Chapter 193 (1/2)
Geniuses were often a.s.sociated with theories because they were only responsible for offering possible solutions to a problem, but refused to be responsible for verifying the answer. Therefore, Einstein who had relatively bad mathematics scores could put forward the theory of relativity and then continue in a daze. However, the validation of his theory had to wait until a few years when hard-pressed scientists went into the wilderness and stared at the eclipse for a long time.
Ning Que was praised as a genius because he could come up with ideas and wait for Senior Brothers to turn his ideas into reality without any effort on his part. Unfortunately, he needed the Talisman Arrow and, as the Talisman Master, he needed to personally partic.i.p.ate in its creation. What was even more crucial was that as the youngest in the Academy, he didn't have the qualification nor the courage to impersonate the subject leader. Therefore, in order to turn a genius idea into a perfect technical design, he had to bear torment and continue drawing the Talisman on paper and do the most c.u.mbersome and boring technical design work over the next few days.
As the Natal Item of a certain someone, Sangsang had no choice but to play the crucial role in the Talisman experiment. After the pa.s.sing of several springs and autumns, she finally became the little handmaiden in a wealthy household and spent happy days in peace. She didn't expect she would still need to struggle for life and drift around. Though she was somewhat dumb-witted, she could no longer endure the inexplicable and mysterious feelings. She decided to rip off the white cloth on her body and carried a laundry tub to hide in the fake antique shop next door.
Despite the loss of his most sensitive experimental tool, Ning Que still had to continue his research and development work. He stood before the desk biting the head of his brush and thinking hard about how he should improve his talisman to dramatically increase the speed of the arrows. What he found most troublesome was not knowing how to perfectly draw the last stroke of the talisman while shooting the arrow.
His hair transformed from a bird nest into a chicken nest and finally into the gra.s.s nest that his Second Brother's large white goose formed in the water. His eyes s.h.i.+fted from exhaustion to excitement and back to exhaustion again, repeating until they turned into a dark mess. He felt like he was very close to finding a solution, but the answer seemed so elusive. When he reached out to explore, he only b.u.mped into could immediately solve this problem, but felt that the answer seemed to still be floating in the clouds far away. He reached out his hand to touch and explore, only to b.u.mp into the water surface and the mirror surface. It was both painful and irritating.
Just then, someone knocked on the shabby door of the Old Brush Pen Shop.
Not seeing Sangsang anywhere, he shouted for her to answer the door several times. When no answer came, he belatedly recalled that she had already hidden next door. He threw away the ink and brush in his hands and unhappily went to the shop front to open the door.
A middle-aged man dressed in a short-sleeved turquoise robe stood outside the door with a respectful expression. Ning Que found the man somewhat familiar and accepted the invitation the man handed over. He looked at the inscription on the invitation and finally remembered the man was the steward of the Princess Mansion.
”What happened?” He rubbed his eyes and yawned. ”Must I go?”
The steward was startled by his reaction and said with a bitter smile, ”Mr. Ning, I'm not aware about the specifics, but it should be a private gathering based on Her Highness' arrangements. You'd better partic.i.p.ate.”
Ning Que was just asking. He didn't intend on showing off his fearlessness in front of royal powers.
Ever since he stopped attending banquets in Chang'an City, he hadn't socialized for some time. With him being so busy with the Talisman Arrow these days, he had even less of an incentive to answer to anyone's invitation. But this time, the other person was the most favored Princess of the Tang Empire. Besides, he hadn't seen Lee Yu for some time. It wasn't a bad idea to go and see what she wanted to say and he could improve his mood as well. Perhaps it might even help his current dilemma. So he answered, ”I'll be there on time tomorrow.”
The warmth of the late summer gradually faded. From a distance, a leaf fan was still turning in the corridor, slowly ushering in breeze into the court and bringing freshness. Sangsang took Xiao Man to catch worms under several old trees. Ning Que and Lee Yu sat on the board of the court, sipping tea and idly gossiping. They made for a very relaxed and pleasant scene.
