What Did You Say?

Freely entering the palace alongside Chen Shi, Xuan Yueji stared around at the architecture that surrounded them with grandiose. This was his first time seeing the palace up close, so it amazed him. At the same time, he also knew what the palace looked like from afar due to the amount of times he has had to jump on roofs in order to go to other towns and cities.

Seeing that Xuan Yueji was not staring around with curious eyes, but with a squint instead, Chen Shi asked, "You don't seem to be curious about the palace?"

"What is there to be curious about?" Xuan Yueji replied with.

Smiling, Chen Shi said, "There are many things to be curious about in the palace. Otherwise, there would not be so many people wanting to come here everyday."

"I find that the more you are in the palace, the more likely you are to die," Xuan Yueji stated.

Chuckling at his statement, Chen Shi chuckled, "Well, now… There is some truth to your words."

Hearing Chen Shi agree to his statement, Xuan Yueji asked, "Why did you agree to be the grand advisor despite knowing that then?"

"Even if I wanted to reject, I could not," Chen Shi told him with a wry smile. "Lin Tengfei is a snake. A wise snake, I tell you."

"If he hears you, he will punish you," Xuan Yueji remarked with no seriousness in his words.

Laughing, Chen Shi turned towards Xuan Yueji and replied, "He won't. Unfortunately, we made a bet. If he punishes me, I don't get to be a grand advisor anymore. If I don't do my job correctly, he'll give me other jobs to do."

"I heard of your streak," Xuan Yueji commented after hearing what Chen Shi said.

Sighing, Chen Shi said, "I can't believe you know about those despite that having been in the capital for so long."

"It's only a mere decade. It is too short," Xuan Yueji stated.

"I really wonder…" Chen Shi quietly mumbled under his breath.

"What's the use in wondering? Life is fragile. Anything living will eventually die. The fact that those things can die means they can stay happy for some portion of their life," Xuan Yueji said. "People who live long lives… suffer… a lot…"

"You sound as though you have experienced those sufferings," Chen Shi commented upon hearing the words slowly come out of Xuan Yueji's mouth.

Looking down at the floor with sad eyes for a split second, Xuan Yueji stared back at Chen Shi and responded, "Not me. A friend."

"They always say a friend when it's them," Chen Shi said.

"It's really a friend this time," Xuan Yueji denied. "She seemed to be tired of life and took her own life…"

"Oh? Why did she do that? Don't say that it was because she was tired of life. I refuse to believe that," Chen Shi asked while rejecting the reason given by Xuan Yueji. "A person can only get tired of life if something bad has happened in their life."

Showing a clouded look on his face, Xuan Yueji slowly pronounced, "I don't know."

"Hm? You don't know?" Chen Shi repeated with curiosity.

Just when Chen Shi was about to ask the question on his mind, the eunuch that led them to the palace announced loudly with a shrieky voice, "Here comes Grand Advisor Chen! Here comes Shuzhu Xuan!"

With a quick look, Chen Shi told Xuan Yueji, "I shall ask you on another day. I am really curious about the things of which you've experienced outside the capital."

Entering the hall in which the emperor was sitting on the throne, Chen Shi showed no signs of being a subordinate of the emperor, neither did Xuan Yueji. Both of them walked straight with strength and proudness, and did not bow to the emperor at all. The privilege of being able to not get punished after doing so in front of the emperor astounded many of the elderly officials currently present.

"Chen Shi… This is the young man you're talking about to me?" Lin Tengfei asked grandly while sitting on his throne in his golden robes with a dragon embroidered on it.

"Yes," Chen Shi immediately answered with equal grandness.

"He looks like a girl," Lin Tengfei commented offhandedly.

At the comment of the emperor, Chen Shi replied, "His size does not speak of his strengths, but hides them. I believe this is a good trait, is it not?"

Leaning on his chair, Lin Tengfei chuckled loudly, "Well, my dear friend, you are always correct."

"It is not that I am always correct, but that I stand to the facts and logic that are presented to me," Chen Shi remarked.

"Then… You have seen the abilities of this young man?" Lin Tengfei asked with a glow in his eyes.

"I have never seen it. This young man… Hpmh! He disappears faster than a fly!" Chen Shi exclaimed, showing a face full of frustration.

Hearing the words of Chen Shi, Xuan Yueji apologized, albeit with no emotions, "I suppose I should be sorry."

Staring at Xuan Yueji, Chen Shi repeated questionably, "You suppose?"

"I apologize for having things to do outside of the capital," Xuan Yueji said.

"If you truly want to apologize, you would tell me what you've done over the decade that you've gone missing," Chen Shi told him with a fake stern look.

Chen Shi could never be stern to Xuan Yueji. He was smarter than him, more articulate than him, and stronger than him. If he was not strong, he would not have been able to travel from Yuezhong to the capital in less than a day.

"Chen Shi, are you flaunting your relationship to me?" Lin Tengfei questioned upon seeing the two of them in a battle of wits.

"Not at all. I am merely trying to seek a way of getting this boy to tell me his experiences of the world after leaving for so long," Chen Shi said. "Since coming back, he has not told me a single word about what he has done, how much he has grown, nor where he lived, or if he even lived in a permanent home."

Seeing the way that Chen Shi was speaking to Lin Tengfei, Xuan Yueji stared at the ground with a thought. This emperor was much different from what he expected. It seems that by speaking the truth and by exploiting their daily conversations, the emperor would have a more positive image of them rather than showing a false face of false emotions like the rest of the officials in the hall.

In the first place, why were there so many officials in the hall at the moment? Xuan Yueji frowned. He thought that they would meet privately to discuss his promotion.

The very moment that Xuan Yueji frowned after taking a glance at the officials standing to the side, Lin Tengfei caught it and asked, "Is there something wrong, Shuzhu?"

"No, nothing is wrong. I just felt like I had the wrong impression of why I was supposed to come here," Xuan Yueji said.

"Oh? What impression did you have?" Lin Tengfei asked with a smile.

"According to what Chen Shi told me, you would be giving me a promotion that I would like. However, considering the amount of people here… is it that it will be a major position? Or is it that something major will happen?" Xuan Yueji said.

"What do you think?" Lin Tengfei asked when Xuan Yueji asked those questions.

Staring straight into the eyes of the emperor, Xuan Yueji answered, "I believe it is up to you. However, I would like to request you to not give me a promotion. I wish to leave the empire once I am done with my current duties here."

"The words you speak are different from what Chen Shi has told me," Lin Tengfei said. "Oh, wait… I'm also forgetting another person. General Zheng has given you a recommendation also."

"Yes, well, please ignore those. Pretend they were never sent to you," Xuan Yueji told him the moment he finished saying Zheng Ruogang's name.

Laughing at the words that Xuan Yueji said, Lin Tengfei responded with a never before seen smile, "Seeing you deny so much, makes me want to promote you even more. The fact that you can get the recommendations of two very trustworthy and skillful men is also praiseworthy. Of course, the other part that makes me want to promote you even more is the observations that General Zheng has given me."

As soon as Xuan Yueji heard that, he frowned and sighed in resignation, "Fine… Please tell me what my new rank is now."

"Chen Shi, why don't you tell him?" Lin Tengfei said with a smirk on his face.

"I am resigning as the Grand Advisor and will step up to be the Royal Tutor," Chen Shi announced. "The new Grand Advisor will be this young man, Xuan Yueji."

In complete surprise and utter shock, Xuan Yueji exclaimed, "What did you say?!"