Ch150 - He was someone who would never go to the temple for nothing (2/2)
By the time the painting dried, a response had already come back from Chen Manor. Military advisor Chen invited Xue Ling over, and received him in the main hall of the manor.
Previously, Xue Ling’s understanding of Chen Jingzhen came from the results of Mu Ge’s investigation and the system’s descriptions. After they met in person, Xue Ling could finally form his own opinion. This was indeed a child who was addicted to learning. Even though he was a person from the modern era who had travelled through time, there was no way for him to fake this scholarly spirit.
Chen Jingzhen had travelled back in time with his own body, and relied on his brain to reach the level of prominence he had today. He was no longer an unregistered member of the country with no identity, and now that he had been here for so long, he had a relaxed and unrestrained demeanor. Because of his height and stature, he exuded a kind of noble spirit.
Story translated by Chrysanthemum Garden.
Xue Ling restrained his gaze – while he was looking at the other party, they had also been assessing him. After their gazes met, they gave each other a smile.
They had many similarities, but were two totally different types of people.
Chen Jingzhen’s appearance could be classified as elegant. He was also a ger, and his cinnabar mole was on his earlobe. The color was not very bright, and matched with how he was as a person – appropriate and quite plebeian. His hair was tied up because he had already reached maturity, and his lips had a natural upward curve, giving others the impression that he was smiling even when he had no expression on his face. “When I saw your calligraphy, I imagined that the person who could write with such style would definitely be someone extraordinary. Now that we’ve met, I realize that my intuition was correct. Sure enough, you are really the unsurpassed beauty of a generation, capable of overshadowing all living creatures.”
Xue Ling shook his head to indicate that this compliment was too extravagant. He turned to Shu Feng and indicated for him to bring their gifts forward, and said, “When Xue Ling first came, I heard that our neighbor was Military Advisor Chen, so I came here to pay a special visit. This is a small gift, as well as a painting. I hope Military Advisor Chen can accept it.”
It was common practice to exchange gifts when visiting someone’s home, and even what kind of gifts were acceptable was pretty specific according to custom. Chen Jingzhen naturally accepted them, and had his housekeeper take the gift while he personally picked up the painting that Xue Ling had drawn. He said, “I’ve always been a bit unconstrained, and there are some customs that I do not adhere to. If Xue gongzi doesn’t mind, may I open it to take a look?”
Xue Ling curved his lips and nodded, “Yes.” It was not common for a ger to live independently in their own mansion in Xue Kingdom. Most of the ones who did were strong individuals who did not care about judgmental looks from others in the world, and their interactions did not always follow propriety. Since he was like this, Xue Ling became even more willful. Although he couldn’t explain why he subconsciously wanted to overwhelm the other party, Xue Ling had always been one to act as he pleased.
After being seated, tea was served, and the two of them studied the painting Xue Ling brought over before moving on to discuss poetry and literary classics. With the system as a plug-in, Xue Ling was very knowledgeable regarding this world’s cultural materials, and regardless of what Chen Jingzhen brought up, Xue Ling always had an appropriate reply. Towards the end, Chen Jingzhen’s eyes were bright, and he felt as if he had found a kindred spirit. If it hadn’t been for the fact that the sky was getting dark, and that Xue Ling’s face still showed signs of illness, he would probably have insisted that Xue Ling continue to converse with him long into the night.
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The sun turned the sky a vivid shade of red, and dusk was quickly approaching by the time Xue Ling finally managed to leave Chen Manor with Shu Heng. Chen Jingzhen accompanied them the whole way, obviously reluctant, even though they clearly lived nearby and only needed to cross the street to get there.
After learning which courtyard they lived in, Chen Jingzhen told Xue Ling that he would come do a return visit to Xue Ling on another day. At that time, they could continue their conversation from today. Xue Ling expressed that he would be welcome anytime.
This finally concluded their first meeting.
He had been sent back to his own courtyard by Chen Jingzhen. After the doors were closed, the smile on Xue Ling’s face faded away.
Shu Heng could not understand what was going on in his mind, so he cautiously called out, “Gongzi?”