Only Ning Que's facial expression didn't match the scene. His eyebrows were knotted tightly and the tiny dimple on his left cheek became exceptionally clear as he gnashed his teeth and tightened his jaw muscles. Annoyed, he asked, ”Your Highness, can I not go there?”
”My father's written correspondence should have arrived at the Academy by this time.” Gently turning her wrist to bring the tea cup near her lips, Lee Yu sipped the tea as she said with a praise, ”The tea sent by Shanyin county is really good.”
He looked at her beautiful face and sighed. ”Your Highness, can we just omit these vulgar salutations and figures of speech and get to the point? We're both youngsters. There's no need to test each other like those elderly people.”
Upon listening to the words of 'figure of speech', she slowly tilted her thin brows and looked at him with a vague smile. But after all, she didn't use figure of speech. ”If my father made the order himself, Mr. Jun Mo won't object to it. In my opinion, you have to go to the Wilderness.”
”I've already entered the Second Floor. Why should I go and practice there?” Ning Que asked in confusion.
Lee Yu was puzzled by his att.i.tude and frowned. ”Why don't you want to go? The Academy students will be the pillars of the imperial court in the future. Should you take them to practice in the Wilderness, they wouldn't dare disrespect you even if they don't remember your talents in the future.”
Ning Que shook his head. ”The Wilderness is a very dangerous place.”
Lee Yu looked at his eyes and said quietly, ”If one stays too long in a bustling place like Chang'an, will this ambitious man become a decadent person? I don't believe such a small scene can frighten you. I'm aware of your t.i.tle of the wood-chopper in Shubi Lake. Are you afraid of those gra.s.sland barbarians?”
”It's wood-collector.” Ning Que corrected the t.i.tle.
He went on to explain, ”Though there haven't been any official battles between the Seven Cities Stronghold and the Gra.s.sland Golden Palace for many years, the battlefield is no stranger to me and I'm not afraid to return. But it's a matter of life and death on the battlefield. Those so-called invincible Academy students are terrible at battles. Who knows how many of them will die there? I have to be responsible for the lives of that group of children. The pressure is too great.”
Lee Yu smiled. ”Don't you forget they're your cla.s.smates. You say they are children, but do you really think you're much older? I don't know why you're now acting like an elder.”
Ning Que secretly thought that he was indeed about eight years older than them after all. Though he was far from acting as an elder, he always observed things cautiously. ”The older one is, the easier it is to survive in the Wilderness battlefield.”
”But the truth is, you don't need to bear that kind of pressure.”
Lee Yu looked at him and calmly said, ”The Academy is a great place for the Tang Empire to train its talents. So you don't need to protect them like an old hen. It's a matter of life and death on the battlefield. Only those students who can return have the qualifications to be carefully cultivated by the imperial court. So just take them there. You don't need to care about their lives.”
Ning Que was kind of surprised and was quiet for a long time.”Not care about their lives on the battlefield? Then why should I take them there? Can't the Military Ministry just send someone else?”
Lee Yu didn't speak but looked at his fresh and pleasant face dotted lightly with a few freckles. She suddenly had a faint sense of regret.
She came back from the gra.s.sland last year. She was the first bigwig to discover Ning Que's abilities in the Tang Empire and also tried to recruit him. Unfortunately, it seemed her recruiting strength was indeed not strong enough at that time compared to Ning Que's talent. In the short period of one year, this lad soldier in the City of Wei has become a successor of the Divine Talisman Master, a Second Floor student, a celebrity in Chang'an City...
She used her slender fingers to slowly turn the teacup and gradually returned to the conversation. She smiled at Ning Que. ”My father asked that you take the Academy students to the Wilderness. He doesn't value those students but took a fancy to you. He hopes you can earn some prestige for the Tang Empire and would like to see your abilities at the same time.”
Ning Que was startled. ”Isn't His Majesty thinking too highly of me...?”
