary face became one of unmatched beauty.

Not a delicate beauty, but a blindingly dazzling beauty.

When she walked out of the pa.s.sage, the scene surrounding her also changed.

The Imperial Palace in the darkness, towering and magnificent.