“Alas.” Xue Ling sighed and said, “A talented national scholar has fallen under the Zhennan Prince’s control. Such talent ended up in a place like this, but the Capital is filled with people who only care for fame. There is no one truly useful in the imperial court… Alas, the kingdom is truly misfortunate…”
Shu Heng frowned, “If Your Majesty is so attached to him, perhaps you can have him join you when you return North in the future? Since Your Majesty plans to make use of the Zhennan Prince, his people should also be at your disposal.”
Xue Ling nodded and said no more; he’d already moved on to other thoughts.
He wondered if Chen Jingzhen and Li Yuan were compatible or not. One of them had truly suffered due to the hardships of life, while the other was isolated from the world, lost in his books. Although the way they were born and what they had experienced was totally different, some things still overlapped. Xue Ling had a hunch that the two would be very compatible, and he could make use of them.
Now that they had reached this point, although Xue Ling was not clear about what kind of person the Zhennan Prince really was, he had already plotted out the basic steps for his return to the Capital. He had originally planned to kill his way back during spring, after the New Year, but it now seemed that there might be a way to turn Li Yuan. How could he leave a person like that by Ji Ronghan’s side so that all of his brightness would slowly be worn away?
Maybe after experiencing everything this time, Li Yuan would understand that it was wrong to attach himself to a man, relying on emotions to maintain control over matters. He could absolutely stand front stage by himself – based on Xue Ling’s analysis of Li Yuan’s character, his affection for Ji Ronghan would never outweigh his love for the world. His years travelling through the world as a spirit before his rebirth weighed too heavily on him; love would not be able to reverse the changes that had been made in his heart.
Perhaps this was the fundamental reason why he and Ji Ronghan had headed towards their original ending. But Xue Ling did not truly want him to abandon his ideals. If he really wanted to change this world’s future, he would need to rise to power on his own. He could awe and frighten the courtiers into submission, but there would be no real changes if the courtiers were all men. Since he wanted to change the settings of this world, he might as well make it a grand change. He could support the gers and change their way of life, allowing them to come to the front of the stage from behind the scenes. Li Yuan and Chen Jingzhen would be good chess pieces for this…
Xue Ling was thinking about things from a long-term perspective. In the meantime, Chen Jingzhen had no inkling that he had been tagged. He had not experienced this feeling of meeting a confidant in a long time. No matter what the topic was, the other party could keep up with him. Although the other person was beautiful, he had obviously not chosen to ‘make a living using his face’. According to their current era, Xue Ling was probably the epitome of the phrase ‘could clearly use their face to make a living, but chose not to regardless’.
This pitiful military advisor had no idea what he was in for, but that night, he found that he was so excited he couldn’t sleep.
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This led to him sleeping in the next day. His brain was muddled, and when he learned that His Royal Highness was about to make a visit, he was still a bit groggy.
At first, when Chen Jingzhen had learned that he had travelled back in time, and whose era he had landed in, he had been very excited. After all, he had unusually strong feelings about ‘Ying Sheng’, and was very happy that he had travelled back to this time period and could help this person out. But slowly, after he began to interact with Ying Sheng, he realized that as a modern man, there were still limits to what he could do.
Ying Sheng was a very powerful person. His wisdom and martial arts ability was much higher than what had been recorded in the history books. Chen Jingzhen had felt as if he could help him, but in fact, he did not know if it was the butterfly effect, but many of Ying Cheng’s policies and thoughts were much better than what he’d read. Slowly, Chen Jingzhen woke up from his idealistic view of the world and understood that the gap between himself and Ying Sheng was more substantial than he’d thought.
This person was too strong, and Chen Jingzhen did not feel any desire to make a spot for himself in his heart. As time went by, Chen Jingzhen also realized that the relationship between he and Ying Sheng would only be the relationship of a counsellor and his lord. They would often discuss business matters, but they basically never discussed anything personal.
Speaking of which, this person seemed to have no private life…
In that case, why had he come to visit him? Based on his understanding, his Royal Highness was someone who would never go to the temple for nothing. Since he had come for a visit, Chen Jingzhen felt that there was something suspicious about the situation.