”Because you have an ambition and some ideas, unlike those Senior Brothers and Sisters in the Back Mountain of the Academy. And my father values your ambition and ideas. In my Tang Empire, it's very important for youngsters to have an ambition.”
”I really don't know what ambition I have.”
”Or should I say... ideals?”
”His Highness should be aware of my ideals. It's all some simple things.”
”But when you realize your childhood ideals, don't you have a greater ideal?”
”For example?”
Lee Yu looked at his pondering expression and said, ”Do you want to be always practicing at the Back Mountain of the Academy?”
Ning Que replied without thinking, ”Yes.”
This problem might have confused him in the past, but it had not been a problem ever since Chen Pipi took him to the Book House in the cliff cave and he saw the scholar who kept reading and writing.
Lee Yu continued to ask, ”But after gaining strength, don't you want to rely on your strength to do something you want and achieve some of your goals?”
What came to his mind were a dilapidated mansion, blood-stained stone lions, and his friend sitting in front of a wet wall. He felt his body slightly stiffening and he stayed silent for a long time so he could forget these ideas that couldn't be declared. He looked up at her and shrugged, saying indifferently, ”I used to seek fame and fortune. But now I have my fortune and have become annoyed by my fame. So now I really don't know what to do in the future.”
Lee Yu watched him quietly and suddenly thought that this guy was now a student of Headmaster of Academy. Therefore, the world's fame and fortune didn't appeal to him much. She didn't know why she actually felt a sense of frustration.
”I remember when you told Xiao Man a fairy tale last winter in the wooden court we're sitting in now. The little princess in that fairy tale was proud but timid and incompetent. But the frog prince was somewhat ambitious.”
She spoke up after a long silence.
When she first spoke, she felt something wrong and wondered why she would suddenly talk about that story. But since she had started it, she clenched her fists to calm down and continued the story. Perhaps it was the windy late summer heat or the laziness of the palace maids in waving fans at the distant corridor, but she felt her cheeks becoming somewhat warm.
”If you want to do anything in the world, you should first dare to think about it. If you don't, you can never do it. And the so-called ambition, desire, or ideal still depends on your courage,” she said in a slow voice.
Lee Yu's emotions had gradually eased.
It was very quiet in the courtyard. What could be faintly heard were the sounds of large leaf fans rotating in a faraway corridor, the surprised cheers of Xiao Man under the old tree, and the sound of rocks flowing into the pool between fake rocks.
Ning Que saw the silence, gentleness, and even indulgence in her eyes and understood the meaning of her speech. He couldn't help thinking of the girl sitting beside the bonfire at the Northern Mountain Road who listened to his stories. But in a flash, he woke up and remembered she was the dignified Princess of the Tang Empire, leaving those speculations on the past hovering in his mind. After a brief silence, he didn't answer the question but asked, ”Is Mr. Lyu doing well recently?”
Lee Yu didn't hear Ning Que's tentativeness and felt a sense of regret and sadness. But it was also a big relief for her. So she held an invaluable small bamboo mud pot with a dragon head in front and filled the teacup. She smiled. ”Mr. Lyu refused to live in Chang'an City and insisted on practicing in the Tile Top hill. A few days ago, he sent a letter saying he was in good health. Oh, he was very happy to know you've entered the Second Floor of the Academy.”
Ning Que recalled Lyu Qingchen's selfless teachings on the journey. Back then, he was just an unknown lad who couldn't even cultivate. Now he was the major training subject of the imperial court in the Tang Empire. He couldn't help feeling grateful and yearn for that time. It made his mood a lot warmer.
”Your Highness, I'm going to the Wilderness… Please take care of Sangsang for me.”
”You can count on me.”
Under the protection of the Fourth Princess of Tang Dynasty, there should be no one in Chang'an City who would dare bully this little handmaiden. However, it was the first time Sangsang would leave him since she was born. Though he got such a positive answer, he was still a little worried. So he stared into Lee Yu's eyes and seriously said, ”Don't allow others to bully her.”